An Art Quilt Piece from my collection

Acid Attack 2006

I won this art quilt way back in 2006 during the second Quilt Swap featuring members of the Quiltart list.  I had it hanging in a hallway in our Sacramento house. We moved a year after the swap and it has been hanging in my studio ever since.  I am posting it now because it was made by Jan Johnson who is the leader of this month's challenge.  I wanted to thank her again for the wonderful gift and to let her know it is still on display in my home.

Sylvia

Good Locks Make Honest Men

What a coincidence!  I'm just finishing postcards for an exchange with doors as the theme.  My door is an old, deserted farmhouse door that has been bolted against intruders.  I used ink that I put on my finger and rubbed into the fabric.  Then I cut the fabric into narrow strips to resemble boards.  The door has real screen in it.  I quilted around each shape to make sure they all held despite using fusible.

I've titled it "Good Locks Make Honest Men" or at least they try to...

Zentangle

I began my zentangle design by drawing one in the original size format of 3 1/2" square.  What started out loopy ended as a bird.  I scanned the image into the computer where I flipped, slid, turned, etc., until I ended with a design I liked.  I printed it out onto fabric, frayed the edges, and fused it to the background.  I chose those wild fabrics because they resembled some zentangle designs.  Using invisible thread I quilted some on the zentangle design, the background, and then the border.  The finished size is 13 1/2" square.

Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds

I chose the song "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" to illustrate.  Growing up then everyone knew the title referred to the drug LSD.  I used sky fabric sliced and partially grayed to depict the light and dark of the drug, mostly dark layered upon silver fabric.  I found some old star fabric and used them and beads to show the diamond light.  Lucy everyone will recognize from Peanuts.  Angel wings were added to elevate her into the sky.

Childhood

I remember living on my bicycle. I went everywhere on it and as fast as I could pedal besides. Needless to say, I had quite a few tumbles and scraped knees and elbows but never a broken bone. Every Saturday during the year and as many days as I could during the summer I would ride my bike to a small farm not far from where I lived in the city. There was my second love, horses! I spent time grooming them and often cleaning stalls just so I could ride them.

On this quilt, 9" x 12 1/2", I depicted a bicycle tire and horse prints to show my two childhood loves. I quilted in a random horizontal manner to attempt to show the speed I got on my bicycle and also the air blowing through my hair both on the bike and the horse.

Confused Weather

This winter our weather has been anything but normal. Normally we have cold, ice, snow, and more cold, but this year we are having spring-like weather with temps as high as 69 degrees. I tried an abstraction to show confused weather of warm winds and sun in a normally cold climate. I added a few beads to show occasional snow flakes that have fallen only to melt again when it warms. I used dyed gauze to depict the warming winds over a cold group of trees.

Harvest Time

Not yet bound, but ready to post by the deadline. I guess I don't really have a favorite painting. I like so many by different artists. I live on a farm and it's harvest time here so while checking for paintings to use I came across this one of corn waiting to be harvested by Joy Appenzeller Bauer. I used the fall colors in the painting and threw in some olive green to show that there still is some green here during harvest. I quilted it in circles to show the combine wheels going round and round in the fields.

Pastel Corn

Great timing for this challenge. Next week I'll be in Colorado at a pastel painting week in the mountains with my sister. I've been practicing all week since I haven't done anything with pastels in several years. Doing laundry the other day I noticed the pile of lovely colored 'Color Guard' sheets from previous washings. I had 4 of these lovely mahogany colored sheets. This a.m. I put one on my drawing board and proceeded to do a painting of a dried cornstalk simulating what they must look like now in dry Texas compared to our nice green ones here in Nebraska. Interesting surface to work on. I had a fairly nice drawing and then decided to attempt some quilting lines for more detail. MISTAKE! It shook loose much of the pastel muddying the appearance. So I took it back for more pastel. Of course, I couldn't get the original look. But here is the finished piece and I learned a lot about surfaces with this little piece. Thanks for a wonderful, timely challenge!

Art Deco Birds

Not sure if this is Art Deco or Art Nouveau. I'll let you all decide. This measures about 15" x 19" and was a bright, fun way to depict my favorite subject, birds.

