Fiber Art Day 2018

We hope to see everyone at the Fiber Art Day event on  Saturday, May 5th.   This is the 3rd year for this event...and it has consistently been well-attended and SO MUCH FUN! All of the Quiet Corner Art Quilt group will be there, either helping out, vending, playing music or just enjoying the event.  Hope you can make it!

Our own Cathey LaBonte and Hope Barton will have their pieces on display in the Local Color #3 "Inspired by Science" exhibit running from May 5th to July 8th!

Surface Design Swap Challenge

This month we each brought in a fat quarter of fabric on which we had done some surface design technique(s). We put each fat quarter into its own envelope and then we each picked a sealed envelope. Our challenge...we have to make an art quilt using all or some of the fabric we chose by our next meeting.  We'll post the results after the June meeting.  Can't wait to see what everyone comes up with...

Hope got this piece, made by Joan.  It's a folded clamp-resist technique, 

known as Itajme Shibori, on cotton.

Marcia got this ice dyed cotton piece done by Hope.

Joan got this ice dyed cotton piece done by Marcia.

Cathey got this ice dyed mandala piece made by Pat.

Pat's piece is cotton that was ice dyed, and then over-stamped by Cathey.

Still Life

"Still Life" was the theme for this month's project.

PAT: I had an unfinished fabric collage of a butterfly from a class with Susan Carlson. I added borders and tulle, and Swarovski crystals to emphasize the butterfly details.  I then mounted it on canvas using a mitered border.

MARCIA: I printed a photo of red onions, and layered over it a faintly striped tulle, which gave the piece some interesting shadows.

HOPE: I started the portrait of my dog Pierre in Esterita Austin's class.  We were all given a piece of ice dyed fabric to use for the different values.  I found it challenging to look at multiple colors and still find the values.

I took a photo of a dinner plate hibiscus, enlarged it, traced the main parts onto vinyl, placed parchment paper over it, and painted.  When dry, I ironed a fusible over it and went to flip it onto batting.  However, not all the paint came up, so I placed a patterned material under the flowers and leaves, which gave it an interesting texture.

Participation in the Textile Duo at the Windham Textile and History Museum

Series

Our challenge for October was to work in Series.

Shelia Rae: I was not here last month. The challenge then was circles. Here is my piece from that challenge. The frightening images inside the circles come from my childhood nightmares precipitated by the Cuban Missile Crisis and the defense drills we had to perform in school and in my town.

For my Series pieces, I used vintage "orphan blocks" given to me to create a series based on the myths and legends of the underground railroad quilts.

This first block is a Log Cabin. Legend has it that when the center was red, it was safe to pass; black meant stay away. This is a safe block with a red button center. There are also chains in the piece representing the chains of slavery.

My second piece is a North Star block and represents flying to freedom, The background fabric is embroidered with many small x's. The wings were in one of my donation bags. I spray painted them green.

The third piece is Turnbolt. There is a north star and compass for guidance and stained glass-looking fabric to bring to mind churches. Churches were often safe havens to slaves fleeing to freedom.

The Fourth block is Bowtie. Its message is "go in disguise" or "hide in plain sight." In this block there is lots to look at and lots of glitz to distract the viewer from the basic block. 

Pat: A couple of months ago our challenge was geometry, I liked the piece I made but wanted it to have more depth. I continued to work on it and added a lot more stitching, especially around the edges to create shading and depth. Here is the enhanced piece:

Here is the original:

For my Series challenge, I continued with last month's circle motif. That one was multicolored and this time I want to do one in black and white. I recently purchased some fabric and was inspired by the circles with the turquoise center. It added just a bit of color to the otherwise black and white scheme. I appliqued the circles on to black fabric then used white decorative stitching in circles to create the piece.

This was my inspiration fabric. I cut circles from it for the piece.

Here is my black, white and turquoise piece: (note from photographer - this piece is perfectly executed. The photo was taken with someone holding it up and that made it look a little wonky).

Here is the first in the series (from last month):

Melanie: Abstraction. Well it is not a series yet but this piece was made from a piece of "silk paper" I made. It contains silk roving, metallic threads and other ephemera. The paper is mounted on a batik and silk background then stitched, I have more silk paper and plan to make one or two more to complete the series. 

Marica: My series in Gesneria. These 3 pieces were made with raw edge applique, some silk and stitch. The middle piece has a beaded edge.

