The getting of wisdom

It's only a month until the next reveal and I still haven't settled on a design. I mentioned this to my husband and he helpfully? remarked that we have plenty of sage in the garden.

Getting dates right

For anyone who was less than immediately excited about my last post announcing the UK tour in 2012, you can get more excited. Its actually 2011! Yup. This year. Only a few months away now. I've corrected the original post now. Thanks to my husband who actually reads my blogs and spotted my error.

Twelves go on UK Tour!

Good news for all UK followers of this blog - and anyone else who might fancy coming to visit. Our theme series quilts will be on show at two great venues in 2011.

First at the wonderful Midsomer Quilting Shop in Chilcompton not far from Bath. We will be there over the Easter weekend - contact the shop for opening times. I shall be popping down to the shop frequently while the quilts are there so of anyone  who reads this would like to have a coffee and a chocolate biscuit ( the shop provide them for a small charity donation - only one reason I consider them wonderful!) - contact me in advance and we can arrange our visit to co-incide. Hopefully copies of the book will be avilable there too. And if you ask me nciely I might even turn my Illuminated quilt on so you can see it working!

Then, we shall be having out own exhibition stand at Festival Of Quilts at the NEC in August. I shall be there along with Françoise and Diane who plans to travel all the way from the States for the event. Again we would love to meet readers.

See you all there!
Helen.

Chocolate alteration

I found a piece of chocolate brown silk in my stash and added some pattern to it using discharge paste.  Believe it or not, those dots are blue, the exact blue I needed for the new challange.

I went back and pulled some more of the colors we are using, and am trying to decide how to alter them.

The green felt on the bottom looks so rich I'm sure it will find it's way into this project.

Inktense pencils to the rescue

It seems like all I do these days is complain about the color schemes my fellow Twelves keep coming up with! Maybe it is because so many have been full-on "schemes" which really tax my imagination! So, as usual, I am uninspired by the green, blue, brown scheme. But in going through my fabrics yesterday I found a small piece I purchased a while back on speculation because it reminded me of porcelain designs. It almost has the challenge colors in it.

 

The green isn't really green, though. More teal. So I used one of my Inktense pencils in a yellow-green to adjust the color. These go on like a regular color pencil, then you brush a little water over them and they blend and intensify. When dry they are permanent. Very cool medium! Here is the result.

I think I am seeing hints of our scheme here, don't you?

You may see this fabric in my final piece. Maybe not. But it gave me a little more inspiration. I really like the addition of the coral-y red and that yellow-gold. Warms up the palette.

Been there, doing that

Sage, light (greeny) blues and very very light almost cream browns?

Just what we have been testing for our downstairs rooms.

I have every brand of sage green testerpot known to man. IOr at least an Englishman Now to find out if you can paint quilts with wall paint :)

Twelve by Twelve Website Update: Eggplant Gallery

The Twelve by Twelve website has been updated. Check out the Eggplant Colorplay Gallery and the ever-expanding Artist Gallery Pages.  Here's the Eggplant mosaic together with a mosaic showing all of Nikki's colorplay quilts so far:

 

The website now has well over 250 separate pages. Let Brenda know if you come across any broken links or other glitches.

Aubergine Ala Albers

I have rephotographed my pieces in better light and replaced the photos on my original post, here. This is the piece that will be the official Twelve X Twelve quilt. New name and new photo,

New Colors!

I am thrilled to announce our new palette:

Brown, Sage and Blue

Honestly, I was first drawn to this color palette in my kids' orthodontist's office. The interior design incorporated these colors and I thought they were a very interesting and somewhat surprising combo.

Considering that many of us had trouble with the dark hues from the Eggplant palette, I didn't want you to feel like this was another collection of dark colors. So, please feel free to explore everything from light to dark.

Here is another view of my paint chips with the light ends up.

Some of the color names on these chips are inspiring... fudge bar, melted chocolate, grape leaves, blueberry path.

I wish we could all sit together in our studios, go through our stashes and share some color-inspired snacks!

Eggplant Mosaic

Following the reveal of our Eggplant Colourplay quilts, the website update is well under way. We'll let you know when it's done. In the meantime, here's a peek at the Eggplant mosaic.  As many of us grappled with value in this challenge, I thought it might be interesting to see the mosaic in greyscale too:

  

Queensland Flood Appeal : Quilt Auction

You may have seen Brenda's post below about her quilt for auction to benefit the Quuensland Flood Relief.
Well, I have joined in too This quilt is for auction on my blog here.  where you can see close up details too Its not a Twelve by 12 - in fact it is 31 1/2 by 49 1/2 but I am sure you will alow me to plug the auction here!

