Archive for Circles ofBlack, Circles of White 7

Seeing the Love in What I Make

September 24, 2012 / / No comments

The word "Love" in a contemporary beaded art quiltThis is a more cropped version of the full shot that I posted in the last blog of finishing up “Circles of Black, Circles of White 7”. Many of the comments about the blog on on my Facebook page were about being able to see the word “Love” in the section of the quilt shown on the left of the photo. The “L” is in the the harlequin ribbon on the left, the “O” is in the big circle in the Upper middle, the “V” is in the small, open industrial zipper in the middle, and the “E” (a bit of a stretch) is suggested on the right with more of the harlequin ribbon. I wish that I could claim that I had deliberately put that word into the composition, but it was not a conscious effort on my part…..but then in my healing practice, there are no coincidences.

I always find it amusing what other people see in my art work. I am often quite blind to what I’m creating, because I’m so caught up in the process. I’m cutting out shapes, pinning them into place, and then once satisfied with the look, begin with the larger textural elements, such as the bigger buttons, zippers, and metal buckles and stampings. I’ve often said that if it has a hole in it, or can have a hole put in it, then it’s fair game to put on the surface of one of my quilts. The only tiime that I view the quilt at a distance is when I’m pinning the cut-out fabric motifs into place. After that, I rarely see the work more than a foot away from my face, as I have the piece clamped to a small folding table as I sew on the beads. So the inclusion of the word “Love” was not intentional.

…or was it? As I was working on this art quilt, I began a relationship with my 10th grade boyfriend. Connecting back up after 46 years seems quite a bit of a story book tale, so as you can imagine, I’m a bit starry eyed. Who knows what magic was being worked under my fingers as all kinds of fantasies ran through my mind as I sewed. Since I do put a part of my heart and soul into each piece that I do, I think that my nest series will be about hiding the word “Love” into the design composition. Stay tuned to these pages as I start to work on that series.

How have you been surprised by what appears in your art work? What did you do to capitalize on that discovery and make it work for you?

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.

Category: Circles ofBlack, Circles of White 7 / Tags: , , , , , ,

Tidying up the Sides – Adding the Binding (2)

September 20, 2012 / / 2 comments

A contemprary art quilt being blocked on a pinning boardThis posting completes the information on how I finish off the edges of an art quilt and deal with the binding. Back when quilts were designed to be used as bed covers, the binding was essential in order to keep the edges from unraveling. Now, some sort of edging has just become the norm just as frames are on many paintings. In the photo on the left. the binding has been sewn all around the edges of the quilt, but not folded under and sewn in place on the back yet. At this point, I like to pin the whole piece into place on a cardboard pinning board, following the grid lines to keep the piece rectangular. I block it by misting it with water from a spray bottle and let the piece dry over night. Then, I remove all of the pins and fold the binding under to cover the raw edges and stitch it into place on the back. The pinning board that I’m use is a cardboard one that has grid lines on it that I buy in a sewing store. It’s 72″ or 183 cm long, so as a section gets warped from being sprayed after blocking five or six quilts, I cut off the distorted section and still have enough room for more quilts. I’m not so concerned at this point which of the grid lines that I’m pinning into as much as that I’m pinning into a squared off section of the board. I put in a pin at least every inch or 2.5 cm, but if the ribbon binding is thin, I may need to put in pins more frequently so that there aren’t little peaks along the edge. When the ribbon is tuned over, it may not be wide enough to cover the stitches that fastened down the binding on the front of the quilt. If that’s the case, I may need to stitch an additional ribbon flat on the back to cover up the stitches from the front.

Contemporary, beaded art quilt "Circles of Black, Circles of White 7"Then, I add a 4″ or 10 cm wide sleeve on the top of the quilt for a hanging rod. As I was finishing this blog this morning, “Quilting Daily” had a brilliant posting about making one big long sleeve and cutting lengths as you need them. That makes so much sense, as there’s nothing more boring than making display sleeves for hanging a quilt. A signature patch is then sewn on the lower right of the back. It contains my name, the copyright ©, the year of completion, and the name of the piece.

As I said before, all of this finishing work is not particularly artistically rewarding, but is so necessary to give a quality finish to the piece. It is surprising how distracting to the eye being off as little as 1/2 ” or 1.75 cm can be and then the viewer spends a lot of time thinking”Wow! that quilt sure is crooked!”, rather than “Look at how amazing that quilt is!”. Somehow, I would like to think that the latter thoughts are being voiced after all of the work that I put in.

Have you ever finished an art project and realized that there was some mistake, such as a crooked edge? What did you do to “correct” it besides ripping it out or starting over? 

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.

