An All-Over Background for Embellished Art Quilts – Yikes!

Art Quilt "Fiesta" showing background fabric before embellishing

Art Quilt “Fiesta” showing background fabric before embellishing

Nancy Smeltzer, MFA

When I was leaving my home and studio in Maryland  1 1/2 years ago, I wanted to try some new ideas as I cut out 3 pieces to sew. I had no idea how long it would take to resettle and have access to my supplies again, so I basted the pieces together, sewed on the major ribbons, buttons,and large beads, and gathered up the small beads and other materials needed to finish these quilts. To make things a little more interesting, I decided to try some all-over patterned backgrounds as I love making embellished art quilts. Maybe I’ll re-think that idea of “all-over” next time.

I had found the perfect background fabric with gold and darker pumpkin stripes, which to me suggested streamers and suggested the theme, “Fiesta”. I had also found some iron-on appliques that matched the twisted nature of the background (see the red and purple fat streamer in the left of the above photo.) However, I’m never one to leave a blank area uncovered for long, so the few streamers of metal gold beads, as seen above, were just too bare. I know, when in doubt, add more beads!

Bigger gold beads used to portray laughter

Bigger gold beads used to portray laughter

I got tired of sewing on the same size gold beads, was running out of them, couldn’t find any locally, and an exhibition entry deadline was looming. (Ah, the pressures on an artist!) I then thought to simulate laughter at this fiesta I was creating by sewing on larger gold beads, which I had more of and which filled up the area quicker. I was really kicking myself for choosing this all-over background fabric at this point. I didn’t HAVE to embellish the whole thing, but being obsessive, well… and since I don’t bead/quilt on a frame, the fabric gets wrinkled unless it’s heavily beaded and quilted.

Background fabric entirely filled with yellow and gold beads.

Background fabric entirely filled with yellow and gold beads.

Here’s a photo of where I had beaded in a small section without too many of the insights that I spoke about above. The yellow stripes were embellished with a yellow bead that fortunately I had enough of to finish the entire top, as I won’t be able to replace it. That’s one of the problems of working with buttons and beads is that you fall in love with one, use it for a few years, and then it stops being made…sigh! When I truly get to become queen, such things won’t happen. I’ll have an endless supply of my favorite supplies.

What insights have you learned when working with the materials that you use in your media. Don’t make us start from scratch and re-invent the wheel!

Why not leave a comment as to your thoughts on this posting. Please take a minute, fill out the form below or by clicking on the “comments/no comments link” at the top of the posting, and then share your ideas with the rest of us. We all grow when we share our thoughts and impressions, so why not join our growing community of those who appreciate art quilts and textile arts. We’d love to hear from you!… and PLEASE tell like minded souls about this blog! The more readers and contributors, the more I write because encouragement helps the words flow!

You can see more of my art work on my web site at www.fiberfantasies.com (be patient as it loads; it’s worth it), my spiritual healing work at www.transitionportals.com and can find me on Google + , Facebook (for Transition Portals) Facebook (for Fiber Fantasies),  and Twitter.

To find out how to buy my art work, please check out “How to Buy my Art Work” in the “Pages” section to the right of this blog.

Fiesta – A Happy Art Quilt

The art quilt "Fiesta" basted to bead & quilt

The art quilt “Fiesta” basted to bead & quilt

Nancy Smeltzer, MFA

How I remember those frantic days of September, 2014 as I was packing up my studio in Maryland getting ready to move to North Carolina. I had no idea how long it would take to sell my house; there weren’t a lot of walk-throughs. Not knowing when I would  see my supplies again, I cut out 3 art quilts to last for the unknown duration. I sewed the big buttons, beads, appliques and ribbons at night while the days were frantically spent supervising treasures going into storage boxes, or being donated. “Fiesta”, the piece you see on the left, was one of the three, and its bright sunny disposition made me smile through all of those frantic days as my studio of 30 years disappeared from sight. Would the buttons and beads that were disappearing into boxes ever reappear at the other end of the move?

