Every so often I like to spend a week or two doing something artistically different. Maybe with fabric or maybe not. At these times, I typically pick up a good art book and spend time reading it and working through some of the exercises. This time, it was Cas Holmes’ book, Stitch Stories. If you’re…
Have you heard about “painting” with Sharpies? The idea is to draw with a Sharpie on to fabric, and then to apply rubbing alcohol, which makes the color bleed in interesting ways. Here’s a quick tutorial. After reading it, I was ready to give it a try. I used a fine tipped black Sharpie, which…
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….
Have you ever printed onto fabric from your home printer? I’ve had good luck with it, but every now and then I want to print something larger. Like the background for Carefree. At 51″ high, I needed an online service to handle it for me. I used Modernyardage.com and was happy with the results. Recently I found…
I guess it’s a good thing making a quilt takes a while because I find that I often get new ideas while implementing the previous ones. Such has been the case with my current abstract quilt. I left a large orange/rust shape in the top left corner, planning to balance it with something large and…
Sometimes you just need to wrap a twig in fabric. Update: Degen asked about my technique, so here’s some more information: At my local quilt store they save the tiny strips cut from fabric as they create fat quarters. Then, they bag them up and sell them. These are what I used, which means they’re…
Are you playing along with me? If so, you’ve printed out the liquefied image from the previous post and you’ve found some small compositions within it. I found ten, but I’m only showing you four of them. Again, any one of them would be a great start to an abstract quilt. What did you find?…
When I’m in experimental mode, my plan is to take every creative detour that pops into my head. What an Adrenalin surge that is! After completing Brainstorm I wanted to continue to work in the loose, experimental way I had when creating it. First, I wanted to play with colors. I figured I’d probably use the same…
This is one of the most enjoyable quilts I’ve ever made. I cut loose and experimented and embraced lots of new-to-me ideas. And I love the result! Brainstorm Here are some detail shots. I was kinda proud of the title, too. Doesn’t it look like a brainstorm? Certainly my process involved some brainstorming. You can…
Please use this image with my compliments. See the July 8, 2016 post for some ideas about what to do with it. Ellen Lindner