Category: Circles ofBlack, Circles of White 7 / Tags: , , , , , , ,

Work in Progress (3) – Adding on the Buttons

February 2, 2012 / / No comments

In this fourth blog on constructing an art quilt,(#2 was divided into two posts) you can see that I’ve progressed to the point of adding on the buttons and some of the larger beads. For me, this can be quite an exciting time, as I make my choices from the wealth of treasures I have in the plastic shoe boxes surrounding the chair in front of the TV where I sew. This phase is more about narrowing down what is sewn on the quilt surface, as I usually have enough embellishments that I’ve pulled from my studio to make several quilts. Shades and subtle variations are important to me, at this point, so not just any blue will do to partner with the blues in the wings of the butterfly appliques that I have chosen. Just the right shade of contrasting embroidery floss is needed to sew the shank-less buttons on so that there will be a small splash of color on the surface of many of the flat buttons. I probably labor over details like that way more than I need to, but those countless little touches are what people frequently comment on, so i continue to be a bit obsessive about the colors and textures that I choose.

This 7th piece in the series, “Circles of Black. Circles of White” is dedicated to one of my favorite insects, butterflies. To honor them, I chose a wide range of iron-on appliques, pins, and printed fabric motifs of these delightful creatures. I happened to have a large number of blue “flutterbys”, and since yellow and blue are complementary colors on the color wheel, I was pleased with how they worked out in this composition. As i work, I move each new addition that is being considered around on the surface, searching for the ideal location, until intuitively, that piece feels “right” and balanced for me with what is already there. Each decision is made one at a time, so I’ll place 5-6 buttons of the same kind at different places on the surface, sew them down, each in turn, and then go on to the next style or color of button. Some nights, it’s the yellow button night, while other times, I work just with gold ones. Throughout this series, black and white buttons were used a lot, which should be no surprise, given the title of the sries.

The background fabric for this quilt has a yellow background with irregular blocks bounded in dark orange. To play off of this design element, I sewed vertical lines of small orange buttons attached with red thread. While the thread is not the same color as the background, against the orange buttons, its color seems to blend. I like using woven ribbons as vertical stripes, so these harlequin black and white ribbons play off the striped circles. You can see another repeat by the use of blue in the flat buttons in the middle and lower left harmonizing with the blue in the various butterfly wings. In this photo, you can also see how the black and white circle buttons repeat the same shape and color as the big, black and white fabric circles.

In this last photo, you can see how the piece has progressed after a few nights of sewing, The yellow discs in the meddle of the piece were originally sewn on with red sewing thread. Not being particularly subtle myself, I decided that I wanted more “oomph:, so I went over the thread with thicker, red embroidery floss. The big black and white circle in the upper right now has some small orange buttons sewn near th edge, while yellow-orange pearls have been sewn on to the black circle next to that big one of which I just wrote. Some of the background has started to be filled in with dark orange beads going around the edge of yellow, irregular squares. Eventually, a large portion of the surface will be covered with seed beads, just as in my other quilts.

Now begins the “Time of the Long Sew”, meaning that not much will appear to change very quickly. With most of the large buttons and beads in place, the seed beads begin to be sewn on, and 1 sq. in, or 2.5 cm = 1 hour’s work. I’ll post detail shots as time goes on and there seems to be some area that has emerged that has changed significantly, so do keep checking in to see how this piece progresses. Meanwhile, I’m rather pleased to say that I now have enough photographs in the queue for two and a half month’s worth of blogs, as the ideas just seem to keep coming. Stay tuned!

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

Category: Circles ofBlack, Circles of White 7 / Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Work in Progress (2B) – Choosing the Embellishments

January 31, 2012 / / No comments

Originally, this third posting on how to construct a contemporary art quilt, was supposed to be part of the second posting on choosing beads, stampings, and other embellishments.  However, I realized that it was way too long for an easy read, so I split it into two parts. Here is the second half of how I make my choices for decorating the surfaces of my work.

In this photo are some of the larger beads and stampings that I pulled from my stash to consider for the next phase of my art quilt’s construction. In the middle are some different sized plastic snowflakes that used to be popular for children’s craft projects. They are almost impossible to find here in the States in opaque colors, so on eBay, I found some sources in China. I hope I’ve bought at least a lifetime supply of opaque white ones. Since I do a lot of garden scenes, I like to sew them on, as I’ve done in the card in the middle, with contrasting embroidery floss, to simulate flowers, stars, or just to use as a small splash of color. To the right if the card are two small, gold safety pins. (For awhile, there were colored pins on the market, but now all I can find are the gold ones.) I like to add size 6 or larger beads on each pin, and then sew them down the edge of a ribbon or to create the suggestion of  a line. The large gold and aqua, dichroic foil ,oval bead at the bottom is great, color-wise for the composition, but as I write this posting, I’m not sure there’s much room left on the surface for something that big. (Note – as I write this, I am further along with the embellishing the surface tof the quilt, and that bead did indeed turn out to be too big. However, there was an oval glass bead, with similar colors, that worked well with five of them scattered across the surface.)

Finally comes the choice of which seed beads to use to cover the motifs on the fabrics. Of all the materials that I use, these little pieces of glass are the hardest to order on-line, as the color on the monitor is not what necessarily arrives in the mail. My “paint by numbers” method covers up a lot of the fabric, and color accuracy is important to me. It is still surprising how different the color of beads can be in a vial, where the color appears to be much more concentrated, as compared to how they appear when threaded and sewn down, so rather than order on-line a lot of samples,(unless I have already visited that store and saved the numbers), I make a few trips a year to Accents Beads. It’s about a 45 minute drive to Rockville, MD; USA from where I live, but I get to touch the colors up close and personal. They have a huge selection of seed beads and I can usually find what I need.

