“Aquarius” – New Work in Process

I’ve been working hard the last couple of weeks to get some new large scale pieces finished for my next show–the Rittenhouse Square Fine Craft Fair in Philadelphia. It’s October 12-14, but I’m teaching next week at the AQS show in Virginia Beach, so time is running out.

I started out with the black and white study below. This study is about 20″x 24″.

Then I began laying out the black arcs to define the composition. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture at that stage, but below is one from a little farther on in the process when I was beginning to add some color.

I think you can probably see that the final composition bears only a passing resemblance to the study I started with. The pod shape in the center is still there, plus the arcs and spines, but the whole thing went in a new direction. I’m so thrilled with this process! I could use that study for another quilt and it would be completely different.

I tried a couple of different ideas that didn’t include the arcs and spines, but I can’t seem to get excited about them, so I’ve decided to go with this wherever it leads until I run out of ideas or get tired of the imagery.

The name of this quilt is Aquarius–the pod shape reminded me of a fish and the blue arcs behind it could be the ocean. It’s going to end up about 50″ w x 60″ h.

I started the quilt on the right earlier, but realized that it’s too big for my show booth at over 60″ square, so I had to work a little smaller. It’s a bit of a messy process laying out the design and putting in the colors, but I’m enjoying the challenge!

Today it’s on to adding the texture with free motion quilting.

Besides Rittenhouse, I have two other shows coming up this fall. Craft+Design in Richmond, VA November 17-18 and the Downtown Art Festival in Gainesville, FL December 1-2. If you’re in the area of one of these events, I hope you’ll stop by and say hello!

Plus I have work in several exhibits this fall and a busy teaching schedule–you can see where I’ll be when here.