Quilt or Dye

Prints

2012-01-26T11:31:00.000-05:00

Here are my first 4 attempts in my intermediate print class. They are black ink on paper. The print is 11" by 12". The one the right is a direct print and the one on the left is a ghost print.

These are some of my deconstructed silk screen prints from my play date with Beth. The prints are approximately 11" square and printed on bamboo/cotton fabric. These are the prints after they have been batched and washed.

Friday Favorites

2012-01-24T08:00:00.002-05:00

Friday Favorites

Terry Jarrad-Dimond alerted me to an opportunity to show off a small (tee hee) portion of my art--a postcard! The card is not due now. But I have filled out the intent to send a card form and emailed it in to artquiltselements@gmail.com.

Judy in the Dyes has been enjoying her tea lately. And she has been leaving the used tea bags laying around. On her fabric. What a great idea! Take a look.

The Quilt Rat is giving free onliine lessons for machine quilting. Here are her instructions for thwarting the quilt police when starting and stopping stitching. I wish I could say that I use this method but I don't. But maybe someday I will care what the quilt police say.

Memo Ignorat is a new blog that promises to be interesting if the pictures of her past endeavors is any indication. I love the coat she made or is making. Not sure is she is done yet.

Oh, ABSOLUTELY, you need to see Arlee's monoprints. Check out the very bottom one. She shows the print and then the print stitched. Oh, she is now my goddess! I have been trying to find examples to show my art teacher that incorporate lovely stitch and monoprints. You can bet these pictures are gonna be shown around the art room.

Friday Favorites

2012-01-15T20:08:00.024-05:00

I have started my new intermediate print class. Tuesday we made our first prints and I forgot to bring my camera to show you mine. I was going to bring the camera on Thursday but I ended up too sick to go to class. We were going to overprint with a second color. So now I am a session behind and have no pictures to show you.

FRIDAY FAVORITES
What is a new year without a new challenge and what better than to work on free motion quilting skills. This challenge is one I am going to pass up since I am taking an intermediate print class that I am pretty sure is gonna kick my butt but otherwise I would be right there improving my free motion quilting skills. Mine suck. But this is on my later list for now.

How about starting the new year helping a worthy charity? Pig Tales and Quilts is raising funds for Ronald McDonald House. She lists a variety of ways you can help.

I am always excited to learn new stitching techniques and here is a tutorial for doing wired needlelace. Elizabeth Braun is from England so when she says "calico" she is referring to what we in the states call muslin. If you are interested in stitch, you might want to follow along Linda's Sixty-five Days Till 65 journey.

Sorry, that is all I got to browse this week. With class two nights a week, my browsing time is seriously decreased. I'll try and do better next week.

Friday Favorites

2012-01-15T19:07:00.000-05:00

Busy! Busy! Busy! I have not done very much cruising lately. Instead I have been working on a new piece inspired by Rayna Gillman's new book, Create your own free-form quilts. Check it out here. There are some other posts on the Fire blog that explains the process a bit more.

Friday Favorites posted on Sunday ( oops!)
Sharon B. is incredibly generous with her talents and skills and here is one more example. In this post she shares some of her decisions when she is starting a new piece of handwork. While her decisions and yours may not be the same, if you are a beginning or intermediate hand stitcher, it is a very good read. And I totally agree with her about keeping things simple because if they get too complicated, then they don't generally get finished--at least for Sharon and me.

Another Sharon has been doing some zen doodling in cloth using black thread and a sewing machine. Some of the design is from a free pattern and some is just Sharon doing her thing.

For Christmas my husband bought me two hand stitching workbooks by Ilza Aviks. I want to get started on the exercises in them and this post at Novembergrass showed me a great way to experiment and still make the item look like a finished piece. Don't you love the contained circles of directional hand stitching? And this post gives me an idea of how to add stitching to this polyester transperse dyed piece that I am not in love with yet.

One More Top Finished in 2011

2011-12-31T21:26:00.000-05:00

Stripped Double F

Not quilted yet but about 36 inch square at this point

Commercial and Hand Dyed Cotton

Friday Favorites

2011-12-30T08:00:00.001-05:00

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

2011-12-23T08:00:00.006-05:00

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

2011-12-21T18:37:00.000-05:00

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

2011-12-17T12:42:00.001-05:00

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!

Friday Favorites

2011-12-15T18:12:00.000-05:00

Another week of work and here is what I have to show for it.

This is a second double F motif that I made at Nancy's workshop. I am getting it ready to quilt.

I am about satisfied with the texture on my trees made from the composted fabric. I am now auditioning various types of leaves. I'll keep you advised to the final choice.

This is charmeuse silk that I dyed with roses last year and then promptly misplaced. I have found it and am hemming it as a scarf for my daughter for Christmas.

