How the Art Quilts are Constructed
The art quilts in the Contemporary Catalog are always constructed using best quality cotton fabric, with occasional small pieces of silk fabric worked in, perhaps cut from a man's silk tie, for example. Batiks from Bali are also used in some of the art quilts. The sewing thread is always cotton.
Often the cotton fabric is hand dyed by the artist either in a solid color or in unique dyeing methods for improvisational results. These hand dyed fabrics are sometimes used as well for the backing layer of the art quilts. The dyes used are fiber reactive Procion™ Dyes. These permanent dyes give excellent results because of the chemical process called co-valent bonding.
Usually the batting layer is a blend of 80% cotton "punched" with 20% polyester resulting in a flat finished quilt rather than the puffy look of 100% polyester batting. The punching technique is done by the batting manufacturer to bind the cotton and polyester fibers together in one properly blended layer. This flat quilt "sandwich" permits a freer and spontaneous style of machine quilting as well as even and straight lines where and when the artist chooses this effect.
Occasionally hand quilting is done on the art quilts. An example is where a small quilted circle is sewn, something that is difficult to do well by machine. The hand quilting may be done with yarn, for a primitive look or standard hand quilting thread, or on occasion a specialty variegated and/or rayon thread. Another example is where beautiful swirling lines just look better when quilted by hand. Otherwise, the quilts are sewn to the batting and backing using a sewing machine. (a Bernina sewing machine or a long arm machine)
In three of the art quilts, Solar Flare, Illusion and Echo the construction technique employed for the quilt top is fusible backed cotton applied to an underlying layer of cotton. Only Solar Flare is appliqued by machine.
The art quilts have a hanging rod sleeve sewn onto the top of the backing for hanging. Many of the art quilts also have a narrow sleeve on the bottom of the backing for adding an optional weighting rod.
The number of hours it takes to plan, design any quilt, prepare and cut the fabrics, sew the quilt, and finally apply the binding to the quilt may vary between 20 and 50 hours. Clearly, the selling price does not reflect the amount of time it takes to make an art quilt.
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