Exhibit at Gray Space Gallery in downtown Vancouver

I went to see the exhibit of my 10 Garden Lady art quilts in the Gray Space Gallery in downtown Vancouver. It was a bit serendipitous because I was supposed to have hip surgery on Sep 24th, but it got cancelled.  The Mod Squad scheduled their monthly meeting in the downtown Vancouver library on Sep 25th, where my quilts are being exhibited.  So, I got to go to the meeting and was able to walk around with some of the Mod Squad members and give an artist talk to them.  (Be quiet if you go though, we got shushed by one of the librarians for making too much noise!)

Here are some of the pictures showing how the quilts looked against the gray concrete wall.

I loved how the library posted the artist statement in both English and Spanish and left a comment box!  

The show runs through October, so if you're in the area visiting or live nearby, please stop by to see the exhibit.  And if you do, I hope you like it!

5 Ladies - part 7 and Final - "My Alter Egos"

This is the final post about the making of the 5 ladies art quilt. It was quilted both on my longarm and on my domestic sewing machine.   I thought a little bit about adding some handwork, but then decided that it was done, so I added the facing, sleeve, and label.  

It is 55" W  42-1/2" H.  I named it "My Alter Egos". 

I hope you like it!

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.

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?

A ribbon for a friend

One of my friends has a new goal.  And to help her visualize the goal, I made her an award ribbon.

In 2015, she and I were part of a group to go through "The Artist's Way".  One of her goals, then, was to win first place in a category at one of the National Shows.  Since she was already a winner in our local guild shows, it seemed like she would easily achieve that goal.  But to help her along, I made her a blue ribbon that had "First Place, National Show" on it.  Since then, she has won 2 blue ribbons in categories at National Shows; has had 2 solo shows; has been featured in a SAQA journal, and has continued to win both local and national ribbons at the highest level.  She is an amazing art quilter, mostly focused on portraits that are based on pictures in the National Archives.  Just Google Lynn Czaban and you will get a feel for her body of work.

Recently, she told me her next big goal is to win a Special Award at a National Show.  She didn't say what the special award would be for, but they can range from a judge's choice, a sponsor's choice, best of show, and many other areas.   Well, guess what I did?  Yes, I made her another ribbon that had "Special Award, National Show" on it.  It was so much fun to pull out ribbons and go shopping for all of the bling and to look at YouTube videos on how to make a ribbon. Here's the picture:

I hope she gets a kick out of having this one too!

Northwest Gardening Lady - Part 5 - Final

This is a continuation of 4 previous posts about the making of the Northwest Gardening Lady art quilt.

I chose to do all of the background quilting in a dark green thread that closely matched the background fabric.  Before I sat down at the quilting machine though, I used a chalk marker to essentially draw out the design lines.  That way, when I was quilting it, I had lines to follow and could listen to my podcasts without too much brain power.

Here is the final quilt.  It measures 41" W x 50" H.

I hope you like it!

Northwest Gardening Lady - part 4

This is a continuation of 3 previous posts about the making of the Northwest Gardening Lady art quilt.

I needed to add the plants in the tall pot and the trunk for the strawberry tree.  These were made from fabric that I had in my stash.  The final selection of plants were the ones that I wanted to place at the bottom of the piece.  I had pictures of poppies, columbines, and hostas that spoke to me.  I printed them off on 8-1/2 x 11 sheets of paper and tested out the placement and size.  In the end, I decided not cover up the dress.   So, here is the top all ready to be quilted.

I printed a black and white copy of the quilt and then traced the outlines onto tracing paper.  Then, I fiddled around until I had some quilting lines that I liked.  Here is the quilting plan.

Of course, the quilting will not end up being so prominent once its on the quilt with the dark background colors. 

Stay tuned to see either more progress, or the finished piece.

   

First quilt from the marbled fabric - Northwest Marbled

This is the continuation of the post about making an art quilt from marbled fabric.

I used skinny black strips of fabric to lay out the design on my design wall.   Then I pieced the rows to fit within the black strips.  Initially, I wanted a skinny 1" black strip to separate the rows, but I found that it was impossible to make them fit and keep the colored stripes running vertical.  So, instead, I cut 2" strips, then fit the pieces together, narrowing the 2" piece where necessary to make them look right to me.  I added 4" borders on all sides, then quilted the piece in white and black thread.  After it was quilted, I trimmed it to size.  

It measures 46" W x 49" H.   The title of the quilt is "Northwest Marbled".  

I hope you like it!

Atmospheric Exposion

This quilt started the same way as a couple of previous ones.  I sketched the design based on some quilts that I had seen on Pinterest.  There were color ways that I wanted to try out: pink, red, orange, and black.  So, I also looked up some color studies on Pinterest.  Here are my sketches and color inspirations.

After the sketch was done and colored in, I transferred the main design lines onto 6" muslin squares.  Each square was collaged with material in the color shown on the sketch.  Then, some stringy pieces of fabric were glued on top of the collaged piece.  When all the squares were done, the top was sewn together to form the base.  Here is a picture of the base.

