Quilt Fashions

A Look Into the Future

Michelle — Fri, 18 May 2012 15:23:49 +0000

I still have things to finish but, I’m moving on…

I have always been inspired by light and the sort of birth that happens as light emerges out of darkness. After teaching the color class on the Quilt Show I’ve been thinking more about color and how I might let images emerge from color. So
I decided to cut a 2 1/2″ strip from every fabric I have and reassemble them into strip sets to use in a new piece. The cutting process alone took three and half days and I’m not sure I really cut from all of the fabrics I have. Now I am reassembling pieces and just loving the simple explosions of color. The next step will be to find a photo suitable to try this technique. Below are some of the strip sets waiting in the wings for their part in the show. Stay tuned for more pictures along the way and hopefully a color explosion!

Don’t Be Afraid to Make Mistakes

Michelle — Sat, 05 May 2012 16:35:14 +0000

Sometimes we are our own worst enemy. We are educated enough to know what looks good, but we don’t give ourselves the chance to develop the skills necessary to get there. If you are one of these people, here is my advise. Look at each project as an exercise or learning experience. You don’t have to show anyone everything you make. Somethings are just for your benefit, so experiment a little; be daring at times. Take chances and try different things. Step out side your box and challenge yourself to do something that doesn’t seem to fit or maybe isn’t in your comfort zone. Use that piece of fabric that you love but don’t know what to do with. Just do it! You might be surprised!

Then when you have done something new or different and it doesn’t seem like a success, tell your self,” its OK”. Trust that you have learned something even when you can’t tell what. Know deep in your artistic soul that each experience will lead you to another and eventually you will be on a path that is more satisfying and maybe closer to your own idea of what looks good. Don’t give up! Allow yourself to make mistakes and just keep going!

A Finished Project

Michelle — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 17:09:00 +0000

Here is the first of the UFO’s. One down, four to go. Today is tomorrow isn’t it? Or maybe it’s already two days later. Oh well, time to work on number two!

One Project at a Time or Many at the Same Time

Michelle — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 14:45:02 +0000

Are you a one project at a time artist or do you thrive best when you have lots of projects going all at once? Knowing how you work best and figuring out how to stay on that path can be a great accomplishment; one that I’m still working on. I have known for a long time that I am a one at a time project artist. I get very wrapped up in the excitement of each project individually that it becomes hard for me to share that enthusiasm with more than one thing at a time. Life however has its interruptions and lately I have had to put several projects aside to make way for projects and things that have a higher priority. What this means is that now I have about five half completed projects waiting for my attention again. I also feel that every piece is a learning experience and because I have grown in some way through it, it becomes very hard to go back. It feels a little like I’m finishing the work of someone else; the earlier me! Oh well! I have to have something to show for all the work I have done. Right!? So, I’m off to finish projects! One I will finish and post today. Then there is tomorrow…..

All Those Values In Between

Michelle — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 02:32:30 +0000

It is easy to see the darkest and lightest values, but what about all of those in between? Sometimes when we see different values in unequal amounts our eyes play tricks on us and we may think one is lighter or darker than the other only because we see more of it than the other, so the key is to make all things equal. Cut some strips of the the same size of each of your fabrics in various values. Arrange them in the order you perceive them to be from light to dark and sew them together in that order. Pin the strip set you just made on your design wall and observe it casually for a few days as you walk in and out of the room. The one that may seem out of order may start to glare at you. Take it apart and reassemble in the new order and observe it again.

If you really want to get good at distinguishing value start sorting your fabrics or scraps or help a friend with hers. The more you sort and separate and collate the better you will be at sorting, separating and collating! Next time you start a quilt the choices will come easier and faster.

strip set corrected

strip set out of place

Where to start?

Michelle — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 14:55:56 +0000

I am often asked, “Where do I start?” on an art quilt. My answer is, “Think about what is “most” important in your piece and what you want to say about it.” Start there! It’s a little like a novel. If the characters are developed the action and interaction becomes believable. So develop the main character; establish him , her or it and let everything else play only a supporting role.

