Category: Fiber Art

Art Quilts Extraordinaire

5/30/2016

I entered two quilts into the Art Quilts Extraordinaire exhibit at the Kenai Fine Arts Center. I also have the tree quilt showing, that I made earlier this year, as a part of our guild exhibit in the same exhibition. It opens tomorrow night from 6-8 pm. If you are in the area please come out and see the quilts. The exhibit goes through the month of June.

The center is located at: 816 Cook Ave, Kenai, Alaska 99611

These are the three quilts of mine that will be in the exhibition.

I hope to see you there,
Janelle

2 Comments

Standing Strong

4/25/2016

6 Comments

I finished this art quilt, turned it into the guild, and now it is on tour with the group. There were quite a few tree art quilts turned in for this challenge. When it comes to the area again, I plan on going to see them all on display. For any of you in Alaska you can see the quilts in these locations.

Homer- May Mother's day Quilt Show

Kenai- May 28 to be entered into "Art Quilts Extraordinaire" at
Kenai Fine Art center for June show

July -the blocks go to Seward

They will be displayed at the Anchorage Log Cabin Quilt show Sept 17-18

This was a fun challenge to enter. Here is my quilt and how I finished it.
I added green ribbons and yarn randomly to the tree area.

Then I couched green yarn all around the top to outline the trees. I couched black yarn with a touch of other colors over the whole area. This way only bits of the greens showed through to give the trees more depth and interest.

I finished the edges and sewed on a few more beads, then called it done.

I didn't get this post written sooner, because I have moved. We finally have a house again, so all my time has been spent in unpacking, taking care of my family, and working. My new studio is about halfway unpacked. Once I get that done I'll share some pictures and I'll be able to get started on a new project.
Until then I'll probably be pretty scarce online.
Have a great week,
Janelle

6 Comments

Starry Night

3/12/2016

4 Comments

It's been a while since I wrote here. Life has been full of selling our Michigan house, looking for an Alaska house, working at my part time job, being sick, and just general life stuff.

I'm back now being creative. I have a challenge quilt due for the guild here in early April, so I decided to started working on it.

The theme for this small quilt is trees. I was inspired by an early morning scene that was breathtaking. I love the landscape here and all the inspiration that comes from the beauty.

This quilt is still in progress and I haven't decided on a name yet, but that will come in time. I painted the scene on a piece of cotton with textile paints after sketching the basic outline.

Sketch on cotton fabric.

Color samples

Painted sky

Painted trees

After I got the background painted, I added blue tulle to the quilt and stitched around the trees. It adds a bit of shimmer and depth to the sky. I also added the moon that's a combination of white fabric and iridescent cellophane.

Now I'm in the process of adding beads to the sky for stars. I also have plans for the trees. Since the theme of the quilt is trees, I want the trees to stand out. I'll post again when I have more done.

For now have a great weekend,
Janelle

4 Comments

Felt and Fish

1/22/2016

1 Comment

I have been working on a few small projects that I'm ready to share now.

I'm making a felted kindle cover, that isn't ready yet, but I made to cover too large on purpose. I'm using the extra pieces of felt to make a cuff bracelet and a couple small pictures. I have to cuff almost done. I just need to find my box of snaps so that I can finish it up.

I needle felted and wet felted wool roving, silk roving, and some sparkly Angelina fibers. For the cuff I sewed around the edges and added some decorative stitching too. I just love french knots. Next I will sew a couple snaps on the end so that it fits just right and it'll be ready to wear. The edges are wonky, just the way that I like them.

When I make some progress on the other pieces I will share them too.

I decided that I wanted to practice drawing and coloring a fish too.

I want to keep practicing these guys and using different types of paper, to get different effects with the watercolor markers. Salmon are a big deal here on the Kenai peninsula. It will be fun to make more of these pictures.

For those of you who love trees, snow and clouds I also have a couple of photos to share. Every time I go out I watch the landscape and the clouds and light. The light here is fascinating, so different from further south.

Have a wonderful weekend,
Janelle

1 Comment

Summer of Color Orange, Orange, Blue

7/15/2015

10 Comments

This is the last week for Summer of Color this year. If you want to see what everyone else has made this week go here.

It has been a lot of fun creating a small quilt for each of these challenges. I'll miss the activity and all the wonderful comments from so many of you. It has been a pretty busy summer for me so I haven't been able to comment on very many of the other artist's posts. Hopefully things will slow down a bit for me the rest of the summer and I can catch up with everyone. All the art posted has been very inspiring. I love seeing what everyone has done and all the other art forms being used.

