Tag Archives: Art Quilts

Linda hearts fabric paper

Posted on by Linda Matthews
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Have I ever mentioned that I love to work with fabric paper? I think I might have once or twice.

Last week I introduced you to “Scraps”, a small art quilt where I quilted some fabric paper and used it as a background. This is another small art quilt – “Serenity” – where I’ve also used fabric paper as a background but with very different results.

Fabric Paper

This time instead of quilting the fabric paper, I added some surface texture by sewing some rows of decorative stitches, as well as some free motion bobbin work, before I hand painted it – the same technique as I used here. Once it was painted, I dry brushed over the top to highlight the stitched texture – a really nice effect!

Fabric Paper

And of course I love to print on unusual fabrics and surfaces, so the inkjet print on this art quilt is a black and white image printed onto a painted dryer sheet. I used a metallic copper fabric paint which worked really nicely with the dryer sheet texture and the black and white image.

Fabric Paper

I’ll be talking a lot more about fabric paper in the coming weeks because it’s the next upcoming online class, so I hope you don’t get too bored with the subject. If you are bored you can always check out my work using digital grounds – but you’re gonna find lots of fabric paper there as well. Sorry, there’s just no getting away from it!

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Things to do with scraps

Posted on by Linda Matthews
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As I mentioned the other day, my next online class is going to be all about fabric paper so I was recently going through some of my old art quilts looking for samples where I’ve used fabric paper, and rediscovered this cute little art quilt “Scraps”.

“Scraps” is about 18″ x 12″ and it was made from – well – scraps! – stuff that would normally end up in the rubbish bin. After teaching a surface design workshop one day, I ended up with a lovely pile of color coordinated bits and pieces. I guess I had nothing better to do the next day so I quickly made this art quilt from the leftover scraps.

Fabric Paper

The fabric paper (the main pink background) is made from my favorite muslin, tissue and cheesecloth recipe which I hand painted and added some free motion quilting using metallic thread to give it some additional texture, design and sparkle.

Fabric Paper

The pale green patches are made from hand painted and heat treated tyvek with some embellishment and stitching, and the appliques are made from foiled and painted brown paper. I added some hand stitching around the edges but as I recall, that was tough work. Tyvek isn’t that easy to hand sew.

Fabric Paper

To make the prairie points I used more of the brown paper fused to peltex with some machine wrapped cording to finsih the edges.

Fabric Paper

Then I sewed the center piece all together and mounted it onto a free motion quilted background. It’s had to believe all these bits and pieces were almost destined for the rubbish bin. Don’t you just *love* this little quilt?

Fabric Paper

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Dark forgotten places

Posted on by Linda Matthews
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SoliloquyThe things you uncover when you look in dark places you haven’t visited in years!

In this case it was a bunch of quilt blocks leftover from my art quilt “Soliloquy”. “Soliloquy” was the first art quilt I did where I fell in love with curved piecing. It’s also very heavily embellished. It took me 9 months to finish the beading alone. You can see a closeup in the photo gallery under “Art Quilts”.

But the blocks were the perfect size to make a 3-ring binder cover which I needed.

I’m not very good at making straight and perfectly square quilt blocks. I can do it, it’s just not my favorite thing. But I make excellent curved ones.

Fabric Ring Binder Cover

Fabric Ring Binder Cover

Ooops, I didn’t make the fold-overs the same size! I’m practicing “imperfection” these days.

Fabric Ring Binder Cover

I love using prairie points and this is a fun way to display a focus image.

Fabric Ring Binder Cover

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Getting Ready to be Titivated

Posted on by Linda Matthews
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Today I’m packing and getting ready to teach my Titivations workshop tomorrow. Here are some of the samples these lucky students will get to see close up and personal ….

Even though my students are part of an art doll group, the embellishing techniques they’ll learn can be applied to any sort of textile project – art quilts, art dolls, wearables.

This is one of my favorite art quilts – “In The Garden: Flowers”. This is one of a series of three art quilts embellished with soft edges using machine needlelace, and of course, lots of free motion embroidery and hand beading.

Art Quilt - In The Garden: Flowers

Art Quilt - In The Garden: Flowers

Another favorite is “Soliloquy”, heavily embellished with free motion quilting and beads.

Art Quilt - Soliloquy

Art Quilt - Soliloquy

And “Puddles”, also heavily embellished with hand stitching, beading, machine needlelace and three dimensional elements. The background was machine needle felted and I showed you some samples of machine needle felting yesterday.

Art Quilt - Puddles

Art Quilt - Puddles

And I’m also packing the kits. Whoo hoo! What fun!

In The Garden: Flowers

If you’re not able to join us tomorrow, you can still learn the fabulous techniques I’ll be teaching. They can be found on my Titivations DVD, or better yet, get a group together and book me live! Nothing like seeing it “for real”.

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