art quilt « Sue Andrus- My Quilted Gardens

Posts Tagged ‘art quilt’

First New Art Quilt of 2010

Saturday, January 23rd, 2010

I finally got the creative juices flowing a bit yesterday, and finished the first FFFC (Fast Friday Fabric Challenge) quilt I have attempted in a very long time. New challenges are posted on the 4th Friday of each month, with the idea of finishing a small art quilt by the following Saturday. I originally thought that this piece would be done before the next challenge was posted, but while double checking the rules for Challenge 40, I found that the next challenge had already been posted- yesterday was the 4th Friday of January- where has the month gone?

Cocoa Mix Box

For Challenge #40, we were to pay attention to product packaging and how the colors used affect your perception and buying decisions of the products, and then use the colors from a selected package in a quilt. The piece was to be a still life, and be mostly plants or flowers. I drink hot chocolate every morning, and used one of the boxes for my color palette. I immediately thought of my favorite cobalt blue glass bottles, and wanted to include a couple in my composition.

Photos of Blue Bottles Printed on Cotton Fabric

I am not great re-creating glass in fabric, so I decided to take photos of the glass and a spool of thread, and printed them onto fusible backed cotton fabric.

Group of Cobalt Blue Glass Bottles and Eye Wash Cup

Here is one of the photos I used to arrange on the page to print onto the fabric. I placed them on, and backed them white card stock to take the photo. I love the gold design on the perfume bottle- my favorite.

Ist Layout Idea

This was the first version of the layout. I hadn’t remembered that plants or flowers were to be a big part of the composition. The original thought was to use the thread spools and some chunks of chocolate around the bottles… Not too hard to change direction a bit…. the short bottle could be a vase, and I had thought of adding a white flower on the table anyway.

Second Layout Without Thread

OK, to keep with mostly plant theme, chocolate and thread spools are out, bottles and eye wash cup still in. I found some great silk leaves in the perfect shade of coppery brown found on the cocoa box to back the white silk flowers. I added a stem into the open top bottle, ready for flowers. The chocolate colored fabric I had picked out was used for the stems and small leaves needed.

More Progress

Here is what it looks like after flowers have been added, and stitching has been done. Most of the flower petals were stitched only down there centers, leaving them 3-dimensional.

Blue Bottles and Flowers

Here is the “finished” piece…. The more I look at it, I think I need to figure out a way to make the white lace show up better. The bottles look a bit dull to me, and I may add a bit of gloss medium over them….. The flower centers could use some beads. I guess I will have to hang it on the design wall for a while to see what happens.

Update- 1-27-10- Well, after looking at it for a few days, I decided to add some beads in the flowers. Below is the most recent photo.

Art Quilt Blue Bottles and Flowers by Sue Andrus, Andrus Gardens

Newest Version of Blue Bottles with Beads Added

Art Quilt Blue Bottles and Flowers by Sue Andrus, Detail, Andrus Gardens

Detail shot of Blue Bottles and Flowers

This last photo shows more detail. I even added a little gold butterfly resting at the base of the lower right flower.

Tags: art quilt, FFFC, process, sue andrus, wip, work in progress
Posted in FFFC Challenge Quilts, New Projects | 3 Comments »

After The Fair…. and New Beginnings

Tuesday, August 4th, 2009

I didn't get a chance to get to go to the Troy Fair last week to see in person how my things did. I did read in the newspaper about my first place ribbon for "Water Road House". It was judged, and placed first in mixed media! I also had a few surprises with my other entries. I was pleased to receive a number of blue ribbons along with a few red and one 3rd place. The biggest surprise was the quilt that received a Best in Show!!

Rose Door

I had expected that if any one of my quilts had a chance for the Best in Show, it would be my "Stained Glass and Ferns", mostly because it is my largest piece, and all the fabric used is my own painted and sunprints. It received a blue ribbon for first in it's class, and "Rose Door" at 14×17", took Best of Show!! I had to see the ribbon to believe it… Pretty Neat!! I am hoping that next year, there will be some categories my quilts will fit better… they are supposed to be making changes that will make entering easier, without guessing if my pieces will work here or there…..

On to the NEW work on the wall… That is if I can find space to work in… My studio keeps getting cluttered with things from other rooms, and a design wall that keeps hiding my ironing board when I least expect it.

