It's illuminating!

Finally, after a brief blogger glitch, over at Twelve by 12 we've been able to reveal the quilts for our August 1 challenge. Brenda chose the theme "illumination" -- another great theme with lots of possible directions.

It took me a while to figure out where I was going to go with the concept, and as usual the idea I started with in mind is not what I ended up with. I had grand ideas about "illumination" as knowledge and I even played for a while with a photograph I'd taken recently, trying to incorporate it to say something about how parenting is a constant learning process, with a whole string of those lightbulb, "aha moments."

But too many ideas confounded me. I tend to get so stuck in my head thinking about the ideas from a left-brain angle.

So it was with a lovely flash of delight that I stumbled onto a photo of chinese paper lanterns. I've always had a thing about lanterns and in fact have collected images of them with the thought of making a big quilt one of these days. Duh! This was pure fun to make and didn't get all balled up in my head with deep meaning.

I dug out a bunch of silk dupioni fat quarters I'd bought at a quilt show a long time ago, and away I went. I had fun stitching the spines and pleats of the lanterns with heavy thread. And last, I got to use my favorite Neocolor II crayons to make the lights inside the lanterns glow through. I'm very happy with this little quilt, and have called it Happy Lanterns. It just makes me feel good to look at it.

As always, the Twelveby12 group's pieces are stunning, and different, and reflect such a variety of ideas and techniques and personal styles. Terry Grant also used the paper lantern concept (which surprised us both!) but still, her interpretation is quite different from mine.

Head on over and take a look at them! And don't forget to click on the "friends of Twelve by 12" on the sidebar to see how others played along, too.

The next theme is "shelter." Hmmmm.....