Pet Projects

I just got a couple of quilts back that have been in an exhibit called "Pet Projects." It was part of "Quilt County," an annual Festival of quilting that goes on in Benton County Oregon. (That's Corvallis and surroundings)

"Pet Projects" was a group of quilts from High Fiber Diet, the art quilt group I belong to. The idea was that these were personal favorite pieces of each artist--no theme, new or old, for sale or not--just pieces that we had a great fondness for. One of the pieces I chose to show is "Rockin' and Rollin'". I think I made this piece in about 2001. It started out as a challenge for our small group to use an unconventional material in a quilt. Those are metal washers you see on this piece. It was also an opportunity to use a bunch of African fabrics I had been accumulating. It was one of the most fun, most spontaneous pieces I have ever made. It started me on a series of pieces using circles in mandala-type designs.

The next was "Earth, Moon and Sun". For "Rockin and Rollin" I had pieced and hand-appliqued the shapes. I wanted something that produced a more precise circle and design, so I started developing the fusing techniques that I now use exclusively. "Earth, Moon and Sun" appeared in the book "Within Sacred Circles: Meditations and Mandala Quilts"

Then I made a really big mandala using solids and fabrics that I had printed with stripes. It was in a special exhibit called "Quilts of the Pacific Rim" which was shown at the Mancuso shows in Hawaii and North Carolina.

The final piece in the series is actually 12 little quilts attached to each other to make a larger piece. Harking back to the original in the series, the little quilts are attached to little metal washers that hold them all together.

I'm quite fond of this entire series, but now I've moved on.