Mountain Art Quilters: May 2020

We missed our March meeting and our April reveal, due to the Covid-19 virus. But better late than never! We used technology to have a 'virtual' reveal of our April quilts for our May meeting.

Underwater

Jan Petre is an avid tropical water scuba diver and she created a fabulous whole cloth quilt portraying the reef activity she enjoys. This type of quilt does not lend itself to photos, so Jan is looking forward to revealing it in person at our next meeting. We all can't wait!

"Underwater Daughter"

15.5" x 20"

by Tracy Visher

When Tracy read the word underwater, the image/thought that came to mind was being overwhelmed and underwater from tasks, life, what have you. For years, when Tracy knew her kids or husband were under pressure from work, kids etc., she would call to check in and see how they were doing. She would always start by saying , "I am doing a "snorkel check", meaning is your snorkel clear so you can breathe and are you ok? The gal in the image she made could sort of be her daughter or daughter-in-law but really it's any one of her family she might be concerned about. The words across the top of the quilt are just a sample of the sorts of things that might make one feel underwater. The whole quilt went quickly and made her feel like she was just helping it to be born! The background is batik. She fused sparkly fabric bits to it, covered it all with blue tulle and top stitched it. The phone screen and mask are laminating plastic. Tracy sewed trim on the mask and the dress and stitched the "features" of her hands and body. Having 3D elements on my quilts is sort of Tracy's "thing". The snorkel is stuffed batik. The water-spout coming out of it is made from plastic "jewels" glued to some blue wire.The words on the quilt are computer printed. Tracy had some challenges getting the words across the top of the quilt to "bend" and follow the curved edge she had imagined.

"Underwater Three Medusas"

22" x 30"

by Michelle Peerson

Underwater quilts are a favorite of Michelle's, as is her love of being in the ocean. The quilt was made from a whole piece, hand painted background; hand dyed fabrics, fused sea life, beads.

"Under the Sea"

24" x 31"

by Patricia Blesso

This wall hanging is all about what's under water in the ocean. The inspiration was from several memory filled trips to the Galapagos, Baja Mexico and the Monterey Aquarium . The jellyfish tendrils are made with beads, yarn and ribbon from New Zealand, some of which were tea dyed. The orange fabric is a batik from Bali. The shells and fish bone are from Baja, Mexico. The quilting gives the ocean texture. The jellyfish are stuffed to make them 3D. The quilt is a great reminder of the amazing trips.

Colors of Emotions

"Color Me Complicated"

35" x 41"

by Carole Rossi

Carole is passionate about color. It drives her designs. She does not seem capable of creating a quilt that is quiet. A riot of color brings her great joy. For this challenge, she determined to use the extensive scraps from her stash to develop individual improvisational blocks built on colors reflective of her mood during this difficult “shelter-in-place”period. She tried to design each block as an individual little 6-inch quilt, slowly, but with the intent of creating an overall flow or structure. There are black lines (of various types) in each block, intended to draw the eye through the piece. Happy days drew Carole to create predominately yellow blocks. Anxious days drew her to create predominately green, calming blocks, etc. She was really “rocking” with the purples & deep blues! Overall, this piece reflects all her moods during the shelter in place. It was a fabulously therapeutic (and ultimately joyous) exercise! The quilt was made with commercial cottons, hand-dyed cottons (her own and those dyed by others), batiks, a bit of silk, etc. The batting: Quilters 100% Dream Cotton. Simple, straight line quitting was done using So-Fine Superior thread. She did not want the quitting to stand out as a feature. It was a challenge to create a “color flow,” that is, getting all the colors to make sense together. Carole wanted it to be unique — not a typical “rainbow”piece.

"Higher!"

30" x 24"

by Jan Reed

Jan googled colors associated with emotion and yellow for joy came up. She remembered pushing her daughters on swings and them always wanting to go higher and screaming for joy. Jan was inspired by the association of the color yellow with joy and the expression on the child's face. The yellow field of flowers definitely worked better than other colors. The sky is hand painted. Jan also used batiks, wool batting, prismacolor pencils & tsukineko ink. It was quilted with monofilament thread.

"Notes of Hope"

81" x 61"

by Jane Haworth

Jane was drawn to the Notes of Hope, a lady in Auburn had organized to be put on the Foresthill Bridge, as a compassionate plea against suicide. Jane took photos of them. The photos were printed onto approximately 30 jacquard brand cotton fabric sheets. The back fabric was printed at spoonflower.com. Originally the idea was to make the notes into a bridge. Then Jane came up with the idea to make the words, "Don't Jump". Everything was impro pieced and the challenge with the last few pieces was to keep it flat. The Foresthill bridge was quilted into the background. Jane thought the bright colored notes were a cheery plea to someone at such a dark time as contemplating suicide. She wants to share the quilt with the lady who started this.

"Shadow"

20" x 20"

by Sophia Day

Spring colors fill us with feelings of hope and rebirth. This year, the corona virus cast a dark shadow over everything in our lives. The quilt was made with the happy colors of spring and then overlaid with black tulle to create the darker feeling associated with the virus.The quilt was made with batiks and hand dyed fabrics. The tulle is an overlay that is attached to the back via velcro. It was quilted with variegated Superior thread. Figuring out how to add the shadow without making it permanent was a challenge. When this virus is over, I want to have the happy version of the quilt to look at.

Design It Like a Cubist

"The Year That Left A Hole in My Heart"

27" x 41"

by Trish Morris-Plise

This quilt is fashioned in a Picasso style. Picasso was one of the firsts in the Cubist movement. Trish began this quilt choosing the skin color of blue/grey blue to represent her mood as being sad or “blue”. She incorporated her heart with the hole in it to represent the sadness she feels over the loss of her social life as she knew it in 2019. Trish decided to add tears to emphasize the level of sadness she feels. The quilt was made with both hand dyed and commercial cotton fabric. Cotton batting was used. Both monofilament and cotton fabric was used for the quilting. There are also swavorski hot fix crystals.

"Quarantina"

18" x 24"

by Michelle Peerson

Michelle loves Cubism and found a version of this in her friend Fran’s home just before the quarantine. She loved the colors. The challenge for herself was the quilting. She had not quilted so tightly before and found it got easier. Michelle is now more comfortable with it. She also played with the eyes until she got that faraway look many seem to have during this Covid-19 quarantine. Michelle used ombre fabrics. They are perfect for so many projects.

For our February 2020 meeting, our new member, Tracy Visher, brought some wonderful Show & Tell. The first piece is "She's Just Blue by Nature". This is 3D and ultrasuede was used for the flowers.

This one is "The Ravens of Tatterwood" It was done with sun printing, painted interfacing, shibori, declorant, trapunto and shasiko.

This one is "Coastal Chaos". 3D on a hand painted background.

And this one is "Broken Strand, Broken Heart" about domestic violence.

Show and Tell continued with 3 pieces from Stephanie Bennett Strauss. These are titled, "It takes a Village", "Jois de vivre" and "Furata Hata Hivyo".