Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian friends who've come here via Sandi's direction at shhdesigns. Sandi creates beautiful wool applique quilts as well as the most colorful quilts a la Mary Lou Weidman style. If you haven't seen her story quilt you should go and take a look. It's wonderful! She kindly asked me to participate in the Around the World Blog Hop that's making the rounds of artistic blogs across the world. Everyone has been asked to answer four questions or variations on them.
What am I working on?
As is usual at any given time I have about four projects in different states of completion. I'm almost finished binding a quilt that my mom asked me to quilt for her on my longarm quilting machine. She began this in a class twenty years ago but never really caught the quilting bug. I sewed on the last borders and quilted a floral/swirly allover design.
I'm about five rows from finishing up my Glam Clam baby quilt top that I started in Latifah Saafir's workshop a month ago. But I did find a pretty backing fabric for it the other week.
There's a quick pincushion swap on flickr that I'm also working on. It's still a secret so all I can show are the fabrics and the circles that I've sewn. Those get to be turned, stuffed and stacked but the two pink fabrics are still a surprise.
And yes I'm still working on the Fractured quilt that will be for our bedroom. I'm about half-way done but it has to take a back seat to other projects. I'm scheduling that to be completed by the end of the year.
How does my work differ from others of its genre?
There's quite a few quilters out there nowadays, yay! I don't think that I fit into any one-size-fits-all mold when it comes to quilting or doll making. I make modern quilts, a few art quilts and some that lean more towards traditional. The one consistency is that I love bright colors especially greens, aquas, and purples. It is hard to break away from that and to use the warmer colors of the color wheel but I'm always happy when I do that. Here's a few pictures of my past work.
Why do I create what I do?
I wouldn't be happy if I weren't creating something. I have memories of stealing sheets from the back of the family linen closet when I was a little girl so that I could use the fabric to hand-sew tiny clothes for my dolls. While working as a swimwear designer there wasn't too much time to spend on after hours creativity. But how can one complain when you see your sketches become swimsuits that you see someone wearing on the beach. I'm no longer a swimwear designer but I have missed having a creative profession thus my longarm quilting service, The Quilted Lemon, was born this past summer. It's the best of both worlds because I still have time to create personal projects in between working on client quilts. (I also had lots of fun designing the logo and the new website.)
How does my creative process works?
As much as I'm in awe of those of you who can make improve pieces, I need to have sketches and designs in place first. Even if it's just a thumbnail sketch to give me a guideline on how to turn my idea into an actual object. Sometimes I'll scan in a design to Adobe Photoshop so that I can play around with color schemes. At other times I'll pull a very large fabric pile and then begin a project. In the end not all fabrics or trims make it in the final project but they served their purpose of inspiration.
Thank you so much for visiting. Sadly my friends weren't able to continue the link in this blog hop due to prior commitments but here's a few places that I think you'll very much enjoy visiting.
If you've never heard of Bonnie Hunter then you're in for a treat as she loves to use all her scraps to make colorful quilts. Every year she offers a mystery quilt a-long for free. The designs get retired after a few months and make it into her future published books. This year's project Quiltville's Mystery Quilt Grand Illusion is inspired by the Grand Hotel in Michigan.
Susie McMahon makes the most gorgeous cloth dolls with painted faces. She often will knit tiny cardigans for her sweet dolls. But if those are too traditional for you, she also creates interesting art pieces. Inspiring work.
Judi Madsen is one of my longarm quilting heroes. She has a gorgeous style that I love studying. Fortunately for us she's written a book sharing her work tips and tutorials. Her quilts are just pure eye candy.
Enjoy taking a look at these blogs and thank you so much for visiting.
