Art Quilting 101 Tutorial - Layering The Background

Hello everyone!  This is part 1 of my Art Quilting 101 Tutorial.  In this post, I will show you how to layer the background.  Please keep in mind that this is only one way of making an art quilt.  The possibilities are endless but for anyone who would like to try Art Quilting and has no clue where to begin, this tutorial should help you.

For beginners, it's best to start with a theme and color scheme.  Choose a vintage photo either on paper or on fabric.  I printed my little girl on fabric and then chose elements that coordinated with the photo colors:



Cut a piece of muslin about 4 inches larger than you want to your Art Quilt to be.
Choose some old music paper, or papers with writing on it.  You don't have to use vintage papers.  Lot's of vintage looking papers can be found in craft and hobby stores.

At this point, you'll want to pick a couple of small pieces of fabric and lace.

The next step is to start arranging the basic pieces that you started with:



Play and have fun!  You'll be re-arranging them several times before you're ready to sew.



You're going to want to cover the muslin with fabrics and papers and lace.  Torn edges on paper and fabric look great!  Very vintage!!!  And don't be afraid to bunch up some light weight fabric like gauze or cheesecloth!

Keep arranging your elements until you're pleased with it and then decide where you want your vintage image.  But you're not going to sew that on at this point.  Put the image to side for now:



You can add some fuzzy yarns or threads now.  I just kind of swirl the threads around.  It adds movement to the project.

Once you're happy with the arrangement of fabrics, papers and fibers, you'll need to cut a piece of tulle or netting slightly larger than your muslin.  Don't worry if it's not perfect!!!  Just cut your tulle and gently lay it on top of your project.  This creates a "sandwich".

Pin the tulle down around the edges of edges to hold the "sandwich" together.  Now you can take it over to your sewing machine:



You can use any thread that you like.  For light colored projects, I use white or a soft color that blends in with the background or try some metallic gold if you're comfortable with that.

You're going to be top stitching all the layers together.  Start at an edge and sew in circles all over the quilt.  Make swirly patterns.  Just free sew in circles and have fun!  It's a blast!!!!  You want to make sure that everything is sewn down well but you don't have to get too insane with it.  When you think you've covered it all, check the back.  It's easier to see where your sewing is from the back.  If you feel you need to sew on it more, go ahead.

It's best to set you're stitch size to longest setting.  You don't need tiny little stitches.  I feel that longer stitches look better.



When you're done with the sewing (be sure to remove your pins), you can the image.  You'll just want to top stitch this down close to the edges:



Now you're ready for embellishing!!!  I had a small ladies glove in my stash so I'll be using it on this quilt.



So that's Part 1!  If you have questions, please email me or leave a comment for me here.  Just play with your stash for now and have a good time doing it.  There are no rules or limits.  It's up to you what you want to do with it.

Part 2 will be on how and what to embellish with.  I'll let you know a few days in advance of posting.  It'll be sometime next week.

Flea Market Finds of the Week!

Scott and I went to the Elkhorn Wisconsin Flea Market & Antique Show on Sunday.  My goodness!  The show is huge to begin with and this time, it was even bigger than normal!  It took us hours to walk the show but we had such a great time!  It was jam packed with shoppers too.  I don't think I've ever seen that many people there.

It was a lovely day.  Sunny, warm with a bit of a breeze.  I didn't want to leave but I was out of steam by the time we saw everything.  And honestly, I'm not even sure we saw everything!

Anyway, here are some of my treasures from the show.  First, some vintage trims:



Ya'll know I can't pass by anything that has sequins on it!  I'm really not a flashy person.  My home is very soft in color, very cottage style, lots of pastels and lots of pink.  Oh, but give me the glitter!!!  Except for my CQ purses, I really don't dress flashy.  Lady like I would say but not flashy.

Anyway, my find was a bag full of vintage beads:



I only paid $3.00 for all of these!

My next find was a few vintage patterns:



Nothing all that grand but fun to have in my collection.

I don't have photos of everything yet.  I picked up a huge 1 GAL. bag full of small doilies.  There must be 50 in there!  I washed them but still have to iron them.

I also bought a couple of antique tea cups.  I won't go into the story but basically, a freak act of nature brought my small vintage tea cup collection to shards.  My sweet sister Kathi replaced one for me.  That one wasn't actually old, but she bought it for me years ago.  It's a Royal Dalton teacup & saucer for the month of December, which you know is my birth month.  Kathi was able to replace it for me.  She also picked up another pretty teacup & saucer for me.  It has a cottage on it.  She knows I love cottage anything!  Well, then Scott bought me one and I bought one.  Will share when all is back to normal.

In the meantime, I mentioned last week that my sister has joined mom & I and is the new artist at Kitty & Me Designs.  She makes beautiful jewelry, does crocheting and felting.  Lovely things!  It quiets her head when she gets home from work.  Here are a couple pairs of her earrings:





Aren't they pretty?  I have several more pairs of her beautiful earrings to list in the shop as soon as I have time.  And be sure to stop back to see her Fuzzy Fun Flip-Flops!  They are just too flipping cute!

My final photo of the day is my Edwardian Lady Mixed Media Art Quilt:



It's done except for the quilt tag which I'll do tomorrow.  The mint green hankie at the top left is one of my Flea Market finds from the weekend.  The pendent watch belonged to my grandmother.  Needless to say, this one will not be available for purchase.  But there are more to come!

