More bits and bobbles
I am in Week 3 of my online live class “SEE Like and Artist” with Donalee Kennedy and yes, I am learning to “see”! This week I worked on 2 studies for class, as well as a trapunto sample for my (hopeful) Trapunto class. One thing that makes this class even more instructive is the other students. All the other students are established artists with a mature sense of design. I think most have displayed their work in juried exhibits in galleries. As a result, the critiques are enormously useful to me. We all participate in each student’s critique. I am the newbie in this group but not treated as one!
Here we go, Homework for Week 2, first piece:
This small study measures 3.5” x 6”. I free motion quilted randomly shaped and colored stone-like pieces onto the background and then added “moss” cheesecloth. I have a lot of granite outcroppings on my property and they bloom with luscious moss during the rainy season. It is a beautiful sight.
I played with an assortment of hand dyed (by another artist) cheesecloth and clear glass beads to try to evoke moss on rocks after a rain. It was a fun experiment and something that might find a way into a future project. I also added metallic thread which you can’t see in the photo, but it added a lovely glimmer.
Homework Week 2, second piece:
Our assignment was to take inspiration from other students in class to create our own new creation. I was inspired by 3 concepts: use navy instead of black for your dark neutral, adding dots for fun and visual texture, and the work of Agnes Martin which was part of our lesson that day. I have never taken an art history class and I am woefully unaware of many influential artists and movements. I am playing catch up. I never heard of Agnes Martin but Donalee is taken with her work. I researched Martin’s work and let it inspire this study.
This is a study, not a composition and I wanted to play with a variety of thicknesses, materials, and lengths on navy dupioni and add some dots for fun:
This piece is 9.5″ x 14″. BTW, I learned that in art, we list height first, then length. In quilting, we list width first then height. Who knew? I took a variety of threads to make the lines, feed dogs up, and also used some triple stitch on my machine.
I dug into my Auril stash and used 12 wt, 28 wt, and 50/2 weight, as well as 100 wt Superior Silk Kimono and Superior Glitter Metallic. It was fun to play with threads and triple stitch. I deliberately did not use tape to make an exact straight line, I wanted “hand of the maker” and it definitely has that! It was fun. BUT, that small piece took 4 hours, partly because I was changing stitches, stitch length, thread, and needles.
This could be a very interesting alternative to match stick, but I would really have to want it to put in that much effort. The dots came from a quilting marker. It would look better with tiny machine embroidered dots, but this was a study and I was not going to do that.
Just for grins, I added the only completed piece of applique I had within reach, just to see what this background might do for applique.
Not a great composition, but I like the background it gives the applique. In a way, this is a variation of what Pat Holly does on her quilts. Pat is Sue Nickels’ sister and does not have a website, but this post will show you the type of pre-quilted backgrounds she uses on her fabulous applique quilts.
I also am working on a trapunto sample. Oh my, did I make some errors on this one, but look at the beautiful dimension trapunto adds!
What I hope to show with this piece once it’s completed is how much trapunto can add to traditionally pieced quilts, as well as how you can make statement quilts with more impact using trapunto. This sample will do both…if I ever finish.
I’ll be linking up:
Nina Marie’s Off the Wall Friday!
