Skinny strips, how I make them – 2023.07.29

Posted on July 29, 2023 by TerryAske

At the June meeting of the Vancouver MQG, members displayed mini quilts made to celebrate our Guild’s 10th anniversary back in 2020. The theme was TEN, using only our logo colours and the size was 10 x 10 inches. The mini quilts were intended to hang at the VMQG 2020 showcase. Of course, there was no showcase that year. So we showed them at the June 2023 meeting, when we were celebrating the guild’s 13th anniversary.

These are my mini quilts. Click here for more information about how I made them.

On a recent blog post, one of my readers posted a question “At the VMQG meeting your mini quilt celebrating the guild’s 13th anniversary with the narrow white strips…can you blog on the technique for keeping those strips so straight and even?”

Here is how I insert skinny strips – I cut my strips 1/2″ wide. I sew the first seam just under 1/4″ from the edge, and press. For the second seam, I position my fabrics with the skinny strip on top, so I can see the first seam line. I position the needle 1/8″ inch away from the first seam and sew the seam.

Here is the front and back view of a little sample I made with an 1/8″ skinny line.

skinny line – front
skinny line – back

I don’t have any step-by-step photos of the process. But this tutorial by Kathy Loomis has a lot of great instructions and photos. http://andthenwesetitonfire.blogspot.com/2012/06/piecing-very-fine-lines.html

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I’m linking up with Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday.

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New West Textile Art Exhibit is open – 2023.06.11

Posted on June 11, 2023 by TerryAske

Our exhibit was hung on Thursday, and we opened on Friday morning. The gallery was open Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We’ve been very pleased with the number of visitors. We will be open again next weekend – Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The venue is lovely – brightly lit and very spacious – about 55′ by 55′. It’s impossible to get a photo of the whole space, but the photos below give an idea.

Below are photos of each artist’s work – but this is only a small sampling of the artworks we each have on display.

Judy Villett artworks
Trish Graham artworks
Terry Aske artworks
Judy Leslie artworks
Terry Rammel artworks

I am very pleased with my curtain clip hanging system, described in my previous post. Below you can see a 36″ wide piece hung with 3 clips – so much easier than wrestling with a 36″ rod. All of the smaller pieces – up to 20″ wide – are each hung with 1 clip.

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I’m linking up with Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday.

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Posted in Art quilts, Quilt shows | Tagged | 4 Comments

My art on display and a new hanging method – 2023.06.05

Posted on June 5, 2023 by TerryAske

I will be part of a group of local textile artists exhibiting in New Westminster in June, at the popup gallery location at Columbia Square.  Collectively, our techniques range from piecing and collage to dyeing, weaving, embroidery, quilting and surface design.    

Location:  I Heart NW Community Space in Columbia Square at 78 10th Street, Unit 103

Opening Reception: Friday, June 9,  5 to 8pm

Gallery Open: Fridays to Sundays (two weekends)

  • June 9 – 11,  11am to 5pm
  • June 16 – 18, 11am to 5pm

As I have been preparing for the exhibit, I realized I have about 25 small/mini quilts (from 8″ x 10″ up to 14″ x 14″) that I would really like to display.  However, many of them do not have sleeves, and I didn’t want to spend hours sewing and attaching sleeves.  I came up with an idea I really like, so thought I would share it. 

I am going to hang each one with a 1″ curtain clip, hanging on a nail or a clear push pin.  This is going to work with my long skinny quilts (12″ x 24″, 16″ x 36″, etc.) too. As long as the clip is in the center, the quilts hang straight and flat against the wall. And, if I nudge one, it straightens itself.  I think I’m onto something here!

I do have some wider quilts that will probably require rods in sleeves, but first I’m going to try using 2 of the clips because I really like the look.

When the show is hung on Thursday, I will post photos of the display.

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I’m linking up with Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday.

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Signs of Spring – cherry blossoms – 2023.03.07

Posted on March 7, 2023 by TerryAske

This year I really left this to the last minute! February 28 was the deadline to submit entries to the annual textile art exhibit Cherry Blossoms: A Textile Translation which will be on display in April at the Silk Purse Arts Centre in West Vancouver.

Early in February I started playing with fonts to use to make a banner style quilt. I decided to use ‘Gill Sans Nova Ultra Bold’ for the word Cherry, and ‘Verdana Pro Black’ for the word Blossoms. I printed them at point size 600 and 400 respectively, and arranged them on my design wall. I cut the letters from a variety of pink fabrics.