Detail of art quilt "Fiesta" basted togethe

Detail of art quilt “Fiesta” basted together

I had been collecting the fabrics and ribbons for this quilt for awhile. Usually, materials that were being auditioned for a new art quilt would pile up in my studio for awhile until they reached a critical mass and then fall over onto the floor. This time, there was the urgency of having to cut out and baste 3 quilts quickly, so I grabbed this pile of fabrics that had been waiting for awhile. Going across the upper left hand corner is an orange and aqua woven ribbon that is quite striking. I of course had great good fun in playing with aqua buttons and crow beads sewn in lines around it. There are also multi-colored ribbons that cross across the center of this photo and an orange ribbon with yellow polka dots in the lower right. The yellow and while stripes are from a fabric that I cut in rectangles to help suggest awnings in my imaginary town square.

Another detail of the art quilt "Fiesta"

Another detail of the art quilt “Fiesta”

This shot is taken a little farther back and you can see some of the circles that suggest balloons? pinwheels? fireworks? After all, it’s a fiesta, so there are lots of possibilities for noise and sparkles. I often use circular shapes in fabrics and lace to repeat the round shapes of the buttons. While I will use other shapes in buttons, I like round ones the best. I find that other shapes are often hard to get to stay seated where I want them to be. The background fabric is a gold with a darker gold swirl on it that ties the whole composition together (more about it in the next posting). Now that I’m looking at this photo, I’m noticing how much the white lace circles (ones with the holes in them) and the white circles in the magenta pinwheels compete with each other. I’m wondering if there’s too much white. As I write this, the quilt is much farther along, but I’ll have to go and look to see how they turn out once they’re beaded. Oh, to learn to see the way the camera does!

What images do you find that you repeat over and over in your work? Do they have a particular meaning, or do they just “wander on in”?

Why not leave a comment as to your thoughts on this posting. Please take a minute, fill out the form below or by clicking on the “comments/no comments link” at the top of the posting, and then share your ideas with the rest of us. We all grow when we share our thoughts and impressions, so why not join our growing community of those who appreciate art quilts and textile arts. We’d love to hear from you!… and PLEASE tell like minded souls about this blog! The more readers and contributors, the more I write because encouragement helps the words flow!

You can see more of my art work on my web site at www.fiberfantasies.com (be patient as it loads; it’s worth it), my spiritual healing work at www.transitionportals.com and can find me on Google + , Facebook (for Transition Portals) Facebook (for Fiber Fantasies),  and Twitter.

To find out how to buy my art work, please check out “How to Buy my Art Work” in the “Pages” section to the right of this blog.

Whole Cloth Painting on an Art Quilt (1)

Thunderbird Sculpture - Joshua Tree, Arizona

Thunderbird Sculpture – Joshua Tree, Arizona

Nancy Smeltzer, MFA

I recently had the exciting opportunity to take a workshop with an art quilter whose work I have admired for a long time, Susan Brubaker-Knapp. Her work is often featured in the pages of “Quilting Arts” magazine, and she is the host of the popular TV series on PBS TV, “Quilting Arts TV“. To get in the workshop, I found by chance in a local arts newspaper, an announcement that a local quilting organization, the Western North Carolina Quilter’s Guild, was having a symposium in a few weeks just eight miles from where I live. I quickly contacted the organizers, got in Susan’s class, gathered my supplies, and eagerly awaited the first day of a day and half class.

The first thing to do before going was to choose a photograph on which to base my future art quilt. The finished piece would be about 8″ x 10″ ( 30 cm X 25 cm), so what was in the photo would translate in the finished piece pretty much as life size. Susan’s directions said to pick one of our own photos that had light, mid, and dark tones and that was clearly in focus. Normally, I would have chosen one of my floral pictures, as I’m a plant geek, but the iron sculpture in the above that I shot out in Joshua Tree, Arizona a few years ago spoke to me with its strong contrasts.

Thunderbird Painting & Photo for Comparison

Thunderbird Painting & Photo for Comparison

Once in class, and after narrowing down our photos, we were instructed to tape the one we chose under a piece of special tracing paper with the delightful name of “bum wad”. Used by architects, it’s stronger than regular tracing paper, and can be found in a wide variety of art stores and on-line. Using a fine line black marker,we recorded as much of the details as were needed to make the image onto the tracing paper. Then, the paper was taped under Robert Kaufman’s Pimatex PFD fabric, which is available on-line from a number of sources. I was unfamiliar with it, and was amazed at how sheer it was. It was pretty easy for me to copy my lines onto the fabric (using a mechanical pencil, BTW). However, there were some others in the class who had really dark backgrounds on their phoot, and had to tape their tracing paper and fabric to a window to get the outlines of the different areas in the photo they had chosen onto their own fabric.