Friday Favorites

Another technique to try. I am particularly interested in this one because I like to layer sheers and I would like to use more text in my work without making it the primary focus. This technique would allow me to do both. It is not a tutorial so you have to make some logical jumps.

And another technique. This one requires hand work as as I am close to the end of my current handstitching project, I am ready for a new one. This one is a reverse applique and I love it. I can see my style incorporated with this technique meaning the blocks and circles being various shapes and sizes and sewn together in a jumbled fashion. I LOVE looking at techniques and thinking about how to make them MINE.

And another way to use fugitive medium. Alisa does not specific whether this is done on paper or fabric but don't you think it would look fabulous on fabric? And here is another paper process by Jill that I think would be fabulous on fabric. I need to try it to see if I can get the bleeding lines like she gets on the paper or if the ink would just become a blob.

And a TON of techniques at your fingertips! Sue Bleiweiss has listed all her tutorials and even has them listed in categories. The tutorials are generally in PDF formats but the ones that I have looked at have lots of pictures (for those of us who look more than read).

And here is a girl after my own heart! I love the what-if approach to natural dyeing. And what better than apples. I kinda tried this but I was silly enough to try and cook the fabric in the apple peels. My results were not the lovely browns I was hoping for but some even lovelier greys from where the apple peels burned on the bottom of the pan. The fabric was one that I took to NY for Nancy's workshop. Nancy commented on the beautiful fabric. I did not tell her the story behind it.

A Christmas Wish List for Quilters and Dyers.
1. Arlee is having a 50% sale off all her fabric.

2. A chance to win Rayna Gillman's new book, Create Your Own Free-Form Quilts. Now I will be totally honest with you--I am part of the blog that is giving this autographed book away so this is shameless self-promotion.

3. A Quilt University course with Elizabeth Barton! One of my all time favorite art quilters. She is teaching two classes but this one is all about design--my current focus of interest. Not that you have to pick this course. There are lots of options.

4. A pricy but very nice gift. I would absolutely like to go to Queensland and spend several days with Canadian Textile Artist, Dorthy Caldwell. Here is an excerpt describing what participants will be doing: "Stitching, drawing, painting and more unconventional marks such as burning, piercing and mending...." What is not to love? Well, other than the mending but if it is done for the sake of art then even that would probably be fun.

5. Okay, so this won't be out till June but I want it is on my list of must haves. I have enjoyed reading Lisa's experiments in resist dyeing in her blog and now they will all be in one place in a book. Goody! Goody! If you want to gift yourself before June, you could always attend her lecture in TX on Dec 20.

A Give-Away to Celebrate 300 Posts

2011-12-10T10:00:00.001-05:00

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

2011-12-09T21:21:00.000-05:00

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

2011-12-08T12:23:00.001-05:00

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

2011-12-01T22:08:00.000-05:00

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

2011-11-29T14:54:00.000-05:00

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

2011-11-27T18:02:00.000-05:00

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

2011-11-24T08:00:00.001-05:00

Apology to Mary

2011-11-23T20:54:00.001-05:00

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!

2011-11-22T22:04:00.002-05:00

Take a look at this!

First of the 8 X 10s finished

2011-11-20T09:22:00.000-05:00

Well, except for the hanger in the back but I have bought the hardware.

Friday Favorites

2011-11-18T08:00:00.001-05:00

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

2011-11-15T04:25:00.000-05:00

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

2011-11-14T15:40:00.000-05:00

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

2011-11-09T20:21:00.000-05:00

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

2011-11-06T21:55:00.000-05:00

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

2011-11-04T09:00:00.003-04:00

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!

2011-11-02T16:30:00.000-04:00

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

2011-10-28T08:00:00.001-04:00

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

2011-10-27T13:37:00.000-04:00

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

2011-10-23T23:05:00.000-04:00

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

2011-10-16T08:00:00.001-04:00

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.

Second Baby Quilt Finished

2011-10-14T12:47:00.000-04:00

This one is going to New Mexico to a great-nephew. By traditional definition it fails to be a quilt. It has a pieced top and a flannel back but no middle. How much heat do you really need in New Mexico?

Promised Pictures from FIVE Play Date

2011-10-09T08:25:00.001-04:00

Saturday the FIVE gathered and we played with embossing and making leaf prints. Here are my two examples of embossing. The material is a hand dye I made by pole wrapping. The first is an oak leaf embossed in gold. The second is a flower composition embossed in a clear sparkle, copper, and then black. I think you can only really see the black but then when you get closer you can see the other two. Makes a nice multi-level figure. (I didn't turn the picture so it is sideways in orientation. sorry)

After lunch we moved on to make paint prints of leaves. Here are mine. I printed them on a old clean-up cloth of mine--as you can tell from the ring on one of them! I will be enhancing these with fugitive medium.

Friday Favorites

2011-10-07T08:11:00.001-04:00

I have been thinking about making a mobile with things I have found on my beach walks. I really like the design found in this blog for creating the frame of the mobile.