On the weekend of February 25-26, I started auditioning green fabrics for the background. It wasn’t until February 27 that I finalized my fabric choices. I unpinned the letters from the design wall and fused them to the background. As you can see, I changed the orientation of the word Cherry.

The letters looked so pretty on my white table, I couldn’t resist posting a couple of images on Instagram before I fused them and started quilting.

Fortunately I had the entire day to spend on the quilting and finishing steps. I quilted vertical straight lines in green and horizontal in pink, turned the edges to the back, took my photos, wrote my artist statement and submitted my entry (whew!)

Here it is – ‘Signs of Spring’ – 16 x 36 inches.

And today, I was notified that it has been selected for the exhibit, which will be on display April 5 to 30 at the Silk Purse Arts Centre in West Vancouver. And there will be an online Opening on Thursday April 6 from 5 – 7 pm Pacific.

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‘Purple Sun’ African Daisy mini quilts – 2023.01.26

Posted on January 26, 2023 by TerryAske

Earlier this month, I created 2 mini quilts from a photo I took last year at Vandusen Garden. I was captivated by the vibrant color palette of this flower.

A Google image search told me this was a ‘Purple Sun’ African Daisy. The petals glow with several vibrant shades of orange that transition into a vivid purple ring surrounding the heart of the flower.

I had two exhibits to enter in January, both of which required mini quilts. I decided to use this photo for both of them. For each one, I printed my photo on prepared fabric, fused it to felt and added details with machine quilting.

The first mini quilt is my entry to the annual SAQA Spotlight Auction. The auction will take place in late April during the SAQA conference in Toronto, Canada. The pieces will be on display at the conference banquet dinner, but the bidding will be an online event so anyone in the world can bid on them. All pieces must be 6 x 8 inches (portrait or landscape orientation).

I called this one ‘Purple Sun’ African Daisy. It is 6 x 8 inches.

The second mini quilt is my entry to the Fibre Art Network‘s newest exhibit ‘Up Close’. This exhibit will include approximately 80 mini quilts responding to the call for entry – Whether it is detail, nearness or connection, UP CLOSE is a unique and individual perspective. Artists are invited to express any aspect of what UP CLOSE means or looks like to them. All pieces will be 7 x 10 inches (portrait or landscape orientation). The exhibit will travel from May 2023 to May 2026.

For this mini quilt, I cropped the photo to feature the center of the flower, and called it The Heart of the ‘Purple Sun’.

I’m linking up with Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday.

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Posted in Art quilts, Inspiration, Mini quilts | Tagged , , , | 12 Comments

Water: An Element – collaborative art quilt – 2023.01.23

Posted on January 23, 2023 by TerryAske

Several years ago (2015!), my sister Anne and I started designing a collaborative art quilt titled Water: An Element. We designed it as a 3-part quilt, with river fabrics on the left side, ocean fabrics on the right, and a waterfall in the center. We worked on it sporadically, to this point in January 2016.

Over the next few months, Anne worked on the center panel. She made the center section dimensional, stuffed with netting and tulle, with lots of hand-stitching and beading. I took home the right section of the pattern, and the fabrics we selected for it, to start piecing and appliqueing.

By July 2016, we had essentially completed the center (Anne) and right panel (me). Since then it has been displayed on Anne’s design wall waiting for us to complete it.

In December, knowing I would be visiting Anne, I finally pieced the left section and brought it with me to Victoria. Here are the three sections pinned together on Anne’s design wall.

We backed each section with white felt. We quilted the right and left sections, then attached the 3 sections together.



We were determined to complete it during my visit – and we did! On December 30, 2022, Anne and I hand-sewed the binding together – one of us on each side of the quilt, like an old-fashioned quilting bee! (I tried to publish this post at that time, but I had a problem loading my photos using Anne’s computer. So I posted it on Instagram, and I’m finally publishing now.)

Here is Water: An Element. The finished size is 24 x 53 inches.

The center waterfall section is dimensional, stuffed with netting and tulle, hand-stitched and beaded. The side sections are machine pieced and machine quilted. The fabrics came from both of our fabric stashes, including some of Anne’s hand-dyed fabrics and a photo of her surfer daughter printed on silk and appliqued.

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I’m linking up with Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday.

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‘Aqua Flow’ mini quilt – 2022.12.11

Posted on December 11, 2022 by TerryAske

Here is my entry for the current Curated Quilts mini challenge. The theme is Abstract.

The color palette for the mini quilt challenge is teal, deep grey blue, bright yellow-green, soft grey, periwinkle, and flamingo pink. The instructions are to use flow as inspiration for the abstract mini quilt design.

