Fascination with Cabins

This is my first art quilt of 2007. I’ve had a fascination with houses for a long time. I’ve lived in 10 houses since moving to California 35 years ago. Yep, that’s an average stay of 3.5 years in each house. I love moving because it provides a blank canvas to decorate. However, as I get older the thought of packing up and moving isn’t as attractive. I find myself using the house shape/icon in my work a lot. Inspired by the art of by Jamie Fingal and Deborah Boschert, I found this piece fun as it was working in a series. I would love to have a cabin in a mountain community; so I meditated on that as I worked. Perhaps one day …

While I love the outcome so far (it still needs border, binding, sleeve, and embellishments), the construction process was quite cumbersome. Rather than fusing the fabric, I stitched everything raw edge. Also, rather than creating blocks large enough to piece (with a border), I stitched blocks to a larger piece of fabric and then pieced those. With the batting and backing, at some points there are 8 layers of fabric!

I jumped right in with this quilt without much planning at all – I just went for the fun. That’s why I’m here, right?

The rug hook material awaits a “grassy” area that I’ll (try to) create using cut and knotted yarns. I still have some more hand embroidery and a few more embellishments. And then I need to figure out borders and binding (again my level of incompetence will rear it’s ugly head.)


But right now, it is up on my design wall (in my dining room) and I’ve already begun my next piece. That’s another challenge … finishing these pieces. I much prefer designing and starting new pieces to the act of completion.