The quilting and thread painting have started on this first quilt of my new series. This is what gives life to an art quilt.  Yep, I said it..that Q word.  It isn’t a quilt until it’s quilted and this one will be very dense. I’m very pleased with how this turned out and with how helpful Elizabeth was in the class. I’m looking forward to taking more at Quilt University. I have linked this post to Off The Wall Friday where you can see what other quilt artists have on their design walls this week.

Copyright 2012  Janice Paine-Dawes

Here are a few preliminary sketches for the Quilt University online course Working in Series taught by Elizabeth Barton.  She is a really great instructor and knows her stuff. It is more in depth than I would have expected for what is charged, so it was a really pleasant surprise.  I was so afraid it would be ‘dumbed down’ and that couldn’t be further from the truth. She does a wonderful job of laying the foundation to lead us into the final 2 weeks of more intense work. Since I have an art education, most of it is repetition, but you are never too old to learn something new. Its a nice refresher of principles of design.

I have never worked in a large series before, usually jumping around subject matter that interests me at the moment. But something is lacking not only in the finished pieces, but in my passion for their completion.  The most fun I’ve had lately was finishing the Mexican pottery quilt. Thank goodness that was finished right before this class began and I feel like some momentum was built. I am ready to commit to a large series I am excited about because of this class. 

Tomorrow I hope to finalize some drawings and start planning colors by doing some watercolors. I won’t reveal the entire series but bits and pieces of it will be posted as I go along.

I’ve been thinking about this A LOT lately. I’ve read many other Q artists’ thoughts and reasons, read quite a few arguments that pit quilters and artists against each other and think I have finally come to the REASON that I don’t mind the title.  A quilt artist can do so many more things with a single image other than paint it. Period.

When you look at quilt artists’ work, or textile artists or fiber artists if you prefer one of those titles, you will see what I mean. How many different ways can one of us do a portrait or a landscape and not a single one look anything like someone else’s.  Some of my favorites to illustrate this are Joan Sowada , Nancy Cook and Kate Themel.  If you don’t know their work, take some time to really look at their galleries on their web sites. Then  there are the abstract or non-representational artists like Diedre Adams, Carol Larson and Anna Hergert.

There are many more wonderful artists, and not all of them are women. Men have long enjoyed a leg up, so to speak, in the fine art world but that is another discussion. In our world, there are many more women than men but there are some men breaking into the medium.  I’ve wondered why they would choose to be a part of a misunderstood arm of fine art. It seems we are always explaining ourselves to other people and not always successfully. It has become so bad that many are dropping the Q word from their vocabulary. I think that is cutting off your nose to spite your face as my mother used to say.

• I can take a  photograph of the beach as inspiration and then I can :
• make a digital print directly on fabric
• paint the image on fabric 
• sketch the image on fabric with thread
• manipulate the fabric for texture to represent sand or tree bark
• interpret the image into color blocks of fabric
• discharge fabric to represent what is in the photograph
• make a map of the image and use small bits and pieces of fabric to reassemble it 
• use mixed media to embellish the fabric 
• put it on stretcher bars
• hang it from a rod
• frame it under glass

These are just a few of the things I can do as a Q artist and they have been simplified for this post.  I don’t think a painter has as many options to express themselves in their art. If I do watercolor or oils, when the painting is done, its done.  When a Q artist finishes the composition, then it goes that extra step of quilting. Period. It isn’t a quilt until it’s quilted whether it is a traditional quilt or an art quilt. That makes this branch of the fine art tree uniquely ours and I’m  proud to use that Q word rather than think of it as demeaning.

 Yippee Skippie!  Ron and I got up early for the Midway Volunteer Fire Dept. Auxilary fund raising garage sale.  Their twice a year sale usually turns into a great place to find vintage fabrics. This sale was no exception. 

I came home with this vintage top that measures 68 x 83 and is in great condition. I have found one square with a rip that is repairable along one edge. The fabrics are all crisp and unwashed. The pieces that drew my attention were all the persimmon colored linen squares. This is one of my favorite colors that shows up in many of my art quilts. 

I wanted to show a close up of a few blocks. I love the use of stripes and polka dots in this one. The maker was so free that the directions of the stripes are all random.  Do you see the sticker and the little black dot?  That dot means I paid $10 for this beauty.

I love the black prints in this block. Sort of reminds you of Halloween doesn’t it?  Many quilts evoke feelings of seasons and this one is a fall quilt for sure. The edges of the quilt are framed with black print triangles.

The other treasure I purchased was 2 reams of vintage cotton rag onion skin.  That set me back $1.25.  Do I NEED 2 reams? Nope, but I feel rich by having it. Who knows what use I will find for it. Winter is coming so I will have some new projects to keep me busy. Check out other great quilt artist’s current work at Nina Marie’s Off The Wall Friday Posts

 I purchased this doll sized piece a few weeks ago. It was in one long piece so I reverse sewed it into 2 pieces that I stitched together to make a square. The muslin backing was also saved and stitched together so the backing will be authentic.  

I would not have sewn a 9-patch together with placement of dark and lights like this, but it has a charm to it that too many quilt rules could spoil.  I paid $2 for the piece and of course I couldn’t pass it up. The fabrics are all turn of the century shirtings with a healthy dose of the wonderful chambray blues.

 Imagine my surprise a week later when I found a 2 yard piece of that great chambray blue shirting for a whopping 50 cents. It is only 24 inches wide, which helps date the piece for anyone who isn’t familiar with Civil War Era and turn of the century fabrics. I’m sure the volunteers at the thrift shop thought nobody would want this. It is that mind set that allows us to pick up treasures to save from the burn pile.

This was such a great find. I can now put a border on the quilt before I quilt it. I have some antique muslin yardage that I can use for the back since this will be larger, or I may just use more of the blue to expand the existing muslin backing. Of course it will be hand quilted or possibly tied since all of the little 9-patches are hand pieced together. There are very few that have seams that match up but that adds to the charm of the piece. When it is completed, it will be a nice addition to my other little quilts of this period.