One More Top Finished in 2011

Stripped Double F

Not quilted yet but about 36 inch  square at this point

Commercial and Hand Dyed Cotton

Friday Favorites

I have been really busy this week.  I've been working my way through Rayna Gillman's new  book.  You will need to go to And Then We Set It On Fire to see my progress.    I have also started to add more needlework and beads to The Center of the Universe.  I hurriedly finished it to enter into a show earlier this year.  When it was not juried into the show, I simply set it aside for awhile but I was never really satisfied with how encrusted it was.  The center of the universe should be much more dense with shiny things.  So, now I am adding more.  Pictures later.

Friday Favorites
I have some of these Mystery Foam blocks but have not used them yet. Judy in the Dyes show some  real inspiration for what you can do with Mystery Foam.  I ordered some during the summer but have yet to use it.  Maybe this will inspire me.

Constance Rose is giving away a 10 x10 quilt named All that Glitters.  You can see it here and leave a comment to enter for a chance to win it.

Lynn Krawczyk gives a review of the  Gelli Art gel printing plate.  She likes it.  I haven't tried it yet because I generally don't really care for monoprints.  I agree with Lynn's sentiment that monoprints generally need several more layers to make them presentable.  I am less likely to try it now that she says the instructions caution the artist from using dyes with the plates.  I wonder what happens?  Does the dye eat through the plate?  Do the dyes just bubble up and give a poor impression?  That might be interesting in itself.  Perhaps the problem is that the dyes are thin but then the artist could thicken the dyes. Does anyone know the answer to these questions?

Two thought provoking pieces were written this week. The first is by Arlee on the creative process.  The second is by Elizabeth Barton on why quilts have not been accepted into the main stream art community.  Both are just opinions but are well thought out opinions with explanation about how they got to their decision.

And let me close by sending you to Ink Spiller's Attic for a New Year wish from Neil Gaiman.  It is beautiful and I wish it for you!

Happy Holiday and Friday Favorites

My mother, bless her heart, is disgusted by the "Happy Holiday" greeting that is now common. She thinks that it takes Christ out of Christmas.  I have thought about that. While I celebrate Christmas and think Christ should be the focus of Christmas, many of my friends celebrate other holidays.   Should I not wish them a happy whatever holiday they celebrate?  So, I will celebrate Christ's birth and you can celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Winter Solstice, Kwanza, or just getting up alive one more day. 

Enjoy the season and may your heart be light.

Friday Favorites
Margeeth  has cut two interesting but not complex cloths and combined them into something much more interesting. Reminds me a bit of Rayman Gillman's technique that will be featured on the "And Then We Set It On Fire" in January. You will need to scroll down to the bottom of the post for the English translation.

Wonder what to do with your beautiful hand stamped, dyed, stenciled, painted, printed, foiled, and otherwise embellished fabric?  You might want to make some fabric boxes for Christmas presents.

Now that I am getting pretty good at one layer of techniques, I am paying more attention to those folks who layer the different techniques to turn out art cloth.  I really like what Margaret Applin did here with gesso, paint, several thermofax screens, watercolor paints, and hand and machine stitching. Each step was thoughtful of the step before so that it did not overpower what was already done.  She is "taken" with the results and so am I.

More Christmas Wish List for Quilters and Dyers (like can we ever get enough?  LOL)

1.  Want some free fabric?  McCalls is having a scrap bag give away.  Enter here.

2.  Colorful Thoughts. What an absolutely perfect name for fabric paints.  Kim has started to carry them. 

3.  I am still pretty clueless when it comes to machine quilting freehand.  I need a pattern for my freehand. Fortunately there are books for that and HERE is where you can sign up to win one of those books for free!  Hurry!  You only have to Dec 26 to enter to win.  Oh, the name of the book is Modern Quilting Designs.

Once again, enjoy the season.  May whomever you  pray to bless you!

Book Review: Visual Texture on Fabric

Here is an advanced reading copy of Lisa Kerpoe's new book sitting on MY cutting table.  I can't tell you how excited I am!  The book is coming out in June 2012 and I think it is a must have.

