Tag Archive for art quilts with buttons and beads

“Dalton’s Garden” – the Beginning of a new Meditation Garden

"Dalton's Garden" - an art quilt designed for meditationI thought with this posting, that I would show you how I go about creating my art quilt Meditation Gardens. The images for this series is created by me tapping into a person’s energy field and then creating a visual representation of a place where they would be enthusiastic to energetically play and meditate. This one, “Dalton’s Garden” was designed to honor the new man who has come into my life, so creating the image has been pretty easy to do.(wry smile!)

The first thing I do before beginning one of these Meditation Gardens, is to tap into the person’s energy field and wait to be “shown” what place would be optimal for that person. With regard to Dalton, that was pretty easy, as we do a lot of energy work together. He lives in northern Florida now, and loves huge thunder storms, as the energy is electrifying and exciting for him, as it is for me, too. So instead of the usual sunny sky that I might put in other people’s gardens, he has some serious cumulonimbus thunderheads billowing in the background. I found a great purple blue batik fabric that looked as if the dye had run down the length of it. I cut irregular pieces of it and fastened them on horizontally to make the fingers of rain off in the distance in this scene.

The colored center section is made of three layers to make the quilt sandwich, the top embellished layer, the middle section composed of batting, and the backing fabric. Only the backing fabric, a white muslin extends outwards in these pieces. There, that fabric is attached to a frame with especially sharp thumbtacks that I got from the Canadian embroidery supply company, Berlin Embroidery Designs . Their web site is full of information and supplies for serious embroidery fanatics. The actual frame for this piece is larger than those sold by Berlin Embroidery, and came from another Canadian company, Hearthside Craftworks. They make beautiful floor embroidery frames that I lust after, but their simple 4 stretcher frame bars that I’m using here are elegant constructions of beautiful craftsmanship. Their dovetail joints fit perfectly tight so that you can get a true 90 degree angle for a perfect rectangle(or square). Both companies have wonderful customer service people, and while the shipping may be as much as the product if you’re not ordering very much, I found that it was worth it, as I haven’t found this quality of products for what I need here in the States.

Here, you can see more of the beautiful purple/blue batik that I used to make the rain clouds. I accentuated some of the horizontal lines with closely spaced quilting stitches tDetail of an art quilt created by tapping into a person's energy field, "Dalton's Garden"o make the blurry areas that looked like rain puff out some from the background. I hope that I can restrain myself and not cover up too much of the fabric with beads as I often do. The same sun/portal orb that I used in the original Meditation Garden, “Keith’s Garden” has a similar place in “Dalton’s Garden”. (It’s just too good of a design not to use as the entrance portal to “come into the scene”.) The center area is surrounded by a gold frame about 1.5″ or 4 cm square, with a larger metal frame that is 2″ or 5 cm square. That larger frame originally housed glass squares that were intended to enclose some thin collages, but I chose to cover them with gold, metallic floss using a blanket stitch to cover the metal frame.

I love to use commercial ribbons to create stripes in my work, and there are a lot of fun ones out there in the craft and fabric stores right now. I used two colors of harlequin diamond ribbons to suggest garden structures in the piece, such as trellises. However, no matter how much I stand back and look at the piece, I find it amazing that there are often some pieces that I don’t see to be crooked, such as the top of the black and white piece in the upper right until I see the art photographed. One of my favorite art/science books is VISION AND ART – THE BIOLOGY OF SEEING, by Margaret Livingstone. While it’s rather pricey, it is one of my most valued books in my collection. The extensive photographs and illustrations go a long way to explain how our eyes are not cameras, but do a lot of interpretation of what we’re seeing. A real camera doesn’t have that option, (or flaw) so it only records what is actually there. Fortunately, the crooked top of the black and white ribbon in the upper right of this photo had not been stitched down too much yet, so when you see it in the photos in the next blog, you’ll see that it was straightened. Otherwise, if it had already gotten too much embellishment to rip out stitches, (which I HATE to do) I would have added some sort of motif, probably lace or big buttons, to distract the eye from the crookedness.

