Color! Texture! Movement! Using Repurposed Materials!
Category: Creativity and Inspiration
Creativity and Inspiration can come from anywhere for artists.This post presents ideas that may release your creativity. Take your art in a new direction.
My art quilts are all about the quilt artist creating abstract, whimsical or impressionistic pieces. Inspiration comes from the natural world as well as from Mexican and Native American influences. My materials of choice are often redirected fabrics from the San Francisco Design Center and found objects. Art quilts free me to play with color and texture. My technique, Scribble Quilting allows me to create movement on many of my pieces.
TWO INSPIRATIONAL ARTISTS
I owe some of my inspiration to two artists from Santa Cruz County, California. Meri Vahl, an award winning art quilter has been recognized nationally for her work. Teacher of the fabric layering technique, she was patient. Understanding that each student brought individual strengths, weaknesses and abilities. Ellen edith;friend, art quilter, fabric designer and artist extraordinaire made whimsical, personal quilts. Her influence lives on well beyond her life. I have great appreciation for these two local leaders of the art quilt world.
SAQA (STUDIO ART QUILT ASSOCIATES)
I am proud to be part of an evergrowing group of art quilters. SAQA started by Yvonne Porcella in Northern California in 1989. It has grown to an international organization. Art quilters have transformed the quilt into a 21st Century art form. I continue to explore new forms and ways of working with unusual materials on this journey.
ABOUT THE ARTIST,BIO
I was born and raised in Palo Alto, California. In high school I studied sewing and clothing construction for two years. I continued to sew much of my wardrobe. In 1974,I took my first quilting class at a neighborhood fabric store. Over the years, I continued to sew clothes and make quilts for my family. I stopped counting bed quilts at 300. After teaching 30 years in Watsonville as a bilingual teacher, I retired to spend more time on creating art quilts.
MY FIRST ART QUILT
Homage to a Dancer,45″ x 56″
In 2008, I made my first art quilt, Homage to a Dancer. It reflects my participation in Los Méxicas,the University of California,Santa Cruz ballet folklórico group.
A STUDIO IN THE ART CENTER
In May of 2016, I opened a studio in the Santa Cruz Art Center, 1001 Center St. Downtown Santa Cruz. I have space to work and display my work. For First Fridays and Open Studios, I fill the lobby with art. In June, 2019 New York Art Center accepted my work into their gallery. 7 Franklin Place, TRIBECA, New York City.
AWARD WINNING ARTIST
Great Blue Heron at Dusk,31″ x 25″
Great Blue Heron at Dusk entered into an art show in 2010. The following year it won a merit award at the Olive Hyde Art Gallery in Fremont,California.
In 2013, Visions of New Mexico won third place in the Neo Membreno Vessels 2013 Show at the Western New Mexico University Museum in Silver City, New Mexico.
Kelp Dwellers 25″ x 25″ A piece of multicolored blue sheer fabric is a perfect background for this underwater fantasy.
Use Redirected Fabric in Art Quilts
Redirecting materials inspire.
Use redirected fabric in art quilts to design something new and inspire yourself to create. I find unique fabrics not like those sold in a regular quilt store among redirected materials.
Discontinued fabric from a decorator’s studio
A sample of linen fabric from a decorator’s studio becomes the main design element with the addition of zigzagged or couched yarn. The colors; black, white,, and grey attracted me before I saw that this linen actually had greyhound dogs printed on it. My fondness for dogs aside, I didn’t want the dogs to stand out. I accomplished this by rotating the fabric and couching yarn to it. Next, I cut the fabric into twigs and branches to suggest tree tops. Then, I placed the branches on a sky blue indigo fabric background to complete the art quilt.
Friends’ Suggestions
Although dyeing fabric is a great way to redirect materials, it is a bit too messy for my situation. But many of my fabric friends have done it. The sheet that the dyed fabrics are wrapped in to carry home often is colored in an interesting way . Thanks to that warning, I was prepared when I recently took an indigo dyeing workshop. The background fabric for the sky was indeed the bedsheet that had used to carry my other dyed pieces home.
The Process-
First,I choose the fabric. I liked the way the curved lines of the dogs’s backs created movement on the fabric.
Greyhounds on linen
Next,I choose the yarn colors that I wanted to use, grey, green, and black yarn. I couched the yarns with matching threads so that the sewing threads wouldn’t stand out.
Black, grey, and white fabric with green and black yarn couched yarn
Next,I continued adding yarn curving it as I zigzagged(couched) it onto the linen.
More beige, grey, black and white yarn couched onto the fabric
Then,with more yarn, it is more difficult to identify the dogs.
The dogs disappear.
Continuing,I kept adding more yarn and zigzagging it down. For thicker lines, I wrapped 3 pieces of yarn together.
I add more lines of yarn by zigzagging them with matching thread.Different view of the fabric with threads couched
Ready to cut the Fabric into Branches
Finally, with this fabric, I cut out the tree branches,twigs and sticks. I put the backing fabric flat on the table. Then I added the batting on top. Then I added indigo dyed fabric for the background. Next, I basted them with a touch of glue. I assembled the tree on top and basted it.
