Art With Fabric Blog Hop & Give Away!

Welcome to the Art with Fabric blog hop!  

And welcome to Melva Loves Scraps.

If this is your first visit to my blog, I encourage you to take a look around... you can learn a bit about who I am on the About Me tab; 

Take a quick tour of my studio (though the "tour" needs to updated since I added a second sewing table that is home to my Babylock Jazz that I received at Christmas.  The cutting table was replaced); 

There is a small gallery that features some of my most favorite and/or unique quilts that I have made... 

And one of my absolute favorite "spaces" of my blog is the Quilters Through The Generations page where you can easily find all of the quilters that have been featured in this unique series where the stories of multiple generations are told. You will hear stories and memories of being taught to sew/quilt by sitting on a grandmother's lap, helping to hand quilt at a quilting bee or being "tucked out of the way" as children played under a quilt frame as the ladies quilted.  

I have a passion for vintage quilts, as well as the history of the quilts.  When ever I find a quilt I always wonder... who was this made for?  Who was the maker?  Was it for a special occasion? A wedding?  Perhaps a graduation?  To welcome a new baby?  You know all of the pertinent information that should be included on a label to document the work of art that quilts are...

Sorry for that rabbit trail... back to the Art with Fabric blog hop!  My maternal grandmother was an artist.  I have many, many hand-painted china pieces from her, including a ten-piece place setting of fine china, several water colors and I happen to know where I could get several acrylics and oil paintings, should I ever have a need for them. 😉  But for my inspiration I turned to an area in my past work experience - architecture.  

In 1986 I worked for Burnidge, Cassell and Associates when they had an office in Elgin, IL.  I was their secretary/receptionist and assisted with the payroll at a time that their offices were expanding quickly.  Charles Burnidge was the "guy in charge"... it was from him and a few others that I learned about the importance of natural light, clean lines and angles.  Charles liked lots of angles.  The BC&A design style was easily distinguishable, though not as well known as Frank Lloyd Wright's "style".


I am aware that there is a walking tour of his designs in Chicago (and would someday enjoy the tour should we ever make it back to the area), but when I started searching for FLW architecture his windows stood out to me.  



The Robie  House and The Falling Water House are among his most notable designs.






























The clean lines he created in this Prairie style house and the windows caught my attention... and then I started looking for some of his stained glass windows...











  His Tree of Life Mosaic was often part of his design...


















And then I stumbled upon this picture on pintrest...  I immediately knew this was the piece of art I wanted to make with fabric!











I contacted the FLW Foundation seeking permission to reproduce this piece, but never receive a response to my message that explained what I was wanting to do and why.  

So, with no further ado...  

I used a decorative stitch to create the "stained glass lead lines" and stippled only the white to create the wavy glass look.

I think it will be stunning as a wall hanging or on a long dining room table...

What is your favorite art inspiration for quilting?  

A few months ago I was playing with some fabric art postcards.  While art, they are not replicating a famous artist's work... 

They are still art...  just my own photographs of some area land marks.  

You can get the entire story over at my Small, Smaller,  Smallest post.  






As a bonus... I am giving away a pattern for a free style pieced quilt (directions for a throw size or queen size) - Picasso's Quilt

Want a chance to win this?  Leave a comment before May 25th!  I will be doing a random drawing for the winner.  If you are a no-reply blogger, be sure to leave your e-mail address with your comment so that I can contact you (ie - davemelvanolan at aol dotcom).  Good luck and thanks for stopping by.  

I hope that you have enjoyed your visit today and plan to follow along with my quilting projects and adventures by subscribing via e-mail (in the right-hand side bar), on Bloglovin', on facebook or instagram.

Be Inspired... Make Art,

Melva

I extend many thanks to Alida at Tweety Loves Quilting for making this hop a fun hop and to each and every visitor for making it a successful hop!  Be sure to visit all of the other bloggers all this week. 

Monday, May 21st

Janeen: http://quiltartdesigns.blogspot.com/
Andrée: http://quiltinglearningcombo.blogspot.com
Carol: http://www.quiltedfabricart.com


Tuesday, May 22nd

Shannon: http://imworkingonaproject.blogspot.com/
Terry: http://www.terryaskeartquilts.com/
Bea: http://www.beaquilter.com/
LeeAnna: http://lapaylor.blogspot.com/


Wednesday, May 23th

Kat: http://www.katknapcrafts.blogspot.com
Julie: http://juliebagamary.blogspot.com/
Karen: https://tunaquilts.wordpress.com/
Wendy: http://www.piecefulthoughts.com/

Thursday, May 24th

Alida: http://tweloquilting.blogspot.com/
Heather: http://heatherquilts.blogspot.com/
Tami: https://thriftshopcommando.blogspot.com/
Dione: https://www.cleverchameleon.com.au/

Linking with:

Off the Wall Friday with Nina-Maria

Friday Foto Fun with Powered by Quilting