Tricia's Luminosity

I created this piece from a photograph I saw of Sankaty Light House at sunset on Nantucket. I thought the moon behind the light house is a great example of luminosity. 

I used raw edge applique, fusibles and free motion quilting.
 

Nedra's Luminous - Grahams' Giraffe

 When my kids visited us in Georgia this past April vacation Graham, my 8 yr old. grandson,  slept in my "studio". He knew I made quilts, but it was the first time he got to see my workspace and design wall.  Many of my favorite MM quilts are pinned to the top of the design wall.  He called me in the room and asked what they were for and if I could tell him about them.  I explained our blog and themes and he asked what was our next theme. I said luminous;  he smiled and his eyes sparkled!!  "Could we help you make this one", he asked eagerly!!

I was touched as this was the first time he expressed so much interest in my work, even though I've made him and his sisters several quilts over the years!!  I of course took him up on it!!  He and his twin sister Noelle spent the next 2 hours with me planning what to do.  "It needs a moon", he said.  I agreed that was a great idea and asked what else we should do.  "Well we could have a giraffe too"!!!  (These kids know their Grandma I thought.).  I let them pick the fabric we would use and draw the giraffe and moon .  I helped them cut out the figures which we fused to the background.  I let them stitch down the pieces on the machine, with my help guiding the fabric.  We added the spots on the giraffe with pearlescent paint and glitter to it and the moon. for more shimmer.  Graham then decided we needed grass since the giraffe was "kind of above the ground".  (Very good design sense I thought!)   I gave him some inktense pencils to add blades of grass.   That was as far as we got since we had plans for a dolphin-watching boat ride later.  We didn't find more time to complete it as they were busy and left a day later.

After they left, I added the acacia tree and embellished the blades of grass as they were quite light and not very visible. I machine quilted the background and added a few beads as a finishing touch.

It was very exciting to work on this together!!  Without their ideas and enthusiasm I don't think I would have made a quilt for this theme!!

I 

Andrea's Luminous Quilt

"Glow"

11" x 14" 

Cotton, Dupioni Silk

How colors can dramatically change when placed next to each other has fascinated me for years.  When I started to think about how I wanted to approach Luminous, I decided I wanted the quilt to be a simple design using only solid fabrics and the title would be "Glow".  The "pop" of silk was added because of the luminous  quality of the fabric ( and I was getting a bit bored with just the greys and greens!!! ).  I think I achieved the glow I was hoping for, but I'm sorry that I did not fuse instead of piece.  That ugly little voice in my head is shouting that my seams are not straight, and there are many wrinkles that should be flat!