That’s a Wrap, Hollyhocks and Ladybugs

 

 

I’ve been working busily on my hollyhock quilt and now it’s finished. I’m a bit disappointed that it’s over, it was a really enjoyable project. I need to catch up on a few things and then officially start on my next commissioned quilt. I say “officially”, when in reality, I’ve been bouncing ideas around in my mind , long before today. I’ve done a few preliminary sketches, playing around with possibilities. I can already tell that I am going to find this an interesting project.

This red hollyhock art quilt was a commission. Commissions present an interesting challenge, I think it’s a beneficial to take a step back, and work on a theme that may not be your usual approach or subject matter. It might be stepping out of what has become your comfort zone.  For a commission to work, you need to translate it into your own interpretation of the subject. This was an easy quilt to capture my interest and spark my own enthusiasm.  It is a theme I enjoy working with. I love doing stylized flowers, and hollyhocks? Well goodness yes! That was a bit of a coincidence. My client loves hollyhocks, she even has their images on her business cards. When she received her quilt, I enclosed in the paperwork one of my older business cards, it also contained a wonderful image of hollyhocks . When this fact had first occurred to me, I had to  laugh, we were a good fit, my client and her artist.
I’ve posted some pictures of the progress along the way. Now it’s finished, here’s the finished red hollyhock quilt. It has it’s title now, “A Bug’s Eye View”. As I worked on the finishing touches,  my husband stood there looking at  the nearly finished quilt. He decided it needed a little bug in it. Humm…

It is a floral art quilt, I added a slightly contemporary spin, a little non traditional approach to a floral theme. I chose to give the flowers and stalks a disproportional profile. As my husband observed, this is how the large would appear, seen through the eyes of a tiny bug, dwarfed by it’s hugeness. I thought it might work, a cute little ladybug, that you would barely notice. But first, I needed to run the idea by Karen, the lovely lady who had commissioned the piece, how would she feel about this? She liked the idea and so my little ladybug became a part of this quilt. And that is how the red hollyhock art quilt came by it’s title “A Bug’s Eye View”.

You’ve seen the progression, here is the finished version. You may notice that the ladybug is missing, she truly was a last minute addition. I had already taken the final photos.

But after she was added into the picture, as I stared at the quilt, evaluating it, I realized that she was indispensable. She needed to be right where she is, looking up at the great big world from the ground, viewing a group of red hollyhocks.

 

I added texture to the leaves, they are not just visually dimensional, but have actual texture and dimension.

 

 

Closer view of quilting

 

 

 

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One of the thread painted hollyhocks

 

 

The Internet, A Shrinking World and Connecting With Hollyhock Lovers Everywhere!

This has been my month for hollyhocks. It began with a hollyhock art quilt. One of my customers, who owns a fabric art gallery purchased another art quilt from me. This is the 9th quilt for her.

She first found me through the internet.The quilt she chose this time was the hollyhock quilt, pictured above. I was delighted. This quilt was one of my favorites, and it was going to a woman who I Like, a very nice person.

However before it sold, it captured the attention of another person.

Exclamation Points and Wink Addictions, I’ve Finished My Hollyhock Art Quilt!!!!!-wink, wink!

What happened to the time lapse?

I haven’t posted any updates on my time-lapse/Hollyhock art quilt lately. The concept of  a “time lapse” art quilt, was following progress  at regular intervals. It’s been a busy month and I haven’t spent much time working on it.

Recently, after a week of daily proclamations made on my blog, that I was going to finish this quilt that very day! Yet with my continued dillying dallying,I embarrassed myself enough to get working on it in earnest.

All my self pressuring has paid off! I can announce with relief, I have finally finished it. 

An unrelated but hopefully amusing side point,

A small unrelated side point, I reread this post for editing and noticed that I’ve developed a sloppy writing habit. My use of exclamation marks, is on the excessive side. I’m easily excited and it’s hard to express excitement without exclamation marks, it’s addictive. It is  similar to the over use of air quotation marks, made with your fingers while saying, something like, “She “thinks” she’s so smart”. Another bad habit, less common, is  winking constantly. In the past, I had a problem with this.

My favorite aunt was a winker. She used it with enough restraint that it was fun, as if she was sharing a private joke with you. To an awkward  12 year old,my fun, outgoing aunt made me feel special I wanted to be fun and outgoing just like her, when I grew up. 

Years later out of the blue I winked at some one, just as my aunt might have done.I began to wink more,but as I found,it can get out of control. I started winking so much that it became involuntary.It popped up at the most inappropriate times. No one wants a wink after the death of a loved one,[“How are you doing?- wink” or “You have my condolences-wink”. The receiver of the wink must have questioned my sanity or wondered if I had an eye tick.! That said, I’ll try to restrain my explanation marks, just as I have promised to be briefer, sure I will..[wink wink].

My excitement is overflowing!! Having this off my mental “to do list”,which plagues me until I finish whatever I start is great.I love this quilt, it’s the pressure caused by the pressure to complete it that I didn’t enjoy. 

