What a beautiful day to baste a quilt in the driveway (to read a previous blog on my quilt basting frame click here :-)!
My niece is getting married in 2 weeks and it’s time to get this quilted. So I spent part of the afternoon pinning the layers together and now its ready for my Sweet 16, but before I get to that I need to write up this week’s blog…
My Objet D’Arc
A few months ago I blogged about the Double Wedding Ring pattern and how it was used in a Milwaukee Art Quilter’s challenge called Objet D’Arc. To read that post click here!
This was the challenge exhibited at the Milwaukee Machine Quilting show this past weekend and Susan commented on my piece because it is a bit unique. It’s 3-D and reminiscent of an accordion door. About 13 years ago my friend, Tricia Spitzmueller, made an “accordion door” style quilt and I was inspired. I came up with my own technique and “Reflections of My Quilting Heritage” was the result.
When viewed from the right (top photo) you are looking at my sewing journey beginning with my great, great grandmother who made traditional quilts by hand to keep her family warm, through my mom teaching me to sew, then my friend Sharon teaching me to quilt and finally to my entrance into fiber art. Each of the women in my quilting journey are reflected in a hand mirror.
The view from the left is a quilt in which one half is a reproduction of a log cabin quilt I own made by great, great grandma Mary. The other half is a variation of my Parallelisms technique. I had just started making art quilts and so it was current to the time of the quilt.
This project was actually made from three different complete quilts, two of which were cut into chunks and sewn back together. This unit then hangs on the third quilt!
My recent “accordion adventure” was inspired by the vintage double wedding ring arc. I began by adding fusible to the back of my arc and cutting it into smaller arcs which were then fused to a bright background and quilted (notice the vertical marks dividing the quilt into thirds)
A second quilt was made as a reproduction of the traditional double wedding ring design, but in more modern colors. This was also layered, quilted and marked.
Once these pieces were quilted I cut them on the vertical lines, alternated them and stitched them together. This new piece was bound, velcro was added to it and to a base quilt and – Voila! I call this quilt “Accordion Arcs”. This is the view from the right:
And this one is from the left:
I feel like I’ve only begun playing with this technique and the next project is in the planning stage already :-).
Have you created any REALLY 3D quilts? We’d love to hear about them!
Oh and here’s a quick reminder of an upcoming event:
Quilt Expo is always educational, inspiring and fun. I’ll be teaching there once again and I hope you can be there too!
Mary McKeown says
I love the otter in the tub but having met you the first one speaks to your personality and even it I didn’t know you, I would likely choose it. The colors and design make me think the book would be different than anything else I have and would be interesting.
Erna Alexandee says
Choose the Otter (it looks like a bear)! I want to see what is inside!
Erna Alexander