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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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windows into wisdom

In 2012 I had a wonderful time thinking with a group of high school students and adults about wisdom. What is wisdom? Where is it found? How do we grow it within ourselves? Together we designed and created an installation reflecting our learnings on wisdom.

I enjoyed the wisdom imagery resonating in my head. Being slightly crazy, I decided to try to work in a series AND to try to work larger.  I designed several quilts on paper, but began serious work on a fourth quilt. This quilt,  “Wisdom: many laws to one love”, was the first quilt to be finished.

I made a small sample door quilt, but the first three quilts were languishing on the design board, and in the meantime I had drawn a design while listening to a workshop on grant-writing. “Wisdom: shoots and branches” was the next to be completed. Creating this quilt, I just kept powering through (not overthinking can be a good thing for me), and finished it within weeks.

 The next three quilts were tough. The designs didn’t flow, composition was so-so, …. imagine a brick wall. I finally decided that I needed to power through and “finish” them all – no matter what! I sewed the last one to its backing yesterday. Perseverance! Below are four plus the sample in the sunny studio today. The fifth has a home with my mom (who loved all the squares and gave invaluable composition help to get me unstuck).

So, what did it take to just “finish” them? The second from the left was on a green background – ripped it off the background, picked a happy light blue, changed the size of the background, then needed to make the circle of wisdom smaller, added some squares just because I could! The fourth from the left still has composition flaws – added watercolor pastel, then some white gesso, bright coral thread for the border. Lesson learned – if the composition isn’t quite right, fix it before you start sewing! The fifth one from the left, over a year later after literally living on the design wall – added watercolor pastel, narrowed the canvas, added more watercolor pastel, added white paint, and more white paint, and I finally stopped. And to think this all started with the sample door on the right.
 

I’m glad I finally powered through.  I may come back and document single quilts more fully, but today I am simply savoring the sense of having pushed though a time of creative drought. Feels good.

And I’m thankful to be taking pictures with no snow on the driveway in Ann Arbor. I’m blessed.

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College house color

Kelsey’s college house this year is lovely. 100+ years old, great bones, large living spaces. And very WHITE! She and her housemates have decorated their rooms, creating comfortable spaces, but they didn’t have many items left over for the common space. I decided I could do a simple quilt, almost a single block, in solids, to add color to the walls. Quick trip to Pink Castle, helpful color advice, and here is the final product!

Imagine this in a craftsman-style house, massive white fireplace, contemporary grey and white accents, traditional furniture touches, with aubergine couches and citron accents. I’m hoping it adds the warmth Kelsey is hoping for.

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Pinwheel beach

Finished this pinwheel quilt a couple of weeks ago. Originally I designed it for my office, but by the time I finished it, I had moved my office around and it didn’t work … in fact, the colors weren’t quite warm enough for my office! Ended up finishing it with straight line quilting in a purply-gray (see it before here) The fabrics include many of my own hand-dyed fabrics, and even a couple from my printing for the March 2013 hand printed fabric swap. The binding is pieced with gray hand-dyed fabrics, a Marcia Derse mottled gray, and one fun print. Another quilt finished!
The blues and warm reds are simply lovely in our home, and when Taylor was home she helped shoot photos and then lovingly found a place for it on Kelsey’s trunk where it looks just right. A beach flavored pinwheel quilt that I can enjoy all winter long!

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My mom is a blessing

Being able to be creative with people you love is such a blessing. My mom and I started on this table runner together and then she took it back home to finish laying it out and quilting.

What wonderful reminders of special family times on the beach! We combined fabrics from my stash with fabric I hand-dyed and printed for a fabric swap back in March (final swap fabrics, lighter prints, rubbings, solids and early prints). Before winter comes to Michigan, I wanted to blog this reminder of warmer days, and windswept beaches.

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Possibilities

The fresh colors of summer inspired this baby quilt – probably my favorite fabric is the red Liberty print from Sew to Speak in Ohio. Picking out fabrics and designing with half-square triangle squares I find relaxing. 
This quilt original had a bit different vibe, but it didn’t feel right, so I listened to feedback from my mom, took out the tree fabric, then took out the bright reds, and persisted until it ended up here. I’m still not sure, but I do like where it ended up. Thanks to filminthefridge.com for idea for the straight line quilting with alternating double and single lines.
This quilt began while the girls were studying abroad this summer and I finished it just before the school year started. Once its washed, it will be on its way to a good home somewhere for someone who needs it. Another procrastination stopped and project finished!