I Am SO Over Summer and a Bit of Progress

This is my dogwood tree.

This is just ONE of my dead shrubs.

 

With temperatures in southern Indiana in the triple digits, I don't have much hope for the rest of my landscaping either. The corn crops have all but dried up completely, everyone has brown grass, there is a burn ban, and we are all trying to conserve as much water as possible. My daughter kept my poor potted plants alive while I was on vacation, but some are now (literally) "biting the dust." They just can't survive being baked for days on end. I'm trying to keep the birds fed and watered, but the water heats up VERY quickly. I need to change it several times a day to keep it cool enough for them to drink and bathe. The drought here is VERY serious.

Needless to say, we are all spending lots of time indoors. That gives me some time to work on hand quilting my current piece of work.

 

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A Give Away

I am a resident artist on a blog called "And Then We Set It On Fire." For the month of August, we have a give away. If you are interested, head on over to the post announcing the give away of Lisa Kerpoe's new book, Visual Texture on Fabric. Here is the link--...And Then We Set It On Fire. Hurry, you have to leave a comment before 8 am on July 31. Be sure to head back to the blog in August when Lisa will write a post for us. You also might enjoy following along during the technique of the month--fabric resist.

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Antioch Mosaics at the Baltimore Museum of Art

While I was at the Baltimore Museum of Art with some friends, we discovered the Antioch Mosaics in the atrium court. All I can say is, "WOW, these mosaics are fabulous!" TINY pieces of stone are arranged into magnificent works of art. These works were made in Turkey from the 2nd to the 6th century. Being a Leo, I was immediately drawn to this particular piece called The Striding Lion.

Below is a close up of a couple of sections. Here, you can see the tiny pieces used to create this piece.

Close up of the background and lion's head.

Close up of the peacock in the corner of The Striding Lion mosaic.

I have visions of new quilts using tiny pieces of fabric. Surprisingly, I really like the muted palette of colors in the mosaics. I say "surprisingly" because I generally use a much more bold color scheme.

Some of the mosaics reminded me of traditional quilt patterns.

Many traditional quilt borders are very similar to the borders used in these mosaics.

If you would like to read more about the exhibit at the museum, check out this link--Baltimore Museum of Art. If you like to know more about the Antioch Mosaics in general click this link--Antioch Mosaics.

 

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Great Design at the Baltimore Museum of Art

My husband and I are visiting friends in Baltimore. Our initial plans included lots of outdoor activities; however, Mother Nature decided not to cooperate. The excessive heat (106 degrees) today forced us into indoor activities. I didn't mind; I got to go to an art museum! Of course, I forgot my camera, so I had to use the camera on my phone. I apologize up front for the picture quality (although I didn't think they were "horrible").

 

My favorite artist is Kandinsky, so I was anxious to hit the modern art area of the museum. As luck would have it, the modern art and contemporary art exhibits were closed. I only got to see one Kandinsky, and it was not one of my favorite pieces. As a matter of fact, some of the shapes in the piece reminded me of sperm! Anyone else?

While on the search for any modern art I could find, I discovered an artist whose work I really enjoyed. Charles H. Walther is from Baltimore. I loved this piece called Reversible Composition, 1937-1938.

I like the colors and geometric nature of this work--the same things I usually like about Kandinsky's work. I'm definitely going to have to do some art quilts inspired by pieces like this.

One more modern art piece caught my eye--The Blue Disc, 1920, by French artist Fernand Leger. Again, I'm drawn to these colors and shapes.

My next post will be about the BMA's collection of Antioch mosaics (the result of its participation in excavations of an ancient city, known today as Antakya in southeastern Turkey, near the border of Syria). These pieces are FABULOUS. I'm DEFINITELY planning some pieces of art based on these.

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Making Progress

I have been working on my latest art quilt in my bias strip series. You can see the beginning of this work and where I want to go with it here on the And Then We Set It On Fire blog. Yesterday, I had a "stitching" at my house and worked on putting the two pieces together. First, here they are separately...

PIECE 1 (24" X 39")

PIECE 2 (16" X 18")

First, I taped together pieces of paper until I got a piece approximately 24" X 39" (the size of my orange piece). I then played with some shapes on the page until I was pretty satisfied with how it looked.

