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Rosalie Dace is one of Alex's favorite instructors. Here she talks to Lisa Walton about the inspiration and process behind her quilt, Here & Now. If you don't know anything about Rosalie, this video is a great introduction.
Watch Rosalie in Show 711: Quilting - Where Imagination and Reality Meet.
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Alex celebrates Freddy Moran who is turning 90 years old. Freddy is a queen of scrap quilts & quilting freedom. "Red is a Neutral" to Freddy. What will be your new neutral?
Alex is LIVE Monday, July 13, 2020 at 10am PST, 1pm EST, and 6pm London time.
Note: There will be no Alex Anderson Live at 10am this Wednesday, July 15, 2020. Stay tuned for random LIVE broadcasts during the taping of new shows.
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Mary Brown has been making quilts for over 50 years and has never sold a quilt. She gets a special joy from gifting quilts and to her, the recipient's appreciation is worth far more than money. Mary also enters quilts into shows and exhibits and Midnight Rayes, inspired by Gail Garber's work with flying geese, is one of those quilts.
Midnight Rayes by Mary Brown of Hurricane, West Virginia, and quilted by Lovenia Casto, was featured in the In the American Tradition Exhibit at Houston 2019.
3
Alex talks with TQS Editor-in-Chief Lilo Bowman about her new book Love Your Creative Space. Lilo has been with TQS almost from the very beginning and the book came about because of the series of TQS blogs she wrote about organization.
Lilo's book is available in the TQS Store. Click here.
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Freddy wrote in her book, Freddy's House (ctpub.com), "I believe every person needs a passion: be it tennis or golf, or gardening,...whatever one finds as an inner core to keep them vital and interested. Age fades and creativity takes over---what a powerful feeling."
We are so happy that quilting caught your interest (at the age of 60)!
Yes, that's right 60! She graduated as an art major from Dominican College in San Rafael and then spent a lot of time raising her five boys. When her youngest began school, she became involved in needlepoint and taught this craft until she was 60. Then one of her daughters signed them up for a quilting class and Freddy had to be persauded to go. Once there, however, she was instantly hooked and a quilter was born.
You'll be learning more about Freddy in the future...stay tuned...
(Photo: Hello Stitch Studio, Berkeley, CA.)
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Alex took appliquéing circles to a new level in her quilt, Grape Escape. This grape wreath appliqué quilt appeared in the October 2010 issue of The Quilt Life, and has become a modern classic. You can learn appliqué from Alex in our Applique Masterclass Part 1 and Show 408: All About Neutrals.
Original Photo from AlexAndersonQuilts.com
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Laura Wasilowski's whimsical style, keen sense of humor, and ability to tell a story within a small detailed format, may look effortless, but there is more to making her endearing scenes than meets the eye.
by Laura Wasilowski (Show 303, Show 1009, and Show 2109)
(All images by Laura Wasilowski unless otherwise noted)
Lighthouse by Laura Wasilowski. (Image by Lilo Bowman)
If there is a recipe for creating artwork then there is an important ingredient to include. This ingredient spices up the design. It is variety. Variety takes a bland concoction and adds flavor using diverse motifs, colors, and pattern. By varying the shapes, colors, and placement of shapes in your artwork, you create lively and active designs.
In Seedpods, the simple dot motif appears in various sizes. Large, medium, and small dots scatter across the surface carrying the eye from one side to the other. The stripped motifs also vary in size. Fine lines create narrowly striped fabrics and wide strips make bold stripes. By providing a mixture of motif sizes, energy is added to the piece.
Color also adds variety to artwork. Changing colors and color values in a composition keeps the eye active and searching for the next instance of that color. High contrast colors in Seedpods lift off the background while analogous colors recede into the background. This variety of color choices push and pull the eye across the piece.
Another important ingredient of design is placement. Placement of shapes and colors adds a dynamic flow to a design. Placing shapes at different elevations is an effective way to lend action or movement to a piece. In Seedpods, dot shapes are placed at varying heights. Repeating colors at varying intervals across a piece also works the eye and gives energy to the artwork.
