Diane Melms is a contemporary art quilter living in Anchorage, Alaska and she designs and creates the most amazing quilts I have ever seen. I find her quilt designs, colors and techniques, truly amazing. Excerpts from her website as I can't write it any better then already written and to view her gallery....... Diane Melms .......... After many years of teaching art in public schools, where she worked with all forms of expression, Diane is now focused on her efforts as a fiber artist. Her strong sense of design, love for creating with fabric, and advanced sewing skills provide the foundation for her current work. In her colorful fabric compositions, she explores a variety of approaches to design, working with color relationships, line, shape, pattern, proportion, and movement. Diane works intuitively with a rich palette of her own hand-dyed fabrics, cutting shapes freehand, arranging compositions on a design wall, and piecing them together by machine. With layers of batting and backing in place, she machine quilts them extensively, adding another layer of color and design to each piece. Artist’s Statement “Making art is an essential element for my well being. I love the challenge of manipulating visual elements to give form to an idea and get great satisfaction from creating something beautiful with my hands. I love the creative problem solving involved in making art and am delighted when I figure out how to do something or achieve a certain look. I find inspiration all around me, in the natural and human made environment but also in the work of other artists. Although I have sewn all my life I began making art quilts just four years ago after taking a class from Nancy Crow, a nationally known art quilter. For the last few years I have been on a quest to find my creative voice. I have spent long hours in the studio trying new ideas, refining my skills, and building a body of work. My intent with this work is to create harmonious compositions, which communicate feelings. Some are dramatic and full of action while others are bold and structured, some are playful and busy while others are quiet and comforting. Working with color, line, shape, pattern, and arrangements I strive to express an emotion, create a sense of place, a feeling of seasons, or suggest a kind of movement. Creating with fabric also requires technical skills that become part of the design work. It includes the chemistry of dying the fabric, the techniques for cutting and fitting the shapes in a composition, the mechanics of machine piecing the design (fabric engineering) and the intricacy of assembling and stitching the quilted layers. The work is complex and time consuming, but ultimately very satisfying. Thank you Diane for letting me feature your beautiful work..... © 2011 by Diane Melms. All rights reserved No part of these images may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, photocopying, or otherwise, without prior written permission.