Buttons&Beads&Quilts!

“Circles of Black, Circles of White 7” – an art quilt in progress

My art quilt, “Circles of Black, Circles of White 7” is continuing right along. I try and put in 4-5 hours every night beading on a piece, which quilts it at the same time. At this point in the construction process, I am pretty much down to finishing off with sewing on the seed beads. There just isn’t anymore room for the the wealth of buttons, appliques, and larger beads that are left in shoe boxes on the sofa beside my sewing chair. To avoid one big majot clean-up, I’m trying to return some pieces each night back to their homes in my studio. That way, I won’t be swamped with cleaning up all at once when I’m finished with a piece, and will be more encouraged to cut out another. There are, however, still two more quilts half finished in this series, so I won’t lack for things to sew on this upcoming year.

As with all of my art quilts, there are always surprises as I move through to completing them. On the far right edge of the above photo, you can see the much lighter yellow of the mottled background that is the backing for the surface of this piece. However, as you can see, the piece wanted to be darker as I worked on it. The irregular edges of the orange blocks in that main piece of yellow fabric became much darker as I stitched the outline in with seeds beads as close to the color as I could find. Filling them in with bright yellow beads only added to making what had started out as a subtle yellow background into more of an orange one. (See far bottom left of the detail photo below as to what the original fabric looked like before beading.) Oh well! That was that the quilt wanted.

Detail of “Circles of Black, Circles of White 7” – art quilt in progress

In the detail pic to the left, that pale green square in the lower right of the overall composition also became darker as it was beaded. I left some of the original pale green fabric untouched (You can see it to the lower left of the central yellow flower in this photo..) I do like to leave some of the original fabric showing, so that people can get a sense of what was underneath all of that beading. You can also see in the lower right hand of this detail photo, as to why there’s not any more room for more buttons or larger embellishments, as it’s getting pretty crowded down there.

Detail of “Circles of Black, Circles of White 7” – art quilt in progress

In this detail photo, you can see one of the flower motifs that I chose for this quilt. It’s dark blue-black dotted print on a golden tan background. The fabric is a knit, which I don’t usually use, as it “crawls” all over the place as I try to cut it out. However, since the longest dimension is about 4″ (10 cm) across, and it was going to be heavily beaded into place anyway, I used it as its colors fit into what I was trying to accomplish with the overall composition.

The “Time of the Long Sew” continues, as there are many more hours left to be completed before this piece will be ready to trim and bind the edges. Most of the major color and composition decisions have been made, so it’s a matter now of filling in the areas with the extensive seed beading that I’m known for. I did find in Quilting Magazine’s on-line e-mag publication “In Stitches – Volume 6”, (you need to subscribe to this), a whole section of gloves and finger cots to save your hands. I think I’ll try out some of the ones that protect your fingers. I hate thimbles, and for me, the “Time of the Long Sew” translates as the “Time of the Raggedy Fingertips”!What trials and tribulations do you go through to create your work? Why not leave a comment as to your thoughts on this piece. Please take a minute, fill it out the form, and then share your ideas with the rest of us. We all grow when we share our thoughts and impressions, so why not join our growing community of those who appreciate art quilts and textile arts. We’d love to hear from you!You can see more of my art work on my web site at www.fiberfantasies.comTo find out how to buy my art work, please check out “How to Buy my Art Work” in the “Pages” section to the right of this blog.