"Tides" unquilted top Cindy Grisdela 2011

“Tides” is the top for Day 12. As I feared, I’ve gotten behind on my blog posts since my son has been home from college for spring break, but I’m still getting the tops done. I’ll get caught up soon, I promise!

I used some of the leftover units from “Shades of the Ocean” and “Currents” to put this one together. I wanted to get a sense of waves rolling over the beach, some small ripples, some larger, and some breakers with lots of color and movement in them, like the largest unit at the top of the design. I can see lots of swirling quilting motifs in this one emphasizing the water theme.

I’m not sure about the larger expanse of blue in the middle of this piece–I may have to revisit it before it’s quilted, but I considered it an accomplishment to have gotten the top designed and put together!

Today was jury day at the Potomac Fiber Arts Gallery, where I’m a member. Each month we completely empty out the gallery and bring in new work, so I spent a good bit of time yesterday getting my pieces ready to go in–creating tags, making an inventory list, checking for stray threads–it always takes me longer than I think it will! Another reason why I’m behind on blogging. You can see my gallery entry for the month on Day 9–“Zen Garden.”

If you’re new to the project, I challenged myself to create one art quilt a day for the month of March. Each piece is 16″x20,” uses only solid fabrics, and is entirely pieced by machine, not fused. I’ll choose the best of them, quilt them and mount them on stretcher bars, and show them in an exhibit later this year. I’m posting nearly every day on my progress, so check back often! My inspiration was fellow artist Jill Banks deciding in January to paint 100 faces in 100 days. Click on her name to see her progress as well.