Burlap quilt

Followers of my blog will have noticed that I am slightly obsessed with burlap at the moment. After buying some coffee sacks at Reverse Garbage here in Brisbane I have been making pillows, postcards, ACEO, bookmarks, coasters and a bookcover with it (all for sale now in my Etsy shop). I have used a strip of burlap in one of my quilts - but what about making a quilt out of nothing but burlap?? That would fit in very well with the monochrome theme!



I cut strips roughly 3 inch wide from the four sacks I have here - they all have a different texture; some are very loose, others quite tightly woven.



Because burlap frays terribly I used a zigzag stitch instead of a straight stitch to piece the strips together.



This is the result so far - to be continued!



I love burlap and its texture - but working with it does leave a terrible mess!

Lovely News!!! I am happy to report that...

Today two of my small art quilts made for challenges here were both voted on by three judges with each of the three saying YES to each piece. One is my art quilt called "Generations" made for our last challenge called: 'Something Old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.'
And the second art quilt is one yet to be unveiled here for our monochromatic challenge!
Needless to say I am over the moon! They will both hang at our local art gallery in the 37th Juried Art Show in June for a few months.

Monochomatic Hint: BROWN

I've started...you aren't surprised, I know.

Hints of brown cotton and furniture fabric sample swatch.

Photo does NOT do colors justice at all,

they are much richer in person.

What's exciting is

that I had no idea of a plan at all

and when I started to lay out cut outs of fabric

pictures formed

that I didn't see until I had sewn it all down

!

Amazing how art

appears to

create

itself

!

New Challenge "Monochromatic"

My theme for this challenge is "Monochromatic." Any colour, size, shape you desire but only using one colour.

The Wikipedia definition is:

"Monochromatic colors are all the colors (tints, tones, and shades) of a single hue.

Example of Monochromatic color

Monochromatic color schemes are derived from a single base hue, and extended using its shades, tones and tints (that is, a hue modified by the addition of black, gray (black + white) and white. As a result, the energy is more subtle and peaceful due to a lack of contrast of hue. Monochromatic color schemes may be considered boring unless there is diversity within the design."

Hope you all have fun with this. I have no idea what I'm going to do yet.

And a silver sixpence in her shoe

 Here is my offering for "something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue".  I only learned this week that the next line is "and a silver sixpence in her shoe".

I struggled for quite a long time to come up with an idea for this challenge, but once inspiration hit I was really excited, and I think this is my favourite piece so far.

Naturally I thought about weddings, and associated traditions, which led me on to bridal bouquets.

 The "something old" are vintage doilies collected over the last few years for no particular reason other than they are beautiful and the result of somebody's work and creativity.  From these I made 10 petals, in graduated sizes, which are actually 10 small quilts in themselves.  As part of the quilting, I ran a gathering stitch about 3-4 rows in from the outside edge, and another one across the bottom of each petal.  When these were pulled up each petal formed a lipped bowl.  When you look into the flower you glimpse all the embroidery, including our favourite, the deer.  You can see petals at different stages of construction here...

"Something new" is a new technique for me of creating a 3 dimensional, structural quilted object.  I "borrowed" the inspiration for this from Lisette http://textileseahorse.blogspot.com.au/ and the beautiful piece she created for the International Quilt Challenge called Lumen.  "Something blue" is the one blue doily I included as an outside cupping petal.

The flower is attached to a thick cardboard roll, covered with soft green velvet to form the stem.

I have completely bent the rules for this challenge, but they are quilts with top, back and batting in between, so I hope this still meets the criteria!

old, blue, borrow, new

I have been experimenting with old dye techniques, in particular clamping.
For this project I used a blue dye. To clamp I used several objects, even some hairpins I borrowed!

 To finish it, I used new threads and beads.

Something Old Something Blue .....

Sorry for the delay in posting. My computer/internet is causing a few problems lately. Hope it's all sorted now.

Something Old ... I used re-cycled dye catchers, the light and dark rectangles.

Something New .... The background fabric.

Something Borrowed ....The beads are borrowed from a friend. Now the quilt will be a gift to her.

Something Blue .... The background fabric and the blue thread.

Something Old and Borrowed - Chris Daly

Mandala 2

Created by Chris Daly

March 2012

One of my favorite challenge quilts was the quilt I designed for the Mandala Challenge.  I have wanted to make a series of 3 quilts using this design. The quilts will be framed and hung on the wall above my bed.  

