Whisper Quilts Revealed

I went to the regional SAQA meeting Saturday in Elk Grove. The main feature was the revealing of the Whisper Quilt Challenge. I forgot to hand my camera over to someone when I was holding up the group of quilts I was in, but managed to get this snapshot of the quilts stacked on the table afterwards. I will talk a bit about the quilts shown here. I believe better photos of all of the quilts will soon be up on our SAQA blog. I will link there when they are up.

Four different groups all started with the same photo of a desert garden, and all went in four different directions.

Marjorie Johnson’s quilt is shown on the top of the stack. You can see her full quilt on her website. She says she had a hard time trying to find cactus fabrics to add to her collaged desert landscape. And then she added some animals to put life into the quilt.

Cynthia Long did a value study of Marjorie’s quilt, and discharged a piece of silk to replicate the pattern of values she saw. She then added lots of wonderful detail with additional paint (or dye maybe?) and lots of wonderful hand stitching.

Carol Larson focused on some painted and stitched details from Cynthia’s quilt, and made it the main focus of her own quilt. She worked in similar colors as Cynthia. Just a hint of the original landscape is showing in the green hill-like shape at the bottom of her quilt.

Liz Berg did away altogether with the landscape idea. She continued with Carol’s circle motif, and added some long curvy shapes. Her full quilt is shown on her blog at the bottom of this post.

My first thought about Liz’s quilt was of sea kelp and bubbles, but I didn’t wasn’t real interested in doing kelp, and waited a couple of days to see if any other ideas would emerge. The colors and shapes in Liz’s quilt reminded me of a piece of fabric I had with random circles printed across it. And then the fabric reminded me of a lone allium plant with two straggly leaves growing down the street. I pulled out lots of coordinating polka dot prints, and added a drift of circles behind the main flower. Liz’s long curvy shapes became the stem and leaves of my allium.

Photos and Fabrics for a Grab Bag Challenge

A new Grab Bag challenge is beginning. I will need to get my fabrics chosen to send off. I think I am not supposed to share the bag I send off or the project I am working on until the challenge is complete. This year we are to choose our fabrics from an inspiration photo which will get sent with the bag. The photo will be used as the inspiration for the quilt which will be made, but doesn’t have to be interpreted literally.

I wonder if having photos to work from will stifle the creativeness of some as they try to interpret too literally. But then, having a photo will maybe give a jump start to the creative process. Certainly choosing fabrics from the photo will make for more coordinating bags.

I have a photo I took a while ago, and haven’t known what to do with it. It will be fun to choose some fabrics inspired by it, and see what someone else makes of it.

I will share the photo when I get back a quilt inspired by it, not until June.

Upholstery Swatches

I acquired a handful of upholstery swatches last weekend, which I thought I would play around with as the base fabric for a succulent quilt. I arranged the pieces, and then overlapped them just enough to zigzag stitch them together.

I’ve been trying to talk myself into the next step, which was supposed to be to add imagery in thread and paint to add to my Succulent series. But I like it the way it is. I could add just a bit of quilting, and turn it into a purse or small bag of some sort.

I think I will leave it on my design wall for a week, and see what the theme is for next Friday’s challenge. Maybe I can incorporate what I have started.

Sketchbook Excercises

Saturday was a CQFA day. Jaye shared her journals with us, and then gave us some prompts to get us sketching.


Jaye instructed us to draw a line, enclose it with a curved shape, and draw small shapes around the larger one. I made myself fill the page after I got home with various textures.

She also gave us some word prompts “spiral”, “flame”, and “arches”. My spiral ended up with leaves, and then I put a candle on the same page for a flame. And then I filled this page also. My arches aren’t worth showing. I think I will paint over it and try again another day.

I like to use pen for sketching. If I use pencil, the temptation is too great to do lots of erasing to fix mistakes. Since perfect drawings aren’t my goal when I make sketches, the pen works fine. If I need to, I can start over on a clean sheet, paint over it, or go over the lines I do like with a colored marker.

It’s good to get the sketchbook out again. I haven’t done anything in it for nearly a year. Maybe I should put it in my tote so I can sketch at odd moments.

Completed Kalanchoes

Succulents IX and X are completed. These will probably end up matted and framed similar to the last two Succulents.

Kalanchoe Project Started

Yesterday, I started the Fast Friday Challenge announced a week ago. I’ve got a good start on two small 5 x 7 pieces.
We are supposed to pick a color scheme from product packaging. I purposely let the yellow and blue run together to create some green.

Christmas Preparations

We finally got a tree put up last weekend. I kept the branches trimmed from the bottom of the tree, and tied them into a wreath. My daughter decorated it with a beaded garland and added a bow.

I’ve been on a tote bag sewing marathon. Mostly for gifts for the small nieces and nephews. I picked out a different upholstery fabric for each one, so each would be unique. I have a couple more to get done.

Have a great Christmas.