Innholdsfortegnelse for Fall 2023 i Quilting Arts Magazine

MASTERFUL FIBER ARTISTS — whether they specialize in piecing, surface design, embroidery, or quilting—know the value of a strong design aesthetic. As an art quilter (and an art lover), I love taking a deep dive into the techniques and skills involved behind every piece of fiber art. Whether I’m standing in front of a length of cloth dyed with an intricate mandala design or an improv quilt pieced to perfection and quilted with expert precision, my response is pretty much the same. I marvel at the artists’ creativity, contemplate the dedication it took to hone their skills, and appreciate what they’ve created after years of patience, practice, and commitment. It is the combination of these qualities that leads to the beautiful work and breathtaking quilts made by the art quilting community.…

STITCHED JOURNEYS WITH BIRDS: INSPIRATION TO LET YOUR CREATIVITY TAKE FLIGHT MARTHA SIELMAN Soar along with Martha Sielman—multi-talented author, artist, and executive director of Studio Art Quilt Associates—as she explores our avian world with hundreds of exquisite examples of fiber art honoring birds. Some of the artwork easily flocks into a category—like bluebirds, puffins, birds of prey, shorebirds. In other examples, artists offer thoughtful advice, tips, and encouragement along with their bird quilts. Most of the artwork is representational, some a little abstract, and all inspiring! A truly global venture—artists from the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia, Egypt, Russia, and many more countries are represented—Stitched Journeys with Birds shares the freedom, inspiration, and beauty of the birds among us. $34.99 • schifferbooks.com DAMSEL, HERO, ARTIST, JUDGE: MEDITATIONS ON ARCHETYPES AND CREATIVITY…

in the Summer issue of QUILTING ARTS MAGAZINE, I showed you how to create exciting new work using printed fabric made from photographs of a previous piece of your artwork. Here I want to share some other creative ways to use digital tools to design new work. Experiment with photo apps Many of us have played around with photo-altering apps and generated interesting effects, but it can be tough to figure out how to transfer those digital designs into a piece of quilt art. Of course, one option is to simply print the digitally altered photo onto fabric using a print-on-demand company and then quilt it. However, if you want to use more traditional quilting approaches or take advantage of your existing stash of fabric, I’ll share some ways I’ve…

You invested in a longarm and are loving the quilts you are quilting. Your investment is not a one-trick pony, however—there’s more to it than just the quilting stitch. I am part of a special interest group of Studio Art Quilt Associates members who has been ‘pushing the envelope’ in what longarm machines can do. Members are experimenting with using this tool for thread sketching and thread painting, embellishments, appliqué, felting, and even fusing, piecing, and binding. Longarm machines can hold a blank background still and flat while you draw or thread sketch to create designs or combine multiple techniques to create one-of-a-kind fabric you can use for a wide variety of projects—art quilts, gifts, soft sculpture—all made from your uniquely created, artful fabric. Lately, I’ve been working on a…

Our Readers Respond! In the last issue, we asked our readers, “What’s New?” and to tell us about a particular technique they had learned from the pages of QUILTING ARTS MAGAZINE. It was a pretty ‘open’ question! Here are some thoughts from your fellow readers. We so appreciate hearing from you! Dear Quilting Arts, I was particularly drawn to the techniques that Catherine Redford presented in the Summer 2021 and Spring 2023 issues. She placed colored fabric under a veil of finely woven white cotton, added precise quilting by machine, and then embellished with hand embroidery stitches. I made a few small pieces using these techniques including “Veiled Red Bars.” To create this quilt, I placed red strips of fabric on white batting, covered them with a layer of white…

In my role as an art teacher, getting students to understand, use, and apply the elements of design was incorporated into every unit of study, from kindergarten through high school. These elements are the foundation of a visual arts education. They are a design framework for building any composition in any medium. There are six elements of design: Line, Shape, Color, Value, Texture, and Space. Art quilters should consider all of these elements when creating a composition in fabric. A seventh element—Form—is used in sculpture and other three-dimensional artwork. No single element of design is more important than another. A composition can focus heavily on one element and be equally successful as a piece of art which uses all six. One element can dominate a composition with other elements present.…

in the Summer issue of QUILTING ARTS MAGAZINE, I shared an advanced technique that I use often in my work to add images: Fractured Paper Lamination. In this issue, I continue to explore the technique and share how to collage the surface using images, masking tape, a screen or a Thermofax® screen, and a bit more. Paper collages are fun to explore. You can use color, texture, and images to make the paper lamination interesting. The use of screens and Thermofax screens, masking tape, and other tools add to the experimentation and exploration of this very versatile technique. One of the facets of this technique I like the most is you do not have to make a large paper lamination for it to be effective. You can use paper lamination…

The word ‘bridge’ is almost ubiquitous. It is used in phrases such as “water under the bridge” to indicate something that’s passed and has been dealt with or “don’t burn your bridges” as advice to always treat relationships well. “I’ve got a bridge to sell you” teasingly means you may have just said or done something naïve. A bridge can also span a gap or a barrier, evoking metaphors of understanding—or it’s a memorable structure erected to cross over a highway or body of water. We challenged our readers to create a 10" × 5" quilt interpreting the word ‘bridge,’ realistically or metaphorically. We hope you enjoy this gallery of artistry inspired by bridges—near, far, and in our hearts. Let’s Talk! JERRI PENNEY • WYLIE, TEXAS The corpus callosum connects…

