Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Rita's Surprise guilt

Rita's Seasonal Surprise Quilt
     Until my mid 30's I lived in central Illinois and southern Indiana where the change of season and scenery came and went like clockwork.  But each change of season seemed as a SURPRISE gift to me as if the current season produced amnesia of all seasons past.  We have lived in central Texas for over 30 years and I do miss the definite season change.  Someone once said that the four seasons in Texas are 1. almost summer, 2. summer, 3. still summer, and 4. Christmas.
     The background for the fused raw edge and edge stitched applique is a fun technique to design an original pieced block.  This technique was developed by Raymond Houston and was presented by him as a guest on Alex Anderson's TV show, Simple Quilts. To do this, start with a square divided into a 3 x 3 grid.  Choose a word  (I chose winter, spring, fall, and winter.) and draw a line for each letter from each of the endpoints along the side of the grid using Raymond's alphabetical chart.  Superinpose all the lines of one word on top of one another.  Make four copies of the lined grid and then following the rules of symmetry, create the design. This is always a SURPRISE as to how the individual grids interact withone another in different symmetry arrangements.  With sixteen copies of the grid, some additional SURPRISING secondary patterns appear as well.  These can hopefully be seen in the background squares.  The individual two inch squares were paper pieced (16 squares for each season) and before  being trimmed for this project, all of them together contained exactly 400 pieces.

8 comments:

  1. This is a comment by Rita about Rita's post. I do not think there is any guilt(should read quilt) attached to this offering. Just another senior moment!!

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  2. Rita, I so agree with everything that Alice said about your quilt. Love the definition of the 4 seasons in Texas. Having lived in N.E. my whole life, I tend to forget that most of the country does not get to enjoy the distinct 4 seasons that we do here. I hope that you are displaying this quilt in a prominent place...the change of season is truly a gift.

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  3. Rita, I think I would need to have this technique demonstrated to me as it sounds quite complicated!! Your depiction of the seasons is impeccable and the construction of them so involved. Bravo for such an endeavor!!! I can't decide which season is my favorite, winter and spring are tied!!!!

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  4. OK Rita, You have knocked our socks of. You are a poetic and technical genius. I am staggered. Had to go right to bed! Congrats on a perfect piece and taking one stem through the miraculous continuous surprises and gifts of nature.

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  5. Rita, this is an exquisite quilt! I am so fortunate to live close enough to you to learn Raymond Houston's technique from you! As always, your confident use of all the design and construction elements important in quilting are present in your quilt. In terms of design, you have a sure touch with color, value, shape and line. And your precise and careful construction--so apparent when you "click to enlarge" make me humble in my admiration. I am probably going on and on at too great a length, but the way you depict the seasonal changes with color and with the branch: bare, blooming, fruiting, and then turning with seasonal autumn colors--well, breathtaking. I love the secondary designs that emerge in this little quilt, love the added touch of the center star where the sections come together. Congratulations on a truly surprising and wonderful quilt! PS I didn't even notice the typo!

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  6. Rita, I am blown away by your quilt. I wish I could see this one in person as it is esquisite without even being able to enlarge the picture. This is stunning

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  7. Rita, I am blown away by your talent. What a beautiful way to portray the four season. Outstanding!

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  8. Rita, oh my goodness! I agree with all the other comments, your quilt is stunning! I need a class on that technique!

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