It's Easier the Second Time Around!

I never appreciated before how much easier it is to make an art quilt when the design is already done. I didn't have to spend time on sketching to decide on the design, I just had to pull out my drawing and have it enlarged to my desired finished size, which was about 18" x 22". I also knew already what colors the various design elements were going to be, so there was nothing to figure out there either. This art quilt is made from 90% black and white fabrics and 10% gold toned fabrics. I rummaged through my fabric stash bins and found almost all of the original fabrics that I had used previously. I show the fabrics I pulled from my stash below:





















I needed to piece the black and white background first. It required a white sky, and black or black/white hills and foreground.

I cut out the various sections and glued them to a piece of white muslin. The photos below show some of this work:






Here you see me in the process of gluing a layer down:

 You can see the blobs of glue on the white muslin that is the support for the background fabric.

This is the glue I am using:















I squirt the glue on a white plastic disposable plate and then use a small flat paint brush to apply it. I learned this technique from Susan Carlson. I love it and now I use glue rather than fusibles in many cases.  Here is a photo of the plate and brush:



My next step is to make the buildings in the distance. That I'll save for my next post. Thanks for visiting my blog!

Another Black and White Desert

Years ago I made this art quilt for a traveling exhibit:



I called it "Black and White Desert". It was in a show in Poway, CA a few years ago, and one of my cousins saw it and liked it very much. It was not for sale, but she commented that she would like to have it.

This cousin recently had a milestone birthday, and a few months ago I was asked to make a second version of this art quilt for her as a joint gift from several of us for her birthday. I was very happy to do this, and we gave it to her just last week at her birthday party. I am happy to report that she loved it! My next few posts are going to show the making of this art quilt, which is shown below.

Mary's Desert Oasis

I call it Mary's Desert Oasis. She lives in the Phoenix area and it goes well in her decor. You can see how similar it is to the first one. I'll tell you more about this one soon! Thanks for visiting my blog!