February 6, 2007 - Ruffing’s Artist Dolls and Toys

This is a one-of-a-kind art quilt made from 100% cotton batik fabrics, framing an archival quality canvas print of one of my original watercolors called “Valentine”. The canvas print is of a pale pink, almost white, iris, set against an Art Nouveau wallpaper design of darker muted magenta leaves winding in a heart-shaped pattern against a lighter muted magenta background.

The print is framed by two complimentary shades of green batiks, which are then framed with a batik of muted mauves, purples, golds, greens, and blues. The outer edge is bound with a black batik with a subtle magenta and green pattern. The entire effect is really very beautiful, especially in person.

The quilt is machine quilted in a stippled pattern of meandering stitches that go well with the batik patterns. There are no raw edges. A sleeve is sewn into the back of the quilt and a wooden decorative rod with rounded ball ends slips inside. The wooden rod is sponge-painted with acrylic paint in colors that match the background batik.

The canvas print was made using archival-quality pigment-based Epson UltraChrome ink, and is varnished with Liquitex acrylic matte varnish for protection. A black ribbon is included for hanging. It would also look very nice framed.

The size of this piece is 11 1/2 by 13 1/12 inches.

This art quilt features a canvas print of my watercolor painting “Pansies”, with a decorative border around the image.

It has the same stippling stitching and a sleeve with matching hand-painted wooden rod and ribbon for hanging.

The edges are finished with a cotton batik binding.

This quilted wallhanging is approximately 11 x 12 1/2 inches.

Both quilts and their matching hanging rods were made entirely by me, and I’m very pleased with both of them.

Iris and Pansy art quilts in progress, with batik fabrics, by Elizabeth Ruffing

This me, Elizabeth, in my favorite straw sun hat. I wear it when we go out walking. I have other straw hats that I use for gardening or for working in the yard. I love flowers and I’m making two floral art quilts, incorporating my love of gardening, painting, and sewing. One is based on a watercolor painting I did of an iris flower.

I brought many of my iris plants with me, when we moved from New York state to North Carolina. I kept them in containers on the balcony of our apartment, and then planted them behind our new house. Many of them are my grandma’s irises.

I painted one pink iris on an Art Nouveau inspired wallpaper background, which I designed.

I printed this image on canvas that was made for use in our Epson printer. I sealed it with Liquitex matte varnish, because I am going to use this art quilt as a wall hanging.

The second image I am using is printed from my watercolor painting of pansies. It has a light blue border, with decorative flowers.

Pansies are so adorable and cheerful.

The come in such pretty colors, just like batik fabrics, which I am using to frame my canvas prints. I’m using an assortment of cotton batiks, which blend together nicely for quilts.

This is the pile of cotton batik fabrics, waiting to be pre-washed, before I sew them into a quilt. I sewed a zig-zag stitch along the raw edges, to keep them from fraying in the washing machine. I like to wash my fabrics before I use them, to compensate for shrinkage, and because I find the smell of fabric sizing irritating.

I love fabric. I get excited about anything that is displayed in those rainbow, full-spectrum arrangements in the store. I lose track of time on the paint aisle of an art store, or a in a quilt shop, with the fabric bolts, lined up by color. I’m captivated by colorful things.

I’m using the batiks in strips around my canvas prints, like a mat and a frame, only made of fabric. Once sewn together, I am putting cotton batting behind them, and then a cotton fabric as a backing.

I drop the feed dogs on my sewing machine, so I can free-motion quilt the layers together, randomly winding around, to make a stippling effect.

Once the layers are sewn together, I am adding a sleeve to the back of each quilt. I finish the edges of the sleeves, fold them in half lengthwise, and the attach them to the top edge of each quilt, on the backs of the quilts. I hand stitch the lower edge of each sleeve to the back of the quilt. Then I add binding to the edges of the quilts, avoiding the openings of the sleeves.

I am taking a wooden dowel, cutting it to the lengths I want for each quilt, and gluing wooden balls to each end, to make a display rod for each quilt. The wooden balls come in a package at Michael’s or another craft store, and they have holes drilled in one side, big enough to insert the end of a dowel. Just be sure to get the right size dowel for the hole.

I am using coordinating acrylic paints, and a sponge to paint the rods to match my quilts. I varnish them, and when they were dry, I insert them in the sleeves. I tie a ribbon to each display rod, to hang them up.