I'VE MOVED!!!

Thanks for stopping by!!!  Please check out my new website and blog at www.sharoncaseyquilts.com  -- See you there!!!

What is your PASSION?

I am passionate about the color blue. 
This is a detail of "Blue Immersion," which was selected!

"Blue Cogs" - detail

Yippee! Two of my quilts were accepted into "Shades of Passion," a juried quilt show opening October 2 in Southern California!

Both quilts - "Blue Immersion" and "Blue Cogs" were inspired by the color and texture of the blue fabrics in my stash and my love of intricate quilting designs.

The selected art quilts will grace the circular walls of the grand lobby and staircase of the Poway Center for the Performing Arts in Poway, California. They will also be on sale and available when the show ends October 31.

_________________________________

What is your passion? That was the question posed to quilt artists earlier this year. Is it a certain color? A person or place? A favorite memory? "Shades of Passion," a show featuring quilts inspired by the passions of the artists, will be on display starting October 10 at the Poway Center for the Performing Arts in northern San Diego County. 

"Shades of Passion" Regional Showcase
Poway Center for the Performing Arts, Poway, California
October 2014

Quilt selected for "1000 Quilt Inspirations"

"Blue Cogs" - detail
Designs around the edges of the quilt were drawn
and painted with fabric and permanent markers 

One of my quilts has been accepted into the upcoming book, "1000 Quilt Inspirations," to be published by Quarry Press in January, 2015. Titled "Blue Cogs," it reminds me of some kind of wacky bobbin-winding machine. Maybe I should have titled it "Blue Bobbins and Thread!" I feel so honored to have a quilt selected by author Sandra Sider, a well-known artist, author and curator in the art quilt world.

"Blue Cogs"
Made with 100 percent cotton commercial and hand dyed fabric, pieced, fused, and
free motion quilted; couching of thicker threads around "cogs"

Sunshiny day

During quilting

A friend of mine is very ill, and I wanted to make her a warm, cuddly lap quilt.

Quilt taking shape on the wall behind me

For inspiration, I asked for her favorite colors and without hesitation she said, "pink, purple and yellow!" I began cutting free form strips (no rulers!) and pieced the colors together in a pleasing gradation.

During the quilting stage I filled her quilt with hearts and words such as Love, Hope, Joy and the names of her husband, two children and faithful canine companion. I hope it brings some cheer to her days.

I filled the quilt with words of inspiration, love and hope.

Over the moon with SAQA

Staircase to the Moon, May 2014

100 percent cotton fabric, hand-dyed, paper pieced, free motion quilted

TA-DAAA! I just sent off this lunar-themed abstract art quilt to SAQA - as my donation to the 2014 SAQA Benefit Auction.

WHAT IS SAQA? www.saqa.com
SAQA stands for Studio Art Quilt Associates, a nonprofit, worldwide organization to promote the art quilt and the artists who create them.

I joined SAQA just recently to immerse myself more fully in the art quilt world, to learn, grow, and advance as an artist.

Close-up of quilting

HOW TO BID ON A QUILT:
Starting September 15, art quilts donated by artists of all levels, from beginning artists to established, award-winning artists will be auctioned off. For information on how to bid on a quilt, go to:
http://www.saqa.com/memberArt.php?ID=1186

WHERE TO SEE THE QUILTS:
http://www.saqa.com/memberArt.php?ID=3152

From their website:
"SAQA creates professional development opportunities for the membership that continue to address the ever-changing needs of the artist. From basic studio management to mastering current technology for both business and artistic purposes, SAQA members have access to a treasure trove of support for taking their artwork and career to the next level."

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

Free Motion Feathers

I've been working on my free motion quilting. I love spirals and swoops, but feathers have been a real challenge. So I've been practicing .... feathers, feathers, feathers and more feathers!

Wild biology

It's amazing what a few marking pens and a sense of wild abandon can do...
Originally I was quilting this piece with white thread to create trapunto-like designs and texture and it just wasn't working ...  the circles began to look like a bad case of measles and I thought I was going to have to consign it to the UFO (UnFinished Objects) pile.
But I'm learning ... if you just let a project sit for a bit it allows space for an "aha" moment to happen and change everything!  I woke up the other morning with this in my head and I've been tangling with fabric markers and quilting ever since!
It still looks like something biological to me, like blood cells dividing and dancing around.... hmmmm...

What's on YOUR wall? - WEEK 4

Zentangles!!!

Oh goodie! A new obsession!
They are called Zentangles and making them is both an art and a meditative practice. I spent a couple of days going crazy with them: making them, reading about them, studying them late into the night and waking up with them on my brain.
www.zentangle.com
The patterns are beautiful and I can see so many possibilities for free-motion quilting. I even have some flashes of insight for piecing based on some of the Zentangle shapes.

What's on YOUR wall? -- WEEK 3

Wow... another week has blown by and knocked me off course!!! I've been taking care of "stuff" in real life, which is necessary, but I get cranky when there is too much of it!!! So now I'm back in the studio, playing and getting my soul filled up.

The red piece on the wall looked like this last week:

 Then it morphed into this:

AAAAAAGHHH!!!!  A red alert started flashing and a voice was saying "Danger, danger Will Robinson!!!" (For those of you not watching TV in the 60s, just ignore this.) I think the glare from all that red was causing a dangerous flux in the fabric of the time-space continuum... plus it lost the cool circles which were my favorite part...

So I set it aside for a bit. That's all you can do sometimes... and just wait for fresh intuition to tell you what to do. If you try to push it you can end up with a hot mess. Art cannot be forced, it must be allowed. I make the space for it and it does what it wants to.

"Emeralds" in the woods

"Square-Cut Emeralds"
34 x 24 inches

Today I finished this "modern quilt" and photographed it in our woodsy back yard. It was inspired by the "Pantone 2013 Color of the Year" Emerald Quilt Challenge, created by Ali at www.asquaredw.com.



I free-cut everything with my rotary cutter (no measuring, no ruler) for a "wonky" effect when the slight curves were pieced together, which reminds me of the Gee's Bend quilts. The blue-green squares represent square-cut emeralds, and the white stripe in the center represents the "sparkle" of the gemstone. I quilted it in one big spiral with my walking foot. I've included pictures of earlier stages of the quilt and the back ...

Quilts quilts quilts quilts quilts

Since this is a brand spanking new blog, I have a lot of white space to fill! And why is there a three year gap in my quilting?

In 2009 I became so ill with a disabling disease that I could no longer quilt. I spent several years bedridden and using a wheelchair to get to doctor and hospital visits. A life-changing surgery in November of 2012 freed me and now I feel like a young kid charging out onto the playground! Being able to walk, sit at my machine, and drive to the fabric store are things I no longer take for granted.

So I'm blowing the dust off the Bernina and jumping in! Life is GOOD!

Take the Steps
54 x 38

Take the Steps, detail

A sampling of quilts

Here are a few of my quilting explorations so far....

• Take the Steps - 2003, Juried into "Sacred Threads" Exhibition, Columbus, OH
• Sarah with Guitar - 2008, private collection
• Lake Quilts - 2004, Exhibited at "Les Femmes Artists" and televised on local NBC affiliate
• Looking at You - 2006 - Juried into "Fragments" Exhibit, Museum of Art, Bakersfield, CA
• Faces - 2007, Juried in "Portraits" Exhibit, Liberty Art Gallery, Yreka, CA
• Dancing Green - 2008, Recycled Challenge, Quilting Arts Magazine, private collection

Sarah with Guitar, detail

Sarah with Guitar
28 x 20

Starry Lake
16 x 12

Moon Lake
16 x 12

Magenta Lake
16 x 14