influences: Wassily Kandinsky

Last post's sample baby quilt was evidence that "original" ideas are seldom that. Here's my brain, back in 1979, summer semester, at 8:30 am, 85 degrees F, in the basement of some god-forsaken art building, slumped over my notebook in the dark, watching slide after slide of art masterpieces, frantically scribbling down every word the professor intoned.

Probably there was this slide. I was already a quilter by then and already entranced by repetition and variation, color and shapes. I had never studied art before, having given it a wide berth in high school in favor of languages (French, Spanish and Russian), and the chance to really study art was like having the doors to a whole new world open wide. I drank it all in. I think I was the only one awake in that class.

So, here is my bow to Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944); may his art bounce around in my brain until some more of it shakes out.

Namaste, Wassily.

baby quilts

While artsy-fartsy wall quilts are great fun, sometimes I feel like making more traditional block-based quilts. And since the FLTQ studio has been upsized from a sailboat cabin table to the kitchen counter of a 1-bedroom apartment, I have a bit more room to make and photograph bigger pieces.

Today I sketched up the new FLTQ baby quilt series after a bout of gazing at the competition on Etsy at the coffee shop this morning. After finishing the first baby-sized quilt a while ago, I have been wanting to make some more. No particular reason, they're just fun.

Baby quilts are a great size to make, big enough to enjoy for a few weeks and small enough to be finished before boredom sets in. While I'm stitching, I can imagine a happy baby rolling around on the floor looking at the colors, smelling the cotton fabric, and feeling the texture of the stitches.

And maybe the Etsy sales will start skyrocketing once I crank out a few. Seems like a good project for now, since Winter is coming!

sketch, sketch, sketch, there's no end...

another food quilt

It's starting to feel a little bit like Fall in central VA. We've had a few days of sweater weather and a stocking-up trip to the farm stand for my winter supply of vegetables (a half bushel of sweet potatoes, a big bag of winter squashes and a few cabbages), and, of course, a big bag of apples.

As I was cutting into one of these delicious local apples, I was enjoying its asymmetric shape and thought it needed to be preserved in a quilt. 

"apple crop" 

2014, 8.5" x 11.75", hand appliquéd and hand quilted