Then, as you can see in the above photo of how my work was progressing, each area is filled in with small paint brushes as accurately as possible to match the color in the original photo. Susan really emphasized for us to look closely at the photos that we had and to portray what we saw as carefully as we could. Actually painting what we saw, and not making “coloring book” renditions of leaves, trees, and other natural forms was hard for some, but my sculpture was pretty much all in the foreground in my photo. That made it easy for me to interpret.

The paints that we used were PRO Chemical and Dye Textile Paints. They’re acrylic paints and had an extender to mix in to make the paints move around on the fabric longer. Otherwise, they would have dried in about five minutes. I hadn’t painted anything except faux painting on walls in quite a while, actually years, now that I think about it. Probably the hardest part for me was deciding how much paint to pour out into the compartment of my little artist’s palette, as Susan had said not to dip paint directly out of the jar. If we did that, we ran the risk of contaminating the paint and causing mold to grow in it. I wanted to have enough that once I had mixed a color, I would have enough to finish that area. This desire when I first started caused me to pour out too much paint and waste some. However, wrapping the palette in plastic wrap and having a lid on it before putting it in the refrigerator can lengthen its life span.

One day's painting and possible future embellishments

One day’s painting and possible future embellishments

This photo shows what I had done after the first day’s work, (six hours). During that class, I had talked with Susan about how I might incorporate my use of buttons and beads into the piece, as while I wanted to experience her technique, my fingers were itching to start sewing on things. She suggested making a frame on the outside where most of the embellishments could be contained and leaving the center pretty free except maybe for some seed beads, like she does. I was excited about that idea and back in my studio that night, I hauled out a large selections of metal feathers, gears, copper buttons, and washers. I was tickled that I had them all on the ready and wouldn’t have to buy anything new. So, before the second day of class began, I arranged the pieces around the painting and photographed them for future reference, as you see in the above photo.

Completed Thunderbird painting

Completed Thunderbird painting

Then, I put away the metal embellishments and dug into painting. I had about three hours to finish painting in the middle of the bird and the sides of the walls, which was my goal at the start of class. Brown was not a color in our sampler paint sets, and Susan generously let us borrow what was in the big bottles she had brought. I scruffed in the paint, and then the last hour started in on the sky. Before I knew it, I had completed the two closely matched shades of blue that I had mixed for that area, and ta-dah.. I had finished my painting, with half an hour to spare.

Susan had the great idea of outlining each part of my piece with black lines before I stitch with all black thread, and I have yet to do that. Also, the wobbly outside edges of painting that you see in the above photo include a 1/4″ ( 5 mm) seam allowance that will be evened out in the finished piece after I quilt it.

What  great good fun I had. Susan is a masterful teacher, and had tons of practical, clear advice on how to proceed with each student. Sometimes, i just put down my paint brush and listened to what she was saying to others as there was always something insightful. As a teacher myself, I’m really picky when it comes to being taught, so if you ever get the chance to be in one of Susan’s classes, by all means, do so. You’re in for a treat!

I often find that I learn the most in classes outside of my usual medium. This was a painting class, and I had to learn about how much to mix and blend with this brand of paint. What have you learned from other media?

Why not leave a comment as to your thoughts on this posting. Please take a minute, fill out the form below or by clicking on the “comments/no comments link” at the top of the posting, and then share your ideas with the rest of us. We all grow when we share our thoughts and impressions, so why not join our growing community of those who appreciate art quilts and textile arts. We’d love to hear from you!… and PLEASE tell like minded souls about this blog! The more readers and contributors, the more I write because encouragement helps the words flow!

You can see more of my art work on my web site at www.fiberfantasies.com (be patient as it loads; it’s worth it), my spiritual healing work at www.transitionportals.com and can find me on Google + , Facebook (for Transition Portals) Facebook (for Fiber Fantasies),  and Twitter.

