"Stacked Bowls" from 2002 by Del Thomas 02-04-11

I love this little quilt!  I drew out half a dozen designs for variations, but somehow I just never made them.  Maybe one of these days!

"Stacked Bowls"   Del Thomas 2002  10"W x 12"L

Commercial cotton prints, poly batting, cotton thread.  Fused raw-edge applique.  Machine quilting.

I took the design I had drawn, along with several boxes of scraps, out to Corky's house in the desert and spent most of my time making this piece - finding the right scraps, applying the fusible, fusing and then sewing around every raw edge with matching thread.  I hadn't done a lot of fusing then so I didn't have many fused scraps.  I discovered what a pain it is to fuse small scraps rather than a large piece of fabric and later cutting out small pieces as needed.  Then I layered with the batting and back, which was a fabric sample that had been in my fabric library forever, and quilted with black thread around the bowls and the white rings on the background.   

I submitted this to an exhibit of quilts from Kansas Art Quilters which required the rings rather than a sleeve.

 

And there is that little red bird sitting in the white of the 'eye'.

"Underview II" from 2005 Del Thomas 01-03-11

In 2003 I took an Empty Spools class at Asilomar with Sue Benner.  Sue is a good teacher and I feel I learned some things from her, but the week was very distressing for me. I didn't have much to show from the class.  But I did have a bunch of leftover fused scraps in a zip lock bag and in 2005 I finally did something with them.  This is the second of two quilts made from that bag. 

"Underview II"  Del Thomas  2005  17"W x 17"L 

Fabrics: cotton, polyester, silk, rayon.   Fused.  Machine Quilting.

Everything is fused and the quilting is in-the-ditch. 

 

Sue's method was to start with the back and batting fused together, then laying the already fused fabrics on the batting on the front.  They are overlapped and sometimes covered up with other fabrics until the design you want has developed.   I thought it was appropriate to have the under view of a bird on the back of the quilt - it is drawn with black fabric marker.  There is no binding, instead I used Sue's method of zig-zagging the edge, going around numerous times. 

Thanks to Martha for pointing out that the bird is right in the middle of the back of "Four Dwellings", yesterday's quilt.  Guess I was blinded by all those squares.   

"Four Dwellings" from April 2005 02-02-11

While looking through pictures of quilts I have made in the past I find that I made quite a few quilts in 2004 and 2005.   What happened to me?  I haven't done any quilt making that amounts to anything for several years.  I DO have a zillion unfinished projects, all of which I would like to finish.  I'm in a slump.

I am a long time member of Kansas Art Quilters and participated for several years in their projects to make quilts for the Fabri-Quilt fabric booth at Spring Quilt Market.  Fabri-Quilt provided a selection of their newest fabric lines and the members chose what they wished to use and created a quilt either using a pattern or an original design.  Since I couldn't go to Kansas to choose the KAQ member who was in charge sent me a fabric selection.  All the fabrics in this quilt are from Fabri-Quilt.

 
"Four Dwellings"  Del Thomas  April 2005  24"W x24"L 
Commercial Cotton Fabrics (Fabri-Quilt), machine pieced, machine quilted.

Original design based on making units using improvisational piecing and arranging them on a design board.  The people are there because one of the fabrics had those polka dots that looked like heads.

  On the right side of this image you can see the fused binding that I 'invented' at the end if the 1990s.  It is one of those things that several people in several different areas invented at about the same time.  I like to fringe the edge of the binding fabric and in this case I did a double binding with an olive green fabric under the matching blue fabric. 

 

 

When it came finding a backing fabric I lucked out with this Fabri-Quilt print that was in my fabric library.  However, I had cut into it previously, so I pieced in some strips of fabric left from the front.  There is a bird in the quilting, but I don't remember where.  This quilt is part of a private collection.

"Lunch in the Garden, Again" 02-02-11

Here is another look back...

 
"Lunch in the Garden, Again"  Del Thomas  2004  25.75"W x 30.5"L
Commercial cotton fabrics, cotton batt.  Machine pieced background, raw edge applique, both machine and hand applique used.  Machine quilted.
The first "Lunch in the Garden" was a monthly mini for Beach Cities Quilters Guild and it was before I used a digital camera.  I will try to find a photo that I can scan, but I haven't a clue where the picture might be. 

 

I had been saving the fabric with the cats for years, waiting for an inspiration.  It came when my new neighbor moved in with his cats - I no longer have a birdbath, because the cats are always lurking.  It was difficult finding a fabric that looked like stone to use for the birdbath.  I already had the birds that are in the bath and adjusted the size of the quilt to fit them.  I haven't looked at this quilt for several years and now I think it needs more flowers!  Maybe I'll add some now.

More on "Heart Strings II" 02-01-11

In order to add these pictures to this morning's post I would have to disassemble and recreate the post and I am pushed for time.  So, this is an addendum.


Sometimes the perfect fabric can be found in my 'fabric library' and I can locate it when it is needed!

Here is the "bird on every quilt".

And the lovely words of Emily Dickinson.

Looking Back - "Heart Strings 2" 02-01-11

"Heart Strings II"  Del Thomas  2005  12"W x 18" L
Commercial and hand-dyed cottons.  Cotton & cotton-poly threads.  Wonder Under, Cotton Batt
I desperately need to get back to quilt making.  It has been over a year since I have done anything more than two feet by two feet - and mostly less.  So, I thought I would revisit quilts that I have made in the past, quilts that I am happy to have made.  This one evolved from a group challenge.  It isn't the one that I made FOR the challenge, but it was inspired by that one.  I wrote an Emily Dickinson quote on the heart:
"All I know of Love... Is Love is all there is."
I still have this one, but with the TCQC to hang on my walls, I rarely hang any of my own quilts!

"Calla Lily" by Aileyn Ecob part of TCQC 01-30-11

This quilt was part of the Studio Art Quilt Associates 2010 online auction.

"Calla Lily" Aileyn Ecob - Walnut Creek, CA 2010 12" x 12"

Hand appliqued, Hand quilted, Shaded with Tsukeniko Inks.


Aileyn explains Why Calla Lilies?  "Calla lilies are one of my favorite flowers - I grow them, photograph them and use their elegant image in my quilts."


I know Aileyn from classes at Empty Spools at Asilomar in Pacific Grove, CA. One year it was a class with Jane Sassaman teaching us how to stylize motifs. It was a great class and the calla lily that Aileyn did was a gorgeous shape, still identifiable as a calla lily, but so elegant and smooth.  I have always coveted that piece. And then in 2008 I walked into Pacific International Quilt Festival and the very first quilt I saw was the one below, , not the one started in Jane's class, but another sophisticated design.

Isn't that a beautiful piece of work? I'm pretty certain there was a ribbon hanging on the quilt, as there are on so many of Aileyn's quilts. Her designs are always elegant and her technical skills are fabulous. I am so proud to have one of her quilts in the Collection.
See Aileyn's work at http://www.fiberonthewall.com/