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Alex talks with Sue Benner about Door County, Wisconsin, silk organza, freezer paper people, dye painting, mono printing, fabric storage, a quilt of Packers Football Stadium, landscapes, abstracts and more. All of this is topped off by a studio tour and a review of her art and work. Don't miss it!
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Alex has a center of a block she wants to use as an example of how to do Foundation Paper Piecing. She was LIVE Friday, April 24, 2020 at 10am PST, 1pm EST, and 6pm London time. It's more fun live, but if you don't make it, just play the recording.
Watch the video to learn more about working with Roseberry Cottage Fat Quarter Bundle and the Sequoia Sampler Remix pattern.
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Joanne Baeth's quilt, Sunset and Sandhill Cranes, has won a number of awards including: AQS Des Moines 2009, Best Machine Workmanship, Denver Quilt Festival 2010, Best of Show, IQA Houston 2010, Best Pictorial, Road to California 2011, Masterpiece and Pacific West Quilt Show 2011, Best of Show. Her quilts are influenced by her environment. Here is what she has to say:
"I am fortunate to live in an rural area in southeastern Oregon with wetlands, refuges, forests, and lakes nearby. This amazing area is the largest migration route in the Pacific Northwest for over 300 species of birds. I became inspired by the wildlife and nature surrounding me and started taking photographs and drawing birds, animals and landscapes. My husband and I are in the outdoors often which gives me the opportunity to observe wildlife in settings that are different with each season."
To learn more, visit Joanne's website.
Sunset and Sandhill Cranes - 36 Pieces Non-Rotating
Sunset and Sandhill Cranes - 100 Pieces Non-Rotating
Sunset and Sandhill Cranes - 252 Pieces Non-Rotating
Sunset and Sandhill Cranes - 100 Pieces Rotating
Sunset and Sandhill Cranes - 300 Pieces Rotating
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African Jazz #10 by Michael Cummings (Left) ; Square Turn by Gyleen Z. Fitzgerald (Right)
Regardless of your preferred style (traditional, contemporary, art, etc.), working with shape can make your quilts visually dynamic. Let's look at two quilt examples that use shape with stunning results. African Jazz #10 by Michael Cummings (Show 711: Quilting - Where Imagination and Reality Meet) features flat, organic hand-cut shapes surrounded by a more geometric free-form half square triangle frame. The figures, plants and instruments are layered in an overlapping collage effect, while the selection of fabrics is kept to prints and solids of black, white, brown and olive to create an overall unifying effect.
Gyleen Fitzgerald's (Show 909: Techniques, Tips...and Turning "Trash" into "Treasure", Show 1403: Build Beautiful Quilts with Butterfly Seams, and Show 2012: Modern Scrappy Quilts) Square Turn presents a more controlled and mathematical approach. Using shot cottons that read as solids, each block is cut to a specific size and shape. It is through her careful use of subtle color change within a number of the blocks that the large square on point seems to float on the surface. The eye is tricked into thinking that the two-dimensional surface is not actually flat.
Alaska quilt artist Maria Shell (Show 2208: Improv Patchwork) shares how she uses basic shapes to create visually interesting and exciting quilts.
(All images provided by Maria Shell unless otherwise noted)
According to basic design principles, shapes are two-dimensional areas with a recognizable boundary. Any contained space can be a shape. In the traditional nine-patch block each square of the nine-patch is a shape.
In the traditional Drunkard’s Path quilt block, the shape is the quarter circle patch of the block. One of the interesting things about shape is that when combined together, new shapes can emerge. For example if the Drunkard Path blocks are combined in an interesting fashion the other part of the quilt block can become shape too.
Shapes can be open or closed, angular or round, big or small. Shapes can be organic or inorganic. They can be free-form or geometric and ordered. I work with shape in several different ways—usually all at once—to create interest in my quilts.
First, I like to use line or pattern to create shape. Basically that means that I piece my shapes out of an assortment of fabrics instead of using just one piece of fabric. I will piece stripes, checks, polka dots. These different textures create visual interest inside of my shapes. Boulevard is essentially an elongated four patch, but I have used line and pattern to make the shapes interesting.