To find out how to buy my art work, please check out “How to Buy my Art Work” in the “Pages” section to the right of this blog.

Thread Painting – Nature Portrayed Stitch by Stitch

Warm up exercises in thread embroidery

Warm up exercises in thread embroidery

Nancy Smeltzer, MFA

Thread painting, or using your sewing machine to create an image is a technique that I’ve always admired. About two years ago, I had the opportunity to take a workshop from Susan Levi-Goerlich, a local artist whose work I had always admired at the Baltimore Winter Market, a craft show sponsored by the American Craft Council. I got on her mailing list, and was excited that she was giving a workshop on an introduction to thread painting.

It had been awhile since I had picked up my sewing machine (which once upon a time had been considered portable), but I think it had gained weight since I had last used it. There was also an extensive list of materials, especially threads to consider, so I brought as many as I could carry. Then, there was the ever important photo that we were going to use as an inspiration. I chose a pic of one of my beloved Japanese irises, and fortunately was smart enough to pick one that had a single flower in it.

Photo of Japanese Iris

Photo of Japanese Iris

The first part was stretching the fabric taught into a sewing hoop that had been wrapped with bias tape so the fabric would really grab in the hoop. Instead of sewing with the fabric on top of the hoop, as in regular hand embroidery, the fabric is on the bottom of the hoop. The presser foot (machine sewing foot that is next to the fabric) is taken off and the feed dogs are lowered. (They’re the little track-like treads that help move the fabric through the machine). Then the hoop is passed under the needle, and since my hoop was kind of thick, I kept breaking needles. (I just now realized that I could have put the needle in afterwards, once the fabric in place…hindsight is always so accurate!)

Then, the needle becomes your pen or pencil, and the fabric your paper, but in this technique, the “paper” moves and the pen stays still. At first we practiced making loops and circles and then writing our names, as you can see in the first photo above.

The background of the Iris thread painting

The background of the Iris thread painting

In thread painting, you start with the background, and then move towards the foreground. It’s impossible to get every single blade and leaf in the picture, so you try for sort of a general blur for the background with a few larger, better formed elements, such as large leaves, that are closer to the viewer. You need a tremendous amount of colors from which to choose, so that you can create depth and distinguish leaves. I think that over on the left side of this photo, I was more drawing what I think the leaves should look like than what I actually saw. I got very tired, very quickly, working with just greens, so I moved on to the center section where the iris was in the photo.

Completed thread painting of a Japanese Iris

Completed thread painting of a Japanese Iris

This final photo shows how I interpreted the iris. While the flower is pleasing to look at, I don’t think that I did a good job of portraying an iris, and was more sewing what I thought it should look like rather than actually portraying what I was seeing. One problem is that the more you overlap the different colors of threads, the thicker the layers become, until you reach a point where you may have to switch to a thicker needle to get through all of the layers.

I really appreciate those who have dedicated themselves to thread painting, as just for the sheer physicality of moving the fabric around on the sewing machine for hours at a time. I imagine that the above piece took me about 15 hours to complete, and it’s only about 6″ or 15.5 cm in diameter. You certainly have to get up and stretch every so often and have good posture, or your upper back really starts to hurt. However, most art forms have some sort of hazard; I have to sand my fingertips every so often from the pin pricks from sewing on so many beads.

Have you ever done any machine embroidery or thread painting? How did it go for you, and do you have any tips to share?

Why not leave a comment as to your thoughts on this posting. Please take a minute, fill out the form below or by clicking on the “comments/no comments link” at the top of the posting, and then share your ideas with the rest of us. We all grow when we share our thoughts and impressions, so why not join our growing community of those who appreciate art quilts and textile arts. We’d love to hear from you!… and PLEASE tell like minded souls about this blog! The more readers and contributors, the more I write because encouragement helps the words flow!

You can see more of my art work on my web site at www.fiberfantasies.com (be patient as it loads; it’s worth it), my spiritual healing work at www.transitionportals.com and can find me on Google + , Facebook (for Transition Portals) Facebook (for Fiber Fantasies),  and Twitter.

To find out how to buy my art work, please check out “How to Buy my Art Work” in the “Pages” section to the right of this blog.

