Tea Bags, Checkerboards and Birds

The Surface Design Journey Continues...

The question is:  Is Enough Enough Now?

When designing a recent quilt for a "Gates" challenge for group, Quilts on the Wall, I painted a few birds on fabric.  Two of them worked, but this Blue Jay was lost on a field of blue, so it was not used.  Although the two birds that I chose for the "Gates" quilt were hand appliqued onto the background, I tried another method on this Tea Bags and Checkerboards.  Since this is an exploration of surface design and not of hand stitching, I applied the bird to the background with matte gel medium and grounded it by painting a tree limb for it to sit on.  I think that perhaps enough is now enough.  The next question is:  "Shall it have a border?"  We shall see...

Close-up of Blue Jay fabric painted bird. 

Applying the cutout with matte gel medium made the figure seem as if it is almost part of the fabric.

Now I wish that the fabric scrap that I started with had been a 12 1/2" square.  It is shy by 3/4" so in order to make it 12"x12" I must add a border.  Phoey.  But, ahhh, this may be another "opportunity" to get creative.

More to come...



"On the Edge"-- A New Work

Completed this new work yesterday and managed to post it on Etsy today.  I was greatly moved by the Quilt Visions of San Diego exhibit that featured the work of Jeanne Lyons Butler a couple of weeks ago and had to experiment with white stitching on a white background with simple line and shape embellishments.  I also wondered how the hard edges of aluminum would work with an elegantly delicate voile.  I liked the results and wanted the 6 1/2" x 9 1/2" quilted work to stand alone as an independent work of art, not merely a small art quilt, so prepped a stretched artist canvas with gesso, highly textured it with modeling paste to reflect the quilting lines, and then painted it with a rich, silver screen printing ink.  Once that element was completely dry, I hand stitched the art quilt to the canvas.  The art quilt is completely finished with double fold binding, a hand dyed backing and a label; however those elements cannot be seen without detaching the work from the canvas.

TAFA - the Textile and Fiber Arts list

I highly recommend that anyone interested in textile and fiber arts visit TAFA - the Textile and Fiber Arts list at http://www.tafalist.com/. The art of its participating members is absolutely astounding.

Dancing to the Stars - Screen Print

A friend presented me with a negative print of a photograph she took of a sculptural work against a clear sky. From that print, I made a silhouette on an embroidery hoop frame that was stretched with sheer curtain fabric. I then masked the design with very old, thick latex fence paint and double checked that no pinholes of light showed through the masking.

After the mask was thoroughly dry, I printed the screen with opaque silver silk screen ink. I then cut a star shape from a scrap of clear vinyl and stenciled multiple stars with gold fabric paint above each screened image.

The fabric at hand allowed space for printing six 13" x 13" repeat images.

Since these prints will ultimately be incorporated into a quilted work, I documented the image in a journal entry.

Mia Bloom Designs

I just found the blog for Mia Bloom Designs. This artist's work is delicious. Check out her art quilts at:
http://miabloomdesigns.blogspot.com