This Really is the Good Life!

I have just finished the last of the studio polishing.  The white flannel is pinned on my design wall and I am vacuuming one last time.  At 4:00 today, I sat down, with a chocolate chip cookie, tea and watched Dr. Oz. And I thought, "Life is really good today, my studio is ready for me!"  It has never been so clean.

Looking at my communications center and newly covered design wall.

The pink Styrofoam design wall is covered and usable, a beautiful quilt is hanging on it, and my walls have  quilts and other special items that surround me that I love.  My printer which conked out this week, is now working, thanks to HP tech support.  The baseboard heaters are painted a beautiful white and trim is too. The dark 70's paneling is gone. It is time to work on my newest Egyptian quilt again, it needs lots of embroidery before it can be quilted.  There is my collage which you've seen, which is ready for basting and quilting.  Lots to do.

Before I begin my embroidery and quilting, I will give you a quick tour of my studio.  This wall is my communications center and design wall which is 8 x 8 feet. It is shoved into the corner, but if I need the full width, I can scoot is to the left, covering up the clock.  Egyptian Water Garden II is hanging on it right now.  I love this quilt, when I look at it, it makes me feel good. 

Check out the fresh white walls! My cutting table is half a ping pong table, & rulers hanging on the wall.  Notice the outlet on the wall where the pencil sharpener is plugged in.

Around the corner is the long wall with my TV, cutting table and windows.  I have hung up Line Dancing Under the Stars, Tragedy on Esplanade, Black Eyed Susans on Purple and A July to Remember.  It is good to live with your quilts surrounding you. My studio gets lots of light in the morning, so I rotate the quilts to reduce fading.

This is a very long wall, so I'm showing it to you in 2 parts.

Around the next corner is my short wall with all my products that I sell online: books, patterns, booklets etc. My stereo keeps my quilting smooth and there is an assortment of Winona Lake items on the wall. My postage stamp piece honoring Winona, a historic painting on grass cloth, a water color by local artist Jean Thielen, a Japanese figure I've had since the age of 12, a poster of Winona, and two black eyed susan pieces. The little one was a gift from Emily Parson, and the Purple Eyed Susans was a demo in my book Dancing with Thread.  It really sings on the bright white wall.

This is the part of the room where the embroidery and quilting happen!

 Last of all Oreo is thrilled with the new look.  She can walk along the ledge that is 4 feet up from the floor and watch over all my creative activities and the critters outside. Another bonus, I found an electric outlet, that I didn't know was there, on the long wall. It had been piled up with assorted treasures and junk for years.

The drawers facing out, under the machine cabinets are where I store my thread--by color.  They are on wheels and can be moved around.

Well, I'm ready to sew now.  This major cleaning will never happen again. Once every 35 years is enough. I'm good to go sew.

Have a good weekend.

Ann Fahl

Quick Tragedy Update

Tragedy on Esplanade by Ann Fahl

This quilt has been the subject of many posts in recent months. Recently it has been accepted into the Sacred Threads exhibit in Herndon, VA.  June 22, 2011 - July 4, 2011 Church of the Epiphany. I am pleased that this sad little quilt will get additional exposure.

Ann Fahl

Tragedy Quilt on Display

Tragedy on Esplanade by Ann Fahl

If you've been reading this blog for awhile you know how much I have struggled to create this memorial quilt. Click on the title above to read more about it. Finally it is hanging in a public place in Winona Lake IN. It will be there through April.  This is where you may view it:

It is hanging above a glass cabinet in the

Lobby of Winona Mercantile and Boathouse Restaurant

Village at Winona

700 Park Ave.

Winona Lake, IN

Check ahead to see if they are open.Winona Lake is a small little town. But if you drive there, you can check out the artisan shops and have lunch at the Boathouse.  On the way out of town, turn left on Winona Ave. and drive a mile or so to Lowery Fabrics and Sewing Machine Shop. It's worth checking out!

Ann Fahl

Success--Back to the Troubling Quilt part 5

At last it is done.  Before Christmas I rolled up this quilt and put it away.  I was out of ideas about how to change some of the problem areas.

I added the large flower at the bottom, and felt better about that.  Then it was quilted and blocked.  When I hung it on my design wall, I knew I was still "stuck" at the point of needing something in the center portion of the quilt in the water.

Tragedy on Esplanade by Ann Fahl

After the holidays, I unrolled the quilt and took a long look at it.  I added ducks. In a light bulb moment I realized that it was possible that ducks might be out there quacking in the water after the accident.  I moved them around in many configurations. I settled on spreading them out across the lake.

Now I could work on shading of the foreground. After all, this happened at midnight, and my colors look like daytime.  So I got out my colored pencils and shaded the ducks which were too bright.  Then I darkened the applique stitching at the top of the grass, near the hammock.  Then I shaded the upper grass and below the hammock. Voila! I am happy and satisfied with the finished product.

I am done.  All my design problems are resolved. The quilt has been bound, photographed, and the label attached to the back. The memorial to this terrible tragedy is complete.

For more images of this quilt you may go to my website.

Now, where will I exhibit this memorial? Do any of you have any suggestions? Do you live in Winona Lake, Warsaw or Wabash IN? These are the communities that might have an interest in exhibiting my quilt.

