I confess – I had forgotten I had this little piece until it rolled out from the back of the cupboard in a recent clear out. An early member of the series, it was shown in in my Washington DC show in 2005, but not seen since I unpacked it returning from that.
Having my website redesigned just now has set me wondering, where is # 5 ? I keep a list of quilts/availability/year made/price, but neither made it onto that list, which is bad enough, but, and unusually for me, I didn’t have an images of them either, until I took one of this one, #4, the other day. but never will of #5. I think I may have subtitled a small piece Ebb &Flow #5, but since the one I am thinking of sold and has gone, I can’t check for sure. My record keeping has some gaps, but then, I am not sure whether this really matters much in the long run, as I doubt any curator is ever going to be searching through and assembling a restrospective of my quilts.
Ebb & Flow #8
followed on from the idea of this layout. Of course I love repeat units, but in #8 the units are separated by blank unpieced squares across which the quilting continues, imho a more pleasing effect. And in #8 also, the quilting takes on more design importance. It is pictured on my blog xxxxx and website.
For the technically inclined:- dimensions are 36″ H x 30″ W, the fabrics are machine pieced (not bonded fused or appliqued) and quilting is by machine, both in the ditch where units join, and wandering horizontally across the cream, stopping wherever that comes up against print. So, lots of stopping and starting, ends darned in as I go, but not tedious, it’s just the way I work.
English
I love this series. I ran across your magazine article on the method not long ago. I’d saved it to try long before I “knew” you through lists and blogs. I still haven’t tried your curved piecing technique, but it’s on the list for 2009, especially now that I realize those directions are yours.
Of course, freehand roatary cutting and piecing, aka ‘Improvisational Piecing’ comes from the teaching far and wide by Nancy Crow and other teachers who studied with her from the early 90’s and since. I’m one of them. She did not invent the method (Marilyn Stothers and others) but she did help refine it and the teaching of it. It is ideal for working quickly through the mass of colour and design exercises that students in Nancy’s classes get through, and has become a modern tradition, really, because so many people now routinely work this way. Plenty of examples on my website.