Author: JP Dawes Artist

Art Quilt Neckpiece

| JP Dawes Artist

When I rust dyed fabrics last summer I threw in a few vintage linens and crocheted pieces. This started life as one of 4 corners probably intended for a lunch cloth.

I backed the crochet with rust dyed muslin and thin cotton batting, lightly stitching them together. I accented the crocheted rose with embroidery floss and then encrusted it with seed beads. It sat for some time waiting patiently for me to finish it.

Today I found a hammered copper concho belt which added just the right amount of hard to offset the soft. I used some of the copper links from the belt as carriers to attach it to the copper neckband and used one medallion as the pendant.   I’m please with how this came out and I am anxious to work on the other  rust dyed linens and other art quilt jewelry. I would like to sell these in an Etsy shop or I may keep them to jury for the Arkansas Artisans Guild in the spring. Of course that means I have to set a price…..any ideas?

Nayan’s quilt

| JP Dawes Artist

My youngest grandson Nayan  is going to be a scientist or an astronaut if his daddy and mommy have anything to do with it. His nursery is done in rockets and space. 

I couldn’t find the fabrics locally or a pattern so I had to put my brain to something original. Here is what I came up with. Most of the fabrics were purchased online and have either rockets or robot space creatures…and of course stars.

The photo was taken at our guild show and tell so all the mistakes quilters make photographing quilts was made…hands, faces and skewed angles. But that’s okay..this is a quilt of love, not money or prestige or awards. The baby’s smile will be award enough.

The Crows flew home to the sunflower fields

| JP Dawes Artist

The crows  in my Gel Glue tutorial were added to Barb’s quilt and then passed along to the last group member who had the task of adding something to it. That quilter chose this great coin border using many of the fabrics that were in Barb’s  bag. Now Barb gets to either finish this as it is for a wall hanging or add to it for a larger quilt. 

I will post photos of some of the other peices from this group challenge at a later date. I think we were all pleased with what we ended up with. I know most everyone had to really stretch outside their box and use fabrics they didn’t like, decide how to add to something that started totally different than anything we would do on our own and try to please the personality of the person who would end up owning the quilt.

Isn’t she cute and isn’t this a great little quilt?

The Eye of the Quilter

| JP Dawes Artist
Wow, a great week. I’m both honored and excited.  I received two emails and saw that the subject lines were Eye of The Quilter. I had a photography piece in last year’s maiden exhibit so I thought I might as well try again this year.  I guessed notices of selection were coming out soon but I reluctantly opened the first one. YIPPEE…the first one was selected. I figured the second email was the skinny one…but SKIPPEE…it was also selected. So here are low resoltion pix of my two pieces that will be shown at
 International Quilt Market and Festival shows in Houston, Texas
Pay Your Dues

Into The Unknown

Vintage Art cloth

| JP Dawes Artist

When quilters think of vintage fabric the sweet little prints of feedsacks and calicos come to mind. They know there are geometrics and novelty fabrics but they aren’t readily available. I hit the mother lode at an estate sale and have these for sale on ebay. It’s hard to part with them but not one more thing can come into my studio….oh, yeah, except for the 60 spools of Mettler thread and the split oak basket I also got at the sale!