I adore it when an artist takes a class and blogs about it! Penny is taking a class with Jane and has a couple of posts that are exciting. Both are related to using shapes. The first is drawing the shapes and the second is fabric shapes. I do hope that Penny posts more!

Have you found this challenge group yet? Fiberactions is 12 artists who produce a new 16" x 20" quilt every other month based on a theme. This time the theme is Structure. Last time it was Texture and there were some really interesting quilts. Take a look at Sunset in the City. It is a whole cloth quilt. Would you guess it? But I think that Canyon Revisited is my favorite. Are you surprised? It is wonky and has hand stitching!

A thermofax screen give-away! You have till October 15 to sign up for it. C&T Publishing also has a give away. You need to enter by Sunday, October 9, to have a chance to win some architecture inspired artwork.

Lots of dyeing results this week. This one is from Deb who used oatmeal, rice, etc as resists. This one is from Constance Rose who used blackberries.

Friday Favorites

2011-09-30T08:00:00.006-04:00

My life is starting to be a bit more under control, even if still under controlled. But that means perhaps I may have time to start cruise quilting and surface design blogs and restart my Friday Favorites. Keep your fingers crossed with me, please.

Friday Favorites

Here are some more of Lins Rolling Stamps    I know that I have referred you to her blog before but I really like her rolling stamps. Maybe the next time FIVE gets together we can work on making some rolling stamps. I know that somewhere on Lin's blog she has a tutorial for how to make them. This post by Judi Hurwitt is old but is an excellent tutorial on making different types of stamps, including rolling stamps. It is worth bookmarking.

Check out the Fiber Art Society gallery show. I am particularly interested in Laura O.'s paper napkin and muslin piece. I want to try this technique. I know many fabric artists incorporate paper into their artwork. At first (coming from my traditional quilting background) I turned up my nose and thought "CHEATERS!" But I am starting to be won over to the idea. I mean, why not? We are creating art for the walls not blankets that need to be washable. Why not use any material that gives the results we crave?

An older post but I love it like I love most of what I find on Tanglewood Threads It is not just that she uses up the scraps of thread and fabric in her wrapping (appealing to my mother's voice in my head) but that the results are showcased through rusty metal. Really lovely. Wish she provided a bit of a tutorial. And here is another of Penny's techniques that I love. This post did include some instructions. This one absolutely is going on my to-do list. FIVE, you wanna play with this one with me?

I have been exploring a new-to-me blog named Fibreheart.   I love this work in opposites. If you continue reading some of her older posts you will find that she also eco-dyes. And this is the post that caused me to become a follower. I love the softly dyed fabric and the stitching on top of it. That is just so what I want to do when I grow up. Currently I am still having trouble being that loose or free in my stitching design. ***heavy sigh****

Elaine Quehl has been dyeing a difficult request for someone but I think the piece is luscious! I hope the buyer is satisfied but Elaine is right; if the first buyer won't take it, it won't be hard to sell. And speaking of dyeing, here is why Judy loves to dye. That eye candy is also why I love to read Judy's blog.

Well, I am attending a conference for work meaning I am staying in a hotel. I am off to the pool to swim a couple of laps.   It's a rough job but someone.... LOL.

Prep for Nancy Crow's workshop

2011-09-28T14:53:00.000-04:00

Did I tell you I am taking a second Nancy Crow Workshop? This time I am going to Quilting by the Lake in upstate NY in November and participating in the Sets and Variable III workshop. Have I taken Sets and Variable I or II. No, of course not. LOL

Nancy has given us a lot of prep work to prepare for her workshop. The first thing we are to do is draw lots of motifs with simple and compound lines. Second, we are to pick some of the better motifs and sew them with a white background and black lines.

Okay, so I am currently away from home attending a conference. Between making notes on the workshop, I am drawing motifs. Here are 72 different motifs I have drawn today. I have posted the numbers on the left side of the motif. Please let me know which 3 motifs are your favorite and feel free to tell me why. Motif winners will be sewn into 8"x8" blocks to take to the QBL2.

New Grand Daughter= New Baby Quilt

2011-09-11T18:14:00.000-04:00

They named her Maggie May from Rod Stewart's song so the name of this quilt is "Wake UP, Maggie."

New Toy has arrived!

2011-09-08T12:13:00.000-04:00

I am getting ready for my next Nancy Crow workshop and have been worrying about how to afford the photo printer that I want for it. Well, our regular printer died so when we went shopping to replace it I said to my dear husband, "Oh, while we are buying printers, I also need a portable photo printer." Silly man, he said okay.

The store didn't have any in-stock so I had dear husband's permission to order one on the internet. Since he was paying (DEAR husband!) I bought a really fancy one instead of the stripped down model I was hoping to pinch pennies and buy myself. Woooo Hooooo! Here is a picture of my new Epson PictureMate Show Digital Frame and Compact Photo Printer - PM 300.

