From dandelion to lotus

I took a few pictures before cutting up my dandelion quilt.
I made a very quick sketch inspired by lotus pictures taken in Japan in summer 2010. As you know, the lotus flower is an important symbol in Buddhism.
With this sketch, I just wanted to get a rough idea of the colour distribution on the new quilt. I'm even not completely sure yet of all the colours I will use, and I also want my design to get much more abstract than this.
But now, I know how to cut up the dandelion, and I'm going to do it as soon as I'm finished with this post.
Then I plan to build my piece rather freely on the design wall. I want to get away from my landscape quilts where I had to follow my sketches closely and measure almost every piece of fabric.
As a little recreation, I couldn't resist playing a few minutes on the computer with my source picture. I saved these two versions. I don't plan to use them for this quilt but they might prove useful for another one.

Back to quilting

Carla Sonheim's class is over. I had so much fun. I definitely need to keep this habit of drawing a little everyday.
Here's a picture of my desk yesterday night just before I cleaned it up...
And here's the little guy of the other day. I think he became a little gal in the meantime.
Now it's really time to start working on my Metamorphosis quilt. The deadline is February 12th!

Did you see the last exciting news about Twelve by Twelve? You didn't? Look here then. A 6-page article in Quilting Arts magazine. Nice, isn't it?
There's also an article about us in Patchwork- und Quiltjournal, and yes, it's official, I am a cover girl. ;-)
Ok, enough boasting for today! I am off to my studio now to try and cut up that rejected dandelion quilt.

Two more creatures

An imaginary creature in watercolour and pencil,and a quick scribble of my beautiful boy...
Yes, we also draw real creatures in Carla Sonheim's class. :-)

Hello 2012!

First post of the year, at last!
This week, I am having fun doing Carla Sonheim's Imaginary Creatures online class, as a belated birthday present to myself.
Here are some of the creatures I painted yesterday...
This class is wonderful. I'm so glad I finally decided to sign up.

I haven't started to work on my Metamorphosis quilt yet. But I'm seeing change and impermanence everywhere...
Yesterday evening, I somehow forgot a pot of rice on the stove... I can tell you that the lovely whiteness and fluffiness of cooked rice is highly impermanent... I'm not yet finished cleaning the ugly black hard stuff that's now sticking to my pot...
Anyway, one of the ideas I had for this Metamorphosis quilt was to transform one of my rejected quilts.
This dandelion was a candidate quilt for the first Twelve by Twelve challenge back in 2007. I finally made another one featuring a white dandelion seed head. But now I am thinking of recycling this yellow flower and using it for the new challenge.
I like this idea because it would involve many layers of metamorphosis.