Exhileration

Arms stretch wide, graceful
Music flows all around us
Rhythm beats through us

The art came first this month. I went rooting around in the material bins, and found this snow-dye that just *looked* exhilerating. Then I noodled around with embroidery floss, sequins, and beads, and it started to look the way I felt when I belly danced. (Too many years ago now.) The haiku reflects the feeling of dancing with a group of other women.

Urban Moon

Freeway overpass

Blossoms in red graffiti

Slicing grey moonlight

The strip piecing in the upper left began as an trial of a free rotary cutting and curved piecing method I ran into last summer.  When the small bit I'd done and the cut fabrics came out from beneath the piles on the cutting table at the new year's clean up, I thought I'd play with it some more and see where it went.  There was no plan ever.  The quilt told me what it wanted and that's what it got.

This quilt is 9 x 11.5" and is totally machine done.  I also tried a new facing method, which was easy but I still come out with those weird curved corners.  Leftover traditionalist that I am, I want those corners to be square. 

I have also decided not to write the haiku on the quilt unless the design would be enhanced by the words.  I struggled with that all last year.  My handwriting is so sloppy,  that  no matter how hard I tried,  I felt I ruined some of my pieces with the lettering.

The original haiku I wrote for January was about the exhilaration to be found in working with a new method or idea:

experimenting
trying something different
exhilarating!

But I liked what turned out so much that I thought it deserved a haiku of its own.  I want to make a larger piece like this, only I would satin stitch those fused rocks first, instead of quilting them on.


exhilarated,
a river rushing to sea
wears away rough rocks

Exhilaration

The American Heritage Dictionary defines "Exhilaration" as    "The state of being stimulated, refreshed, or elated."

Sometimes all it takes to experience these feelings is to step outside on a sunny day.

The Haiku

scent of new mown grass

sunbeam caresses my cheek

living...feeling...aaaaah...

For the art work that I was preparing to go with this haiku - I didn't want to be too structured.  I wanted to indicate an almost childlike feeling of exhilaration with my composition and color choices.

At the same time, as a developing art quilter, I wanted to incorporate a couple of new techniques and see "what if"?

First off I used a "blah" pastel print in lieu of plain muslin as my base. I didn't mind that it partly "showed through" - just felt it added some interest.

I felt that color was of first importance in this piece - so before doing anything else I painted my background using acrylic paint.  In order to add some texture to the piece I used some Golden Light Molding Paste to parts of the grassy area.    

I quilted it extensively with heavy thread.  

Guila Greer

January: Interim Exhilaration

This is not my "real" haiku piece for the month, I'm still working on that one.

Despite my venturings into machine quilting, I never want to be without a quilt on the frame.  Hand quilting is so relaxing every evening.  This project was begun last fall and has been on the frame for almost a week.  I meant to take a picture of the completed top before it went on the frame, but I got impatient and forgot.  I thought the occasion deserved a haiku.

the piecing finished
a new quilt is on the frame
exhilarating!

Orca Bay and a new design

I started designing a wallhanging to teach in the spring. I did it in Bali's , not bad, but prefer the home dyed fabrics. Here it is:

It still needs quilted and binding.
Here is one row of the Orca Bay quilt, as you see my design board is not wide enough :)

It has turned very cold, our spring like weather is gone. -29 today and will stay that way most of the week. Great weather for finishing the Orca Bay quilt!
Hope you are having a great week.

December - Yule

from the bright yule fire
sparks rising, becoming stars
to light the new year

http://www.protectourcoralsea.org.au/act-now/sign/4019

http://www.protectourcoralsea.org.au/act-now/sign/4019