Lastly,I covered the finished top with tulle and free motion quilted the layers together. I finished the edges by adding a 2″ facing folding it to the back and hand stitching it. Finally, I sew a fabric sleeve or tube onto the top back for hanging with a dowel and fishing line.
The completed piece of art is totally made from redirected materials; linen and backing material from the San Francisco Design Center, redirected yarn from my sister-in-law, redirected tulle from a wedding, and redirected background indigo fabric from a bedsheet. My heart’s desire is complete;making beautiful art from repurposed materials.
We all make mistakes but then learn from them. I Love Mistakes-Learn from them. I would like to share some mistakes that I have learned from. All mistakes are not bad. Errors are often touted as being something to avoid. Keeping one’s mind open can lead to embrasing errors as a good discovery. Postits and the microwave oven, for example, were originally mistakes.
Grasses in the wetlands with a moon overhead
A Fabric Layering Technique Example
While working on a wetlands fabric layering piece, some fabric turned under at the top. This unexpectedly added movement and added interest to the marsh. I continued doing it and added it to my toolbox. I Love Mistakes. Learn from them.
An Abstract Example
One example is how I discovered a signature detail of mine by mistake. When working on abstract pieces, I generally first pull out all of the possible fabrics within my chosen range of colors. A particular color was missing. Not finding a bigger amount, I solved my problem by sewing some small pieces together at odd angles to make a large enough piece of material. It pleased me,I liked the way it looked.
I Love Mistakes-Learn from them.
This example is how I discovered a signature detail of mine by mistake. I started to do it more. sewing small pieces of fabric together (about 1-1 1/2″ long) that had been trimmed off other pieces. Not wanting to waste any fabric anyway, I now often include some small pieces sewn together to each of my abstracts. I is now my signature detail.
Greys,pinks and purple fabric in this abstract art quilt
Tension Takes Over
Another example is the day the tension on my machine seemed to have a mind of its own. The sewing machine started to pull the bobbin thread from the bottom up to the top of the fabric. Stitches looked like dots. I liked the effect. I tried it using different colored threads. Using a cream colored fabric,I preferred a black thread on the bobbin(bottom) and a cream colored thread for the top. I adjusted the tension so that the bottom thread would pull up and create dots .
Knots, art quilts with fibersstitches with poor tensionKnots, detail showing stitching with poor tensionKnots, detail 2
In Conclusion
Keep an open mind towards mistakes. Are they interesting? Do they make your piece more interesting? Then accept your mistake. Learn to love and accept mistakes.Learn from them. Add the technique to your toolkit and use it. Embrace new discoveries.
This work in progress shows the steps I take to create this abstract contemporary art quilt. I draw inspiration from one fabric.
Color! Movement! Texture!
Color! Movement! Texture! are my main goals for my abstract art quilts. Color is where I begin. What colors do I want to work with? I found a piece of linen at Fabmo, a nonprofit that redirects materials from the San Francisco Design Center. I really liked the variety of colors and movement in this one piece. This fabric became my inspiration to find other fabrics and textures with the same colors for my abstract piece.
Inspiration from One Fabric
Oddly enough, several years ago four quilter friends and I were having trouble choosing colors for a donation quilt we wanted to create together. One friend suggested that we find a fabric and choose the colors from that fabric. At the time I couldn’t quite wrap my head around what she was saying. However, when I saw this multicolored linen, I immediately understood what she had been trying to have us do. Sometimes it takes times for inspiration to happen.
1. Inspiration from one piece of commercially producted fabric
Photo 1 Choosing the Fabric
First I choose the fabric I want to work with. This one piece has so many different colors in it. Those are the colors that I want to work with. This is when the fun begins. I go through my fabrics to find additional fabrics. I look for shades that are lighter and darker.At this step, I don’t reject much.
Photo 2
I chose these fabric from the stash that I had. Also I found decorative threads and yarns to add to some of fabrics for interest.
2. Here are the fabrics I chose from my stash.
photo 3 Inspiration from One Fabric
I place small pieces of fabric on my design wall. I move them around before sewing them together. Then I start to sew smaller pieces together. I make sure that colors, textures and similar pieces are equally balanced around the piece. Does your eye have a place to rest? Are there too many colors in one area? Time to adjust before the whole piece is sewn together.
3. Spring Break
Photo 4 and photo 5
Here is a detail of the smaller pieces already sewn together.
4. A detail of the pieces sewn together5. Another detail of the pieces sewn together
photo 6
6. Another detail of the pieces sewn together
photo 7
7. Here is the finished quilt, Spring Break.
Inspiration from one fabric helped me create this abstract art quilt. Hopefully, this step by step explanation will inspire you as well.
For more information on couching threads refer to my previous post.