Boulevard by Marial Shell.
Second, I use color to create contrast between my shapes. I use all of the colors of the color wheel frequently in the same proportion. I consider brown, gray, black, white, turquoise, and pink to be primary colors, and I use them just as I would purple, blue, green, red, yellow, and orange. I create contrast between colors by selecting colors opposite each other on the color wheel or by using different values. Using an assortment of color in my shapes helps them to stand out in contrast to each other. Force Field features fabric of a similar color but highly contrasting value. This allows each shape to stand out.
Force Field by Maria Shell.
And finally, I cut many of my shapes without a ruler. The real trick to cutting without a ruler is to control your cut by placing yourself squarely in front of your fabric. As you move your rotary cutter, move your body as well. Keep yourself directly over your fabric. This will greatly improve the quality of your cut line which will in turn improve the quality of your shapes. I will, at certain points in my construction, use a ruler to keep things in line. I will also frequently cut one block with a ruler and then use that block as my ruler. This creates a bit of wonkiness, but things still fight together in the end. Cutting without rulers creates interest for the eye. Funky Monkey is a good example of improvisional cutting. The lines that form the shapes are interesting and fun to look at.
Funky Monkey by Maria Shell.
I hope these pointers about how I use shape will help you create dynamic quilts. If you would like to see more of my work you can visit my website, my blog, or Instagram.
Supplies for Lines and Circles:
Using a piece of white paper, draw a straight line from one side to the opposite side. Repeat with two more lines.
Draw in circles of different sizes (use templates, thread spools, small jars, glasses, etc.). Add lines in several areas. Once you are happy with the number of lines and circles, color in the areas. Notice how the interplay of shapes create new and different shapes.
Supplies for both paper cutting exercises:
1. Leaves - Using the (6" x 6") white piece of paper, carefully cut basic leaf shapes from around each side. Try to cut the leaf in one smooth cut. Position and glue in place the white paper on top of the pink paper. (our paper was not large enough, so we taped two pieces together). Glue your cut out (white) leaf shapes so that they continue the pattern into the pink area as in the example above.
2. Apple - Using the (3" x 7") colored piece of paper, draw 1/2 of an apple, stem, leaf and core. Cut out drawn elements. Position the colored cut 3" x 7" paper to the left top and bottom corner of the paper with the white and glue in place. Glue the cut out shapes to continue the pattern into the white area as in the example above.
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Hillary Goodwin's quilt, Pick Up Sticks, brings us back to our childhood with her rendition of the traditional game. She experimented with the quilting in order to create a technique which made it look like painted brush strokes.
Pick Up Sticks by Hillary Goodwin won First Place, Piecing, sponsored by Aurifil, at QuiltCon 2020.
Photos by Mary Kay Davis
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Alex is walking us through the paper piecing trails. She was forced to learn it and has become of fan of its precision. She is LIVE at 10am PST, 1pm EST, and 6pm London. It's more fun LIVE, but if you miss it the recording will play here. Please take advantage of our Stay in Place special membership - 6 months for $19.95 or lock in the price for a year at $39. Pleeeeze.
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Sometimes you need to be very accurate. Foundation paper piecing techniques give you that level of skill. Alex resisted foundation paper piecing at first and you might be hesitant too. Alex will let you know some of the tips she learned along the way. Remember, if you want to chat while Alex is LIVE, click on the YouTube logo and go to the YouTube site. Your comments will post LIVE. If you are watching the recording, just comment here.
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Are these Tumbling Blocks? Hexies? Diamonds? Find out when you play the game.
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We caught up with Lorena Uriarte on the show floor of QuiltCon 2020 where she talked to us about how she made her award-winning quilt, Dynamic Hypnotic. While the piecing might be quite simple, it's the hand quilting that is impressive.
Below, Lorena talks about how she made the quilt followed by photos.
Dynamic Hypnotic won Third Place, Quilting Challenge, sponsored by American Patchwork & Quilting, at QuiltCon 2020.
Photos by Mary Kay Davis
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