Claire Sherman Art

Star class and quilts

Posted on February 13, 2018 by admin

On Feb. 4 I taught a liberated star class at Hello Stitch. The name of the class was Very Variable Star. As I was making demo stars for the class, I wanted to see what would happen if I put a star inside a star, inside a star. I only had the first two made by the day of the class. There’s a saying, I think it’s in the Talmud, “I have learned much from my teachers, but more from my students.” The idea to do the largest star from ombre fabric came from one of my students, Mary Spadero. Thanks, Mary! I’m not going to make this any larger as it is already 39″ x 39″. Below are some of my students’ stars:

On the wall in the background are two quilts by Sujata Shah. Her show is still up at Hello Stitch if you want to see it.

Posted in Classes, Improvisational piecing, Lib-Quilters, liberated stars, Work In Progress | Tagged Claire-Sherman, Hello Stitch, Hellostitchstudio, improvisational quilting, liberated star quilt | 2 Comments

Back of hourglass quilt

Posted on February 2, 2018 by admin

Here’s the back of the disappearing hourglass quilt I finished recently. I put an hourglass block, cut into nine pieces to show the process on the back. I used a facing rather than a regular binding on this quilt. Look below for “First quilt finished in 2018,” to see the front.

Posted in Disappearing hourglass | Tagged disappearing hourglass | Comments Off

VIC quilts

Posted on January 29, 2018 by admin

This one is called Axis Mundi: Jacob’s Ladder.

This one is Improv Stars.

These are the two quilts I’m entering in Voices In Cloth this year. The first is guaranteed to get in, and the second will get in if there is enough room. I will also have several small pieces hanging on the “Workshop Wall”. This is a spot for projects that were started in an EBHQ workshop. Since I’m the co-chair of workshops this year, I get to go to all of them for free.

In other news two other quilts of mine were rejected by QuiltCon, the show of the Modern Quilt Guild, of which I am a member. If you search #QuiltCon Reject, you will find hundreds of amazingly beautiful quilts that were also rejected. I guess I’m in good company.

Here are photos of the two “rejected”quilts:

C & J Wedding Quilt 2015

Orange Is the New Purple 2015

Posted in EBHQ, Improvisational piecing, liberated stars, modern quilts, Quilt Shows | Tagged #quiltcon reject, East Bay Heritage Quilters, EBHQ, improvisational quilting, Voices-In-Cloth | Comments Off

First quilt finished in 2018

Posted on January 29, 2018 by admin

This was supposed to be the last quilt of 2017. Instead it’s the first quilt of 2018. It’s a disappearing hourglass block. The photo isn’t very good, but at least you can see the quilting stitches. On the back is an hourglass block cut into nine pieces, to show the process. I’ll add a photo of that as soon as I take one. This quilt won’t be hanging in the EBHQ Voices In Cloth quilt show, because I need it for my demo about disappearing blocks during the show. This quilt is square, I just took the photo at a weird angle.

Here is a link to one of my blog posts about how to make and cut up Disappearing hourglass blocks.

Posted in Disappearing hourglass | Comments Off

What I’m working on…

Posted on January 27, 2018 by admin

The deadline for submitting pieces for Voices In Cloth is approaching. I’ve been busy finishing various projects. I rarely sew garments but sewing an apron seemed doable. I examined several that I’ve acquired over the years. I liked the shape of the basic butcher’s apron. The two I own are made of cotton that’s thicker than quilting cotton- more like canvas or home-dec fabric. This made me think of Marimekko fabric, which is the thickness I was looking for. I have some Marimekko fabric that was part of my mother’s fabric stash. She wasn’t a quilter but she made dresses out of Marimekko. I found a 2 yard piece of brown and orange that I sewed into an apron, remarkably quickly. I modeled it on the ones I own, but I added ruffles on the bottom edge. I usually run into trouble when I try to sew garments, but since this one was so simple, I didn’t mess up. I’m looking forward to baking my mom’s apple tart, while wearing her fabric, which was clearly intended to be a dress for her.

