I’ve been working on The Garth for a while now. A garth is an open air garden in a church. This one is my memory of Capestrano where there are roses and lizards throughout the garden.
I’ve gotten the lizard embroidered, used a rubbed piece of fabric that looks like mosaic. A couple of weeks ago, I added in roses.
It’s all well and good to plop an image in the center of a piece. But If you’re trying to build a visual path for the eye to travel, that won’t work. The eye needs a pathway. It needs to be led through the piece.
How do we do that? It helps that the lizard is off center. The roses are a start. But it helps that start to use small elements to build a path for the eye through your quilt.
I made a batch of butterflies to interview. I really couldn’t tell which ones were going to do what I wanted. I tried the green ones, the orange ones, and an orange one with small stones.
The pathway between the orange butterflies and the stones move this in a path I like alot.
I drew the path so you can see it. The lizard and the roses are very pretty, but the butterflies and stones build the path so your eye can take it all in.
I’m fascinated with the concept of the visual path, and I keep working towards building them within my works. It depends not only on the major imagery, but on the small details that place us on the path.
Art seems like a solitary pursuit. And it is to the main. Most of us work alone in our studios for days without any input or comment, trusting on our eye and our sense of balance and color.
But in another way, no art is solitary. For one thing, one piece of art speaks to another piece of art being born. “This is how I am. You may be like me but you will be separate. But what you are is formed by the part of who I am. ” Your art work grows from one piece to another. The art itself, is almost just a byproduct. The real achievement is the skill and ability grown from the experience.
Art is also derivative. We would like to believe we are completely original, but all ideas are sparked by other ideas, images, thoughts, words and works. The task is to make them so wholly your own that the origin does not stand out and draw attention to itself. It’s there, if you’re looking and you know, but it’s overshown by what the artist does with it.
Good art blends between origin and action. We take what we know and build it into something separate and wonderful.
How do we do that on our own? Actually, I don’t think we can very well. Sometimes I put a piece up on line and ask a question of folk. I had someone ask me why I was asking them. I told her everyone needs advice sometimes.
In the beginning of my career, I went to a Chicago based art quilt group called F.A.C.E.T.S. It included Caryl Bryer Fallert, Ann Fahl, Jane Sassaman, Ann Wasserman, Kathy Weaver and a number of of other cutting edge quilters, some of them before they made their names. It was life changing. It was exhilarating. It was also hard. I learned so much from them. They didn’t change my art, but they helped me mold it. We grew in our careers, went other places, and the group, to my knowlege folded at some point. We’re all scattered now, but we did what we did because there were people to balance us and support us in our explorations.
The internet is a grand resource, but I’m looking for a group I can bounce things off of in person. I treasure sharing work with you on the internet, and your sharing in return. But I want the connection of really seeing the art and people’s faces as you talk to each other. Some things are different in person.
Galesburg is a pretty traditional place. I know the quilt guild there is probably not ready for art quilts, and I don’t want the trouble or fuss of pushing my way into a group that’s focused differently than would interest me. I don’t expect to find a ready made group of art quilters here.
So I’m thinking of starting a group here. I think it could be something that spreads online. But for now, I want a group that is real, here, in front of each other. So we can really see each other’s work and react to it. I don’t need a whole lot of people. But I want to be sharing work with others and take joy in what they are exploring.
So, is anyone interested? My purpose is to offer critique to each other, and support. It may end up in classes, but that is not my goal. My goal is to have work shown, seen and kindly discussed in a way that helps us all move forward.
Does it matter what that person’s credentials are? Not really. I knew an eight year old girl I could trust every time. Her eye was that good and she’d tell you. Not always with your dignity left intact, but she was always right. And I always followed her advice if I could.
Here are my goals:
To promote fiber art/ quilting that is exciting and edge cutting
To build a support group for people doing art in odd ways in odd corners in fiber
To celebrate and stimulate the creative process
To build a community for artists that gives them confidence and courage
To find someone to tell me, ” You need to move it to the left, three inches.”
Who am I looking for:
People stretching and growing in their art
People who work in fiber/fabric/ regularly as a way of life and are serious about it.
People who’s work is about new creative visions and techniques
People who have graduated away from patterns and are working with their own ideas
People who are kind and respect other’s works and ideas
So is anyone out there? Would you be interested in an art quilt group in Midwestern Illinois in Galesburg. Call me up or email me. Come and join me.
I’ve been working on this lizard for a while now. I did the rubbing with Shiva oil paint sticks on hand dye. It reminded me of the stone work at Capistrano.
I’ve been to Capistrano twice. I was struck by the roses growing in the desert, with lizards running around them. I loved it.
So I knew this lizard would need roses. Here’s my favorite rose trick.
Simple spiral shapes make a great rose. The spiral shape echoes the way rose petals are placed in the flower.
I’ve cut these spirals from sheers backed with Steam A Seam 2. I placed my spiral bits together to create the rose.
I placed the spirals on red felt with stitch and tear as a stabilizer on the back.
I stitched both sides of the spiral with a free motion zigzag applique to shade the flowers.
Here are two of the roses, cut out at ready to applique.
I love spiral roses. I can almost smell them in the desert air.
Next Friday, October 15th I will be at Feed Mill Fabric and Quilting in Oneida, IL, demoing from 11:AM to 4 PM. I’ll be showing free motion embroidery and applique techniques. Come and I’ll show you how to do a stitch vocabulary, which is the base of my technique. We’ll explore free motion drawing, zigzag outlining, garnet stitch, stippling and signatures. I’ll have samples where you can try it yourself.
Please come and join me. The Feed Mill is a delightful quilt shop, on the shop hop circuit, with fabrics from the civil war to contemporary crazy and lovey Berninas. They have something wonderful for everyone. It’s going to be fun and it’s free!
You quilted it. You designed it, you’ve stippled and embroidered. And still it’s not quite there. It doesn’t quite move.
Terribly frustrating. Easily fixed. Sometimes all it takes is a scrap of yarn.
Yarn doesn’t work in a sewing machine. If it’s lumpy or thick, it won’t go through the needle or the bobbin. But it can be couched down. What is couching? You stitch over the yarn to attach it to the quilt. Almost anything can be couched as long as it’s not so thick a needle won’t go through it.
Here are some quilts that aren’t quite moving. And here are some yarns I considered using on them.
Any of these yarns would work. But what do I want them to do? On the pink butterfly piece, I want to accentuate the green plant like forms. A dark stem will do that. For the grey moth, I want a swirl of color to draw the eye through the surface of the quilt. I t needs the brighter bolder choice. On the butterfly in leaves, I want to punch up the stems to define the leaves better. All those greens will work.
I use a regular pressor foot with a groove in the center. The yarn slides right through it.
A walking zigzag works very well to stitch down yarn. Although a zigzag works as well. I use monofilament nylon in the top and regular poly embroidery thread in the top. I take a few stitches with the feed dogs down and then raise the feed dogs and stitch the yarn. Then I drop the feed dogs again to anchor the yarn.
Once the thread is anchored, I can just trim off any edges.
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