 
I have been following Lisa's blog forever and have often referred to her posts on my Friday Favorites.  Now all her recipes and processes are in one place.  Before I got all excited and told you that the book is a must-have, I checked Jane Dunnewold's books, Complex Cloth and Art Cloth. Those are kinda the gold standard of all things surface design for me.  Jane's books barely cover water-based resists so Lisa's book is a wonderful addition to them.  Lisa's book is not an entire dictionary of surface design techniques  like Jane's are but it does not pretend to be.  It is a book all about resists--recipes, how to apply them, how to apply color after the resists, how to remove the resists when you are done, a troubleshooting guide, and resources for the supplies. Resists from the beginning to the end.

Guess what I'll be doing during my Christmas break? Resistance (to the resist) is futile.   LOL

And the Winner Is... Mary Helen Fernandez Stewart

My random number generator (my husband) chose the magic number.  Mary Helen at Art Saves Lives is the winner of the hand-dyed fabric.  Mary Helen, send me an email with your address and I will mail your fabric to you.  Enjoy!

A Give-Away to Celebrate 300 Posts

300 Posts!

I have written 300 posts.  I am pretty amazed.  To celebrate I am going to give away 6 coordinated pieces of fabric.  Each piece is about  35"  x  22"  .  I made them by following directions from Design Matters TV with Laura and Linda Kemshall.  The directions are very much like a parfait dye.  The variation is that instead of layering the scrunched fabric in a tall narrow container, the fabric is scrunched into separate balls in a box, packing them very tightly.  A different color of dye is liberally poured on each separate ball of tightly scrunched fabric and of course the dye bleeds onto the neighboring fabrics.  Okay first the rules and then I will post pictures of the fabric.

Rules to Enter the Give-Away
Pretty simple!  Just leave a comment here telling me about one of my posts that you remember or enjoyed.  You can enter a second time by signing up to get my posts by email--a brand new feature for me.  I will use my personal random number generator (my dear husband) to pick the winning number on Saturday, December 17.  I will get the fabric in the mail as soon as possible and you might even get it in time for Christmas!  Ho Ho Ho

 And my favorite two pieces are last.  I love the depth and richness of them in person.

Friday Favorites

 Friday Favorites

Looking for a challenge for 2012?  Judy at Patchwork Times has a color palette challenge  you can participate in.  I haven't decided if I am going to participate.  Generally I like to do challenges because they give me a schedule and a deadline--something my disorganization  needs.  And this challenge is particularly interesting because it is based only on a color palette.  That means if I am working with  a particular motif, I can still do my motif!

Who knew you could cure a self-healing cutting mat that no longer self-healed??  Take a look at these simple directions.

Do you like on-line quilting magazines?  Here is where you can subscribe to three that are free.

Lin at Arty Blobs gives you a link to a free download on making rolling stamps.  I have long admired her rollling stamps and have more than once linked you to her blog in my Friday Favorites.  You bet that I have downloaded her article in Cloth Paper Scissors.

I have found a new blog that I enjoy, Scrap Wisdom Collage.  She uses thermofax screens, TAP, digital manipulation and printing, and other fun techniques to print fabric.  Check her out.

Alisa Burke has a great post that shows a finished piece on her wall and then she explains how she painted, printed text, and stretched the text on frames to create the piece.  I think it is a great piece.  I don't think there is any quilting done on it but then you could add some if you want it.  I think it is successful without it.

Next post will be my 300th post and I have a surprise for you.  Stay tune!

Blue Rose and a Nancy Crow finish

Here is the picture of my Blue Rose that I promised you last week.  Sorry it took so long.  After I promised to post it I was sick and wasn't in my office to take a picture.

 

I was undecided how to finish the edges so for now I just slid it into a frame.  This was an experiment where I sewed together 5 or 6 layers of fabric and then started cutting away layers.  Once I was happy with what was revealed, I applied gesso to the front and added some stamping and other color embellishment.  I really like the results and should do more with this technique.

And here is my first finished (other than the hanging sleeve and a good steaming) quilt from the tops I pieced during Nancy Crow's workshop.  

