Pamela Thiele Art Quilts

didn’t work

So all the messing around with the quilt I discussed in my previous blog, didn’t work. I have gone back to most of the fabrics I originally had in the quilt, although I have eliminated the bright yellow one with the weird birds. And in its place I added one of the new prints I cut out yesterday. And still this is not quite right. I think I have to pull the amazing faux gold print with the hummingbirds, much though I love it too. Alas. It’s the first thing that grabs my eye. I think that I simply didn’t support these two strong yellows with enough other similar colors–I kind of went off on a green tangent and that’s the color that predominates the quilt now. Sigh. I will have to do a wild yellow quilt to honor those amazing prints. Well, since all I want to do is create quilts, this isn’t such a bad thing to have to do. Of course now the second print down on the right side of the right quilt looks wrong. Am I changing this too much? Am I making it dull? I hope not. That print is not right. Anymore. SIGH!

So I have changed the layout and replaced two fabrics.  And then I changed the layout again. On the left, I think the fabrics are okay but the placement, not quite. The light green I replaced the bold print with (second fabric down on the right in the left hand quilt) is wrong there. In the right hand quilt, I have swapped it with a fabric from the bottom row.

And now I think I’ve got it. I also think I need to piece this quilt together NOW. Enough. There are more quilts to be made. It is interesting that what was supposed to be–or imagined by me as being — a bold print quilt with wild yellow fabrics has evolved into a more subdued color quilt. Now I am thinking that some of the nine patches don’t really belong here. Like the right nine patch at the lower left corner (on all of the pictures. It is not at home here. ARGH!!!!!!!!!!

Maybe…maybe not

I am having so much trouble with this quilt top. This is about the fifth time I have redone it–adding squares from fabric I bought Tuesday. At the left is one of the previous attempts. At the right, the latest.

I started the quilt in part to use the yellow print with the stylized birds–it’s the second print down on the left most side of the left quilt. But it really pulled the quilt out of balance…at least for me. Every time I looked at the top on my design wall, that print grabbed my attention, no matter where I put it.

So now I have taken it out, although I am sorry to have done that because I really like it. It’s weird and happy and bright. Instead I have added four prints from a line that’s new to me. And I am going to let the whole thing sit for a day or two. Of course, that’s what I said two months ago when I first laid this out. Perhaps I should have just completed the quilt then. It would have been fine–but would it have been right?

One Cutting, Five Quilts

A couple of months ago, I needed to make a new quilt. I mean, I NEEDED to be handling fabric and cutting fabric and absorbing fabric. I decided to make a variation of Moon Over the Mountains. I made a version of this quilt when we were still back East and contemplating moving out here. I made the mountains taller and sharper, and I really like that quilt.

I thought if I have 6 blocks by 6 blocks–a pleasant size–I would need 108 different fabrics. This means that each sky, moon, and mountain would be different, which I think is fun. Of course, I always wind up using one or two fabrics more than once because I fall in love with different motifs in their print. But still I wanted the option for every piece to be unique.

So I pulled about 120 fabrics, separating them into 3 piles: moons, mountains, sky. I cut out wide swatches of each (18″ squares)–I more or less fussy cut these, because I am all about fussy cuts and the point of what I do is to choose the best look for each and every piece of fabric in my quilts. Well, to tell the truth, at this point, I was so drunk on fabric so I cut out two large squares from each because I really fell in love with all the different prints. This is what happens to me all the time and why I generally wind up with more quilts than I’d planned.

Then I had a lot of fun deciding who went with what. I figured out each block for the Moon Over the Mountains quilt and cut out the pieces. And now ALL I have to do with THAT quilt is piece it, put it together, and quilt it, and bind it. Almost done.

But I had all this leftover fabric. SOOOOOO I made two prayer quilts for my church (it’s amazing to me I am doing this but that’s a whole other story). And laid out a nine- and one-patch quilt. (Just need to iron the pieces, piece them, quilt them….yada yada yada.)

And a smaller quilt for Adela’s first birthday which is coming up fast. I just finished wrapping Adela’s quilt and it will make it in plenty of time. It’s called NOT EXACTLY and each block is a liberated nine-patch, cut at different angles. As are we all, really.

Next, I just have to finish the two other quilts. So I think it’s time to start pulling fabric again. WHEW!!!!!

4 of the blocks from Not Exactly

a portion of the Moon Over the Mountains

Adela on her recent visit to us