Asked how I applied the Three Hearts art quilt to the canvas, here is my answer…
I left an area in the center of the canvas unpainted (it was an already gesso primed canvas) and I applied artist gel medium over the entire canvas front and added some to the quilt back, then with the quilt face down on the table, lined the two up and I added some weight for awhile. When it was set but not completely dry I removed the weights and flipped it face up to dry completely. I hope that is clear. Next time I use that method I’ll try to take some photos.
I finished editing the video for the new way I painted fabric (that I mention in my last post), but decided I had to make the second part (applying the fish to the fabric and quilting) a separate video, so hopefully next week I’ll share at least the first if not both. Here is the piece quilted, it’s small and I have an idea for finishing it that’s not binding or facing it, but we’ll see.
Giveaway Winner of the five little hearts is Gayle C. Congratulations! Please email your mailing info to me at fiberdesignsbyann@gmail.com and I’ll send the hearts ASAP.
I have been scanning some old quilt related photos. “Old” as in before camera phones so we didn’t know how good (or not) the photo was until it was developed, so please keep that in mind as you look at these images.
I got into watercolor style quilts after meeting Gai Perry, the guest artist at our local quilt show. Oh my gosh, it was fantastic to see her quilts in person. I had a copy of her book – Impressionist Quilts by Gai Perry (Soft Cover Book 1995), but I think I gave it to a quilt guild. It is still available in a few places online.
I’ll admit that some of my pieces do stretch the technique a bit or are combined with other quilt/patchwork styles. I don’t have any of these pieces and didn’t keep good records. Some were finished and sold or given away and others were sold as tops only.
This was my favorite and I think the most successful.
I loved the challenge of finding fabrics that would “reach” to the next for a smooth transition.
Where the contrasts come together to create a hard line can make a good frame or shape.
For my parents – Mom liked teddy bears and dad accidentally collected pigs.
I took an easy road to finishing by using large triangles in the corners of this piece. I did finish this and my folks kept it on the back of their rocking (the grandbabies) chair. I don’t have a photo of it finished but I did hand quilt it; that was before I did machine quilting.
My tiniest watercolor sold at a guild auction and was won by one of my Continuing Ed teachers.
Cat on a Mat (top only). I have mixed feeling about this piece but it was fun to use all those cat fabrics.
With the piece below – the fabrics don’t “reach” into each other, so technically not a watercolor but still has a little bit of that feel. Made before I bought Gai’s book.
The next two photos are the same quilt but the first one shows that it is quilted (hand quilted). The upper area in part was inspired by Margaret Millers Block Bender style and the lower right area is watercolor. My thought was an abstract quilt of birds flying over the ocean. A lot of hours of play/work!
Below is not a watercolor quilt but a cathedral window that my late aunt made for one of her daughters. She came out for a visit and I gave her hundreds of squares of fabric (I think 4.5″) and this is just one of the quilts she made with some of them.
Now for the sweepstakes giveaway…
The winner of the 6.5 inch squares is Julie K.
and the winner of the hand painted fabric pieces is Cherie M.
Fabric winners please email your mailing information to me and I will send your fabric as soon as possible. If I don’t hear from you within five days I will draw again.
I’m wishing all of you a safe and happy New Year, with time to art around!
“That’s interesting” is sometimes the comment my Mister gives when looking at my art. He has been incredibly supportive through all these years of my art making, but sometimes when he doesn’t “get it,” or care for the art piece, he knows how to be diplomatic.
I found it very interesting that because the subject of my House Cat piece is familiar (our cat modeled), everyone here decided to chime in as to what I could or should do to make it better. They had valid observations and suggestions but got a big “NO, it’s done” from me.
And here’s why – After I finished quilting and thread painting a bit more, I decided not to bind it but to face it, primarily because the piece is odd shaped. But after I trimmed it I noticed one of the eyes was fraying… one of the eyes I tried to free-motion outline to get the fabric to stay down only to cause a lot of thread build up.
I never could cover the raw edge, so out came the seam ripper, scissors, lint roller, and hours later both eyes were removed.
Looking at this I want to say “Poor thing!”
That’s the lint roller sheet with just some of the removed thread.
Now with the thread removed there was quite the perforated eye shape in the fabric, both the front and back. I figured the only thing I could do was hand embroider the eyes. I would have liked to have added more embroidery but between the floss and quilt sandwich I couldn’t get the needle through any longer. I thought about painting more reflection in the eyes, but – NO, I’m done!
