Tag: art quilt

Art Quilt

An SOS to My Art Quilting Readers – Need Ideas

Guila Greer

Please excuse if you see this more than once.  I’ve cross posted it to the Quilt Art list and on my Facebook page as well.

I have a logistics/design issue that I’ve been working on and am not happy with my solutions so far.
I’m SURE there must be one or more of you out there who has happily solved this.

I have more than a dozen small quilts that vary in size with the largest about 12 x 12.
They do not have a cohesive theme of any kind.
I would like to put them all into book form for viewing – but want it to be fairly easy to remove them and of course not damage them in any way.  I do not want to put them into ‘jackets’.

I have looked at several tutorials and patterns and everything I see is related to making a cover for an existing journal or sewing/quilting a journal.  Some of these are extraordinarily beautiful but not what I need.
Ideas???

Thank you!!

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

Challenge for January: Exhilaration – Haiku and Art

Guila Greer
The Haiku Art  prompt word for January was Exhilaration.
The American Heritage Dictionary defines “Exhilaration” as    “The state of being stimulated, refreshed, or elated.”
Sometimes all it takes to experience these feelings is to step outside on a sunny day.
The Haiku
scent of new mown grass
sunbeam caresses my cheek
living…feeling…aaaaah…
For the art work that I was preparing to go with this haiku – I didn’t want to be too structured.  I wanted to indicate an almost childlike feeling of exhilaration with my composition and color choices.
At the same time, as a developing art quilter, I wanted to incorporate a couple of new techniques and see “what if”?
First off I used a “blah” pastel print in lieu of plain muslin as my base. I didn’t mind that it partly “showed through” – just felt it added some interest.
I felt that color was of first importance in this piece – so before doing anything else I painted my background using acrylic paint.  In order to add some texture to the piece I used some Golden Light Molding Paste to parts of the grassy area.    
I quilted the piece extensively with heavy thread. 
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
Art Quilt, Art Quilts, Fiber Art, Journal Size, Quilts

The First Sip of the Morning

Guila Greer

Do you love coffee?  I do – especially that first sip in the morning.  So what did I do?  I made a little art quilt in honour of that    AHHHHsome moment:  the first sip.

I pieced the background to loosely approximate my kitchen – yellow tile counters  – got the grid effect with a paintstick rubbed over a plastic utensil that I found in the kitchen drawer.

I paid homage to my very favorite coffee mug by using its image in this piece – printed then machine appliqued onto the background.  Thread painting, acrylic paint touch up here and there added texture and interest.
Added a little glitter just for fun
Glitzed up a few coffee beans for the full effect and free motion stitched my sentiments.
Art Quilt, Journal Size, Quilts

Icecap Melting and Energy = Color = Energy

Guila Greer

I am so loving doing these journal quilts every month. Thank you Eileen (from Quilter’s Studio) for the demos and the inspiration!! I’m doing things that I never dreamed I’d do (painting) and have new confidence doing things that I’ve done before and needed motivation to pull out of my bag of tricks again.

This one is called Energy=Color=Energy and I had fun working improvisationally (is that a word) to create a feeling of energy and movement.

We did one using Angelina fibers – can you find the angelina? This is a little reminder of global warming called “Icecap Melting”