Forest Trail

I do love Andy Goldsworthy's work but I found that doing anything even resembling his marvelous work in fabric is hard. My first attempt using rocks failed due to the background. So I tried what you see here. He works with nature and natural colors but I chose to do a weaving forest path in purples winding around the trees and twisting over/under itself. He often uses various natural objects to make a snaky trail within his work. So I wove a piece of natural yarn around the trees. I then used acrylic paint and a stiff brush to dap on color to the very light hand-dyed piece of backing fabric.

Love

This is shown in a vortex sort of way showing loving hands encircling a couple. All fused and stitched to show features.

Peek Hole on a Winter world

Since realism is my thing I really got excited about this challenge. While looking over the links for this site I happened to remember a picture I had drawn several years ago and surprisingly was able to grab the correct sketch book even. But I was surprised at just how many 'several years ago' was. Seems I drew it in 1980! Still worked... So I took a photo of the pencil drawing and then printed it onto an 8" x 10" piece of fabric. The 3 faces weren't as dramatic in black and white so I used colored pencils to give their skin and shirts some color. I didn't want to overdo since they were to be in the background. When quilting the piece I did very little on the faces themselves just outlining their features.
I found the perfect piece of fabric for the frosty window but had very little left so I fused it and began cutting pieces to fit the windows. Since frost seems to go every which way on a window anyhow this worked out perfectly. I'd thought maybe doing a log cabin but then felt the brown would make the piece too dark so opted for modern white siding. Next were the pine branches, and yes, all those pine needles were individually cut from left-over green fabrics from other projects. Then, since I love birds, I put a lovely little White-crowned Sparrow on a branch for the father and sons to look at. The shadows are all thread painted. It's 15 1/2" x 17". I think it met the criteria.

I've included a photo of the drawing I did originally for comparison.

One Shape - Rectangles

Since we're not celebrating Thanksgiving until Sunday I worked on my shapes challenge piece the past 2 days. I am on a whim where I will not buy any new fabric and for this challenge I decided to use only fabric pieces I already had fused. I keep almost every little scrap from previous projects. The problem with this is that it does limit me. I had some colored pieces out but did not have enough of what I wanted so I ended going entirely with black, grey, white, and red. I kept laying the pieces until I found them pleasing. There is not high contrast between the black and grey but the black and white check and red does add more contrast. To quilt it I used straight lines which resulted in rectangles being formed in varying sizes. Finished it's 9 1/2" x 14". It can be turned either horizontally or vertically but I personally prefer the horizontal lay.

I'd forgotten how much fun working with shapes is. I'd hoped to do a landscape with one shape but didn't have the fabric already fused. So I guess I can work that one up another time. Thanks for a great challenge!

Autumn Haiku

The Haiku was a fun challenge! Thanks, Kathy.

This is probably the least variety of fabrics I've ever used in a quilt, just 4 different pieces. A year ago I bought the hand-dyed background fabric from Laura Wasilowski at the Des Moines AQS show. Once home I wondered why, but it worked well as the background for this piece so I'm glad I did. It was shades of a light grey-blue, light rose-pink, and light yellow. The first two reminded me of a dreary fall sky telling one winter would soon follow the loss of leaves. I chose a maple tree because when I looked out the window the day the challenge was announced, my maples were loaded with gorgeous leaves that were beginning to fall. Once started the light yellow was too light so I darkened it with a light wash of color by quilting and paints.

I quilted leaves on top of the fused pieces on the ground and then decided to do the same with the tree. The tree's leaves actually ended looking more like oak leaves than maple leaves, but they'll do. Some I left open on the sky fabric. I'd thought that somehow writing the Haiku in the lower left open area would be nice but I feared messing it up so instead added a fencerow gradually disappearing over a distant hill. It ended at 16" x 26 1/2".

The Haiku was written and the quilt over half completed when I decided to change the last line which I personally like better, but others may disagree. I've listed both versions here.

Leaves, orange, red, gold Leaves, orange, red, gold
Gnarled maple dropping its crown Gnarled maple dropping its crown
Which is last to fall? Earth's winter blanket.