New embroidered eyes.
But of course I had to add more thread painting and whiskers.
And whiskers.
Initially I made whiskers by burning felt and stretching it and painting gesso on them, but in the end I used my cat’s found whiskers and eyebrows (I’d been saving). I’m still waiting for a couple more eyebrows. I haven’t decided yet, if that is clever or gross!
I love those clips!
I’ve been looking at it too long and see all that could be better but it has been a fun project; from painting the fabrics to making the pattern, and stitching it…and as always I learned a lot. When I have the hanging dowel ready I’ll share a photo of the finished piece.
REMINDER – I have a giveaway going on; if you are interesting in entering but haven’t yet, please check out last weeks blog post for details. Be sure to tell me you want to be entered (in the comments of that post), so I’ll know you want to be entered.
It’s interesting to me how time can seem to go by slowly and other times so quickly.
I was exciting to be trying some new things (for me anyway) on the gel print plate. I made one print and for some reason decided to clean my plate; nothing would work, I mean nothing! So after hours of trying I grabbed my sewing machine oil (I didn’t have baby oil), and first trying a wipe but later switched to a dish cloth, I was able to get it pretty much clean. I sure hope it still works when I try more.
Here is the print – Jacquard Textile Color on cheesecloth. For it being a quickie, I’m happy with it.
So time got away from me and I couldn’t print anymore, for now.
I’ll share a few more of my older quilts, apologies for some of the photo quality.
Simple Miniature Snowscape before it was quilted. I altered the water fabric with paint
Hand appliqued and quilted, with hand painted sky. On the design wall, bad photo.
When I look at that landscape now I wonder how the water could look like that when it was hand quilted. Maybe it just looks worse in the photo. If my hand quilting wasn’t up to my standards, I would un-quilt, I did it a lot.
Rose for a challenge, it had to include one of the purple fabrics (I think the one next to the darkest). I beached and over painted the petal edges. I really like the background.
Hand appliqued and quilted.
Made early on in my sky and water painting exploration.
Hand appliqued and quilted. That was great poppy fabric. Hand painted sky.
Remember watercolor quilts, I made a few. Machine pieced, hand quilted.
I feel fortunate that I starting making quilts long ago, I think really the best years. From traditional to modern and everything in-between I have had the best time exploring, learning, and finding more ways to play with fabric. I hope you enjoyed this little quilt show and if you have any questions please leave a comment, thanks.
I’ll be announcing another giveaway/sweepstakes soon, so I hope you’ll check back again. Stay Safe and quilt away!
Things are looking up around here, for one reason, we are finally having our ancient furnace, it’s in the attic, replaced. We haven’t used it in several years and though we don’t have horribly cold winters, I’m cold if it’s below 75° and the hands don’t work well with they’re chilly. Space heaters have helped but our old kitty and I are ready for the warmth!
You may remember the cut collage bird I made a while ago using my daughter’s (dry) wet palette papers (mostly). The green wing needed help so I used some of my painted papers. I like it better now and it will probably end up on a notecard.
I started celebrating my birthday early; my (adult) kids surprised me with this box of Aurifil thread. It’s so pretty I haven’t even opened the plastic wrap yet!
I’m working on a project for a private class I’ve been asked to teach. I’m planning on including a stamp in the project so I’ve cut more rubber stamps and one is a little hummingbird. I decided to use this stamp in another project made especially for this giveaway announcement post.
I filmed some of the free-motion quilting for this hummingbird project but haven’t had time to edit it yet. Here are some images of the process and the almost finished piece. I haven’t decided exactly how I’ll finish it for hanging.
The photos are taken with my phone so sorry they’re not the best.
I started with a piece of Timtex cut to about 6″ x 7″ and “mop-up” painted paper towels I’ve been saving.
I placed a whole piece (one ply) of paper towel over the Timtex and tore other paper towel up then arranged it in an abstract floral design.
I set that aside and used black textile paint for the hummingbird on a piece of silk organza. Stamping outline stamps on silk organza is a hit or miss… without stabilizer organza wiggles! I knew I’d be quilting over it so it was no big deal that it didn’t turn out the best.
