Featured Blog

Last week I posted about a blog addressing some of the various issues of quilt art. Recently, another blogger has begun to cover these type of issues as well. The Art with a Needle blog was only started recently, but already has quite a following. Kathy Loomis writes in a way which is easy to understand, even if you haven't got a background in Art and haven't read much about Art issues previously. I find I often agree with her, even though I may not have thought about the issue before.

Whereas the subject matter of Elizabeth Barton's work is mainly architectural, Kathy's work is very abstract. Her method of construction usually involves using very small pieces of fabric pieced together to make the whole. It gives the work alot more texture than using larger pieces might do.

Her current discussions have been about finding your voice, working in a series, and trying other methods of working as a way of experimenting to see how you might take your work in new directions. Kathy also talks about evaluating the experiment to see whether it can be used.

As for me, I am NOT very fond of piecing at all, but I do like trying to develop my work further. I think I have been stretched alot through the Fast Friday group, trying things I would never have attempted. In some cases, I have gone on to use what I learned and in other cases, I realised I never want to do that again! (like the Fractured Quilt challenge!)

My dragon series was started by responding to a challenge with Fast Friday. The Rain Forest Dragon was the result.

Then during the series I did the thread painted dragon claw which lead to more thread painted dragons and fire creatures. This year I am continuing the series using thread painted dragons for the journal quilts I am doing for Contemporary Quilt. I may not do thread painting for the whole year, but I know I am not done developing dragons and fire creatures. I am also experimenting with colour taking further some of the other things I started to learn with the Fast Friday group.

So, anyway, go check out Kathy Loomis' blog. She also does a post once a week with inspirational photos she has taken.