Friday Favs?

2011-08-08T10:28:00.000-04:00

After much debate with myself, I have decided to put my Friday Favorites on a hiatus. Now that I have added cooking diet food and exercising into my daily routine, I am simply running out of time to do everything I want. Know the feeling? The good news is that I have now lost 15 lbs and with the help of hypnosis am even starting to enjoy moderate exercise. That bodes well for me to hit my first goal in weight loss by Labor Day. YEAH!

However, one last cool thing to share, Quilting Arts is having a fabric swap. I think it sounds really fun and plan to create my 4 fat quarters to trade. This will be easier than the round robin fabric swap because you are simply creating your own fabric fat quarters to send off and then receiving 4 new ones in the mail. Since I am always energized by seeing what other can accomplish, I can't wait!

Scumptious Surface Design Number 1

2011-07-30T23:12:00.000-04:00

The assignment this week was to develop a design. I don't want to use a suggested motif or a motif at all. So, I used a picture I took of seaweed on rocks in a tidal pool.

Using Photoshop I made it black and white, posterized the edges, cropped a section I particularly liked, rotated it, and increased the contrast. Here is the design I will be using for my first project. I will use black linen for the negative space and the scrumptious design will be in white and grey threads.

More about fabric beads

2011-07-29T17:57:00.000-04:00

Here are my dried fabric beads after I slid them off the straws. Won't they look great when I sew them on my Nancy Crow Barn Blocks? Carol Esch asked me how to make the fabric beads. Sorry, it is so easy that I didn't think to give any explanation.

Okay, first Supplies: You only need:

small scraps of fabric,
white glue mixed 50-50 with water,
a paint brush to apply the glue, and
a round shape like a knitting needle or straw to wrap the fabric around.

Second, here are the complicated steps:

Take a small scrap of fabric.
Paint the scrap with the glue/water.
Wrap the fabric around the shape, overlapping the ends.
Take a smaller scrap to repeat the process on top of the first fabric scrap.
Repeat till you like the look.
Let the bead dry on the shape.
Optional is to decorate the beads with paint, glitter, ink, oil, whatever.
Slide beads off the shape
Optional is to coat the finished bead with a protective coat of something to give it a shine.
Sew them on whatever. Beads should only be used on items that will not be washed.

Easy Peasy! You can cut the fabric or rip it. You can use wider or narrower scraps. You can combine lots of colors or make them all one color. HAVE FUN!

Friday Favs

2011-07-29T12:30:00.000-04:00

Wednesday I received the first lesson in Sumptuous Surface Design from Sharon B. I had enrolled in the Yahoo class group a couple of weeks before and had been following the discussions. Most had been on crazy quilt embroidery and I was getting more and more concerned. I was not interested in just learning a bunch of crazy stitches. Reading the lesson was a very pleasant surprise. It was not only NOT a bunch of crazy stitches it was actually an art lesson! She wrote about the 3 basic steps in design--concept, form, and content. I have taken college art classes that did not do near as good of a job in presenting design process! This is going to be an exciting class!!

So my Friday Favorites this week starts with embroidery, moves into art lessons, and then finishes with some tutorials.

Embroidery:
Arlee Barr shares several looks at her Raggedy Black Heart. I was just gonna give you the general address so you could cruise through the several posts with pictures but she has posted several pages on top of them. So, I will give you the first one and you can use her handy little arrow to see the others. The nice thing about the multiple posts is that Arlee talks a bit about her process in working on the piece.

I will warn you right up front that The Silly BooDilly is working with handmade paper and not fabric but I really like the weaving she has done on the paper. If you don't want to look at paper, don't check out her site. But I think the technique could be used on fabric equally effectively.

Art Lessons:
Judy Martin and her quilting group has been working on Mended World for close to 2 years now and it is finally almost finished. It clearly has deserved the time spent on it. Very quietly powerful. Anyway, she gives a short design lesson as she evaluates the piece.

Novembergrass is one of my newer finds. All of her postings are worth looking at if you are interested in incorporating stitch in your design. I put her under art lessons because she talks about a focal point in this post. As I struggle to balance my foreground and background so that I have a focal point plus other interesting things to look at in the design, I appreciate her thinking about a focal point.

Tutorials:
Nina Marie, another relatively new find for me, has just completed a class with Jane Dunnewold and passes along what she has learned about dyeing fabric in two post. ONE and TWO Everyone has their own techniques and I might have ignored her post if she hadn't told me that it was based on Jane's workshop. And, you know, I learned a thing or two.

I hope you keep learning new things too! Makes life much more interesting, doesn't it?

