Spotlight on Ann Burgess

Ann Burgess (a/k/a C. Ann Burgess) is a magician with fabric.  She dyes, paints, and marbles the most marvelous fabrics and then incorporates them into stunning quilts of her own design.  


Ann made a tile quilt that is included in the Gallery of Contemporary Tile Quilts in Tile Quilt Revival:  

The only commercial fabric she used on the top is the gray batik background fabric in the blocks, which you see as the narrow channels of "grout" around the tiles.  All other fabrics you see are hand marbled, dyed, and painted.


The tile quilt technique, with its large and simple shapes, creates an ideal showcase for interesting fabrics.  Ann recognized the potential in a tile quilt for putting her fabrics to good use.  She designed 15" tile blocks with large, graceful tile shapes that show her fabrics to great advantage:

Here is a detail of one of her exotic dragonflies:

In this last detail, in addition to the marbled tile fabrics, you can see a bit of the fabrics Ann painted and dyed for the inner and outer borders of her quilt:

Thanks, Ann, for sharing your inspired creations.  

Home Again, Home Again

Home from a weeklong quilting retreat.  It was great fun and wildly productive.  Even so I'm happy to be with my sweetheart and mutts and happy to be sleeping in my own bed.  But it certainly is quiet and sedate around here--hardly the creative beehive of the retreat.  


This is the sort of thing I miss:  Sharona, the owner of a wonderful quilt store in Berkeley CA called New Pieces, posing in front of her design wall wearing the dress she later actually incorporated into the quilt behind her........

Bobbi Finley and I met at this annual retreat twenty or so years ago, and we've been sewing together pretty much continuously since then.  The 2011 retreat was no exception.  We planned, cut, and stitched two quilts and made a lot of progress on a third.  No wonder I slept 12 hours the first night home.

This just in from Florida

Here is another photo of an Orlando version of Lotus:

So elegant.  Thank you, thank you Orlando stitcher for sharing.


And with the photo came an explanation of the Orlando-Michigan connection.  The maker of this quilt is a member of a quilting group in Orlando and has a sister in Michigan.  They take turns suggesting group projects.  In this case, her sister suggested making Lotus.  The project is in progress.  We can expect to see a group photo when the Lotus project culminates.  I'm looking forward to it.

Offspring

The cherished reward for Bobbi and I for writing about a little-known quilt type/technique is hearing from folks who have enjoyed learning about tile quilts and have made their own.  


Bobbi has heard through the quilters' grapevine of at least 6 versions of her Lotus quilt, which is on the cover of Tile Quilt Revival.  

It sounds like the hotbed of Lotus versions is Orlando, and there is another version somewhere in Michigan.  


To date, we have only one photo from the Orlando group:

But we're hoping for more.  Thanks, readers.  

Spotlight on Wendy Turnbull

Bobbi and I are lucky to have a lot of talented friends who became interested in tile quilts as we were working on Tile Quilt Revival.  The gallery of contemporary tile quilts we included in the book is filled with the wonderful quilts they made. 

Wendy Turnbull contributed this lush depiction of summertime to the gallery: 

Before Wendy began this quilt I knew several things about her--that she is an accomplished appliquer and that she has a grand affinity for crows and ravens.  So, I was not surprised she was interested in appliqueing a tile quilt, and, when she showed me the line drawing she was working on as the pattern for a tile quilt, I wasn't surprised that it included a crow's image.  She chose a dark plum background fabric and warm, rich fabrics for the tiles.  I think it's just a gorgeous quilt.  

And then, she expanded on her initial idea and launched a series she's called, A Bird for All Seasons: The Crow in Summer, Autumn, Winter, and Spring.  Here are the other three seasons, each as beautifully evocative in its way as the summer quilt:

In each, her drawing and choice of fabrics tell the story.  Thanks, Wendy, for sharing.

P.S.

Did I mention that it was cold in the mountains?  Here's a picture of our mutts one morning before the stove was lit:

Dog Balls

A New Year

We are just back from a holiday trip to Colorado where we cross-country skied and snowshoed, watched many movies, and partied with friends--it was glorious.  I didn't take a stitch for 10 days.  Not that I didn't want to.  It's just that the sky was too blue.  The hoar frost on stems, aspen saplings, and especially the fence was too fascinating.  

Holidays are wonderful.  Essential, in fact.  But it's also good to be home and back in my studio.  This week's stitching agenda: quilt a small top, bind a large quilt, and sew a bunch of Lady of the Lake blocks together into a top.  I'd better get on it.

May 2011 be a fine one.