I’m not usually drawn to urban scenes.  I live so far out in the ‘burbs that it’s really sort of sub-suburban.  But Karen Stiehl Osborn’s Urban Landscape series just takes my breath away.

There’s a lot more to like on Karen’s site too.   I love here fabric “fragments”, her Autumn Traces series, and the series called Conversations with Myself.   Karen is one of the partners involved with the wonderful Collage Mania auctions.

Images: Karen Steihl Osborn

My daughter has become adept at taking interesting photos as inspiration for her quilting and fabric art.  Often these will be bits of bark, barn siding, flower segments, and other textural objects.

Then she incorporates them into many of her small quilts, utilizing a variety of techniques.

Image: sxc.hu

This photo of barn siding offers suggestions for textural ideas you may want to try.

Sometimes you might get ideas from a single photo.  Other times you can try combining a variety of close-ups.  Or you can vary the close photos with distant scenery to give you a fascinating combination.

My daughter, fiber artist Beth A. Mastin,  is forever using up her scraps for her quilting and fabric art projects.  For this quilt, she started with a blue background piece she had put together previously from strips of various shades of blue.

As she dug through one of her bags of scraps, she found other snips and pieces of fabric to create the rest.  The blue portion is postcard size, with a border around to enlarge it.

Printing, dyeing and painting your own fabric can be a lot of fun - here are my top 10 reasons why I like to create my own fabric

• You can make the exact fabric you need for a particular project.
• Even if it’s not the exact match - odds are good that you’ve still created a really cool piece of fabric!
• I’m a control freak.  If I can make it myself, I’m a happy camper
• You can transform an ugly piece of fabric into a usable one - paint, dye, bleach and more are great ways to “upcycle” fabric.
• It’s thrifty!  If you don’t have to go out and buy more fabric, you’ll save $$$ by using fabric from your stash.

image: C Findlay-Harder

• Why says you won’t use those high school color theory classes?  You’ll learn a lot about how color works by creating your own prints.
• You’re pretty much guaranteed that no one will have the exact fabric that you do.
• Worried about using a licensed print in a project for sale?  Making your own fabric prints ensures that you won’t have any copyright hassles.
• Want to use a particular kind of fabric in a project, but can’t match the color to the fabric type?  Dye it yourself!
• My final reason?  It’s just waaaay too much fun.

Sharon Fairclough says:

I would use the book for ideals for my end of the year t-shirt for my pre-k class were thinking about tie dye but this book probablly will have more ideals. Thanks for the giveaway

Well, that’s great, Sharon, because YOU’RE THE WINNER!!

Embellishing quilts, fabric art and mixed media has become very popular.  The artist might use simply a few items or can almost cover the piece in a technique called encrusted embellishing.

Image: sxc.hu

What types of embellishments are there?

1. Beads
2. Buttons
3. Charms
4. Scrapbook stickers
5. Handmade fabric buttons
6. Pieces of wood
7. Decorated CDs
8. Foil
9. Artificial flowers
10. Keys
11. Advertising buttons on pins
12. Postage stamps
13. Rubber stamping

Do you have any other interesting embellishments that you use? How do you use them?  What are your favorites?

I’d mainly thought of using buttons, bows and beads as decorative embellishments, scattered across a quilt or hanging, even a postcard, in light array. However, a major attraction in quilt art these days is heavily embellished or encrusted fabric art.

Image: sxc.hu

In these cases, the fabric may be patched or appliquéd. Or it might be a while cloth piece. These items, then, are heavily decorated with buttons, beads, bows, soda can rings, charms, keys, even small toys until no fabric is visible.

To become recognized in this field, the fabric/fiber artist usually develops a distinctive style or is noted for a particular type of embellishment. She may gravitate toward specific colors, use traditional or original designs, utilize certain types of buttons or beads. As you experiment with embellishing your art, you’ll gradually find your own style.

Frances Holliday Alford is one of the recognized experts in this field and her work is featured in the recent Quilting Arts Embellishments e-mail newsletter.

Aprons as fabric art! I hadn’t thought of placing aprons in this category.  I’d always considered them as utilitarian, sometimes as an accessory if frilly and fancy.  However, I  recently saw a program,  on a Quilting Arts DVD, that featured aprons throughout the decades.  Perhaps you’d call them wearable art.

Collecting aprons of the early 20th century seemed the focus here.  You also could make aprons using patterns from this era.  Embellishing the aprons is another art.

My mom, grandmother and aunt, as well as other ladies of their era always wore an apron over their dresses.  In those days, most women wore skirts and dresses for housework, so used an apron to keep their clothes clean.  Then there were fancier aprons for entertaining.

Until I saw the program, I really hadn’t given much thought to the styles of aprons over the years, yet I recognized those from my childhood.  Most of the earlier aprons, were full length.  Many from the 40s and 50s had evolved into waist  length and often were fancy and frilly for hostessing.

Also, the fabric of the aprons was typical of each era.  So aprons are good sources of vintage and period fabrics for other art projects.

My very first item of sewing, other than doll’s clothes, was a drawstring apron made from a feed sack.

Do you remember the aprons of your life?

image: flickr

Do you have a button collection for your youngsters to explore and show off their creativity?  This wouldn’t be your treasure of precious buttons or those you especially need for your own craft and fabric art projects.

Image: sxc.hu

The “Kids’ Stash” would be odds and ends of buttons you’ve collected, taken off old clothing, saved for mending and other utilitarian tasks.  These are great for youngsters to use for crafts and creativity(as long as they’re beyond the “putting everything into their mouth” stage of life).

My daughter became interested in buttons when I did dressmaking for a lady who was an avid button collector.  When Miss Ida realized Beth’s fascination, she gave Beth a jar of buttons that she didn’t need.  This certainly piqued Beth’s interest in button collecting and crafting.

So we:

• Made collages with button accents, gluing these on pictures Beth drew.
• Sewed buttons on heavy stock paper to make floral arrangements.
• Collected more buttons over the years

Beth now collects buttons and beads for her fabric art, using them as embellishments that add accents to whatever she’s doing.  Currently, Beth is sewing beads and small buttons to miniature felted quilts.

Beth also makes buttons from various materials for her fabric art.  Did her interest in buttons carry over from those days we visited Miss Ida?

Are you a button collector?  Do you have unique ways to use buttons in your art and share with your youngsters?

I have saved a number of my mother’s dresses, some dating back to her early marriage days (she and Father were married in 1934).  I recall her wearing two of them when I was a youngster.  Others are more recent, dresses worn before she was struck with Alzheimer’s.

The dresses carry memories of her and the occasions when she wore them.  I even have photos of Mother in several of them.

What should I do with them? I don’t have a place to display them, so have them stored away.

• Have some preserved?  I did have this done with her wedding dress, but it’s quite costly.
• Cut them and include in quilts, and hangings for family members?
• Remake them to wear myself?  Or for other family members?
• Save for dressing up at family gatherings when we share family stories?
• Take photos or them and display in an album with photos of Mother wearing them?  Include a swatch of the dress with the photos.
• Write about Mother and the occasions when she wore the dresses.  If there are photos, include them in the book or album.
• Research the dress fabric and styles and write about these?
• Take a photo of the dress fabric, print it from my computer onto fabric and make something with it?

What would you do? Preserve the dresses in some manner?  Or incorporate them into  fabric art projects?