It was fun to dust off this old design and play with new colors.  

I used hand dyed cottons and velvet.  All pieces of cotton and velvet are appliqued using raw edge applique and Steam a Seam 2.  Machine quilting is done with Superior Threads "King Tut" thread.  

"Generations" by Lynn Cohen

“Generations”

By

 Lynn Cohen

Art quilt

2012

Something Old: My Great Grandparents; husbands' old blue plaid shirt; old lace handkerchiefs trim; blue floral upholstery sample; canvas fabric; buttons, and doilies

Something New: My last born granddaughter, sewing machine stitches, embroidery floss, drawing on fabric, beads

Something borrowed:  ideas for drawing directly on fabric; idea for sewing/writing  on quilt, idea for hand stitching from other quilter’s works I have seen and been inspired by

Something Blue: flowers on old doily’s, upholstery fabric sample and husband’s old shirt, hand stitches. Backing fabric is old blue and white ticking fabric.

The Story

My mother’s father’s parents, my great grandparents, Moshe and Esther Corren, from Poltava. Russia drawn with fabric pen  are the focal point in this art quilt, “Generations”, as is the drawing of my newest and  likely last granddaughter, Allie Bel Cohen, my son’s  (Dan Cohen, and wife Jackie Jaffe Cohen) (his) third child.

lots of hand embroidery stitches quilt the piece

I drew both from photographs directly onto the fabric using a fabric pen, then I free style machine sewed around and on them. I hand embroidered the swaddling blankets around the baby. And heavily hand stitched using embroidery floss around all three drawings to quilt the piece. I used Allie’s grandfather’s (Fred M.) old shirt from “our generation”, and found old handkerchiefs and doilies from an earlier time as well. Buttons were gleaned at garage sales/thrift stores; and beads were bought brand new at the local bead shop. Some of them sparkle when the light hits them just right.

It was fun making this little art quilt knowing I will gift it to Allie Bel on her first birthday, August 2012.

I will be entering it in a juried art show in May 2012. Wish it luck!

Borrowed ice crystals

This is my quilt for "Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue".

It's made of handdyed fabric (the blue), recycled paper (the old), polyesterfleece (new), angelwire (new) and something that is used on buildingsites (no idea for what, also new). The borrowed is the entire quilt, I borrowed it from "Ice" for ARTfor12.

Something old, something new,

This is my Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.

Not very arty, but I call it Sweet Memories of Mum.

The tatting and lace dog are very old, the fabrics are mostly new, I borrowed the two heart buttons from my daughter and the lace surrounding Mum,s portrait is old blue lace.

I enjoyed making this piece very much. The photo is not yet printed onto fabric but will be soon.

Something etc ...

Something etc ....


Here is my latest project.

The criteria -

Something new - a new reel of cotton

Something old - all the fabric

Something borrowed - this image from the internet for my inspiration

Something blue - the overall feel of the piece (I hope)

Jane- old, new. borrowed and blue

This is a quilt that has 2 purposes! Its my 3rd prize winning quilt for the Queensland Quilters recent challenge, but funnily enough covers the bases for this challenge too.
The floral fabric and the blue of the dress are all the same challenge fabric (below), the background is a piece of old organza curtain that someone threw out at a quilt group last year (it was a bit dusty and well loved and faded!) laid over some purple hand dyed fabric.

challenge fabric

The quilting design was borrowed / adapted/ inspired ( in part) from a blog that I have been watching closely 'Green Fairy Quilts'- really inspiring, also the thought about doing a dress is from this book

The dress is made of fused flower shapes, then machine quilted heavily- which is my trademark! The background is heavily quilted in 3 shades of green.

The new is the party dress fit for a fairy to wear at a special occasion!

Something Blue

When this challenge was announced I immediately thought of blue jeans - I have been saving old pairs of jeans for a few years now, thinking I would make a quilt with them someday.



So here it is, my quilt Something Blue. It's 12"/30 cm square. I used the fabric weaving technique that I tried first in April 2008 (to make a bookcover that is now for sale in my Etsy shop). Here is a close-up:



The flower on the first photo comes from a pair of flip flops that I bought last year. It came off a few weeks ago and I think it goes very well with the quilt. Just need to sew it on ;-).

