Thrift Shop Commando: Art with Fabric Blog Hop and the George quilt

Tuesday, October 10, 2017

Art with Fabric Blog Hop and the George quilt

Quilt compo ala Mother Earth o/k/a George - my latest creation. This is not a traditional quilt, traditional materials but not traditional method.

(George quilt in the wild)
So glad I was able to join in with the Art with Fabric Blog Hop. When Alida (the blog hop hostess) asked if I had a name for my quilt, I admitted I hadn't given it one. "George" seemed good enough. Like how they name hurricanes, maybe I should give my quilts first names.

Alida describes the hop where "artists can pick can pick an inspiration piece that shows a landscape, plants and flowers, animals, the universe or humans" to interpret the theme of Mother Earth.

I knew exactly which publication I wanted to pick for my artwork inspiration - Movements in Modern Art, Abstract Art, (date of publication unknown, best guess from the 1960s).

I chose earth tone fabrics and freestyle patchwork pieced. I didn't want to pieces to match up exactly to better represent the image above. When I say freestyle patchwork, my process is to sew together pieces cut somewhat to length and then true them up square them off (whichever term you prefer) after assembly.

On the backing, I had a vintage piece of what I believe to be Western men's shirt fabric and then it just took off from there. I think it just hollers "country western." I should learn my lesson on working with fabric that is not a true stiff cotton. The majority of the backing fabric slipped around and skewed to one side. (I promised myself I wouldn't point out my mistakes ...)

I would have liked to have done a closer representation of the art piece with the fabric but time constraints meant I barely made the deadline binding the quilt.

This will be a gift to a co-worker. State buildings don't allow personal heaters so we use lap blankets to keep warm. It is a hassle to get medical approval for that kind of device. I kinda got carried away when I was translating this piece to fabric. When I made the decision to do 6-1/2" panels, the size just exploded.

Improvements I have made to my technique to produce more professional looking results:

I bury my thread. When I am quilting and either the bobbin thread runs out or I have to stop for some reason, I will pull those loose threads into the quilt sandwich.

For this project, it was the first time I used a spray fabric stabilizer on the top and backing. I know others recommend starch but I thought it would be too stiff. The stabilizer did help working with the fabric. I might try the spray starch.

When I start a row of quilting, I quilt about a 1/2 inch into the backing/batting. When you are binding the quilt, it finishes off the stitching on the back.

Someday I hope to be able to tap into the wisdom of guild members, but for now rouge quilter is on her own.

Listed below is the Fall 2017 schedule for the blog hop: