When Autumn Leaves Begin to Fall

This pair of autumn leaf pieces evolved over a period of years.

"When Autumn Leaves Begin to Fall I
14"x28"-2005

"When Autumn Leaves Begin to Fall II
14"x28"-2005

They began as one composition. However, the large square of leaves collaged with orts (British term for scraps) and a few silk leaves didn't work. It just looked like a mess of leaves with no focal point. Cutting it in half helped, bordering it with the same batik fabric that I had used as a background helped. I then painted one leaf within each piece a bright red to create focal points. They were better, but still not good enough to want to show off. It wasn't until a few years later when I was confident enough to apply paint and oil stick pastels that these pieces really worked.

Here you see one of the original red leaves.

My not giving up on these paid off. I was pleased to present each of them as gifts to friends in Wisconsin. One hangs in Milwaukee, the other in Glenbeula.

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Durand Family Sculpture

I am most impressed with our collaborative piece of art. Yeah, for all of us! This was a family project during our reunion last July.
It began as just pieces. I had found a box (turned out it was a drawer) of turned pieces, wooden screws, and finials at a yardsale. I knew something wonderful could be made from these assorted interesting pieces. Sorry there are no pictures of the actual painting. Everyone was either busy painting or supervising the younger artists to keep the paint focused on the project at hand.
It took most of a day for Chris, Brian, and Winston to design and assemble our family collaboration into a sculpture. It was constructed on the slanted cement site that it occupies just outside the living room door on the back patio at the cottage.
Dottie loved to wear hats. This rattan piece was at the same yardsale. There are wooden thread spools to represent her interest in sewing ... also, to give the kids more pieces to paint.

The bird is painted on the bottom of the drawer that had contained all the pieces.
There were a pair of wooden candle sconces in that box (drawer).
The perfect finishing touch was buttons. These buttons came from Dottie's dresses that had I disassembled to make the "Celebration Memorial" quilts.

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Celebration Memorial Quilts

We had a grand Durand family reunion at the beginning of the summer. It was held to honor our matriarch, Dorothy Lee Durand, on what would have been her 100th birthday. She was a much loved and adored mother, mother-in-law, grandmother, and a favorite aunt. All of us called her "Dottie". And we were all in the place she loved most ... the cottage had been purchased by her father when she was 12 years old.

My personal way to honor the love my mother-in-law had for her grandchildren and for fabric was to make quilts from her fabrics for each of her nine grandchildren.

Here are the fronts and backs of the six I had presented at the reunion.

The fabrics are selected for the other three quilts designated for my two sons and the nephew I see quite often. I plan to complete them before what will have been Dottie's 101st birthday.

I used cloth from Dottie's clothes, as well as fabrics from her shop, The Torii. She was the proprietor and buyer right up until she died at the age of 89 1/2. She imported silks, cottons, wools, linens, plus gift items from all over the world. She designed and made her dresses from these fabulous fabrics. Here are photos of just a few. I'll post more when I write about the other three quilts in the future.

Her grandchildren grew up knowing the Torii for its gifts, not really taking notice of the fabrics. On each visit to Knoxville they got to choose a gift for themselves from the wonderful array of exotic objects from around the world. As adults, I wanted to give them each a token of what the Torii was really all about for their grandmother ... the fabrics. The quilting in the plain blocks between the letters of her name is of a torii, the Japanese gate.

These quilts were created and presented with much love.

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More Mentoring

This quilt, "Under the Sea", was created during our week-long family reunion at the cottage. My niece-in-law, Aliza, had brought fabrics and requested that I make a quilt for her. I gently declined by saying, "No, but I'll share my know-how so you can make it." After looking through photos of my quilts, Aliza decided on the medallion style.
She had sewing machine skills and learned the cutting and construction methods very quickly. She cut out a 12" sqaure of the focus fabric. Next she learned the technique of sewing irregular strips of fabric diagonally to paper squares. I find this is a fun, yet non-stressful, way for beginners to construct blocks.
Then she had the joy of "playing" with their arrangement on the design wall. I had in mind for her to make a small quilt in which to cuddle her baby. Just the addition of a couple of border strips and a good first quilt would be almost finished. However, Aliza had a large play mat quilt in mind.
Now mind you, this is taking place in a cottage full of people ... 24 adults, 10 children, and 2 babies ... during the 4th of July week ... and I was working like mad to get the quilting finished on one of the memorial quilts I had presented to my nephews and niece (more about those later). It was time to involve the other two quilters in our family.
Diane came up with the next border design. She got the sewing started while Jeanette kept Hayden happy so his mama could work. It ended up with all of us stitching this border together. Aliza, cut corner blocks from her focus fabric and more borders were added until she said it was "big enough". Then we designed and pieced the back.
During the construction of the added borders and the backing, I finished my quilting project and was ready to machine quilt this one. I just couldn't send Aliza back to California with an unfinished quilt, so again I was quilting like mad. The last hour of quilting, Jeanette took over.
The quilt was finished except for the binding at 10:00 the night before they left Michigan. It had only been four and half days, since Aliza had asked for a quilt. I very much enjoyed working with and getting to know this remarkable young woman. She is most pleased with the result ... and the size.

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Red Quilts

You Are Rouge Red

Of all the reds, you are the most energetic and vibrant. You never need to recharge, and in fact, you often recharge others. Gutsy and brave, you've never let your fears stop you from doing anything. You figure that life is all about experiences, and you'll always take that leap of faith.

What Color Red Are You?

This quiz, plus the challenge from Karen of "Threadstory" weblog to show her red quilts inspired this posting. Red is not my favorite color, but close. Really the orange family is at the top of my list. But I must say that my preference is for wam colors as opposed to cool ones. So here are a bunch of quilts that feature red.

"Queen of Hearts" - 19"x19" - 2005

I was "just playing". There had been a show on Simply Quilts that featured a way of sewing squares together, cutting them apart, sewing together, etc. This way of constructing complex blocks intriques me. It's like performing magic. Also, I wanted to make an irregular checker board pattern. This is the result. The piece was purchased by a friend and it hangs in a log cabin in the Smokies.

"City Cats" - 1996

This is a cuddle quilt I had made for my daughter-in-law who is a cat lover. Go to the previous posting "City Cats" to read more about it. It is machine pieced and hand quilted. I wasn't feeling the time pressure yet that pushed me into machine quilting. That came when I turned 60 years old.

"Warm and Fuzzy" - 36"x38" - 2006

This one was my answer to a guild challenge and was donated to "Saving Little Hearts". Go to this previous posting to read more about it. I used quite a bit of orange in this one as well as reds. I love that red border fabric with the blue spirals. Drats! It's almost gone.

"Coming Unstrung" - 28"x24" - 2002

Visually "it" is all barely hanging together. A collage of raw edged silk fabrics layered over cotton fabrics portrays emotions run amok. All this being contained in a regular shape with a loose grid within, depicts a trying to hold it together. Holes are cut through to different layers . The cut-away circles appliqued to the surface represents trying to put the pieces in place.. Yarn couched to outside edge contributes to the "frayed" mood. Again, this piece began by "just playing" with a technique taught by Kate Cox in a guild workshop. The piece was purchased by an elderly lady who stated it portrays how she feels a lot of time. It's hanging somewhere in New England.

"Land of the Unicorn" - 12"x12" - 2002

This piece was made as a study with the intention of making a really big wall quilt. I haven't given up the idea, but have donated this small one which was sold to raise money for our quilt guild. It is made in the collage technique that I call "ortwork" ... lots of bits and pieces layered under tulle.

"Hollyhocks" - 18"x22" - 2004

Another "ortwork" piece that was my answer to the challenge of interpreting a photograph. The blossoms are made from cut apart and reshaped silk flower parts. It is detailed with pastel oil sticks and paint. Many of the leaves are from the silk plants. The small ones are shapes cut from interior decorator fabric samples. This was purchased by a friend in Knoxville and hangs in her bedroom.

Then there are three large cuddle quilts that I paper pieced earlier this year that feature a lot of red fabrics. These are three of six memorial quilts I've made from my mother-in-law's fabrics for her grandchildren. I have three more yet to do (there are eight grandsons and one granddaughter). One of them will also feature the red wool that's in the border and sashings of this first one. I'll be posting more about this series of quilts in the future.

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Squared Off

"Squared Off" - 17"x17" -2006

This is the second artwork in my sliced series. I couldn't bear to just discard the black pieces of fabric that were trimmed from behind the patches I had appliqued onto "Circle Round". The photo below was taken mid-process of that cutting away.

For the "Squared Off" piece I stitched four of my 8" patched squares together. The black pieces that were trimmed away from the wrong side of "Circle 'Round" were machine appliqued to this "4 patch" with invisible thread using a tiny zig-zag stitch.
Then it went the wrinkling process. Here's the piece after the quilting was finished.
And a detail of the painting that accentuates the squares within the pattern.
I'm nearly finished quilting the third piece of this series. Can you guess how it's related to "Squared Off"?

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