Seashells 42"h x 21"w
I’m pleased with how my “Seashells” piece turned out. Regular readers will doubtless note this is very different color palette than the brights I normally use, but it was fun to try. I pushed the idea of a neutral in several directions, from beige to pink and beige to blue-green and there may even be a few lavenders in there. The result is interesting, yet restful.
These improvisational circles are one of my favorite motifs and I keep returning to them over and over. They are the basis for my “Playing with Colors” and “Salsa” quilts, which you can see in the Large Art Quilts gallery on my website. Depending on how you orient the quarter circles and the color scheme you use, you can achieve very different results. I didn’t invent the technique, as I’ve seen it used in the work of others at quilt shows, but how it’s interpreted is personal to each artist who uses it.
“Seashells” is on display at the Potomac Fiber Arts Gallery at the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria until Sept. 13.
"Sunrise at the Beach" detail
Looking back over my recent posts, I realized that I had promised a detail shot of “Sunrise on the Beach,” but never delivered. My apologies! I used various different quilting motifs to suggest the waves, the breakers and the sand, plus hand beading in the sand to suggest shells or starfish. The seagull was hand appliqued onto the piece after it was quilted to add some dimension and help the bird to stand out in the composition. “Sunrise” is on display at the Great Falls Foundation for the Arts gallery in Great Falls until Aug. 31.