Taking Advice

I finished the art quilt I had been making my sister for our birthday. I plan on sending it to her soon(ish). It was not an easy quilt to make and so I had to ask for help. Originally my plan was  to make 8 1/2″ x 11″ mini quilt. I discussed the making of this mini quilt in a past post. I then asked people for suggestion to finish. That resulted in a friend asking why I was doing a chicken quilt! I will not make that mistake again.

STAGE ONE

 At the March meeting for the East Bay Modern Quilt Guild I presented my quilt and asked for help. Sharona, the owner of New Pieces,  help my piece up to many different fabrics (mostly dark) until I got a better idea what was missing. Another woman, Cara,  came up to me and made some suggestion as to the proportions of my quilt. Both women’s advice was tremendously helpful.

First challenge was the missing element. I decided the piece needed a metallic something, but what? Since I am not buying fabric this year I had to make it. Since the quilt is not going to be laundered my options were open. I took a bronze pigment stamp pad and began playing around with black fabric. All the stamps I did were too light. I eventually just pressed the pad directly on the fabric and really liked the result. I had my fabric! I also added a flower in the same manner that I had created the birds. The flower was another element of the tattoo that the piece was based on.

STAGE TWO

Next was how to incorporate my new fabric into the piece while keeping my proportions right. I had read about a woman who frames her quilts with another quilt (her name escapes me now, but her work is amazing!) and decided to try. I used my embellished black fabric and quilted it with an irregular vertical lines. I used black binding to finishe the background quilt. Using the proportions Cara suggested, the top was heavy so I would need to have more backgound at the bottom to keep the piece balanced, I  attached my art quilt to the frame quilt using fabric glue. I finished it with a hanging sleeve.

STAGE THREE AND DONE!

I hope this will hang proudly on her wall for years.