c2011 BJ Parady
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To Bind or Not to Bind
Double thickness binding and I are not friends. When I was making quilts, adding it to cover up the raw edges was my least favorite part of the process. My corners never did get up to snuff (according to the powers that be). So once I moved to art quilts, I started looking for another way. And since I no longer enter pipe and drape shows, I can do whatever I (and the art) want to finish the edges.
Sometimes I just use a tight zigzag or one of the finishing stitches on my machine. But my favorite way is to find yarns that set off colors in the piece, and zigzag over them.
c2011 BJ Parady
Although it doesn’t show well in this photo, I really lucked out with this piece. The violet and orange in these two yarns goes great with the fabrics. The piece may have other problems (I see unsewing in my future), but the edge is nicely finished.
c2009 BJ Parady
Here the fuzziness of the yarn sets off the shininess of the silk. The piece is about leafless woods in early winter, and the grey bits poking out add to the atmosphere I’m trying to envoke.
c2011 BJ Parady
Here I used the same silk yarn (made from leftover bits) on the edge that was used in the piece. It helps tie the whole thing all together.
I do use a braiding foot to sew the yarns on–it holds the yarns together so that the zigzag stitch (which may be widened as needed) encases the yarns. I usually put a small piece of tape around the end to help thread the yarns through the foot before starting. Often I do a quick narrow zigzag around the edge immediately after trimming the edges down, just to make the adding of the yarn easier.
So, give it a try–it’s easier to learn than turning those pesky corners of binding.
Posted in process
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Masters of Art Quilts
Lark Crafts is out with the second volume about the best art quilters out there. They sent me a copy to review, and the one word summary is ‘Wow.’
Curated by Martha Sielman (executive director of SAQA), this volume continues where the first volume left off. Forty fiber artists each have a several page spread showing their work off with excellent photography, including detail shots.
As in the first volume, some of the artists are ones whose work I have already noticed and admired. But there are many who are new to me (probably my fault for not paying enough attention). There are artists whose work I like even if I would never make anything like it–for example, I can admire figurative art even as I consciously avoid any lines that suggest a figure.
c2007 Karin Franzen
This is a new-to-me artist. I admit to being attracted to cranes, but these pieces have an ethereal quality that draws me back to them–even if they are figurative and semi-realistic. I am even more intrigued by the fact that she’s using recycled clothing in her pieces. Besides being good for the environment, it sets her work apart from other artists.
c2005 Dianne Firth
This striking piece by Dianne Firth called The Soak. This machine pieced work is striking in its distillation of lots of visual information to an organic shape that evokes an aerial view of a landscape. The lack of color (except for the yellow squares) further increases the graphic nature of the piece.
Ms. Firth is from Australia, and I don’t ever remember seeing her work before. Now that I’ve noticed it, I will be watching for more of her work.
All in all, I think that any one who wants to see what’s happening in the art quilt world these days could not find a better place to start than this book and the previous volume. Although the words about each artist are only a few paragraphs, they succinctly tell us what we need to know about each artist–and the pictures of the art tell us the rest of what we need to know. The artists included come from around the world, and deserve all the attention they get in this book.
It can be purchased through SAQA’s bookstore. Both volumes would make great Christmas presents.
Posted in reviews
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If You’ve Got Them, Use Them
Recently I was discussing one of my pieces with a couple of other fiber artists. They asked about my use of decorative stitches on the piece:
© 2006 BJ Parady
Specifically, on some of the raw edges where I used a wide, decorative stitch on my machine to stitch it down. This may have been one of the first pieces I did this on. And I don’t do it very often. But once in a while, it’s the right tool.
I bought my machine (a Pfaff) for other reasons, but it came with a bunch of embroidery stitches. One day it occurred to me that since I have them available, maybe I should be using them on my art.
The first thing I did was to try them all out:
Each stitch is numbered with a pen so I can quickly switch to the one I want. Some of them I have never used, others I keep going back to. My current favorite is a stem stitch, which comes in two sizes on my machine.