The word flow took me to this sketch of water flowing. The colors I chose to use are bright yellow-green and teal. My original plan was to incorporate bias tape in my design, but I liked the look of the fabrics alone, so I pieced my curves and put the bias tape back in the cupboard.

I quilted my mini with a selection of teal and chartreuse threads, flowing from light in the center to dark at the edges..

Here is my finished piece ‘Aqua Flow‘. It is 12 x 12 inches.

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I’m linking up with Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday.

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Posted in Art quilts, Mini quilts, Modern quilts | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

A Bevy of Blues – 2022.11.27

Posted on November 27, 2022 by TerryAske

I belong to a group of fibre artists called FYBR 2RT. We have an exhibit in 2023 titled Tangled in Blue. All pieces will be 16″ x 16″.

I started with one of my favourite patterns – wavy lines intersecting with circles. Then I selected a wide variety of blue and blueish fabrics. There were a lot more to start, then I whittled it down to the ones below, plus a couple of solid fabrics.

I used my favourite techniques – freezer paper templates and raw edge seams covered with bias tape. I briefly considered using many different colours of bias tape.

But I decided on bluish shades of bias tape, except for the circles. I quilted wavy lines across the quilt before adding the circles.

Here’s the back, where you can see the quilting. (I used gray felt as batting. I didn’t add a backing fabric, as I mounted it on a wrapped canvas.)

Here is the finished quilt – A Bevy of Blues. Mostly blues, with a couple of my other favourite colours added for contrast.

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I’m linking up with Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday.

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Posted in Art quilts, Modern quilts | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

A challenging exhibit – ‘Resist’ – 2022.10.30

Posted on October 30, 2022 by TerryAske

A few months ago, a new exhibit titled ‘Resist’ was announced by the Fibre Art Network.

The exhibit overview says:

‘Resist’ explores resist techniques while preserving the unique individualistic style of each artist. Resist – an art technique that uses several layers to expose or define a design in negative space. Resistant substances are applied as a coating to protect a surface during some process e.g. prevent dye adhering.
Resist can be created using wax, crayons, inks, paints, pastel/ oil sticks, tape, masks, paper cut outs, stencils, stickers, glue, medium, flour paste, crackle paste, and/or fabric that is bound, scrunched, clamped, etc. Resist can be be artistic, positive, negative, frightening or enlightening…..to stand firm or hold out (against), not yield (to), fight (against). To resist something such as change – you refuse to accept it and try to prevent it…..resist temptation of…..couldn’t resist teasing or laughing at…… Each piece must incorporate one or more resist technique.

I’m not very familiar with resist techniques and found it a struggle to decide how to proceed. A number of my fibre art friends generously demonstrated several resist techniques – so many techniques, none of with I had any experience with! I eventually settled on mono-printing with acrylic paints using a gelli plate.

The next decision was what type of resist to use. With the help of several friends and much time spent referencing books, websites, videos, etc., I experimented with a variety of techniques including layering with grids, sequin waste, strings, and shapes cut from paper and plastic.

My favorites were the ones where I had used grids and strings as resists. I kept experimenting with different color combinations until I had quite a pile of samples. Most of them were 5″ x 7″ – the size of my smaller gelli plate.

I decided to cut my favorite samples into 2.5″ squares and arrange them in a grid formation. By this time, I was feeling a little overwhelmed by the whole process, so decided to lay them out in a somewhat random pattern. I checked that the values were evenly distributed, then sewed them all to the colorful background fabrics.

Here is the finished artwork. It’s 16″ x 16″. I called it ‘Grids and Strings and Other Things’.

I’m linking up with Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday, where you’ll find many other creative and inspirational projects.

Posted in Art quilts, On my design wall, Quilt shows | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Journal quilt for FAN artwork exchange – 2022.09.12

Posted on September 12, 2022 by TerryAske

Later this month, I’ll be heading to Winnipeg MB for the annual conference of the Fibre Art Network.  This will be our first in-person conference since 2019.

As usual we will have an artwork exchange.  All participants are invited to create a journal size fibre art piece (8 by 10 inches) inspired by this year’s conference theme, ‘Prairie Mosaic’.

My piece is titled ‘Hay Bales Under Stormy Sky’. It depicts fields stretching all the way to the horizon, under a big sky with dramatic storm clouds. 

This piece is inspired by photos taken in Manitoba in 2016 while attending FAN’s annual conference. I cropped the photo below, rearranged the hay bales, and made the sky and clouds more dramatic.

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I’m linking up with Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday.

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Posted in Art quilts, Mini quilts | Tagged , , | 3 Comments