Current Work--Beth Schnellenberger

I just finished a piece that I REALLY hope gets juried into Dialogues: Contemporary Responses to Marie Webster Quilts (a regional SAQA exhibit) that will be shown at the Indianapolis Museum of Art from June 24-September 4, 2016. Here is a closeup of the piece. I didn't post an entire picture, because I'm a little superstitious about showing it all before the jurying is done.

The entire piece measures 38" high X 30.25" wide. It is entirely hand quilted and contains a lot of hand embroidery. The shapes are machine appliquéd to the background. Most of the individual shapes are made up of MANY small pieces appliquéd to make the whole.

 

I also have a "forever" English paper piecing project that I am perpetually working on. To give you a perspective on how small the pieces are, here is a photo of one of the pieces next to a dime. Each piece is hand basted to a template and hand pieced into the quilt top. (That is A LOT of hand piecing!)

I have worked on this project off and on for two years. The design is based on a piece of old Italian tile work on the floor of a hotel in southern Indiana. Here is what I have done so far.

At this stage, it measures 86" at its widest point and 47" tall. It is made entirely of scrap fabrics--all different red, gold, brown, white, blue, orange, and gray fabrics. I think the variety in those fabrics gives it a bit more "sparkle." I have a love/hate relationship with this piece. I love how it looks, and I love to do the handwork. I hate how hard it is to follow the pattern I drew up, I hate how long it takes to do it all, and I hate having to handle the whole huge piece to add rows to it. It may end up being one of those unfinished "What Was She Thinking" pieces when they find it buried among my things when I'm long gone.

 

This next piece is a companion piece to Metamorphosis I. It measures approximately 20" tall X 10 1/2" wide.

It isn't close to being finished yet even though it may look like it is. I add color to the background before any stitching is done so I can concentrate on the stitching once I get to that point; I don't have to make any color decisions then. There is quite a lot of the piece that has yet to be stitched. If you zoom in on the picture, you can see the areas where the stitching still needs to be done. I use the technique I call "extreme embroidery" for the work on this piece. The entire surface of the cloth is covered with stitches and in some cases I add small pieces of fabric. (The mouth on this piece is red wool with stitching over the top of it.) When it is finished, the cream background you see here will be cut away. I haven't decided yet whether it will be appliquéd to another piece or whether it will be framed like Metamorphosis I.

 

In my next couple of posts, I'll be showing you an extreme embroidery project you can do (and it won't take you months and months to do it).

 

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To Art Quilting and Beyond - Week 4/Part 5

I can hardly believe it is over! I hope you all enjoyed this month as much as I did planning, making and posting it. Have to admit I did learn a few things about me and my art quilting. And especially about hand stitching and quilting. Somehow I think hand-stitching a binding will never seem like that much work again! Sounds like a piece of cake at the moment!

So here is the finale. The last act. The end....or is it? Perhaps it is the beginning of a new direction to enjoy from time to time. Something to stir the creative juices if they ever become stale.

After the final layout, I felt like it still needed something to give it a bit more interest. I have a HUGE piece of netting that has sparkly circles embedded into it. So I cut out circles to keep with one of the connecting themes and I think it really sets off some of the "snowflakes"  And I also have a piece of organza with blue shiny circles on it.  I cut out a few and put those on this piece as well.

Winter Garden

So here are all four seasons together.

So now you know that even when disaster strikes, power is out and zombies are roaming the land, there is art to be made! 

It's been a fun month for me! Thank you all for your kind, encouraging and insightful comments.

We had our first little bit of snow today so I'm really looking forward to Wil's Snow and Ice Dyeing coming up for November!!

To Art Quilting and Beyond - Week 4/Part 3

Now the extra quilting has been done and I settled on how I wanted to make the tree.  And I even added another tree.

I am loving the way the snowy ground undulates and is not straight and even. It looks more like some of the fields up here in the upper midwest in the winter.

And of course, I HAD to have a purple tree! When I teach art to young kids, I tell them they can have purple trees if they want to because it is THEIR art! So I needed to practice what I teach! It is the purple leftover from the first piece, Summer Garden.

And now it has a title as well..."Winter Meadow"

Get ready for tomorrow. Perhaps it was inspired by all the ads for scary movies this week, or just a weird turn of mind. But does it matter....really???

To Art Quilting and Beyond - Week 4/Part 2

Now that there is finally a direction in which to head, everything seems to fall into place.

As I was playing around with the bits to put onto this piece, I felt in the first layout some of them didn't

show up very well...so I combined them with some other bits and I like what happened with that. A litle more depth and a little more texture.