 

The quilting is not going to earn me any awards but I am satisfied with the piece.  As I am preparing for a solo show next summer, I want to do more with this "double F" motif and have them all hang together.

Friday Favorites

Other than being sick this week I have had a great week--very productive!  That is what happens after a week-long quilting workshop and a Saturday Play Date.  Last Saturday Beth introduced me to a new book she bought, "Create Your Own Free-Form Quilts" by Rayna Gillman.  I have read it from front to back twice already--something I almost never do.  And now I have my very own book so I can hug it and kiss it and sleep with it under my pillow.  It is a great book!  First, it is the type of quilting that I do but it helps me to do it in a much more organized way.  Here are two strip sets I have already made after reading the book.

Second, I was feeling sad about not getting to take a Nancy Crow workshop this year and the exercises in the book will be a wonderful substitute.  Of course, the book will only be a substitute for the exercises that Nancy gives us in her workshops.  It will not be a substitute for the blunt criticism that Nancy gives.  I will have to depend on my play group, FIVE, and on you for that.  That is a serious responsibility for  you!  Can I depend on you?

Friday Favorites

Fancy machine quilting scares me to death. But Lynn at Nebraska Views offers lots of help. I was going to link you to three posts but then I checked out her older posts.  Even more good ideas there.  Just visit her and cruise.

I have discovered another artist this week, JJ at  Sketchbook, Quilts, Paintings and Everyday Matters.  There appears to be little actual quilting but I fell in love with her thread drawings.  I linked you to one particular post but she has multiple pictures showing them.  I did not find one with specific instructions about her process but she does give some information like size and mounting.  I just played with some transperse dyes so wouldn't it be great to make a drawing that I could tranfer multiple times and then use as a template to thread sketch?  What an awesome art quilt!

And here is another new-to-me artist, Tinke in Germany at Many Many Stitches.  Don't you love her colour and texture in stitch in her post?  Here is a picture of my current hand-stitching project.  Only a peek because it is not done yet.

ATCs about birds or feathers

I joined an all-fabric ATC swap at Stitching Fingers.  For November the theme was birds or feathers.  Here is a picture of the ATC I received from Patricia who  lives in Crumlin Village, Dublin.  It is a thread painting of the North Atlantic Puffin.  They live off the coast of both Ireland (her home) and Maine (my home). That is fun.

I made her this ATC named "A Murder of Crows."  When I was attending the Nancy Crow workshop in Auburn NY I saw lots of crows.  Come to find out Auburn has been the winter home of thousands of crows for the last 100 years or so.  Here is a link for more information about the crows in Auburn.  I placed a black feather on some scraps from a quilt I made named "I am the Center of the Universe."  It turned out a bit wonky and at first that upset me but then I decided that was a "design element."  LOL

This ATC is left over from a swap with Veronica at Fiber Antics.  I have held on to it since last February because I love it so. Since it also had a feather on it, I have sent it off to Patricia.

Enjoy Patricia

Friday Favorites

 I hope you had a good Thanksgiving! Friday sneaked up on me since it was the day after Thanksgiving.  I mean this week was made up of Monday, Tuesday, the day before Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving, the day after Thanksgiving, play date with Beth, and Sunday.  LOL

Friday Favorites
I have found a new source for thermofax screens.  And even better, she is having a give away.  It is not too late to sign up.  Here is the link.  Believe me, I thought twice before giving you the link.  I big-time would love to win the mini-sets.

Here is an enhanced layering technique of what I did when I made my Blue Rose. I wanted to show you a picture of it but I don't seem to have a picture of it.  I will take a picture tomorrow and show it to you. Anyway, I like the fact that she used all translucent materials and that she thought to use a soldering iron rather than the tiny pair of scissors I used.

Because I personally like  self-reflection and evaluation I was interested in Kathleen Loomis's post on how she evaluates her pieces when she is finished with it.  Before you read her post, do stop and view the detail of her quilt, Crossroads 4, that won second place in Quilts=Art=Quilts.  The show was at the Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center in NY where I took Nancy's workshop.  I got to see her piece in person and it was very exciting.  I also  noted that she donated 3 small quilts for the mini-quilt raffle fund raiser.  I would not mind winning one.

