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
MooseHorseHoundGuppySwineMouse
Emotions
GriefAngerRevel
Directions (sorta)
BelowMetroBlameWhereAboveRange
Fun
HordeMarchBreadLogicDittoTrend
Quilt-like
UtterBrashEthicWhiffThiefCiderStockRatioEvery
Literal
IglooFlaskCanoePlateYachtPolka
If you want to see all my designs, I’ve posted them on Instagram.
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.
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.