And speaking of Art Quilting, I'll post the first installment of my Art Quilting 101 Tutorial tomorrow.  Be sure to stop by for that.  If nothing else, you'll get to see my next Art Quilt project!

Have a great evening everyone!

Art Quilting 101 Tutorial - Supply List

 

Since I'll be starting to post my Art Quilting 101 tutorial next week, I thought I would take a few moments to give you a supply list and a few suggestions for embellishments.

SUPPLY LIST

Muslin (about 3 inches larger than you want your finished art quilt to be)
Sewing thread
Beading thread
Embroidery threads in your choice of colors
A variety of different fabrics (small pieces)
Lace (optional)
Tulle or netting (any soft pastel color but white)
Vintage ephemara (either on fabric or paper)
A variety of beads
Sewing Machine
Hot Glue Gun
Cotton Low Loft Quilt Batting

EMBELLISHMENT SUGGESTIONS

Sequins
Trims
Lace Appliques
Glitter (you'll need Aleene's Clear Tacky Glue & a small paint brush)
Small craft birds or butterlflies
Fancy yarns
Buttons
Ribbons
Charms
Small fabric or silk flowers & leaves
Yo-Yo circles or hearts
Jewelry pieces
Feathers

These are just suggestions.  Try to use what you have in your stash.

I find that it's best to choose a theme and then work the color scheme from there.  This is your project and there are no limits to what you can do with it or put on it.  It is similar to Crazy Quilting but with even more freedom!  Remember, this is MIXED MEDIA.  You can put what you want on it!!!

SUGGESTIONS FOR A HANGER

Tree branches
Knitting Needles
Dowel Rod
Yard Stick

Let your imagination come up with something.  You may want to wait on this until you get your project going.  It's up to you.  For nature themes, the tree branches work well.  For sewing themes, old knitting needles are great!

If I think of other things, I'll add to the list.  This is a fun project and I'd love everyone to have a really great time with it and to come away with a lovely art quilt and a sweet sense of freedom.  There's no time frame or anything like that.  It's just for fun.

This is a very basic way of doing art quilting.  There are other ways which I'll share down the road but for now, I thought this would help stitcher's get started.  As with Crazy Quilting, it can feel intimidating at first.  Where do you start?  What do you do?  What do I put on it?  We're going to break it down into manageable layers.

So gather your supplies and we'll get started next week!

Mixed Media Art Quilts

I am so into these Art Quilts!  How freeing they are!!!  I spent yesterday sewing up a few ground pieces to stitch and glue and glitter and do whatever else I come up with to!  There's just no limit to what you can put on them.  If it can sewed, glued or wired on, by all means, have a ball!

As I mentioned yesterday, I'm working on an Art Quilt 101 tutorial which I expect to start posting next week.  It will be just one way of doing them.  A simple (get started) tutorial.  Gather your do-dads and fabrics and threads and whatever and get ready to have fun with that!

In the meantime, I just added Spring Song & Teatime Kittens to my Etsy shop:





They are signed and dated on the back and the quilt tags are removable.  I've just pinned them on using a hatpin!  It's so much fun to use unexpected things on these!

Early this morning, I started on this quilt, An Edwardian Lady:



Isn't she pretty?  I've used this image several times.  I just think she has the prettiest face!  Anyway, I just finished dying that vintage glove.  It was white but way too stark for this project so I dyed it with Rit Dye.  I don't use tea or coffee to dye anything!  Both have acid in them which as we all know, is not good for fabric or paper or old lace and so on.  Just use Rit dye.  It's available at WalMart in a zillion different colors!

I'll be heading out to play with this quilt a bit more before I have to make dinner.  I also picked up the new Bliss Victoria magazine and the new Jewelry Affair magazine by Somerset Studio.  I think I'll sit in my tub later and enjoy paging through those lovely books!

QUICK EDIT:  Because my brain is still not functioning normally!  If you want to try working with my Art Quilt tutorial next week, you'll need some tulle or netting.  Any light color that you like but not white.

Also, I've noticed that I have readers in all different parts of the world so I added the Google Translater to my sidebar.  I also know that many people use an RSS Feed.  I don't but if you like to use a feed, I've added that to my sidebar as well.

1916 Redeye Singer Treadle Sewing Machine

I haven't anything to share today really.  I just finished layering several pieces for new art quilts.  I took photos and will be writing up a tutorial for my readers who would like to give it a try.

In the meantime, I know I have a few new readers here so I thought I would share pictures of my beautiful 1916 Singer Redeye Treadle Sewing Machine.  I bought this a few years back:

My sweet husband striped and refinished the cabinet for me.  He also cleaned up the machine before I took it to Bill (the sewing machine man) for a good inside cleaning.  Here's a close up of the machine:

 













I have my grandmother's Singer electric machine from the 50's too.  I use that one for finishing as it's more precise.  But this one, oh, this is my baby!!!  It folds down into the cabinet but I always leave it open.  It's so pretty to look at!

Well, I have an order to put together and then to get dinner ready.  Taco Salad tonight!

Be sure to stay tuned for my Art Quilt 101 tutorial.  I expect to get that going next week.