Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Pi Day 2017

3.14. It's Pi Day! This painting hangs at the Cantor Arts Museum at Stanford University.

Ultramarine blue circle surrounded by an arc of red and light blue sits on an orange background
Maxon's Island by Frank Stella

I had three circle quilt finishes in the past year. One was the Polka Dot quilt from Freddy Dot Com class.

Polka Dot quilt from Freddy Dot Com class
The other was a Crafted Applique pillow using Lara Buccella's method for raw edge applique.

Crafted Applique pillow

Part of the magic of Kaleidoscopes is the optical illusion of circles.

Kaleidoscope quilt

My family always refers to the time before a child was born as "when you were just a twinkle in your father's eye." Here's the quilts that are still just a twinkle in my eye.

Quilty365 blocks are still stacked ready to create a top.

A month of Quilty365 blocks.

New York Beauty was set aside with plans to finish this top this year. We'll see how that goes.

New York Beauty blocks

Spiderweb is almost a circle plus it's almost done.

Spiderweb quilt top

Progress! The stars are finished and I moved to the inner border. There's already so much applique that I simply  meandered around while outlining the leaves and birds. Here's the front

Meander quilting on the applique border

and the back to date.

Spiderweb border quilting from the back

I would be further along but... a friend called. There were two last minute openings at Empty Spools for The Complex Composition with Valerie Goodwin. On two days' notice, we loaded the car with fabric, machines and ideas and off we went.

Valerie is an extremely talented architect, professor, and quilter from Florida. She layers maps, architectural perspective drawings and images to create cohesive compositions. Quilters came from across the country and overseas to participate in this challenging class. We all wish we had another week or two with Valerie.

Empty Spools is held at Asilomar which is now part of the California Park System but originally constructed by the YWCA in the 1910s. Julia Morgan, architect of Hearst Castle  designed many of these buildings in the California Arts and Crafts style.

Much more later. I just need to settle back in.

Enjoy the day, Ann

"What after all has maintained the human race on this old globe despite all the calamities of nature and all the tragic failings of mankind, if not faith in new possibilities and courage to advocate them." - Jane Addams