Why call it “Flying Pizza”?
Short Answer: I took a class with Mary Mashuta ( http://www.marymashuta.com/ ) last Fall. Mary developed a block called Pizza Slice and that is what she decided to teach us to make. My guild issued a challenge about the same time called “Come Fly With Me”. So I combined the pizza slice block with the challenge and came up with “Flying Pizza”.
Long Answer: My guild, Quilter’s Unlimited of Northern Virginia ( http://www.quiltersunlimited.org/ ) sponsored Mary Mashuta to come and give a lecture and a couple of workshops. There were about 15 students in the class. And oh, the wonderful fabrics that others brought—Kaffe Fassett, wonderful black and white prints, green prints, stripes, polka-dots, doggie prints, just to name a few. I took some hand-dyed fabric that I dyed a few years ago, in addition to some pastel strips and just two polka dot prints. I have to say I just loved working with that pattern’s templates (Mary told us John Flynn ( http://www.flynnquilt.com/ ) made just for her!). I was able to get a number of pieces cut out and put on the design wall and I was even able to get a number of them sewn before the day was over. I played with them some more once I got home and arrived at the final layout--more of a floral layout than I had planned. But then I thought I could incorporate the guild’s challenge “Come Fly with Me” into this quilt. Leaving it on the design wall for awhile allowed me to finally “see” the butterflies that formed in the outer edge triangles. I stumbled on a wonderful butterfly fabric in my stash that had just the right colors for the border. I ordered a butterfly stencil from Laura Murray ( http://lauramurraydesigns.com/) and painted the outer triangles (You have to look close to see them). A few buttons from the button box helped shape the center of the butterflies. A piece of yellow with brown dotted Swiss fabric found its way into the yoyo flower centers. Even a small piece of silk fabric that I made in an Artistic Artifacts ( http://artisticartifacts.com/ ) workshop with Judy Gula and Laura Cater Woods( http://www.cater-woods.com/index.php ) were perfect for the flower petals. But I didn’t have enough so I used some painted dryer sheets to make the flowers in the outer corners.
Who’d have thought that so many fiber artists influenced this three foot square wall quilt?
2 comments:
Kathy- your quilt is wonderful! The evolution is just like the butterfly! Would love to see it in person- come visit! Judy
Thanks, Judy. I hope to get by next week.
The one most obvious feature that I left out of the explanation (if you can believe that!!) is that the triangles were hand-dyed with YOU at Artistic Artifacts last Fall. Thanks for all of your encouragement and inspiration. Kathy
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