I am incredibly excited about the beginning of this new Meditation Garden, and the man for whom it was designed at least professes to really like it. (I guess what’s he going to say since the relationship is rather new!) The next few weeks will have more photos as the piece progresses, but in the meantime, you can still access the commands on how to use the energy fields embedded in these art quilts by going to the page in the right hand navigational panel,entitled Transition Portals – Meditation Gardens. There you will find the phrases to say to allow you to tap into the energy fields in these pieces.

How do you tap into your own creative energy when you’re working in your own art medium? Do you have a structured method to access your Muses or do you go with the flow?

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!

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) and can find me on Google + , Facebook, 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.

Passementerie and Frou-Frou

Beaded Corsage with peacock feathersPassementerie is such a fun word to say. A definition of the word from Wikipedia is that passementerie or passementarie is the art of making elaborate trimmings, or edgings (in French, passements) of applied braid,gold or silver cord, embroidery colored silk, or beads for clothing or furnishings. After taking a class with Candace Kling, and and purchasing her book,THE ARTFUL RIBBON, C&T Publishing; 1ST edition (December 1996); (still available on a number of sites on line), I was inspired to make the beaded and feathered corsage seen on the left and below. I’ve always loved peacock feathers and found a number of them that had well formed “eyes” , and used them as a backing on a small circle of stiff buckram (used as the base in making some hats).

Beaded peacock corsage with central glass buttonThe central glass button, seen in the detail photo, has raised feather motifs on its surface, to play off the actual bird feathers above it.A number of glass beads were chosen for their shine and to draw the eye into the center of the piece. The folded lengths of green ribbons were added below the central area to suggest feathers. The olive green ribbon that I used has served frequently, as the picots on the edge of this antique ribbon adds  nice subtle texture for making a wide selection of designs in various art quilts from feathers in this case to reed grasses in other pieces.

Folded ribbon cockades and corsageTo the right are some more of my creations from the class that I took with Candace Kling. Back in the early 1900s, there were a number of books on the market that showed how you could save money by changing the ribbon motif on your hats. A matching corsage for each outfit was the practice of the day, so many women spent hours folding ribbons in order to be fashionable. You can see how the patterning of the ribbon can greatly affect how the finished piece turns out. The designs in the upper left and the bottom middle are the same pattern but with entirely different appearances, as the bottom piece had horizontal stripes that ran parallel with the edges of the ribbon. You could spend a lifetime, as Kling has done, experimenting with different ribbons.
Beaded and rolled ribbon trimsThe next photo has some of the trims that I’ve collected from various places. The top and bottom
ones are from one of my favorite sources, an eBay store called Heritagetrading . The amazing, detailed trims are first rate quality. I look for ones that have defined beginning and ending points, such as these do, so I can cut them apart easily and insert them in various places on my art quilts. The amount of handwork is outstanding, and very consistent across the pieces, so do check out that site if you lust after quality, beaded trims.

The center trim I don’t remember where I found it, (as is often the case). It must have been expensive as I only bought 1 yard. The coiled ribbons that make the pink flowers is intertwined around the folded green ribbons to make the leaves. Each segment has been carefully attached to a thin backing to keep it from unraveling, so long lengths of it will need to be utilized when I find the right  piece.

Detail of back of a heavily beaded art quiltOne of my fantasies is to one day go to the Lesage School of Embrodiery. I would like to live in a garret for a month and learn how to correctly do the techniques that I lust after. I’m pretty much self-taught, so I make up what I’m doing with my extensive beading. From the back of this piece, I think you can see how messy I am when I’m sewing. As much as I try, the hand quilting thread gets knotted and tangled, and makes for little loops on the back. All of those lines above and below the butterfly are rows and rows of size 10 seed beads. I could cover up the back with an additional layer of plain fabric, tacked down in a few places so it won’t sag, but I like showing people all of the work that goes into one of my pieces. Yes, all of those objects and beads are sewn on by hand.

What are your favorite trims and embellishments? 

How do you feel about the back of your pieces?

Why not leave a comment as to your thoughts on this piece. Please take a minute, fill it out the form 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!

You can see more of my
art work on my web site at www.fiberfantasies.com

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.