Thursday 12 May 2016

Art with Fabric





 Today is my turn with the  
Art with Fabric Blog Hop...

I love art! all of it - even the really wierd stuff....
and lately Ive been inspired by the works of Charley Harper.

What a great guy! I love his illustrations!
When I look at them I get a flood of new ideas for things I want to try or to make.... alas, I only have two hands....





Charley Harper (1922 - 2007) had an alternative way of looking at nature. Illustrating our world for six decades, he created thousands of bold, stunningly colorful works that manage to be both elegant and amusing. He revealed the unique aspects of his wildlife subjects through highly stylized geometric reduction in a style that he coined "minimal realism".

 Visit the Charley Harper site here...






Here's my touch of Harper....



I wanted to make something that wasn't a copy of one work but a combination of a whole bunch of them in one quilt, so I gathered a few images and started to play with them until I was happy.
Most of his book illustrations are very 'busy' and have a load of animals, birds etc in the one illustration, so I also wanted to capture that in my version too.






This is the design I came up with.
It has loads of birds and animals that you can find hiding in the leaves.

Some are in the absolute foreground and then others like the fox is far down in the floor of the woods.

Everywhere you look there is something new to discover and that is the thing about Charley Harper's work that I love so much.



my "Woodlands" art quilt measures 38 x 52" (130 x 90 cm) and is all Paper Pieced (of course!).



Once the quilt top was done, the new challenge was to do Free Motion Quilting on it....

Something I'm not very good at and I only have a small machine with limited space, so this was really a huge thing for me.


I ended up doing the bigger birds and animals and then all the leaves.


 The Hawk was the closest to the viewer so he had to have something done and the racoon too, but I was really scared of overdoing things.

Just look at that fabulous tree/wood fabric my friend Jan sent me from Australia...
Thanks Jan!!


The sweet Deer with her Fawn was only given lines where I wanted the suns rays shining in through the leaves.

  The butterfly - well, I just had to do that to him...


 Some of them were only given the bare minimum of FMQ or not even at all.



I hope you enjoyed the whole journey with me...



Other bloggers for Thursday, May 12th are:

*******************************
Have a Great Day!







18 comments:

Steffi said...

Wunderschön, ich bin begeistert!
Liebe Grüße
Steffi

Yvonne said...

It really is a piece of art. It is so beautiful!

Cynthia's Creating Ark said...

Wow. It is stunning. I love how you combined more than one together.

Lisa England said...

Wow, what an amazing interpretation of Charley Harper's art. Your pattern is fabulous!

Sarah @ Georgia Girl Quilts said...

Amazing! It's truly a piece of art. Love all that detail!

Christine Staver said...

OH my goodness! This blew me away. I have always wanted to make a quilt of an outdoor scene with all the cats I have had on it. I thought about appliqué, but after seeing your quilt I think piecing might be the way to go. Is this Cynthia England's picture piecing method? Your quilt reminds me of her fabulous quilts.

Heather Pregger said...

Janeen, this is fabulous! Delightful, colorful, whimsical and very much in the spirit Charley Harper! But absolutely your own spin. Wonderful!

Renee said...

Wow that's a massive paper pieced project, both for design and sewing!! Awesome job.

Yvonne from Quilting Jetgirl said...

What an impressive paper piecing design! I was wondering if someone would use the technique in the hop, and you did it masterfully. I can definitely see Charley Harper as your inspiration but you made it uniquely your own.

Jennifer Fulton Inquiring Quilter said...

I love his work too, especially his cardinals. Your piece is outstanding. Your paper pieced designs are perfection, and what a lovely result! Honestly, you should consider selling the pattern.

Karen said...

Wow! You've out-Charleyed Charley Harper! Your work is stunning.

Susan said...

I think you did an outstanding job on this with both the subject matter and the FMQ.

DeAnna said...

Your paper piecing is awesome! This is really a fantastic piece. Enjoyed reading the link to Charley Harper...thanks for sharing. I've only just started paper piecing and you've inspired me.

Kathy said...

Very beautifully done!!! I love the deer in the sunlight. Your fmq looks great...I agree it is very hard to figure out the right fmq on paper pieced work,but your project turned out great!

Kathy said...

Very beautifully done!!! I love the deer in the sunlight. Your fmq looks great...I agree it is very hard to figure out the right fmq on paper pieced work,but your project turned out great!

Calicojoan said...

Oh I love it. No one does justice to paper piecing like you do! Great job!

AlidaP said...

A really great interpretation of his illustrations! I think you added the right amount of FMQ to enhance the design without distracting from the beautiful piecing! Thanks for introducing me to a new artist and thanks for joining the hop!!

Andree G. Faubert said...

Hi Janeen, What a great interpretation of Charlie Harper's work! You did a great job and the FMQ is lovely.