I just discovered that Larkin Van Horn, beader and quilter extraordinaire, has just tagged me to play in the Seven Random Facts game and so did my bestest friend Marie… but I already answered that a while back (May 7th I think it was?), so I’m going to count that as having answered and in turn tagged seven others LOL! Here’s a link to Larkin’s blog which I have just added to my series of links over on the right…., and Marie is here: Marie’s blog.

Now, fish scales. Sure hope you guys agree, cuz I’m NOT picking out all that stitching! But first things first. Initially I was going to make some of the fish mottled / splotchy (that yellow/gray hand-dyed), including by using white and black NeoColor II artsticks (sort of a combo of crayon and pastel and OK to use on fabric…Jane Davila used them in an article in Quilting Arts Mag. a few issues ago). First I decided the yellow didn’t work (see photo of design wall in the previous post)…too distracting, and wanted the quilt to be orange/turquoise (complementary colors). That also meant a “nope” for the black. Here’s my test strip:

Making the koi multicolored, as so many are, was just too jarring. BUT, the washes of sparkly paints worked. In looking at techniques, and my box of paints, I spied the Setacolor “Nacre” or pearlescent paint (a white) and a Stewart Gill Alchemy paint in a color called something like AfterGlow (they used to be for sale at eQuilter, Friends Fabric Art has some of them now– they are expensive, but probably worth splurging for a bottle or two as a special treat, and this site I’ve never seen before has the entire line: Puffinalia.com ) The test strip has the Pearl in the center (between the two stronger white dots) and the AfterGlow above the black blotch.

The photo at the top of this post shows all three fish (plus the head and tail that will be coming into and going out of the quilt) batted and ready to stitch… if you click on the photo you should be able to see it larger, and then see what is painted and what isn’t). I REALLY thinned the paint so that it was just an irridescent wash, which seemed perfect for fish scales. Here’s a closer view of the head / tail:

I couldn’t decide which I preferred: the simplicity of a single line of stitching or a double line:

I tested on the edge, and tried out several colors of orange, a variegated (nice on the orange, but wouldn’t work for controlling the appearance of the scales), and even better when I combined two colors of thread.

The emphasis and subtle color variation by adding a second line of stitching in a slightly lighter shade of the same color, inside the original fish scales worked for me. Here is the fish head in progress (please note the color on these photos is a bit off…)

Well, I decided I liked the doubles…..the singles look good, until I get them up on the wall and step back, at which point I MUCH prefer the double-thread look. Am I insane? Here’s a close-up of one of the big fish, with the two colors of thread used. I quilted first in the slightly darker one, then went back and echoed with the lighter one, on the right.

As for construction, you might wonder what the heck I’m doing quilting fish, and not a quilt. I’m saving time! I’m quilting the tops of the fishies separately, (meaning I don’t have to bury all those thread tails, or have that distracting line of “carried” thread along the sides) and they will then be appliqued to the surface of the quilt and the fins and tails added there….. More anon.

Well, I really should be working on my book. Instead I am indulging myself seriously and trying to finish (!!!!) a 40×60 ish quilt in 6 weeks! The idea is fully formed in my head, I have the fabrics and the beads, and in the past couple of days since finishing the chapter banner, have sketched out the picture in the head into three koi.

Here is the glorious color:

And here is day 1: (sigh…please tilt head to left…it’s a vertical)

Stay tuned for updates…..

And thanks to all for the kind comments on the Chapter Banner. Many of the comments have come through as “No reply.blogger” so I can’t reply to you directly to say thanks for writing, so… Thanks for taking the time to surf in and write! Now… back to the usual morning routine / chaos!

Quite some while ago, I included some quotes from Twyla Tharp; I’d like to do that again, and include some other writers on creativity from time to time. Tharp writes:

“Metaphor is our vocabulary for connecting what we’re experiencing now with what we have experienced before. It’s not only how we express what we remember, it’s how we interpret it, for ourselves and others.”

And then she talks about different kinds of memory:

Muscle memory (for an athlete or a dancer, for example, remembering the shape of a movement–for a quilter, the movement of your arms and hands as you quilt)

Sensory memory (how a smell, for example, triggers a memory of Gramma’s kitchen)

Institutional memory

Ancient memory…things that seem ingrained in our psyches.

So which of these memories are in your quilts? It is the expression and interpretation of memory that make a quilt (or any other medium) art. I don’t know about it being art, but I love my memory-quilt of my Gramma’s kitchen, Flying Toast. It transports me back four decades to a place and time that only four of us still living actually remember: me, cousin Anne, Mom and Aunt Donna–everyone else is gone.

In the detail below, I can see, smell, feel the warmth of the sunlight pouring into the breakfast nook, remember the series of “state” plates on the top plate rail that ran around the room above the windows, and the portion of her collection on the walls. I inherited the toaster table, so scanned it and printed onto fabric to make the table, chairs and toaster table, and think of finding the “ugly linoleum” fabric in central Africa (where I lived at the time) which gave me the original idea to make this quilt (some ten plus years before it actually got made!). The walls are plaster, and outside the archway into the breakfast nook is the ceramic clock Aunt Katie made. She spent most of her 84 years in Wyoming, living in the back of the beyond, but she was an artist at heart, in addition to mom, devoted wife to a ranch hand, cook to all the cowboys who rode in as a ravenous horde at lunchtime, yet living outside the thriving metropolis of Meeteetsee (population about 600) she had her kiln and art supplies and found time and spirit for creativity.

At LONG last, my portion of the Chapter Banner is done done DONE! Someone else is going to do the hand finishing, but I have sewed on the binding, pinned it in place for this photo, made the hanging sleeve and sewed it into the top binding, and have only to do a label! That, will happen later!!!!

I finished the top border with the state flower and bird: the White Pine cone and tassel,

and the black-capped Chickadee:

And here is the final result:

I SURE HOPE THEY LIKE IT!

At long last, here it is–laid out on the design wall anyway! I did the applique for the top border, and will be adding a chickadee and pine bough (state bird and tree/flower), and some flying geese going from the sky up into the top border. The blocks aren’t in their final positions…need to do some fine tuning, and need to add the Elm Street Schoolhouse block, the Camden Public Library, Tower on Mt. Battie and islands in the bay, as well as the inner border. Hmm… a fair amount to do, but eager to do it!

Now I need to get cracking and finish my parts of the construction and start quilting! This is gonna be FUN! As I said in the first of these posts a while ago, I am SO PROUD of each and every person who contributed to this quilt. It is going to be the finest Chapter Banner in the state, and there are some pretty fine banners out there. I am SO LUCKY to have moved to Camden, and to Maine, and to have found such a wonderful and supportive group of quilters here. Life is good!