Walking on Sunshine
Walking on Sunshine Various fabrics and thread, machine pieced and quilted by Sarah Atlee, 2016 66 x 56 inches
I absolutely love working with donated fabrics. You get a bunch of things that were never meant to go together, and you make them go together.
Walking on Sunshine is headed to the Community First! village, an innovative housing solution in Austin, TX.
Learn more about Mobile Loaves & Fishes
What is the Community First! Village?
Contribute your quilting skills to the Community First! Quilters
Current Blocks for Art of the Month at Current Studio
Current Block 4: Eccentric Orbit Various fabrics and thread, machine pieced and quilted, 8.5" x 8" 2016 by Sarah Atlee
EDIT: I created this series of mini quilts for an Art of the Month Club at the former Current Studio gallery in Oklahoma City.
Sarah Atlee was the January 2017 Featured Artist for Art of the Month at Current Studio!
I am making a series of unique improvisational quilts, 8 to 9 inches square, exclusively for Current Studio.
Current Studio features a different artist each month for their subscribers. Sarah Atlee's art was featured in January 2017.
Dot Dot Dash
In Dot Dot Dash, I set out to explore visual rhythms. We know that I love stripes. Turns out, I love dots too.
I had so many fun fabrics to choose from. Some donated to the Community First! Quilters, some I purchased myself. In particular, I've been in love with this Dottie Jean Jacket print by Rashida Coleman-Hale for Cotton + Steel.
Does it get any better than strip-piecing?
So much fun to quilt this thing!
Aah, texture.
On the back: cream-colored flannel, and a variegated blue thread.
Along one edge, Community First! is spelled out in Morse code, using buttons. Light buttons for dashes, dark buttons for dots.
Dot Dot Dash was donated to the Community First! village, an innovative housing solution in Austin, TX.
Learn more about Mobile Loaves & FishesWhat is the Community First! Village?Contribute your quilting skills to the Community First! Quilters
Piece of Pie
Piece of Pie is a quilt completed in 2016 for an expert pie-baker (and her new baby).
I love improvisational curves! There's so much room to make mistakes.
Banana-shaped free-motion quilting to go with the upcycled sock monkey bedsheets.
Quilting lines, seen from the back.
The seal of approval.
Home Is Where the Art Is
Home. It's a nebulous concept, one that's been on my mind a lot lately. These mini quilts are an expression of longing, rootlessness - perhaps "home" is a part of us that we always carry, though it may drift to the bottom with the kleenex and loose change.
[The Home quilts were created for my top-tier Patreon patrons in 2016. I closed my Patreon page in 2022.]
Following is a more detailed look at the quilt construction process:
Notes on construction, quilting patterns.
Drawing a general outline onto the batting.
Sewing the pieces directly onto the batting, as part of a quilt-as-you-go technique.
The first one with all three layers (top, batting backing) assembled and quilted.
Quilting lines look so cool on the back.
Moving down the assembly line...
Finished blocks, photographed on a convenient hedge.
Quilting creates such wonderful textures.
More stitches. I'm not a fan of stitch-in-the-ditch, but I love getting right up toward those ditches.
home-blocks-closeup-3-500
Hand-finished binding, always perfectly imperfect.
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