As Seen on TV – The Downton Abbey Quilts

Lady MaryI love Downton Abbey.  I make no secret of it and I adore the characters, both Upstairs and Down.  I was making sketches of the characters in my notebook and on the iPad using the Paper App, when I started posting them to Facebook to my friends.
Dowager Countess
Not soon after, my friend Pokey asked me if I wanted to be part of the PBS series Quilting Arts.
Lady EdithUm, YES!
Lady SybilSo here are the Upstairs Ladies of Downton, made for my segment on Quilting Arts.  How about you?  Are you a Downton fan?

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New Weekly Quilts This Year Are For Sale

So I am back to making Weekly Quilts again this year, and I decided that they are for sale!  I have a hard time parting with my art.   I find that if I made it for intentionally trading or selling, I didn’t have a problem with it finding a new home.  So this year, every weekly quilt I make will be for sale. 

© Cheryl Sleboda – Robot I – 2013

Ideally the goal will be to have them in themes so that if I want to offer them as a group to a gallery, they would go together and hang well.

If you are interested in what’s left, head on over to my Etsy Shop and check them out!  

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About Weekly Quilts – Part 3- Learning from the Masters

I’m continuing my “About Weekly Quilts” articles, this time discussing talking classes from other quilt artists and more.
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Recently, there was a debate about why you should NOT take classes from other teachers/quilters, so that your style is not unduly influenced by those artists in an effort to strive to find your own.  Without going too much into that debate, I think that’s tough to do, and I have no reservations about taking classes from other teachers.  Besides learning how to be a better teacher myself, unless a visual arts artist is blind, they will see something that will influence their work.  In addition, the “masters” all studied from and copied their favorite artists regularly throughout history, so why shouldn’t we? 

So on this topic, when working weekly, it’s a perfect time to try out something new.  Whether it’s a magazine technique, a class sample that you never finished and cut down, or just “copying” a style of your favorite artist, using inspiration from other artists will definitely help you hone your skills.
Some examples are:

A quilt that was a magazine article that I adapted to a 6 inch size weekly quilt.

A weekly quilt that was part of my classwork in Judy Coates Perez‘s Fabric Painting class.

A quilt that I used to emulate Kathy York‘s dimensional work.

Each of these little quilts were done at various points in my weekly quilt career, and I learned from each of them.  Another benefit? Weekly and small quilts let you try a technique without a huge committment. My Technique of the Week series last year helped me try so many things without trying to slog through a wall sized piece knowing I hated the technique.  

My last installment “About Weekly Quilts” will take us back the the “Back to Basics” concepts of using them to keep your mind creatively sharp so you have fewer creative blocks!

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About Weekly Quilts – Part 2 – Finding your Voice

I’m continuing my “About Weekly Quilts” articles.  Check HERE for part 1.  
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When I started weekly quilts, I just made what I wanted in year one.  By year two, I wanted to expand the idea slightly and make quilts that changed themes each month.  By the end of that year, I had an amazing body of work to reflect on, 104 mini quilts all 6 x 6 inches.  
Hindsight is 20/20, and while you are making this much work you aren’t aware you are developing your own voice and style, but you most certainly are. 
Check out these “early” works in which I started seeing my “super cute” style appearing…  
And my latest quilts…
Maybe I didn’t realize that these trees would later appear in a larger work of mine… 
The nice thing is that I got to refine techniques in years three and four.  These quilts here:
Became this work here:
And this is just the tip of the iceberg in what I see in my own work. 
So, working weekly helped me flesh out ideas, sure…. but I also found my voice and my style.  It’s varied, but definitely me.  And I think I’m really happy about that, and why I plan to continue down the weekly journal quilt path.  
Next time: Weekly quilts as class exercises.
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Star Wars Quiltlet 2- Light Up Jawa

This weekly quilt is actually being given away to a lucky friend who likes Star Wars, specifically R2D2 and Jawas.  As I was making light up projects, said friend was encouraging and I thought this would make a great birthday present, which is next week. Happy Birthday!

You can make this with a kit from my shop!  Click here to buy one today!


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