More Nancy Crow's Barn Scraps

2011-07-27T21:00:00.000-04:00

My mother pinched every penny twice and had no shame about it. It was how she was able to raise 5 children on a very limited budget and still quietly put a little money in the bank every week for her retirement. So when Nancy Crow said that I was "worth it" when I told her I hated to waste fabric, it just didn't sit well. Instead of throwing away all my fabric scraps, I packed them away in my suitcase and shipped them home. And I am having the most fun with them. I am still putting together the larger scraps into blocks like this new one.

And now I have started working on the smaller scraps.

Turning them into fabric beads to use in embellishing some of the blocks. These are drying on the straws I am using to shape the beads.

Friday and NO Favorites

2011-07-22T04:00:00.003-04:00

I am sure there are wonderful blog posts out there that I have missed this week. I will have to try and see them next week. This week I have been too busy to spend much time looking. Have I told you that I am dieting? Perhaps not. It is embarrassing to admit that I need to lose weight. But I do and I have been. I have now lost 11 lbs with still too much more to admit to lose. Anyway, this is related to no Friday Favorites because 1) I have been cooking diet food, 2) I have been exercising, and 3) with all my new found energy, I have been sewing. Those three mean I have less time for perusing the world wide quilting web. Please be sure to let me know if I miss something really important.

What have I been sewing you ask? I am so glad you asked. Here are some pictures of my Nancy Crow Barn scraps. Here are some blocks.

And here are some blocks sewn together waiting to get quilted and embellished.

(Ignore my toes)

And here are some pictures of my 6 brocade napkins that I first screen printed with weeds and then tried to eco print. Didn't turn out as well as I wanted but I will try again.

I do like the coloring on this one. I think it got the red from the Japanese Maple.

And here are some pictures of my marbled fabric (well, actually this particular one is from Rosalita) with some embroidery on it. Still lots to do with it before it is finished. Penny Berens has inspired me to create holes.

Can you tell that the stitching is very 3-D? And the yellow is holes in the fabric showing the cutting board behind. I will fill them with stuff. Not ready to do that yet.

And here is a picture of my stitched flower inspired by these photos. It is not finished yet either but coming along nicely.

See why I didn't have time to browse this week?

Sumptuous Surface Embroidery

2011-07-15T11:52:00.000-04:00

I did tell you, didn't I, that I had signed up for Sharon's Sumptuous Surface Embroidery online workshop? It doesn't start for another week or so but the Yahoo Group is already up and my classmates are saying hello. They are from Australia, Tasmania, New South Wales, UK, Germany, Canada, Singapore, and all over the United States from Maine to Austin TX. Won't this be a great group!! You'll be seeing more of my handwork in the next couple of months (I hope!)

Friday Favorites

2011-07-15T05:00:00.001-04:00

It has happened again. Blogger has eaten my finished Friday Favorites. At least this time I think I know what happened.

Each week I begin my Friday Favorites on the Friday before they are posted. During the week as I read the great blogs, I copy and paste the URL's in the draft post. Then on Wednesday and Thursday I start to write my post. That is what I did this afternoon. Blog all written and scheduled to be posted early Friday morning! Yep, right up until I found another open window with the draft post in it. When I closed the draft, it erased the scheduled finished post. OUCH!!

So, here is my list of favorites but no write-up this week. Sorry--too disgusted to rewrite.

http://hot-textiles.blogspot.com/2011/07/bourne-quilters-lecture-and-2-workshops.html
http://luannkessi.blogspot.com/2011/07/thermofax-printing-on-shirts.html
http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/2011/07/36-patch-quilt-along.html
http://linsartyblobs.blogspot.com/2011/07/rolling-stamps-1-4.html
http://fibraartysta.blogspot.com/2011/07/on-chopping-block.html

http://elizabethbarton.blogspot.com/2011/07/composting-its-how-you-mix-it.html
http://tanglewoodthreads.blogspot.com/2011/07/story-complete.html

Friday Favorites

2011-07-09T10:07:00.000-04:00

Lately I have been having trouble with switching from cruising to writing. Lots of good things to see and read and learn! Here are my favorites (in no particular order) from this week.

Friday Favorites
I got my e-zine from Lynn Krawczyk delivered in my inbox this week. She has 10 tips for developing your personal design process. Her thoughts about how to make "something from nothing" are worth a read.

This one is a two-fer. Jane La Fazio shares a tutorial for using your drawing skills to create a prayer flag. Jane Davies is also making prayer flags using a resist and water technique and she links you to her tutorial on the method. Prayer Flags are weekend activity so I will show you the results when I am finished but expect to see my attempts at these two methods.

Elaine Quehl is preparing to teach a class on thread sketching. Even if you can't attend the class, the samples she shows you are exciting to look at. She shows a range of things to do within the technique.

Terry Jarrard-Dimond interviews Sandra Palmer Ciolino. I am including this post because I know Sandy and can pass along my recommendation. She was at the table next to mine this last spring at Nancy Crow's Barn. She is a really nice person and her quilting is fabulous. Sandy is teaching a 3-day workshop this fall at the Barn and if I could I would be attending!

