I have been enjoying the challenge of making a small quilt that gets auctioned off for an art-related organization I support, something I've done a few times now. Mostly it is for Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA), which I have mentioned before, and the recent two (I had to pick one to send) fall into that category. I had two ideas. One I'm keeping.
Dancing in the Dark will be auctioned September, 2026, and I'll post the information about the auction then. This one is a little nostalgia, a song from a Fred Astaire movie, the freedom of childhood dancing, and a metaphor for finding joy, even in dark times. It has my little girl dancing stencil, which I made and used in When She Was Very Young.
Dancing in the Dark
12" x 12" (30.5 cm x 30.5 cm)
Variety of cotton, linen, velvet, and silk scraps; hand-dyed cotton; Japanese cotton; raw-edge appliqué; hand stenciled; free-motion quilted; machine joined
Detail
the back
The second quilt, Bay Crows, is actually the first one I made. Down by the bay I watch how the resident crows have learned from the gulls to access the food source living inside hard shells. They fly up, drop the shell, and swoop down when it breaks to eat the mollusks clinging within. Crows adapt to their surroundings, learning quickly where to find food. I'm curious about crows and have used the crow feather stencils in previous quilts, created first for Don't Look Behind You, and used again recently in Of a Feather.
Bay Crows
12" x 12" (30.5 cm x 30.5 cm)
Pigmented linen; hand stenciled; free-motion and machine quilted and joined
detail
back
The quilt pile on the spare bed keeps growing. Even though the 12x12 (or 6x8 or whatever the dimensional constraint is) quilts are small, I like that occasionally one gets to go out into the world, hopefully getting a happy home.
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