Recently I had a student who was working on a piece of her grand daughter, legs out stretched, sitting on the beach. her head was looking down at the guitar in her hands. It was a very peaceful intimate moment about the girl and her music. There were beautiful foamy waves crashing on the beach behind her and still almost turquoise water beyond that. It’s easy to get so involved in the beauty around her that we pay more attention to that and forget it’s really about the girl and her music. So my advise was start with the girl and establish her and her relationship with the guitar, then make sure everything else supports that and does not detract.

I sometime write myself notes to help me to be focused each day on what’s important and the feelings I want to portray about a particular piece. In this case I would write things like:

It’s about the girl and her music, serene, private, intimate, peaceful

Then every piece I put down must help convey those feelings.

Lights and Whites

Michelle — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 16:56:10 +0000

The more white there is in a particular fabric the more light is able to be reflected. This is called luminescence. Notice the inner colors on my color wheel. Because of the great amount of white in them, they are difficult to photograph without them all looking the same. These fabrics are rarely found in most quilt shops and most of us resort to buying true white or off white to try and substitute for these wonderful colors. The fact that they are hard to photograph makes them almost impossible to buy on the internet. So when you find them in abundance at your local quilt shop, praise the shop owner for doing such a good job of buying a full spectrum of colors. When I find these I buy more than I usually do, because I know it may be a long time till I see them again. As you learn more about color and the art quilt, these lights will become invaluable tools in telling your story. I reserve true white for the sharp reflection in the eye. Every other white deserves to have a little bit of color!

Fabric Color Wheel

Taking Photographs for Art Quilts

Michelle — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 15:14:23 +0000

I like using my own photographs for my quilts because I don’t have to get permission from a photographer to use it for my art quilt. The most important thing in selecting a photo is whether it is clear. I can’t draw what I can’t see. So that means that most of those photos taken in the 70′s are not going to work for me. I’m convinced that that’s why art teachers when I was growing up all stressed working from life and not photos, but in the real world of the art quilt it is impossible to work from life. Let’s face it, we would be out there for days, weeks and maybe months trying to finish while everything around us is constantly changing. Cameras are so good today that we can see what lurks in those deep shadows while photos from many years past shadows were blobs of muddied black and grey. Start with a good camera and a clear photos. I’ll talk more about photos in future blogs. This is a great photo to start with. Look at the flowers and the light on them. Perfect! I can see everything.

My Love Affair with Fabric and Color

Michelle — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 19:14:13 +0000

I truly love fabric! Probably why I’m a fiber artist. When I purchase fabric from a store I usually would rather not have a bag. I like fanning them out and placing them on the seat next to me to be able to glace down at them while waiting at stop lights. I can’t wait to get to my studio to fold them neatly and add them to the rest of my fabrics on the shelves. The folded fabric on the shelves is art in it self. It only looks this neat about three times a year when I resort and rearrange usually for the purpose of pictures or filming. My fabric wall is my pallet of paint meant to inspire me. The shelves, by the way, were purchased from a used paperback book store going out of business. The shelving units are 8 feet high, shelves floor to ceiling and only about 5 1/2 ” deep, which turns out to be perfect for half yard pieces folded neatly and stacked. So, if you want to be inspired, get your fabric out of those bins and out someplace where you can see it!

The Color Shift

Michelle — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 15:16:35 +0000

People always ask me how I decide on the colors I use in a piece. If you start to look at color differently, it becomes easier to use spectacular color to enhance your piece. So, lets think about color differently. If we were painters painting shadows and highlights we might reach for the tube of black or white paint to get those shadows and high lights. Instead, lets look at colors on the color wheel and see if we can see light and dark without adding white and black. The lightest color on the wheel relative to the others is probably yellow. Yellow is the color almost any child chooses to draw the sun. So lets think of warm yellow as our white. The coolest color on the wheel is blue, and we have already seen how we can use blue to create depth. Lets think of blue as our black. So when we are choosing colors for those places that are highlighted choose a color one or two steps from your color toward yellow and when we are choosing colors for shadows choose a color one or two steps toward blue on the color wheel. The only time this doesn’t work is if the color you are starting with is already yellow or blue.

See my example below of the leaf. The highlights on the leaf were created by moving one and two steps toward yellow from the green on the color wheel and the shadow or darker areas were created by moving two steps from green to blue.

Color Shift