Impromptu

 Cloth, Paper, Scissors Magazine some time back listed some prompts you could use to spark ideas in creating art. At our last meeting, my art group, ArtsEtc., did an activity in which the leader pulled out prompts from an envelope one by one. After a prompt was called out, we each executed the direction onto our working surface. My surface was a 12 x 12 piece of batting. I brought a collection of fabrics I had made (from gelatin monoprinting), some commercial fabric from   Marcia Derse,  some pearle cottons, embroidery floss, sheers, and 3-D items, needles, and thread. Here are the prompts that were pulled. We were allowed to ignore the ones that we didn’t like. I followed all but #6.

1.) Add a strong diagonal.

2.) Add a trapunto. (I added a stuffed monk.)

3.) Add a repeating shape in several sizes.

4.) Add a doodle.

5.) Add a circle.

6.) Gather.

7.) Add strips.

8.) Add embroidery.

9.) Add a geometric.

10.) Add a sheer.

Since I’m trying to develop a body of work, I brought materials that stick to the colors and themes of that body. The activity took about an hour and a half and lots of talk and laughs.

     After I made it and took it home, I read that  SAQA wants a 10 x 7 piece for a trunk show and I thought the composition of part of it was good enough and if I work on it more and quilt it and embroider it, I can make it into a nice art quilt. So I rearranged some of the elements and cut it to size. (I forgot to take a photo before I did all this. Whoops.) So to get a “before” photo I stuck all the pieces next to each other.Here’s the 12 x 12 piece. 

definitely an impromptu work

Here it is cut to the proper size for the trunk show.

In-process, cut to size

The plan is to add quilting, embroidery and edging and other elements as needed.

I'm linking this to Off The Wall Friday where you can visit other art quilt blogs. Please make comments to let the artists know you stopped by.