Daisy a Day

This is a little art quilt that I created as a sample for a class I will be teaching at Pleasant Valley Quilt Shop in Armstrong, BC in April. The main focus of the class will be creating a piece of unique fabric from bits and pieces of fabric, thread, glittery bits and organza and then the participants will use that piece of unique fabric to embellish an art quilt, a purse or a greeting card. It is such a fun "play day" and I thought you might like to see how I translated it into an art quilt.

The centres of the flowers are heavily beaded with additional bead dangles and the dragonfly is adorned with a few tiny seed beads and black sequins for his big eyes ... the wings have been made from Angelina that has been stitched with silver thread.

The grasses blowing in the breeze have been created from organza that has been stitched and then the edges have been left to fray in order to create more wisps.

The stem of the plant has been created by layering two decorative ribbons and yarn and then free motion stitching to give even more texture. The leaves on the plant are made from another piece of unique fabric that I created in green tones.

The background has been stitched in midnight blue thread. The outer edge of the art quilt has been couched with shiny black cord.

This art quilt measures approximately 12" x 20"

"Fiery Incline" - A Three-Dimensional Art Quilt

I have been playing with the idea of creating a 3-D art quilt for some time and this fabric called out to me to try it!

The fiery oranges and rusts are set off by the black silk and fibre that have come to remind me of a forest fire on a steep slope ... can you find the charred fir needles?

This is a three-sided vessel that is 13-1/2" tall and has a 6" base. The foundation fabric was created as a strip-pieced quilt which was then cut up and stitched together again as pieces that would eventually form a vessel.

The bottom is weighted with plastic pellets so that it doesn't tip over and there are numerous embellishment techniques that have been used on the surface. It is a delightful piece that has much potential.

This entry won a Juror's Choice award at the Shuswap Lake Festival of the Arts July 15th.

From Fallen Oak Leaves to Art Quilts

Last fall I spent some time picking up fallen oak leaves and acorns in Salmon Arm and I had a great time experimenting with the various ways these could be incorporated into art quilts.

I love working with hand-dyed fabrics and this beautiful light sage green piece is one that I'd saved for quite a while before the right project came along for it. I love the way that I was able to create a circle of oak leaves by rubbing the real leaves with dye sticks and then creating organza leaves from the same shapes and layering them in the centre of the quilt.

The stitching is a combination of hand embroidered seed stitches, with varying combinations of brown and green in the threads, and free motion machine quilting. The finishing touch is some beautiful hand-dyed and hand-spun yarn from a friend . . . with some of the acorns threaded onto the yarn. There are just a few clear beads stitched onto the quilt. Approximately 18" square.

Click on the images to enlarge them to see more detail.


The photo of the second quilt made in this manner is actually done on a piece of commercial batik and the leaves are arranged in such a way that the stitching around them created a bit of a heart shape . . . the pale gold colours have just a touch of rust and they swirl with a bit of bluish-grey to create a beautiful backdrop for the leaves. Approximately 16" x 20".

I will be teaching this as a workshop at Sun Peaks Resort in July 2011. www.sunpeaksresort.com

Finny Fantasy

This wall hanging started out as one of the samples for an upcoming embellishment class but I soon realized it was too large a project for this particular class -- and the theme might not have been the greatest for a bag (which it was to become) . . . but what a wonderful image for the wall! With a bit of creative cutting and re-positioning, the large fish and the smaller fry are heading off in search of who-knows-what. Of course, there's always one who wants to swim against the tide. You might have noticed that the fabrics are the same as those I used to create the fibre art purse in the previous posting . . .

Click on the image to see more of the details that include layering sheers, encasing glitter, layering gold netting and hand beading. It measures approximately 45" wide by 18" high.

Updated July 11, 2009 -- "Finny Fantasy" won a Juror's Choice Award at the Shuswap Lake Festival of the Arts in Sorrento this week.