  

The second layout looks a bit better. Getting there at least. I also added the bottle cap for some pop of color there as well. Plus, I knew the girls would get a kick out of it.

Tomorrow it starts to look like the vision.

Then on Thursday....another surprise.  It's a little scary I'll tell you that much! 

To Art Quilting and Beyond - Week 4/Part 1

As you might imagine...since I've now done Summer Garden, Autumn Migration and Spring Pond...the next piece has to be a Winter piece. Only makes sense, right?

As I noted on Friday, I did not have much fabric to work with but with the blue fabric the girls chose and the connecting fabric I had just enough to make it work! Believe me...I was sweating this one.

Because I have the pond with an upward arc I wanted to do this one with a downward arc. So that is how I began.

The blue fabric is the snowy blue sky of a winter evening. And the downward arc finished off the balance of the background. So I had a beginning.

And this is how it sat for almost 2 days. I looked at my bag of items and thought and thought of how to make it blend with the other three pieces. Finally I decided the connecting fabric looked like a valley of snow and that is the direction I settled on.

I started by stitching a tree on the right side but when I put it with the other 3 it looked very  different and like it didn't belong. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it!) I did not get a photo of that stitched tree. It did not turn out like I had wanted anyway.  The one thing that came out of this mishap was noticing that I definitely needed more stitching on the background. Which I did later on as you will see in the coming days,.

So I cut a paper template to use for the tree fabric I had found. I laid that on the background and played with some of the bits in the bag of items just to get an idea of what it could look like.

Here is the first layout.

This one took a little more "marinating" than I'm used to but once I got the vision it evolved fairly quickly.

This process was a bit different than how I usually work. Usually I have a fairly well formed idea of the final product. Granted, it often changes a bit along the way but it ends up near the original vision at least. On this one, I only knew I wanted it to be a winter theme AND that it had to go well with the other three pieces.

So, let's see where this one ends up now!  See you tomorrow

To Art Quilting and Beyond - Week 3/Part 5

Now to finish up the Spring Pond!

Played with all the bling and had so much fun with them. Yes, I know it is weird rain but hey....you never know right?

I stitched down the raindrops which are stitched into the connecting fabric. Then added some of the bling.

Also in the collection of stuff to use I found 4 porcupine quills!  Hadn't seen them earlier.  So I put them at the edge of the grasses like reeds or cattails.

And after all that....here is the final piece

Spring Pond

Only one more week and one more season....winter.

Here is the collection of stuff from my little darlings for the last piece. This one is going to be a real challenge...perhaps the most difficult so far. First thing I notice is that it is woefully short on fabric! I might have to troll my stash to add some to this pile for it to work. Ideas are already swirling around in my head. I'll start on Monday!  See you then!

(Thanks Wil for letting me know. One of the downsides of scheduling posts! )

To Art Quilting and Beyond - Week 3/Part 3

Now for the pond part of the background on Spring Pond.

The fabric is a sunprint I did a while ago. I think it was what really inspired the pond part of this challenging collection.  While the silver tinsel inspired the rain.

When I chose it for the pond, I saw drops of rain landing on the still surface of the pond and ripples spreading out and crossing.  Here is what it looks like.

Now I'm really getting into hand stitching I guess...We took a short trip to see the grandkids today and I took this in the car and stitched some of the ripples. And yes....I even threaded my needle several times in the car!  THAT was a totally new experience. But one of the great things about hand work...it is usually portable!

I added some of the rusty metal and other bits from the collection of stuff for more ripple centers. I also used the blue/silver cording to give some grounding to the pond.

Now I place the raindrops where I wanted them.  Just need to stitch them down.

See them on Friday! Because tomorrow is another surprise.... a little spacey one.

Till tomorrow then!

To Art Quilting and Beyond - Week 3/Part 2

Spring Pond begins.

The background fabrics are for the sunset sky, grasses surrounding the pond, sand/dirt at the edge of the pond...and the pond itself.

I started with the sky fabric. It is already pretty busy so I just stitched around the random patterns made on the fabric. Would love to tell you how I got this pattern but this fabric has been around a while and I have no idea how I did it. It is dyed is about all I can tell you.

Here is a close-up 

The next layer is for the grasses surrounding the pond. I stitched vertically but not straight on purpose. Wanted the lines to look like the various directions of the grasses.

For the sand/dirt at the edge of the pond, I used the connecting fabric and stitched it in wavy lines to give it some texture and movement. 

