Embroidered Collage

"I could have written that!" was my reaction about halfway through the magazine.  Not that I would have though about it in the way that Lynn Krawczyk did.  My reaction was more a reflection of my tendency to create art in a similar way as described in the article "Embellishments as Inspiration."  Lynn went through the mental steps that an artist would need to design around and incorporate an object or objects that appeals to them.  This is so natural to my way of working that it never occurred to me to describe it.  I'm far more likely to need to carefully think through creating artwork from an image or an idea.

The technique that appealed to me most was Angie Hughes' "Textural Book Wraps."  I just wanted to reach out and grab the photos in the magazine.  Oh, I'll probably never try it out since it involves melting and much sewing machine work, but the complex patterned surfaces were fantastic and I would have loved to cut make them and cut them up and use them in my canvas works.

Overall, this was an extremely well-balanced issue in subject matter.  They covered all the bases, with technique articles, design articles, artist profiles, reader submissions, and creative ideas.  I really enjoyed looking at the results from the "Doorway to Imagination" challenge.  A nice addition was one article on a topic I don't recall Quilting Arts discussing before - "Where and How to Show Your Artwork."  It's not something that needs to be covered every issue, but I imagine that it is of interest to many of their readers, especially since it included tips ranging from that a true beginner would need to someone who had tried a couple shows but maybed didn't know where to go next.