Studio Clutter

I already don't have much room to move around in here, but while our bathroom is under construction, someone is always needing to get under the trailer…. The access door closest to the bathroom is the one behind my design wall, and the new foam wall I have been using gets moved in front of my ironing board, and someone (either Ken or son, Aaron) has to squeeze behind the plywood design wall and crawl through the very short door. When our grandson decides to follow his daddy under, there is more mud tracked onto my floor than usual… The good thing is that the bathroom is s l o w l y getting done! It now has very pale lavender walls, floor down, fixtures in and almost all hooked up! There may be hope!?! In the above photo, you can see the pieces I have been staring at for a while… I think I have a new idea to try with them…. Later…

Mountain Laurel and Ferns possible

Here is one of the pieces that I started while at QSDS. I am playing with adding more Mountain Laurel flowers, and will be printing up some other woodland flowers and more ferns to add to this. I am sure it will go through a number of changes before it is completed.

Now to find that ironing board again, and get some fabric ready for the printer….

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Tags: art quilt, works in progress
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Fair Week….

Monday, July 27th, 2009

This has been a very busy week and especially busy weekend. Tomorrow, the 134th Troy Fair officially begins in Troy, PA. It has been a few years since I entered anything in the competitions in the fair, because I was busy doing art and craft shows, and preferred to have my best work with me in the hopes it would sell. Now that I am not doing the shows, I decided to enter some things again.

Notebook set of 3

Diamond Black Blue Pink Butterfly Pin 3

My biggest problem trying to enter my work into the fair is that it doesn't fit most of the categories in the Home Arts Department. The biggest number of quilt related classes are for bed quilts which I don't do. There are classes for framed pictures, cross stitch, hand quilting, etc. I try to find the classes that have the "other" category, or "original design" where there are no exact limitations. I entered one of my notebook covers in the household accent- "other" category, and one of my pins in the beaded jewelry category. I never know exactly what other items will be my competition- there could be almost anything.

There are a couple categories for wall hangings that I entered a few of my more recent pieces in, including my "Stained Glass and Ferns", but I decided to try something a bit different this year…. I consider my quilts to be works of art, and thought I would enter my newest quilt below in the Fine Art show in the Mixed Media category. That's what I do- mixed media… acrylic paint, digital photos, chalk pastels, and anything else I want to play with. I use fabric as one of my media.
This is a photo of "Water Road House", which is finally finished! The 12" square quilt is mounted to a piece of canvas that I painted with acrylic paint and drew on with chalk pastels to bring the design of the quilt into the canvas bordering it. This photo was taken when I thought I was was ready to mount it to the frame. I looked at this photo and decided that the colors done in the pastels were too bright and drew my eye away from the quilt more than I wanted, so the night before it was to be delivered to the show, I was painting on another layer of thin titanium white to tone things down. The result was much better to my eyes, much softer looking.

Well, when I got to the fairgrounds and delivered the piece to the Fine Arts building, I was informed that it belonged in the Home Arts building with the quilts…. There is no category I hadn't entered anything in that this would fit, and not really one it would have fit in anyway.

Water Road House- SOLD

I decided to ask what was considered Mixed Media in this showing, so that if anything in the future might fit, I might try again (can't hurt to ask…) I explained that I believed that my piece fit that category- a work of art using multiple media. (I guess they were of the opinion that only oil, acrylic, and watercolor paintings, pen and ink, charcoal, etc. were considered Fine Art media) Long story short… there was a little huddle in the back room, and my piece has been allowed to hang with the rest of the fine art (in the mixed media category) and the judge will decide whether it would be judged or not. Even if it isn't judged, at least I have got my little toe in the door, and maybe it will gain a bit of attention.

Stained Glass and Ferns

This seems to be a problem many quilt, or textile artists have…. we don't make quilts for the bed, we make art for the wall, just not with oils, acrylics, etc. Especially in a rural area like the one I live in, the quilt categories are mostly for hand quilted quilts, very few opportunities to show machine quilting, even though machine quilting has become more common than hand work. It will be interesting to see what happens with my "Stained Glass Ferns" above…. With it's non traditional piecing and no "real" binding.

Sometimes we just have to dip out toes in new waters and see what happens. I am not sure if I will get to the fair, so it may be a week before know if my "Water Road House" got judged, or how my other pieces fared. I will update when I find out….

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Tags: art quilt, art show, county fair, troy
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QSDS Day One

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009

Well, here I am in Columbus, Ohio attending the Quilt Surface Design Symposium (QSDS). I am taking a master class with Elizabeth Busch, and am loving it! I will have another 6 days of class, starting pretty soon, so here is a really quick post….

MountainLaurel on the Rocks 1

The class I am taking is a master class, where we bring our own pieces to work on as well as learn new techniques and get input on our work from the teacher and classmates. Last year, I was able to come because of a scholarship that I received. One way of funding these scholarships is auctioning off small quilts that have been donated by students and faculty. Yesterday, I finally finished my little quilt for donation…. "Mountain Laurel on the Rocks" uses "rocky bits" from a chunk I constructed last year in my class with Rosalie Dace. I added Painted canvas that I did during my Elizabeth Busch class at QBL last year, and photos of the Mountain Laurel growing along Water road. Last year just before coming to Columbus, I discovered them blooming and took my first photos of this PA native. That may have had something to do with the rocks surfacing in my work, so I thought combining all these elements would be very appropriate for me to donate, because without my scholarship I would never have found myself working with new colors and more textures.

MountainLaurel on the Rocks 2

Here is a closeup shot showing some of the beading I did in the rocky sections and the tiny ruby beads added to the flowers.

I look forward to more play with fabric, paint and more as the week progresses. The best part of all of this is that the mni van got me here safely without dying on the way!! More progress photos may show up here during the week, depending on how much sleep I can do without

Time to get off to class again!

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Tags: art quilt, qsds
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New Items!

Sunday, May 10th, 2009

Rectangle Black Pink Butterfly Pin 3

Here is one of my latest additions to the AndrusGardensQuilts shop. This is one of the pins I beaded this past week. The quilt base is made from black and white fabrics, and beaded in various shades of pink and burgundy, with a silver butterfly. Black Pink Butterfly Pin. I experimented with different ways to take the photos of the pins, using some pansy and viola flowers to help give scale to the photos.

Diamond Black Blue Pink Butterfly Pin 3

Here is one in the diamond shape, beaded in many spring colors. The backs on each of the pins allow them to be worn as a pin or as a pendant. The diamonds look especially nice worn as pendants. Diamond Black Blue Pink Butterfly Pin.

Rectangle Pink Blue Hummingbird 3

Rectangle Pink Blue with Hummingbird Pin. Another rectangular shaped pin with a hummingbird, pink, blue and teal beads.

4 pins

Here is a group shot of the 3 above pins with a fourth one. The white silk crumpled up seems to work fairly well as a background for photos.

Spring Blues 2 ACEO 1

In addition to the pins, I finished the beading on two more rocky ACEO’s. Spring Blues #2 is available at AndrusGardensArt at Etsy. I hand stitched blue colored gemstone chips, beads and silver critters to the rocky section and added beads to the flower centers and more beads add accents to the bright blue silk section.

Spring Blues 3 ACEO 1

The final photo for this post…. Another rocky ACEO with the blue silk. Spring Blues #3 has two rocky areas with a part of a photo with green leaves, small white and pink flowers. This also has blue gemstone chips, and various colored beads accenting the rocky areas, flowers, and quilting in the blue silk section.

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Tags: andrusgardens, art quilt, artquilt, etsy, promotion, quiltsy, sue andrus
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More Garden Treasures

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009

A few more tiny treasures popped up in my gardens this week. I was kept away from the gardens most of the week by a nasty cold my son shared with me, but I did get a few photos while trying to pull some of the fast growing weeds during a couple short trips outdoors.

Lavender Anemone

This was my most favorite find…. I thought this little lavender colored Anemone had died this past winter, but this little flower greeted me, almost hidden by the leaves of the Winter Aconite plant. It just decided to show itself a bit late, and only has one flower this year, but should be back with more flowers next year. I love the delicate leaves on the fragile stems of this 6" tall plant.

Brunnera Looking Glass

This Brunnera is growing near the little Anemone. The variegated leaves are beautiful in the shade during the summer. The tiny blue flowers are a great sky blue color, but really hard to photograph well. They make a dainty cloud above the clump of foliage.

Violets

More tiny treasures in the gardens. These are wild violets in one of my rock gardens. They may find themselves in one of my "On the Rocks" series of art quilts. The feathery foliage in the background is from Queen Ann's Lace plants that are probably not going to be allowed to stay there. They will be great to use for sunprints, so I will probably press them to use later.

Roxy in the Sun

Here is Roxy enjoying the sunshine while I was discovering my little garden treasures.

Small Spring Flowers Bead Detail

My cold kept me indoors a lot, so I used some of that time to do some beading and embroidery on this little quilt. The first photo of it are here in this earlier post. After a few more beads, this will be ready to list at Etsy. These flowers were calling out for beads and French knots to dress them up. At least since I didn't feel well enough to work in my gardens outdoors, I could still do a little bit of "gardening" indoors.

Again I have found that there are many little treasures just waiting to be found if I just take a bit of time to really look for them. I just hope I can keep the weeds from covering them all up.

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Tags: andrusgardens, art, art quilt, flowers, gardens, inspiration, sue andrus
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Inspirations From a walk in the Gardens

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009

Here is a glimpse of a walk I took through my gardens….

Pink Daffs

The walk began at the edge of my shade garden… Here is a clump of "pink" Daffodils… I didn't really pay much attention to these in past years, and thought they were regular yellow centered ones. They really aren't pink, but have pink tones in the cups- more of a peachy color, with yellow frills. Just goes to show that you can look at something and not really "see" it. These are really pretty in person, but not as pink as catalogs selling them show in their photos.

Vinca in the Rocks 4

These little treasures were a real great surprise!! I discovered late last summer that Vinca minor had probably washed from the spot I planted them in to an old tumbled down stone wall. I remembered them, but was pleasantly surprised by the number of plants with flowers poking out of the rocks and woods debris. I got lots of great photos that may very well end up in a few "On the Rocks" quilts this year. I am finding lots of little treasures growing among the many rocks around here.

Gold Creeping Jenny in Rocks

Here is a plant that I had always considered a weed! This Lysmachia, or Creeping Jenny in chartreuse are taking over the garden on top of another rock wall. These shoots are creeping out from between the rocks- I am using these very hardy, vigorous plants as a ground cover to plant other flowers through. They are growing well in the very harsh, dry conditions of the wall garden. Sometimes there are places where "weeds" are welcome and do what is needed.

Tradescantia Sweet Kate

A bit more chartreuse foliage, this clump of "sweet Kate" Tradescantia make a bright spot of color in the front garden nearly hidden by Snow Glory foliage. The flowers on this plant will be a deep, rich purple- a great contrast to the foliage.

Hens and Chicks on Rock

More plants growing amongst rocks…. Sempervivum, Hens and Chicks… these are reddish in color, and doing very well in the harsh conditions in my rock garden that doesn't have many survivors in it. This garden is very hostile due to it being very wet in late winter and early spring, then super dry in summer.

Linden Buds

Linden tree buds just about to pop…. I love watching things progress in the spring, especially on sunny, blue sky days!

Grape Hyacinth

Wandering up to my upper garden, I found this clump of Muscari- Grape Hyacinths circling some double flowered daffs that are still in bud.

Backlit Rhubarb

Here is another photo of one of my clumps of Rhubarb. This is a leaf with the sun showing through from the back. I think I will be harvesting stalks today!!

Strawberry Plant

My final stop on this walk was the strawberry bed. We have started strawberry beds for years, but didn't have time in the spring to care for them so they never did well. This year I plan to have lots of strawberries to go with that rhubarb!!

As many of these photos show, there are many things that I have been around for years, but never "really seen". Taking a few extra moments to look closer and really see the beauty that is all around us. Watch for more photos as the days go by, and see where those photos may pop up in my art.

Square foot Flower Garden1

This is the finished 12"x12" piece shown in an earlier post. I finished the quilting in the flowers photos. You can see that I left the one flower quilted with smoke thread and the rest are done with clear. "Square Foot Flower Garden #1" is available at AndrusGardensArt at Etsy.

Stained Glass Ferns and Flowers 1-3

Stained Glass Maple 1-1

These two above quilts are also finally finished!! The clear thread adds to the details of the sunprints and heart-vine quilting is added to the stained glass like borders. "Stained Glass Ferns and Flowers #1" is just shy of 11"x18" in size and available at AndrusGardensArt at Etsy. "Stained Glass Maples #1" is 14"xalmost 15" in size, and available at my Artfire Studio.

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Tags: andrusgardens, art quilt, artquilts, flowers, gardens, inspiration, nature, photography, sue andrus
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Stained Glass in Fabric

Wednesday, April 8th, 2009

Finally, day three back at my sewing machine!! The bowls got more ideas flowing than I have had in a long time. Night before last, I went to bed and thought about trying some more with creating the look of stained glass again like I did with my "Stained Glass and Ferns" quilt, but on a smaller scale. This link shows the earlier piece in progress, and here is the finished quilt that did a bit of traveling to various shows and won a couple ribbons.

Stained Glass and Ferns

Here are the two works in progress that I have so far-

Stained Glass Maples 1

This began with a simple Maple leaf sunprint that I surrounded with some fused crazy patch in neutral tones, then added a stained glass border. I will be binding this with black yarn as I did my first one. I still have to quilt this also.

Stained Glass Ferns & Flowers 1

This second piece has a sunprint of ferns and flowers with same border ideas as the Maple piece above. I also have to do the quilting and may even do some beading….. still thinking about that. I have used so much black thread with all the satin stitching used for the piecing.

Also today I have a photo of a plant that bloomed before I got to see it. There is a seed pod forming, so I hopefully will have baby seedlings popping up for more in the coming years.

Aconite

The Winter Aconite (too lazy right now to look up the botanical name… wow, my brain isn't what it used to be- I used to know all of my plants' both names) is just about the first flower to bloom here in PA with pretty yellow daisies. The foliage is very pretty and in coming years, I will have to press some for sunprinting. I only had a tiny piece of root for this and was really surprised it survived the poor care it got last summer stuck in a pot with something else. Next year I will have to look at my gardens sooner!

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Tags: art quilt, ferns, flowers, maple, quilting, stained glass, sunprint
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I’m Back in PA…

Wednesday, February 25th, 2009

After spending 10 days with my grandmother in Western NY, I have returned home to PA. It was nice to be able to spend time with my grandma and parents that I would not normally have a chance to do. Gram is doing amazingly well considering what she went through. She came home with much swelling in her legs, and by the time I left for home, they had improved a lot. She will not be driving again soon, or ever, which is hard for her to deal with, but she is back home. She is also wearing her Lifeline button at all times. She would not wear it when she went to town for her exercise class and dinner days- didn't think she needed it…..

I took some things with me to work on, and did a little hand and machine stitching. I gave Gram's sewing machine a good cleaning and then used it to stitch together these blocks I pieced before leaving home.

Scrappy Strip Top

The blocks are12" finished in size, making this finish at 4ft x 5 ft without borders. I think I will be adding at least a small border, but not sure how wide it will be. I think this will make a nice size for a quilt to snuggle under on a couch.

Blue Spring ACEO

This is another piece I worked on and finished one evening. This is the first of the blue ACEO's that I have beaded. There are gemstone chips in shades of blue along with beads in various shades of blue and crystal. The flower centers are accented with pale yellow beads. This is the first item I have listed at my new Handmade Fuzion shop. I submitted my application to Handmade Fuzion a while before I left to stay with my gram, and got my acceptance while still in NY. To sell at that site, you have to apply with photos of your work, and be juried in. As with my other shops on the web, I will have different items in this shop from the ones in any of my Etsy shops or on the sales pages of my website. If you don't see just what you like in one shop, check out my others! I will be working to add items to my newest shop later this week. Here is a link directly to this ACEO.

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Tags: art quilt, rocks, scraps, spring, sue andrus
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Rocks Again….

Sunday, January 11th, 2009

My second post for today, trying to catch up with life. I had finished two more "On the Rocks" quilts just before Christmas, but didn't get photos taken of them until a few days ago. To show that I have been doing a little with my quilts, here they are…..

Echinacea on the Rocks

This is "Echinaceas on the Rocks", 8"x10" in size, it is shown in this previous post before quilting. I spent much of December doing the beading on this one. I didn't have much time at home, but took it with me to various appointments and even our trip to Marla's for our Christmas gathering. I finally decided it was done. It is hard to decide when there enough beads…. It was nice to play with the purples, I had used some purples in many of my rock & mud fabrics, so I was able to coordinate the rocks to the photo too. I also found some really tiny butterfly beads during one of my bead hunting trips. This quilt is available for purchase here at my Etsy Art Quilt shop.

Echinacea on the Rocks Detail

Here is a closeup of the top corner. I added tiny shells in addition to the beads and gemstone chips to the rocky area.

Hemerocallis on the Rocks

This little quilt is "Hemerocallis on the Rocks", and is 6"x8" in size including the loopy yarn I used to bind it with. In addition to the photo, there is a sunprint of rose leaves and assorted flowers done with gold, brown and green along the side. This quilt is available for purchase here at my Etsy Art Quilt Shop.

Hemerocallis on the Rocks Detail

A close-up of this one….One of the tiny butterflies can be seen in the upper right of this photo. The beading on this piece was started while waiting for my mini van to get it's brakes fixed. I got a lot done because the new part didn't solve the problem, and I had to wait for Ken to pick me up. Lots of waiting and stitching that day.

With all the ice and now snow we have been getting, I now have ideas coming together for some new pieces showing the rocks with ice and snow on them. I am not sure exactly what will turn up, but I have lots of inspiration around me. I have some canvas fabric I painted in icy blues with pearly shimmer that may coordinate with a flower photo with the sky as the background. I got some great shots of some white Anemone early last spring.

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Tags: art quilt, mud and rocks, on the rocks, rocks, sue andrus
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Posts Tagged ‘art quilt’

First New Art Quilt of 2010

After The Fair…. and New Beginnings

Fair Week….

QSDS Day One

New Items!

More Garden Treasures

Inspirations From a walk in the Gardens

Stained Glass in Fabric

I’m Back in PA…

Rocks Again….

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