All this variety of size, color, and placement of shapes leads to unity. A variety of elements in a composition appeals to the eye but it achieves harmony or unity. Unity is a feeling that all the elements work together and form a whole piece of artwork.
In my quilt, Pretty Planet #10, the design principal of balance plays an important role. When elements in a design share equally in interest or visual weight, balance is achieved. The viewer’s eye travels the artwork and senses the placement of the various design elements, giving the viewer a sense of harmony or balance within the artwork.
In the case of Pretty Planet #10, design elements like the houses and trees radiate evenly around a central point. This is radial balance. Radial balance is an easy design format to follow when making artwork. By placing similar elements in a circular pattern the sense of a spinning wheel or rotating objects appears. In this case, the feeling of motion created by radial balance is also repeated in the circular shape of the quilt.
Pretty Planet #3 is also a round quilt but there is no center point. Instead the disparate elements in this design are given equal visual weight or balance by their strategic placement on the background fabric. This is called asymmetric balance. Similar shapes, like the trees, are positioned at different angles to draw the viewer’s eye around the place. The darker green at the bottom of the quilt and orange trees add weight, balancing out the importance of the house shape.
Arbor Day uses a traditional four-patch layout that reflects symmetrical balance. Symmetrical balance is also known as “formal” balance. When design elements are positioned on either side of a central axis or line, they have an equal visual weight. Even distribution of shapes and a layout of repeating horizontal and vertical lines are very common in traditional quilt compositions. This gives them a feeling of formality and calm balance.
Pay attention to balance while making a composition. The placement of elements, arrangement of shapes, and repetition of colors create balance. When making artwork, step back and look at it with a critical eye. Do the elements share equally in visual weight? Is your eye continuously drawn around the piece? Does it feel in balance?
Click here for more topics related to The Art of Quilt Design program
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TQS continues its feature of quilts from the exhibit Log Cabin Today! Presented by Brigitte Morgenroth, a series of log cabin quilts created by Brigitte Morgenroth that were featured at the Houston International Quilt Festival in 2015. The exhibit is described as:
"Twenty-five years ago, Brigitte Morgenroth discovered quilting when she lived in Bophuthatswana (a former homeland in South Africa) and Libya. She creates modern and interesting Log Cabin quilts, with her choice of expressive colors and material, combined in different variations and arrangements: Log Cabin with a twist, triangular, undulating, or pineapple. Silk and polyester satin are her favorite materials, sometimes combined with patterned cotton. Mainly, she sews large quilts and sometimes smaller, more sophisticated ones. All of her quilts are hand-quilted. She gives this old pattern a modern, interesting character."
Please enjoy Brigitte's second quilt from the exhibition.
Title of Quilt: Wellen ~ Waves
Quilter's Name: Brigitte Morgenroth
Photos by John Anderson
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Susan M. Arnold completed this hand appliquéd beauty, Mediterranean Rose, on a cruise in the Mediterranean. While traditional in design, the color palette of red, green, and white on a black polka dot background gives it a modern feel. Hand appliqué, what a great way to relax while cruising.
Mediterranean Rose by Susan M. Arnold of Sunnyvale, California was featured in the In the American Tradition Exhibit at Houston 2019.
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During these difficult times, health care providers around the world are risking their lives, and the lives of their loved ones, working over-time in this battle against the coronavirus. Quiltmania magazine wanted to mobilize the international quilting community to participate in a solidarity quilt blocks project as a token of thanks for their hard work and dedication.
Up to now, more than 90 quilt designers have created blocks and over 1,000 others from around the globe have already signed up.
We thought you might like to take a look at the block Alex created for the project.
In support of the Solidarity Quilt Blocks operation, designers have mobilized by offering downloadable patterns for free.
Alex designed a block with a truly heartfelt message, combining appliqué and embroidery. Here is Alex's pattern:
Follow along on Instagram: #solidarityquiltblocks
Click here to see other blocks.
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