handloom batiks

I Present Art Quilt # 33: Bits and Pieces

| Cindy Anderson
Handbloom Batik Scraps

From A Bag of Scraps

From a bag of scraps to a finished item this project has had quite a ride. The top, all by itself, is gorgeous. I just love the soft feel of the fabrics as my fingers lightly stroke their surface. The visual impact of the colors is equally as pleasing. Their varied hues entertain my eyes with an explosive pallet of color.

With three of my senses already engaged, how could this quilt get any better? The answer just has to be quilting! Being the creator of the quilt means I am in-tune with every fiber and every inch of its surface. This connection gives me an advantage when it comes to finishing it. From day one my mind was day dreaming about how I would quilt it. For Bits and Pieces it seemed only natural to compliment its design with straight-lines and geometric shapes.

A Tour

Lets take a look at my Bits and Pieces to see how it turned out.

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Bits and Pieces, Art Quilt # 33

I think you will, agree after seeing the above photo, that this is a warm and earthy art piece.

AQ # 33_ Bits and Pieces-Closeup 1
Bits and Pieces, Art Quilt # 33, Closeup # 1

There are so many of my favorite colors represented in the above photo. The bright orange and gold the calming blue and lively green. All of them work together to create a grouping that will continuously draw your eye from one area to another.

AQ # 33-Bits and Pieces-Closeup 2
Art Quilt #33, Bits and Pieces, Closeup #2

This photo was taken  just slightly east of the previous one. The black and white floral fabric is another of my favorites. I like how the author used only two colors to create this striking, organically flowing design. My love for the fabric can be evidenced by its repetitious placement throughout my piece.

AQ # 33-Bits and Pieces-Closeup 3
Art Quilt #33, Bits and Pieces, Closeup # 3

Many of the blocks within Bits and Pieces morphed drastically from their original versions. The two blocks on the right are great examples. Unfortunately since I failed to document their journey I can’t prove it to you. You will just have to believe me.

AQ # 33-Bits and Pieces-Closeup 4
Art Quilt # 33, Bits and Pieces, Closeup #4

The area captured in this photo can be found north of the previous snapshots. In the bottom left corner is my reformulated log cabin block. I spoke about the block in more than one of my previous posts. Finding a design that the block and I could agree with was a lengthy process. I’m so glad I didn’t give up on it. This final version is spectacular.

The other blocks in this photo went through their own versions of reincarnation. They too are far more interesting now than their original versions.

AQ #33-Bits and Pieces-Closeup 5
Art Quilt # 33, Bits and Pieces, Closeup #5

I love all of the blocks in Bits and Pieces…but if I had to choose a favorite or two, I would nominate these two for that honor. I just adore the bright orange alongside the cooling mist of the blue in the adjacent block. The blue adds pizzazz with it’s bursting white images. Strutting through it’s center is a section of my original strip-pieced fabric.

Bits and Pieces_Stitched Together
Bits and Pieces Stripped Pieced Fabric

The orange block, with it’s unevenly pieced borders, sports an interestingly pieced center section. Smack-dab in the center of the block is another section of my strip-pieced fabric.

AQ #33-Bits and Pieces-Backing
Art Quilt #33, Bits and Pieces, Backing with its artful quilting

The back of a quilt is not typically something that would draw our focus. From a longarm quilters perspective it’s often the best place to observe our work. With this quilt the solid color allows the abstract stitching to take center stage; there are no patterned fabrics to distract from the design. I’m quite pleased with the reflection I see in my stitching. From this photo can you see that my quilting was just as earthy as the fabrics I aimed to accentuate.

A Privilege

I had so much fun photographing this quilt. The fabrics are just so rich and inviting. I know I went way overboard with the quantity of photos that I took. Because I kept my shutter rolling it was so hard narrowing down the number of photos to share. I know that I have only scratched the surface of the possible angles I could have taken. Thankfully, I’m so very proud to have Bits and Pieces hanging in my entryway where I can see it everyday. Anytime I want to get a closeup all I have to do is pause and allow my eyes to take in the beauty of my Bits and Pieces.

A Slow Rendition

Well, there you have it; the finale of my story about Bits and Pieces. It has taken quite a while to get us to this point. Well-thought-out art develops slowly and so too should the telling of its story. There is no need to hurry along. Hasty renditions loose sight of the many important details and as a result the reader looses touch with the impact the author desires to portray.

Handloom Batik Strips
Handloom Batik Fabrics

Enriched Experience

I have been so enriched by the journey Bits and Pieces and I have taken. My exposure to the world of improv art has been enriched through this adventure. Having successfully created another art piece, the experience has fanned the flames that fuel my desire to continue on this path. I hope one day to share my enthusiasm for this piece with the owner of Handloom Batiks. She is ultimately the spark that is responsible for the birth of Bits and Pieces. Without her fabrics my piece would not be as rich in texture and interest.

