Okay, you can tell where I've been the last couple of months -- home with the kids. I have no idea how I created anything while I was homeschooling. Christmas break brought my creative life to a stand still. But alas, all good things come to an end and the kids went back to school. Finally, I could get back to the studio.
These colors are my very favorites. I had so much fun creating fabric paper and quilted, painted fabric. I managed to lock myself away and spend an entire weekend quilting circles and spirals and then painting. My latest challenge in the process was finding somewhere for the paint to dry now that we have a giant puppy romping around the house. I ended up skipping the "green" approach and used the clothes dryer with the shoe rack. Penny only stepped in wet paint once and I was able to dry a lot of paint relatively quickly. One day I will have a drying rack, but for now I will just have to pay the electric bill.
I continued with the circle theme I have been exploring the last year. I once again pieced together the squares of quilted, painted fabric with a wide zig-zag. I then cut out fabric paper circles, edged them with gold and free motion stitched them. I love how they dance around the quilt.
Photographing the quilt was once again a challenge. My husband bought me a light studio for Christmas, but it just wasn't working. With the metallic paints and dark, highly textured surface, the camera just couldn't capture everything. The colors were washed out, too bright and just plain wrong. Corners were out of focus. I guess that is what I get for trying to take a picture late at night right before the reveal. I finally gave up and decided to wait for daylight. So this morning I was outside with a blanket of slushy snow, in the wind and rain, trying to protect my quilt from the elements and get a good picture. I think I might need to figure out a better set up soon. (And put a good camera on my wish list!)
For the name, well, as I said I've been surrounded by all things kid. My husband gave me Toy Story Mania for the Wii since I was the Astroblaster champion at Disneyland. Our neighbors gave us Toy Story 3. We have been watching the plight of Buzz Lightyear and the Little Green Men and fighting the evil Emperor Zurg. With all the circles, Pizza Planet just popped into my mind and stuck there. The colors are fitting and reference Emperor Zurg's purple and dark red and of course the Little Green Men. Maybe now I will have to explore the planet and see what other quilts it holds.
What fun! I love the circles -- am always drawn to circles anyway -- but I like how this has a great balance of calming shapes and colors but a wonderful energy in the different sizes and contrasting lines and circles. The zig zag stitching shows up especially well too and is a great contrast from those circles. I thinks it's wonderful. And the name is perfect!
ReplyDeleteI was thinking that so many Twelves were having a difficult time with the color palette and I was wondering if was because they were all pretty dark so there wasn't any inherent contrast to work with. Lime green seems to have been the contrast of choice (for me too!). But, your bits of gold are really gorgeous and add a nice sparkle to the dark jewel ones.
ReplyDeleteI also rocked on the Astroblaster! So fun. I love your quilt. You certainly found enough variety in tints and shades to make the color scheme totally work here. I am also very interested in the setting. I love how the three different sized of squares fit together. I bet you fussed around with that for a while until it all finished to 12x12. Great job.
ReplyDeleteGosh Nikki, I don't know how you manage to get anything done, but I'm so glad you do as this is great. I love your circle theme and you made these colors work together beautifully.
ReplyDeleteNikki, I too wonder how you get so much done! This piece has a great deal of energy and appeal! Those circles work so well and I love the texture your zigzag seams add. This design would be fun to play with and see if you could create more of a focal point by using more intense color in some blocks and less intense in others to make some of them move forward. Just a thought--I think this series has a lot of potential for experimentation.
ReplyDeleteNikki I think this looks like you had a lot of fun making it, maybe the circles are your kids driving you crazy. The colors worked out beautifully
ReplyDeleteThe gold highlights are a perfect foil to the dark palette.
ReplyDeleteThanks for setting this challenge. Working with this palette has been very instructive.
Looks great Nikki! I love how you integrated the colors and the circles in squares as a repeating motif.
ReplyDeleteThis site might be helpful for photographing your quilts.
ReplyDeletewww.hollyknott.com/stq/index.htm
Nikki, I have no idea what the last paragraph of your post is all about really!I am a clueless childess person. But I am still trying to get my head around the fact this quilt is only 12 x 12 - it look slike it should be at least a lap quilt.
ReplyDeleteNice quilt Nikki! Your chosen colours do look happy in this piece. ;-)
ReplyDeleteLike Helen, I'm thinking about the size of the quilt. How did you cut out those tiny circles?
Btw, Toy Story never really made it to this house. I wonder why.