I knew I wanted to complete the series, it was finally completed and I entered the triptych into the National Juried show in 2016. It was accepted into the Art – Naturescapes, Pictorial Wall Quilts.
The Toronto Modern Quilt Guild issued a challenge to its members, create a 14 inch square solid mini-quilt from a select colour palette. No embellishments, no applique, and the quilt had to be bound with a faced binding. The quilts would be put on display during Quilt Canada and the pubic would vote for their favorite.
TMQG solid mini colours photo courtesy of TMQG
Seven colours were selected for the palette and only 3 of these or less could be used. The colours are from the top: Storm, School Bus, Peridot, Ash, Berry, Coal, and Pomegranate.
Frond
I chose to use Pomegranate, Coal, and Ash. I created this piece improvisationally using a log cabin design.
I enjoyed the process and especially loved hearing comments from people viewing the quilts during Quilt Canada.
Frond detail
There were three winners of the Quilt Canada Solids Mini-Quilt Challenge. First prize went to Rebecca Burnett, second prize went to Doris Lovadina-Lee (me!!) and third prize to Lynda Hutchinson.
Many more great photos are on the Toronto Modern Quilt Guild Facebook page and blog. Head on over to see the other entries in the Solids Mini-Quilt challenge and other quilts our quild had on display.
I have taken more than a few photos of trees. I am attracted to their shape, their colour but most of all their texture.
Some are smooth.
Some have interesting colour.
Some have layers of strata.
Some have interesting holes hidden inside.
Some have the look of cooled molten lava.
Some have been weathered into rags.
These beautiful textures offer a lot of design opportunities for the Abstracting from Nature class I will be taking with Jane Sassaman at Quilt Canada 2016 in a couple of weeks.
Soon I will be attending Quilt Canada 2016. This year it will be held in Toronto and I decided to take some classes. Jane Sassaman is teaching a class called: Abstracting from Nature (designs class). This class requires us to bring in a live bouquet or close-up photos of flowers including leaves, buds and so on to use as a springboard to design our own quilt. The design will not be a representation of the flower, rather the finished design will be a an abstraction. I am looking forward to taking this class, I love Jane’s bold designs and her use of colour.
I looked through my photo album and pulled a few photos that I really liked in preparation for this class.
This is my favourite photo of berries.
I like how the sunlight sparkles on the leaves and berries.
Gorgeous colour!
I realized that these photos could also be used later in the summer for Helen Garland’s class: Quilting – Complex Design & Piecing. This one week workshop is being taught at the Haliburton School of Art + Design. Any photograph can be used in this class, but I especially like the idea of a floral piece. I talk a little bit about Helen’s process in this post.
This was an amazing tree trunk, it has so much texture!
Plate sized fungi growing on a tree.
These berries look like grapes. Do you know what they really are?
As soon as I finished this piece, I knew that I needed to create three more to complete the cycle. There are four stages in the life cycle of a butterfly: egg, larvae, chrysalis and adult. With Chrysalis Awakening, I had completed the pupa or chrysalis stage, where the larvae or caterpillar anchors itself to the underside of a leaf and transforms itself.
Metamorphosis leaves
To create the other three stages, I pulled some green fabrics to create the leaves. These are improvisationally pieced and so much fun to make. The one on the right above is too big!
Metamorphosis leaf being cut down
So, taking the leaf that was too wide and long, I cut a curved section out and will piece it back with smaller sections on each side. Below, I’ve stay stitched the area where I am going to insert the purple fabric to create the vein.
Preparing leaf to insert purple fabric for vein
I’ve included just a few of the process pictures. I still need to individually back and free motion each leaf, insert the leaf into the background fabric, free motion quilt it, appliqué the flower and then quilt it, and bind each one of the quilts. Each leaf will also have a special surprise hiding underneath. The quilts will be similar but not identical, each having their own personality.
Metamorphosis leaves with backing and flowers
Above, you can see that I’ve grouped the leaves with the backing fabric and flowers. I may switch them around again before they are finally pieced into the gorgeous cotton ombre fabric of the background. I will use the same piece of fabric I used in Chrysalis Awakening but each quilt will be a different colour, due to the gradation across the fabric.
I am happy and excited to announce that my quilt: Chrysalis Awakening has been sold!
I hope the new owner loves it as much as I enjoyed making it. This piece was donated to the Canadian Quilters’ Association fund-raiser: It’s Time For Colour and all the proceeds are going to the Children’s Wish Foundation of Canada.
