Art Quilts Archives - Page 3 of 4 - Ruffing’s

Posted on December 24, 2007 by Elizabeth Ruffing

“Huggy Bunny” Doll and Quilt in Progress

I’ve got my new doll patterns ready for a test run. This is my “Huggy Bunny” ready for some machine appliquéing. I am also going to try my hand at hand embroidery, a new craft for me, partly in honor of the Etsy for Animals January challenge, “New Year, New Craft” (although I’m not sure I can meet the January 1st deadline), and partly to tie in with a new idea I have for some embroidery designs. I was thinking a sort of “stitch-along” might be fun. I’m working on an original design to post on my website so that anyone who wants to join in, can learn along with me.

My “Huggy Bunny” is part of a series of designs I’ve been working on since this past summer. This is the quilt variation. I had taken step-by-step photos of the whole machine appliqué process, and even the basic assembly of the quilt top, meaning to put together a tutorial, but, unfortunately, I got distracted by other things. This year I hope to get more organized and fill out this site a bit more. I’ve got plenty of ideas for new projects that I think will be lots of fun.

Happy Christmas Eve!

Posted on August 9, 2007 by Elizabeth Ruffing

“The Cow Jumped Over the Moon” One-of-a-kind Art Quilt

Over the weekend I took out a couple of projects that were in need of a small amount of work to be “finished”. I made this nursery quilt back in 2004, when we were having another hot August. It was entirely done by hand. I drew the illustration, traced it onto freezer paper, hand appliquéd the pieces on, and then hand stitched all the blocks and strips together. The one thing I stopped short of doing were the hand-embroidered eyes and nostrils on the cow, and my hand-embroidered signature. This is what I finished over the weekend. It is a glorious thing to behold really, so colorful and cheerful.

Posted on July 28, 2007 by Elizabeth Ruffing

Mini Art Quilts

I made this set of mini art quilts mostly from cotton batiks, with an occasional cotton print thrown in. I started by paper piecing the backgrounds where I could. In a couple of places, like on the background for the sun, I made a pattern piece in a curved shape and cut it out from my paper-pieced section, then sewed it to another section.

I used fusible interfacing to stiffen the moon, star, and sun shapes before I machine appliquéd them onto my backgrounds. I experimented with different machine stitches along the raw edges of the shapes.

I used Pigma pens, which are permanent ink markers, to draw the faces on my moons, sun, and flower.

I added layers of organic cotton batting and cotton duck/canvas underneath my designs, then did some machine quilting on the surfaces.

I had intended to sew bias strips around the edges, but opted to use cotton terrycloth as a backing right up to the edges. I placed the terrycloth and the designs right sides together, sewed a 0.25 inch seam, left an opening, then turned them right sides out. I also added loops of cotton which were folded and top stitched to the tops for hanging. The openings were then slip stitched closed. I used some embroidery floss for ties in several places on the back just for stability.

Posted on February 6, 2007January 19, 2019 by Elizabeth Ruffing — 1 Comment

OOAK, One-of-a-kind, Original Iris and Pansy Floral Art Quilts by Elizabeth Ruffing

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.