Category: Fiber Art

All quilts made by Guila Greer

Art Quilt, Fiber Art, Photography, Poetry and Photography, Quilts

My Sweet Little Gardener

Guila Greer

I finally took a photo of this quilt – completed.  It’s one of my earliest art quilts – 2007 – and it is from a pattern by Wendy Butler Berns.  I started this quilt in Wendy’s workshop at the Glendale Quilt Show.  She was teaching a technique for turning your favorite photos into art quilts.  It was an excellent workshop.

This particular design reminds me, of course, of my granddaughters.  The little girl in the picture could be either one of them. 

I enjoyed making this – especially selecting the fabrics – and later doing the quilting.  It’s a somewhat tedious process but well worth the effort.  If you get a chance to take Wendy’s class I recommend it highly.

My Sweet Little Gardener
detail coneflower

Thanks for visiting !  I’d love to hear your comments.

Art Quilt, Art Quilts, Fiber Art, Haiku, Journal Size, Poetry, Poetry and Photography, Quilts

Procrastination – Observations: Visual and Poetic

Guila Greer


One of the keys to overcoming any bad habit is to have some understanding of why we do it in the first place. So why don’t we “just do it” a la a Nike commercial and put off some tasks for later? And I’m not just talking about doing the dishes. I’m talking about taking care of tasks that we enjoy as well – could be sewing or gardening or whatever.  

For some it could be some underlying fear of failure or even,  for some others  – fear of success.  Maybe we don’t think that we have the specific skill required or talent needed to complete the task and that we will face ridicule.  Maybe we’re in conflict about the task at hand and aren’t even sure it’s something that we want to do. Maybe we’re overwhelmed by other demands in our lives and can’t give adequate attention to this newer demand. Maybe we don’t have a clear enough image of exactly what it is we want to accomplish.  Maybe the task is boring compared to some other activity that could substitute.  I’m far from qualified to give out any advice here but maybe there’s some food for thought in the above possibilities.
I considered these ideas and wrote the following Haiku:

  Demands, wants, needs, musts
      I want to……….I don’t want to
      Relentless tick – tock

I decided that I would set specific goals for the art work that would accompany this haiku:
1. to complete the work in a set amount of time – time that I alternatively would have spent that evening playing a game online .   I thought that it was not unreasonable to have the main designing and rough assembly done in 45 minutes.  I would do the quilting and finishing the following day.
2.  I have a plastic storage box full of previously fused cotton scraps – some of which are remnants from previous projects.  My challenge was to use ONLY fabrics from that particular box.  Believe me there were plenty to choose from.

The completed piece is approximately 12 inches by 12 inches. 

It demonstrates how focus, definition and time limits overcame procrastination in one dedicated to that art.


Art Quilt, Art Quilts, Fiber Art, Mixed Media, Quilts

I’ve Got Lips – Art Quilt using Extravorganza

Guila Greer

I love doing these journal quilts – what a wonderful way to try new techniques. For “I’ve Got Lips” above I first did a pieced background and quilted it. Then I drew and cut out appliques of various “lips” – with a variety of pink and red fabrics. (I had to add paint to get the right color a couple of times) I looked for as many “lip” quotes as I could find and printed them out in various fonts using ExtravOrganza in my inkjet printer. I then cut out the sayings, frayed the edges and painted each one using a fabric marker. I adhered them to the quilt with a clear fabric glue.
Lips Detail
Fiber Art

Fiberart For A Cause – to benefit the American Cancer Society

Guila Greer

Foto/Fiber 2012
90 Photos AND 90 BONUS Fiber Surprises
Beauty and Mystery Unite to Fight Cancer

Gold Donor Day – February 15, 2012
 Make a minimum donation of $100, choose a photo by
Virginia A. Spiegel, Karen Stiehl Osborn, or Cynthia Wenslow
and choose a BONUS Fiber Surprise
by a specific artist from an amazing list of generous fiber artists.

 Regular Foto/Fiber – February 16, 2012
 Make a minimum donation of $50 and choose a photo by
Virginia A. Spiegel, Karen Stiehl Osborn, or Cynthia Wenslow.
Your BONUS Fiber Surprise will be chosen at random for you
from the list of generous fiber artists.

Artists donating BONUS fiber surprises include: Natalya Aikens,
Frances Holliday Alford, Pamela Allen, Liz Berg, Sue Bleiweiss, Nancy G. Cook, Jane Davila, Vivika DeNegre, Diane Rusin Doran, Jane Dunnewold, Jamie Fingal,
Leonie Hartley Hoover, Leslie Tucker Jenison, Lyric Kinard, Susan Brubaker Knapp, Lynn Krawzcyk, Jane LaFazio, Susan Lenz, Jeanelle McCall
Linda Teddlie Minton, Karen Musgrave, Gail Myrhorodsky
Karen Stiehl Osborn, BJ Parady, Cate Coulacos Prato, Yvonne Porcella
Wen Redmond, Sue Reno, Lesley Riley, Susan Schrott, Cynthia St. Charles
Lura Schwarz Smith, Sarah Ann Smith, and Terri Stegmiller

 Drawings for Fiber Art throughout the event.
All patrons of Foto/Fiber 2012 will also have multiple chances throughout Foto/Fiber to win amazing fiber art donated by:

Leonie Hartley Hoover
Lyric Kinard
Lynn Krawczyk
Yvonne Porcella
Susan Schrott
Mary Ann Van Soest

More information on how Foto/Fiber 2012 works:

http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/FotoFiberHowItWorks.html

Our goal – Raise $7,000 for the American Cancer Society
in just ten hours over two days.

