Fabric Art
I love fabric don't you? I love going through my stash and just looking and rubbing pieces of fabric that I really love.
A couple of weeks ago I decided to make a baby quilt for my newest granddaughter. I love the Chinese coin pattern and after looking at a bunch of blogs I decided to do that pattern. I actually have a queen size quilt that I made a long time ago with the pattern that I started hand quilting, got about 1/3 of the way finished. Every year I think about it and think I will drag it out and finish the quilting but I don't.
So after dragging my sewing machine out for the quilt I decided to try my hand at art quilting. I tell you "labels" can throw a girl off, read on for an explanation.
I've been reading books, reading blogs, reading magazine articles thinking there is just no way I can do this. Why? I don't know intimidation? Self doubt? Insecurities?
I kind of felt the same way I did when I first started in mixed media. I didn't want to post my atc's or anything on any groups because I thought my stuff might not stand up to everyone's standards of "art".
So while I am sitting at my machine sewing some pretty vintage hanky scraps down onto a base of vintage damask I have been saving ( for years from another project). I realize that I have done this before and that I have created in this " Art Quilting" style before.
I realized that even though my practice piece will never be on the cover of a magazine. Even though the color scheme or even the style may not be to everyone's liking. (This color scheme is way out there compared to my paper art. For some reason with some of my fabric stuff I leaned towards shabby chic.) That I can do this!
I realized that to overcome my self imposed fears of the label "Art Quilting" I just needed to sit down at my machine and do it. That the only way I was going to reach out beyond those fears and to leap out there into another art medium was to just do it. As I said earlier a LABEL can through a girl off.
Now will I ever complete an Art Quilt? I don't know. But what I do know is that for me to get past that self imposed blockade I had to sit down and do it.
So the moral to this story is.....just do it. Even if you think you can't just do it because it may just be another label that is standing in your way. Whether it is Art Quilting, Quilter, Mixed Media, Artist, Art Work, Painter, WHATEVER...... these are all just WORDS that are LABELS. Do not let them stand in your way!
So here is a picture of my little practice piece. I also wanted to try my hand at free motion quilting. I didn't finish quilting this piece. I ran out of bobbin thread but I was very happy with my first attempts at free motion quilting.
What am I going to do with this piece? I'm not sure. I have been wondering what would happen if I dipped it into a coffee or tea bath. That's one of the great things about experiments. You just have to do it to see what if......
A couple of weeks ago I decided to make a baby quilt for my newest granddaughter. I love the Chinese coin pattern and after looking at a bunch of blogs I decided to do that pattern. I actually have a queen size quilt that I made a long time ago with the pattern that I started hand quilting, got about 1/3 of the way finished. Every year I think about it and think I will drag it out and finish the quilting but I don't.
So after dragging my sewing machine out for the quilt I decided to try my hand at art quilting. I tell you "labels" can throw a girl off, read on for an explanation.
I've been reading books, reading blogs, reading magazine articles thinking there is just no way I can do this. Why? I don't know intimidation? Self doubt? Insecurities?
I kind of felt the same way I did when I first started in mixed media. I didn't want to post my atc's or anything on any groups because I thought my stuff might not stand up to everyone's standards of "art".
So while I am sitting at my machine sewing some pretty vintage hanky scraps down onto a base of vintage damask I have been saving ( for years from another project). I realize that I have done this before and that I have created in this " Art Quilting" style before.
I realized that even though my practice piece will never be on the cover of a magazine. Even though the color scheme or even the style may not be to everyone's liking. (This color scheme is way out there compared to my paper art. For some reason with some of my fabric stuff I leaned towards shabby chic.) That I can do this!
I realized that to overcome my self imposed fears of the label "Art Quilting" I just needed to sit down at my machine and do it. That the only way I was going to reach out beyond those fears and to leap out there into another art medium was to just do it. As I said earlier a LABEL can through a girl off.
Now will I ever complete an Art Quilt? I don't know. But what I do know is that for me to get past that self imposed blockade I had to sit down and do it.
So the moral to this story is.....just do it. Even if you think you can't just do it because it may just be another label that is standing in your way. Whether it is Art Quilting, Quilter, Mixed Media, Artist, Art Work, Painter, WHATEVER...... these are all just WORDS that are LABELS. Do not let them stand in your way!
So here is a picture of my little practice piece. I also wanted to try my hand at free motion quilting. I didn't finish quilting this piece. I ran out of bobbin thread but I was very happy with my first attempts at free motion quilting.
What am I going to do with this piece? I'm not sure. I have been wondering what would happen if I dipped it into a coffee or tea bath. That's one of the great things about experiments. You just have to do it to see what if......
Comments