The Bargello Art quilt is finally hung!

I finally got my art quilt hung up in the front room. We live in a small split level so we have a small set of stairs going down to the front door foyer and downstairs laundry/all purpose room.

We used to have a narrow bookcase going from floor to ceiling directly to the left of where the quilt is hanging. We took this down a bit ago and I have been wanting to 'do' or 're-do' something with this wall. This quilt is the first step, the lighthouse pictures on the very left are going to be taken down and either put in storage or recycled to another area of the house. I have yet to decide on what else I want to do on the wall... but I have some ideas.

While I have been working on my other projects I have been contemplating my next art quilt. I am thinking of doing another bargello to further explore the technique.

A little Friday evening sewing

My dear hubby is sick... and even dosed up on Nyquil he is still coughing and tossing and turning. I put him to bed early and I headed into my sewing room, iPod set eith some Norah Jones, a cinamon candle going and the nice satisfying hum of my sewing machine.

I have been able to slowly work on piecing the quilt strips together. I put them together in groups of 5. I did the first group last week before the trip to NOLA. (for more on the NOLA trip see my other blog) Yesterday I got another grouping done, and today I was able to finish up the last 3 groups and put them altogether.

I am quite pleased with the result so far. There are definitely some 'oops' spots where the seams don't match up perfectly, however for my first quilt of this type I am happy with it.

Partly finished top

The completed top

The next steps are to decide if I will add any borders or just trim and bind, what type of quilting do I want to do, and whether or not to add any decorative stitching...

All good things for me to ponder, I have some very good ideas on how I am going to proceede. I just want to 'think' on it for a while until the picture comes clear.

In the meantime I have some other projects sitting on my worktable and begging for my time.

Yes!!! Made it into the sewing room!

I finally made it into the sewing room!! I must admit that I have had a serious case of the Olympic Couch Potato Syndrome (OCPS)... hehehe and it has been fun but the call of the sewing room was strong today and I am glad for it.

I , of course, had to start out with cleaning of my work/cutting table. Things somehow gravitate to that table when it is not in use. Always such a pain but oh well...

After straightening up the room I did some work on mending that was piling up and then got to the fun stuff! I got back to work on my Bargello art quilt.

After sewing all the strips together I then sewed it into a tube and evened up the ends with a rotary cutter and a ruler. This gave me what I think resembled a large windsock.

Next step was to then take my windsock tube and cut it up into varying widths. I choose to cut my in widths that range from 1 inch to 3 inches. Then I opened the seams so that they lay flat in a pleasing configuration.

tube with uneven ends

The trimmed ends

my big 'windsock'

The tube cut up into varying widths with one seam open.

These are just laying next to each other... next step is to sew them all back together.

Ponderings of an Art Quilt

I have been itching to make an Art Quilt and in fact that is something on my list of things to explore in 2010. I have made some in the past, just a couple, and have really enjoyed the process. I have also created several crib and lap top size quilts over the past 20 or so years. I like creating them.

I have tried a bit of traditional bed quilting and have found the process to be too 'big'. I don't have enough space to feel that I can really do it justice and I really don't feel a big calling towards it.

I come from a family of artists (traditional artists, graphic artists, stained glass artists, woodworkers, sculptresses, painters, drawers) and have always thought of myself as not being an artist. I cannot draw, I cannot paint and power tools are not my friend. However over the years I have found myself to be very creative and somewhat of an artist in my sewing room. I thought about what makes an Art Quilt and for that mater what makes something Art. I found this great example on the web:

What is a Contemporary Art
Quilt

From Lisa Call’s
http://www.squidoo.com/artquilts/

There is a lot of discussion in the
art quilt world about what exactly an "art quilt" is and what we should call
them. The simple term "quilt" is deemed unacceptable by a large portion of the
general art quilting population because of the connotations of traditional quilt
that it carries with it. So most people prefer to add some type of disclaimer to
qualify the type of quilt they make.One of the more common terms is "art quilt".
I prefer "contemporary quilt". Some people say "fiber art" or "studio quilt" or
"textile art" or "soft painting". But the question remains - exactly WHAT is a
contemporary art quilt? Generally it refers to a quilt that was intended to be
art and hang on the wall vs. placed on a bed. Although some art quilts might
also be bed quilts.

What is Art?

As contemporary art quilts are "art"
it's good to think about what art is when trying to define them. Of course
defining art is difficult but the definition I prefer I read on Alyson
Stanfield's Art Biz Blog"What is art? . . . art is the deliberate creation of
aesthetic sensations. Art is a work of a human being, not of nature. It is not
accidental. It produces something that is perceived through the senses and
results in a personal emotional experience. . . .". . . it is the conscious,
deliberate production of an event or object of beauty (or emotional import) by a
human being, employing not only the skill of the craftsman, but in addition, an
element of creativity--original, inventive, instinctive, genius. An art object
is an aesthetic artifact, deliberately created.Art actually lies in the act of
creation, not in its result."--G. Ellis Burcaw, Introduction to Museum Work,
page 66

Maybe this yearning to wear the title of 'artist' has drawn me to the art quilt... there are no rules to follow and there are a million different jumping off points. Just look at the book section in any quilt shop or fabric store.

For example: Years ago I saw this quilt exhibition while vacationing, I think my mom was with me. It was all of these beautiful 'Bargello style' quilts. This is originally a style of needlepoint/tapestry design (I used to love needlework!) and for some reason I was drawn to it. Upon exiting the exhibition there was a book for sale on creating Bargello quilts, I bought it. I have pulled this book out many, many, many times over the years. The pages are marked and the spine lovingly creased, yet I have never created a Bargello Quilt of my own. It is a great book that talks about construction and fabric selection and gives wonderful pictures of others works. It gives you no reason to not try making one. It even has an entire section on what to do if you screw it up!

Maybe I can transform it into the ultimate quilt of the '10s

(now that just looks weird!)

Add this yearning, my intimate affair with this book that I have owned for maybe 15 years now and a Christmas gift of this great little pack of fabric strips from my hubby and I am off to explore the great wide world of Art Quilting to see what I can come up with. :)

A great selection of colors from Hoffman fabrics Batiks!

AT least I have a great palate to start with.

On a side note... like any other creative person, once I started thinking of 'Art Quilts' my brain started whirring and the more I thought about it the more ideas have started spinning around and around. Now I have more ideas than I will ever have time to try and make!

I wrote down several of the more creative ideas I had and tacked it on my cork board for future inspiration.

Now my mom has come up with a great idea that we will have to try out sometime. She is a stained glass artist and she was thinking wouldn't it be cool to have 2 pieces from the same pattern hanging. 1 made up in stained glass and the other made up as an art quilt??? The possibilities are great! We could make it into a 'challenge' of sorts.

So many ideas, so little time!