I’m also entering two quilts in the show, and several small projects on the Workshop Wall.

Posted in EBHQ, Quilt Shows, Work In Progress | Tagged East Bay Heritage Quilters, EBHQ, VIC 2018, Voices-In-Cloth | Comments Off

Sujata inspired place-mat or very small quilt

Posted on December 26, 2017 by admin

I’m hoping to finish another quilt that’s larger than 12″ x 12″ before 2017 ends. Meanwhile I finished this place-mat which I started in Sujata Shah’s EBHQ workshop. This is the block she calls crossroads. I’m also working on finishing a small disappearing hourglass quilt. More about that in my next post.

Posted in Classes, EBHQ, Improvisational piecing, Work In Progress | Tagged East Bay Heritage Quilters, EBHQ, Sujata Shah | 4 Comments

A few Gee’s Bend quilts at the de Young Museum

Posted on December 25, 2017 by admin

I went to the de Young Museum, Sunday. It was great- no crowds of people, no traffic, and lots of parking spaces. There are some quilts there that the museum has purchased from Gee’s Bend quilters and from a local African American quilter. I had a great time at the museum with my husband and daughters, although I was the only one interested in the quilts. Here are some photos:

Its hard to to pick a favorite, they each have lovely details.

The third quilt is by Rosie Lee Tompkins, a quilter whom Eli Leon wrote about.

Posted in Improvisational piecing, Quilt Shows | Tagged Gee's Bend, Gee's Bend quilts, improvisational quilting | 1 Comment

Magic squares

Posted on December 22, 2017 by admin

Here is a block called magic squares, also from the Mac Attack workshop at New Pieces. This is a tessellation. All four of the pieces in each block are identical.

I must have rearranged the pieces as I was sewing them together. There was supposed to be a teal pinwheel in the center, between the red one and the orange one. I like it this way too. I was in a hurry when I sewed it together. I had missed almost two hours of the workshop when I went home to let in the furnace repair guy. I dashed back and tried to absorb everything I’d missed as fast as possible.

Posted in Classes, Improvisational piecing, Work In Progress | Tagged Mike MacNamara | 2 Comments

Mac Attack class

Posted on December 20, 2017 by admin

I took an improvisational piecing class at New Pieces called Mac Attack with Mike MacNamara. Here are some photos:

This one started as two fabrics one on top of the other. I had a half yard of orange and a half yard of blue. You make two cuts through both fabrics. Then you swap the middle fabric and sew them back together. This is the piece that had two blue strips and orange in the middle. Then I cut that into wedge shaped pieces, mixed them up and sewed them back together.

Here is the other piece of fabric that was two orange strips with a blue one in the center. I added a red strip. If I had to do it again I think I would use yellow rather than red. I didn’t get a chance to sew this one together because I had to go home to let the furnace repair guy in. We didn’t have any heat, so it really needed to be fixed.

Posted in Classes, Improvisational piecing, Work In Progress | Tagged Mike MacNamara | 2 Comments

Axis Mundi or Jacob’s Ladder

Posted on December 6, 2017 by admin

Here’s another quilt finished in 2017! I feel like most of my energy has gone to 12″ x 12″s this year, so it’s important to me to have finished a few larger quilts

I made a smaller version of this quilt for the 12 x 12 show. This one is 31″ x 21″. Here’s what I wrote about it: In a Joey Weisenberg workshop on singing wordless songs (nigunim) for hours as meditation, I learned that the Hebrew word for “ladder” also means “musical scale.” That inspired this quilt. My ladder is pieced from sheet music fabric. An axis mundi is a place on earth with a direct connection to God.

I couldn’t decide whether to call it Axis Mundi or Jacob’s Ladder. Maybe “Axis Mundi or Jacob’s Ladder” will be its title.

Posted in Improvisational piecing | Tagged Joey Weisenberg | Comments Off