43 posts tagged “art quilt”
Here is a quick post of the progress, or lack of it on a piece I have been working on since my QSDS class in June. It has spent more time being stared at than anything else, and I have taken more photos of this while working on it than any other piece I have ever done. My camera and laptop ended up being a great design tools during the process of this piece. In case you haven't noticed, I love flowers, and have lots of photos I have taken that I want to work into my quilts after I print them onto fabric.
I took this home as it was, and put it on my design wall, but something really seemed off.... I loved the colors and the flowers, but it just seemed like a "jumble of stuff"...
I had been tacking flower pieces onto the paper base with the iron, but ended up moving things so much, that I started pinning everything in place- easier to move around on my foam design wall.
I will post the final piece when the quilting and embellishing is finished (that is if I decide to do any embellishing.... maybe a few beads in the flower centers... or not....)
****A little Reminder.... I am reducing my inventory of earlier sunprint and photo series of my Small Art Quilts- Mostly 5"x7", 8"x10" and 11"x14", with a few 13"x17". *-*-*-*25% off until Sep. 20.*-*-*-*-*
See this post- September Begins with a Sale- For more information... As you can see, I am working in new directions and have many of my older pieces that would love new homes.
I didn't get a chance to get to go to the Troy Fair last week to see in person how my things did. I did read in the newspaper about my first place ribbon for "Water Road House". It was judged, and placed first in mixed media! I also had a few surprises with my other entries. I was pleased to receive a number of blue ribbons along with a few red and one 3rd place. The biggest surprise was the quilt that received a Best in Show!!
On to the NEW work on the wall... That is if I can find space to work in... My studio keeps getting cluttered with things from other rooms, and a design wall that keeps hiding my ironing board when I least expect it.
Now to find that ironing board again, and get some fabric ready for the printer....
Update for this post... Prices shown below in the Rapid Cart are regular prices since sale is over....
Where did July go?? We are having another soggy, rainy day here in NE PA. This earlier post has all the details of my sale which is going on at my Artfire and one Etsy shop, and my Website items on these two pages- 5x7" mini quilts, and 8x10" mini quilts. I will no longer be creating these styles of little quilts, and would love for these to find loving homes.
Above are some of the items in my Etsy Shop.
This has been a very busy week and especially busy weekend. Tomorrow, the 134th Troy Fair officially begins in Troy, PA. It has been a few years since I entered anything in the competitions in the fair, because I was busy doing art and craft shows, and preferred to have my best work with me in the hopes it would sell. Now that I am not doing the shows, I decided to enter some things again.
My biggest problem trying to enter my work into the fair is that it doesn't fit most of the categories in the Home Arts Department. The biggest number of quilt related classes are for bed quilts which I don't do. There are classes for framed pictures, cross stitch, hand quilting, etc. I try to find the classes that have the "other" category, or "original design" where there are no exact limitations. I entered one of my notebook covers in the household accent- "other" category, and one of my pins in the beaded jewelry category. I never know exactly what other items will be my competition- there could be almost anything.
There are a couple categories for wall hangings that I entered a few of my more recent pieces in, including my "Stained Glass and Ferns", but I decided to try something a bit different this year.... I consider my quilts to be works of art, and thought I would enter my newest quilt below in the Fine Art show in the Mixed Media category. That's what I do- mixed media... acrylic paint, digital photos, chalk pastels, and anything else I want to play with. I use fabric as one of my media.
This is a photo of "Water Road House", which is finally finished! The 12" square quilt is mounted to a piece of canvas that I painted with acrylic paint and drew on with chalk pastels to bring the design of the quilt into the canvas bordering it. This photo was taken when I thought I was was ready to mount it to the frame. I looked at this photo and decided that the colors done in the pastels were too bright and drew my eye away from the quilt more than I wanted, so the night before it was to be delivered to the show, I was painting on another layer of thin titanium white to tone things down. The result was much better to my eyes, much softer looking.
Well, when I got to the fairgrounds and delivered the piece to the Fine Arts building, I was informed that it belonged in the Home Arts building with the quilts.... There is no category I hadn't entered anything in that this would fit, and not really one it would have fit in anyway.
