A few more

A few more pink and green components for my Flying F quilt.  I think it is time to start assembling my components to see what fits, what will go in a different quilt, and what is still needed.

Third Inspiration

First, one more piece for my quilt. Sorry to say that is all the stitching I have gotten done  lately.  I do like it but it is not much progress.

Second, I wanted to thank some friends who have helped to make the Dino Hats for the Maine Children's Home for Little Wanderers.  My good friend Beth offered to make 10 hats and she even mailed them to me when she was done!




Here is a picture of Shirlene, our Relief Society President as she made her first hat.  She has taken hat pieces home to make more.






























And here are our two Sister Missionaries as they cut out hat pieces.  Ah, I remember the days when I was that young.




Last, and really the primary reason I am writing this post, is a third inspiration for my next quilt.  I found it on Marion's Art. 

Isn't it wonderful?  It is called Manhattan Sunset by  Barbel Lehrke.  Really that is all I know about it except that Marion took a picture of it at an art show.  I tried finding out more about Barbel but haven't been successful.  If you know more about her work, please share with me.  Anyway, I chose it because it uses components and a motif to create a focal point.  That is my goal for my new quilt.

So, lets talk about the quilt for a minute.

1.  Orange and blue is one of my favorite color combination.  It is almost always exciting.

2.  I love the light blue in the middle and lower left.  I have often been told you need something at that bottom left so your eye doesn't just slide off the art piece.  That light blue does it for me.  I  look at it and then look around the rest of the piece to see if that light shade is anywhere else in the piece. And it is but in small enough quantities that I didn't notice them at first.  That subtle motif in the left corner also helps to stop the eye.  So very clever!

3.  And check out the motif.  Not only does it vary in color and prominence, it also varies in its shape.  Those motifs are similar but not identical.  So far in my  piece I have stuck to the identical shape while varying the size and ratios.  I think I am gonna be a bit bolder now in my double F variations.

4.  I really love the very dark used in the quilt.  I wish I could get a better picture but I think it looks like black rather than a darker blue, don't you?

5.  I can recognize the surface design of the mottled red and blue dyed areas but I am unsure of the more complex red and black areas.  Pieced?  Commercial Fabric?  Surface technique of some type?  Can't tell for sure but I love them. They are a nice contrast to the neighboring open spaces.

6.  And the focal point?  I think it is those crazy very orange components surrounded by the dark complex areas surrounded by the more open areas.

Yep.  I like this quilt.

A Second Inspiration

Before I show you a fabulous artwork I am using as a second inspiration, here are some more components for the new quilt.  I made the mistake of counting how many components I have sewn.  Including these seven, I now how 36.  I need at least 100 before I start to assemble. *** heavy sigh**** Oh well, it will take awhile but hopefully by then I will have several more artworks for inspiration when I start to assemble the components.

So, here is the second piece I am using as inspiration.  Could be a quilt, huh?  But it is a paper collage.

LANCE LETSCHER Showboat, 2008. 

Collage on board. 74” x 50.”

A large commissioned piece by Letscher is part of The Austonian art collection. Using discarded vintage ephemera such as found paper, book covers, old magazines and record covers, Lance Letscher creates collaged compositions of astounding intricacy and craftsmanship.  Here is what one critic said about the piece:

"His compositions, driven by a piecemeal aesthetic with a meticulously obsessive sensitivity to color and content, evoke both the expansiveness of the cosmos and the complex detail of microcellular life forms. Crafted with a rich and vibrant vocabulary eliciting discovery by his viewers, Letscher’s works engage us with their poetry and intricacy."

Yeah, yeah, yeah.  I don't have a MFA so here is my look at the design elements.

1.  Again I chose a piece that has a motif.  Do notice that while the rectangles change sizes and colors, their orientation is always in the same direction.

2. Again, the focal point is made primarily by the change in color to warm color vs the mostly cooler rest of the composition.  Again, the focal point is off center but still integrated into the entire composition.

3.  I think the color range is far more expansive that I am planning or that Heather included in her quilt.

4.  Heather had a value variation from top to bottom and I don't see that here but there is a lovely value variation from left to right.  It would have been really easy to just fade into dark on the edges but the bottom right has the value coming back up to a light again.  I like that. Makes the surface look like it ripples.

5.  I love, love, love the layering in this piece.  There is real visual depth with rectangles floating on an interesting background.

6.  The one thing that really strikes me here is my need to get closer to see more details.  At the first Maine Event I discovered that really good artwork needs to be interesting at three distances.  From across the room so you want to get closer.  From about 6 feet so you want to stop and look longer.  And lastly from as close as you can get to see the secret little details you can only see when you get close.  I am sure this piece has those little secrets and I want to get much closer to see them.  I absolutely want some little details you can only see up close in my quilt.

Yep, a real inspiration for me.

Inspiration For My Voice

Or a jumping off  point or whatever you want to call a couple of artists/art works I want to use to get my creative juices going.

I have already started my next quilt and have a few rules for it.

1.  Pink and Green are the primary colors.  Now you know that I am going to be using more than just pink and green but that is the starting place.

2.  Lots of tiny piecing.  I like to piece.

3.  Hand dyes and commercial prints.  I know, some people don't like the commercial prints but I like the excitement they bring. They do need to be cut small enough so that they read abstract or as a solid.

4.  A "Flying F" motif.  I developed it for a workshop with Nancy Crow and want to use it again.

5.  And, of course, abstract.  Always abstract.

Not too many rules but it is nice to know my rules before I go looking for inspiration to move me forward.

Special thanks here goes to Kathleen Loomis who has posted pictures of the Quilt=Art=Quilt Exhibit at the Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center.  The next art work/artist is in the show and I took the picture from Kathleen's blog.

Heather Pregger, Tuning Fork #11, 72 x 54"

 I love Heather's Tuning Fork series. 
Several design elements I want to make sure are in my new quilt!

1.   I have not seen one in person but doesn't it look like she uses some printed fabric, at least in the grays? 

2.  I like that the tuning forks are not all the same size. Is it fair to say that the majority of the red tuning forks are smaller than the majority of the  gray ones?  Or are the tuning forks just smaller as they enter the focus point, which is primarily red?  Now that I think about it I think that they are smaller offering more intricacy in the area she wants your eye to stay on longer.  

3.  I like the change of color from light in the top left and darker in the bottom right. 

4.  I love the focal point.  Red splashes are seen in other areas but the reds are primarily clustered together to form a focal point.  And the focal point is not in the center either vertically or horizontally.  

5.  I like that the tuning forks seem to be both right side up and upside down.  

6.  And of course, she is using a motif.

First inspirational artwork/artist chosen.  Check!  A couple more artworks/artists to go.

For now, a picture of some new components for my new quilt up on my design wall. (Boy, do I need to find my lint roller!)