Monday, May 21, 2018

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.  

See the source image

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



























See the source image


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...


See the source image








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














See the source image



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

25 comments:

  1. I love this. The older I get the more I play. I'm no artist but I have been quilting for over 50 years so there is a little art in me right? Jmikebalou(at) aol (dot) com

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  2. What a great idea to translate the stained glass window into a quilt panel. It will make a lovely wall hanging. :)

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  3. You cannot ever go wrong when you use FLW as inspiration. In fact my Quilt Guild made his windows the subject of our Presidents challenge in 2016. His works just seem to work perfectly as a quilt.

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  4. Fantastic inspiration and piece. The stitching lines work great to replicate the stained glass look, too.

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  5. I love the piece you came up with and the story and pictures of your inspiration.

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  6. I am impressed that you were able to recreate this stained glass. It is truly a work of art!

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  7. Love your FLW quilt. The "lead" lines are perfect for the piece. Subtle, not heavy. Beautiful job!

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  8. I love your interpretation, very true to the original.

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  9. Hi Melva, that's a lovely piece. I like the way that you added the black without piecing it. Great idea!

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  10. HI, Melva, Your art piece is wonderful!! I've seen a couple of FLW houses from afar and never noticed the windows. I even saw a FLW gas station. Now, that was interesting. The decorative stitch was perfect for the lead on the stained glass. Where will you hang your piece?

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  11. I enjoyed my first visit to your blog. Loved hearing about your architectural journey.

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  12. This is gorgeous. You did a wonderful job of using the piece and making it your own.

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  13. My favorite art inspiration is a small publication from Crown Publishers on Modern Abstract Art. I've done two pieces now related to these hops from that book.

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  14. I didn’t know he did stained glass -excellent choice and you really did it up proud!

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  15. What a lovely piece. I can see why you were inspired by the stained glass and you did it justice in fabric.

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  16. I love your quilt. Such a beautiful stained glass, such clear lines. Your quilt turned out great.

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  17. Absolutely amazing piece! You interpreted the designs elements from that window in a beautiful way with fabric!! Thanks for being part of this blog hop and for inspiring!!

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  18. Oh Melva, what a pretty quilt. I made a FLW quilt (queen sized) for a woman a few years ago. I'll have to send you the link to my post about it. It was quite the process, but it is still one of my favorite quilts I've made. So neat to hear your ties to architecture and how it has impacted your quilting. Hope you get back to Chicago for that walking tour some day!

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  19. Love your Frank Lloyd Wright style quilt! What an awesome idea to translate stained glass into fabric.

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  20. Beautifully done! Florida Southern College in Lakeland was designed by FLW, so I wold go with my daughter when she took tests there. Such lovely and unique buildings.

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  21. I love color mostly, but nature is my inspiration. I enjoy flowers trees, birds... every thing nature :)

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  22. Excellent interpretation of a FLW design. Enjoyed reading the back story, too!

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  23. That is awesome inspiration!! I definitely love looking at architecture to find inspiration too!

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