26 Mar

Fiber Artist

What is a fiber artist you may be asking yourself, well let me inform you! A fiber artist is someone who uses a medium made of fibers, such as fabric or yarn. If you yourself knits with yarn or crochets than you yourself are a fiber artist! One fiber artist to keep your eye on is Christina Blais. One thing that is unique about her is that she practices free motion quilting. As some of us may know, a sewing machine usually has teeth which guide the item your sewing and there’s only one direction to go. With free motion quilting Christina lowers the “feed dogs”, which means that there’s nothing there to push the fabric along. This allow the quilters hands to move the quilt in ANY direction, right, left, forward or back. Almost anything can be drawn using the free quilting method, you can make simple squiggles, bubbles, triangles, anything you can think of!

Being a fiber artist takes talent and patience, but that doesn’t mean everyone shouldn’t try it at least once! Keep in mind that not all quilters have to use the free motion practice. If you’re more comfortable with those “feed dogs” up, keep them up! Christina has made a name for herself by following this philosophy, “In my work, no subject matter is off limits, nor any construction method.” Don’t let anything stand in your, give being a fiber artist a try!