Queensland Flood Appeal Auction: Make a Bid

As many of our friends and followers will be aware, the state of Queensland in Australia, where Kirsten resides, has been struck by devastating floods.  A third of the State, an area the size of Texas!, has been declared a disaster zone. I am relieved to report that both my family and Kirsty's family are safe and secure but when the waters subside, the community faces a heart breaking clean up and and formidable recovery task.

Australian blogger, Toni Coward of Make it Perfect is coordinating a fantastic initiative which addresses our instincts to make or do something AND raises funds to assist the flood victims. She has organised an online auction with all proceeds going to the Premier's Flood Relief Appeal. You can find the details by clicking on the link below:
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I am offering one of my signature art quilts to assist in the fund raising efforts. My offer relies on the generosity of those reading to bid an amount they are willing to pay for the item and commit to pay that amount into the Premier’s Flood Relief Appeal. I am auctioning When the Waters Subside(12x12in)*:

If you would like to add When the Water Subsides to your collection, then the rules for participating in this auction are very simple. Pop over to the Queensland Flood Appeal Auction page on my blog and place your bid - international bidders are welcome. Spread the word.

*Yes, that's one of my three Eggplant pieces - after all I only  need one to go into the official Colourplay collection. My trilemma is now a simple dilemma and I know which way I am leaning.

Chokecherries

  
When I first heard the new colors all I could think of was fruit. Grapes at first, of course, then blackberries, which turn from bright red to burgundy to a deep, eggplant purple. I resisted and kept trying to think of another subject for those colors, but I kept coming back to some kind of fruit. Eventually I thought about chokecherries. I don't know if you live in a place where chokecherries grow. They seem to thrive in dry, hot conditions, usually along river or stream banks and if you were to pick one of the glossy deep purple berries and pop it into your mouth you'd be disappointed. They are not very sweet and have an almost bitter, astringent quality. But if you take them home and add sugar and cook them, they become the most delicious jelly, juice and the raw material for wonderful wine. They remind me of my childhood, picking them in the Idaho mountains near where we lived. When Ray and I were married, my Dad had spend several months making a good supply of chokecherry wine that we served with dinner after the wedding. I will never taste it again, I suppose, but can close my eyes and remember that rich, complex wine. The best my Dad ever made.

My little quilt, above, is the second chokecherry quilt I made for this challenge. I finished the first several days ago and was uncomfortable with it. I couldn't quite put my finger on why, except it just felt a little tight and fussy. Yesterday I got ready to photograph it and I decided I just hated it. It lacks the wildness and earthiness that are the essence of chokecherry. It is dainty and tidy and, well, boring. But I need to show it to you so you can appreciate how much more I like the new version.

Now Approaching Pizza Planet

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.

Aurora Borealis

I did not have the easiest time with these colors!  In fact, I was downright paralyzed for much of the challenge period as I continued to ponder ideas look at images to see where the colors might lead me.  Finally, I happened upon a photo of the Aurora Borealis, something I've always wanted to see ... and that's what led me to this piece.

What fixed the Aurora Borealis as the image in my mind was the fact that I had bought some small jars of Decolourant Discharge dye at PIQF a few months ago, and I started to think about how cool this could be to use the discharge and dye paint to create the wisps of color in a dark sky.

So out they came, and I had a fun afternoon experimenting with the DeColourant dyes.  I wish now that I'd been patient enough to take pictures of all my sampling -- but one reason it didn't occur to me to do that, I guess, is that for some reason the colors were not as vibrant as I expected.  I experimented with several black fabrics and they all reacted the same.  So the plain look of the discharged and painted fabric was interesting but had far too little contrast and vibrance.

Instead, I decided to use it as a base for thread painting.... and then away I went! (Remember, I gave you a peek of some of the threads I was using?)

The ultimate result is not exactly what I pictured, and to be honest I'm not wild about this piece.  It was much more about process for me than the result.  But I am content with it.  Here's a detail shot:

Nikki, thank you for providing such a fun and challenging set of challenge colors!