Quilting Arts Magazine August/September 2020

Hi Quilting Arts, I grew up in a family of sewists and quilters—both of my grandmothers made beautiful quilts and my mom, a Home Ec teacher, was a fabulous seamstress and taught me how to sew at a young age. I have been a garment seamstress for many years and my first forays into quilting were just embroidered or fussy-cut blocks joined with sashing. However, as I did more reading, took quilting classes, and studiously absorbed magazine articles on this beautiful art (Quilting Arts has played a huge part in this—I am a subscriber), I became more adventurous and delved into piecing and intricate designs. When my granddaughter drew me a picture of their farm, I had the idea to make a small wall quilt from her drawing and a passion was…

“the color is the first step.” This statement from Cindy Grisdela is both illuminating and obvious. Cindy’s contemporary art quilts radiate with color, value, and balance. “Each decision about color and shape influences the next and complex blocks repeat like beats of a melody,” she says. Her intuitive and improvisational style creates luminous works that can be found in private collectives across the country … and they all get their start in her home studio. Lakeside retreat Cindy’s studio may be located in the daylight basement of her home, but it is well-lit and overlooks a lake. She’s worked in a variety of home studios over the course of her career, from a space on the dining room table to a corner of the guest bedroom to a small upstairs den. Each has…

Color is one of the most powerful tools we have. It’s often the first design component viewers see, and it draws them in to look at a quilt more closely—or sometimes causes them to keep moving when the color combination isn’t appealing. However, color is the design element many makers struggle with. Part of the problem? Color is very personal. Each of us sees color in a different way and we all have different histories with color in our lives. Maybe you can’t stand pink because your mom dressed you only in pink growing up. Or maybe you love green because it was your grandma’s favorite color and you have fond memories of her. Also, color is relative. The way we see a particular color can be influenced by other colors around…

I call them flops instead of failures because I’ve learned over the years that just because something didn’t turn out to my immediate liking on the first try, doesn’t mean that I can’t continue to work on it. I see many fabric printers disregard some work because it didn’t fit the vision in their head straight out of the gate. As artists, we should remember that what we create has a mind of its own and while the results may not be what we wanted, it still has potential to become something that fits our personal tastes. I now store my flop fabric with the rest of my fabric stash. No more putting it in the corner for a time out or hiding it away so I don’t have to look…

A color vocabulary Three characteristics of color—value, temperature, and intensity—are the essence of color theory and play a part in almost every quilt design. Each characteristic has an advancing or receding quality; that is, colors seem to come forward or seem to be farther away. Value is about the lightness or darkness of color. Dark values advance, while light values recede. Of course, infinite values exist, from the lightest lights (which often read as white) to the darkest darks (which often read as black). (figure 1) Temperature is how warm a color appears. Warm colors (reds, yellows, oranges) advance, while cool colors (blues, greens, violets) recede. Yellow-green and red-violet can be either, depending on the colors nearby. Red-violet looks warmer next to blue-green, but cooler next to orange. (figure 2) Intensity is how bright…

a salvaged children’s book, with its sweet illustrations and charming tale, becomes inspiration for a brand new story. Paint a new chapter, stitch a fresh verse, embroider new lyrics. Combine fiber and paper. Make it your own. MATERIALS • Book for altering • Canvas (the size will depend on the book pages you will be altering. I use painters’ drop cloths from the hardware store as they tear nicely, leaving a wonderful frayed edge.) • Fabric-safe washable marker • Acrylic paints and paintbrushes • Old paintbrush • Thick craft glue (I use Aleene’s® Tacky Glue.) • Used papers (book pages, old maps, instructional manuals, interesting text or graphs) • Wax or freezer paper • Sewing machine with free-motion capability • Fluid matte medium (I use Liquitex® Fluid Matte Medium.) Cardboard baby books, grade…