I love Deb's stuff and this newest project is no exception. I  loved it before I realized that the blocks are each unique.   In this post she is doing a self-critique.  I want to learn more about the technique she used.  In her post she links us to this post on self-critique.  It is a new blog for me.  Well, it is not really a blog but a website.  I liked it enough to join it and will now receive 2 free emails per week on art topics.  I will warn you, while the site promises not to sell you information, the day after I signed up for the art email I received multiple spams.  Just saying.


And here is what I personally love to do.


See you next week!

Second 8X10 Finished

Apology to Mary

First, I need to grovel and apologize to Mary.  Mary is the artist who created the fabulous triptych depicting wind generators that I featured in my post labeled "My motif has been stolen."   She is rightfully  proud of her work and contacted me about my post. She is concerned that I claimed she stole anything.


Let me be clear.  I was making a very bad joke.   As I explained in an earlier post, I had seen a wind farm for the first time just a week or so before.   After some investigation I think it was the largest wind farm in NY with 195 wind generators.  It was absolutely astounding. And I happened to see it on my way home from a workshop with Nancy Crow on motifs.  So I took pictures and have started drawing sketches.

When I saw Mary's quilt of wind generators I was delighted at how beautiful it was and decided I was on the right track of creating a series using motifs of wind generators.  Would mine be like Mary's?  Absolutely not!  I don't do the realistic art quilt thing.  Do I expect the rest of the world to not create anything--quilts, statues, drawing, paintings, carvings, etc--having to do with wind generators?  Uh, I don't think so.  If I have another idea for a motif and find out that someone else months and years before I even had the idea created something using the same idea, will I joke that they "stole" my idea.  NO WAY.  I may be thick but I try not to make the same bad joke twice.

My motif has been stolen!

Take a look at this!

First of the 8 X 10s finished

Friday Favorites

For some odd reason, many of the restaurants in Auburn (where Nancy taught at QBL2) covered the top of their tables in paper.  I saved those papers and thought I would do something with them.   The first paper technique I want to try is from the book, Drawn to Stitch.  In this technique you stitch the butcher paper with the sewing machine and then wet the paper and remove as much of it as you want.  I thought I would try doing that but add a layer of polyester organza so I could wash out some paper and burn out some of the organza for a double layer.  Here is a picture of the fabric, paper, and stitching.  The paint on the organza is an earlier experiment at a monoprint.

Everything was going well until I tried to burn the organza.  Oops.  I forgot it was silk instead of polyester.  Silk doesn't burn.  Okay, plan two.  Now I will just shred the silk.  Silk likes to fray nicely.  The project isn't done yet but here it iswith the paper washed out and the silk trimmed.  It is just laid on top of the hand dyed fabric on which I will mount it.  It is destined to go the Harlow Gallery for their 8 X 10 fund raiser.

Friday Favorites
Here are three more ideas using fabric and paper.  This one is from Judi Hurwitt at Approachable Art.  This technique uses matte fluid  medium.  Another technique I found this week can transfer photos to fabric using a gel medium.  Her results look fabulous.

And another paper technique I want to try is featured in Kim's Hot Textiles--faux chenille with organza and paper.  I linked you to Part 2.  I assumed there is a Part 1 but the Part 2 gave me enough information to give this technique a try so I almost skipped Part 1. But then I felt guilty so I went to look for Part 1 and found that it covers a different but related paper/fabric technique. So glad I checked it out too!

And since it is starting to get to that time of season...Wonder what you can make in a hurry for Christmas?  Try Alisa's chunky bracelets.  I am not a bracelet wearer but I do think I may make a couple for daughters this Christmas season.

Motifs

The whole week with Nancy was about linear motifs.  I have always avoided lines and never used a motif.  Now I see lines and motifs everywhere.  How about this wind farm in NY for use as a motif?

 

Second Assignment and Friday Favorites

Here is a picture of my second assignment.  The piece is only partially sewn and is a failure as far as completing the assignment but Nancy did say that it is on its way to becoming a good composition.