Circles

Our word for August was Circles.

Pat - Lava Bubbes  I have been experimenting with alcohol inks on non porous paper e.g. Yupo. The colors are intense and the way the ink spreads and disperses on the medium is so interesting. For this quilted piece, I scanned 2 of the Yupo ink designs, printed them on to fabric then sliced and alternated them for the composition. Both prints had circular motifs so they were perfect for this month's theme.

Going in Circles - for this piece I used a technique of centering fabric on a tack and rotating it around while using many of the decorative stitches on my machine. The variety of decorative stitches and colored thread on black give this design a lot of impact. The center of the circles are filled with washers painted with the alcohol inks. 

Hope - Sunprint. With the hot, sunny weather, I have been doing a lot of sunprinting. For this piece, I layered some stencil work in white over the sunprint. I added a few drops of pearlescent paint to the sunprinting paint. In person, you can see the sparkle it added.

Joan - Fresh Perk. I used a program on my ipad call "Percolate" to create a subtle circular background. The image is printed on to the fabric. I overlayed a piece of tulle then cut it away from the coffee. The tulle remaining around the edges of the coffee created a bubble-like effect of freshly brewed and poured coffee.

Pathways 2 - This piece is similar to an earlier one I made. The circle is cut from a piece of my hand-marbled fabric. I appliqued it to to white fabric and used various threads and stitch lengths to create the pathways.

Melanie - Circular. This piece is created from a variety of hand-dyed and commercial fabrics layered in off-set circles. The circles are outlined with couched black yarn. 

Cathey - Rust. I found this rusted strip along the highway and have been waiting to use it in a piece. I love the color and texture of rusted objects. The object inspired the rust colored fabrics and the circles create balance in the composition. 

Marcia- Meandering Circles. This piece was created from a piece of my hand-dyed clamp-resist fabric. I added buttons, yo-yos and yarn. The hanging system is a stick with small curtain clamps. 

Steam Punk

Our theme for this month was "Steam Punk." We really had fun with this one!

Shelia Rae: This is my take on steam punk, I even wrote a little haiku to go with it. "A tisket, a tasket, A basketful of gaskets, For my car has died; Time to buy, I created the background from an orphan block I was given. I used alcohol spray to transfer some color from the original basket motif then sprayed with it with glimmer spray. The sewn-on objects include a watch, actual gaskets and various other metal ephemera, There is Angelina film behind some of the open pieces.

Hope: Steam Punk Fish. I overdyed some industrial motif Tim Holtz fabric for the background. The mouth of the fish is a zipper. Gears, picture hangers, and a variety of other metal trinkets,make up the fish details.

Cathey: Victorian bustiers with a steam punk twist. I created the bustier from "pleather" with details of pearls and metallic items. The skirt is shabby, ratty tulle.  This something I would wear if I went to a steam punk event!

As my art quilt group buddies know, I have been studying at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). One of the things I have been doing is designing fabric, Here is an example that I had printed on canvas at Spoonflower. 

Joan: I loved this challenge and made 3 pieces! I had several pieces of fabric I had rusted and thought it would made the perfect background for a steam punk piece. I used my printer to print images on the rusted fabric, I made 2 clocks. Similar but in different frames and in one I used metallic thread for the simple quilting lines. The third piece is in a double window frame. I printed gears on the rusted fabric.

Melanie: Steam Punk Guitar. I was trying to find some gears for this project. I asked my husband if he had an old watch I could take apart. He didn't but gave me these tuner parts from an old mandolin. I also sunprinted some fabric with small clock gears and stencils and used it for part of the background. 

Pat: Modern Steam Punk - Tools of the trade. I have been interested in string art for a while and wanted to use it in a quilted piece, Although steam punk is industrial/Victorian, what better embellishments to use but the tools of the trade in sewing/quilting. Steampunk can also be fairly dark so mine is more modern with lighter, brighter colors. 

The background is black kona cotton. Embellishments include buttons, mother-of-pearl belt buckle, binding clips, pastern tracer roller, and tape measure and rick rack for the binding. 

Marcia: Geared Clock. I just happened to have a big package of gears. I decided to make a steam punk clock. The background fabric is industrial in feeling - reminiscent of propellers or diamond plate. The strips are velvet. Chain surrounds the clock "face" and ribbon was used for the binding.