Category: quilting

Posted in quilting

Final Test Creation Panels Project

Posted on by Laura Kate

Using my new watercolor pencils, yesterday I painted the final two panels copied from a 13th century illuminated manuscript.

Days One and Three

I’m testing the performance of this medium on cloth. If I find that the pigment doesn’t bleed or fade, I will add this tool to my fabric painting practice. Now that all four images are finished, the cloth gets dipped in soapy water……

….swished gently, rinsed and dried. I’ll admit that I left the cloth to soak for less than a minute. There was a tiny bit of yellow and red pigment dissolved into the bath water. But as I blotted the rinsed cloth, I saw no pigment transferred to the white terry towel. Happy days! The pigment is colorfast.

The absolute final test is permanence. This one can’t be rushed. I just have to use the object and see what happens over time.

Because the muslin is so lightweight, I decided to cut out the circles and applique them to quilting cotton. In keeping with the “let there be light” theme, I chose a gold ombre fabric.

For the quilt, I’ll stick with the colors of the original painting – gold, dark blue, red and teal green. I have a silvery-gray solid to use as the background.

More to come after a trip to the fabric store.

Posted in collage, painting, quilting

Friday Finish: Badlands

Posted on by Laura Kate

The inspiration for this art quilt came to me during our trip to Roosevelt National Park in July of 2021. I was captivated by the sandwich layering of rock, running in parallel lines that eroded down over thousands of years. It suggested to me a string pieced quilt. For the next several months I thought about my concept and puzzled over how I could bring it to life in fabric.

Our photographs were disappointing. It was high noon, and pervasive smoke dulled the light. No shadows were in evidence and the colors were muted. I decided to rely on an internet image for my working reference photo,

Photo from vangorentalmn.com

To get from concept to finished art is a long process. I started by making a value sketch. Next, I drew a pattern to scale, identifying major segments and eliminating excessive detail.

Here’s the part all fiber artists (including myself) find extremely creative: choosing fabrics. Since I like to use watercolor, I painted my swatches. After assigning a hue and value to each segment on my pattern, I picked out the fabrics to best achieve my color scheme of orange, blue-purple and blue-green.

Here’s an aside about the fabric I chose. Ultimately, I couldn’t find fabrics that had the colors and textures that I needed. To get there, I painted on printed fabric for most parts of the quilt. I also selected a few batik prints that were close enough, with only minor adjustments to color.

With the design decisions made and fabric selected, I began to assemble the quilt. All of the techniques that I used in making this quilt I learned from two fiber artists: Annette Kennedy and Gloria Loughman.

http://annettekennedy.com/about

https://www.glorialoughman.com/about

I thank these artists for giving me the skills I needed at the time I needed them.

And here is Badlands in its final form:

The design is invigorated by lines running in parallel diagonally and horizontally. Where the diagonals meet, triangles are formed. These shapes lead the eye to the center where two focal points have a quiet conversation across the river valley.

As a final note, I want to acknowledge the influence on my style of pop artist David Hockney. A print of his painting, Garrowby Hill, hangs over our fireplace.

My imagination has traveled that blue road countless times over the past twenty years.

Posted in quilting

Work in Progress: Badlands

Posted on by Laura Kate

When I last wrote about this art quilt project, I was waiting on a delivery of fabric.

Here is what my quilt looked like at that point.

I had selected some fabrics from my stash. The sky and horizon segments had been painted and positioned. My first module of background ridges was cut-out, fused and stitched together. I liked it a lot. But it was clear to me that I needed more orange and purple fabrics to really represent the scene as I designed it.

This photo shows my reference image and the three batik fabrics that arrived from Fabric.com last month. I was pretty impressed that the fabric colors looked just like they did on my computer screen.

So, full steam ahead with the work!!

Half-way assembled:

In this photo all the segments are finished and in place but one – the lower right. You see the segment’s base fabric that I plan to use.

At this stage I am very encouraged, and kind of excited. The lines and colors of the work represent my inspiration very well.

After I finish sewing down and quilting the background and middle ground, I will turn my attention to the focal point and foreground. Then comes a bit more painting of details before the final assembly.

Posted in knitting, painting, quilting

A Couple of WIPs

Posted on by Laura Kate

Yesterday I officially lost at yarn chicken.

AHWWWWWWW!

I have about 16 rounds plus the toe left to knit. Grr. So I wandered through my stash to see if I could find a good substitute and come up with a gameplan.

This morning, entering my studio, I suddenly spied The Swatch. Then I remembered that I had knit two swatches for this project! Both of them included the cream yarn.

SAVED!!!!!!

In other news, I have been painting fabric for the Badlands quilt. Here is a group of color samples in my chosen palette.

I also spent a lot of time simplifying my sketch and making a pattern on freezer paper. This pattern will become the cutting guide for the quilt’s segments. I don’t call them blocks, because they are all different shapes, following the major lines of the subject.

I actually got underway with cutting and sewing some of these segments, starting from the background.

Progress photo.

I’m pretty happy with the work so far. But now I am waiting on fabric to be delivered. In acknowledgement of my rather crude fabric painting skills, I broke down and bought some batik fabrics with colors for the middle ground of the design.

In the meantime, I plan to paint the backing fabric and make the quilt sandwich this week. Then I will be ready to move forward as soon as the package arrives.