Tag Archives: binding

Painted Fabric and a Binding Question

Yesterday I started the day by painting fabric, then I did a bit of quilting and worked on another lesson for my up coming Curious.com course and I did do a few of those pesky household chores. Those are some of my favorite things (except the chores), painting and surface design way up on the top of that list.

Here is a slice of a triptych I’m working on. I used textile paints, a flour resist and wax pastels. I wrote about my “scab” fabric a few posts back. Well, the parched earth part of this triptych is what was under that “scab” but here it has wax pastels applied over it.  The center water area is actually the back of a larger piece of painted fabric and the sky above it is from the front of that fabric. I’m quilting it now, when it’s finished I’ll post the entire piece. But…

I’m not sure how to bind it because of the design running from one edge to the next third. If I add my Butted corner binding I would piece the binding so the blue has blue binding and the brown has brown but still I’m afraid it would stop or break the design. I could satin stitch or stitch over cording on the edge the way Carol Ann Waugh does. Any ideas? How would you finish the edges of this piece?

Triptych slice
Triptych slice Part of one third

And onward I go…

I have received my “not accepted” notice so I can share this now.

Dwell is a landscape
Of ancient land and buried fossils,
Of old cave homes or modern cliff mansions,
Of winds and nature propelling progressive discoveries.

Dwell
42″ x 30″
dwell fossil detail
Dwell
Back quilting detail

I enjoyed the challenges of creating this art quilt and I am very happy with the completed piece. It started as a hand painted whole cloth, it also has some painted fusing, hand stitching and a great amount of free-motion machine sketching and quilting (see detail of the fossils). It was fun to try to paint binding fabric that would work well AND succeed! It measures 30″ high by 42″ wide and will be for sale.

Dwell detail
Dwell detail

Thankful for the tools

I’m mailing off used rotary cutter blades for replacement today and I’m sewing the binding on to “Shore Rocks.” Because the binding is hand painted it is a bit stiffer than commercial fabric so I pulled out the quilt binding clips I bought ages ago. I haven’t used them much but for this piece they will be a great help – my hands aren’t as nimble as they used to be, I’m sure some of you can relate. I’m reminded of how glad I am to have the fantastic tools we have now. They make creating art so much more fun and certainly easier. It is awesome when the tools and gadgets are designed by the people who actually use them and they seem to continue to improve them. Sometimes I can’t imagine how people come up with the ideas for some of the products or how our grandmas did without them! Then I think – The “mothers of invention” were our grandmothers (and grandfathers too)! What is the best or most curious quilt gadget you have bought or seen?

Shore Rocks
Shore Rocks