Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Award Winning Wall Hanging


Award Winning Wall Hanging
Quilted Wall Hanging – What a combination!

A very talented quilter Dotty, created this awarding winning wall hanging. Dotty first provided textile painter, Eileen Gidman, with photos of cacti blooming in her garden. The artist composed the hand (dye) painted fabric panel by placing the cacti in the natural setting of an Arizona desert. The 100% cotton fabric was painted by Eileen with fibre reactive dyes resulting in a piece that is washable and easy to stitch.

Ditat Deus means 'God Enriches' which is Arizona's state motto. The fabric inserted on the diagonal and behind the writing is a theme challenge fabric that celebrates Arizona's 100th year of statehood. The piece was embellished with detailed thread painting, quilting and machine embroidered animals that live in the state. Doesn't the blue background Dotty chose make the orange flowers 'sing'!


Thursday, April 12, 2012

Hand (dye) painted Design - 'Prehistoric'








'Prehistoric'
Hand (dye) painted fabric
by Eileen Gidman

Choosing colours to accompany a patterned fabric.
Rather than simply choosing from the colours within the piece what are some of the possibilities for colour selection? Using Joen Wolfrom's Color tool, the complement of the cerulean blue found in this hand painted piece would be a yellow-orange. If you included shades of orange right up to deep rusts, the colour combination with the blue from the 'Prehistoric' hand painted fabric would be electrifying.
A triadic colour combination is another possibility. The colours with the cerulean blue, would be chartreuse, and a cool red (blue in it). Choosing uneven amounts of the three colours in your piece would allow dominance of one colour and supporting roles for the other two colours. What other colour combinations can you think of? Rather than choosing just from the colours within the feature fabric try something unexpected for an exceptional piece.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

6 1/2" Squares


'Foothill Farms'
6 1/2” hand (dye) painted squares
Artist: Eileen Gidman
2/ $ 19.95

These 6” (finished size) blocks are one set of a new line developed for the Quilt Canada show. Each item of the pair is different yet complementary to the other picture. Of course each would be different, they are hand painted!

This size of block is easy for you to use in traditional patterns. Even if the pattern block size is say 8” or 12”, simply border out the two hand painted blocks to fit with the other pieced blocks. You might want to enhance the art squares with pieced sewing, free motion stitching, bead embellishment or...........You will have your ideas.

The hand (dye) painted 6 1/2”x 6 1/2” squares are available for sale on my website at www.eileengidman.com .