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lenten twelves #4

The challenge of having a vision in your head and trying to make it visible can sometimes be rough! I had this image in my head of a quilt with subtle colors, but then using thread in the composition to add pops of color to the tree bark…the idea of dormancy, but life always at the surface waiting to burst out.

lenten twelves 4

Subtle quilt, check. Thread with pops of color – yikes! I started with the black, great! Add green, ok. Add light teal, boring but almost impossible to seam rip out. Add pink, coral, turquoise, purple, all nice, but not quite where I was headed in my minds eye. Note to self – START with brighter colors.

thread play

plus hand quilting for fun!

I added some hand quilting to add texture and a bit of color. In the end, I’m enjoying lenten twelves 4, but I would fix the composition and thread colors for a more dynamic quilt. The snow is almost gone in Michigan, but it is still cold, and only a few winter aconite and snow drops are peeking out.

lenten twelves 1-4

Above are my first four lenten quilt reflections. My lenten twelves one, lenten twelves 2, and lenten twelves 3 posts show the first three quilts in more detail. And lenten five is on my design board!

My daughter Kelsey and I are quilting 12″ quilts each week in Lent to feast into creativity (and fasting from those voices of doubt). You can see Kelsey’s lenten twelves 1, lenten twelves 2, lenten twelves 3, and lenten twelves 4 on her blog at Lovely & Enough or on Instagram with #lententwelves.

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lenten twelves #3

Emerging as I sew Lenten twelves is the concept of thread playing with dye design. Turns out the seam ripper is my best friend! Sometimes the stitching takes several tries, and I’ve just decided to seam rip out what I don’t like and try again. And, if it doesn’t feel done, simply keep sewing.

This week I enjoyed drawing out seed imagery from the fabric composition. Lent for me is a time of identifying habits that are less than healthy, and fasting from those habits and into life, abundant Spirit-filled life that affirms who I am.

Growing into good habits takes nurturing, nurturing the obvious and the obscured.

Lenten twelves #3
auditioning thread

lenten twelves 1, 3, & 2

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lenten twelves #2

Any time you try to build a habit you find out things about yourself. This week I realized that I take a long time to decide on free motion quilting. For me, this part of the practice needs practice. So, I’m going to leave myself extra space for making decisions about free motion quilting.

Here is lenten twelves #2, part of feasting into creativity weekly as a habit and reflection for Lent. A simple composition of my hand dyed and printed fabrics, with quite a bit of free motion quilting. (truly, I’m still not sure I was done, but just needed to stop!) I was imagining hibernation, bare branches, snow, yet with snippets of life peeking out.

We had freezing rain today. This meant after the rain had finally stopped I slid around trying to find enough light for photos. Yeah Michigan!

ice covered snow and branches!

free motion quilting

journey into creativity

This quilt is part of a challenge for Lent. My daughter and I are feasting into a habit of creativity (without those negative voices). Its great to have a partner keeping me going when I can’t decide how to quilt something. She’s been great and even my mom weighed in via text on their long trek home from Florida. You can find Kelsey’s lenten twelves: 2 at her blog Lovely and Enough. Also, Kelsey has dragged me into instagram for the first time. Find our lenten twelves using #lententwelves.

Looking forward to seeing what might emerge – and simply enjoying the process.

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another finish

 For some reason I’m on a finish-it kick. Here’s the latest, a baby sized quilt that is gender-neutral. The top has been sitting in my studio for months and months after Kelsey and I decided to imitate a similar quilt from Hopewell Workshop with the stripes and diagonal. We made up a quilt in stripes and then cut it on the diagonal and each took half. First dilemma, somehow my half didn’t quite work with the gray I had – it didn’t balance, so I changed up the stripes to add the citron you see. Then, I had a lovely gold Lotta fabric for the back, but it didn’t quite match the front so I couldn’t make myself finish it. Finally my mom was over and bought some of this lovely plus Cotton and Steel fabric for herself and we realized it was a great match. One quick trip to Pink Castle (I love having them in Ann Arbor) and it was ready to go. Still can’t quite decide if I love it, but its done and heading for the washing machine to soften it up. Yeah!

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lenten twelves #1

One of my goals for myself has been to enjoy my creative side as a gift from God that I should use well. In the season of Lent sometimes Christians talk about fasting from and feasting into. This Lent I’m feasting into creativity, hopefully with one 12″ Lenten reflection quilt every week. My daughter Kelsey is feasting into this same discipline of being creative within a 12″ square. You can see her first lenten twelve here. I picked my palette of fabrics and here is my first reflection.
lenten twelves #1

free motion quilting

stack for 12″ quilts in lent
lenten twelves #1
We are still buried in snow in Michigan, but I braved the 10 degree weather (windchill -6) to shoot this photo. The sunshine was sparkling off the snow.

