Archive

There are two main parts to quilting: piecing and quilting. So far I’ve just been piecing my “quilts” (which are really just quilt tops – see my earlier post, “A Quilt by any other Name” ) and not actually doing any quilting on them. For this quilt I’m attempting the trapunto technique, which is kind […]

This week has been more printing and reading about and practicing trapunto techniques. All in all a very enjoyable couple of days. I decided on the double wedding ring pattern for the quilt for my great grandmother Cassie. Here is an example of the pattern from the Brooklyn Museum by an unknown maker circa 1930: […]

The good thing about feeling poorly the last week or so is it has given me a chance to reassess the project and do some planning. I had planned from the start to make a total of nine memorial quilts. This is largely because I am making an extra square for each to join together […]

I feel SO GUILTY. I didn’t post anything last week! I always seem to forget something when I go on a trip, this time it was my laptop bag. I was away at the International Encaustic Conference in Provincetown last week and had a wonderful time but was wracked with guilt the whole time that […]

Every year in June I go to the International Encaustic Conference in Provincetown Mass.  It is a wonderful gathering of painters, printmakers and artists of every ilk. There are lectures, demos, book-signings, a hotel-fair where we get to see each other’s work and a vendor room to die for. I plan my art-life around this […]

Oh my freaking word! Woodblock carving is hard! I haven’t tried this since high school art classes. Any printmakers out there who do this on a regular basis, I have a new-found respect for you. I did one small test block to see how this would work as a means of reproducing calico fabric patterns. […]

I have been working on prints for my great-grandmother Grace’s quilt for the last few days. I have been trying to come up with something approaching floral. Not really my wheelbase and frankly I’m not thrilled with the results so far, and I’ve managed to burn myself on my heat gun in the process. I’ve […]

I’ve decided that I want the quilts in this project to have different patterns and, where possible, different techniques and materials that are in some way representative of the women that they are commemorating. I knew that I wanted one of the quilts to be a Signature Quilt. A number of patterns lend themselves to […]

One of the things that intrigues me about working in wax is it’s ability to preserve things. Flowers are pressed between pages of waxed paper, bronze sculpture is sealed with wax to prevent tarnishing and fruit is covered in a wax coating to keep it appearing fresh a little bit longer. In his treatise, “On […]

For the quilt that I’m making for my grandmother Halice I chose from my existing stock of encaustic monoprints. When I started cutting up the prints into the required shapes I realized I needed another sheet of the dark print for the large triangles in the middle. No problem I thought, I’d just make another […]