Beaded Art Quilts in the Sky – “Sky Map”

Full View - Sky Map

Full View – Sky Map

Nancy Smeltzer, MFA

Once in awhile, I get to see pieces that I sold before I knew much about photography and so didn’t have a record of the piece. That’s the case with a recent re-connection with Dr. Lisa Gordon, who introduced me to a whole new world of healing. This beaded art quilt that she bought was actually visionary art, as it’s based on a dream that I had while visiting Sweden. In the summer, Stockholm only has about 3 hours of darkness.I awoke at 3 am, looked out the window at the sparkling harbor, and then went back to sleep.

I’m fortunate that I have vivid dreams in color, and in this dream, the sky was faceted with sparkling mirrors and lines. The quality of the light that far north is much more silvery than what I’m used to here in the Mid-Atlantic of the States where light is more golden. I immediately jumped up and made a very rough sketch of the image that I had seen, which wasn’t really necessary. as I can still see what I saw that night as vividly as it was way back then.

Detail (1) of Sky Map

Detail (1) of Sky Map

This first detail shot shows some of the rich diverse materials I used in the making of this art quilt. There’s a large shi-sha mirror bordered in gold near the middle of the pic. On top of it as a star piece that I baked from friendly plastic. While the gold edges were still warm, I pressed a glass cabochon into the middle to make another shiny effect. There is a metal button that is criss-crossed with lines below the shi-sha mirror, and to the right of that is a bent waffle looking shape that I have no idea where I found it, but I wish that I had more of them. Finally, there is gold mesh stitched flat on the background to repeat the images of crossing lines that catch stars.

Detail (2) of Sky Map

Detail (2) of Sky Map

In this next shot, you can see a swirled iron-on applique. Perhaps that could be a new galaxy forming out there in space? While iron-on appliques always have a glue on the back that is supposed to be heat set when ironed, I’ve scorched some, and had some fall off. Therefore, I always sew them on to make sure they’ll stay, even though it’s hard to stitch through the glue. In the middle right is a silvery leaf earring, whose outward swirls suggested to me that energy could be emanating from a central force. Scattered throughout are flat rondelles with a finish that’s know as aurora borealis. While the beads are still being made, I can’t find them with the shiny AB finish anymore. Bead manufacturers bring out new lines and stop making some, usually the ones that I really like.

Detail (3) of Sky Map

Detail (3) of Sky Map

In the center of this shot is another gold colored iron-on applique. This one however, is in a square with the lines that circle round and round filled in with background material. However, in contrast, just beneath it, is another of those bent waffle forms made out of gold colored metal. (I love to repeat patterns in different ways across the surface of one of my art quilts). In the middle left is a “spider” looking pin, which I intended to be a starburst. To fasten it to the surface there’s a glass bead that I sewed in the middle to be a stopper to keep that swirled pin fastened down.

This piece was created in 1997, and the owner bought it before it right after it was finished, so I hadn’t seen it in quite awhile. I was surprised at how big it was (41.5″T x 39″W or 105.5 cm T x 99 cm W), as the pieces that I’m doing these days are much smaller and manageable. (Those things get heavy once you start adding on all of those buttons and beads!) I was pleased to get a chance to photograph it for my records, as it was one of my favorites and can still remember the night when the sky was faceted with lines and mirrors of light.

Do you have a favorite dream that you’ve translated into a piece of art? What was it like creating that art and do you feel that the piece turned out?

Why not leave a comment as to your thoughts on this posting. Please take a minute, fill out the form below or by clicking on the “comments/no comments link” at the top of the posting, and then share your ideas with the rest of us. We all grow when we share our thoughts and impressions, so why not join our growing community of those who appreciate art quilts and textile arts. We’d love to hear from you!… and PLEASE tell like minded souls about this blog! The more readers and contributors, the more I write because encouragement helps the words flow!

You can see more of my art work on my web site at www.fiberfantasies.com (be patient as it loads; it’s worth it), my spiritual healing work at www.transitionportals.com and can find me on Google + , Facebook (for Transition Portals) Facebook (for Fiber Fantasies),  and Twitter.

To find out how to buy my art work, please check out “How to Buy my Art Work” in the “Pages” section to the right of this blog.