Week 5 of #AtoZchallenge2021Quilt (Art)

Last week was the end of the #AtoZchallenge2021Quilt (Art). It was a great finish, even if I was less organised as the month went on. I want to thank Frédérique of Quilting Patchwork Appliqué for a wonderful challenge. I really learned a lot and am so happy to have participated. Here's a look at the last week's post.

V is for Village

This project, Amalfi Coast Happy Village was one of my first art quilts, although I didn't realise it at the time. It was made during a workshop with the owner of a local quilt shop and based on Karen Eckmeier's book, Happy Villages. The image is loosely based on a postcard that I bought in the Amalfi Coast in Italy. 

Amalfi Coast Happy Village - my first art quilt

Putting Amalfi Coast Happy Village together 

Happy Villages by
Karen Eckmeier

W is for Weaving

This piece is called Ciboulette Stitches. It was created based on a workshop with Sue Stone through TextileArtist.org. Weaving was my first passion and it was great to incorporate it into my art. BTW ciboulette is chives in French. 

Ciboulette Stitches on a woven background

Lovely ciboulette flowers

The real thing in the garden

X is Xerothermic

Xerothermic is an adjective used to describe dry and hot climates. Isn't Google amazing? I actually learned a new word 😊! 

This piece is called South-West art quilt. It was begun at a workshop at my local quilt shop, Quilty Pleasures, in 2010. I had done what I could, but had no idea how to finish all of the grasses in the foreground. Finally it came to me – couching! So the piece was finished in 2015 as part of a UFO challenge. 

The quilt hangs in my daughter's room as a reminder of our wonderful vacations in the American South-West.

South-West Art Quilt

Couching was the solution that I
was looking for!

Lighting up the sky

Y is for Yellow

This piece is called “Keep Calm and Stitch”. I stitched and beaded the word “Calm” since it’s my word of the year - I didn't realise until then that my unconscious word of the year for 2020 was Frenzy. That's why I consciously chose Calm. 

This piece was made in January for the first challenge of the year of Project Quilting 2021. The theme was to use the Pantone colours of the year – Illuminating and Ultimate Gray. To avoid last year's Frenzy and to remain calm, this is the only one of the Project Quilting challenges that I did this year. I did enjoy it and hopefully it's something that I will continue to participate in, at least occasionally. 

“Keep Calm and Stitch” - for the Project Quilting 2021

Details: buttons, couching
and stitching

More slow stitching to remain calm 

Beading and various
embroidery stitches

Z is for Zigzag

This practice piece is zigzag crosses. It is a Sashiko stitch that I learned from Shannon & Jason Mullett-Bowlsby of Shibaguyz Designz in a virtual workshop. I also bought their book, Boro & Sashiko to keep on learning. Now that I know how to create the grids to stitch Sashiko, I really love it and hope to keep adding it to my art quilts. 

It's too bad that this last post wasn't an example of something in a real art quilt but the only other word that I might have used was zillion, as in a zillion beads in an art quilt. I am working on a project that feels like it has a zillion beads in it but when I looked at it, it didn't look like it even had tons of beads, let alone a zillion 😁.

Sashiko stitching zigzag crosses

What I learned

• 

  Although it required a lot of preparation, this was a great challenge.
• I think what I underestimated the most was the time to prepare the posts since I didn't want to just put in what I had said on Instagram.
• It was a great experience to see most of the art quilts that I have done over the years. Many of them have been created since belonging to the TextileArtist.org's Stitch Club, for which I am very thankful.
• I know that I've learned so much as an artist about colour, composition and techniques, but I'm pretty impressed with some of my earlier works. Most are pretty good!
• Now that this rush is over, I'm looking forward to reading some of the other participants' posts 😊
  

Related links

• Amalfi Coast Happy Village, May 26, 2014
• Ciboulette Stitches finished,  July 20, 2020
• Slow stitching with new projects, July 12, 2020
• South-West art quilt
• April Challenge Completed, April 25, 2015
• Project Quilting 2021 -  Grey and Yellow, January 10, 2021
• Sashiko samples
• Catching up on posting projects, February 8, 2021
• Sashiko stitching and visible mending, December 06, 2020

Linking parties

I will be linking up to many fun linking parties this week. You can still link up to Free Motion Mavericks until Tuesday evening. After that, make sure to visit Muv and link up there! Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, Oh Scrap!, Patchwork & Quilts,