Terry at And Sew It Goes talks about the difference between Photoshop and Illustrator. I have used both programs and found Illustrator really hard to learn. But I was using it on a Mac and was also trying to figure out that system. I am aware of the capabilities of Illustrator and I think I will check out how much the program cost for a pc.

Lisa Kerpoe shows some pieces on which she has used multiple resist methods. I am blown away. I have such a mind set of" one layer and done" that I need constant reminders like hers to keep my mind open to experimentation. I really love the depth given by multiple layers.

Veronica at Fiber Antics shows how to turn a turn a vase of flowers into an interesting design using a view finder. It is a technique she learned in a design workshop
.

Okay I included this because I liked the quilt but Jacquie at Tallgrass Prairie Studio also links you to a blog hop if you are interested. And more eye candy can be found at Kathy Loomis's review of the QSDS alumi show. And MORE eye candy at Arlee Barr's blog. Her stuff is 3-D and that is exciting!

I am now off to my wet studio (kitchen) to work on the prayer flags. Pictures when I am done!

Judith

Quilts out of military uniforms

2011-07-05T09:33:00.002-04:00

This is such a wonderful idea! I wonder why someone didn't think of it sooner? Perhaps as we sit safely in our homes, we could remember that we are wrapped in safety through the work of our military.

Friday Favorites

2011-07-01T09:05:00.000-04:00

I have had a great week. I hope that you have too! Got lots of little projects done and a larger project moved along. I have one little project in progress that I can show.

It is a reverse applique piece that I have then rolled with gesso and did some painting and stamping. I saw the technique on one of those quilting shows recently. I am kinda liking it so far. This is my third attempt to turn the Goodwill silk dress with blue roses into an art quilt. So far it is the most successful attempt

Friday Favorites
First, lets talk about tutorials.
Here is one from the Sketchbook Challenge on painting with watercolors. The thing I really liked about it is the steps it shows. My tendency is to try and get a finished picture all at once. Those intermediate steps of letting the layer dry before applying another layer really makes a difference whether you are working on paper or cloth. And talking about layers, Judy heard an artist say he knows when his art is finished--it has 7 layers. That is a lot of waiting and patience.

Does it count as tutorial if it is YouTube? This is one on making a necklace out of a t-shirt. My first reaction was...well....I.... lets not go there. But the necklace is kinda cute. Maybe you will like it.

Strictly speaking this is not a tutorial but Nina-Marie has multiple posts showing her progress with a cross series. I think there is enough information there to consider it a tutorial. And don't you love the progress she is making?!

Second, lets look at pretty pictures and get motivated.
Jane shows pictures from a class she is teaching at a National Park. The results were enough of a motivator (and the umpteenth time I have read Jane talk about her watercolor pens) that I have now bought some and will see how well they work as immigrant medium on fabric. Here is the link it you are interested in where to buy them.

Pictures of flowers steeping to become dyes and the colors they produce.

Now lets' see some interesting techniques to add to our ever-lengthening list of things to try.
Kim is working with paper and fabric.

The Ramblin' Girl is playing with photoshop.

The Quilt Rat is working on thread stitching--something I definitely need to practice. Here she shows a beginning and then the project a little further along.

Penny is doing more of her uncomplicated hand work. I really like her work. It is not that the stitching is so magnificent when you look at each little stitch. It is the quantity and overall effect that takes my breath away.

I was debating whether to put this in tutorials or techniques but decided here. Jane is showing us a new (at least to me) product, liquid watercolors, and her results with it.

Last, lets end with a discussion about what is art.
First, Lynn asks your opinion about whether art has to have a purpose other than to be pretty. Well, and these days that isn't even a requirement. Her second question has more interest for me. If no one ever saw your art, would you keep creating. Now there is a question. Let me see, if I have spent tons of money on supplies and all my free time creating art quilts and then I basically put them in a pile in the spare bedroom after I finished them, would I continue to do so? Well, I have for a couple of years now so I guess the answer is yes. LOL

The second discussion on art is from Jane Dunnewold and is the text from the lecture she gave at the SDA in Minneapolis. It is quite long since it is from a lecture but is worth the read. She ends with this statement "Decide between you what matters, and then go out into the world and pursue it with joyful abandon."
Basically that is my answer to Lynn about would I continue my art. Yep, and with joyful abandon and no excuses.

Finished!

2011-06-27T15:19:00.000-04:00

Going Green with Panache

9 1/2 by 10 1/2 inches

Commercially dyed cotton with painted fusible

Machine Embroidered

Embellished with hand dyed pearl cotton, fugitive medium, and beads

I know you are supposed to face with a color that similar so it won't show but I thought a little peek of orange would just fit in with the orange on the top so here is the facing and the hanging sleeve.

