Wearable art exhibit scheduled

I'm putting the final touches on my entries for the upcoming Riverbend Fiber Arts Guild wearable art exhibit on September 11. The exhibit, entitled "The Power of the Pocket," was conceived in November 2009 and issued as a Guild Challenge to guild members in January 2010. We've been working all year designing our entries that adhere to the Challenge parameters while still expressing our personal styles.

Here is a breakdown of the timetable I generally follow for projects such as this:

• 70% to research materials, techniques and percolate ideas;
• 15% to sketch, swatch, audition, sample and fit;
• 15% for production, finishing and paperwork.

As Abe Lincoln might say, "6 hours to sharpen the axe and 2 hours to chop down the tree." For me, there is nothing like a deadline to keep one motivated and on task!

To provide inspiration as well as technique and construction information, several guild programs were presented throughout the year that focused on pockets, pocket construction, and various embellishment techniques.

As this year's Guild President and emcee for the awards presentation, I'd like to invite everyone to come to the event to celebrate the innovation and beauty of fiber arts with the guild.

The exhibit, a unique collection of wearable art garments, will be on display Saturday, September 11, at Senior Neighbors, downtown Chattanooga, from 10:30 am. to 1:30 pm.

New ATC themes set for 2011

Get your creative gears turning and be inspired! I've received inquiries for 2011 FiberAntics Artist Trading Card (ATC) swaps, so here are upcoming themes for the first half of the year to keep your interest piqued and your creative juices flowing.

January: It goes with my coffee
February: Feathers
March: Things that changed other things
April: The view from here

     and for 2-month sequence:
May:  First thing in the morning
June: Last thing at night

The FiberAntics ATC swap Rules and Guidelines are posted here. Past and upcoming themes can be found here.

For those who may be unfamiliar with Artist Trading Cards or "ATCs," they are small works of art the size of a baseball trading card: 2.5" x 3.5" (64 mm x 89 mm). They are made one-of-a-kind or in limited editions and are created using various materials: paper, fabric, paint, ink, pencil, thread, embellishments, etc. and any technique: stamping, painting, coloring, collage, stitch, digital printing, mixed media. They are great fun to make, trade and collect!

Wanna trade?? Several great books with examples of ATCs and how-to instructions for making them are available on-line or at your local library. Check them out and join in the fun!

Signs of our times

A short story about signs, quilts made from signs, signs in food, signs all around—here are the ATCs from the August trade with the theme, "Signs."

"A sure sign of Chicken Pox"

left: "Signs?"   right: "Please do not pick the flowers."

left: "Quilts made from Recycled Signs"

right: "A sign is an entity which indicates another entity"

left: "Signs"    right: "Rainbows: a sign of hope and better days..."

And here's a short story about SaraJean and the signs that guide her on her journey through life. The story (and this ATC) unfolds...

 "Signs—a short story"

Watch for the signs. They may lead you in unexpected directions.

Quilt needs a name

Here is a quilty gift for my MIL on her birthday. The featured fabrics are from a fabric line called Flower Show 2 by Benartex. It was quilted and bound in time for her birthday.

However, it needs a name! Got any ideas???

The finished quilt is 59" x 59". It was free-motion quilted on my Janome sewing machine with both cotton and rayon threads.

Feathers appear in the center and on the borders of this quilt. I love quilting free-form feathers. You can squish and moosh and squeeze them into just about any shape or space you need to fill... and they always look good.

For those that are wondering: I don't pre-mark my feathers. I draw the spine guideline with my favorite marking tool [a Chalk-O-Liner] and go from there. I also mark a line about 3/4" to 1/2" from the edge of the quilt top to remind myself of the binding edge.

Give me a good name for this quilt so I can make and attach a label.

ATCs: Architectural elements, form and function

Many architectural details are functional as well as decorative—the embodiment of art and craft. The "Architectural Elements" captured in the ATCs from the July ATC swap span the ages: from the back door to city skylines, and ornaments from the medieval to the Renaissance periods.

Did you know that the German and Dutch words for gargoyle mean "water spitter"? Or, that the ancient Roman architect, Vitruvius, was considered the world's first engineer? American architect, Louis Sullivan, coined the phrase, "form follows function." And his assistant (one of my favorites), Frank Lloyd Wright, carried out this philosophy with his own visionary style.