Now onto my quilt for this week. I used fabric that I had already dyed for this one and used an improvisational piecing technique that involved sewing strips and then cutting them, and sewing them back together again. This time I sewed the top and free motion stitched words and loops for the quilting. It has been challenging to try and make abstract quilts using different techniques each week. Now I can go and use my favorite techniques in larger quilts.

It's not always easy to stitch words, but it is fun to do. I still need to get a matching marker and dot all the i's. The words need to be sewed continuously, so the dots get added later.

I hope that you enjoyed this quilt. I am still adding to my purple and yellow quilt, so I'll have to share that later when it is done.
Have a great summer.
Janelle

10 Comments

Summer of Color Green Green Pink

7/11/2015

10 Comments

This week the challenge colors are green, green, and pink. You can see all the details here, plus links to the other artists' pieces for the week.

I decided to make a confetti quilt this week. I started by taking three colors of my hand dyed fabric and cutting them into tiny pieces with my rotary cutter. I used a variety of scraps and some bigger pieces. Some to the fabric I used had fusible on it and some didn't.

I laid these fabrics out in a forest scene, put a layer of Misty Fuse over the top, and fused the pieces down to my base fabric. I had too much white space, so I painted over the Misty Fuse with more green. I used a green Meta Mica paint that works great on paper and fabric. After the paint was dry I put another layer of fusible down and fused the whole thing again.

I free motion stitched trees, foliage and pink flowers in the grass and I gave the trees pink flowers too. Everything blended together with all that green, so it was really hard to see what I was stitching, but it worked out okay anyway.

Next time I make a confetti quilt, I will use a broad color pallet and make a landscape.

I'll see you next week with another color challenge from Summer of Color.
Janelle

10 Comments

Summer of Color Red Red Metallic

7/5/2015

9 Comments

This week on summer of color we had to use red, red, plus a metallic. Go here to get a look at all the other amazing art. I didn't have any red fabric so I decided to dye some. I covered a piece of cotton with a lighter pink red. Then I added some fake writing over the top in both directions with a darker fire red. I use thickened dye that is the consistency of honey and a syringe with a thin needle point to do the writing. After that was cured and washed out I added a design in gold paint with a fine line bottle.

I quilted a pattern of rectangles and triangles and added some gold and red buttons for accents.

I love the fabric that I created and still have more of that. I will be using it again at some point. I like the tone on tone look and want to created more fabric like that again too.
Have a great week,
Janelle

9 Comments

Summer of Color Purple Purple Yellow

6/28/2015

12 Comments

This week the colors are purple, purple, yellow. If you want to see all the other art you can go here.

Last week I was prepping for a show and Saturday I was selling all day, so I had a very busy week. Therefore I didn't have time to add extra touches to my quilt this week. I'll keep working on it and show it later. Right now it is pretty plain. I like the extra touches that embellishments give a quilt and make it into art.

I used all fabrics that I dyed earlier this year. I like to have fabrics in a rainbow of colors ready for any project. The fabrics each have a tone on tone look because that is how I dye them. I use a low water immersion technique because it gives an interesting look with lighter and darker spots. I don't dye fabrics a solid color. I think that is uninteresting and if I want solids I get them from the fabric store.

Thank you for visiting and check back later to see what else I add to this quilt.
Janelle

12 Comments

Joyful Summer

6/23/2015

0 Comments

I wanted to share the new art quilt that I just finished with you all. "Joyful Summer" is a wholecloth quilt. I painted it, then thread sketched, quilted, hand stitched the tyvek centers, and then added the beads.

It is reminiscent of a warm summer day watching the sunflowers blow in the breeze.

"Joyful Summer" is 16 1/2" x 16". It is for sale for $162.50. I'll list all the new quilts on the website next week after the show this weekend.

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Summer of Color Pink Pink Orange

6/20/2015

25 Comments

Well I finally made it. It was a really busy week for me, so I couldn't start my quilt until the end of the week. I got it done before the deadline though, so I'm happy. You can see what everyone else created this week here.

The colors for the week were two pinks and and orange. I already had these colors in my stash of fabric that I have dyed, so that made it easier to finish.

I layered light pink, then orange, and on the top dark pink. I put all three fabrics on top of the batting and backing fabric. I free motion stitched a pattern in black thread. The black really helped the colors to pop. Then I cut away bits of the top two layers to reveal the other colors. Over time the edges will fray a bit more and look even better. I love the rough frayed edges and leave them that way in my work quite a bit. I don't like things to always be perfect. That fits right in with my style of art quilting. This is a wall hanging too, so it doesn't have to stand up to washing.

I finished the edges with a facing. I don't like to bind quilts, especially not these small ones. I will add a thread chain to hang it and it'll be ready for the wall. It is 7 1/2" x 10".