Name: Wanda Ann Dotson Member of CVAMQG since: 2015 How long have you been quilting? Twenty-nine years What is your favorite quilting tool? ? I love hand quilting, and I couldn’t quilt without my metal thimble. What are your favorite fabric lines and substrates? Do you prefer prints or solids? I love solids, and I have recently…
— Read on cvamodernquiltguild.com/2023/03/01/member-spotlight-wanda-ann-dotson/
Category: Quilting
The Boulevard
The Boulevard is the main thoroughfare through my small city in Virginia. It’s a four-lane route with restaurants and businesses flanking each side along with strip malls. I live a block off The Boulevard. At night I see the lights of the businesses and the red lights from my living room. In the early morning, it is quiet and I hear the trains flying by parallel to The Boulevard. In this piece, I explored different ways of making a log cabin block to give the feel of The Boulevard. My starting point was elongated log cabins, then playing with the width of the strips. I added a traditional log cabin block to represent my home on The Boulevard.
It measures 38” x 38”.
I entered this quilt in the Modern Quilt Guild’s Log Cabin Challenge, sponsored by American Patchwork and Quilting magazine. It will be on display this week at QuiltCon in Atlanta, Georgia. I won’t be there, but I’m excited it will hang alongside so many amazing modern log cabin quilts.
I used 28 weight thread, mostly stitching in the ditch. I hoped it would give a feeling of driving lanes.
Viva Magenta!
I began this quilt at the Slow Stitching Retreat in Washington, Maine, in August 2017. Heather Jones taught a class on Color Theory and improvisation. Before we began cutting any fabric, Heather discussed her love of the work of Ellsworth Kelly. She said, “His works demonstrate unassuming techniques emphasizing simplicity of form, similar to work of John McLaughlin and Kenneth Noland.”
We were asked to bring solids in one color and a solid of a different color with white and off white. I chose yellows with green as the accent color. We cut the strips without a ruler.
In the spirit of Ellsworth Kelly, I chose the strips randomly. I put my blocks on the design wall and these were very muted. A fellow reteater, Juline, was using purple in her blocks. I exclaimed, “I need purple.” She gave me some purple/magenta strips and they made my blocks sing. Heather also gave me some magenta to add to my blocks.
I didn’t work on this quilt again until January 2018 at a quilt retreat, then again at another quilt retreat in August 2018. I finished the quilt top at the retreat. On the last day of 2018, I quilted it, and on the first day of 2019, I added the binding. It finished at 32″ square.
So it’s now 2023, and I’ve had this blog post ready to publish for four years. The 2023 Pantone Color of the Year, Viva Magenta, reminded me of this quilt. Viva Magenta!
Wanda's Life Sampler 