Image: sxc.hu

This year, their quilts and fiber art will spend some time at a library with a large display area.  So, Beth has been getting ready for several weeks.  Their highlight projects center around six challenge quilts, each designed by each member, then each contributing.

I’m sure Beth will post her finished project soon on her Meandering Threads blog.  However, here are some posts that describe a few of the quilts she made for the challenge.

Some New Pieces for the Fiber Divas Challenge

Anita’s Quilt

Carmen’s Challenge Quilt (This is my favorite of all the quilts Beth made for her quilting divas’ challenges.  It’s awesome!)

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Quilts for a Gallery Showing

I love browsing through photos from the shows and seeing the incredible mastery that the designers have with fabric.  They can take a humble bolt of fabric and turn it into a sculpture or a piece of art.

Not sure what I mean?

Check out these lush flowers from Colombian designer Leal Daccarett:

Aren’t those fabulous?  I can almost smell the peonies…

If you want to see some amazing embroidery, look at this outfit from Pakistani designer Deepak Perwani:

Unfortunately, I can’t post a high-res image, but trust me – the embroidery is flawless… and those shisha mirrors are not an easy feat!

Maheen Khan, also from Pakistan, showed more embroidered work:

The detailed gathers on the top are quite something as well.  The added fullness around the hem of the blouse is from dozens of little gores, stitched into the fabric.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I need to go brush up on some of my embroidery skills…

images: Zuma Press

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Fabric Artistry from Milan Fashion Week

“Color Harmony for Quilts – A Quilt Makers Guide to Exploring Color” by Weeks Ringle & Bill Kerr is a fantastic addition to the fiber artist’s bookshelf.  It’s not an instruction manual, more of a guide to using colors more effectively in your quilts, either art or traditional.

The book begins with a discussion of basic color concepts like the color wheel, how color affects our perceptions and even how to find inspiration in the real world.

The authors use traditional and modern quilt blocks in their discussions, with several examples in different colorways being shown.  They show how subtle changes in color can make a huge difference in the finished product.  Changing proportions, hue, value and even placement of color in blocks are all shown.

Group exercises for a critique group are also shared for each example.  They also created individual color exploration exercises if you prefer to work solo, or don’t belong to a guild or group.

The gallery section is absolutely inspiring, with quite a few quilts from master fiber artists.

image: Amazon (disclaimer – this is not an affiliate link, nor do I receive any compensation for sharing this book review)

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Favorite Books: Color Harmony for Quilts

For their latest 500 book, Lark Books wants hip, trendy and modern scarves – but with a twist…

They’re looking for upcycled scarves, scarves sewn from interesting thrifted materials – they want you to think outside the traditional “scarf” box.  Lark Books has emphasized modern and urbane for this one.

The book is focusing on sewn scarves for the beginner or intermediate stitcher.  They’re looking for cool scarves, but with a do-able how to for less experienced seamstresses.  The scarves can be the wearable kind, or strictly for home decor as well.

Want to take part?  Read the rules online here, and get sewing!  But you’d better hurry, because the call for entry closes on October 15th, 2009.

*Contest Alert* you can win a pair of Peace & Love earrings and a Peace & Love charm bracelet from Twisted Silver here!

image: Stock.xchg

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Call for Entry – 500 Scarves

Even though we have a rainbow of commercially-available fabrics in huge amounts, fiber artists continue to find new ways to use fibers.  Or to create their own mediums entirely.

Noreen found a great story about a woman in the UK who designed her own wedding dress.  This isn’t your standard wedding dress – it’s made from wool and fibers from the bride’s own sheep.

I’ve used wool to create my own felt and fusion papers before, but this is definitely a unique way to use wool!

Of course, if we’re talking about alternative fibers, I have to bring up this post that I wrote back in January.   It’s about designer Nancy Judd, who uses all kinds of amazing materials – like junk mail – to create one of a kind art garments.

There are fiber artists who work with all kinds of recycled or re-purposed materials.  And what about fusing layers of paper and cheesecloth together to make fabric?  You can always weave, stitch or knit your own fibers too.

The sky is the limit…

image: Stock.xchg

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Fun With Alternative Fibers

• Would you like to sew your own soft and cuddly t-shirt quilt, but aren’t quite sure how to deal with the issues of sewing stretchy fabric?  Here’s a great 5-part tutorial on transforming your own t-shirts into a quilt.
• Need a quick and easy way to add some more style to your dining room table?  Take some pretty fabric, add the inner roll from some plastic wrap, and voila – napkin rings!