So that the hummer would be about where I wanted it, I center and laid the organza on top of the paper towel pieces and placed silk pins at the tip of the wing, tail, and the beak. Then I removed the Timtex/paper towel piece and dabbed paint on the stamp, lined up the silk pins with the stamp and laid the organza on top, and sort of burnished it with a little piece of parchment. Hindsight – press organza to freezer paper and then stamp down onto the fabric as usual. Sorry if that is difficult to understand, I think I’ll have to video it if I do it again.
I let the paint dry for a few minutes, then clipped the organza to the Timtex so I could free-motion quilt, starting with the hummingbird. Below is the free-motion quilting finished.
I put black felt behind it and didn’t like it at all so changed to blue (it’s actually more turquoise than it looks in photo). I tried to straighten and trim up the organza but since I’m still not sure where this is going I left it longer on the side. This felt didn’t look good without the organza over it (too bright).
I added a little embroidery around the edge of the Timtex with French knots at each corner. I think I want to add more. I’ll take better photos when it is finished.
Now the sweepstakes/`giveaway – I’d like to thank all who commented and because only two of you entered the hummingbird notecard set giveaway, I have decided to give Joy and Karen each a set of Hummingbird notecards. Whether you keep them or give them away, I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed making them. Please email your mailing address to me (even if you have in the past).
I remember someone being perplexed by quilters because we take fabric, cut it up, then put it back together again. It’s not just quilters; so much of art is cutting something up and reassembling it.
Paper – My daughter recently gave me some of her (dry) wet palette and wipe-up papers. I paper collaged this little bird. The wing was a piece of painted paper from my stash and the only part I may work on a bit more.
wet palette and paper towel papers
Cut paper collage bird
Designing and cutting up fabric continues to be my favorite activity.
This art quilt was made many years ago. I designed it for a San Diego Quilt Show challenge – The multi-color fabric had to be used in the quilt; it won first place, and though I hadn’t thought about selling it, I was approached by a couple, at the show, and they bought it, then commissioned two more art quilts from me.
Night Trails Original design, hand appliqued and quilted.
I absolutely love mosaic and went through my mosaic making period but after a few years I realized fabric is more forgiving, lighter weight, and safer!
Palm tree mosaic mirror
Abstract mosaic extension to our front porch.
And finally, I get to the “Rock,” which actually began as Gator Board to go around my roadrunner on painted fabric. I wrote about finding this piece of painted fabric in a previous post and that I had an idea for an unusual finish.
Gator board painted with gesso.
Texture paste applied to Gator board
Roadrunner at Red Rock. My daughter drew the original roadrunner but I slightly altered it.
I have to admit to being very pleased with the roadrunner piece. I think I succeeded in finishing this art quilt in an unusual way! It is wired for hanging.
Have you cut anything up lately and put it back together?
Reminder – Next post I’ll announce the giveaway winners from the August post.
Even with temperatures here around 90° I found out that (homemade) texture paste takes a long time to dry and when rushed it cracks. The texture paste is going on my roadrunner piece, which won’t be done this week, so…
In the meantime I started something new… I was filming a How-to paint fur fabric tutorial but it went wrong so I just finished painting the fabric. On the left was the first layer, the fabric was painted damp so the paint really moved and lightened. I knew it wasn’t enough and a couple days later I painted it again, this time with dry brushes.
Using a photo of our cat, Kona, I made a pattern. The plan was to use only the painted fur fabric, I ended up adding a piece of hand painted green fabric for the blanket and the eyes.
There were a few changes to the pattern as I built the piece and I took plenty of artistic liberty. This is what is left of the fabric, I think there’s probably another animal in there, maybe a hamster or guinea pig!
Close-up
Part of me wants to just leave it as is, though I haven’t fused the pupils because I’m thinking about painting them or maybe I’ll stitch the heck out of it and fill them with thread.
Next week I’ll announce another giveaway, so stay tuned. Thanks for stopping by.
I hoped to have my roadrunner piece finished but between the designing, cutting, and next drying time, it’s going to take longer than I thought it would.
So, I’m sharing some pieces here, I’ve used different painting techniques on them. I’m sure I have shared some of them in the past but I think they are a nice reminder of what we can do when starting with white fabric. They could be done on printed fabric or painted fabric, again. I may not be completely sure what techniques I used on some but I’m sharing as much as I can remember.
Starting with the sweet one…
Chocolate Sauce and Wrappers. I pulled a thinned pint color, with a cheap brush, onto dry fabric and then wet the fabric and did a wash. The “chocolate sauce” was probably done with an eye dropper and then tilted. I hand painted little white highlights to give more dimension. The wrappers are metallic painted fusible in silver and gold.