 Friday Favorites
I didn't have much time to cruise last week--Nancy keeps you busy!  And in my very little free time I spent  in the Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center's show, Quilts=Art=Quilts.   I have found a lot of inspiration there!   By totally ignoring my husband in the few minutes I have free, I have had time to find this one post.

Here is Connie Rose's success with eco dyeing with alum.  Makes me yearn to get back home to my black walnut brew.  I think I will try her recipe, wrapping method, my walnut brew, and see what I get.

First Day With Nancy Crow

All week we are using a linear motif each student was to design before coming to the class.  Here is mine.

The first day we were to create two finished sewn-together compositions of about 36 inches square. The first composition was to use black and one color in a flat and a bright tone.  The second composition used white and the same color  in two tones.  Here are my 2 compositions.
 

And the journey begins

Saturday we drove from Maine to NY.  Stopped along the way at Brattleboro and I got these lovely antiques to use for batik.

Sunday we attended church in the local LDS chapel. We drove past it a couple of times because it did not fit the typical LDS chapel architecture.  No wonder.  It started out life as a Catholic Convent.

Tomorrow morning Nancy Crow's class starts.  Wish me luck.

Friday Favorites

Woooo Hooooo!  I am taking another course this Spring!  Here is a description of it.

ART 309 Intermediate Printmaking
Application of basic knowledge of printmaking to individual imagery with an emphasis on the development of technical skills and aesthetic concerns. Prerequisite: ART 209 or ART 210

I have the prereqs and the time slot is at the end of the work day so it fits my schedule!  I am so excited.  The instructor is Karen Adrienne who is an excellent teacher and is open to my working with fabric.  I learned a lot from her in my first semester class on beginning printmaking so I expect to learns tons this time too.  I am soooo excited!


Friday Favorites
Lyric Kinard wrote a post on the watercolor class she is taking.  I was glad to see the post. Do you debate about whether you should take more classes, less classes, no classes?  I wonder if I am taking too many classes and should spend my time honing the skills I already have. But I am like Lyric and like to add something new to my skills. And I have found that whatever class I take, I learn more about art in general that I can then use to enhance my art. Obviously, (see above) I am on the side of taking classes, so long as you use the skill in your own voice. For me, that is the key.

What do you think of this spider web?   I think it is luscious.  If I were a spider that is what my web might look like.  Don't you think it would look great as part of a quilt?   I mean making it all 3-D and everything on the quilt.

Just discovered Peggy at Woman with Wings. She is another woman who thinks that leaves should not go to waste before being boiled for dye. Tee Hee  Here is a picture of some black walnut hulls that I brought home to Maine from Indiana when I was there in September for a work-related conference.  (Black walnut trees don't grow in Maine.)  They are currently dyeing some yardage for me.

And another new site that I found this week is this one by Susan Lenz. She has multiple blogs but here are my two favorites blogs/posts so far.  This one is her blog for grave rubbing quilts.  I love that!  It is not that I am gruesome or anything but having been raised Mormon, dead people are just people who have moved beyond the veil but are certainly not gone or scary.  This seems just such a cool way to remember them.  And then there is this fabulous post on another of her blogs.  I'll be experimenting with this technique when I get back from Nancy's workshop.

Beverly tried a first mixed media piece with great success.  She gave great step by step directions for how she  made it.    I wish I could get a better look at her edging though.  The description of it is very interesting.  The art quilt is her entry for the Tangled Textiles Challenge.  Here is my favorite quilt for Challenge 3--Tools-- and the link to the personal blog of Dutch Comfort with pretty clear step by step instructions for how she made it.  Thanks both of you lovely ladies for telling us how to make our own attempts with the techniques you chose!

This post I bookmarked just for the inspiration of the quilt she is working on.  I love that style so much.  Do you use inspiration from others' quilts?  Is that wrong?  Sometimes I will hang some photos of quilts--like this one--on my design wall as I am working on a quilt.  Not that I want to copy the quilt exactly or even roughly.  I do like my own voice.  But sometimes when I get frustrated with my design or stumped about the next step, I can look at the successful quilts that are similar in style and they will give me an idea of something to try (or something to take out) and a hope for being successful.  Looking at them is calming and gets my creative mojo flowing again. What do you think?  Is that cheating?

