Three small pieces

Last week found me sick, distracted, and stuck, and so I did not post.  It wasn’t that I didn’t have time, with the kids home and all, it was that I couldn’t stand to hear myself.  Today my need to show up outweighs the need to feel presentable (and I DO feel better!).

These three ‘sketch’ quilts were made over the last two weeks.  The Journal Quilt on the far right did not start out as a house, but once I put the windows on there was no going back.

Journal Quilt Feb 15, 09

The thing I like most about this quilt is not the final result, but the way the cotton batting took the needle as I hand-quilted the background.  So often, I am quilting through four, five, six layers of fabric, one of which is drapery weight, with poly batting (almost necessitating pliers!), so I want to remember how smooth and easy this was for future projects.  Also, I dyed the muslin in coffee and the aged look is nice.  The house I can take or leave, mostly leave.  Perhaps the slumping roof expresses the time of year and the wish to get out of town while staying home.   For future projects, I also want to explore using that silk of the roof for ‘drawing’ a fish — I can just make out the beginnings of a large Pacific salmon in a leaping arc there.

I seem unable, however, to generate any polar bear that I can stand to incorporate into the kitchen table quilt.  The bottom is nearly done, and the top, still waiting.  I experimented, unsuccessfully, with printing onto lutrador, and also tried using oil pastels on fabric.

If I am going to include this in the quilts that will be showing at the Arsenal Center for the Arts starting Friday, I’ve got to hustle.  Or jettison the idea of a polar bear altogether!

Here’s where I’ve been having some fun: