Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Discharged leaf art quilts

      In my last post, I wrote I have to work at what I do. I always had strong visual ideas. I had no art in school until high school which was was rudimentary busy work. I had no art supplies. Initially, I did not go to art school (art ed) as I was discouraged by counselors forecasting looming layoffs in teaching (it did happen). I didn't get my graphic design degree until much later and my art ed certification and masters at 42. I struggled to learn fundamental art and design concepts and skills and college did not help. Back then, art at the SUNY schools was all about feeling and abstraction and therapy and making marks. There was disdain for techniques and color/values/composition-they said it had no soul. I had to learn on my own sketching, examining, taking workshops to what was close to where I wanted to go. One of the reasons I became an art teacher was to bring children a solid art program. 
     Art is my passion in creating and finishing. Process and product are not separate for me. When I am done with a project, I want to move on.

     Since last summer, I had a bunch of fabric that I discharged leaves. Real leaves were harmed in the making of the discharged fabric. I weighted them down with pennies and sprayed the bleach/water mixture over all kinds of blacks, dark greens and other solid colors. The black worked best, but I did use the green in two border strops. 
     Everytime I took the pieces out, I had no clue. Well, now I am forced to come up with some work for shows. I made two at once because when I stuck working on one, I go to the other.
     I have this hate relationship with fusibles. When I needed leaves, I cut freezer paper leaves out and wrappd the edges of the batiks to the back and used a glue stick and dry iron. I removed the paper and then used a blind stitch on my 70's Bernina with monofilament from YLI and an 11 needle to applique them onto the backgrounds. I made a lot more leaves than I used. The sketches I made were not what it ended up like. I don't like doing applique, but sometimes, you just need it.
In process figuring made fabric border

Finished top of art quilt, 24 x 24, but not quilted
The rectangle art quilt, 24 x 30
     The mess of fabrics from making these was put away, but then the landscape quilts fabrics have spilled over also (not seen).


10 comments:

A Left-Handed Quilter said...

Those are really pretty!! - ;))

Joyce Carter said...

Beautiful!!

Quiltdivajulie said...

Being me, I prefer the rectangle (squares are hard for me for some reason). I agree about appliqué - it is not my favorite by a long stretch. I am a piecer at heart.

Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson said...

They are both very nice. The applique does add a lot to them. Bleach can sometimes give you surprise colors. A friend of mine did 4 different black fabrics and the result was a different color on each of them.

Debbie said...

Very cool technique and results! Both projects look good but the rectangular one is superb! It caught my eye and held me there. Reading your story....I would say you have succeeded in your design work more than you know. Your talent may take work and effort but you have it innately in you.

Alycia~Quiltygirl said...

The leaves are very cool! Isn't it interesting how we were told one thing and it really did effect what we decided to do with our lives?

Madison said...

They are both amazing. Thanks for sharing!

Mystic Quilter said...

I think both are lovely and especially happy to see you have used gingko leaves in the rectangular piece, I love the shape of these.

Preeti said...

The orange leaves appear to be suspended in air casting the shadows below. Was this your initial intention or just a happy accident :-) It looks spectacular!!!

Cheryl's Teapots2Quilting said...

I think the cleaning up from a project is more work than making the project. Nice leaves.