Hi all, today I'm being featured over at The Needle And Thread Networ (post it up now, sorry about the delay), and they've asked that in addition to a "Hi this is me" post over there, that I post a more comprehensive look at my body of work over here.

So, a la Billboard Magazine, welcome to The Hot 100!



I thought I'd start with an oldie, but a goodie - the second art quilt I ever made, called "Winter Moon" - inspired by the quilts of Naomi Wanjiku and St. Jean de Brebeuf's hymn called "Huron Carol".  This was long before I knew anything about fusing, so every piece is sewn down and then, I quilted the dog out of them!


For a little book-end, here's my second to last art piece - made with my transfer painted fabrics and hand-dyed fabric from Vicki Welsh, it's pieced, fused, and then, you guessed it - I quilted the dog out of it.  It was inspired by George R.R. Martin's book series, A Game of Thrones.



This quilt was my modern take on a crazy quilt - and is called "A Sparrow In The Rain" - silks, satins and Japanese cotton sateen (from the Textile Museum); it's an odd size, bigger than a twin, smaller than a double. But it was exactly the size it needed to be.


Called "Berkeley Square" - this quilt is made from wool, dupioni silk, random cotton floral and Ikea bird fabric. It was one of my "journeymen" quilts early in my quilt career - it's purpose was to hone my free motion quilting skills.



                           

Called "Passage" this was one of the very early art quilts I made - that same string background and a pieced (and broken) Africa to which I am chained - by my ancestors, my lost history and their middle passage - more on this piece here.

   
                  
"Stepping Stones", my modern mise en abyme quilt - made from the scraps of the very first quilt I ever made, which was made from the scraps of  30 years of sewing - it was my take on a "traditional" quilt.


The result of my first experiment with the fugitive medium of charcoal (which I then overlaid with water colour paint) back in the spring; I was pretty chuffed with it and intend to do more work in this vein in the future.




"Of The Moment" - a 100% silk oversized lap quilt inspired by an underwater scene painted by Geninne  and the colour field painters of the early 20th century, I took her colour palette and their swaths of saturate colour and made it my own.



"Transracial Abduction" - my very first piece that explored fugitive media - the background consists of pieces of my hand-dyed cotton, the flower is made from petals cut out of fabric that I coloured with pastels and once cut, over-drew on with gel pens and a gilt fabric pen.  I also included a poem I wrote several years ago about my experience of being an adoptee.

This quilt, called "Test Pattern" was inspired by the tv test patterns. Of course, after I'd done all those stripes, I needed a few dots to liven things up. :)

                          
"By The Sea" was one of my early experiments with needle felting and painted fabric (I hand painted the background with acrylic paint).
              
This quilt, called "Off To Oz" was the result of a challenge - and as you can see - totally outside of my usual oeuvre.  However, it was a lot of fun to design and whipped up in a flash!

     
This piece, called "Happy Wife, Happy Life" was part of my Charley Harper series - I was part of a challenge group who had to either copy or offer an interpretation of Charley Harper's work. I did three pieces - two "inspired by" and this one - a direct copy. The background and stripes are wool, the nest was a mix of hand dyed fabrics from Quilt Routes and my stash; all other bits and bobs were fabrics from my stash.




This was my first piece using a hand-painted acrylic background.  Up until recently, when I did this kind of work, I would randomly make pieces of fabric and then let the finished piece of fabric inspire the scene. Lately, I've been making fabric with something in mind - part of my new word of the year "Intention".



"Fractured" is a quilt in a new series I've been working on - about the various ways in which our lives are broken, shattered or otherwise fractured.  All velvet - inset stripes are fluorescent green satin.  More on this quilt, here.


             
"In Love and Hope" was the last piece I made in the style inspired by Naomi Wanjiku.  I may revist this type of art-quilting at some point in the future, but it feels very far away from what I want to work on now - so this may be the last.

                    

And lastly, this is a piece I made that helped cement my decision to begin art quilting for real.  Called "Once I Was A Child" - the subject matter helped me realize that there were things I wanted to say to the world that were best expressed through art, and this particular expression of it helped me realize that I could do so.


So, that's it - some of my work thus far. Not quite the top 100, but nearly 20.  :)

Going forward, I intend to continue exploring fugitive media and transfer painting - and may incorporate those "base" methods with encaustic and resin as I am in the piece I'm currently working on - although it's my first kick at the can, and so I used more traditional art quilting in it.

This is only the first layer:


But if you have a look at where I'm going with this, perhaps you'd like to come back later today and see the next post in the series - or next Friday to see the finished product!

My quilt, "Of The Moment" is being featured over at Generation Q Magazine for their Saturday Feature. Are you familiar with them?  Generation Q Magazine is the brain child of Jake Finch, Melissa Thompson Maher, Megan Dougherty and Scott Hansen.  They're this great blogzine (also resource/community) for modern and contemporary quilters - if you don't know about them you should totally check them out. :) They have great articles of all kinds and fun giveaways too!



So, for those of you who haven't already seen this, welcome to my blog! I'm delighted to have you here.  :)

When I conceived of this quilt, I remember thinking "I want to make a contemporary quilt - you know, something that's of the moment".  And as I put these silks together in this particular configuration, I wondered whether this quilt was not only of the moment, but whether its design would stand the test of time.

ETA:  The contest is over now and I placed a much more satisfactory second place.  Thanks for your votes! :)

I forgot until just now, that I entered an online quilt contest at Quilting Gallery.  I entered my piece called  "By The Sea" in the 'beach and sea" category.





The last time I entered one of their contests, I placed dead last. Which was fairly embarassing if a good lesson for my ego. lol

Anyway - if you like the piece, and feel moved to vote for it after looking at all the others, please do so:

http://quiltinggallery.com/2011/08/12/vote-now-beach-and-sea-quilts/

You have to scroll all the way to the bottom to vote for "By The Sea". 

Hope you're enjoying your weekend!

So you may remember this supposedly finished piece that I called "June".

This weekend, I was working on that other piece I showed you last week, and this one literally fell on my head (off of a shelf where it had been precariously balanced).