For the stats:
Something old: blue jeans (and zip flower)
Something new: thread
Something borrowed: blue jeans from DH and my sons
Something blue: blue jeans

;-)

Bits and Pieces

I don't think I was terribly successful in my interpretation of the theme, it is just bits and pieces of ideas put together randomly. 

Something Old - the buttons, they are from my grandmothers button tin so they will be quite old. The fabric with the leaves is probably one of the oldest in my stash. I overprinted it using the leaf of a cycad - fossil cycads have been found in China that date to around 270milion years ago.

Something New - The bright blue and the brown/orange are two fabrics that I dyed, in fact my first dyeing effort just a few weeks ago so something new for me. The Blue/Orange colour scheme is a new one for me. I also used my new gelli plate to do some printing.

Something Borrowed -  This was the hard part. How could I borrow something for a quilt without having to give it back?? Soo, I borrowed one of my husband's shoes, rollered some black paint on the sole and printed on another old fabric (the dull blue with the tiny white stars).

Something Blue - the easy (and obvious) part- blue fabric, blue quilting and blue buttons

"Something Borrowed" was the stumbling block in this quilt but once I decided what it would be, the rest just followed. I hardly ever have a concrete plan when I start a quilt. The difficulty is always finding a place to start but once I do things seem to just flow. I didn't plan to use buttons until the the top was almost complete.

Old buttons on new dyed fabric, borrowed shoe print on blue, cycad leaf printed on old fabric, mono-print from new gelli-plate.

Very old button.

A different tack ....

Since I am getting no where fast for the latest challenge.

I am at wits end.

So, I am trying a different tack, and have collected together a selection of my ... blues ....

Hmmm, I have my fingers crossed this may lead me somewhere.

Something Blue

While sitting at the computer this morning trying to work out which of the ideas rolling around in my head would find their way into the next challenge, I caught sight of this out of the corner of my eye through the window. A mad dash for the camera and I got this picture . Hmmm it now fits the something blue part of the challenge. Time will tell if it will find its way into the March challenge quilt.

Something NEW!!!!

Today I bought some NEW beads for my art quilt. Some are pink and some are BLUE!

Still here

Hi Lynn and the others,
I still visit regularly, but am very bad at posting in between challenge unveilings, as my process tends to be very internal and not really in an articulate form.  I suspect it is very right-brained as it sort of percolates and simmers, usually until quite close to the deadline, when the creative process shifts from internal to producing something that represents all that fermentation.  I find the theme constantly accompanies me, and I look at everything around me, making connections with the challenge topic, and all the previous little inspirations.

I have been following your blog closely Lynn and love your daily sketches, particularly this gorgeous bambina!
Kathryn

Hint of Something New, Maybe!? UPDATED FEB 10th!

I've been drawing a lot lately. Doing very very little in fabric. But my  hint is about bringing my drawing art into my fabric piece. Something here might just show up in our next Challenge quilt the end of March. Maybe. We'll see.

On FEB. 10th I started SEWING on my art quilt...it already has something(s) OLD, something new, something(s) borrowed and something(s) blue!

Does anyone come to this blog anymore???
Where are all the other "HINTS"???

First challenge 2012

Time for a new challenge:

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.

Try to put all of this in a quiltlet, size is free and Í'd like to see them all at March 31st.
Good luck, Simone.

Other place, Other time

This quiltlet is a memory quilt of some of the trips (other places) I have been fortunate enough to go on this year. The central picture is an art photo by Gerhard Hillman of "naturesfaceart" http://www.naturesface.com.au/, that he printed onto silk. I bought a huge pile of these small works of art at his market stall in Cairns in November. I discussed with him turning these into quilts, and also bought a length of fabric printed in his unique imagery.

The surrounding pale fabrics I eco - dyed during a work / family trip to the Northern Territory in September. During the day I would collect leaf fall (with permission), and, at night, prepare the dye bundles in vinegar as per India Flint's instructions in her luscious book "Eco-dying". Each piece of silk fabric is thus a reminder and reflection of a particular days journey through Darwin, Kakadu, Litchfield Park or Alice Springs. Best souvenirs I have ever brought back from a trip! These pieces are actually the less successful - I am going to make a different quilt with the more vibrant pieces.