Troubling Quilt part 4

The quilt has been quilted, blocked, trimmed and ready for binding.  I'm just not sure. So.....the quilt is resting; I'm not looking at it; it's covered up; and I'm working on Christmas stuff.  More later.

Ann

More Troubling Quilt--part 3

I actually started to quilt this piece last week. Yet something was still troubling me about my composition.  I decided that there was nothing "exciting" about this dark little scene.  So I decided to add one more large pink coneflower to add a little visual interest to the setting. Using a paper pattern, I determined the size it should be when curved out of the frame appearing closer to the viewer.

I don't like designing after fact--after the piece has been basted together with the batting and backing, but the addition of the new flower definitely adds something to the piece. 

Now, the shoreline placed in the middle of the quilt has been bothering me too. So I cut random really dark prints to suggest the houses and trees.  Some of the scraps were purple, brown, green and dark gray, I liked this alot.  The gray print I originally chose worked OK, but not well, on its own.  I just had to help it a little.

Above is a detail of some of the quilting over the gray print and add-ons.  Using a flash on my camera really makes it appear much lighter than it is in "real life" but you can get the idea.

At last the quilt is coming together, I'm ready to quilt the areas in the foreground, then I know I will feel more confident in my finished product.

Here is what it looks like at this point.  It is becoming more exciting as the quilting is progressing well.  I have further removed lots more tulle from the central reflection (which doesn't show in the above pic), so I feel soooooo much better about everything. You'll have to wait for more pics.

Ann

A Troubling Quilt--part 2

Somewhere along the way, I must have stopped taking pictures. Because you can see the quilt has many more elements. The hammock eventually became red.  I put in a stump on the left, in place of the grass.  I was troubled by an empty middle, so I added a dark gray print that becomes the opposite shoreline.  I slashed into the fabric to create some texture, and I don't particularly like that!

Meanwhile, the entire quilt is troubling me. I kept asking myself why am I making this quilt?  During this time, I kept moving things around until I achieved some kind of interesting composition, up until now, the quilt  wasn't working on an artistic level.

So you can see now, there are ginkgo leaves on the tree. This softens the moonlight and the severe righthand edge to some extent.

As I thought about the scene of the accident, which I was able to walk past about 3 weeks following the terrible event, there were flowers still laying on the edge of the lake. Then I thought, of course, I need to put my flowers at the scene.  I set to work cutting out little black eyed susans because they bloom in profusion in the area.  Then I cut the long stemmed pink cone flowers and laid them on the ground below the remaining tree and hammock. Finally I felt that the quilt might be coming together.  So I began embroidering and appliqueing the elements.

Thursday in a bold move, I basted the thing together and started quilting.  Before I could do anything else, I needed to cut away the reflection in the lake, the white blob of tulle was so visually distracting to me. So I began quilting the center section and spent the evening trimming away the white tulle.  Maybe........it is getting there. Somehow I feel I must modify the shape of the reflection, it seems too small.

I will spend the afternoon working on what I have, and see what I can do to make the piece visually more interesting.   There will be more.  Please add your comments, I find them helpful.

Ann

A Troubling Quilt

There was an accident that occurred in Winona Lake IN, this past September. A 19 year old girl was killed.  She and her boyfriend were sitting in a hammock overlooking sunset point, when one of the trees holding the hammock fell over. Here is a link to one of the many news stories about it. The tree killed the young woman and severely injured the young man.

For the families, this must be an unspeakably horrible time for them. For me it is a tragedy for several reasons. This happened just one block away from the family cottage which is my most favorite place in the world. It is where I spent every summer, played with cousins and had idyllic summers. And of course Winona was where I got my first kiss. Since I married and had 2 children, I have taken them to visit every summer too. I have had a full life, Winona Lake was such an important part of it.  This young woman will never have the experiences I have had at Winona, nor will she have a full life. Since September I've wrestled with needing to do something about this awful accident. So in October I began making a quilt.

This quilt should include the name of the street, "Esplanade"; include a hammock, show the lake and moonlight, and what about the tree that fell over? There should be stars in the sky.  I have worked and worked, and struggled with this piece.  I am thinking that perhaps it shouldn't be finished.

Above is the hand dyed fabric I am using for the background--no piecing. There is the street sign showing the name of the street is Esplanade.  Many times I make patterns for elements out of newsprint and pin them in place to see how the shape and size work.

I'm not pleased with how the street sign looks, so I made it bigger, smaller, taller etc. and nothing seemed to please me.  So I removed it and started on something that I knew would work:  a tree that also created the right hand border.

The strip of light blue fabric on upper left is hand painted was made for stars that lighted the sky.

The addition of the tree was easy.  The moon behind it, (the accident was at midnight) is created with layers of white tulle.  There is the beginnings of a hammock, that will be tied to the tree. The actual hammock was one of those knotted rope things, I didn't think that was going to work.  The moon's reflection in the water is tulle, that will be cut away after the quilting. Something else is needed so I made some tall grass, which is actually growing at the point. 

I'm not happy with the hammock. How should it be pictured?  In a wad on the ground, like a real hammock, or something else?

I spent hours on creating a hammock. I kept thinking that one end should be attached to a tree, the other end in a puddle or in disarray. I made them in several colors, one was too small, I tried creating a black hammock and embroidering the knotted ropes on top, but nothing is working.   So I put it away.

More to come............................................................
Ann