Spring Flowers Popping Up

The book Twelve by Twelvee showed a version of this technique. As usual I don't leave well enough alone, I had to put my own twist on it. As soon as I saw the idea of cutting through a couple of layers of fabric and turning the corners back to look like a discovery or, in this case, flowers coming through the grass, I had to try it. Below are the layers of fabric, without another pink because I decided I didn't want the green back [same fabric as the front] showing in the square. So this little quiltie [it's 8x8 inches is really five layers of fabric, the top four having been sewn together in squares and then clipped through and lightly ironed open -- enough so what shows in each case is a variety of the pink-yellow-blue and green.
Frankly I think it is a good abstraction of flowers popping up in the grass. I was recently given the ribbon that says "happy spring" and decided to add a strip o it to the top and to make hanging loops with it as well.

This was fun, although harder to open out than I expected -- I needed a third hand to accomplish the job efficiently but was quite unable to grow one on the spur of the moment when needed. I have an idea for making another, only three layers, I think. I learned that I'd have preferred the end results if the green top fabric were uniformly the same shade on the back and front which it's not. It's interesting to me to cut through some layers and not do reverse applique but leave them raw edge. I have a little fear that the person to whom I am supposed to send this piece will not understand what I've done and will find it very weird indeed as a quilt.

The Art Quilt Collection

Amazon's superior marketing intelligence [such as it is] told me I might also like this book since I was purchasing the Twelve by Twelve which I wrote about a couple posts ago. So I purchased it too and put it aside until I finished enjoying the Twelve By Twelve [enjoyed very much!]

This is a different breed of cat as they say. The full title is The Art Quilt Collection, Designs and Inspiration from Around the World. It contains very nice photos of nearly 150 art quilts which gives a good idea of the enormous variety of approaches to art quilting. The quilters are from around the world, with a really nice selection from Europe and far more than you might expect from Israel [since it's a very small country], I didn't see any from New Zealand and only a couple from Australia [I know there are thriving art quilt groups in both places]. There are a few from Japan. The American ones leave out a lot of extremely well known at quilters, perhaps on purpose. It's a lovely book to look at -- what I call eye candy. There are short artists' statements, there are no bios of the artists. There are 4 to 6 little sections on techniques which are clear and interesting. I am not sorry I have this book as I love looking at the great variety and getting acquainted with art quilters' work I did not previously know. It is in an entirely different category than the fascination and information in the Twelve by Twelve book. The forward by Linda Seward [a name unknown to me and there is no information on who she is in the quilt world] gives me no idea how this collection was pulled together. I really want to know a lot more. Meanwhile, as I say, it's lovely to look at.

Twelve by Twelve , the book

The Twelve By Twelve group have been blogging and challenging one another to make 12x12 inch quilts on a specific subject [two months deadlines] for almost as long as I've been writing this blog. I discovered them not long after they began their blog and have been a faithful follower -- mostly a lurker. After two years their work became an exhibit at the big annual show in Sydney. Now the first two years of work is a wonderful book that is only just available here in the US -- I ordered it on Amazon soon after I read that that it would be available in March.

I am very much a book person -- I love having the solid object in my hands so I can read a bit when I'm having coffee, flip back and forth through the pages to remind myself which quilter is which. I had seen all the quilts on the blog as they were "revealed" but now I almost have them in my hands. I hope someday to see the exhibit somewhere. No matter how good, a photo is a weak imitation of a quilt.

The book is meatier than most quilt books which makes it especially exciting and worthwhile. In the same Amazon order I got another book of art quilts but have only glanced at it so far -- it's full of wonderful quilts with short artists' statements and I'll write about it in a week or two. But now: Each of the Twelve has a "chapter" in which she writes more intimately about her own participation in the group and what it has meant to her. She also discusses her creative process in reference to one particular quilt. At the end of each chapter is a bit of information specific for the reader about how the reader can form her own group, or about quilters' blogs, etc. And of course the photos! The quilts themselves. I get a sense of each artist's style, of her creative journey through this group. These women were almost complete strangers to one another when one started the group, they live on three continents. Over the two -- now three -- years they have made opportunities to meet, not yet all together. They are both respectful and supportive of one another's work and they write openly of their false starts and their learning process. The book becomes a role model for any quilter who is just beginning to venture into art quilting. It's a source of inspiration for any quilter who wants to go beyond traditional quilting.

Sometimes I buy books full of art quilts, look in awe at the work, usually have little idea of the process by which the work was made, and wonder a few weeks later if I spent my money wisely just to look at pretty pictures. This book is so much more than pretty pictures! I continue to follow the blog -- see the side bar of this blog -- and have begun to think of them as a group of people I almost know personally. They have individual, personal blogs which I often read also where they write about other things in their lives, both as artists and as individuals, so the sense of community is broadened. They are as much a part of my quilting life as are the members of my local guild. The book will "live" on my coffee table where I can pick it up often.