Art with Fabric Blog Hop - Sol Mates

Sol Mates, by Alida

Dimensions: 40'' x 14'' (each)

Inspired by the work of Sol Lewitt

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LeWitt is regarded as a founder of both Minimal and Conceptual art. His prolific two and three-dimensional work ranges from wall drawings (over 1200 of which have been executed) to hundreds of works on paper extending to structures in the form of towers, pyramids, geometric forms, and progressions. More on LeWitt, links at stories can be found on this Wiki page.

You HAVE to watch the amazing timelapse video of the artists painting "Sol LeWitt at the Met - Wall Drawing #370, Installation: Days 15-17" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OJ36NbGU2c.

If you want to hear more about his approach to art and how amazing artists put together his conceptual work (which is the text instructions on how the piece should look like) listen to the stories in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tpi5OBv6ZMU.

"The artist and the draftsman become collaborators in making the art" -Sol LeWitt.

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Now about me :)

If you ask me what kind of art/paitings I do NOT like I would say something modern, simple, minimalist... something with few colors...

If you ask me what kind of fabric I absolutely do NOT like to work with I would say solids... and white in general...

That's why I was super surprised when I first looked at one of LeWitt wall drawings (the X) and I instinctively thought "I NEED to make that into a quilt" :)

That's what I LOVE about art... sometimes a piece moves you so strongly and so deeply that it goes against all the "rational" likes/dislikes that you have always had. 

So while I knew that I wanted to reproduce the X painting, I also knew that I had to put my spins to it. 

First of all I decided to make just half of it, and then I decided to add a pop of color (purple).

I made that half and then I start starring at it and I kept thinking "I really like it, but something is missing". 

Of course the other half was missing :) and that's when I decided to make the other half and the name "Sol Mates" came in the picture. Because the first half represents me (my favorite color is purple) and the other half represent my significant other (his favorite color is blue). 

And if you look closely the finished piece you would notice that it is covered in cat hair :) so here you have it, the entire family in one quilted piece of art :)

The two halves are complementary in the quilting (quilted in opposite sections) and the quilting is not perfect... because we are not perfect (and we don't want to be... in yesterday's post by Yvonne I learned about  Wabi-Sabi irregularities, so that's what these imperfections are!)

Detail on the quilting.

The two halves are quilted in complementary ways: straight quilting on the white sections of the X (and black sections on the background) for the blue half, quilting on the black sections X (and white sections on the background) for the purple half.

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Some lessons and other information about this piece:

• There was a lot of drafting and measuring in Inkscape, but the design is super simple as it's just HST and rectangles that finish 1.5'' wide;
• I used facing as a binding method. I follow more or less this tutorial. I find that this technique is perfect for these kind of art pieces, as a binding would distract from the main piece. Plus if you don't close the sides of the top piece, you have a free hanging sleeve :)
• I basted the piece with Elmer School Glue (washable) following this tutorial. I really like this technique and I only glued the black parts because I didn't want to risk seeing it on the white. I know that it will wash away, but I am not sure I want to wash this piece yet. The glue does not interfere with the quilting and it leaves a "stiff" kind of feeling which is good for a wall hanging. And I don't stub myself while quilting, so I would say that's a win win situation!
• I still highly dislike solids. I can work with them for small projects but I get so bored while sewing with solids! I don't know, it's just how my brain works... I need to see "things" on my fabric to be engaged :)
• I didn't experience the terrible fraying of Kona in this project... but I had an horror story few days later on a different piece, so I don't see myself using Kona solids any time in my future.

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And now go and check out all the other participants in the hop!

Yanicka (http://yanickahachez.blogspot.com/)

Heather (http://www.heatherquilts.blogspot.com/)

Sarah (http://georgiagirlquilts.blogspot.com/)

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P.S. Kevin (the Minion) is shown in the first picture, because he is too cute, so I had to include him. The pattern for the Minion block is by Jennifer Rowles and it's available on Fandom in Stitches.