Woohoo! What a Ride!:)

Your Participation Means A Lot

I hope you have enjoyed following along! I love sharing my time with you and receiving your comments. Thank You for being a faithful follower!

For those that just joined in or those that would like to relive my quilt’s journey I have provided links below to the posts that have woven this story. Please enjoy!

Bits and Pieces, Art Quilt # 33

Bits and Pieces: Part Two

Bits and Pieces Part Three

Bits and Pieces Part Four

Bits and Pieces Part Five

Bits and Pieces Part Six

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Bits and Pieces, AQ # 33 Part Six

| Cindy Anderson

Day Six

I’m in my studio, no music on, sitting in my comfy rolling chair thinking about my Bits and Pieces. I’ve been working on this thing for days now and yet there is something about it that doesn’t sit right. Just when I think things are going great and I see the finish line ahead, the train goes off the track. This train hasn’t just gone off the track, no this train has returned to the station. sigh Yup, that’s right! I’m back at the drawing board. This is how my quilt looked the last time we were together.

Bits and Pieces, AQ # 33 End of Day Five

I really thought I had something going here. I had already sewn many of the blocks together into sections but there was something about it that didn’t feel right. Most of the fabrics I used came from the same company, Handloom Batiks, while the others were retrieved from my fabric stash. The solids were obviously from my stash as well as the red fabric in the bottom right corner, the orange woven fabric with the red floral pattern and the golden fabric with the red scribbles. I was pretty much resigned to leave the solid colors in place. Removing them from the mix would be a huge undertaking and I definitely was not up to that challenge. The print fabrics, though, were definitely doable. So, believe it or not my mission today was to eradicate those from my quilt.

Time to Take it Apart

One by one I took the sections down from my design wall and began disassembling it. I removed all of the stitching that held the various blocks together. Now that doesn’t mean I took absolutely everything apart. Heavens, I think I would have to have my head examined if I did that. 🙂 Just the stitching between the blocks was removed. Not all of the seams were carefully taken apart with a seam ripper either. I did take a shortcut or two with my rotary cutter. snicker The amount of fabric I lost by using the rotary method was so minimal but way faster. The less time I could spend on destruction the better. My gears were itching to turn the corner and get back to positive progress.

Now What?

Once all the blocks were separated and stacked into a pile it was time to rethink my direction. Now that I had eliminated the use of outside fabrics, other than solids, I needed to find a way to be resourceful. The amount of fabrics included in the scrap bag was, for obvious reasons, limited so there was no room for wastefulness. I have been reading Sherri Lynn Wood’s book The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters. On page 67 she talks about “Making Do.” Let me quote her words:

More often that not, contemporary quilt makers collect a lot of fabric. On the surface, this may seem like a design advantage, but in actuality, this abundance of choice can become overwhelming. On the flip side, when you are forced to innovate with what you have and you do not have a lot, your improvisational skills are honed. One way to create the aesthetic opportunity to make do, even if your fabric stash is hefty, is to purposely limit your fabric amounts on the tight side at the outset of a project.

Note: the emphasis added to selected words in the quote is of my doing.

What’s the Big Deal?

I am so totally guilty of “collecting a lot of fabric.” I always thought the quilter that died with the largest fabric stash won! Just kidding! 🙂 My huge inventory can be overwhelming. With so many choices it’s often hard to eliminate options. It’s like trying to eliminate someone from a team or a group. Even though the dirty deed needs to be done it is hard because you don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. I can just see you rolling your 👀. You are thinking, “What’s the big deal?” Fabric is an inanimate object. It is incapable of emotion. I know, I know. sigh! But in my little head it does. 🙂

Make Do

Anyway, getting back to the quote, not only had I made the decision, at the onset, to try and use all of the fabrics in the scrap bag, but I had also now added the challenge to make do or limit my fabric options. This meant I had to get creative. There were obvious holes that needed plugging in my design and my scrap inventory was drastically low. So, get creative I did. Here’s a photo of my quilt in its current state.

Bits and Pieces-Day Six
Bits and Pieces-Day Six

You may notice quite a few differences. This is what changed:

  • The print fabrics that were not included in the scrap bag have, for the most part, been eliminated.
  • Some of the blocks have been redesigned. Especially the one in the top left corner.

Bits and Pieces-Day Six Block Remake.jpg
Bits and Pieces-Block Option # 1 (I chose this one)

Bits and Pieces-Day Six Block Remake Option 2.jpg
Bits and Pieces-Block Option # 2

  • Twelve blocks are brand new.
  • 99.9% of the new blocks were created with fabric from the scrap bag and added solids.
  • The block arrangement is different.

