Artist Statements of Materials and Techniques
Charlene Tuch
I was inspired by the materials I found in my yarn and trim box: DMC thread from a class I took 15 years ago. And a little bag of dyed yarn given to me 20 yrs ago by a friend who spun her own yarn.
I stitched down the DMC thread and then painted it with water color paint. I layered the wool in stages using clear thread.
Laurie Mutalipassi
A photograph of a Long Tailed Salamander became my inspiration. I cut the fabric into many succulent plants which I planted all over the quilt. I put the Salamander amongst the succulents but I needed more. So I gave her two babies. The quilt is called “Salamander Family Amongst the Succulents.”
I fiddled with the fabric by sewing many, many black beads onto the Mama Salamander to show her spots and stripes. The babies were too small to bead so I embroidered all their spots and stripes.
Ann Turley
"Ugly Haystacks” inspired by the Haystacks series of paintings from Claude Monet, each created during different times of the day. I created confetti from my ugly fabric as well as all the other fabrics I used. After everything was in position I covered the entire composition in Black tulle before quilting. It is bound with a simple zig-zag stitch; the ugly fabric is in the sky and also makes a pathway between the haystacks.
Nelda McComb
Materials Used: One very ugly fat quarter; Raw edge appliqué; Machine quilted; Fabric paint; Hand carved wood blocks
Andrea Bacal
I am a new member so as I was organizing fabric. I came across the bacon fabric, wondered how I ever got it, almost tossed it, then remembered, Ah, ugly fabric!
Ardis Bucy
Ugly fabric: It was so ugly, dated and wonderful all at the same time. It became the inspiration for the next step. Also, thanks to my friend Sandie for the sign idea.
Materials: hand dyed background and torn strips of linen
Techniques: Inktense pencils to give the ladies some color, fussy cut the ladies (I think my mother is in this group!), marker on wool sign, embroidery stitches, random quilting
Carol Churchill
Growing up in the 1960’s with Jackie Kennedy in the Whitehouse, Vogue patterns were the Gold Standard for “chic”. What would be more of a challenge than to take a truly ghastly fabric and remake it in the image of Vogue?
Materials: Black spider-web ribbon; copyright free paper dolls; commercial cotton fabric; hand-dyed silk embroidery floss, Mistyfuse, cotton batting. Hand embroidery; raw edge applique; machine quilting.
Janet Farmer
I over-dyed the ugly fat quarter using Dharma Fiber Reactive Dye. I also added strips of hand dyed silk gauze ( dyed with Dharma Acid Dyes) and quilted organic horizontal lines.
Marilyn Gourley
“Tree” was inspired by a brown fabric, covered in small brown leaves, that I received in the QOTW Ugly Fat Quarter exchange. I decided to feature the fabric as a tree trunk and branches. I sketched the tree onto the brown material and placed a layer of RNJ Sew-Shrink Fabric behind my “ugly” fabric. I thread painted the tree design with blue, red, brown, and orange threads. I added additional color with Caran D’Arch Neocolor II Water-soluble pastel crayons. I applied steam to the fabric and watch it shrink by 30% as the Sew-Shrink Fabric did its magic. This added a wrinkled texture to my tree bark. I used Misty Fuse to adhere the raw edged applique pieces to a burlap background. I added a few rocks to the bottom of the piece.
Tara Ritacco
Inspired by Vasily Kandinsky's, " Komposition 8 done in July 1923, this abstract draws emotion. Kandinsky quoted that "Form itself, even if completely abstract, has its own inner soul. The many shapes show chaos, yet there is order in the balancing of the geometric shapes and planes. One can feel the energy and movement.
Materials- Ugly Fat Quarter - see back, loosely woven cotton print, Batik fabric, hand dyed fabric, Soutache Braid, Organza, Tulle
Technique: Machine Embroidered and Quilted
Susan Trindle
I used Shiva sticks, rubbed over bubble wrap and color discharge technique. Echo quilting.
Robin Valles
The ugly background fabric was result of ice dying gone wrong. Design elements are all stash fabric appliques.
