Sketch #1
For the past little while, every time I have a spare half hour or so, I’ve been working on a series of miniature art quilts that measure about 2 1/2″ x 3 1/2″, the size of artist trading cards. I’ve been turning these little pieces of art into fridge magnets and will be selling them at an upcoming art show on June 6 and 7th in Kerrobert, Saskatchewan.
I began the miniature art quilts by first constructing a fabric collage approximately 12″x18″, using various hand-dyed and batiked fabrics fused onto a background. I then hand- printed and stamped symbols and motifs onto the fabric collage for more interest. After layering the collage with batting and a backing fabric, I machine quilted the layers to hold them all together in preparation for the next step…
Sketch #2
I sliced the fabric collage up, using my rotary cutter, into smaller pieces 2 1/2″ x 3 1/2″ and then zig-zagged the edges for a neat finished look. When the larger collage was cut down into smaller pieces it was definitely easier to treat each little one individually, and that was when the real fun began.
I just love to embellish and because the pieces were so small, I could use up little bits of leftovers of novelty yarns, beads, charms, trims, and various other materials that I had saved. Each little artwork was a design lesson in itself and was a great way to practice those skills on a much smaller scale than usual. I tried to be continually aware of the scale and proportions of the quilts and my choices of embellishments.
Sketch #3
So far I’ve made about fifteen of these miniature pieces and each one is unique. I’ve tried to use a variety of techniques as well as materials on each one and it is hard to believe that they began life as one large piece of collaged fabric. Even though I turned my artist trading cards into art magnets, they could also be displayed in shadowbox- type frames or perhaps made into art pins to wear as jewelry to your next art show.
Although I’ve only pictured a few mini art quilts here, there are many more to see. If you are interested in seeing more, please feel free to email me at carol@artlessfabrications.com.