My “Four Pieces Project”

Yesterday, my friend Lushorn brought me the last piece of my fern (the part on the far left) for my Pandora’s "Four Pieces Project." (The Pandoras is an art-quilt group of which I am a member.) I just love it! Thanks, Lushorn!

The pieces were made by (from left:) Lushorn Millsaps, DeLane Rosenau, me, and Grace Howes. The two on the left do not have finished edges yet; that's why they are a bit larger than the other two. Here's the photo we started with:



We each chose a 4x6" photo, blew it up to 16x24" and split it up into four equal pieces (horizontally, vertically, or criss-cross) and then gave out the pieces to the members of our group. Every two months, we have a deadline to complete one person's project. (DeLane's was due in July, and next month, Grace's pieces are due.)

Each peron's job is to recreate their section of the photo using a technique they want to try out. The color is to remain fairly close to the photo, since it would be too jarring if the colors varied widely once the photo was reconstructed. It is really fun to see how the pieces come together.

If you are interested in doing something like this, check out the brand new book by Linda Chang Teufel called Quilting Party! Group Quilting for Celebration, Commemoration & Charity, or Just for Fun! It is published by Dragon Threads. Linda shows how bigger groups used this technique for some spectacular art quilts. We started this project before I read the book. I wish I had read it before we started, as it offers some wonderful ideas, tips and planning lists.

I met Linda in a gift shop in the Portland Airport last May as I was leaving Quilt Market. My mom complimented her necklace and we started chatting. Turns out she is the publisher of Dragon Threads, which publishes beautiful art quilt and fiber art books, several of which I already owned!

Painting fabric with the Pandoras

At the meeting of the Pandoras (my art quilt buddies) this morning, we altered fabric using Jacquard Textile Medium and Lumiere fabric paints, and a whole bunch of "stuff." I made this piece using a circle cut from a pool noodle, and a piece of plastic from the bottom of a nursery flat (those plastic bins that hold the six-packs of flowers); I wet the fabric first so the designs would be a bit blurred:


The one below is also my piece. The big squarish dots in the upper right are made by painting on top of a plastic sink liner (the ones that are supposed to keep you from chipping your dishes when you wash them in your sink). I bought it for $1 at the Dollar Store.

This is Grace's piece next. You might not be able to see the beautiful subtle marks left by her running a brayer with paint on it over the fabric, with a piece of plastic canvas underneath:

Here is Grace using part of a construction fence to stamp her fabric. She started out with green fabric, and added some marks with a stamp, the construction fence, and the little liner that comes on the bottles of Lumiere.



This next one is mine, made using the plastic canvas stuff. I unevenly applied paint to the brayer before rolling it over the fabric; that's how I got the cool stripes.

Lushorn used my Cedar Canyon rubbing plates (which I usually use with Shiva Paintstiks) under her fabric to add a nice leaf motif to her yellow flowered batik fabric:


Grace and I have both been reading Rayna Gillman's fantastic book, Create your own hand-printed cloth: Stamp screen & stencil with everyday objects, and we tried out some of the techniques she outlines in Chapter 2 today. I'm eager to try out some of the other techniques in her book on another day.