Olympic quilt project

Sochi Olympic Games are over and I would like to tell about quilt project of Russian quilters.

These games were the first where quilt was one of the symbols and quilters of Russia and some other countries have decided to use this fact for popularization of quilting.

The idea of the project was announced more than one year before Olympics. Each participant had to make a quilt 24 x 24 inches or 12 x 12 inches dedicated to Olympics and using fabrics from 80s (Moscow Olympic games).

Long before the Olympics this project started to travel along Russia and have been exhibited in Moscow, Saint-Petersburg and other cities.

Saint-Petersburg,  October 2012:

You can watch full project  here

And this is my quilt for this project.

Sunshine and Picnics

Many apologies to all the Latitude Quilters -- I am very late on my "Escape" reveal -- but many thanks to them for understanding my difficulties.  In November I suffered a fractured tailbone, making any sort of art-related work out of the question.  Family difficulties at the start of the year kept me away even longer.

I've finally been able to get back into the studio and, pressed for time, I changed course.  My original idea for "Escape" was very cool, but would have taken more time than I felt appropriate; I didn't want to continue to keep my fellow members waiting.

As a result, I decided to piece a small quilt to remind me of one of my favorite summer "escape" activities: picnics.  Piecing seems to reflect best those days when picnics are a special treat, with a homemade cloth spread out on the lawn.  I love picnics on gentle summer days with puffy clouds, so yellow and white became the color palette.

In my hope to get the quilt done quickly I didn't take as much care as I should have; I pieced one section backwards.  Rather than take the section apart and resew it, I chose to cover up the error.  Now there's grass peeking up along the edge of the quilt, just like it might at a picnic.  (I have to wonder if I was influenced by the bit of green I've spied alongside mounds of melting snow.)  As it turns out, I think the quilt has a bit more charm now.

Memories revised

When we did the Memories challenge, I was travelling in Europe and severely limited in supplies. My memory was of a castle near my house, which we could only glimpse occasionally for a second as we drove past. Now it is open to the public and very easy to see up close.

I have made an overlay on netting, which gives the impression we used to get back in the 1960s. You can lift the overlay to see the castle, as it is only attached at the top. The trees and grasses are on a layer of white bridal tulle, and there is a black layer over that, stitched to a hand-dyed cheesecloth ribbon that by chance I found at a local merchants' mall only 2 days ago.

Oops!

Balance has been a challenge just lately, which is probably why the image that came to mind was one showing what can go wrong when balance is not achieved.
The quilt gave me the opportunity to play with some new materials and use a variety of methods to construct it. It also provided a challenge as "good ideas" went wrong and had to be overcome.

 Materials used: textile paints, inktense pencils, misty fuse, bondaweb, hand dyed and commercial fabrics, and sequins from a very old bag of odds and ends

New month - new challenge

I have been pondering a lot on what to choose as our next theme. There were many suggestions on my pad, but I had to choose one. It is February, and soon Valentines day, and, this may seem rather trite, but our next theme is:

LOVE

Love can be so much more than a Valentin card or present:

- people we love, children, family, our loved ones...
- nature
- film or books
- history
- colour
- fabric and thread
- some beautiful lines and texture
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The list can go on and on. Go in yourself, find what you love, and make something beautiful out of it.

Enjoy, Greta