Are you looking for a great gift idea? Do you have excess powdered dyes in your studio that you would like to use up? Try creating a collection of ice-dyed tea towels. Pure (100%) cotton tea towels are readily available from large retailers and online and have prefinished edges. All they need is some color. This project is easy enough for a beginner yet still exciting for the most experienced dyer. No tea towels at your fingertips? Use fat quarters of PFD fabric and create exciting, unique designs for your next art quilt project. DIRECTIONS These instructions are for dyeing a single tea towel. In my studio practice, I’ll dye up to a dozen towels at a time, each in its own colander that fits within a larger plastic container.…

the path to quilt judging for me was born out of a personal desire to improve myself. We’ve all heard the term lifelong learner—that’s me! Throughout my previous career as a firefighter, I often turned to education to keep myself top-of-game and prove that I belonged there, so I naturally did the same for quilting. I took course after course to build my quilting skills including a beginner sampler class with a teacher who also happened to be a quilt judge. She introduced me to the satisfying feeling of cutting and piecing fabrics with precision which expanded my skill set, improved my results, and boosted my confidence. She basically introduced me to the notion of ‘quilting with a certain degree of excellence.’ A decade into my quilting journey I had…

Karen Fricke is a quilt artist, specializing in Judaic ritual fiber art. She teaches classes and workshops, lectures to guilds, and works from her studio in her new home in New Jersey. She knows color theory can be useful when planting in the garden as well as designing in the studio—two of Karen’s favorite things to do, second only to playing with her grandchildren. karenfrickequilts.com For Beth Schillig, fabrics, threads, and sewing machines have always been a major part of life. After years as a sewing machine dealer and educator, she is now a full-time studio artist and enjoys exploring her creative side. She loves to combine her extensive sewing knowledge, free-motion quilting skills and one-of-a-kind hand-dyed fabrics to create unique quilted treasures. bethschillig.com Candice Phelan, Ph.D. is a board member…

Cloth in Common is a small group of international fiber artists. Members of the group enjoy working with themes that give them plenty of room for interpretation. Every other month, a new theme is presented and they have two months to complete each quilt. The prompt ‘Line’ was presented by Catherine McDonald, hoping her fellow members would find inspiration from the diversity of the term. She challenged them to interpret ‘line’ in a multitude of ways, and they delivered! Their nuanced work demonstrates their ability to work within limits as they expand the boundaries of creativity. Line Dancing KAROL KUSMAUL • 42" × 27 ½" • INVERNESS, FLORIDA A dance floor and a pair of whimsical dancers were fashioned from linear fabrics, mostly from shirts and skirts. Buttons, cuffs, collars,…

The value of a color is where it lands on the spectrum in between white—the lightest or highest value—and black—the darkest or lowest value. Sometimes, the actual color distracts the eye and our vision can’t focus on anything but the color, making it difficult to determine value. Removing the color and working only with gradations of gray make it easier to see the value more clearly. How to Find Color Value in Fabric • Cut squares of all the fabrics you are considering and glue them onto a piece of copy paper. Photocopy the fabrics in black-and-white. The result will show you the value of the colors, and you can arrange them lightest to darkest. • Use a red value-finding tool on any color of fabric except red. Arrange the…

We hope you have delighted in Ana Buzzalino’s deep dive into paper lamination and the versatility of this process for many fiber art and mixed-media projects. This article is the final installment of a three-part series that built from one to the next, sharing materials and basic processes/information along the way. Refer to Ana’s articles in the Spring and Summer issues of Quilting Arts Magazine (issues 117 and 118) for basic supplies and skill building: information on images to use for paper lamination and how to edit and enhance them, the type of paper to use to print the images on, the medium, the fabric, the basic technique for paper laminations, as well as screens and how to prepare them.…

Now that you’ve experienced our latest issue, isn’t it time for you to become part of QUILTING ARTS? What do you want to read—how about writing it yourself! Share your inspiring work, unique techniques, and new ideas with us and our readers. If you are teaching, blogging about, or exhibiting your art quilts, we want to hear from you! To submit, send us a short summary of your idea along with three images and we’ll get back to you within 12 weeks. Visit quiltingdaily.com/quilting-arts-magazine-submission-guidelines for our submissions guidelines. Questions? Email QAsubmissions@goldenpeakmedia.com.…

Available October 5, 2023! Join host Susan Brubaker Knapp for a fresh look at art quilting using state-of-the-art tools and innovative techniques. In this milestone 30th season, Susan is joined by a dozen talented artists who share their creative perspectives and demonstrate that art quilts have no limits. Visit QuiltingArts-TV.com for more information and ways to watch. Want more art quilting? Get the full season AND a yearly subscription to Quilting Arts Magazine for just $59.95—a savings of $19.99. For more information visit QuiltingArts-TV.com Thanks to our sponsors:…

When I die, I want to be buried with my sewing machine. It’s been such an integral part of my life it might as well be part of my death. If I really had my druthers, I’d like to be buried with my mother’s top-of-the line Singer treadle machine from the 1930s. That’s the machine of my girlhood. That’s the machine that I listened to every Christmas Eve as my mother frantically treadled away trying to finish the doll clothes that Santa would bring the next morning. That’s the machine that, once I coordinated the pushing up and down with my feet at the same time, I was pushing the cloth under the needle as my mother began to let me sew my own clothes. My goodness, I once even…