Sunday, 7 March 2010

Art quilts

I've made my first mixed media art quilts recently for a swap I joined. I had planned to do one for quite some while but didn't get round get started.
I made the butterflies out of silk cocoon strippings and silk throwster's waste, I had them laying around for a long time, never quite sure what to do with them. I also worried about the mess factor but as it turned out it wasn't too bad, I didn't dye the computer screen red again... The throwster's waste fibres were a bit more tricky to use but resulted in some lovely thin ethereal paper perfect for floaty butterflies. I also got a chance to finally use the pellon sheets I have had for ages which I used as the batting. That way the art quilt has some weight and strength to itself. For the background I made a simple fabric paper and coloursprays. On it's own it looked rather autumny but once I had added everything together it looked as spring like as I had envisioned it. To round it all up I added a few lines of a poem by Heinrich Heine.

I'm really pleased on how they turned out, they are fairly similar with only minor differences, that way is was easy to send one away. The recipient sounded happy about her little quilt too. Hopefully it brightened her day while it's still gloomy outside most days.

2 comments:

  1. Cool stitching leading to the butterflies!

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  2. That is beautiful! I wish I had half your talent at mixing and making things!! xx - Jen

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