Note: I don’t have a theme in mind for my Lenten Twelves, partially so I actually create something every week, instead of letting the negative voices in my head stop me! That being said, I decided to use as backgrounds a piece of fabric that I dyed with my mom several years back … it starts in the gentle grays and browns (above), but shades into deeper browns and reds. The base fabric has a winter feel, but this week’s reflection to me has a sense of renewal, hints of a seed, the cycle of growth, and almost the sense of a nest. One of the wonderful things about life is that we are never to old to change and grow. (Growth seems to go in cycles, and I’m finding myself in a spot right now where I am realizing just how much I have learned and grown. God has placed me in a spot where I am uniquely gifted to contribute, and I’m not only thankful but also finding the courage to use my growth.)

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growing design

Two years ago at the beginning of Lent (a season of 40 weekdays in the Christian church before Easter) I participated in a hand-made printed fabric swap hosted by Leslie over at Maze & Vale. I had dyed fabric for quilting before, but this was my first attempt at printing. Fun, but really challenging! I received great fabrics from my partners, but wasn’t sure how I would use them. 

Finally last summer I used a modified version of the tutorial from Ashley over at Make It & Love It to make a bag and used a few of the prints I received in the swap on the pocket (the great tan trees and green trees and sprouts). Its become my trusty library tote! I love the reminder of the encouraging women who were part of the swap. I have another bag using the other swap fabrics laid out and waiting on the unfinished object pile.

 

My daughter Kelsey participated in the swap as well … that may be how I was drawn into it? We did it together. Since then she has completed an art degree with a senior show focussed on art quilts using her own screen printed fabric and continues to design fabric and blog at Lovely and Enough while also in grad school.

This past summer Kels designed four sewing themed prints for a Spoonflower challenge just for fun. We ordered some fabric with no real purpose. Then I remembered the bag. I used tips from Suzanne at Just Another Hang Up to make a more robust bag with the same pattern. Kelsey’s fabrics are the outside and inner pockets, with a wonderful shot cotton solid for the lining. The bag is a great size for hauling notebooks and supplies to meetings!  (I may have used it a few times before I finally sent it to her)

  
This year during Lent Kelsey and I have decided that we are going to do a 12″ quilt every week as our way of being creative just because we can. I’ve picked a wonderful wintery palette of fabric and we will see what emerges.
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samples

 When I went to look back at my early “quilts of the week” I was amazed at the variety of quilts. What fun! I’ve decided to resurrect the habit this year. This year I’m doing 8×8″ quilts. My focus is trying out techniques to use on larger quilts.

Today was bright and sunny (and 10 degrees F), so I took headed out to photograph the first four.

Testing free motion quilting ideas and overprinting here!

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Sending love

Truly enjoyed collaging, painting, stamping, stenciling, and sewing this week. Realized yet again that if something doesn’t seem quite right, attempting to fix it is usually a good thing to do!
Here are the results from 2015.

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More valentines

My blogging has been a little slim – my favorite camera was with my daughter for a documentary photography class for a semester! Camera back, I’m trying to catch up with documenting projects and blog regularly.

For fun, I decided to try more valentines in the mode of last year. I’m enjoying the process. Not worrying too much about the final result. Here is the work in progress.

step 1: collage
step 2: add paint, stencil, stamps

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Stash busting quilting

Our family is a sewing family. My grandma was a seamstress and excelled at upholstery. My mom sewed our clothes growing up. Me, well I avoided sewing class. I couldn’t be bothered with finicky sewing. When my daughter Kelsey wanted to learn how to sew, we found a class at the The Quilting Season and Kelsey enjoyed making this quilt. Her grandma became her expert sewing consultant.

Kelsey’s first quilt

Then I took a class in art quilting from Sue Holdaway-Heys and found a sewing niche that I could enjoy. Trekking to various fabric stores with me, my daughters enjoyed picking up their own fat quarters while mom was shopping for fabric. Fast forward ten years and they have impressive fabric stashes, but maybe not quite to their taste as young women. This summer both daughters were home and we started a quilt from their stashes. With the healthy infusion of more low volume fabrics, we sat down over Thanksgiving and I asked everyone to design one 12.5×12.5 block for me. A couple of hours later and some excellent conversation later we had this taped to our dining room wall. Wow!

Thanksgiving weekend designing

 More strips, more blocks, and voila!

the daughters with the finished quilt top
all wrapped up
ready to sandwich
We had a blast putting this together and I can’t wait to get it finished. It is destined for someone special who I’m sure will enjoy all these fabrics that Kelsey and Taylor picked out so long ago.