Fall is Golden

Simple but hard! I've never tried foiling before and had some difficulty with getting the foil to stick. I finally figured that part out after two days trying! The leaves are foiled and then the veins quilted with gold metallic thread. I used the gold metallic thread to couch the fall colored cording around the leaves to frame them. The small washers on the corners and center sides are really some little plastic things I picked up at Hobby Lobby a couple of years ago. The background is quilted over the lines that were on the fabric. The edge was a problem until I found some small white rick-rack which I then went over with a yellow Sharpie and it amazingly matched the fabric. And, I'm optimistic that we will have a nice, warm, lovely fall with lots of color.

Three Forest

I love trees and drew a picture very similar to the one I drew and used for this several years ago. I tried several new methods in this project. First I've always wanted to but never did know how to screen print. I bought myself a small kit a couple of weeks ago and used it on these trees. I made the design and then inked it onto 3 different fabrics. I then cut out the trees and fused them to the background. I used several old pieces of fused fabric scraps and cut grass from them. Another new try was an uneven edge top and bottom but instead of mitered corners I tried square corners. This I had difficulty with so probably won't use it again. Then of course the beads as faux leaves on the trees. I'm not much of a beader but opted to use them for this small forest of trees, thus the name 'Three Forest'.

High on Fungi

I am usually one who does very realistic art quilts so this time I stepped out of my comfort zone and went completely abstract with my fungi. I chose to do a split-complimentary color scheme and used purple, yellow-orange, and yellow-greens. I decided to look at a typical fungi from beneath. I broke the head into various waves alternating them with the folds seen under the mushroom with spores. I quilted in either a circular design on the center and outer rings to swirls on the middle purple ring. To simulate some spores on the orange and green I added some beads. When completed I couched different yarns along each wave for a more funky effect. I used a simple decorative stitch over the orange/green seams beading on top of them. The binding 'fell' from a shelf and I decided to use it since although black it contained the colors of purple, orange and green. This was left over from a larger quilt I'd made last winter. The quilt was pieced together using freezer paper and registration marks. No fusible was used in this piece. The quilt measures 15 1/2" x 18".

My Favorite Flower Child

Is my only granddaughter, of course! This is a small quilt and will remain unfinished for now since I had foot surgery two weeks ago requiring an incision on the sole of my right foot and I've found my left foot doesn't run to motor foot as well as the right so it will wait for another few weeks to be quilted.
I used a photo of my granddaughter, fused some old flower fabric and mushroom fabric to a practice piece of hand dyed cloth. I then cut petals from some orange fabric and pieced them around her face, fused them in place and then added the bud leaves and stem the same way. I'm thinking that maybe I can make it into a birthday card and give it to her when she turns 13 in June.

Under the Sea

This was a real challenge since the sea is far removed from Nebraska. While cleaning house on Saturday I found a book on the sea I had forgotten I owned! It's at least 20 yrs. old. I found a picture of starfish that I copied and printed onto fabric. They weren't very bright so I used Prismacolor pencils wetted to brighten them. I then found some batik that had ocean like colors to put on a border. I thread painted the background of the rocks out onto the borders to tie it all together. I also printed out the seahorse and the purple coral in the lower right corner. I used the Prismacolor pencils on those, too. I did thread painted over the stars and added pink sea urchins. The purple plant/coral in the lower right was added with thread. My great mistake was trying to thread paint white lace coral coming in from the right. It got lost in the picture. So I redid it, leaving the old underneath by using Sulky Solvy and then just taking it down to give a dimensional appearance. The plants on the left were added to give more depth to the view and a place for the seahorse to hang onto. The edge finish is one from a Sue Benner class. As mentioned by someone else, this type of edge is hard to get to lay flat. I think it works for Sue since she has so much Wunder Under in her quilts making them stiffer. This quilt is 12" x 12".

Winter Corn Rows

Done but I'm not happy with the end product. I using piping to create the foreground corn rows and then just strips on the farther hill. There is a grayed hill on the right that I tried scrunching with warm Misty Fuse. I've done this effectively before but I didn't do well with it this time. I also didn't get the background strips at an angle like I'd wanted. I feel they're too vertical. I also added some stitching to attempt to show some dried clumps of grass peeking through the snow. All of this bleakness is what it's looked like here since Thanksgiving! It does have an uneven bottom since I decided it added to the effect of the corn rows. I haven't put a binding on it yet since I'm trying to decide whether or not to just just zigzag around a few times or to put on a narrow light grey border. It measures 10 1/2" x 15 1/2".