Saturday Play Date

2011-06-26T18:50:00.000-04:00

Not finished yet but embellishment progress on this piece. Beth donated some orange beads for it.

Current Projects and Friday Favorites

2011-06-25T02:55:00.000-04:00

I didn't get much browsing done this week. My lunch breaks are now being taken up with exercise (I am dieting) and my evenings are full of sewing. I have started a new quilt following principles I learned at Nancy's Barn. I think I might enter it in a show so I can only show you the pile of fabric I am using.
The fabric is mostly the 10 shades of fuschia and the 5 shades of chartreuse I dyed in preparation for Nancy's workshop but didn't use there.

The second project is also leftovers from Nancy's. Rather than throw away all my scraps from the quilts I made there I toted them all home. Now I am using them to create some improvisational blocks that can hang separately or together. Here is the first one in progress. The white fabric is from a dress shirt my husband just ruined. (Ruined as far as him getting to wear it but perfect for me to use!) I might call this series "What does Nancy Crow's Scraps and My Husband's Shirt Have in Common." LOL

Friday's Favorites

I am loving these tutorials posted by Lyric Kinard at The Sketchbook Challenge. I think I will print them out to keep them in my sketchbook. Usually tutorials are on a specific art technique but these are on art principles that art quilters need to know. Love them!

Well, you know I love tutorials in general and Amanda Jean has a very nice one on sewing circles. She points out in the tutorial that her method is not the only method used for sewing cirles. It isn't but it is a very good technique and I think the best one for beginners to use. I started there but am now comfortable with finger pinning as I ease the pieces together. Anyway, I think the results from her efforts make a darling baby quilt.

And also working with circles, LuAnn Kessi shows us the screen printing that her friend, Virginia, is producing. Beautiful circles!

Clare Wasserman at Threads of Loveliness is trying a new technique near and dear to my heart--burning up fabric. She is making postcards by covering transfoil with organza, quilting it heavily, and then burning the excess organza. Here is a post with in-progress pictures and here is the finished product.

Last are some videos. Here is one from Muppin on thermochromic textile paint. And another video on India Flint teaching a workshop in Belgium. After watching it I went back to Goodwill to get the crockpot to use for dying. And while I was at Youtube I found Arlee!

Friday Favorites by a Fiber Artist

2011-06-17T16:33:00.000-04:00

I have decided I am a fiber artist. I started calling myself that when I felt that "quilter" didn't quite fit the majority of what I do and I didn't have another term to use. I fought that title for a long time because I wanted to work to earn it. I wanted to be really, really, really good at art before I declared myself an artist. Well, I have gotten better although I don't by any means think I have arrived but if I don't call myself an artist, what do I call myself? If you want to hear more about when to call yourself an artist, here is a post by Elaine. And here is another about being an artist by Lisa Call.

And while you are at Elaine's blog you might want to check out the pictures she took at The ArT QuILT ExPERiENCE and Quilt Canada 2011. I especially like the pictures of the student's quilts from Elaine's class. And I hoped you checked out Lisa' Structures.

If you feel unsure of calling yourself an artist, then you probably aren't sure if what you produce is art. Well, here is a post by Lynn Krawczyk that discusses whether small works of art are Art with a capital A. I am including this post because Denise used a previously dyed organza, gave it a coffee/tea bath and burnt holes in it. Now that is my type of Art. Isn't it beautiful? Doesn't look all that big.

I too have felt that I have to work big in order for my work to be considered Art. However, the last several SAQA events I have attended (or talked to others about) have said that large stuff is just not selling. Gallery owners want smaller items that might actually sell whether than to waste their walls on a huge quilt that no one will buy. So, if that is a consideration for you, don't listen to the "Go BIG or go Home" art bullies. Tell them to go and measure the size of the Mona Lisa (it is small) and get back to you. And, did you check out Lisa' Structures and realize they are all 12" by 12"?

Those of us who create beautiful fabric often ask ourselves (and others) "now what?" Now that I have created this fabulous piece of fabric, what should/can I do with it? Kathy Loomis has a wonderful example of what to do. This is going on my list of things to try.

And you know how I love tutorials. Here is one for the art lover--2 pt perspective. I know. Try not to roll your eyes but artists need to know perspective. For example, there are some very nice original works of art hanging in the Tutoring Center at wprl but despite the lovely composition, technique, and colors used what I see every time I look at them is the inaccurate perspectives on the buildings. What a shame the pictures are ruined by it. I hope the artist learns perspective because I do like the other qualities of her work.

Last is a great sale if you don't make your own hand dyed fabric. Vicki Welsh is celebrating 2 year Anniversary by offering 20% off her fabric. Sale only lasts till Sunday.

Since I am an artist, I am putting the time in my studio tomorrow and creating! I hope you get to do the same!