Scribble Quilting is a wacky fun way to quilt. Are you stuck in stitch-in-the-ditch? Are you a bit bored with straight line quilting? Maybe it’s time for you to try Scribble Quilting. It is not hard at all. All you need to get started is a walking foot, a quilt sandwich ready to quilt and different colors of thread.I developed this technique because I was bored with other ways to quilt.Looking for a wacky fun variation to your quilting? Try Wacky Fun Scribble Quilting.
Waiting for the Roadrunner, 22″ x 24″ 56cm x 61cm
Artful and Interesting
First of all,Scribble Quilting is a colorful, artful and an interesting way to quilt. For example,the quilting thread lines cross each other; creating positive and negative space. The sewing lines are the positive space. However,the negative spaces are the shapes created by the lines. Similarly, Lines undulate, curve and wave. Do the lines you’ve made draw your eye in and keep your interest?
By Accident
Like many great ideas, Scribble Quilting was discovered by accident. Once while making a baby quilt,I decided to quilt curvy lines with my walking foot instead of straight ones. Furthermore, I used one of the built-in stitches on my sewing machine which made regular, gentle curves. Soon, I wanted to make the curves wider. Switching back to my usual straight stitch, I began gently moving the quilt from side to side by hand to make wider curves than my built-in stitch had allowed. It was fun, and the lines looked more interesting. I kept quilting, experimenting with contrasting thread colors. Subsequently,I currently finish many of my art quilts this way.
Scribble Quilting
In addition,I named this technique Scribble Quilting. After art lessons were cut at in my elementary school classroom, I noticed that some students showed their frustration with what they considered unsuccessful art projects. After that, they would scribble all over them with four or five different crayons. It caught my attention. However,it looked like a party with confetti falling all over. As I quilted my pieces, drawing lines with multiple colors and crossing over them repeatedly, it reminded me of scribbling.
Fun with Thread Color
Take this opportunity to have fun with thread color. Be aware that the thread color can appear different depending on what colors it is on or near. Free yourself from perfectly matching the thread to the top fabric. I found that even slight variations in the color of the quilting threads added subtle interest to a quilt top.
More color is more interesting. For example, I bought a spool of wacky fun chartreuse (yellow green) thread at a flea market several years ago. I never wear this color and had not tried it in quilting. But this thread has become one of my favorites because of the way it plays with other colors. It brightens green or black fabric.Yet, it often reads as yellow. I encourage you to play with the thread to see how it changes, depending on the color of the fabric. Updated- Sometimes I use just one color of thread instead of more than one.
More Color is Better Except
More color is more interesting, with one exception. Thinking that variegated thread would be fun and wacky, I tried to use it. However, I personally was not satisfied with the results. I had no control over when the colors changed. It wasn’t fun when the bobbin thread didn’t match the top thread. Maybe this is just a personal choice on my part. Each quilter can make their own decisions.
Are you ready to start Scribble Quilting?
Begin each project by quilting straight lines about 5 inches (12cm) apart using a walking foot. Stitch-in-the-ditch works well to hold the quilt sandwich together. Remove the pins to avoid sewing over them. After you’ve finished straight-line quilting to secure the quilt sandwich, change to another thread color.
Next,quilt several lines in one color. Spread the stitiching lines out across the quilt top. As you sew from one edge of the quilt to the other,gently moving the quilt sandwich from side to side. Change thread color and continue quilting. Make wider curves so that the quilting lines cross. Keep quilting until the quilting is evenly space. Are happy with the way the lines cross each other? if not, then do some more.
Instructions
1) Prepare a quilt sandwich by pinning together the backing, batting and top (step 1).
step 1 of scribble quilting process
2) Decide where to start quilting. In the beginning, it’s easiest to start on one side and go to the opposite side.
3) Begin by using a walking foot to make straight lines of stitching about 5 inches 12 cm apart. Stitch in the ditch if you want. (step 2).
step 2 of scribble quilting process
4) Now begin sewing curved lines of quilting, still using a walking foot. Begin curved quilting on the edge of the quilt, near the middle of one side. Pull the quilt taut with both hands as you quilt. Gently move the sandwich from side to side as the machine stitches. Use your needle down position in case you have to stop. Stop quilting to readjust the quilt sandwich. Avoid jerky movements. The quilting thread should form a smooth, flowing line (step 3).
step 3 of scribble quilting process
Problemsolving
If your line of stitches moves abruptly to one side, stop immediately. Remove stitches until you have enough to thread a needle, then bury the threads in the batting. Continue quilting, starting at the end of the line of stitching. If you don’t want to stop or don’t notice the mistake until later, stitch another line of quilting which crosses the first line at the point where the mistake occurred (step 4). This will make the mistake less noticeable.
step 4 of scribble quilting process
5) As you quilt, check the back of the sandwich to see if some areas need more quilting. The quilting lines should be balanced from one area of the quilt to another (step 5). Keep quilting until you like the way it looks. If you’re not happy, add wavy lines in contrasting colors, crossing more lines of quilting.
step 5 of scribble quilting process
6) Bind the quilt using your favorite technique.
Welcome to the joy of Scribble Quilting! I hope that you enjoy using this wacky fun technique as much as I do.