The next part of the background took a while to complete. I'll tell you all about it tomorrow! 

OK so this hand-stitching novice has a question...I remember from a hand quilting presentation I attended once...long time ago...that there is a way to "bury your knot".  I can't for the life of me figure it out again. Is it

difficult (if not impossible) because I'm working with embroidery floss rather than quilting thread?

Inquiring minds want to know!

To Art Quilting and Beyond - Week 3/Part 1

Week three already!

Ready for another week? With a surprise later on??

OK, first I want to post again the photo of the stuff my granddaughters picked out.

Since I have already done Summer and Autumn, with these colors it has to be Spring! The puzzler at first was the silver tinsel. I was thinking of how to make it into rain...spring rain. Plus I had to get the connecting fabric incorporated into the piece somewhere. After a bit of playing and inspiration that just appeared in my head when I woke up one morning....here is the initial layout of where I want to go with this batch of stuff.

The title will be "Spring Pond"  The concept of the rain (tinsel stitched into strips of the connecting fabric) and the drops of rain landing in the pond and creating ripples. I'll share more of the actual stitching and other bits as we go along.

So now to find my needle and get to work! I hope some of you are willing to give this a try. It is especially fun when you get someone else to pick out the stuff!

To Art Quilting and Beyond - Week 2/Part 5

Now back to our regularly scheduled challenge!

Bring out the bling!...and buttons and other bits.

My granddaughters were told they could pick out paint as well if they wanted to. Next time perhaps I'll be more specific. They picked out 3 colors in DynaFlow! My first thoughts were trying to figure out a way to put it on fabric and yet control it. Nothing really grabbed me down that road. Then I saw that the butterfly had enameled impressions on its wings! So....I painted them. Just what it needed!

Then there was the case of the HUGE earring! Made my ear lobes hurt just to look at it. But I loved the colors especially for this piece. So I took off the big "button" for the pierced post and then it was just what

I needed.  Added one of the metal frames with the animal print added and that took care of the top right corner!  Needless to say...circles abound in this addition.

One of the bracelets had bronze leaves on it...a lot of them. Just took off three and put them under the other metal frame with animal print. Fits in with the Autumn part quite well.

The direction of the pocket watch, washers and buttons is the arc indicating the butterfly taking off on its migration. And yes...LOTS of circles here!

And here is the finished piece! 

Autumn Migration

Next week another season. Here is the pile of stuff my little darlings picked out for me this week! This one might prove to be a real challenge

Oh and another surprise addition next week. It's kind of spacey!

To Art Quilting and Beyond - Week 2/Part 3

Today I'm so excited. I've really been looking forward to adding the next layer on this one.

Doing the background felt like putting gesso or a color wash on my canvas. Creating a fun place for all the other bits to play! Now we're going to start to see the life come to the piece....the beginning of the message.

Here is the layout I finally decided on for the next layer.

And here are the stitches I chose to add texture and give each one it's own identity.

The zebra print went down first with black embroidery floss going counter to the zebra stripe pattern.

Not sure if you can see this one very well. I just put random small x's 

I really had fun with this one

And this one with bigger asymmetrical X's

And just a very simple stitch for this one. It was quite busy already.

It is starting to take shape and tell the story it is supposed to be telling. Tomorrow - the really fun part and the final layer!  Or maybe not.......perhaps tomorrow will bring on other things.......

To Art Quilting and Beyond - Week 2/Part 2

After finding a layout I wanted and the general direction of the piece, I set out to refine the smaller details.

First the background, of course. Here's the first half - the left side. I used the subtle pattern in the neutral to  keep the circle concept going in this piece. And on the far left I just did a slight stitch around the leaves to create the texture.

Then I laid out the right half of the piece. I continued the circle concept in the same neutral and tried (and woefully failed) at doing straight lines again. I WILL conquer these silly straight lines! Now the really sad confession!! I even laid out straight lines with a ruler and chalk marker. One would think I could follow that right? Well....I obviously have straight line issues. LOL! I'm hoping by the time I get it all done they won't

be TOO visible.

So the background is finished and I'm so looking forward to building the next layer.

(by the way...there is no blue on the far right fabric...must be a lighting thing with my iPhone)

I posted on a comment from a previous day that I find that I am responding to this challenge far differently

than I thought I would. I thought it would be fun but never realized just how enjoyable it would be to do the stitching without my sewing machine. Do you find yourself kind of getting "in the zone" or something? Sufficient words aren't coming to me just now. Needs more processing to make sense of it all. Your wisdom and insights are greatly appreciated! Please jump in and comment.