I must admit I had fun creating the additional segments. I was bound and determined to use as many of the tiny scraps as possible so I drew upon my knowledge of quilting to even make a paper pieced block.

Bits and Pieces-Day Six Trimmed Paper Pieced Block

Itty-Bitty Scraps

There were times when I got really nervous about not having enough fabric. This happened at the very end. My inventory was so low. All I really had left were itty-bitty scraps and of course my solids. Just when I thought I was going to have to resort to the solids I happened to pull out my rolling cart. There in the top bin was a fairly good sized piece of useable fabric. Oh how I breathed a sigh of relief! My discovery meant I would be able to fill in all the gaps and finally call my piece finished.

All Done

To coin an American phrase, “The Goose is Cooked.” If you are not familiar with this idiom let me put it another way, “It is FINISHED.” Hip Hip Hooray! Yippie! 🙂 Does that help?

The Name

Throughout all of these six posts I have yet to explain the origin of the name. Though, you haven’t asked either!!! What gives with that? Aren’t you curious? 🙂 Don’t think I haven’t been dieing to tell you. I have but I thought I would wait until the end. So, this is where it came from.

Bits and Pieces-Origin of Name.jpg

When I purchased my small bag of fabric scraps there was a ribbon tied around the top of the bag cinching it tightly closed. Attached to that ribbon was this tiny piece of paper. As you can tell from the photo the words “Bits and Pieces” were written in ink. This little tag gave me the inspiration to call my newest art piece Bits and Pieces. Kind of corny I know. But hey, nobody ever said names had to come from a magical place.

Gotta Do It!

I’ve had a great time sharing the creative journey I took to birth Bits and Piece, AQ # 33. Along the way there were some highs and some lows but in the end I was triumphant. I managed to almost accomplish my goal of limiting my fabrics. I’m pretty proud of my “gotta do it” determination. My improvisational brain is going to take a bit of a breather for a while. I think I’ve worn myself out. 🙂

Your Thoughts?

Let me pose the often heard phrase, “So what do you think?” Is it a keeper or not?

Thank You!

Thank you for sharing this time with me! I look forward to our frequent visits. Who knows where my art-filled adventure will take us next?

The Journey

Oh, I almost forgot! You are probably wanting to read the first five posts in this journey. Let me share them with you.

  1. Bits and Pieces, AQ # 33
  2. Bits and Pieces Part Two
  3. Bits and Pieces Part Three
  4. Bits and Pieces Part Four
  5. Bits and Pieces Part Five

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Bits and Pieces Part Five

| Cindy Anderson

L O N G    S L O W    P R O C E S S

Who knew that I would still be working on AQ # 33: Bits and Pieces after five days? As I have said before this is a very l o n g, s l o w process. At times it almost seems painful. But to coin a famous phrase, “Rome wasn’t built in a day!”

For those that just joined me let me provide links to the other four posts.

Lets Begin Again

Bits and Pieces-End of Day Four
Bits and Pieces-End of Day Four

At the end of day four this is how my art piece looked. Day five presented itself a bit differently. I still did more, “What if,” manipulation but I focused most of my time on actually stitching the blocks together into sections.

Bits and Pieces-Beginning of Day Five.jpg
Bits and Pieces-Day Five-Step One

Shown above is another version of my block arrangement. If you compare the two photos you can see that most of the rearranging took place in the bottom half of the art piece. The changes were pretty subtle.

Bits and Pieces-Day Five Version Two.jpg
Bits and Pieces-Day Five-Step Two

By the time I got to this stage I had begun stitching blocks together. This too takes some thought. Obviously the blocks are all different sizes. Their variety of measurements makes it interesting to fit them together. It is kind of like assembling a puzzle. The only difference is that I don’t have a box cover to refer to. I have to make it all up as I go.

Bits and Pieces-End of Day Five.jpg
Bits and Pieces-Day Five-Last Step

By the time I had reached this point my piece had been stitched together into two separate segments. The one on the left takes in the majority of the individual blocks. The one on the right has not yet been attached because it is a different size. I also still have to figure out how to attach the gold block with the thin center strip.

The made-fabric to the left of the gold block and the gold, flashy fabric below are being auditioned as possible candidates. I also have another possible add-in below the right section. (Does that all sound like mumbo jumbo?) I hope I haven’t lost you?

Lots of Progress

Today was a day filled with loads of progress. By the time my piece had reached this stage I was exhausted. I needed to take a break to ponder my next step so day five ended here.

From Trash to Treasure

Hard to believe this all started from one bag of scraps!

Handbloom Batik Scraps

Isn’t it amazing how someone else’s trash can become another person’s treasure!

This brings to a close another day in the life of Bits and Pieces. Stay tuned for another adventure.

Thank You!

Thank you for showing your support by visiting my blog. Your interest is the jewel that makes my journey meaningful! See you next time!

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