Author: JP Dawes Artist

Surgery of Art Quilting

| JP Dawes Artist
Does it look like I shopped at the local doctor’s office? Yep, that is exactly what I did. One of our country doctors passed away suddenly a couple of months ago at a young age. Her daughter is here and having an estate sale. The fabrics I bought will be over on my other blog Quilting On The Cheap.  I almost didn’t go to the sale, I had no idea that she was a quilter!   I purchased these 3 rolling pieces for a grand total of $14 for all three! My favorite pieces are the tall table with a removable tray that has adjustable height. The cart in the back holds trays in the top rack.  I plan on using the tall piece next to my cutting table so I can roll it either to the machine or design wall with all the little quilt parts on it. The rolling one with the trays I will  put embellishments and beads on so I can roll the project to the machine or to my chair to watch TV at night. The cart in the foreground just fits under my sewing station to hold my thread organizers…simply roll it in view when I need different thread.  I love finding things like this that look smart and make my life easier.

Lunch!!….or not….

| JP Dawes Artist

This was a fun challenge for the newest Arts In The Cards trade with the theme of opposites. What can be more opposite than the cat inside the cage and the bird free outside the cage. It leaves you wondering who is lunch? The only fiber in this one is the used tea bags on the backside. No Stitching.
The background is two different layers of scrapbooking papers, cut out and layered. The cage and bird are clip-art that is colored, cut out and mounted on foam squares for dimension. The backside has tea bags applied with gel medium that I thought was going to be the front but it was too dull for the way I wanted these to look.

Next Traditional quilt

| JP Dawes Artist

This is the Kaffe Fassett quilt I am in love with. I’m not good at doing lots of similar blocks but I like the graphic appeal of this quilt. Since he uses color stories rather than saying ‘buy this much of this fabric” the quiltmaker has freedom in choosing fabrics.

I have been collecting for this one for about a year and finally feel like I have enough to get started. This graphic square piecing is pretty mindless and fits my mood right now. I need to work on some structured piece since my muse has left the building as far as art quilts are concerned.

The bottom photo shows the full range of fabrics. The flash burned it out a little but I hope you can see the lights and darks.

Floating Art Quilts

| JP Dawes Artist

Chris Predd recently completed a great pictorial art quilt that you can see HERE .   She and I chat often about our art and life in general. It is one of those online meet-ups where we found how much we have in common.

She wants to display her quilt on a table top and she was thinking of matting it. I suggested that she consider a plexiglass mount for the piece. I was introduced to floating artwork between glass in college. Mounting art quilts on a single piece of plexiglass gives this same gallery look.

I searched the net to find who gives a tutorial on this and found Melody Johnson’s blog post with a tutorial. http://fibermania.blogspot.com/2005/07/how-to-mount-quilts-on-plexiglass.html .  She does a wonderful job of showing how the technique looks in different settings. 

I would also suggest velcro dots to plexiglass if you have really small pieces to display. I’m thinking of using this to display some of the ATCs I trade.

Vintage Singer 328K

| JP Dawes Artist

I have an affinity for vintage sewing machines. They are such work horses and I know how to clean and repair them myself without having to pay big technician bills. 
I found this 328K …the K means the machine was built in Great Britain. It is what is called a 3/4 size machine like the steel Singer 99 but the 328  is a lightweight aluminum machine like the Featherweight. It will do a zig zag and decorative stitches with the cams that load in the top.  
I thought it was a great deal at $23 !