WIP Wednesday: I used to be an Art Quilter

Way back in 2005, I began on a textile journey, following the tiny tidbits left for me by my late Grandmother.

Prior to that year, my artistic medium of choice had been a strong mixture of collage and creative writing sprinkled with a love of traditional black and white photography. 

When I picked up fabric, I immediately had the notion of treating it like paper, collage and raw cut edges held down with using a glue stick and quilted. I fell in love. I made many smaller pieces under 24 inches square and sold all of them. I ventured into larger pieces but then switched my interest into studying the traditional sense of quilts.

 And for many years I feel like I've been in a kind of limbo between the two as a textile artist. I've been mulling over this for a little while now, pondering some questions.

Which do I love more, art quilts or traditional patchwork? Do I gravitate toward what's easiest for me? Why do I feel like art quilts are kinda out of my comfort zone yet I still don't produce traditional patchwork beyond an intermediate dabbler? Where do I really want to go with fabric? What are those big scary artistic yearnings I have that currently remain dreams? How can I develope my textile likes into a style that is true to me?

Which led me into a nice direction of focus on the art quilting book idea I had begun exploring last year. 

And with an improv art quilt session in my original style, new ideas emerge. Here's a peak at what poured out.

I've been working on mind mapping the questions rolling around in my head. It's both inspiring and motivating me to keep at it. 

Linking up today with 

Freshly Pieced