I’m thrilled to announce that my Partly Sunny quilt has been accepted as a finalist at the International Quilt Festival in Houston in November!
The show will be November 8-11, 2018 at the George Brown Convention Center in Houston. I’m teaching three classes and giving two lectures at the show too, so it’s going to be an exciting week. You can get details by clicking on the link above–0nline registration begins July 16.
Detail of Partly Sunny – Cindy Grisdela
This quilt was fun to make using a combination of Improv Circles and Angled Stripes from my book, Artful Improv. If you don’t have a copy of the book yet and would like one, click on the link for an autographed copy with free shipping in the US.
I wanted to use a palette of different gray values, plus pops of color for interest. I created the Improv Circles using only the grays, then added color with the grays in the stripes. The fabrics are all solids, except for the lightest gray, which has some subtle dots in it.
The lightest gray value against the dark and color values gives a good visual contrast that adds energy to the composition. I put the horizontal stripes together into vertical units, and the crazy intersections where the seam lines come together contrast well against the relative calm of the gray circle units.
This quilt is a good example of an improvisational quilt using individual units, which are created separately and then arranged on the design wall until a pleasing composition emerges.
Some of the stripe units ended up smaller than the rest. When that happens, you have a choice of cutting them all the same size, or adding something to the smaller units to compensate. I decided to add vertical gray stripes to even things out on the smaller units. The random nature of those stripes adds to the improvisational quality of the whole.
I quilted square spirals in the Improv Circle section, and a combination of fans and spirals in the stripe sections using a gray variegated thread.
It will be fun to see it hanging in Houston!