I decided to ask what was considered Mixed Media in this showing, so that if anything in the future might fit, I might try again (can't hurt to ask...) I explained that I believed that my piece fit that category- a work of art using multiple media. (I guess they were of the opinion that only oil, acrylic, and watercolor paintings, pen and ink, charcoal, etc. were considered Fine Art media) Long story short... there was a little huddle in the back room, and my piece has been allowed to hang with the rest of the fine art (in the mixed media category) and the judge will decide whether it would be judged or not. Even if it isn't judged, at least I have got my little toe in the door, and maybe it will gain a bit of attention.
Sometimes we just have to dip out toes in new waters and see what happens. I am not sure if I will get to the fair, so it may be a week before know if my "Water Road House" got judged, or how my other pieces fared. I will update when I find out....
Well, here I am in Columbus, Ohio attending the Quilt Surface Design Symposium (QSDS). I am taking a master class with Elizabeth Busch, and am loving it! I will have another 6 days of class, starting pretty soon, so here is a really quick post....
I look forward to more play with fabric, paint and more as the week progresses. The best part of all of this is that the mni van got me here safely without dying on the way!! More progress photos may show up here during the week, depending on how much sleep I can do without :) Time to get off to class again!
One good thing came from my nasty cold.... I spent a few "lazy" days plopped on the couch and did some beading. I finally have some new pins and ACEO's finished to list in my Etsy shops. Just in time for the Quiltsy Team's May Daze Promotion beginning tomorrow, May 10, through May 16th. The promotion works like a Shop Hop, where you look through the participating shops to find hidden letters that spell out different words.
Both my AndrusGardensQuilts and AndrusGardensArt shops are participating. My Quilted Gifts shop is giving away a set of 4 note cards of my quilts and a bookmark with a sunprint of a fern frond- These are shown in the center of the group of prizes. My Art Quilt shop is giving away a reproduction print of my "Rose Door" quilt, matted and ready to display in an 8"x10" frame (shown in the lower front of the prize photo- prize photos are not to scale).
Here is one in the diamond shape, beaded in many spring colors. The backs on each of the pins allow them to be worn as a pin or as a pendant. The diamonds look especially nice worn as pendants. Diamond Black Blue Pink Butterfly Pin.
Rectangle Pink Blue with Hummingbird Pin. Another rectangular shaped pin with a hummingbird, pink, blue and teal beads.
If you have a bit of time, why not do some window shopping through some great shops at Etsy and have a chance to win a number of great prizes! Here is more information...
A few more tiny treasures popped up in my gardens this week. I was kept away from the gardens most of the week by a nasty cold my son shared with me, but I did get a few photos while trying to pull some of the fast growing weeds during a couple short trips outdoors.
More tiny treasures in the gardens. These are wild violets in one of my rock gardens. They may find themselves in one of my "On the Rocks" series of art quilts. The feathery foliage in the background is from Queen Ann's Lace plants that are probably not going to be allowed to stay there. They will be great to use for sunprints, so I will probably press them to use later.
Again I have found that there are many little treasures just waiting to be found if I just take a bit of time to really look for them. I just hope I can keep the weeds from covering them all up.
Here is a glimpse of a walk I took through my gardens....
As many of these photos show, there are many things that I have been around for years, but never "really seen". Taking a few extra moments to look closer and really see the beauty that is all around us. Watch for more photos as the days go by, and see where those photos may pop up in my art.
Finally, day three back at my sewing machine!! The bowls got more ideas flowing than I have had in a long time. Night before last, I went to bed and thought about trying some more with creating the look of stained glass again like I did with my "Stained Glass and Ferns" quilt, but on a smaller scale. This link shows the earlier piece in progress, and here is the finished quilt that did a bit of traveling to various shows and won a couple ribbons.
Also today I have a photo of a plant that bloomed before I got to see it. There is a seed pod forming, so I hopefully will have baby seedlings popping up for more in the coming years.
After spending 10 days with my grandmother in Western NY, I have returned home to PA. It was nice to be able to spend time with my grandma and parents that I would not normally have a chance to do. Gram is doing amazingly well considering what she went through. She came home with much swelling in her legs, and by the time I left for home, they had improved a lot. She will not be driving again soon, or ever, which is hard for her to deal with, but she is back home. She is also wearing her Lifeline button at all times. She would not wear it when she went to town for her exercise class and dinner days- didn't think she needed it.....
I took some things with me to work on, and did a little hand and machine stitching. I gave Gram's sewing machine a good cleaning and then used it to stitch together these blocks I pieced before leaving home.
