Gardens of Yellow & Butterflies – Another Work in Progress

Full shot of an art quilt in progress - :Gardens of Yellow and Butterflies"I recently gave a presentation to a local Brandeis University Committee that supports the University and its libraries. I wanted to have a work in progress piece to show them how an art quilt is made, with its messy quilt sandwich, the untrimmed backing fabric,  and the middle batting sticking out. I also knew that I would be traveling soon, and that an art quilt the usual size of one of my larger pieces would take up a lot of room and weight in my carry on luggage. So the day before the presentation for the Brandeis group, I cut out this smaller art quilt (approx, 24″ W x 30″T, or 61 cm W x 76.5 cm T), “Gardens of Yellow and Butterflies” to demonstrate how an art quilt looks when it’s first being made.

The photo above shows this quilt, two days old, with the fabric pieces pinned into place. There are numerous safety pins up the middle and around the edges that keep the three layers from shifting too much as the sewing progresses. I like using safety pins rather then large basting stitches to hold the quilt sandwich together, as the safety pins can be opened and the fabric repositioned as is inevitably needed as I bead and quilt,as I don’t use a quilting frame. Rather, these pieces are sewn on a large sketching board that is clamped to a small, folding TV tray with quick release clamps from a hardware store. (Check this link to an earlier blog and scroll to the last pic to see the set-up.)

Detail of art quilt work in progress - "Gardens of Yellow and Butterflies"Here is a detail shot of the art quilt at that early stage of construction. You can see a vertical safety pin in the center yellow fabric as large areas of the same fabric tend to have bulges in them at this stage. There are the also visible white heads of lots of straight pins holding some of the pieces of fabric and ribbons in place. I love using ribbons, usually as  a vertical accent, but the black and white harlequin grosgrain ribbon stretching from the middle to the bottom right in this detail photo has already shifted. At this point, I’ve sewn some buttons and beads already onto the top of it, and rather than rip all of those out at this stage, I’ll use other elements as the piece progresses, such as sewing a large button on top of the ribbon near the bottom, to distract the eye from noticing that that ribbon is crooked.

Full view of "Gardens of Yellow and Butterflies" - two weeks laterThis full view photo was taken two weeks later from the first full view above. A lot of the colored fabric shapes have settled into place, as the edges have either been sewn down, and the straight pins removed or they’ve been beaded down. The yellow background fabric, which is actually two different colors of thin yellow stripes, is still the most wrinkled, and will continue to be until that large area has been beaded down. I can see also that while the black and white ribbon in the middle, extending to the bottom’s crookedness has been disguised with buttons to distract the eye, the same longer ribbon on the far right needs something done to make its top appear straight. It is always amazing to me that what I see with my eyes looks fine, and I don’t see areas I that need fixing until I see a photograph of it.

Detail of the art quilt - "Gardens of Yellow and Bitterflies", taken two weeks later from photos aboveThis later detail photo is taken from the same lower right corner as the detail shot above. The centers of the black diamond shapes in the black and white ribbon have now been filled in with hematite colored glass rondelles, held in place with a red seed bead. Larger sized red seed beads were sewn at the points where the black and white diamonds intersect. The green leaf is completely covered with different colors of beads, with 1 sq in or 2.5 sq cm equalling 1 hour’s work. The purple and black ribbon in the middle of this photo has purple seed beads sewn along the edges and at various places, there are aqua jump rings, sewn in place with lime green embroidery thread. This is because that ribbon has a wire edge, and while the edge will lie flat, the middle of the ribbon often doesn’t.

It has taken me over 30 years of being an art quilter to get command of most of the materials that I use. At this point, if I can think it, I can make it, so the actual construction techniques are no longer an issue. All of that practice frees me up to just be with the piece as I’m working as we speak and dance with each other. That connection can be quite an exhilarating experience sometimes and the joy I experience is what keeps me sewing, often through long hours into the night.

What are some ways that you’ve learned to cover up “mistakes” in your medium? Do you even see them as mistakes, or more as learning opportunities?

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

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