Chrysalis Awakening Quilt
The show is now on the road and the travel schedule is available. It’s Time For Colour travelling show will be in Southern Ontario in April 2015. I am looking forward to seeing the other beautiful quilts in person. Keep checking the travel schedule for updates and additions. There are still a few quilts available but I suspect they will be snapped up quickly. If there is one you love, don’t hesitate – the proceeds are going to a great cause!
Chrysalis Awakening greeting cards
Greeting cards of all the quilts are also available for purchase, just contact Laine Canivet at membership@canadianquilter.com to purchase.
I just received these beautiful greeting cards with the image of my “It’s Time for Colour” quilt donation – Chrysalis Awakening. Every quilt has been photographed and the images put onto a set of wonderful greeting cards.
Some of the quilts have been purchased and these one-of-a-kind art quilts will find their way to their new owners next year. So, if the piece you love has been sold, you can still purchase the greeting card. Contact Laine Canivet at membership@canadianquilter.com for more information. These blank cards make great gifts!
The Canadian Quilter’s Association has asked award winning quilters to donate a small quilted piece to their themed show: “It’s Time for Colour“. 40 pieces will travel across Canada and be displayed in local venues from January 2015 to May 2015, ending in Lethbridge, Alberta for Quilt Canada in June 2015. Everyone will have the opportunity to purchase these beautiful 12” x 16” quilt hangings for $200.00 each (plus tax). The proceeds will be donated to the Children’s Wish Foundation.
You can sign up at the CQA blog to get more information and view some of the other pieces that will be included in this show. The quilters who are participating will be blogging about their inspiration and techniques for their submissions.
My piece, Chrysalis Awakening is improvisationally pieced using a “wonky curves” method. My first step was to select some fabrics. I pulled the small print (Kaffe Fassette, I think) and then fabrics to pick up on the colours of the print. I knew I wanted to create a flower and a leaf.
I taught a tutorial at the Toronto Modern Quilt Guild on piecing circles. One of the techniques I demonstrated was piecing ‘wonky circles’. I really enjoyed making the samples and thought I could use this technique to create a colourful flower for my design.
In this process you layer 4 fabrics right side up with edges aligned. A quarter circle is cut out of one corner of the stack. The fabrics are shuffled and stitched. You continue in this manner until the four blocks are completed. I originally saw this technique on The Quilting Edge Blog written by a very talented quilter Marianne. She has a great Wonky Curves tutorial that explains the process. For this quilt, I made the shapes very curvy to look like a flower.
Every flower needs a leaf, so a selection of green fabrics were pieced to create the leaf. I layered batting, backing and machine quilted it to create a three-dimensional leaf.
The completed leaf was inserted into a beautiful piece of cotton ombre. The colours of the fabric change from red to purple.
The flower was appliquéd to the background.
A surprise is hidden underneath the leaf.
The finished piece!
Chrysalis Awakening Quilt
I love that there is a little surprise hiding behind the leaf. There are three flowers left and three other stages in the life cycle of a butterfly. I am going to have fun creating three more quilts to illustrate the other stages – look for the surprises!
The Canadian Quilters’ Association held their annual Quilting Conference this past weekend in St. Catharines, Ontario. Quilters from all across Canada participated in lectures, workshops and shopping! Quilt Canada is the National Juried Show held during the annual conference. This year they introduced a Modern Quilt category. I submitted three of my modern quilts and all three were accepted into the show!
My mother, sister and I went to see the quilts at Quilt Canada on Saturday June 14th, the very last day of the show. The caliber of the quilts were outstanding! I was especially interested in the Modern Quilt category as I had three of my modern quilts accepted.
The winners in the Modern Wallhanging or Bed Quilt category are:
I am so happy and excited to be a part of such a talent group of quilters! Excellent company to be keeping! All the beautiful quilts from Quilt Canada can be viewed in the Gallery of the NJS 2014.
Icterine Strata Quilt
Unfortunately, no photography was allowed at the venue. These are the photos I used to submit my entry. The colours of the quilt are actually closer to the detail photo below rather than the full view above.
Icterine Strata detail
Icterine is a yellowish colour, the colour of the linen that I used for the background of this quilt. It is an unusual shade of yellow with a green undertone. This colour has also been described as ‘jaundiced’! I loved the colour so much that I purchased the end of the bolt and knew I would use it all up.
Icterine Arcs Quilt
Icterine Strata is the first in a series of three quilts using this linen. The second in the series Icterine Arcs is also complete. The third quilt is in the planning stages and I hope to begin it in the fall.
Icterine Arcs detail
I wanted to make the quilts in this series all the same dimensions and using the same colour palette. The design of the quilts explores the themes of movement, structure and repetition. The quilts are machine pieced using hand dyed and commercial fabrics. Although mainly machine quilted, I hand quilted areas with a perle cotton thread to create layers of transparency.