See you tomorrow!

To Art Quilting and Beyond - Week 2/Part 1

Wow what a great weekend! Fall has seriously begun here in the upper mid-west and a long drive on Saturday was absolutely gorgeous. Very inspiring!

After doing a bit of editing of the "bling" chosen for me by my granddaughters (bless their little hearts) I got down to laying out and auditioning layout and bits. Here is the photo of where I ended up after much moving around and adjusting and taking bits off of jewelry so I could use them.

As stated earlier, the title of the first piece is "Summer Garden". With these colors I was obviously drawn to autumn and after this weekend I am even more inspired than ever by the beauty of the changing landscape!

The kind of orange on the far left background is the back side of a leafy fabric. I LOVED the front side but it was way too saturated and overpowered everything else. The connecting neutral fabric with the writing on it

I placed on the far right. I put another neutral in the center background because I don't have a lot of the original one and I also wanted a piece with some subtle pattern in it.

I had the two metal "frame" thingies and they looked very plain and boring all alone so I put some of the animal prints behind each one.

So, here we go! Now to start stitching!

OH and this one already has a title:  "Autumn Migration"  Are you sensing a theme here? I'll get into more of the details this week.

And don't forget! Later this week I'll be adding to this week's information and heading off on a whole other pathway to taking art quilting beyond the box....or....over the box you might say.  Got your interest?  I'll explain all later this week!

To Art Quilting and Beyond - Week 1/Part 5

I can hardly believe it is here...the end of week 1.

So, as promised, here again is the photo of my stuff before starting and a photo of the finished piece.

Here is a larger photo just so you can see it better. This is the 14" X 14" part. I cropped off the extra around the edges just for a better idea of the finished piece.

So that's it! Week 1 of this experiment in Making Do. Thankfully so far there has been no zombie apocalypse!

For the next week, I had my two granddaughters, 7 and 8, pick out the "stuff" for the following weeks.

Let's just say they DO love their bling!!  Here is what they chose for this next week along with the neutral continuity fabric with the writing on it.

Can you SEE all those jewelry bits!!! I'm afraid if I use them all this piece will weigh around 40 pounds! So we'll have to wait and see just how much of this I can actually use and where it will take me!

I would so love to see YOUR stuff and finished pieces. If you can, post them directly to FIRE. If you can't post directly, e-mail them to me and I will post them for you!  My e-mail is    kellyart@charter.net

Remember...be brave! We are all learning and experimenting together, right?

Have a great weekend picking out more stuff and taking this exploration with us!

OH and next week I have a SURPRISE bonus project.....again...by hand and no electricity. Just another possibility to explore. See you then!

To Art Quilting and Beyond - Week 1/Part 4

With the background finished, not I get to play with the fun bits!

So I put the background down on the table and piled all my fun bits next to it to see what fit where. I think this is so much fun...seeing it start to take shape and when you can see the actual final piece in your head.

Before I started quilting I auditioned things and found pretty much what I wanted.

Then when I finished quilting and laying out the actual size of the finished piece, I made some adjustments.

Here is the next audition session.

Now I can reveal the title of this piece. OK...here's where I'm headed.  I plan to make 4 of these little challenge pieces and then put them together in one art quilt. After seeing how this one was coming together, I decided on the four seasons.  This one is "Summer Garden"

Of course, a summer garden needs some summer sun. No yellow paint but who says the sun can't be light green? I used the metal mesh piece as a stencil.

Then some of the darker green as a brush stroke for some subtle movement in the corner.

When looking at it, it became obvious that the "flower" with the puzzle pieces was way too much like a snow flake so that had to change. Stitched the puzzle pieces down with an X of embroidery floss. And added one of the larger buttons in the box.

The painted piece of Tyvek seemed too dark so I flipped it over (fortunately I had painted both side of this one) and liked that much better. I stitched it down with random Xs 

Then I braided a piece of the fabric in the box and stitched it as the outside of the flower. A pearl-esque button in the middle added to lighten up the space.

Now for the flowers on the ground and seeds under the ground.....

This one has both. One flower just popping its head above the ground and a flower-to-be under the ground.

I actually had buttons that went with three of the colors of the stripes in the "top soil" I love the pop of color they add.

So...now it is complete. I'll show you the final piece all together tomorrow!

OK...while I can't see doing a whole quilt by hand, not yet at least, I have to say I have more of an understanding of the process and appreciation for the calmness of it all. I can actually imagine making pieces even without electricity and all my equipment. I enjoy the challenge as well. I hope you are as well!!