I hope you enjoy these ATCs and their references to the feats of artistic engineering that surround us in our daily lives.

Above right: "A back porch screen door. The dog wants to come in."

Left: "Architectural Elements in my kind of town, Chicago. Sears (Willis) Tower"
Right: "Architecture"

Left: "Stained Glass Window"

Right: "Architectural Elements—Downtown Memphis" 

Left: "Architectural Elements"
Right: "The Volute"

Left: "Architecture"
Right: "Architectural Elements—Downtown Memphis"

And, I always love the "interactive" cards:
"A back porch screen door. The dog wants to come in." 

Give your Heart away in August

This month my quilt guild will be making and giving their hearts—applique hearts, that is. The August block pattern for the Choo Choo Quilters Great Cuddle Quilt Quest is an Applique Heart with corner triangles.

Here are the directions:

Cut a 12.5" background square.
Cut four 4" smaller squares for corners. Draw on back or press a diagonal guideline on each small square.

For heart pattern:

Cut a 7" square from paper (or freezer paper). Fold paper in half. Draw half of a heart, making sure the drawn line touches the outside edges of the folded paper. Cut out heart. Unfold for pattern.

Use your favorite applique method to prepare fabric heart. Optically center the heart on the background square and applique it into place.

With right sides together, put four small squares on corners of background square (shown above on left). Sew on the diagonal guideline. Fold back on seam line to form corner triangles (right). Press. Trim excess fabric layers from back. Unfinished block size: 12.5"   (Finished size: 12")

-----------
My Applique Notes: I drew my heart pattern on freezer paper and ironed it to the back of the heart fabric. The heart was cut out using a scant 1/4" seam allowance. I clipped the curves and turned under edges using the freezer paper as the pressing template.

Set the sewing machine for a straight stitch (2.0 stitch length). Top stitch very close to the turned edge. The smaller stitch length makes it easier to go around the curves. Stop with the needle down to pivot at the points.
-----------

The guild will be collecting the heart blocks, grouping them into collections of 6 blocks, and assembling Cuddle Quilts similar to this. With a 2" sashing and 5" borders, the finished quilt top size is 36" x 50".

Fabric requirements:
1.5 yards backing
3/8 yard sashing

Cut sashing strips 2.5" wide
Cut border strips 5.5" wide
Cut two 2.5" squares for sashing intersections



Feel free to use this pattern and instructions to give some heart blocks away!

Round Robin: a paper pieced adventure

This is the final rotation of my quilting bee's Round Robin project. The characteristics requested by Jody for her quilt are: adventurous, vivid, and inquisitive. My block contribution is shown here with her original fabrics from the bag.

My sketches for an "adventure block" were representative of a compass. The ideal technique for preserving the points made by these acute angles is paper piecing. It's been a while since I designed a paper piece pattern, and it was quite the adventure to refresh my memory on the process (gotta think about reverse images for this technique).

At my computer, I launched my vector drawing program and began designing my 10" block by dividing the block into four quadrants. I had pulled several bright, vivid fabrics from my stash to use in the block, so I was not limited by the number of pieces in each mini-block quadrant. After three drafts of a design, I was satisfied with this version, and printed the four copies needed to compose the block (below left).

 

The adventure escalated while I was preparing the "fabric hunks" for the sewing process. Although paper piecing is ideal for fabric scraps and left-over bits because the fabric is stabilized by the paper foundation, I still pay attention to grain direction if at all possible—particularly on those pieces that are on the block's outside edges.

Pattern pieces were created for each segment and an arrow drawn to indicate the preferred grain direction (above right). I didn't realize until I began sewing the first quadrant, however, that the patterns needed to be created from a reverse image—or that I should have put the pattern on the wrong side of the fabric for cutting. [With a symmetrical block this is not an issue.] The solution was to retrace the lines on the other side of the printed pattern. With that done, the block assembly went as planned.

I think the quilt's character is well illustrated in my quilt block: vivid, inquisitive, and definitely adventurous. And it plays well the other blocks (above) in this collection. I hope she likes it!