There is a line or two that shouldn't be here, but (in general) it shows the shapes I want to work with. You can see I have numbered the shapes. I drew these shapes onto freezer paper to make templates. I had previously put the blue piece (Piece 2) on my copier and made several copies of that design. I lightly ironed the freezer paper templates to the blue paper copies and cut them out. After removing the freezer paper (and reserving it to use when I need to actually cut shapes out of the blue cloth), I could play with the shapes and get a feel for what they would look like on the orange piece without actually cutting into the sewn blue piece.

Next, I pinned the blue paper shapes onto the orange piece while it was on my design wall.

I then pinned bias strips onto the piece to "cage" the blue paper shapes.

I think the bias strips make the whole piece pop! However, I really wasn't satisfied with the "heavy" piece at the bottom, so I revised. This is what it looks like now.

I like it better, but I'm thinking about adding a piece to the "empty" bias strip at the top right. As you can see (if you look closely at the shape on the lower right), I haven't made enough bias strips yet; so that has to be done too. Since I haven't cut into my pieced blue cloth yet, there is still room for lots more play. I may just try some improvisational placement of the bias strips and "cages" and see what happens with that. I'll post again, when I have that done.

What do you think?

Tutorial--Making and Adding a Sleeve

Many times you will need a hanging sleeve for your quilt. I use the following method for making my sleeve.

If you are not entering your quilt in a contest, the size you make your hanging sleeve will depend on the width of your hanging rod. Usually, cutting a strip of fabric six to ten inches wide will work. (Contests often specify how large the finished size this sleeve needs to be. If the contest specifies that the sleeve needs to be 4 inches, you would cut your fabric 9 inches wide. This is how you would do the figuring..double the size of the sleeve and add one inch. 4" X 2=8" + 1"=9").

I usually cut my sleeve 1/2" shorter than the finished width of the quilt. (If my quilt measures 12" wide and I want a 4" finished sleeve, I cut my fabric 9" (see above) X 11 1/2" (12" - 1/2"=11 1/2").

First, I measure the quilt.

Once I've determined the width and length of the sleeve, these are the steps I follow.

1.  Cut the fabric the width and length you have previously determined. (Again, if your quilt measures 12" wide and you are making a 4" finished sleeve, cut your sleeve fabric 9" wide (see above) by 11 1/2" long.)

2.  Turn under 1/4" at each short end. Press.

3.  Turn under another 1/4" and press. Stitch this down using a running stitch on your machine.

4.  Fold the strip in half lengthwise with WRONG sides together and long edges even.

5.  Using a 1/2" seam allowance, stitch down the length of the hanging sleeve along the raw edge. (Don't press yet.)

6.  Next, I add an 1/8"-1/4" pleat. This adds a little give to the sleeve so the hanging rod doesn't put too much strain on the quilt. It also makes the sleeve adjustable (expandable to fit a thicker hanging rod). To stitch the pleat, position the sleeve with the raw edges to your left and the folded edge on your right. Use a basting stitch to stitch 1/8" to 1/4" from the edge of the fold.

7.  Now press the seam open. Center it on the "tube" you have created. Press the tube.

8.  Now position the sleeve approximately 1/2" from the top of your quilt leaving approximately the same margins on both sides.

9.  Pin the sleeve to the quilt positioning the pleat so it lies away from the quilt and it is along the middle of the sleeve. The seam (you pressed open) should be against the quilt backing.

10.  Blind stitch (by hand) the sleeve to the quilt being careful that your stitches do not go through to the front of the quilt. Stitch the top, bottom, and sides of the sleeve. (Be sure not to sew the sleeve ends shut!) Remove the basting stitches from the pleat. (If your quilt hasn't been made for a show and you choose to use a narrow hanging rod to hang the quilt, the pleat doesn't even have to be removed. If you decide later to use a stronger, thicker hanging rod, you can release the pleat (by removing the basting stitches) to create a larger space for the rod.)

 

You can see that you have a little extra room for the slat/rod you will use to hang the quilt.

 

I hope you find this tutorial to be of help to you when you are making a sleeve.