Fiberart For A Cause has already donated over $215,000 to the American Cancer Society through the generosity of fiber artists and their patrons.
Contact
Virginia(at)VirginiaSpiegel.com
for more information.

Fiber Art, Jewelry, Sale

20% Off Coupon for my Facebook Friends on My Shopping Sites + Free Shipping

Guila Greer
Visit Honeyquilts’ Studio
SAVE 20% Off All Items
Use Coupon Code:
20HOL2011
during checkout.
While shopping at Artfire you can add items to your Amazon wish list!!

SPECIAL COUPON FOR ETSY – 20% OFF ITEM PRICE – AT CHECKOUT ENTER THE FOLLOWING CODE:  20HOL2011 AND YOUR DISCOUNT SAVINGS WILL BE APPLIED.

http://honeyquilts.etsy.com/

 

Accessories and Ornaments, Fiber Art, Ornaments

Holiday Gifts and Ornaments

Guila Greer

These are some fun ornaments and accessories that I’ve done in prior years.  I’m trying to decide on a couple of favorites to concentrate on this year.  I will keep some for our own decorating and gift or sell the others.This snowman was a lot of fun to do.  It is free standing lace sewn with a digitized pattern.  The snowflakes and bookmarks are all pretty much done using the same method.

The sewing is done directly on a hooped piece of water soluble stabilizer.  After I sew the piece I rinse out the stabilizer and allow it to dry.  I don’t wash ALL the stabilizer out; I leave some in to give the ornament added body.  Then the real fun begins – to make each ornament unique and add some bling. I do this in a variety of ways; add ornament hangers using ribbons or decorative cords; add sparkle with Swarovski heat set crystals. On occasion I might even add some painted decoration.

Art Quilt, Art Quilts, Fiber Art, Journal Size

Eat Your Veggies

Guila Greer
Most of the art quilts that I’ve been making have been fairly free form.  So I wanted to try my hand at a Still Life. I wanted it to be vibrant with color and simple in design.  The fabrics that I chose would be very important.

First, not knowing which veggies would make the final cut, I went to the refrigerator to see what was available.  I arranged various combinations on a cutting board and ended up with something that looked pleasing.  I photographed them as I went along to get various perspectives.  When I was satisfied I made a print in the size that I wanted to sew and prepared templates.  I adhered a clear piece of laminating film to the printed design and cut the shapes that I wanted to use.

For the first time I went to my little stash of hand dyes and selected the veggie fabrics.  Believe me when I say this was a really big deal.  This is my holy grail of fabric.
I found pieces amongst my commercial stash that would work for the background and the cutting board.
Eat Your Veggies
Once I had the composition in place I decided that some highlights were needed on the veggies.  I added these with Tsukineko Inks, chosen because of the ability to readily control the amount and depth of the color to be added.
I machine quilted to add texture and interest.

As I said earlier it’s quite different from what I usually do – do you like it?
Art, Art Quilts, Fiber Art, Mixed Media, Quilts

In Her Element

Guila Greer

This was such a fun quilt to make. It contains so many different techniques and required so many design decisions that I thought it would be a good one to blog on.

I started this quilt in a workshop about using Lutradur. We did several kinds of painting on Lutradur and incorporated some stamping. I had a piece that I painted in shades of blue Lumiere – thinking ahead to using the finished product in an art quilt with an underwater theme.

I was in MY element being able to conjure up a variety of embellishments to use on this piece.

My favorite is the kelp. I used a pipe cleaner (aka fuzzy wuzzy wire) as the base and wound some yarn from my knitting leftover bag around it. Then I was able to bend the piece the way I wanted it and couched it to the background.

The dark purple fish was made ‘offline’ with some underfabric, netting and a lot of thread painting, then attached to give a slightly 3D look.

The coral was a lot of fun to make. First I painted some lutradur and created the coral shapes with a heat tool. I just burned away to get the shapes that I wanted then stitched them down.

A variety of threads were used in the quilting including my favorite bling thread – #30 Madeira .

 

 

 

 

All the beading was done by hand.

I finished the quilt with a traditional hand stitched binding.

Art Quilt, Art Quilts, Fiber Art, Haiku, Poetry, Poetry and Photography, Quilts

Balance – July Haiku Art

Guila Greer
Balance – what comes into your mind when hearing this prompt word?  I thought of my 10 year old granddaughter Abigail balancing on her unicycle and of the determined look on her face as she struggles to maintain her balance on the low wire.  I thought of commonly used expressions such as “balance your checkbook” or “eat a balanced diet”.
Ultimately – what balance means to me these days is the attempt to put the mind and body into a balanced or integrated state as we do through Yoga practice.
This is the 2nd of a series about Yoga practice.  It incorporates the words: “Shanti” which means peace and “so hum” .  This is a mantra that we use for focus while doing deep breathing.
The Haiku
close your eyes breathe in
jasmine scented air swirling
find your center – stay
Shanti 2