Winking and exclamation points aside, here is my finished fiber art quilt.

“ Holly hocks? Must Be Summer“.

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

 

 

 

 

 

Fast Foward

The hollyhocks are are coming right along, Here’s my progress report for my time lapse quilt for 2/16/2014. I’ll  give a few photos leading up to today’s progress., if anyone is just seeing this for the first time. It will make it a time lapse.

Start Date Jan 19 Fabric painted work begins

Jan 27

Feb. 2 2014

Feb 5

Feb 9

Progress 2/16/2014

I have finished most of flowers and and added the shading to the stocks. A few side views of the flowers and buds and a little more details and then I’ll be ready to quilt it.

Feb

hollyhocks 2/16/2014

If you would like to follow this series from it’s start here are the links that cover it

#1– http://asianartandquilts.com/2014/01/26/time-lapse-make-a-new-art-quilt/

#2- http://asianartandquilts.com/2014/01/26/time-lapse-make-a-new-art-quilt/

#3-http://asianartandquilts.com/2014/02/02/time-lapse-you-caner/

#4=http://asianartandquilts.com/2014/02/09/portland-or-jelly-bellied-cabin-fever/

Time Lapse, You Can Look Over My Shoulder

If you are following the progress of this art quilt in the making, I’m posting photos of its progression. This is a time-lapse of photos, following this piece of fiber art take shape and become a real piece of art. A few photos along the way, it is a mixed media work, so I used some non quilty methods. I paint the fabric, paint on the picture. i use fabric paint dyes, fabric markers whatever I need to get the look I am going for. Then in this case I will cover a great deal of that with the thread painting.

Last post I showed you the outcome of layers of color to get the depth. The stylized hollyhocks hadn’t assumed their final form, they needed thread painting to give them their last few touches of texture and detail.

I’ve completed one, that’s it. Ten more to go. Thread painting is labor intensive and takes time. Here is my one hollyhock with wee bit of the stock included that fell within the area of the hoop. Now ..on to the next ten.

Here it is at the painted stage. I made stylized flowers, very linear,

Time Lapse Art Quilt Progress check 1

I started this on Jan, 19

 

Today is Jan. 27th

Here’s where I am at. It may show, but a lot of work has been done.The hollyhocks and stocks have a lot more detail added. I’ll thread paint over most of them, so the real detail will be added then, Doesn’t it seem funny to paint a picture on fabric and then cover it up with thread painting? It adds depth, dimension and detail.

Very long tall stocks, hard to get them.

 

Spell check, silk painting & applique.!

Here’s my latest work in progress. It is utilizing the silk painting skills mentioned on my blog a few days ago.

A work in progress

As you can see, here’s one I’m still working on. I’ve obviously finished the silk painting. I’ve finished the appliqué  & thread painting on the hollyhocks,  now what?

The choice of “How am I going to quilt this? ” is pressing . The quilting design is always  a challenge  for me. Do I go traditional? With all those lovely feathers and so forth, which I love doing. Or should I go with a more contemporary style?

I’m leaning toward the contemporay on this one, but what? Any suggestions? I’m thinking at this point, a stylized hollyhock silhouette running  lengthwise on the side borders… [ FYI my spell check absolutely refused to give me the spelling for the word silhouette. I was off by that much. I must say, what good is spell check, if it won’t check the really hard words?  I think my spell check is appalled by my terrible spelling and is punishing me. I actually had to haul out a dictionary, yes an actual dictionary, and look it up-the horror!]

Oh, one more story on my notoriously bad spelling skills, while I’m on that subject.. I did an interview with the amazing Ann Brauer, titled “Ann Brauer’s contemporary quilts, soaring beyond tradition“. Soon after it posted, I get this very sweet email from Ann, that perhaps I might want to change my title from “quilts that sour” to “ quilts that soar“. [I must marvel at what a good humored person Ann is ].  Any way that’s how bad my spelling and typing skills are! I feel there needs to be some real efforts made to improve the spell check feature, for those of us who are genuinely spelling challenged. There are provisions for those with other disabilities, well yes, admittedly this is extremely minor when compared  to what huge challenges many face each day. But still, it really is inconvenient.

detail of the hollyhocks

Title?” Hollyhocks”, too boring?

I’ll post an after picture, when it’s done. In the meantime, any suggestions on quilting designs for those borders would be welcomed.

Barb-a spelling challenged individual, trying to write a blog? Whose brilliant idea was that? [well auh..mine actually]

Some progress on thread painting the floral quilt

Worked some more on the quilt in progress, thread painting the flowers. Not done, but it’s coming along. Here’s the progress since last post.   

so far so good

 

work in progress

I'm liking these Hollyhocks, wasn't sure about the color but it has grown on me.

 

   

  

That’s it for now. It;s always so strange to me when I make something and then look at it and say to myself; “Self I like this” . How does that happen? You draw a little bit, cut a bit, sew a bit and wowsers! Something pretty come out  of that. I’m always a little bit surprised by the process.   

Barb