Edges - is there no end to the madness?

I shared the 12x12x12 with my informal art quilt group, Metrothreads last Saturday.  I meant to share some lessons from working small, and I realized that I got caught up in the fun of show-n-chat and may not have given specific details as promised on tips for working smaller... I'm sure there are a lot more tips for working small... but here's a couple that jump out at me..

SCALE & VALUES

check out the 12x12x12 in miniature... Peace, Love and Joy (top left) got a little bit "mushy, squishy", but the flogs still show up.  The rest seem to have some good pop.

That's not small enough, let's get really small and see what happens!

I think that small, large and medium works need to have appeal at different distances - from a distance, I've see art quilts that go mushy and don't draw you in.  I squint at my art as I work (or take off my glasses) if I like it squinty, I'll like it from a distance.  I also take photos from a distance and look at them on the small camera screen.  Oooh, now you know more of my secrets!


EDGES

I think putting a traditional bed quilt binding on an art quilt is like wearing a cocktail dress with Danskos.  And I do love my Danskos (and so much more than I love cocktail dresses!), but they take the focus away from the dress and make you question what scenario led to that outfit - did the house catch on fire and you grabbed the closest shoes? Was it "laundry day, nothing clean"?

I love juxtaposition, like in steam-punk - but I think a lot of art quilters don't do traditional bindings becase they want to show juxtaposition...maybe they see it as expected, easy, safe and they know how to do it already!  But like scale changes things - If your big quilt bindings are great, good, okay, so so, or not even so - it's going to magnify mistakes, so great is now just good, good is okay, and so on.  So if you can do great bindings on big quilts, do it on small ones, but maybe try single fold and try small widths.  If you are in the not so great category, I think you have a decision to make.  Try facings, "try it, you'll like it." (Yes, I am heavily influenced by 70s TV).

Commercial break 

Do you realize that  "try it, you'll like it." is an Alka-Seltzer tag line?  

In my flawed memory it was Life Cereal... that was actually different... 

"I'm not gonna try it—you try it!" 

Life Cereal commercial with Mikey, who actually likes it!

we now return you to your regular blogcast

You know from 2d paper art and photography - framing is an artistic element- and those who come from traditional quilting know what a good border will do for a bed quilt.  But the border also needs to be in scale with the item - a 2.25" double fold on a bed quilt has a appropriate scale look that it doesn't have on a small quilt.  I've played with faux binding using piping.  Wrapped fused binding or zigzagging can be appropriate for a small quilt.

DANCE THE FACINGS FANDANGO
Facings, like the palette cleansing sorbet, mmm such a great finish!  If you've never done facings, it's little harder at first, but soon you get used to the steps and can spin around the room and wow the crowd.  What is just a little harder, gives a look that can be flamboyant.  The pay offs of dancing the Facings Fandango include:

• puts the focus on the quilt
• nice crisp edges
• not limited to straight edges
• better hang-ocity - give quilts more stability in an unstable world!
• gives you options (front, back, matching, contracts, insertions)
• you can say "Facings Fandango", who wouldn't want to say that?

Check out, Day 11 Life on the Edge  for brainstormed ideas for quilt edges,








Thanks for having fun with me today!