The start of the Bargello Art quilt

Yesterday evening I had some time to work on my quilt. After having the color strips laying out for several days I narrowed it down to the color pallets that I wanted to use and an approximate size that I wanted.

My inspiration for this quilt is the beautiful colors of a summer sunset. Maybe I was just thinking it would be so nice to have a beautiful late evening summer sunset versus the normal Chicago winter evening of a fade from gray to black.

The process involved me whittling down the number of color strips to 16 (I started with 40) I played with this over a period of several days until I came up with something that I really liked. I also used a red filter to help determine color value in the fabrics.

The process up until now has been fabric and color selection as the first step. Then would be the cutting of the strips (I was able to skip this step since the fabric pack was already cut into strips).

Step 2: I played with about 20 strips, playing with color placement and final selection, this process took a couple of days. I viewed it in daylight and under artificial light and just gave it a day to sit without looking and then coming back to it.

Step 3: iron the strips and apply some spray starch to help increase the hand of the fabric.

Step 4: sew the strips together using perfect 1/4 inch seams in straight lines. I sewed them together in groups of 4, then 2 groups of 8 and then one final group. This allowed for no one piece of fabric to be overly handled.

Step 5: then to the ironing board and ironed all the seams in one direction, flipped it over and ironed from the top making sure there was no hidden pleating from the ironing.

18 colors that I played with


I took some time to play with placement of the fabrics until I found

one that I really liked.

The view through the red filter, this allows me to see the color values so I can make sure I have what I want. In this case I wanted to have a variety from light to darks.


The final 16 choices sewn together and pressed.

The next steps include checking over the seams to make sure that everything looks even and straight. The I will sew the 2 ends pieces together turning into a tube. Then I get to cut it all apart and sew it together again!

I am off to New Orleans for the next 4 days do no sewing room time for me until next week :)

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!

Another birthday gift

I finished Melissa's birthday robe today. It came out very, very cute and I think it is perfect for a young lady turning 22!

The pattern I used was McCall's M5989 from the Easy/endless options line. It is for a misses robe, belt, top, nightgown, shorts and pants.

I used 'Ultra Cuddle fleece' that I picked up at JoAnn's when they where having one of the year end sales. I still have enough of this fleece left to make a matching pajama set of pants and a top. However, I am not sure that I want to!! While this fabric is a dream to cuddle with, rub your cheek against and just generally fondle... it is awful to work with. It sheds like crazy along cut edges and makes a HUGE mess everywhere. Thank goodness I have a serger, otherwise it would have taken me forever to finish every seam.

I included the picture from the pattern front of the robe. As you can see the arm and lower ruffles on the model are quite a bit more ruffled than in my version. I honestly think the super ruffle on the arm looked a bit much. So instead of doing a traditional gathering technique of running 2 lines of stitches and then gathering it up I just used the differential feed on my serger to do a slight gather and I did a rolled hem on the gathers to keep it from being too bulky.

I really like this robe, it is fun and up to date and not a 'granny' robe!

Top: my version

Below: McCall's version

The fabric and the mess!!
It was everywhere... it even followed me through the house,
I had to vacuum quite a bit to get it all up!

Close up of the front

Back View

I think she is going to love it! (or at least I hope so!) Now I just hope that she doesn't decide to take a look at mom's blog to see what I have been up to. I really doubt that will happen since she is so darn busy with school right now.

But... just in case... Mel if you do happen to check this out do me a favor and act surprised anyway!! LOL!

While I was sitting at my machine I kept hearing this crinkling noise and finally I heard a tearing noise. I got up and there was Baby Blue with one paw through the sleeve pattern and the lower corner of it happily in her mouth! She heard me get up and walk around the table and she just froze, maybe she was thinking that if she did not move I would not see her eating the pattern piece??? Silly dog!

The chewed up pattern piece

My sewing room helpers :)