Geometric shapes by Gloria Dighton

I have become addicted to  working on these quilts. My theme was to use geometric shapes to show depth or movement. I want to use black and white backgrounds and just evolved into using reds and gold for the shapes.  I have tried to use different techniques for finishing the quilts.

Overlapping circles

For my latest circle quilt I decided to use commercial batiks. The top has 4 layers and each layer has different sizes of circles in different places. After pinning all layers together the result is a see-through of the circles. As there were so many layers a facing was rather difficult, so I settled on a sheer yellow binding. Quilting design was a simple one, just following the design of the fabrics.

Tunisia Past and Present - Quilt No 2

Salammbô.
My second quilt is also about the past and Carthago. My inspiration was the historical novel by Gustave Flaubert set in Carthago and called Salammbô.

The text is an extract from the book, it is free motion quilted. The border is stencilled before being quilted.

 

Cut out from a black vliesofix (? not sure of the name of this product)the shadowed columns and site are taken from one of my picture.

 

I printed the fabric for the vase with acrylic on hand dyed fabric using a Greek vase I've at home as an inspiration.

Wilderness Canoe Trip – 2 Colours of the lake, coming both from the depths of water and the reflected light of an inky dawn sky. Every shade of blue, interspersed with almost blacks and almost greens shining with luminescent properties. The sky is linked to the huge lake as it meets the horizon and just a fine shimmer determines the division. Created using fabric scraps in many shades, stitched with metallic thread. “Clouds” created using quilting thread tied in loops.

Wilderness Canoe Trip – 1, A partially cloudy sky reflects in the glass-like glinting flatness of a huge and completely calm lake in the remote Boundary Waters of Minnesota. The tiny drips from my paddle as I make gentle progress through this vast stillness create rippled circles. The ripples grow in size and their effect on the flat water magnifies as I paddle forward. Created using a vintage piece of indigo dyed African fabric, hand stitched with various embroidery threads and glass beads.

Anonymous

My second quilt from my theme. In the beginning I had no idea. I played with some pics and printed them on fabric, cut it  and sew it together again. How to go further?
After a long thought I decided to add positive and negative figures and call it "Anonymous". They are always on the background, aren't they? The figures are fused and stitched on the background.
For some reason I'm not quite satisfied, don't know why? Is there something too much or something too little?

I will think about it. Any suggestions?

Detail.

Memories of Leksand

Here is my second quilt, I will probably try to complete my 4 before May as I need to have at least 20 new quilts for my exhibition at Veldhoven in May. They need to be 60cm so my stitched pieces will be displayed there. I also needed to do some samples for my teaching showing the use of Burmilana thread so this has been a good exercise. The design is based on Swedish textiles seen in a museum in Leksand in the Dalarna region of Sweden. 

Throwing pebbles into the pond

Here is another one of my circle quilts. I discovered that I really like this theme and I have so many ideas that I just can not stop creating new ones:-). Here is my latest quilt. The title gave me some problems, but an internet friend gave me a push in the right direction. It is called Throwing pebbles into the pond:

This is my first piece of "Trip to Tuscany", trying to play with lights and darks. I will keep the same design for the serie and switch the darks and lights throughout.

My original designs show some flowers on the bottom right side, but I decided not to put them.

LINE

My favourite shape is a circle/sphere/orb.  I am drawn to the smooth curve of the line and so decided to use this shape for my series of work.  My plan for the first quilt in the series was to dissect the shape, breaking it down and to play around with it to create patterns.

After experimenting with the shapes using pencil and paper I went on to draw the shapes into acrylic paint onto my Gelli Plate.  Prints were then taken onto strips of fabric which were then pieced together and quilted with an all over free machine stitch pattern which  came from one of my doodle drawings.

My theme

My theme for this year is Wilderness Lake Waters, chosen following a canoe trip to a wilderness area in Minnesota.

Carthago delenda est

My theme is  "Tunisia Past & Present" : this quilt belongs to the Past serie.
I've chosen to represent the chaos after Carthago's destruction : the broken mosaïcs,
red and yellow for the fire.

The vase is a lacrymal vase and I would like to keep it as a moto in the different quilts. 
The coins are made from rubbings with a real coin coming from Carthago.

The title is from the famous sentence said by Cato the Elder
"Carthago must be destroyed"
 

Posted by Chantal Febbuary the 1rst