ALL THAT JAZZ

I'm having so much fun working on "Jazz One" and "Jazz Two," the first in a series of small musical quilts.

This is how it looked after cutting and placing black strips for the "piano keys."

I started with some purple fabrics I liked and began sewing strips together, adding in the brown tones. The black and white areas reminded me of the keyboard of a piano, so I added the black keys...

So far I've quilted the purple areas but left the "keyboard" open...  I'm thinking of quilting the outline of the white keys ... and maybe adding a little sparkle in the area above the keys.... perhaps quilt some music notes...? hmmm  We will see in my next post! Stay tuned! (hah!)

This is how it looked when I first started putting strips up on the wall, before I started visualizing the piano keys. I showed this to my sister and she said "oh, jazz! It reminds me of jazz music!" That inspired me to explore further, and I'm glad I did! 

Feeling blue means feeling happy!

"Feeling Blue"

I love the color blue. It calms me and centers me. Instead of feeling blue as in feeling "down" -- I like to turn it around. When I feel those "blues" sneaking up on me I start getting out my favorite blue fabrics and diving in. I like to soak my eyes in all the hues of blue, from the deep purple-ish and violet blues to blue jean denim blues, teal blues, sky blues... I love them all...

"Feeling Blue" detail

"Feeling Blue" detail

"Feeling Blue" detail

"Feeling Blue" is my latest study in blue. I pieced some of my favorite blues together, centered around an abstract black and white strip (another favorite motif). Then I played with several quilting styles on this. You can see the variety in the detail shots. 

There is one panel with two angel fish in it -- see them swimming around?!

Angel Fish swimming on the quilt surface