(Event website here)
These are the two pieces I will be entering in this year's Art Walk:
1. "A Garden for Three Girls" - Three main groupings of flowers: Iris (You'll recognize these as VanGogh's Iris!), tall pink swaying poppies, and tall multicolored flowers created with very textured, satiny hand-dyed fabric. The sky features my newest design, which features free motion quilting of large, flowing swirls. I created this free motion design by drawing on tracing paper, then on clear "Saran Wrap" which turned out to be too difficult to stitch over, given the thickness of the piece. I tried Solvy as well (Water Soluble Stabilizer) but my free motion foot kept dragging on the surface and catching it because the quilt was so thick at this point. I have since purchased several different chalks, disappearing ink, and transfer pens to try out some new design transfer methods : ) I learn a lot with every piece I create! For this piece, I ended up "winging it" - after drawing the design so many times, I was fairly comfortable with quilting it, but I did use some straight pins to mark the tops and bottoms of the swirls before quilting them. I was VERY happy with how the sky turned out overall - it was my first time to include this type of quilting, as well as this type of multicolored sky (colors other than blue and aqua). I now love the "colorful" sky so much that I want to experiment with even more vibrant sunset colors! (Coming soon!)
"A Garden for Three Girls"
Designed, Created, & Quilted by Heather Davis
September, 2014
2. "Pink Lady" - Named for the single tall pink flower in the background : ) This one features many vivid red poppies, hand-painted with dye, and a "happy, sunny sky!" This quilt was actually completed first, and is the first one to be bound with a twisted fibers for the edging. My mom had a pretty amazing idea to use her Serger to finish off the edges and cut away the excess at the borders all in one step. She mixed and matched the spools of thread to match the colors in the quilt, which gives it a really professional finish. After that, we hand-twisted fibers and couched them down by machine with a zig-zag stitch. I love the textured border that is achieved by using mixed fibers, especially with the inclusion of metallic, hand-dyed or space-dyed, and eyelash style fibers. It appears to have a very "artsy" frame - and is quick, fun, and easy to do! It is definitely a nice switch from traditional style bindings, although I can always remove the fiber and apply binding strips instead for that style as well.
"Pink Lady"
Designed, Created, & Quilted by Heather Davis
(with help from my mom & grandmother!) : )
August, 2014
I am happy to create similar pieces in alternate sizes and colors. I love creating customized art and getting to tailor it to its new owner. Options can include different Poppy colors (red, pink, yellow, blue, purple, black, etc.), inclusion of various specific flowers that might be significant to you (such as flowers from a bridal bouquet, from your own garden, or to represent your birth month, etc.), different types/colors of birds/butterflies, and different moods/colors of sky. Please send me a message to discuss options and pricing.
You may view any of my other pieces for ideas, or Click Here to visit a gallery of ONLY similar style art quilts I have completed in the past - I set up a smaller "Art Quilt Gallery" on Photobucket for this purpose : )
Feel free to Email Me with your ideas/custom requests : )
