Arlinda's Art Quilting

I am doing the happy dance. Autumn's Glory Days won 1st place in the art quilt division of the Little Balkans Quilt Show. When I eagerly opened my critique to see what improvements were suggested I was pleasantly surprised and a little non-plussed. No negatives. Instead she( the judge) commented that my piece was gallery ready art, threadpainting outstanding, loved the detail and it went on. Wow!

I had been a little nervous before entering the show because I knew that in this area most of the quilts would be traditional. I was afraid my quilt wouldn't be well received. What relief and happiness.

Wow! Since the first of the year I have been quilting up a storm. I need to post some pictures but I'm staying so busy it's hard to do. I finished my niece's quilt (kingsize) which was asian fabrics and my own sillkscreen designs (geishas). It was a huge quilt and by the time I finished quilting it I was thoroughly tired of it. LOL. My niece loves it though. I also have made donation quilts (two so far) and that was fun.

I have also made and quilted and won first place with my quilt for the guild challenge. The challenge this year was to make something from something else. I had three kimonos languishing in my closet that called my name when I heard what the challenge was. I have made a rather large lap quilt from them. It was lots of fun and at times frustrating. It is very heavily quilted and I pieced the background and then added flowers and fans which were machine appliqued on with a satin stitch. Also I made a pieced backing from the leftovers which added to the intensity for me. I was so surprised when I won the challenge that it didn't register for a moment or two.

Now I am in the process of finishing my landscape Autumn's Glory Days for the quilt show in the fall. I have also designed and am helping my daughter make her first quilt. It is a queen size for my nephew who is also a quilter in Kansas City, tattoos and all. Really interesting fabric and I hope she catches the bug so that when I die she won't have a bonfire with my fabric stash.LOL.

Oh, and I am collecting blocks from some members of my guild to make a New Orleans block by block quilt to help the city and St. Bernard parish. With the devastation from this oil spill I'm afraid the situation is just going to get worse. Wish I could get Harry Connick Jr. to add his name to the project. That might help spur quilters on to do the good work.

For now, happy quilting!

Clouds in the landscape design of a quilt can be problematic. Sometimes they take over the design when you didn't want them to, quite often they look false while everything else is looking fine.

Here are some hints for making realistic cloud designs:

Some of my best results come from using a fabric that has been handdyed sky blue. If the fabric has been dyed in a mottled approach or dyed with streaks of color going across it you are lucky. You can accentuate those streaks or variations with stitching or ink painting pens to get the cloud effects you want.

The stitching can contour and outline those streaks making beautiful skies. Sometimes I get so carried away I threadpaint those areas to increase the effect. You can use thread to make darker flatter areas at the bottom of a cloud bank for thunder heads.

If you are making clouds to be appliqued to the front of your quilt try to make organic shapes not perfect geometric figures. Your clouds will look more natural. A good way to apply those shapes is with invisible polyester thread, zigzagging the edges.

Look at the sky and the clouds in them. See how light passes through parts of them and see how clouds have many shades of color within them. Thread or pigma pens can really help to get those effects. When you cut fabric for clouds do not cut cleanly cut a little ragged and your clouds will look more realistic.

One of the exercises I do before cutting fabric is to play with cottonballs, pulling them slightly apart gives me insights into clouds.