The basic quilt construction and free-motion quilting technique was inspired by an article by Jenny Bowker in Machine Quilting Unlimited - an artist deservedly recognised for her fabulous quilts depicting life in "Other places". She suggested using the pattern of a printed piece of fabric, such as a floral, as the basis of a free-motion quilting design and then extending this into a plain surround.

The botanical diagram is torn from my old favourite "Web of Life" textbook (paper). The leaves are from cheap artificial flowers. I am claiming them as plastic, although I am not sure exactly what they are made of - certainly not silk, but something synthetic. The spine and stem were definitely plastic, anyway.

The trip to Kakadu in particular inspired the title of the quiltlet - one of the most amazing places I have ever experienced.

Dragon Reflections in Another Place

I am an avid reader of fantasy fiction.  As a child I was immersed in the Land of OZ series by LF Baum. Not only did I love the stories but I marveled at the fantastic illustrations of John R. Neill.  Later I traveled with Ursula Le Guin to Earthsea and Anne McCaffrey to meet the Dragon Riders of Pern.

The idea of a dragon theme quilt came to me immediately.  Trying to figure out how to incorporate plastic and paper into this project kept me from starting my quilt top for quite a while. I tried thinking in an abstract mixed media sense but kept coming back to my original theme.  Once I had the idea of a reflecting pool it all came together. 

The dragon reflection in the pool is drawn on card stock using colored pencils.  I quilted the batik fabric then covered the dragon image with the plastic from a Ziploc Freezer Bag.  I tried a cellophane type of bag first but the stitching perforated the plastic.  The plastic in the freezer bag is very pliable and stands up well to the machine quilting.

I worked on the quilted dragon head separately.  I drew the quilting details on the top fabric first using a pencil.  Next I layered the top with batting and a muslin backing.  I machine quilted the scales on the dragon head and neck.  Once that was complete I applied Daler Rowney acrylic inks over the top of the quilting, a technique I have wanted to try for a long time.  The inks covered the pencil lines, toned down the turquoise blue quilting thread and added a vibrant shimmer to the dragon.  I added 2 more layers of batting under the dragon's head to give it more dimension.  The head is appliqued it in place using a straight stitch.  

Lynn Cohen's "Other Place"

My last quilt was "Barcelona" and I showed my passing through Barcelona on my way to Israel. So the obvious "Other Place" for me was to follow up with a quilt depicting my five years living in Israel from 1961 - 1966. I was a young woman of 20 when I arrived there; I went for five weeks, which turned into five years. I met my husband to be at the second Kibbutz I stayed at. We married four months later. It seemed much longer. I learned to live the very quiet small farm collective life and was happy there for two years. We got pregnant on a visit home to California, returned and gave birth in Israel. Things got difficult when I had to leave my baby in the "Baby House" and have him raised mostly by women whose job it was to work there, while I worked elsewhere on the Kibbutz. The babies and children slept in their house, not their parents house at night. This did not work for me at all. When my son turned 18 months I took a vacation with him to California. I decided not to go back; and my husband followed a few months later.
That's the story behind the quilt. I will give it to my son this month for Chanukah, as a memento of his first year in Israel. His homeland.

The quilt is built of papers I either copied from materials I had at home; or letters and other written materials I asked for and got from an Israeli woman artist I met on line. It's all in Hebrew of course, printed and hand written. Israeli stamps were a gift from her as well, along with the bus tickets and zip code stamps, letters and envelopes. I cut out an outline of an map of Israel and drew it on the back of a brown paper grocery bag.
I collaged my papers (including photos on paper) onto the bag with glue. I sandwiched it with batting and backing fabric (blue and white: the colors of the Israeli flag); with the machine I sewed it in crazy quilt style. Then I hand sewed wool yarn in a blanket stitch around the outside of the map. I added turquoise beads I got for $1 at Michael's. It's my first paper quilt; and first map shaped quilt too.

The whole map of the state of Israel.

The top of the map shows my arrival date in Israel. And what I looked like when I first arrived.

The middle of the map shows where we lived and where I married and gave birth.

It also shows me pregnant.

The last photo shows my then husband holding our baby son

not long before I brought him/them to California in '66.

I hope you enjoyed traveling back to me to this "Other Place"!

