kpoling
上海 (Shanghai)
Hi, I'm Kathleen and this is my first challenge. My friend Elaine (from high school, thanks facebook!) of the awesome Miro quilt last time introduced me to Project Quilting.
I love Chinese place names. There's something about being a second language speaker that allows you to see the words and their meanings rather than just hear the word as a place name (I, for example, am a Californian, and when I see "San Francisco" or "Los Angeles" I don't think about a saint called Francisco or a bunch of angels). Shanghai literally means above the water, but the first syllable, shang, is also the verb to ascend, as stairs . So I started thinking about stairs and water, and this strange little thing came out.
I also wanted to use this challenge to try free motion quilting for the first time. I'm a rather traditional or practical quilter--I've been making usable blankets out of small pieces of fabric since I was in high school and my mother suggested I quilt when I was having a rough couple of weeks (smart move, mom). The last few quilts I've made have been baby quilts for friends, and they're fun but nothing fancy or abstract or even decorative. Just warm cozy things to cover your baby in. I was lucky enough to go to an elementary / middle school where we did a ton of fabric arts, so I've always known how to sew / weave / knit / bead / spin / whatever. Lately I've been mostly sewing for my house and 2 year old, again very practically, just stuff we can use and save money on. So this little challenge made me do something entirely outside of my norm because it was not for anyone or anything and it wasn't going to do anything for the house.
I'm not sure how successful my first foray into free motion quilting was--I like the waves, but I certainly have a lot of work to go to learn the technique. (And possibly I should work out to build more upper arm strength?) I included a photo of this little square between two of our pretty glass windows because I sized this thinking of that space: maybe we'll have a rotating set of little quilts to spice up that wall?
Both parts of this quilt are paper pieced, and then I appliqued the stairs on top. I tried to get the perspective of going down the stairs into the water because I wanted to have the perspective of above the water. Again, not sure how successful that is as a pseudo-abstract concept, but I enjoyed the process. It's about 9 inches square. I made it in Clinton, NY (Oneida County).
And I can't take a good photo in this snowy light to save my life.
上海 (Shanghai)
Hi, I'm Kathleen and this is my first challenge. My friend Elaine (from high school, thanks facebook!) of the awesome Miro quilt last time introduced me to Project Quilting.
I love Chinese place names. There's something about being a second language speaker that allows you to see the words and their meanings rather than just hear the word as a place name (I, for example, am a Californian, and when I see "San Francisco" or "Los Angeles" I don't think about a saint called Francisco or a bunch of angels). Shanghai literally means above the water, but the first syllable, shang, is also the verb to ascend, as stairs . So I started thinking about stairs and water, and this strange little thing came out.
I also wanted to use this challenge to try free motion quilting for the first time. I'm a rather traditional or practical quilter--I've been making usable blankets out of small pieces of fabric since I was in high school and my mother suggested I quilt when I was having a rough couple of weeks (smart move, mom). The last few quilts I've made have been baby quilts for friends, and they're fun but nothing fancy or abstract or even decorative. Just warm cozy things to cover your baby in. I was lucky enough to go to an elementary / middle school where we did a ton of fabric arts, so I've always known how to sew / weave / knit / bead / spin / whatever. Lately I've been mostly sewing for my house and 2 year old, again very practically, just stuff we can use and save money on. So this little challenge made me do something entirely outside of my norm because it was not for anyone or anything and it wasn't going to do anything for the house.
I'm not sure how successful my first foray into free motion quilting was--I like the waves, but I certainly have a lot of work to go to learn the technique. (And possibly I should work out to build more upper arm strength?) I included a photo of this little square between two of our pretty glass windows because I sized this thinking of that space: maybe we'll have a rotating set of little quilts to spice up that wall?
Both parts of this quilt are paper pieced, and then I appliqued the stairs on top. I tried to get the perspective of going down the stairs into the water because I wanted to have the perspective of above the water. Again, not sure how successful that is as a pseudo-abstract concept, but I enjoyed the process. It's about 9 inches square. I made it in Clinton, NY (Oneida County).
And I can't take a good photo in this snowy light to save my life.