Art Quilts

About RubyWings

Art Quilting

In the past few years, I have become passionate about art quilting. I specifically
have focused on ways to incorporate beading, thread embroidery, and other
fiber techniques and materials into my work. I particularly have been working
on bead-embroidered art quilts, although I have used many different beading
techniques. Thread painting is what drew me to quilt art in the first place,
and I have been incorporating it and free motion quilting into my fiber art.

Beaded Art Quilt	Through the Leaves
My bead group participated in an exchange of beaded flowers. Eighteen people participated, nine in the USA and nine in England. We each chose a color scheme before the exchange started. Mine were red, purple, and orange. I hand appliqued the vase to the background and then sewed on all the flowers. I free-motion quilted the background. The deadline for the finished piece was February 1, 2012. Most recently, I have been combining beading and quilting, especially thread painting and free motion quilting, and this quilt reflects that direction.	I started this quilt in May 2011 at the Minnesota Contemporary Quilters' retreat. I free cut the flower petals from hand painted fabric and machine appliqued them to the ground. I then hand embroidered the centers of the flowers with floss and beads. I thread painted the leaves on the background by machine and then free-motion quilted the pebbles.
Flowers on the Bias	Cherry Blossoms
I made this beaded art for Minnesota Contemporary Quilters' 2011 challenge, Twin Cities on the Bias. I sandwiched several layers of rayon fabric and made chenille that I then cut apart into strips. I then gathered the strips to make the flowers. I had been working on a shawl for my mother in the chenille technique, and my idea for the challenge just popped in my head. I free-motion quilted the background before I applied the embellish- ments. I beaded the leaves in peyote stitch and applied them. The centers of the flowers are antique buttons. I thread-embroidered the stems and bead-embroidered the fronds.	I made this art quilt for Minnesota Contemporary Quilters' 2010 challenge, Melange a Trois. I pieced the sky and ground and machine-appliqued the tree trunk and the tree's shadow. When I started, I was going to peyote-stitch all the blossoms, but I eventually realized that I would not get the piece done until the next century if I did so. I decided to supplement the small beaded squares with fabric squares, both in various values of pink. I placed a piece of netting over the pink squares and stitched it down. I then realized that I needed more squares, which I hand-appliqued on top. I put another layer of netting over everything, and then free-motion quilted the sky and thread-sketched the grassy area.

Paintstick Series

A friend and I had played with painsticks and stencils, and I used the pieces to practice free motion quilting.
Landscape
In 2009, my beading group worked on a round robin. This round robin happened after the group saw the blocks that I did for my quilting group's round robin. (See below.) The timing of the two groups overlapped by a couple of months. Each of us chose a theme, and all members beaded one block based on every other member's theme. We also beaded a block on our own theme and made a twelfth block to make a final piece. My theme was landscape, and I chose to put my blocks into a quilt. One member made a book from her blocks; some put them in frames; and several made wall hangings. We finally finshed everything this summer (2011). My block, the French building, is in the center column, third from the top.
Flowers In 2008, my quilting group worked on a round robin. Each of us chose a theme. We first created a block on our own theme and passed it in a pizza box to the next person with fabrics and/or embellishments that other members could use. All members created one block based on every other member's theme. My theme was flowers. My block is the one in the very center. We finally finshed everything last summer (2010).
	Silver Dawn This purse represents one of my first efforts in bead embroidery. I became interested in working in that technique because I had started thinking about creating two-dimensional art using different fiber techniques, including bead embroidery.