Why Art Quilts?
As I work on preparing to re-open my web shop at the end of the month, I have been doing some reflecting on why I focus a lot of my work around small art quilts. I’d like to share with you some thoughts about why art quilts are important to my art practice, and also share some thoughts about why they might also be important to you. In the process, I will also offer a sneak peek as some of the art quilts that are coming to my shop, as well as a special offer for you to consider.
While there is something very satisfying about finishing a big quilt, it is a huge investment of time and energy. I have written before about how much I enjoy improvising and playing with scraps, and I find that playing around with an idea in the form of a small art quilt has a number of advantages for the way I like to work. I admit that I can get bored repeating the same activity over and over again — which is why many of my larger quilts are samplers. Working on a sampler or a series of smaller pieces gives me more variety. A smaller piece is also more portable while I am working on it, especially when I am incorporating a lot of hand stitching. And when I was still juggling the infamous #dayjob, the timeline to actually finishing a small quilt was much more realistic!
I also like to make smaller art quilts because of how well they lend themselves to working with scrap and found fabrics. Often the shape and size of the quilt is dictated by the particular bits and pieces that I am working with. I enjoy letting the materials I have on hand guide the project, as opposed to designing a project and then going off in search of fabric which may, or may not, match the image I conjured in my head.
I like art quilts because they are a good way to make my creative work available for others to enjoy. What about you? Why might you choose an art quilt to decorate your home? Here are some possible reasons:
They are affordable. A full size quilt, if the quilter is charging realistically for their materials, time and skill, is very expensive. But I can price an art quilt at an amount that makes it more likely that you can purchase one without breaking the bank.
They don’t break. If you move around a lot, having a lot of fragile, framed artwork can be cumbersome to pack up and relocate. One of my art quilts can be rolled up or laid flat with your linens for transport, and if it comes out a bit rumpled a quick press with an iron is all that is needed.
They are renter-friendly to hang. Most of my art quilts are light enough that a couple of thumbtacks are enough to hold them up.
Most of my art quilts come with two triangular hanging pockets on the back side that can be used to insert a rod. (Thin wooden doweling works well, and can be purchased at most craft or hardware stores.)
Note also that I use a couple of different labels. If the label says “original design” it means that everything about that quilt was my idea. I do, however, sometimes play with the work of other designers. If the label says “handcrafted” it means that, while everything about the production of the quilt came from my hands and skills, there was another person involved in some way— usually in the form of designing a pattern. When I have used someone else’s pattern, I will always credit that designer in the product description in my web shop.
In the coming months, I have plans to build out this website further to make it into more of a vehicle for sharing my artwork, so as to be less reliant on social media platforms.
As a thank you for your support, newsletter subscribers can look forward to the gift of a special 20% discount code that you can use in my shop throughout the month of February. If you are not yet a subscriber you can enjoy this opportunity by signing up for my newsletter by January 31st.