Friday, January 31, 2014

Seams Unique!

Around this time last year, I was thrilled to be asked to join Seams Unique Fiber Artists (SUFA), an extremely talented collection of art quilters, doll makers, and surface design artists. We hung our annual exhibit of annual challenge art quilts today.  Here’s a photo of one of my entries.


Originally I called it “Organized Chaos” but decided it was more an “Homage to Cutoffs and Hawaiian Print Shirts.” Here’s how it came about:


Our group had taken a field trip to the Reusable Resources Adventure Center this past Spring, where I spied a bin of dozens of plastic tubes. They looked so inviting, I just had to give them a new purpose!


After cutting long isosceles triangles out of the many rayon shirts I had collected from thrift stores over the years, I married the two repurposed materials with the help of a little glue.


Rolling the fabric around the tube was easy…

And the finished tubes were further embellished with assorted yarns (the one in this photo is naked!)


Also giving new purpose to old thrift store jeans from which I cut rectangles, I sewed them together patchwork style.


Each tube-“bead” was sewn onto a rectangle, and the base was embellished at the intersections with vintage gold beads. The quilt is trimmed with small rayon squares, and bound with strips of denim from the jeans.

You can see all the wonderful works at Boutique 4 Quilters in Melbourne, Florida!