Art Quilter goes to School

 When the Art department at my daughter's high school saw her Starry Night project they wanted to see how a machine quilting frame would let you draw with the needle. So I arranged to bring the 6 foot ART Quilter frame, Table and JUKI TL98 P to the school' s year 12 ART Class for the day. 

We started with some Klimt swirls, first on paper 

and then on the frame. We tried a variety of repeated patterns from nature too.

 Then we moved on to Kandinsky circles.

 The students cut out concentric circles in fleece and fabric

 which we raw edge appliquéd directly onto the black background fabric on the frame.

 It was a small class so each student could design and appliqué their own circle.

I liked how each one was so different. The students enjoyed choosing the different fabric and threads.

At the end of the session, we took the practice piece off the Art Quilter frame and each student received a slice of the day's thread play to put in their art books.

It was fun to see students who were not familiar with sewing machines or quilting frames be able to design and complete a project all in one day!

Kate's Klimt

Kate's inspiration for this quilt was a painting by Gustav Klimt called Expectation. I've included a copy of the original so you can appreciate Kate's take on it. Kate had been learning about Klimt in an art class at school. She had an art book full of Klimt patterns and looking at the spirals, I commented that she could make the same pattern on the quilting frame. She needed an end of year art project so she decided to do it in textiles. There was also a youth quilt competition coming up in the summer with a Money theme. With a bit of tweaking, the quilt was able to do both.

Kate created the girl's figure in the quilt with a combination of bond-a-web and machine applique. The triangles were first strip pieced then cut and fitted together like a puzzle. Kate used fabric paint to make the face. Kate used free-motion machine quilting to create the spiral patterns. It was her first try and she did a great job. The quilt was heavily embellished. To make the quilt fit the money theme, Kate changed the position of the figure. In the original the girl had both hands on her hair. Kate's version has one hand outstretched with a hand full of coins falling to the floor. The end result was amazing! Click on the photo to get a better view of Kate's quilt.