Oh, boy ~ Learning new stuff!

When I think of quilting, I fondly recall sitting under a quilt frame my father built for my Grandma Broyles, her nimble hands moving more slowly every year due to arthritis. As she stitched away, she would help me practice my spelling words and times tables. Every quilt she ever made (and there many!) were hand-pieced and always hand-quilted.

Today, however, I believe that quilts fall into categories: baby quilts, which are meant to be used, dragged around the house and car, cuddled up in, and occasionally puked on. Colorful, fun, durable, but HIGHLY washable.

Next are bed quilts, also quilts to be used, thrown into the washer and dryer, loved, used at ‘bedspreads’ and worn out until the binding needs to be patched or replaced. These and wholly and dearly loved. In my family these are passed down generation to generation.

Art quilts, or wall quilts, always meant to be displayed. Art. Artistic. Distinct design elements, realistic or abstract. I have made many of these and been privileged to hang and display them all over the world.

But now I’m learning surface design, printing elements, using products that I had never heard of, or walked right past in an art supply store and had no idea what they were to be used for. They just looked like bottles of ‘chemicals’ to me. Today that’s different.

Here are my first 2 prints: double exposure B/W photographs, layered substrate of painted watercolor paper and Cut-Away interface or stabilizer. My brain is buzzing with new possibilities!

Beth