Illumination: No 4 in the 'Light' series

My quilt is about illumination in both the physical and metaphorical sense.  I thought of the light coming from cathedral windows, and dancing on stonework, and of the colour and gold used in illuminated texts.  In both of these contexts is the possibility for intellectual or spiritual illumination.

The materials and techniques I used reflect all these different strands.  You can read more on my blog!

Stained Glass Shadows

I loved this theme, which Elizabeth suggested.

I went looking for stained glass shadows in the National Portrait Gallery

although I found most of my inspiration in Elizabeth's photographs, particularly the way the shadows where light wasn't falling looked purple.

My quilt is intended to capture the saturated colour and softened nature of the light where it falls, and the purple shadows and crisp shapes of the areas where it doesn't. Read more about it on my blog

Light in the Darkness

I loved thinking about the theme for this quarter.  It suggested lots of different ideas both about the physical nature of light, and about light - and the contrast between light and dark - as a metaphor.   You can read more about it on my blog today.

Light: Shimmer

For this theme I took inspiration from way the light bounced around in the facets of my cut glass doorknob and cut into blocks and used gold fabrics to reflect the patterns I saw there.  You can read more on my blog

Purple Passion: Anemones

My quilt for this quarter was inspired by a love of flowers. I thought anemones, which often come in very sumptuous colours, would be a perfect flower for the theme.  I really enjoyed this challenge, and got to play with some different techniques, including two different kinds of applique, and a bit of embroidery, and to indulge another passion - for shot cotton.  You can read more about it on my blog

"Anemones" - Knotted Cotton

Rhapsody in Blue

I loved thinking about this theme.  My quilt was inspired by Gershwin's piece, Rhapsody in Blue which always makes me think of a vast city at night.  Gershwin improvised some of the first performance of the piece so it seemed right to make an improvised quilt while aiming for the illusion of a cityscape of tall buildings lit up in the dark.  I used shot cottons, all of which have a blue warp thread, and some gold silk.  As the piece progressed it seemed to need a frame too.  I originally wanted to include a swirl of flying geese in diminishing sizes to represent the glissando on the clarinet at the start of the piece but I was too cowardly and now I wish I hadn't been, though I'm not sure how I would have fitted it in!

You can see more on my blog here.

Building Blocks

The overall theme for this year is 'Colour' and I was interested in beginning the year by looking at the possibilities of absence of colour.  I used the contrast of monochrome black and white to address the second theme, 'Microscopic',  by thinking about the parallel between patchwork pieces and cells.  You can read more about it on my blog here.