Janice Willis
I created a small slow stitched collage comprised of the dyed pink "Ugly Fat Quarter" and other fabrics. I attached the collage to a coffee dyed duck cloth as a component of the overall composition.
Bunnie Maudlin
I received this fat quarter in an exchange and decided to piece a small forest, using the fat quarter as moss on the trees and ground cover. My inspiration was a walk through a forest in Oregon, as well as my fascination with the shapes, lines and colors of trees in general.
Tracy Matheny
I've called it Love Letter. I saw a picture of an envelope with hearts and flowers coming out of it and soon this all came together.
I had a hard time getting enough of the part of the fabric I wanted to use. So glad whoever chose this gave me ample fabric to cut so many little pieces. I discovered the largest piece I could get was 1 3/4" square. I covered the "inside" of the envelope with chiffon. And I had to include the love bugs in the corner, just for fun.
Laurie Bucher
When my family gets together we like to play word games. Every moment is precious, and the time goes by so quickly, like a floating bubble in time.
Materials: Commercial cotton and hand dyed silk were used. Sheer silk was layered and hand embroidered. Also, some cheese cloth was applied to mute the "ugly fabric" Foiling was also used.
Guila Greer
I tried over-dyeing the ugly FQ with Procion dye - unsuccessful results - very subtle change only. I painted the FQ with a transparent paint - Dyn-a-flow - better results . I used a tiny woodblock circle stamp to embellish the fabric with Jacquard Lumière acrylic paint. I used a fabric weaving technique to lay down the strips of fabric that I cut semi-randomly. I then stitched the strips together - butting the edges with a zigzag stitch. I free motion quilted the heck out of the piece - so much so that the edges were too stiff for a regular facing or binding. So I zigzagged the edges to finish the quilt.
Sharon Oblinger
I used the ugly swirly fabric for the sky and sheep’s wool. After painting the wool black you can’t tell the old print though. I used extra layer of batting on the sheep so it’s kind of tranpunto. Everything else is fused appliqué with free motion stitching.
Linda Stone
It includes yoyo’s, hand embroidery, ruching, and weaving.
Sally Freeberg
This quilt is based on a photo I took of my daughter and her dog last summer in Colorado. It is collage and thread painted.
Karen Markley
FIBONACCI. I have always been fascinated by fibionic numbers. This little quilt has several design aspects that follow this sequence. I was lucky enough to end up with a fairly non-descript, previously dyed fabric. First, I divided up the fabric into smaller pieces which I dyed. The lightest of the fabric I stamped repeatedly with a Linda Friedman stamp. I made half square triangles in the size appropriate for the number sequence. And I repeated the sequence with the stamped fabric in squares. Machine pieced and machine quilted.
Sally Silvers
Blue Cat. Cotton fabrics were used, including some batiks to go with the blue ugly fabric. Flowers were part of the design to detract from the “ugly” blue fabric and to enhance the sweet quality of the cat. Yarn outlines her, to simulate fur. It was attached by hand. The sun is big, shining on all of us with good wishes during this Corona Virus pandemic.
Chagall’s Blue Dog Chagall’s paintings often have figures floating in the sky, and he uses the most gorgeous shade of blue I’ve ever seen. So, the cat in the upper right has wings and is floating above blue dog. Blue dog was modeled after paintings by the artist George Rodrigue, made in the 1980s and 90s. Cottons were used and enhanced a bit with fabric paints. Blue dog is outlined in yarn, couched by hand, to simulate fur.
Judy Crotts
The striped fabric reminded me of trees and then of the devastating fires in California and Australia. The quilt is pieced and fused appliqued and quilted with a combination of machine decorative stitches and free motion quilting.
Stephania Bommarito
It is called "The Clock Time Warped circa 2020".
Somehow over the past 6 weeks I lost track of times, days, dates, and landed somewhere.
Thus this quilt expresses what I've been feeling. The clock is supposed to have 12 points on the circle. Climatically over time, the circle got lost, the clock hands disappeared, and now a sense of confusion reigns. Although there are glimmers of hope that life will be reaffirmed and time will be rejuvenated.
The techniques used are machine applique, machine quilting, fabric modeling, thread sketching, and beading.