Work in Progress

The next in my series of small art quilts that combine patchwork squares with fluid hand stitching is still a work in progress, but it’s a good illustration of the process. I’m terrible about remembering to consistently document ALL the steps in the process — I get too lost in the work to stop and take pictures most of the time. But I did take a breather to snap a couple of shots to highlight some details that have become signature features of this series.

In the photo below, You see the difference between the initial row of stitching and when I go back over the line a second time to fill in the gaps. This adds visual weight to the line of stitching. In “Heart Blues,” highlighted in an earlier post, I double stitched everything to reflect the heaviness of the mood. In other pieces I have started using this technique more as a feature to make certain pieces stand out. You can see that in the photos of “Hearth” in my last post — the coral coloured “rivers” that run from top to bottom are stitched this way to stand out.

“Bloom,” 2023. unfinished work

Another thing that many of these pieces have in common is a small “surprise” detail. In “Heart Blues” the tiny red heart stands out in contrast to everyone else. In “Hearth” I tucked in the little row of numbers from the selvedge. And in this work in progress, I couldn’t resist this little fellow — a scrap from an animal print used in a previous project.

Time is running out to be entered into my contest! Everyone who signs up for the newsletter by midnight Central Time on October 15th will be entered into a draw for a custom art quilt in this style based on the prompts the winner provides. The winner of the draw will be announced in the first newsletter on Tuesday, October 17th. You will be able to specify a colour theme and a mood or idea you want your custom piece to convey. You can even send me a photo showing where you want to display your art quilt, and you can specify the size (within a range).