Bloggers Quilt Festival Fall 2013 – Part 2

Posted on October 29, 2013 by TerryAske

This is my second entry in Amy’s Bloggers Quilt Festival – you can read about my first entry here.

Category entered: Wall Hanging Quilts
Techniques used: machine piecing, fused applique, stitched applique, free-motion quilting
Designed, created and quilted by me
Finished size: 18 x 18 inches

Terry Aske Starry Winter Night 2

Here’s the story behind the quilt.  I had sent away for a fat quarter to participate in the Sew Batik challenge for the Pacific West Quilt Show.  In June, I suddenly realized that I only had a couple of days to complete my challenge quilt and get it in the mail.  I’d known since I saw the fabric what theme I wanted to do – Starry Winter Night – but hadn’t really thought about the details.  I decided to go with an abstract look, and challenged myself to complete it in two days.  Normally I would have drawn a design, enlarged it to full size, and traced that to freezer paper or fusible web.  Instead, I cut all the pieces free-hand and just placed them on the background where they looked good.  I really enjoyed the spontaneous free-style design and construction of this quilt.

Here’s how it looked as I was constructing it, and here it is hanging in the challenge exhibit at the Pacific West Quilt Show in Tacoma.

DSCN1142  DSCN1147  photo

 

Make sure that you pop over to Amy’s Creative Side and check out all of the wonderful quilts in the Festival and vote for your favorites.  I’d love it if you voted for mine, if you’re so inclined.

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Bloggers Quilt Festival Fall 2013 – Part 1

Posted on October 28, 2013 by TerryAske

Amy at Amy’s Creative Side has been running the Bloggers Quilt Festival since 2009.  It’s timed to coincide with Quilt Market in the fall and spring each year.

Here’s the schedule if you’d like to participate – you can submit one or two of your quilts, nominate your favorite quilt for Viewer’s Choice, vote for favorites in each category, and win wonderful prizes!

Blogger’s Quilt Festival Schedule:
  • October 25 – 31 – Linky’s Open & Nominate for Viewer’s Choice
  • November 1 – 7 – Vote for favorites in each of the categories
  • November 8 – Winners announced

I’m entering this quilt in the Applique Quilt category.    It’s called ‘Orthrozanclus Reburrus’ and it’s a textile representation of a fossil of tiny grazing animal covered with beautifully-shaped curved spines.  It was created for a SAQA-West exhibit that will travel to elementary schools as an educational tool about the Burgess Shale.

It’s 24 x 24 inches, and is fused applique.  You can read more about this quilt here and here.

Terry Aske _ Burgess Shale Fossil quilt

 

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On my design wall – 2013.10.23

Posted on October 23, 2013 by TerryAske

I’ve been working on the portrait quilt, and I have two of the faces done.  I used some of my skin-tone fabrics for some of the facial features, but for most of them I used machine stitching.  It doesn’t show in this photo, but I did stitch some very light gray hair on the great-grandfather.  I’ll stitch a bit of hair on the baby’s head once the quilt is assembled.  One more face to add features to, then I’ll decide on a background color, and fuse it all together.

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I needed a bit of a break from the portrait quilt, so I took a couple of hours off and made two very modern looking dog portraits.  They’re samples for a class I may be doing soon for a local quilt guild – if enough people sign up.

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The Artists’ Reception for the Abstracted exhibition at the La Conner Quilt Museum was a lot of fun.  The people who attended seemed very impressed with the show.  We also had a chance to see some of Elizabeth Barton’s quilts, which are wonderful.

 

I’m linking up with these blogs for WiP Wednesday.  Click on the buttons below to see all the people participating and check out their projects.

WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced     Esther’s Blog

Posted in Art quilts, portait quilts, Quilt shows, WiP Wednesday | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments

New quilt show and on my design wall – 2013.10.16

Posted on October 16, 2013 by TerryAske

As you may recall, my sister Anne and I participated in the “Abstracted” exhibition in which pairs of artists explore the concept of realistic and abstract art.  The show is now hung at the La Conner Quilt Museum, and I’ve been told that it looks fabulous!  The Artists’ Reception is this Saturday, October 19th at 1:00 pm.  Anne and I will be there, along with many of the other artists, and I’d love to see you there.  The show will run until the end of December.

Vivian, the curator of the show, has put together a fabulous blog with photos of all the pieces in the show, information about the artists and their creative process.  There’s a separate post for each pair of artists – here’s a link to ours, titled Solitude.

And here’s our original photo, my piece and Anne’s piece.

inspiration photo, representative art quilt, abstract fibre art piece

 

I’ve been making progress on my newest custom portrait quilt that I started last week.

I decided I needed a few different shades of skin-tone fabric, but I didn’t have fabrics that worked well together.  So I dyed some fabric with tea and coffee – see tutorial here.  I now have several shades of the same skin-tone fabric – see the 3 shades in the baby’s head below.  Also notice the necks, which are a little darker than the faces.

I’m using my full-size pattern to trace the pattern pieces to the fusible web, so I traced the outlines of the figures onto tracing paper and pinned that to my design wall.  I’ve fused almost all of the fabrics and pinned them to the tracing paper.  I still need to add some details like eye glasses, highlights and shadows.  I plan to add the facial features with thread rather than fabric.

Terry Aske portrait quilt in progress

 

I’m linking up with these blogs for WiP Wednesday.  Click on the buttons below to see all the people participating and check out their projects.

WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced  

Posted in Art quilts, On my design wall, Tutorial, WiP Wednesday | Tagged , , , | 8 Comments

On my design wall – 2013.10.09

Posted on October 9, 2013 by TerryAske

I’m just starting another custom portrait quilt.  My client sent me a photo of her parents with her grandson.  I traced the three figures from the photo, then moved them all a bit closer to each other.

original photo  Kathy parents & baby mockup

I enlarged my drawing to a full-size pattern (about 17 x 17 inches), and have pinned my initial fabric selection on my design wall.   I took a photo of the fabrics on the wall, and pixelated it, so see how the colors and values look together, without being distracted by the creases in the fabrics.

DSCN2757  fabric selections pixelated

I’ll start constructing the faces first – as they are the most challenging – then the clothing, and decide on the background at the end.

I’m linking up with these blogs for WiP Wednesday.  Click on the buttons below to see all the people participating and check out their projects.

WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced  

 

 

Posted in Art quilts, On my design wall, WiP Wednesday | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

Vacation Inspiration – 2013.10.07

Posted on October 7, 2013 by TerryAske

I spent 2 weeks in September on a catamaran sailboat in Croatia with my husband and 4 close friends (you have to be close friends to live together on a sailboat for 2 weeks!).  We had a wonderful time, and I have so many photos for inspiration for future art quilts.  Here are a few of my favorites.

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As I was unpacking from the Croatia trip, I was repacking for the annual Fibre Art Network retreat, held this year on Gabriola Island.  More photo inspirations!

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I’m all unpacked now from both vacations, and ready to start quilting again.

Stay tuned . . .

 

Posted in Inspiration | 2 Comments

On my design wall – 2013.08.28

Posted on August 28, 2013 by TerryAske

I’ve been busy in the last week or so.  I made a portable ironing mat for the top of my rolling, folding table, and I wrote a tutorial on how to create a portrait pattern from a photo.

photoOn Saturday, I drove from Vancouver BC to Tacoma WA with two friends to attend the Pacific West Quilt Show.  It was a great show – very inspirational – and a fun day.  I had a total of 5 quilts on display in the show and special exhibits.  Here’s me with one of my quilts.

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I’ve been planning for some time to make a modern quilt from neutral-colored quilt fabrics with text.  Even though I won’t have time to work on the quilt for a while, I pinned the fabrics to my design wall for inspiration.  Every time I walk past the design wall, I think about how I will design the quilt.

 

I’m linking up with these blogs for WiP Wednesday.  Click on the buttons below to see all the people participating and check out their projects.

Quiltsy WiP    WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced  

 

Posted in Art quilts, On my design wall, Quilt shows, WiP Wednesday | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Making a custom portable ironing surface – 2013.08.25

Posted on August 25, 2013 by TerryAske

When I was re-organizing my studio recently, I said that I was planning to make a portable ironing mat for the top of my rolling, folding table.   The table measures 12 x 36 inches when folded – almost the same size as the straight part of my ironing board.  And it’s on casters, so it’s easy to move around the room.  Plus, it’s so much more attractive than an ironing board!

I got that project completed this week, and I’m very happy with how it turned out.

DSCN1341  DSCN1553

Here’s how I made it.

I considered using wood for the base, but I wanted it to be light and very portable, so I used cardboard.  I cut some flaps from a large cardboard box, using duct tape to attach pieces end to end, and then to tape two layers together.

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I covered the cardboard base with a layer of polyester craft batting, then a layer of flannel, then the top layer of coated ironing board fabric.  I’m sure I could have used an old towel, or cut Quilt Studioup an old ironing board cover, or purchased padded ironing board fabric – but I happened to have the batting and flannel on hand.  I ordered the coated fabric from Joann.com.  I wrapped the three layers around to the back and secured it all with duct tape.

I wanted to make sure it didn’t slide around on the table, so I duct-taped a layer of rubber shelf liner to the back.  I also added a strip of elastic to each end, to slip around each end of the table top.  I attached the elastic strips with a staple gun and then more duct tape – this is the only part I’m not sure about – time will tell if the staples in the cardboard will pull out.  If they do, I’ll find another way to anchor the elastic.

I used my new ironing board to press the creases out of six quilts, and it worked just fine.

Posted in Quilt studio, Tutorial | Tagged , | 10 Comments

On my design wall – 2013.08.21

Posted on August 21, 2013 by TerryAske

I finished up my Sanctuary journal quilt.   I quilted it with a variegated blue rayon thread, and love the way it sparkles like sun on the water!

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I’ve been developing a new quilt facing process – and I’m so happy with how the corners came out!  I wrote a tutorial on my new favorite facing technique.

I’m linking up with these blogs for WiP Wednesday.  Click on the buttons below to see all the people participating and check out their projects.

WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced  

Posted in Art quilts, On my design wall, WiP Wednesday | Tagged , | 7 Comments

On my design wall – 2013.08.16

Posted on August 16, 2013 by TerryAske

I’m working on a journal quilt (8.5 x 11 inches) for an upcoming quilt retreat.  The theme is Sanctuary.  Most definitions refer to churches and holy places, but those words just weren’t generating any design ideas for me.

A synonym of ‘sanctuary’ is ‘safe haven: a harbor or anchorage protected from the sea’.  That reminded me of a photo I took last summer when visiting Salt Spring Island BC, of sailboats moored in Fulford Harbour.  I love the reflection of the sailboat masts in the water, so I cropped that part of the photo, traced the reflections and fused some fabrics.  I like how it’s looking so far.

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I’m linking up to:

Posted in Art quilts, On my design wall | Tagged | 6 Comments