I used to store my seed beads in clear glass jars so I could see them easily, but now I have so many that I put them in 3″ x 5″ (7.5 cm x 12.5 cm) plastic bags, (usually secured with a rubber band) and then put all of those bags into large, clear containers containing similar colors. The plastic condiment cup in the middle of the photo above makes for easy access when I’m doing the actual sewing,but I have to remember to hear the snap when the lid is put on to prevent bead accidents. In the same photo, along the bottom edge, are two index cards from my last shopping trip. A straight pin is threaded just a little through the card, 4-5 beads are threaded onto the pin, and then the tip of the pin is pushed back through the card and secured with clear tape. I cut the color numbers off of the plastic tube that those beads came from(each one has their own numbering system) and then I write it below the appropriate pin with the beads. Usually the numbers stay the same from one shopping trip to the next at a given source, but sometimes, I can tell the beads on the pin are the right color as what’s in the vial in front of me, even though now the numbers are different.

Choosing embellishments for a new art quilt is one of my favorite parts of the process, as I get to run my fingers through my stash of goodies. However, I have to give up any need to have a particular button or bead to be available the next time I want to use it. These materials are subject to the whim of fashion and jewelry colors and trends, so some of my favorite items just stop being produced. Some times, I can find another source on-line, but often, I have to accept that I used up the last of a particular item on the last piece of art work, and so the search begins for a replacement.

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

Category: Circles ofBlack, Circles of White 7 / Tags: , , , , , , ,

Work in Progress (2A) – Choosing the Embellishments

January 27, 2012 / / No comments

In this second posting on how to create a contemporary beaded art quilt, I’ll talk about how I choose the embellishments. On the home page of my web site ,I bill myself as the “Self-proclaimed Button and Bead Queen of Maryland (USA)”, figuring that if I give myself the title, no one can take it away from me. However, if you were to see the contents of my studio, (see photo below) most people would agree that I’m at least in the running for this coveted title. Over the years, I’ve amassed quite a collection of treasures. My ex-husband used to complain that the floor was going to fall in, but now that’s not an issue, because he’s, well, my ex, and I can feed my button and bead habit now however I choose. I choose to do so a lot, as I’ve met few buttons I don’t like.

When I start a new art quilt, I get out a plastic shoe box and start filling it with bags of colors and shapes of buttons that I want to consider using. I often then have to switch to a larger cardboard box as I don’t deny myself choices. The largest design elements, like the buttons and pins, are sewn on first, as they’ll make the biggest contribution to the composition. They also take up the most space, so I don’t have to bead under them. Then, I work my way down to the smalle elements. Sewing the buttons early on can make for quite a lot of snarled sewing threads later in the construction process, as all of my buttons and beads are sewn on by hand. However, because the buttons and pins make the most impact on what’s seen on the surface of the quilt, and they’re what people seem to pay the most attention to, I put up with tangled threads catching on their edges.

In the photo above, you can see some of the buttons that I pulled for consideration for this Work in Progress quilt, “Circles of Black, Circles of White 7”. I always have way more choices than what actually ends up on the finished piece. The tiny little black and white doll buttons in the bottom of the photo I order on eBay from Hong Kong. I’ve used a lot of them in various colors in this Circle series as they’re nice to sew on around the black and white striped circles using contrasting embroidery floss. Above those, in the middle of the photo, are several larger variations on those black and white circle buttons with different widths of rims. In the upper left, there is a blue glass button, in the middle right, a large gold glass one, and the bottom right, next to the black and white doll buttons, a medium sized gold glass button. These dramatic glass buttons are coming out of Czechoslovakia. They are made from antique molds, but with modern materials, including dichroic foil. Those shining circles of glass add a colorful punch to the surfaces of my quilt and draw a lot of attention and comments. Finally in the center of the photo is my signature hummingbird button that I use on all of my quilts. I thought I had bought a lifetime supply by purchasing a 100, but as that box is running low, I went back to order more. I was quite disappointed that they seem to be going out of production, so I scrambled around on the Net and found another 100.

While editing this part of my Work in Progress series of blogs, I realized that it was getting way too long, so this first part is about how I choose the buttons for my art quilt surfaces. The second part of “Choosing the Embellishments”will be about the large beads, metal stampings, and the seed beads I use and should appear next week. I’ll leave you with this photo of the sagging shelves of some of my button and bead collection. Who knew that some little bits of plastic, glass and metal would get shelving that is supposed to withstand 150 pounds or 67.5 kgs, to bend over time. There are six more shelves not seen in this shot for my little acquisitions. It all started so innocently, just a few buttons here, a few beads there..but more on how I choose what goes where in the next posting.

Why not leave a comment as to your thoughts on this piece. The registration form is just to prevent spammers, not to collect any of your information, so please take a minute, fill it out, 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.

Category: Circles ofBlack, Circles of White 7 / Tags: , , , , ,
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