New Quilts

Bali Bloom could be considered complete! Here is a picture of it with the curvy border, offset bloom and background leaves. The remaining question is: to bead or not to bead? Since it is a big piece (38 x 48) even beading judiciously will require a lot of beads. I am considering it, though, where each petal overlaps the next one. Possible also in the center, a few yellow beads? What do you think? I have asked several quilting friends who caution that beading will add a lot of time to a piece that can essentially stand on its own now. I’ll mull it over a bit.

Meanwhile, I am starting a new piece, yippee! I hope this will be the first in a series based on photographs taken on the Portland Trails. If you are not familiar with the Portland Trail system, it is a wonderful network of wooded walks that wind through the city. Within steps of each trail head you are removed from traffic, sidewalks, cars and city sounds and sights. It is really quite remarkable. I began walking many of the trails this winter, camera in hand, and have several photos I am anxious to turn into small quilts. I want to think about this series as ‘Fairy Habitats along Portland Trails’, so while each will be based on a photo taken along the trail, fairies and their environments will hopefully creep into each scene. I’d love to do 6 to 12 quilts in the series—we’ll see how it develops. Here is a tree trunk and fairy wings (the fairy will be added, as will a door in the trunk.) The photo that inspired this scene was taken along University Park Trail—one of the shortest trails in the system, off Allen Avenue. I absolutely love the technique I learned from Christine Fries-Ureel for creating tree trunks from strips and scraps of diverse fabrics.

Finally, I have been asked to create a wall hanging for a co-worker that can be anything I want, any technique, as long as it includes an angel. How fun! I am researching angels at the moment, especially Victorian and Art Nouveau paintings. This could become a reason Bali Bloom gets declared complete without beads!

See more of my quilt photos at: http://community.webshots.com/user/roconnorquilts