© 2011 BJ Parady
On this one, I used a variegated thread (Sulky blendables, I think), to add to the look. As it turns out, one has to be relatively close to the piece to see this, but I like having parts of my art that cause the viewer to keep coming closer and study it.
© 2011 BJ Parady
Sometimes I use a stitch to highlight joints–this is a feather stitch.
© 2011 BJ Parady
Or as just a touch along the edge, replicating a color that’s already somewhere in the piece.
© 2011 BJ Parady
Turns out you can use decorative stitches with the feed dogs dropped and in a free motion way. You may get some wonky parts, but it can be a good thing.
Since those stitches are already on your machine, why not try using them in your fiber art?
Posted in process
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Why Fiber, coda
I kind of thought I was done, for now, explaining why I make fiber art instead of watercolor art or whatever medium art.
Then I started getting comments about the emotional aspects of textile. For example, one of my favorite fiber artists, Linda Colsh, left this on my post (edited to get to my point):
“while it works against the medium’s potential marketability, I do indeed like that being a woman’s medium primarily, fiber can suggest reinforcing, implied, even subliminal meanings that carry the feminist message. For my own subject matter, the elderly, that “quilt” is also often identified with the gray generation, choosing to express my statements in this medium further doubles down on message.“
That works out great for her. I fear I may not examine my motives so deeply–I use fiber because I like it. I don’t think about the symbolism of my choices. Should I? Does this make me less of an artist?
I also have gotten comments about fiber being warm and fuzzy and all that. Tis true, but so what? At this point I don’t really care if your grandmother made quilts. Good for her for finding a creative outlook. If that is your first reaction/comment on seeing one of my pieces, then I have failed as an artist because I want your first reaction/comment to be about the Art that is hanging in front of you.
Not that I’ll say that to your face. I’ll just paste on a smile and nod.
Sometimes I think about changing primary media. Some day I probably will. But until then, I’ll be playing in the shallow end of the fiber pool, enjoying the manipulation of texture and thread and fiber choice, trying my best to make art. The deep thoughts can be left to my biographer. Ha.
Posted in process, why fiber
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Why Fiber Part 3
Color.
I’ve put a lot of thought into this part of my answer. Color is what drives me as an artist. As a fiber artist, I have the same visual spectrum of color available as any other artist. So what makes fiber special in the use of color?
2005 BJ Parady
When I started as a fiber artist, I was using commercially printed fabrics. This is a detail shot of one of the last quilts I made using such fabric. There is a challenge involved in doing this, as you have to find just the right fabric for a piece, fabric that someone else has designed and printed. Sometimes that is hard to do.
So I turned to dyeing my own fabric. My first results were kind of, well, blah.
© 2011 BJ Parady
I was going for that even, non-mottled commercial look. Big mistake (for me and my artistic vision–YMMV). Why duplicate something I could buy? So I started using low water immersion techniques, and fell in love.
© 2011 BJ Parady
All of the squares in the above piece were in the same dye bath. They’ve been cut apart and moved around, but I can get that much variation in one dye job.
© 2011 BJ Parady
I can get the same kind of effects with paint–in this case, two colors (yellow and violet).
© 2009 BJ Parady
And while I could get some of this irregularity and blending of color in a watercolor, the sharp edge I get when sewing two pieces together would be harder to achieve. Not impossible, but it would require more planning ahead than I do with fiber.
© 2011 BJ Parady
I can take a commercial black fabric, apply a discharge agent (here I used bleach), and make new designs on the fabric.
© 2011 BJ Parady
I can do the same thing on my own handdyes, and get lots of color variations. Here I used Jacquard discharge paste, applied with a paint brush to form irregular circles.
© 2011 BJ Parady
Discharge works on other colors, too, by the way.
© 2011 BJ Parady
And as in watercolor, once in a while you get a happy accident.
So while most things I can do color-wise with fiber, others can do with paint, I still believe that there are effects with fiber you can’t get with any other medium. Or I can’t get them. Whichever. The hand dyed pieces I make attract me, inspire me, speak to me.
The combination of line, texture, and color will keep me busy for a while….
