The design for this quilt was drawn the first week of 2012, after a holiday season when the light was low, the weather was dismal, and most of my friends and neighbors were out of town. I discovered that it was impossible for me to feel lonely and blue when I was dancing, so I took every opportunity to dance. Although the color choices are all in the blue range, the effect is joyful because of the contrast between light and dark and the inner glow created by using gradations.

The fabrics in this quilt are all from the various collections I have designed for Benartex. The background in this design is a big wavy spiral. The lines of the spiral continue behind the dancer in some areas and in others the illusion of transparency happens where the spiral and the dancer intersect. The dancer is quilted in a small meandering pattern, using flesh colored thread and blue thread for areas where the spiral intersects the body. In the background, each fabric is quilted in a slightly different decorative pattern with threads that contrast only slightly with the colors of the fabrics. The blue spikes are quilted with a zigzag pattern, and the alternating purple spikes are left unquilted, so they stand out. The spikes were outline quilted with #30 black thread to give them more emphasis.

The design began with a simple pencil sketch of a dancer. I scanned the sketch and combined it with the sketch of a wavy spiral. I experimented with different background treatments, and once I picked a favorite I did a couple of value studies in black white and grey.