Dear Orcas

November 2, 2023November 1, 2023Leave a comment

I made this quilt for the Modern Quilt Guild’s fabric challenge for QuiltCon 2024. The fabric is Windham Artisan Cotton. I used Turquoise-Copper, White-Aqua, Apple Green-Chartreuse, and Grape-Dark Pink.

I used artisan cotton previously, and I liked the feel of it. It does fray and it’s hard to fix mistakes because it thins almost to the point where you lose your seam allowance. Making curves felt easier though. This type of quarter circle requires precision and I didn’t fix some of them because of the fraying (or at least that’s what I’m telling myself).

I used Latifah Saafir’s Clammy 10” template. It took some guidance from her and quilty friends to understand how to cut the pieces correctly.

I used variegated thread (4655 color), 12 weight, from Aurifil because I wanted it to have the feeling of water. I also quilted one large quarter circle. Do you see it?

At one point of making the quarter circles, I saw a ship, followed by a whalelike creature. I called it Dear Orcas because they were in the news for attacking boats. We do not know why they are doing this, so I wrote them this letter.

Wordle Design a Day

June 12, 2023June 11, 20231 Comment

For the last 15 weeks, I’ve been using the Wordle game answers as inspiration for a design. I’ve consistently created something. Sometimes it’s no more than doodling, but I’ve shown myself a way to be creative every day. The act of creating is important to me, but I’m not always as consistent. Having made 105 designs is my best track record ever!

I thought I would share some of my favorites:

Animals

Emotions

Directions (sorta)

Fun

Quilt-like

Literal

If you want to see all my designs, I’ve posted them on Instagram.

Shaft Mines: Pantone Quilt Challenge 2023

May 10, 2023May 9, 20236 Comments

49” x 37”

United States

The 2023 Pantone Color of the Year is Viva Magenta. Elizabeth Ray and Sarah Ruiz are hosting this year’s Quilt Challenge. I knew I had a box of scraps in this color and similarly-colored scraps. I wanted it to feel moody like the artwork from Pantone. Half way through the process it began to look like a geological dig. I started calling it Shaft Mines.

I grew up in the mountains of Southwest Virginia. My father and brother are coal miners. They haven’t worked in shaft mines, but drift mines. In a shaft mines, there is a vertical entry from the surface into the coal seam— think elevator. In a drift mines, you enter the mountain at an incline— think tunnel or mouth. This quilt feels like both.

Because I was using black, I worried it wasn’t magenta enough. I worried it was too chaotic. I worried my worries would prevent me from finishing it. I tinkered until I gave up. The quilting in straight lines rescued it for me. I love how the dark pink stitches give order to the chaos. I used 8 weight thread in part of it. My machine didn’t like it so I switched to 50 weight in different pinks.