Welcome to my stop on the Art with Fabric Blog Hop!
I’m participating in the Fall 2017 edition of the Art with Fabric blog hop, organized and hosted by Alida of Tweety Loves Quilting. Alida has lined up 20 quilter-artists, and has asked each of us to create a quilt or fabric project inspired by “traditional” (i.e. non-textile) art – such as paintings, drawings, sculptures, architecture from all countries and all time periods.
The blog hop started on October 9, and many art-inspired quilted pieces have already been posted. Check Alida’s blog for the complete schedule and links to all the participants.
Recently, I’ve been making a lot of art quilts inspired by architecture, especially bridges. The primary purpose of a bridge is to link people and places, by providing safe passage over an obstacle such as a body of water.
Many modern bridges are amazing feats of structural engineering, and the focus is to build a functional structure – not as much on creating a work of art. That said, in my opinion, most bridges are works of art. They appear to defy gravity as they soar over water and empty space.
My inspiration for my art quilt is the architecture of the Skybridge (which is a part of the rapid transit system in Metro Vancouver BC).
Here’s my art quilt “Bridge of Many Colors” – 8 x 10 inches.
‘Bridge of Many Colors’ by Terry Aske
For this project, I used a photo I took several years ago of the Skybridge. The sense of distance and perspective from this point of view really appealed to me, as well as the contrast of the straight, diagonal and curved lines.
In 2014, I made a quilt of the Skybridge using realistic colors. I have always wanted to make one in surreal colors and decided now was the time. I digitally enhanced my original image to change the colors. I tried a few versions, and my favorite was the one below, with a yellow sky and blue-violet bridge.
I printed the enhanced photo on fabric. Then I fused the printed image to felt, and quilted the outlines with black thread. I did all the quilting before adding the backing fabric, eliminating the need to bury all of the thread ends. After quilting, I fused the backing fabric place, catching all the thread ends under the back.
Love this! Any chance you could do a blog post sometime, explaining your process, and the necessary equipment needed, to print a photo on fabric? ( perhaps you have already? ) I’d like to try this process by using photos from my travels as the base for an art quilt. Thx!
Thank you for so generously sharing your creative process! I appreciate the insights.
Terry, what fabric do you like to use to print photos onto?
Hi Heather,
For letter-size or smaller projects, I use inkjet printable fabric sheets by Printed Treasures or EQ Printables. For larger projects, I tried using fabric prepared with Bubble Jetset and ironed to freezer paper. That worked okay, but not as well as the inkjet sheets. A couple of month ago, I ordered a couple of 6-foot rolls of inkjet fabrics from Dharma Trading (cotton sheeting and cotton sateen), and just cut the the size I need from the roll. That’s working well for me.
Very nice
It’s amazing how changing the colors changes everything…. I like the colors on this version, I think they really emphasize the properties that you appreciated in the original photo.
Absolutely amazing!! The idea of changing the colors so drammatically is a very interesting one! It creates unexpected and beautiful final result! Thanks for giving me some ideas to try in my future projects and thanks for sharing your talent in the blog hop!!!
This piece is so interesting. Using different colors makes a big impact but it still is recognizable as a bridge. The title of it is spot on.