• Turn the traditional lazy daisy stitch upside down and create a whole new flower with this how-to from Sublime Stitching.
• If you’re like me, you probably have more buttons than you could possibly ever use…  Why not transform them into a decorative pillow, rather than just letting them sit in jars?
• Check out what happens with fabric and technology collide – these amazing light fixtures are made out of a new type of non-woven polyester fabric.

Happy Crafting!

image: C Findlay-Harder

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Crafting Around the Web

Do you find all the different options confusing though?  Needle turn?  Raw edge?  Satin stitch?  What’s a fiber-aholic to do?

Each techique has it’s benefits (and disadvantages) and some of them work better for certain uses than others.  Is your project strictly art or for decorative use only?  Or is this something that’s going to get used well and washed frequently?

For instance, I’ve cut these cute little motifs out of another piece of fabric and want to applique them onto a baby quilt.  But let’s face it, it’s going to get grimy and need to be washed frequently.  For me, the best option is to fuse the motifs in place with your favorite fusible web and then satin stitch over the edges.

Machine satin stitching just means setting the zig zag stitch length to almost zero on your sewing machine.  You get a dense, wide stripe of stitching that does a great job of holding all those little raw edges in.

I frequently use raw-edge applique for my art quilts, but it’s certainly the most fragile method – and not one I’d use for something that’s going to see much time in the washing machine.  For raw-edge applique I either fuse the motif or just pin it in place and then straight stitch around the outside.  It gives a softer, more organic feel to the finished piece, which I quite like.

If you want a clean edge with no visible stitching, needle turn applique is your method.  Here’s a great step by step how-to for doing it yourself.

image: © C Findlay-Harder

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Applique Options

I’ve got two more photos to share today, and as long as today’s thunderstorm holds off – we’ll get to them!

I mentioned yesterday that one of my favorite creativity building exercises is to think about how I would interpret an image as fiber art.  What kind of fabric would I use?  Do I use mixed media or raw fiber elements?  How about machine or hand embroidery?

These leaves were covered in a soft down, making them almost look like velvet.  Which of course, makes me wonder how velvet or velveteen would work to make this into an art quilt.  Pile fabrics can sometimes take very soft dry brushing to add subtle layers of color – perfect for adding shading to the leaves.

I love the love bright color and sheer happiness of this flower!  I think that this would be a fun piece to make using strands of novelty yarn, couched or embroidered onto the surface.  I might even use metallic threads to enhance the bold nature of the flower.

images: © C Findlay-Harder

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Using Natural Texures In Fiber Art: Part 2

Of course, I can’t leave my camera at home and so I’ve got dozens of photos of lovely plants to use as inspiration.  I find that the “macro” image is the one that interests me the most, so I rarely seem to end up with the whole flower or plant in the frame.

One game I like to play is imagining how I would interpret the photo in fabric, mixed media and fiber.  In fact, I’d like to go through with you and share some of my thoughts on how I’d create a fiber art piece.

Take a look and see how you’d interpret the same image – and please leave a comment if you’d like to share

I love the heavily mottled leaves of these plants – I’d make this one out of hand-dyed fabric and then machine embroider the veins on.  Hand-painting the fabric could be a great challenge too – how about dripping a fluid fabric paint like Dy-Na-Flo to reproduce some of the splotches and mottled colors?

This shot is actually from underneath the plant, with the sun shining from above.  I’d like to try making this one from a single piece of green fabric, but then heavily machine-embroidering all the veins and ribs of the plant on.  As an alternative, I might try using a dry brush method of fabric painting (thicker paint, used sparingly with a dry brush) get the shading and the thicker ribs.

I’ll share more photos and techniques tomorrow!

images: © C Findlay-Harder

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Interpreting Natural Textures in Fabric

You are in for a treat!

The Urban Craft Uprising indie craft show happens this weekend, August 1st & 2nd 2nd at the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall.

As well as more than 100 talented vendors there are going to be fiber art workshops (as well as workshops on almost anything interesting and crafty that you can think of!)  Several authors will be in attendance, which means that you can pick up their latest book and get a signed copy.

You can check out their blog too – they’ve got vendor interviews and all kind of cool goodies online.

Urban Craft Uprising

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Urban Craft Uprising