5 ladies art quilt - part 6

This is a continuation of 5 previous posts about the making of the 5 ladies art quilt.

Once the figures were all placed on the background, I inspected for areas that needed some tweaking.  I could see that the figure on the far left had some issues with the neck and head placement.  And some of the legs disappeared against the background.  I fixed those areas and got everything pinned to the background instead of the design wall and then fused down the faces, shoes and hands.   It took a day to get everything sewn down and then I sketched in more facial features and thread sketched the hair and some more of the facial features.

I had enough background material to use for the backing and got it all layered up and ready to quilt.  Here it is part way done with the quilting.

I found it pretty easy to quilt the background by just following the dots in the fabric.

I hope you like it so far.

Exhibit at the Gray Space Gallery in the Downtown Vancouver library

The 10 Garden lady art quilts will be featured in a solo show at the Gray Space Gallery in the downtown Vancouver library for the months of September and October.  This is the last time all 10 quilts in the series will be exhibited together.  They're all for sale and up for grabs to anyone that wants to purchase them.  

I enjoyed making the series of quilts over a 2 year period.  And I'm thrilled that they are in their 2nd gallery showing.  I hope you get a chance to go and see them!  Here are 3 of them.

The Vancouver Library is located at 901 C Street, Vancouver, WA  98660.  Hours are generally 10:00 am to 6:00 pm.  The gallery is split between 2 of the upper floors.

5 ladies art quilt - part 5

This is a continuation of 4 previous posts about the making of the 5 ladies art quilt.

Once all of the pieces were pinned up on the design pattern, it was time to move them to the real background.  This is always a tricky step, because the pattern is what keeps all the pieces in the right place.  What I did was to pin the pattern just at the top and then lift and cut out one of the figures at a time.  It was easy to place the ladies in the right spot by just filling in the hole.   Below is one lady already placed and he hole cut out for he second one.

Now, you can see that the 2nd lady has been placed in her corresponding hole.

Here is the 3rd lady cut out and placed.

And the 4th one.

Then the 5th one.

When they were all placed and pinned to the design wall and background, I cut away all of the paper pattern.

I hope you still like it so far!

Rusty Lady and Lady in Blue

I made a couple more class samples both during and after the Saturday workshop day.

One, I'm calling, "Rusty Lady", and the other, "Lady in Blue".

I had so much fun teaching other members of Clark County Quilters how to do chop and drop applique.  We were having so much fun that I totally forgot to take pictures of my class and their projects.  Gosh darn it.  I did get one sent to me later and someone else snapped a picture of me teaching the class.

Here is my student's piece.

And here the two that I made, all quilted and ready to show.

I hope you like them and let me know how I should display them.  Sew them together?  Add some floral interest?

5 Ladies - part 4

This is a continuation of 3 previous posts about the making of the 5 ladies art quilt.

I moved next onto the face and hands.  Have you noticed yet that I kept avoiding them ?  Yes, I'm still full of anxiety about doing them the right way.  It is a very slow process with lots of tiny pieces.  But, I decided that I just needed to dive in and do it!

I pulled out fabrics and then treated them with dilute Mod Podge.  After they sat overnight to dry, I was able to start cutting out the tiny pieces and moving forward.  I forgot to do the lip and shoes, so I did that a few days later. A couple of the lips weren't treated and I remembered that those tiny pieces fray pretty badly without the treatment.  Also, when you look at the picture with just the fabric, their faces still look a little odd.  They start to look a lot better when the thread work starts happening.  Here's the art quilt with all of the ladies done and pinned up against the pattern.

I hope you like it so far!

5 Ladies - Part three

This is a continuation of 2 previous posts about the making of the 5 ladies art quilt.

I continued making clothes following my chop and drop applique method.  Since I've shown that already many times, I just took pictures as the outfits were pinned up on the design board.

My husband popped his head into my studio to check on the progress of this art quilt.  He said, "It looks like clothes that you would wear?"  Why, yes, I responded.  Why else would I have saved this picture with all of the green outfits.  I could easily wear any of them and love it.  I might even name this piece "My Alter Egos".  

What do you think?

Five Ladies - Part Two

This is a continuation of a previous post about the making of the Five Ladies art quilt.  I uploaded hands from the original picture and sized them to fit the size of the pattern.  Its interesting that I started with the face and hands... both are my nemesis.  I've thought a little bit about putting sun glasses on all of them.  Hmm, have to think about that.  In the meantime, I've picked out some fabric for the outfits.

I looked at the fabric in my stash that I could use for the background, and all of my larger pieces of fabric were too light (blah) or too dark (dreary).  So, off to the quilt store I went.  And I went a long ways!   One of my favorite quilt stores is called Stash, and it's 4 hours away in Walla Walla, WA.  It wasn't too hard to talk my husband into a quick getaway for wine tasting and some nice meals out,  and, of course, a quick stop at Stash.

They have the largest selection of fabrics for the modern quilter and I found a nice Tula Pink fabric.  Here it is:

I made one of the outfits and pinned it up on the pattern.  It is lightly sparkly and very fun.

I hope you like this quilt so far!