I pulled out some yarn, threads, rick rack, and lace to match the top.  This was cut and dropped on top of the base until it was more or less covered.  A layer of light pink tulle was pinned to the top.  The whole thing was layered with batting and backing, then quilted with several different colors of thread on the long arm.  

My friends suggested a dark gray binding, and they were right.  It stops the eye at the edges.  My friends also suggested the name of the quilt "Atmospheric Explosion", and one of them made a custom embroidered label.  The label is fabulous!

The quilt is 36" x 42".

I hope you like it.

Vagabonds Challenge 2021 - Two legs on a path - Emily's Boots

Vagabonds set up another challenge for 2021.  We were challenged to make a 24" high x 24" (or less) width art quilt that features a pair of legs walking on a path.  I remembered a picture that I took of one of my granddaughters helping me in the garden when she was about 2 years old.  She was wearing little yellow boots and blue jeans.  It was such a sweet picture!  I knew right away that it was the one I was going to use.

I printed the photo, traced the parts that I wanted to use, and had it enlarged at my favorite blueprint shop.   I don't know how many of you live in the Portland, OR area.  If you do,  Rose City Blueprint is fast and cheap.  It only cost $3.25 to enlarge my sketch to 24" x 24".  

Once the drawing was the size that I wanted, I traced the lines onto clear acetate film.  Notice that I had to imagine the bottom of the boots that couldn't be seen in the photo.  

The acetate tracing was taped to a board covered with a Teflon sheet.  I've used this board and sheet many times and I keep it on hand for art projects.  I tape it at the top so that I can flip up the film and place pieces of fabric.

For the boots, I picked 3 shades of yellow, fused them to Steam-a-Seam Light II and cut out the pieces, placing them to match the drawing.

For the pants, I picked 3 shades of blue, following the same technique.

And for the jacket, I picked 3 different shades of blue than were used for the pants, following the same technique.

When all the pieces were placed, the entire piece was steamed and allowed to cool.  Here's what it looked like on the assembly board.

The background started out with just a couple of pieces of fabric to test out the colors.

It seemed just a bit too simple, so I added some different colors into the grass.  I trimmed notches into the top of little pieces and layered them from top to bottom.

When that was complete, I fused the legs and boots on the top, weaving the grass around the boots.  I quilted it with a quilting stitch #1304 and a walking foot on my Bernina 570 sewing machine.  It was easy to start with lines 3" apart, then sew down the middle of those lines, and once more between the middle of all of the lines.  I liked the way that stitch looked like rain with it's two forward and one backward stitch.

The piece is 24" x 24" and is faced.  I added silver bugle beads to enhance the rain effect, which were added after I took the photo below. 

I hope you like it!

Shisha mirror embroidery part two

This is the second post about embroidering the shisha mirrors onto an art quilt.

The advice that I was given was to quilt the background first and then do all the embroidery.  And to start with the embroidery in the center of the quilt and work towards the edges.  This was supposed to make it easier to handle with the mirrors already attached.  I decided that I needed to applique colored fabric background pieces for all of the flowers.  After I did that, I quilted the background and around the flowers.  And to make it really soft, I went ahead and washed the piece after serging the edges.

This is a closeup of the shisha mirror embroidery and some of the beading.  

After I added these mirrors, I realized that I should try to finish the rest of the embroidery before attaching more mirrors.  So, here are some stem stitches, as well as some random long and cross stitches to fill in the background space.

I hope you like it so far and stay tuned for the completed quilt.

Facing for art quilts - wavy edges

I wrote a previous blog about adding facings to art quilts with straight edges.  This blog is how to do it on a quilt that has wavy edges.  The quilt that I'm showing you is the (almost) completed brown bag challenge quilt.  It called out to be cut curvy and wavy on the edges enhance the curvy piecing and artsy-fartsy nature.

Most of the time, you can follow the same steps on the previous blog, cutting the facings 2-1/2" wide.   In this example, I cut the facings 3" because there was a lot of wave on the edges.  You do NOT have to cut the facing on the bias.

Press over 1/4" on the long edge.

Pin the facings right sides together with the quilt, and let the facing hang over the wavy edges.  Here is a picture showing the top of the quilt, and another one showing the back of the quilt.

Sew the seam, then trim the facing that sticks out beyond the wavy edge.

You can follow the rest of the steps as in the previous blog.  It's a bit harder to press the curvy edges to the back, but use patience and pins and you'll be rewarded by a nice finish.  Here is the facing turned to the back and pinned in place.  Believe it or not, you'll get almost a straight edge to sew onto the back side of the quilt.

Here is the finished quilt top with the facing all sewn in place.  I hope you can use these hints for your next art quilt with wavy edges.

I hope you like it!

Pictures of water drops for art quilts

I have been taking close up pictures of water drops on leaves, flowers, and evergreen trees this summer.  The intent is to get a better idea of how water drops look so that I can use this idea for future art quilts.

Here are some that are helping me see how the water drops really look.