I love the first of the Month!

Ah!  The first of the month!  I love the first of the month.  I get paid monthly so the first of the month I feel RICH!  RICH, I tell you!  For about a day.  Less really. 

This month I have used my disposable income marked for art/quilting supplies on: 1) renewing my SAQA membership, 2) buying a yearly membership in SDA, and 3) joining the local art gallery, Harlow Gallery, so I can show my work there.

So now it is the second of the month and  I am back to penny-pinching.  I am trying to figure out how much money out of the food budget I can eke to actually create art this month.  I am sure my dear and loving husband will not mind having rice and beans for Thanksgiving.  LOL

Friday Favorites

If you like snow dye you will love this post.  Lisa was nice enough to post a PDF with instructions for snow and ice dyeing.  She learned her technique from this site with a tutorial on snow dye.  I love snow dyeing but now that I have learned how to ice dye, I am content to miss out on the cold weather.  Unfortunately it is supposed to snow tonight.  YIKES!

Terry has been redesigning her studio and was nice enough to post instructions for making a sewing table and an island.  My studio is a cobbled together assortment of tables of almost the same height with my sewing machine sitting on top all designed the purpose of making my shoulders and neck hurt if I sew for too long.  Perhaps Terry has a good idea.  Hmmmm...

Kim has created some lovely boxes. They are not technically made of fabric unless you count the bondaweb or heavy interfacing but they are gorgeous.  She doesn't include much in the way of instruction since she is teaching a class and has a new book.  But I might give them a try anyway.

Judy shows some pictures from April's show.  I absolutely love the "vintage doilies"  held by the colorful resin hands. How come I am not that creative??  I think it is genius!

Progress on Composted Fabric

I am really in love with my composted fabric.  Here is my progress on the first quilt I am making with it.

 I hand-stitched some lines on a piece of black linen and then laid the material on top.  Looked like tree trunks to me so I took the fabric off, stamped some leaves (using leaves) in fabric paint, and then added one piece of the fabric back.  I have two more strips to add.  Here is a close up of the loose stitching I am doing to attach the fabric.

Composting Fabric

Did I tell  you last spring when I put some fabric into the compost heap to see what would happen?  I tore some white cotton fabric into strips of varying widths and the width of the fabric.  I then wrapped the fabric strips around some old copper pipes.  I laid the fabric-wrapped pipes into my compost pile in the backyard and ignored them for several months.

Cold weather is quickly approaching in Maine so I decided it was time to pull the pipes out and see what had happened. Well, first, the fabric-wrapped pipes were covered with..ahh... compost.  I guess I should not have been surprised but boy were they yucky. I had to do some cleaning before I could even get them to the tub.  Here they are fresh out of the compost pile.

Then they went into the tub for a shower and a soaking.  While trying to rub off the yuck, the fabric was sloughing off in little slimy clumps.  When the fabric/pipes were as clean as I could get them, I sat them on end to dry for a few days.  Next step was to carefully, very gingerly, unwrap the fabric from the pipe. Second step was to iron the fabric flat so I could see what I had.  Oh my! Here are some samples of the fabric now.   I do like them!

 

Here is a beginning of a quilt using the fabric.

Here is a beginning of a quilt using the fabric.

Ice Dyeing

I had such a great time ice dyeing with FIVE so I tried it at home on my own.  I jury-rigged my laundry basket with sticks between the opening and a screen mesh over the sticks. I intentionally placed the sticks halfway up the sides of the laundry basket so that the ice  could be contained in the basket also. That was one of the problems we encountered when FIVE ice dyed--the pile of ice would slide off the top.

 To ice dye, I soda ashed some baby clothes and some fabric, scrunched them on top of the screen, and covered them with 10 lbs of ice.

 Then I squirted it full of dye.  The next part was the hardest.  It was letting the ice sit long enough to melt.  Da Da Da Da Dum Da Da.......... TA DA!

The material will turn into samples for my Fugitive Workshop. The baby clothes are going to Newborns in Need, an organization that provides clothes for babies coming home from the hospital.