Twisted Textiles

In my first two quilts, I really wanted a painterly feel to them, with no obvious visual structure. So I relied largely on appliqué, and did not use blocks or geometric shapes that fit neatly together.

Well, this time I’ve decided to give in.

I’ve been resisting it because it seems too “mathematical” to me, and somehow my brain interprets that as “not artistic.” But the way I see it, if I have any chance of finishing this quilt (it is rather large), I’d better do something more tried-and-true. That doesn’t mean that I have to be unoriginal, it just means that I don’t have to take on a re-invention of the wheel.

The first image shows some part of the design so far. I can’t wait until the blocks are done so I can sew ‘em all together! I wanna see them connected now!

I did a lot of prep-work to plan out all the blocks, including calculating the finished size of the quilt, graphing out my design sketch, scanning it into Photoshop, and enlarging each “block” in the grid to the desired finished size. I saved each of the 36 blocks as a separate file, and printed a few out, laying them next to each other to see that the measurements were working. (Hah! How’s that for not paying one red cent for a quilt-designing computer program? I’m so stubborn…)

I’m adding seam allowances to the squares as I go, so I did not include them in the printout dimensions. Several weeks ago, I pre-cut all the gray background squares to the same dimensions, and now I’m using the printed blocks as templates to cut my curved pieces of orange fabric to go on top, creating the image.

There’s still some tweaking to do as far as colors in the orange. I’ll be using heat-settable silkscreening paints to add some details, as well as stitching with different colors of thread. Maybe some blues and some more yellows? I’m not entirely sure yet, but I’m definitely antsy to get moving on it!

Swimming Solo is my newest baby, which I’m quite fond of!
Here’s how it all happened…

The process began when I sorted out the recycled pieces of cloth that were given new life from my dyeing adventure last week. I had to pick a few of my favorite swatches for use in the quilt–an extremely difficult task. I had so many favorites, but that left some dandy picks for other projects.

After I had arranged all the sections of dyed fabric into an artful composition, I fused them onto a larger piece of thin, rigid cotton so they would keep their shape and stability. Several of the dyed sections were from sweatshirt material, which was very stretchy and unruly to work with (especially when I started zig-zag stitching the edges), but the Stitch Witchery did its job well, and I soon had a very ocean-like collage of blues and greens.

Next, I scanned a sketch of the horse into Photoshop. I enlarged it and printed out several copies, using the paper copies to create templates for the four types of fabric that I used.

On one of the copies, I drew highlights and shadows in a “paint-by-number” style so that the small areas could easily be cut out of fabric. I cut a whole horse silhouette out of my darker brown and placed light brown highlight shapes and black shadow shapes onto the silhouette. The mane and tail were made from a coppery, thin fabric using a similar method.

I zigzagged with coordinating thread around all of the fabric shapes composing the horse and used a coppery metallic thread around the mane and tail for extra emphasis.

The quilting was done freehand on my machine, which was more fun than I expected and created the effect of wavy underwater currents. The back of the quilt is a cream colored fleece that feels soo nice when you’re curled up underneath it, and the binding is also hand dyed cotton, which is mitered at the corners. The binding is hand-sewn to the back, so that no stitches will show on the front (which took longer than I expected, but isn’t it always that way?).

With it’s smallish size and soft back side, this quilt would make a wonderful baby blanket. It’s very warm and cozy and sturdy, ready to comfort someone all the way through childhood.

Today I’m sketching out a few ideas that have been floating around in my head, future projects that I’ll be doing soon. I’ve ordered supplies for fabric dyeing and am very anxious for them to get here so I can start! But until then, here’s what I’m thinking:

Since I live in Kentucky, it’s about friggin’ time that I made something with a horse on it. I mean, who doesn’t love horses? Or at least appreciate their strength and beauty? So I started sketching, and realized that I needed a refresher course on horses.

After spending way too much time searching through the billions of horse photos on the internet (with too many of them showing docile mares standing in a field), it occurred to me that there is an entire shelf of Breyer Horses sitting there in my step-daughter’s room! So, in lieu of tromping out to a neighboring farm, scaring their horses into making some exciting jumps, and chasing them to take photos, I simply chose a few model horses from the shelf. I’ve combined the poses from the plastic models with some other sketches, and have found approximately the right one–not just a straight profile of a horse, but something with movement and grace.

I won’t give away my entire plan yet, but I’m excited to start dying some fabric for the background for the horse, and will definitely take pics of the process. I’ll also have some more info about Shibori when I get to the dying process.

Meanwhile, I’ve got to finish this hat!

I’ve been viewing some other fabric-related blogs, in a very wide range of topics, from personal progress in fiber art to industrial management of textile shops. In reviewing these sites and searching for motivation in my own artwork, I have also decided on one or two concrete plans for making myself more productive. When I go about creating a new work of art (usually three-dimensional) the procedure usually goes like this:

I know it’s a frustratingly scientific process, but the better part of my projects go this way. I spent years of my college education trying to make up a better description than that to no avail. I’m sticking to what I know: the art makes itself.

Ah-hem.

Now that I’ve got that out of the way, I can divulge my slightly less-than-spectacular, but still important plan. I am in my “quilting phase” of learning about the technical aspects of manipulating fabric, and it’s fair to say that I have become bored very quickly with the idea of just using fabric as the medium for making a quilt. Oh sure, I have used quilting techniques on paintings, clothing, and various non-fabric materials. I will continue to do so in the future.

My most recently completed fabric painting, Blustery, is an example of how I just found some things and let them become what they wanted to become. I started out with the scraps of fabric and sewed them to a piece of canvas, not really planning on stretching the canvas onto a frame. I also wasn’t planning on using any paint, but I wanted to match the lavender color in the bottom scrap and didn’t have any more of that fabric. (There–the secret is out.) Honestly, I can’t say how the stuffed fabric tree roots came about. The art creates itself!

And I know that people enjoy “quirky” art quilts where beads and ribbons and men’s ties are used for decoration. So, I intend to push this a bit further, making a “block-a-day” for my quilt. Using fabric and fabric-like materials, I will pick a theme either in media type or color (I haven’t decided which), and each block will differ slightly within that theme. After the quilt top is finished, I will then back this with fleece or something similar, and stitch all the layers together to make a hopefully functional quilt.

“Functional” being the operative word.

“Hopefully” being the snag in my confidence.

But my question is, will anyone be interested in a quilt made from some things that are, say, plastic-ey or–heaven forbid–unwashable?! The practical side of me says, “Don’t waste your time. No one will be interested in purchasing a quilt that they can’t toss in the washing machine. It will end up as a wall-hanging. You may as well have just made another fabric painting.”

Well, if that’s the case, at least I will own one helluva beautiful, original, hand-crafted quilt that the children will be forbidden from using lest they soil its hallowed threads! Phooey.

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