Adding a label to Quilted Works of Art



Adding labels to my hand painted quilted pieces this week seemed like such an accomplishment. I would recommend it for your own original quilted pieces. This allows people to know at a glance who created the work. The type of fabric was really important for printing on. I used a smooth cotton with a high thread count and wrote on it with a permanent pigma pen. The labels were heat set with an iron for 15 seconds. I would suggest writing before cutting it to size,  then pressing in the edges and folding in half length wise for insertion under the binding.

I am labeled!

Quilting a mug rug (small placemat for cup and a treat).

Adding the warm hues from the apple in pieced strips.

Poppy Orange completed. Some free motion details were added in black thread to the hand painted poppy fabric.



'The Red Fox', mug rug, art piece or whatever else you would like to use a little quilted piece of art for.

 
July 12, 2014 what is called a 'super' moon occurred. http://globalnews.ca/news/1448177/supermoon-lights-up-sky-during-close-passage-to-earth/

The 'super' moon rising over the Skimmerhorn mountains in Creston, BC last night, July 12, 2014.

The Skimmerhorn Mountains (in autumn) just so you have an idea how tall and vertical those mountains are and why it took so long for the moon to rise over them.

Waiting for the 'super' moon to rise in a pagoda on the edge of a lovely Japanese styled garden. We waited and waited and waited, while people would call out throughout the evening, "The moon is coming up, it's getting lighter on the top of the mountain." Well at 11:20 the 'super' moon final rose over the Skimmerhorn Mountains. My photo does not due it justice but I can tell you it was well worth the wait.

Orange

 

Do we even know where our influences come from for our art work? I think this intense sky last week imprinted on my memory because today when I was selecting some of my hand painted fabrics, I found myself drawn to working with warm colours, particularly orange.

 

Auditioning orange printed fabrics with the poppy fabric. Below is the process I go through in choosing colours to accompany my hand painted fabrics. You may have your own way of choosing fabrics which allows for everyone's unique style in quilting.

 

A variety of orange prints seems appropriate but there are is not much contrast between them.

What if a white print were introduced? No I think it detracts from the painting.

What about a triad of the secondary colours: orange, green and purple? If there was purple in the painting, I think this would be a yes but without it in the painting, the purple looks out of place.

Auditioning greens

The brightest green wins. I liked the dark green too but with the oranges to the darker tones, the piece may become too dark for what I was trying to achieve. I may move the oranges a bit but I like the colour combination.



Since I've have the those coloured strips out, I thought to try them with some other painted pieces. I think this would work.

Adding a red to the oranges does not do much as the value of the red strip is the same as the two darker oranges on the right.

No this won't work together.

The free motion stitched fox is not complete but he looks good with the oranges, I think.

What would the addition of a complementary blue strip do? I think it draws more attention to the blue sky in the painting and is  a good contrast to all the red orange. The strip perhaps would look a bit better narrower so that the amount of blue in the strip and the painting are not equal.

 What process do you use in choosing coloured fabrics for your projects? Although I didn't need to use it today, I can highly recommend Joen Wolfrom's 3 in 1 Color Tool.  http://joenwolfrom.com/color-design-tools/.

Two Textile Commissions To Their New Homes

If you think this is a 'mug rug', you would be wrong!
Check out the last picture of this post to see what one lady commissioned.



Quilted 7 X 9" mat. One option for the commissioned piece.



Red! I must paint more reds is what I learnt from doing the following commission. That is such valuable information. Thank you. The new owner wrote: "I am blown away by these and cannot wait to frame them.. Thank you so much...Wow you did a perfect job. I love them".  That was lovely to hear!

Commission of three pieces of textile art: 'Red Art'. They will be framed and hung together.

 

New material ready for thread sketching and then making into??? What am I going to do with that orange, blue and brown piece (upper middle)? I'd be happy to hear some ideas.



This afternoon I pressed these 4 1/2" X 6 1/2" pieces of hand painted textiles onto interfacing in preparation for free motion stitching.

The buyer chose this piece for her commissioned 'Glasses Mat' (somewhere to rest glasses at night). The teal colour was chosen to match summer curtains. For contrast the golden yellow and red add warmth and interest. I'm glad she liked the red free motion stitching on the poppies.

We are enjoying lovely summer weather where I live and this is what is blooming in our yard right now. Yes cactus can grow in Canada!

Cloth, Paper, Water: 3 Friends, 3 Mediums

If you are in Creston, BC July or August 2014, be sure to check out the 'Cloth, Paper, Water' art show at the library for Art Walk.  I am pleased to be showing with two other artists Laura Leeder and Win Dinn. You can also check out Laura's work here http://www.lauraleeder.com/  and Win's work here http://windinnart.blogspot.ca/ 

 

 



Win Dinn, Val van der Poel, Laura Leeder hanging the work.

There usually is a bit of nervousness as you hang an art show, as least there is for me. Each artist busily works away, alone, in their studio painting for months and then the day of 'true' comes when you have to,  get to, share your creations with the world.  

 



Thank you Val van der Poel, organizer for the art shows at the Creston Valley Library. Thank you Val for coming out to help us hang the art show for Art Walk. Val is currently showing at the Creston Chamber of Commerce and you can see her work here.  http://mellowood.ca/art/index.html

 

My (Eileen Gidman) textile paintings on the left and Win Dinn's mixed media paintings on the right.

My (Eileen Gidman) 'Rhododendron' textile painting on the left and Laura Leeder's water colour paintings on the right.

Laura Leeder, Win Dinn and me, Eileen Gidman
'Tomatoes on Textile' by Eileen Gidman on the left
Mixed Media by Win Dinn in the middle
Water colour by Laura Leeder on the right

This is what you will see as you enter the library. Art show hanging challenges: not only is that wall orange, it is also curved! I am also in another venue in Creston, but that will be for another post.

It is always relieving to have the art show hanging behind you so you feel like you can take the time to do something else sometimes. I had the pleasure of hiking in a new place, 'Parker Pass' on the weekend. Yes, we were so high that there were patches of snow still and because of that the alpine flowers are just coming out! If anyone knows that name of that flower, could you put a comment or send me an email at egidman@kootenay.com Thanks.

Note the four shades of blue in those distant mountains

Alpine Flower

Canada Day: What from your country shows up in your art?

As Canada Day approaches, I started looking through the photos of my small textile pieces. Here are a few that represent what Canada means to me.

The most favorite textile card I've ever made.
This card reminds us of our constant challenge to balance nature with human inhabitation.

A bear and a cabin. Can't get much more Canadian than that.

Our beautiful wheat fields in contrast with our picturesque mountains.

Canadians like to grow things.

Maple leaves. We even have one on our national flag.

Our precious wetlands.

So many different wildflowers.

Often in Canadian gardens. Cheery.

Bees. We are thinking of them lately with their declining numbers. Very precious. Very needed.

Robins. We like our birds.
Creston, BC where I live, even has a festival for them.

Dragonflies. Well we like them too.

Iconic symbols of the prairies. Disappearing fast.



 What symbolizes Canada for you?

 

Gelli Plate Play On Fabric

I took a workshop 'Gelli It Up' at the College of the Rockies College of the Rockies, Creston, BC, Summer Series with Win Dinn http://windinnart.blogspot.ca/ this past weekend. It was an excellent, fun, well organized course which I would highly recommend.

 

The idea of mono-printing so appealed to me, that I put aside my beloved thickened dyes to work with fabric paint on textiles. I did have a lot of fun and below are few of my creations.  

Texture making tools and foam stamps by www.artfoamies.com

 I had the pleasure of trialing  several of these stamps from this excellent, Canadian company. The stamps were well used all weekend by participants of the workshop who were using acrylic paints and they stood up perfectly to frequent washing. I was printing on fabric (mostly) and the other participants were printing on paper  (mostly) and the stamps worked equally well on both.

 

The foam stamps are sturdy, and thick enough that marks are cut into the foam for additional detail. As I like birds, those are the ones I am trialing but this family run company has many more designs so be sure to check out their website. http://www.artfoamies.com/ Also, you can have them create a specific stamp for you. Love that idea! 

 



Texture was created on the gelli plate. Then I removed some paint by pressing a bird stamp into the paint. Next the fabric was laid over top and pressed into the plate thus transferring the design. Neat huh! I am definitely going to try more of this technique.

Using a similar technique as above, creating texture and stamping the egg stamp into the paint. Then I pressed a magazine page onto the gelli plate

After creating the background fabric piece, I over stamped it using the heron stamp. Wouldn't herons look great pink! Note I changed the angle of one of the bird's heads purposely for a little variety. This piece is ready for some free motion stitching don't you think.

Here, I am experimenting with placing Pebeo Setacolor fabric paint on to the Gelli plate using a bayer to create a thin layer, stamping to remove paint and then laying fabric on top to print the image. Also I stamped directly onto the fabric with the stamp. Notice the second ghost print of the dragonfly. I did this by stamping a second time before reloading with paint. Wouldn't these techniques make terrific one of a kind quilt blocks?

Stamping fabric paint onto printed material. Oh I can see some wonderful applications for this technique. We all have printed fabric we maybe aren't in love with anymore. Why not overprint with textile paint using foam stamps to create something we would sew with?

For this print I rolled acrylic black paint and Golden's GAC 900 textile medium onto the Gelli plate. Stamping onto the plate, I removed some of the paint. When I laid the fabric onto the plate, the negative space around the image was transferred. Fun!

My friend gave me this piece of eyelet, leftover from curtain making. Isn't there always a story to these stray pieces of fabric we have in our stashes. I created texture on the fabric by using a stencil on the gelli plate. When the piece was dry I over stamped it using a cadmium red acrylic paint mixed with textile medium. I don't know yet what I am going to do with this piece but it will be something, because I ADORE it. Let me know if you have some suggestions.