Color in quilts

I was thinking today..how I would love to just be able to cut out a bunch of shapes and achieve a perfect color combination. To some it just comes to natural but to others like me it takes thought process and still I am not satisfied. I was looking at Melody Johnson's blog today and I really admire how she is able to achieve such beautiful rich colors. This to me is one of the most important factors in an art quilt. When I first started quilting, I of course was given the basic 4 patch to complete where you could only use cotton thread! Then, I saw there really was more to quilting than making a bed quilt. It's wonderful how with art quilts we can be so inspired to be creative. Now, I really would like to get more of a grasp on appealing color combinations. At University, I studied accounting because I knew I could always get a job but I remember how I would just love studying art history. I find that it is an inspirational journey how I can look back and use some of this basis to admire other's work and hopefully tune it into my own.
I bought three books from Amazon.com recently. Of course the bad part of this is that I didn't look inside first! Stay away from the book "Beautifully Embellished Landscapes, this will most likely be a donation to my quilt guild. The one I really find inspiring above the other two is Lanscape in Contemporary Quilts. If you want to be inspired by great color combinations...look no further. Here is a picture...


Also, I finished up the final leaf series. The last card is made with silk fusion, some wool yarn and hand dyed fabrics. I am working on cutting out little fairies for the paper and fiber trade. I forgot how time consuming it is to cut these little buggers out!

Leaf and fabric

I thought about Terri's fabric some more and decided to add some more flowers and blue dragonflys. I tried foil and didn't like it. This was a difficult project because if I reck something I don't care if it's mine but when it's someone else's you want it to be the best it can be. I think this will be nice with some added embellishments into the next round which will be made into little boxes.



I also completed number 3 in the leaf series. I have one more left! Then, I am on to paper and fabric. I have these great little paper fairies that I want to incorporate into fabric. For this leaf postcard, I used painted MistyFuse as the backdrop. This was great because then the copper tissue leafs just stuck to it. The thing with the copper is that you have to be careful that everything sticks down or the copper then becomes wrinkled and old looking. I learned this the hard way when I took a postcard with copper flowers to my guild meeting and after everyone had seen it, I got it back and it looked awful..so I had to redo all the flowers.

I've finished the first round robin on the fabric for Terri. I've added lots of sparkle and some flowers and dragon flys. I didn't want to over do it on the stencils. I love all the sparkles that you can't quite see through the camera. Hope you like it Terri.

QA ATC

Here is an ATC, I created out of the challenge materials. Of course, I couldn't get all the materials into one ATC. If I get some time, I will also experiment with some of the other materials and make some more. I kept thinking Rome. Maybe, because I just got through with the mini-series Rome haha. So, I used a stamp and sewed it in with black thread. It's so difficult to work in ATC size when I am so used to postcard size.

BTW, I must say the Versacraft ink pad makes a great difference from some of the ink pads I tried in the past.

Mail Day!

I got some really great things in the mail today that I thought I would share. I received Terri's fabric. It really is beautiful. I am thinking I will add some shimmer to it or foil.


Also, I received this packet of silks from Heidi. I love all the bold colors.



And, lastly, Carol sent me these great circa WW2 paper flower sheets. Aren't they amazing? It is so interesting to know how old they are and to think about how they might have been used around this time.

Winter Theme

I've finished the winter theme from the Pattie Culea stamps. These are such great stamps. I think I'll trade out the fall and winter as part of the Inspiration trade we are having in the SurfaceDesign group.

QA mail

I received my package for Quilting Arts for being one of the first 30 responses to their blog. It's an interesting mix of materials and they would like us to create an ATC from this. I never really thought about using wallpaper before but this is one of the things I received. I believe another is a dyed coffee filter. To me this has a little bit of a Roman/Greek feel. So, maybe I'll play with this idea.



Also, I was playing in photoshop with Francoise's picture. I really like the "glowing edges". This would also be interesting to create.

Round Robin

I am participating in a round robin with Sue and Terri. Each of us will receive the others fabric and add to it. Then, we will embellish and create little boxes.

I received Sue's silk. Here is a picture of the before and after. I really wanted to keep all of Sue's colors and make some more deeper tones. But, dying has a mind of it's own. I wanted some of the green to stay but I am happy with the pinks/purples. I also added some stencil leaves. This was my first time working with stencils on fabric. I used some luminere powder and made the small mistake of putting it on a bit thick on a couple of leaves. Then, when I went to iron, it smeared a little bit. But, overall the leaves turned out good. Now, it is on to Terri. I am sure all three fabrics will be beautiful in the end.

Leaves

I have been experimenting with leaves for a swap on SurfaceDesign. There are so many different experiments that can go into the creation process. It's funny also ...how some of the most simple postcards can be the most beautiful. I really would like to experiment with the basic building blocks of shape and color. I think I might try this as an inspiration PC. I still have two more leaves and two more inspiration PC's to create.

The first leaf is done with a thin silk and hot water soluable fabric. I think if I do another in this concept I'll try some more "fall like" colors.

Playing around with ink and ink pads

I bought these great stamps by Patti Culea. But, they came unmounted which I thought would not be a problem. But, I really prefer stamps with mounts. I was experimenting with different ways to get a defined image on fabric. I came to the conclusion that Tsukinkeko makes the best ink for this. Here is an example stamped with a Tsukineko Versicraft pad. I didn't have a pad in black but I had some of their black ink. This is the best of what came out for the black. It was difficult to do without a mount as I found just using the black ink, I needed to have some pressure applied. I'll defer from showing all the mistakes!
Anyways, I am now going to invest in a black ink pad to make things easier.





Also, I emailed Patti and asked her what she uses. She states she uses Tsukineko Fabrico stamp pads or Jacquards Pearl EX stamp pads. And, she said she liked my question so she was going to do a mini tutorial on her blog... Woo Hoo!

Here is here blogsite...http://patticulea.typepad.com

So, what do you think is the best brown or black? Also, you can click on the pictures for greater detail.

Joanna

Flowers and Mermaids

I did a flower from a picture that Francoise had made which won our inspirational photo challenge. Francoise was kind enough to let me attempt to duplicate the beautiful picture. There are a few things I don't like about it. But overall, I am happy with the thread painting. It's funny...there is an art to knowing when to stop and when to add more. I showed my husband my mermaid picture and I can always count on an honest opinion from him...whether I like it or not. He gave me one of those..it's okay looks. So, I thought about it some more ...and added some more thread painting to the hair and background. With the flower picture, I added some pastels and to the background and wetted the fabric to blend the pastels..then it kind of bunched up a little in spots. Ah well, it's a learning process.