Clothespin resist painted not dyed. I remember this being really fun to make!
I used the clothespin resist in this abstract that I then over painted. I remember starting to quilt it and not liking where I was going, so I think I put it away or maybe I cut it up! I probably should have just stretched it on a canvas.
Detail from Fallen…
For Fallen I used real leaves for stamps and a credit card for the lines. I think I used a pointed round paint brush for the dots. This was a fun one to quilt.
Fallen one from my Photograph on Fiber series.
Detail of Above Lake Cuyamaca…
In previous post I shared the how-to quilt and then paint the border. I painted the sky and water and I think the quilting worked well for the ripples in a lake.
Detail Drift and Flow…
Drift and Flow has wool batting. I quilted the heck out of this piece on my domestic sewing machine; the last piece I did before getting my sit-down quilting machine. I’m glad the quilting shows in the photo because the black thread on black fabric is difficult to see in person. The black and gray on the right (above) is pole wrapped (same piece as the larger on the left below), and I was thrilled with the results, particularly in the gray area. It looked like hanging leaves. The square (ish) pieces were made by throwing paint down while thinking of sciencey things. The curvy lines are satin stitched and the gold drips are metallic paint tilted to let run and then the piece was cut into four squares.
Dwell detail… Dwell is a painted wholecloth and my most favorite quilt, ever.
Dwell back, this is the quilting that runs the width of the lower back. Sadly, it doesn’t show on the front.
There are simple embroidered “steps” leading down from the silk.
The background fabric was stretched on a frame and painted. The windmills are made from a handmade stencil, the brick rectangles are purchased hand dyed silk, and the gold frames are painted fusible. The binding fabric was painted especially to continue the colors from the main cloth.
I hope you enjoyed this little quilt show and the these pieces have given you some ideas for techniques you may want to try.
I’m working on another project for Visions Art Museum Stir Crazy Member Challenge. I like to make a How-to video to go along with the project, it’ll be out in October and I’ll share it then.
I had a slight mishap in the studio (roller cart tipped over when a caster came unscrewed). My (adult and honest) daughter was trying to move through my studio yesterday and proclaimed “This studio is a disaster!” I can’t argue with her, but I’m working on it… It could have been so much worse.
Had to bring in a card table to hold the cart contents – Altered Art, a lot of little bits & pieces.
Nice clean cart now with tightened casters!
I also got new eyeglasses which are wrong, and so I’m waiting for new, new glasses. Needless to say, my focus has been all over the place!
I did find this piece of fabric while looking for another piece of fabric. I don’t remember painting it and I don’t remember where the top water and/or sky ended up either, but I liked it enough to hold on to it.
I quilted a roadrunner on it; the original drawing was by my daughter but I altered it slightly, and I’m going to quilt it a bit more.
I have an idea for a unusual finish, hopefully it works out, I’ll share it in a future post.
I have painted pole wrapped fabric, and dyed a wrapped rope, and I’ve never been disappointed with the results, there is always something good that can come from them.
A few things to keep in mind – Traditional pole wrapping, Arashi shibori, is not what I’m doing. I use paints and don’t follow the correct wrapping and stringing process, so I realize my results will not look like the real thing. Paint stays more on top, whereas dye bonds and soaks through the wrapped layers.
I recently used rainbow colors and instead of my usually 4″ ABS pipe, I used three PVC pipes taped together, making a triangle. Here are pictures of the process, the result, and some finished works.
Spring and wet cotton fabric
Starting to wrap
Tie off the string
wet fabric and string compacted/pushed down to the pole.
Using a brush
Using a bottle
Remembered that I have foam pole holders for my larger pole.
Placed paper towel under pole. Placed outside to dry, I rotated it once in awhile.
This makes me think of the lower leaf filled branches of a tree. May have to try that all in greens sometime but turned it looks like fish. It’s like finding images in the clouds!
I usually put fabric under to catch the drips but this time I used several paper towels.
First paper towel caught the most, of course. This will be fun to use in collage.
Drift and Flow
Up Stream Photograph on Fiber series piece
Balance and the Brass Ring has the dyed rope wrapped fabric…
Dye does give a richer, more even, and more beautiful result. Paint is just easier for me.
Have you made any pole wrapped fabric?
Next time I’ll share at least one other painting on fabric techniques. Thanks for stopping by.
