Fibermania

Street Cred

Dear Melody,
I am loving your new "street" series. But I am wondering...are you thinking of these as color studies for something bigger? Or you're making them just because they're fun?

Where do you see these going, or do you think about that?

I notice that in these small pieces, you've incorporated the "stacks" construction you've emphasized before, plus the strip sets...sort of a synthesis of things you've been exploring for a while. But (maybe because i have a hard time staying small) I'm wondering whether you're planning to go bigger with this idea?

I really love what you're doing with these.

Diane

Dear Diane,

So glad you asked. In November and December of last year when I took a quilting hiatus, I was really ready to throw in the towel with quilting. But I didn't feel I could announce that because I have tons of teaching scheduled and it wouldn't do to have a teacher who hated everything she was making and never wanted to make another quilt as long as she lived. I am very dramatic.

I quit quilting in my mind, and went on to paint and have a lot of fun and got a modicum of success under my belt and it melted my angst and when the end came and I had to go back to work at quilting, I had discovered something that changed my mind.

I found my voice, my niche, my style, my unique Mel-ness. In painting, I learned how to work in a series that really worked for me. And I found I could translate that into my quilts and proceeded to do that very thing.

And it only took 25 years!

Staying in this size has provided me with a short time frame, preventing fussing, and a finiteness of scale that encourages better design. At this size even the most precious fabrics can be used with abandon. ( And I intend to use some precious fabrics any minute now).
I am keeping to a few signature elements, but limiting them in each piece. These are strips, dots and chunks of glowing colors, meaning fabrics where the dye shifts color and seems to light up.

The hand work is important as the line element. In my painting I discovered that I needed to include lines that referenced the drawing which preceeded the paint. In the quilts I also need to include that line or it doesn't look finished. The hand stitching provides the personal touch.

Color can be a double edged sword. Some of my designs had lost power because of a disorganized use of color. Now finally I feel that I am in command. I have discovered harmony! There is enough 'all color, all the time' in my work and to limit myself to a single hue and all its variations has opened up a huge new world for me. Now I am scrounging my stash for pale variants and deep dark versions too.

I have chosen to keep to this size as a constant, and that has helped me learn what it is that I am doing. I am sticking them up on my wall and having a fantasy gallery show. I may make some in an 18" format when I am finished with this series. Who knows? I have not needed to make them larger because I am not entering them in regular quilt shows, which is part of the angst that made me want to give up quilting last year.
I have lost interest in quilting for competition's sake.
I only want to make stuff that amuses me and makes me happy. I wanna enjoy the process and feel that what I make is an end in itself.

On the other hand, I feel that working small can lead to discovering ways to make bigger quilts better. Any of the pieces that I made in this format could be enlarged to 48" squarish with little effort. But that doesn't mean that they need to be, either. The intimacy of scale has a different value, and since I travel with my work, it sure helps that is doesn't weigh as much as a four foot quilt would!

Since I "quit quilting" and just started having fun again, I am reminded of what got me into quilting in the first place, and I am hoping to bring a little more fun into my classes and less stress on what the contests demand.

Thank you for asking and for giving me an opportunity to explain my motivations.

Limon Lane

Limon Lane
Hand dyed cottons, fused, hand and machine quilted, ~12" squarish