Last month I got to spend two and half days with members of the North Suburban Needle Arts Guild when I conducted my class, Design Your Own Nature Quilt. Because this group includes many non-quilters there was quite a mix of skill levels in the class. About half had never made an art quilt and several had never made a quilt of any sort! But, they all bravely dove in and they achieved EXCELLENT results.
In this class, each student brings their own inspiration photo, which means we’ve got 15 DIFFERENT projects going all the time. It keeps me on my toes, but I love it. They learn so much in this class!
I wish I had thought to photograph their inspiration photos, rather than just their resulting quilts. (These photos were showing on my computer when photographed. The quality is sometimes low, but you’ll get the idea.)
Gretchen was inspired by a photo of water lilies. She changed the nearly black water to a dark plum, which worked beautifully. She’ll use fusible web to add the skinny little grasses, and she’ll stiffen some of the leaves to make them 3D. It will be great!
Ronna also worked with water lilies, and also switched to purple water. This complementary color really adds drama and contrast. And check out how effective those black shadows are. Nice!
Val’s lily pads are coming along nicely. She’ll add some shadows to add dimension. Check out her water grasses and their reflection near the top. She spent a lot of time on them and I think they’re very effective.
This photo doesn’t do Barbara’s work justice. Her photo had three delicate flowers against a complex shadow. She had to work at providing contrast with value. Her later progress showed that she was moving in the right direction.
Nancy cut loose in a really wonderful way. She started working with solids, but needed some dappled light. As we searched her print fabrics she realized that she had quite a big selection of them, so she switched gears. This brought a lot of energy to her scene. She’ll add some thread-painted grasses in the foreground.
As I mentioned in the last post, my art quilt group, Dirty Dozen Fiber Artists, often has group challenges based on drawing inspiration from a particular photo. This was the photo we selected for our 2009 challenge. Photo credit: Martha Wolfe We decided on a vertical orientation, with measurements of 18″ x 12″. Here’s the group display….
Wow! Wait till you see these fabulous results from our dying day. We began to get an idea of what lay ahead as Gabriele unfolded her pieces and hung them up. Aren’t these awesome? Gabriele used colored fabric for some of her dying, like the yellow and blue one below. And check this one out!…
My latest piece, Heat Wave, is now complete. I’m quite happy with it! The design was dictated, in part, by the triangular orange scraps I had on hand. I like the sharp points. At 35 x 35, this piece is available for $1200. See more photos. I used ALL of my orange and navy hand dyed fabrics…
I really enjoy teaching my class “Design Your Own Nature Quilt!” In it, students learn about design and composition, then use their own photos to create a quilt. The results are always great and the process is exhilarating. (Actually, the process can also be a little intimidating but the students are told to pack their…
Update: the title of this lecture was later changed to “Confessions of a Fabric Whisperer.” That’s the title of my newest lecture and I’m very excited about it! If you’ve been reading my blog for a awhile, you know that I DO exhibit some odd behaviors. Things like cutting up quilts and putting them back…
On Friday, April 30th, I’ll be participating in a virtual art reception and talking about the piece above, Melting Pot. The occasion is the opening of “Floridian Flavors” at the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art, in Tarpon Springs, FL. Pieces in the exhibit are all fiber, made by the Florida artists of Studio Art Quilt Associates,…
