Serena Brooks presented a slide show at yesterday's guild meeting which outlined her journey, inspirations and process. She also brought several of her fabulous quilts to share with us. It was such a treat to get to see her artistry up close and to hear her speak about her quilts.
Serena's journey as a quilt artist started in 2005 when she made her first quilt for her daughter's 4th Grade class and then her creativity and artistry just took off from there.
Her earlier quilts were typically collage quilts and constructed by fusing fabrics together using Wonder Under. She often uses fabrics recycled from thrift stores and she also dyes and/or paints her own fabrics. When painting, she uses Golden GAC 900 mixed with Acrylic paint. Also, she often uses Photoshop to help her design and construct her quilts. Her techniques were inspiring and we're looking forward to scheduling a class with her. Now, as a guild, we just need to agree on which type of class we'd like her to teach first!
Be sure to check out Serena's website, to see examples of her artistry.
The following are some of the quilts she shared with us:
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| Serena painted fabric and then incorporated that fabric into this beautiful quilt |
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| Serena is explaining how she makes her kaleidoscope quilts. The next 2 quilts below were made from the fabric in this photo. |
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| Amazing quilt. It's hard to believe it came from the above fabric. |
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| By the way, Serena puts wire in the binding of her round quilts to keep them from folding or drooping when held up like this. |
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| These two quilts are named Math Homework 1 and Math Homework 2. Love them! |
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| This quilt is a meticulous re-creation of a watercolor painting that Serena did. It's amazing that she was able to recreate the looks of her watercolor brushstrokes using fabrics. |
How fun and marvelous is this? I love it. I want to try this!
Some more of Serena's beautifully painted fabrics that are then cut up and re-pieced together to get this beautiful effect.
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| Strip piecing taken to a whole new level! |
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| An interpretation of Serena's Mid Century Modern childhood home. |
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| This quilt is called Bullseye and is even more amazing in person. This one is pieced (NOT fused). The quilting is all straight lines but Serena had a lot of starts and stops for thread color changes when quilting. |
Now for some Show & Tell from out talented guild members!!!
