2024 Wrap-Up

 How far into 2025 is it still ok to do a 2024 Wrap-Up post?  I'm still not finished blogging about the 2024 quilts, but here we go anyway with the wrap-up.

The first half of 2024 was spent working on getting ready for my the Synthesis: Mixed Media show at the NM State Capitol, but after that deadline had passed I was able to work on a larger variety of things.  Very happily I completed one of my liturgical manuscript quilts as well as got a good start on another one (will be a 2025 finish), that series is so close to my heart.

This first group are the ones for Synthesis

C. Bauri, Feathers or Scales

Hondo Valley Iris

These first two sold, so that's nice.

Origami 1

Origami 2

Those two were also made for the show at the Capitol last summer even though I didn't get to blogging about them until just a couple of weeks ago.

Tumbling Blocks

Tumbling blocks was also originally made for the Capitol show, but I wound up not displaying it there in lieu of entering it into something else (which it didn't get into).

After finishing the things for the Capitol, I worked on other stuff.

Chinle Formation

Chinle Formation was my entry for 4 Common Corners Rocks!

Galaxies, Suns, and the Planets in their Courses

This one was for 4 Common Corners Improv and I love how it turned out.

Summer in Lincoln County, 2024

This one was made for the SAQA Primal Forces: Fire but didn't get in.

Homecoming

North Eagle Creek

These two were made for the SAQA regional Exhibition Living Language Land-Inspired.

All Good Gifts

This was by far my favorite quilt of 2024, another in my series of liturgical pieces.  Another one should be coming up as the first finish of 2025.

So quite a few quilts in 2024, but most small and/or fairly quick pieces for the Capitol show.  The next Capitol show will be in 2026, so I have a little time in 2025 to work on some slow projects just for me and I'm looking forward to that.

New Quilt: Tumbling Blocks

 I have previously made a couple of 3D quilts using quilted triangles (for example here and here) and I really enjoyed those as a way to use up quilted scraps and do some sculptural things.  Last year I was looking for a way to expand that general idea. The idea of doing actual tumbling blocks jumped out at me,  not the appearance of tumbling blocks but 3D ones made from squares.

I started with the same quilted cast-offs as for the prior projects.  Some of these are tes quilt sandwiches, some are projects I didn't care for that got cut up, but most come from the edges of quilts I cut off during the squaring up process.  I pieced them together by abutting and zig zagging the edges if they weren't quite big enough.

After getting together a bunch of squares, I started assembling them into these three square units, trying to have a light, medium, and dark in each unit.  Of course it's 100% scrappy, so some units had more contrast than others.

I sewed them all together into an overall diamond shape, but the whole thing was extremely soft and floppy so I knew it needed some support.  My sister and her husband purchased a new mattress and I'd saved the old one (it was foam) because I figured it would come in useful for something.  Apart from making a few dog beds, most of it was just sitting in my garage.  Using an electric carving knife I hacked it into cube shapes as best I could and used fabric glue to attach them to the back of the quilt.  That provided plenty of support but was pretty ugly, so I stitched pink fabric over the whole thing and then mounted it on the hanging frame.

Unfortunately, the edges were still really floppy, so I stiffened them using GAC400 Fabric stiffener.  The cardboard and clamps below are to help the edges hold their shape while they dry.

Here's the final piece a little from the side and then square on below.  It's fairly large, 70" x 44' x 6".  I'd originally made it for the 2024 NM State Capitol Mixed Media show, but decided to pull it at the last minute to enter into Quilt National.  I'm not surprised it didn't get in though,  this is an idea that I was and am really excited about, but I think the execution on this one could be improved going forward.  I do really love the scrappiness and using up all those bits that were leftover, it's just not quite even enough for my tastes.

Tumbling Blocks, c. 2024 Shannon Conley

Tumbling Blocks, c. 2024 Shannon Conley