I finished quilting Prairie Night and Chiaroscuro Water Lily quite a while ago, but I didn’t get around to binding them or finishing the edges in some way. I wrote about Prairie Night here and about making Chiaroscuro Water Lily here. I’ve been working on some other small quilts for Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative, so I figured I’d better get these two finished so I can ship them all off. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Fast Friday Fabric Challenge
Chiaroscuro Water Lily
The December challenge for the Fast Friday Fabric Challenge group was to experiment in contrast and color and use strong value contrast in a dramatic way. In art, chiaroscuro refers to the use of light and dark, usually to add depth and volume to a painting. Rembrandt often used the technique, such as in his Self Portrait as the Apostle St. Paul.
For my quilt I wanted to start with a photograph, and I found this one of a water lily that I took last summer at the Como Park Zoo & Conservatory in St. Paul, Minnesota.
My Take on Notan
The October challenge for the Fast Friday Fabric Challenge group is Notan. Here’s the challenge description: Notan is a Japanese concept that utilizes black and white to demonstrate the contrast of positive and negative space. Often done as pen-and-ink
drawings, Notan can easily be adapted to fabric with stunning results. This
technique can help us evaluate our own skills with balancing the
positive/negative space in our quilts.
Notan is traditionally done in ink on paper, but is now often do
ne as a cut paper collage using the “expansion of the square” technique. This star cutout is a simple example — a star shape is cut from the black square and then flipped outward and placed on the negative white space, creating a positive/negative mirror image.
Prairie Night Quilt
I recently joined an on-line quilt challenge group, Fast Friday Fabric Challenge.
“This group of fiber artists and art quilters will be issued one challenge per month, with one week to complete a small work. Challenges will attempt to stretch members in their skills and creativity, encourage thinking outside the box, will teach new techniques and concepts. Challenges will be hosted by a different member each month and will incorporate color and design concepts, techniques, surface design, embellishments, work within themes, and any other art quilt concepts a member can imagine. “
The first challenge I participated in was to select a color palette from a painting and then create a small quilt using that color palette. Continue reading