Another time another place

A couple of weeks ago I went to an exhibition in a museum in The Hague. It was about Paris, city of modern art in1900-1960. Back then, when you were an artist, Paris was the place to be.
So my another place is Paris, where art changed and became more abstract.
The picture of the eiffeltower (1926) made by Robert Delaunay was resized on the computer before a copy was made. Then the copy was crumbled to make the paper more soft. Then it was ironed onto vlieseline.
So putting in paper was easy... My new technique was using plastic, and honestly: I dont think it was a great idea. Then machinequilting, and I added some paint. I am not totally done with it, but running out of time.
Best wishes for the new year to all of you!

.

Nazca Lines- Peru

The Nazca Lines can be found 400km south of Lima, along the Peruvian coastline. I flew over them in 2005. "Stretching across 500 square kilometers, the lines were etched by the Nazca people using the simple technique of digging shallow ditches and piling the earth along the edges to a height of 30cm. Many of these lines stretched for hundreds of metres, creating a spectacular collection of figures featuring more than 13,000 lines representing 18 birds as well as figures like the dog, the iguana lizard, the spider, the killer whale, the shark, the monkey and others, some of them hundreds of metres long"
Modern researchers think this was done over a period of 800 years from 370BC.
No-one knows for sure what the drawings and lines mean but some theories are that they are messages to other worlds, sacred roads or precise astronomical maps. You can read more about the fascinating Nazca lines here...http://www.world-mysteries.com/mpl_1.htm or here.....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazca_Lines

Due to the fact my piece is brown with brown stitching, it doesn't photograph well.
The new (to me) technique I used is couching. I couched thread and a strip of plastic cut from a bag, the heavier line on the quilt which represents the Pan American Highway which passes through the Nazca Lines. Straight lines were done using various stitches. One of the figures, called The Hands, I free motion quilted. In real life The Hands is 45m long, one hand having 5 fingers, the other 4. The spiral too is free motion quilted. It is thought that the many spirals mark out where the ancient Nazca people built underground canals to irrigate the desert.
The paper I chose is an old dressmaking pattern, the lines on it precise and straight like the Nasca Lines and just the right colour. The paper was torn in pieces and adhered with gel medium (a plastic like glue). I did intend to do more stitching on top but my machine didn't like it, guess I need a teflon foot. I do like the crinkly textured effect that the tissue paper and gel medium gives and plan to do another Nazca Lines piece, next time doing more stitching before adding the paper and using a darker thread.
If you get a chance to go to South America, don't miss seeing the Nazca Lines.

another stampquilt

My contribution to Another place.

I recycled all the stamps I received this last year.

They are treated gel medium so they are sewable ( new english word?) and netted with tule and then they are stitched in place.

Most stamps are from places I've never been, but a lot are from places I once visited and bring back lovely memories.

Have a great, inspiring new year with lots of time for your creativity, Simone.

Another place

I haven't struggled with any of the previous challenges as much as with this one!
Another place... use paper... use plastic... use a new technique... pfff!
I thought and thought and was about to give up when, 2 days before we left on a 2 week holiday on Dec 24, I had an idea. I had about 1 hour to create my quilt, so it became a very small, postcard-sized piece.

Another place... is Tasmania - I have never been there yet, but would love to go. It's part of Australia, but it's literally a-part from Australia, and my idea is that it is quite different... I hope to be able to see it for myself soon!

The paper - is from an old atlas;
The new technique - is using paper in a quilt ;-) (yes, I'm cheating, I know)
The plastic - is absent, as I could not think of what to use...

I do like my little Tassie piece!

Another Place

Top left hand corner showing some quilted script- new for me.

Another Place, all made with homespuns. I pieced the centre then appliqued three sides of the green bucket on. The bucket is throwing out an assortment of junk including a mesh, beer bottle tops, plastic rings etc. It is simply quilted with the message written in the yellow border. I have never made a quilt with homespuns or tried to write anything on a quilt before.

I am fairly happy with it.

... another place ... coral reef

I paper pieced this block together - hadn't used this method before (or again).



And then laid decorative wool over the top, it didn't seem enough, so I sandwiched the wool between two layers of tulle, and quilted a swirling ocean; and then attached this over the top of the block.

If you look really hard, there is a pod of plastic whales in the background.

I am quite happy with my interpretation of ... another place ... coral reef.