Snapping Turtles and Japanese Maple eco-dyeing

2011-06-16T21:33:00.000-04:00

Yep, that is a snapping turtle and she is laying her eggs. I pass close to a lake on my way to work and in June, this is a common scene along that stretch of road.

And now on to surface design. I was inspired by some of the eco-prints I showed you last week so I wanted to try some of my local flora. I thought I would try some leaves from the Japanese maple tree. When I went out to collect them I found the tree loaded with red airplane seeds. So I got some of them too. Here are my results. Isn't it great to get two colors from the same dye bath?

Friday Favorites on Monday

2011-06-10T12:45:00.126-04:00

Last Friday I posted my Friday Favorites and they evaporated into thin air. I don't know where they went but, darn, I had some good thoughts in there. LOL Anyway, because I am just that dedicated, here is my second rendition of last Friday's Favorites

Lisa Kerpoe posted a shortdiscussion on "Is it done Yet?" My friend, Debra, and I have had that conversation many times. She has a tendency to throw everything including the kitchen sink on her quilts and then to remove till she thinks the piece is finished. I do as Lisa does by adding one piece at a time and asking if it is done. Either way works to find your balance of "finished." I think I have gotten better over time and practice to know if a piece is really finished or if I am just done working on it. Unfortunately the two rarely meant the same thing for me. With experience I am starting to tell the difference more readily.

The second dilemma I have with "finished" is that I look at pieces that I "finished" early in my art quilt life. Now I can see that they weren't really quite done yet. A little more layering, or coloring, or quilting, or something would make all the difference to the quality of the piece. Do I go back and fix them? I debated and decided if the addition would make the piece show quality then maybe it is worth it. Otherwise, it is fine to respect my growth, leave the immature piece alone to show my progress, and move on. How do you handle that problem?

Karen S has a lovely tutorial on piping. She shows the piping on a little dress but there is no reason you could not use the same technique and put it on a quilt for some texture. She certainly makes it appear effortless enough to try the technique.

Now for the rest of the Friday Favorites. Some weeks it seems that everyone is posting on the same subject. Like last week I found lots of things on hand stitching. This week I found lots of things on dyeing. I am never sure when I see more posts on a particular subject if it is because I am interested in them so they pop out or if there is just some serendipity going on with bloggers.

Lotta Helleberg at "inleaf" has unveiled her eco bundles. They are to die for. Great leaf prints! Even more exciting is that many are leaves that I recognize meaning, unlike Eucalyptus leaves, I could go in my back yard and find them for free. While you are there (not in my backyard but on her blog), check out her avocado dip. We had an avocado in our salad last week just so I could try the method. I am new to her blog but have become a follower of hers now.

From Lotta's blog I went to other interesting blogs on dyeing and eco-dyeing that I had not found before, like "wake robin." (I do love when bloggers post their favorite sites to visit. I have found some of my new favorite places by following those lists.) I think it was also Lotta's blog that took me here to Cassandra Tondro's archives on eco-printing. Her blog has moved on to other things but I love this link with all her eco-prints in one place.

I included this post called branches and leaves not because it is eco dying but because I like the pictures she drew. I thought I could start with a lovely eco print and add ink gel doodling along with other immigrant medium to produce some wonderful fabric like that. I want to give that a try. I LOVE it when I find ways of combining techniques to produce a finished art cloth like here. As I am experimenting with my immigrant medium, expect to see attempts of this combination soon.

Lynn Krawczyk tried a new dyeing method where she rips her cloth before dyeing rather than after. She claimes to be in love with the results. Points to the benefit of experimentation, doesn't it?

Last for this week I love this slide show on jello monoprinting. Sit back, put your feet up, take a deep breath, and let your mind wander while you enjoy the pictures.

Judith

FIVE Surface Design Round Robin

2011-06-05T22:22:00.000-04:00

Here is my post showing Charlene's fabric from our surface design swap. Check it out.

Friday Favorites

2011-06-03T12:37:00.000-04:00

It has been a great week for me. After sorting and cleaning my studio (AKA living room) I found a whole new pile of creative energy to work with. I finished my Jungle Doodle and my painted fused piece and my piece for the FIVE surface design swap. Just wait till I show it to you tomorrow. I am really pleased! But on to Friday's Favorites.

Friday Favorites
With nothing particular required of me in the way of a quilts, I have been moving back to what I enjoy doing which includes handwork. This week I have found some new posts on handwork plus gone back to revisit some old posts on the subject.

Kathy Loomis showed some pictures of handwork done on quilts displayed at quilt national. Nice to know that I am not the only one still doing handwork. I am especially interested in the quilts from national because the stitching is not all the intricate combination embroidery stitches but basic stitches repeated and repeated.

I have already shown you Penny Beren's holes before but she posted more (and more) and I love them too. In fact, I am trying them this week. Rosalita gave me one of her marbled pieces that she did not like. I doodled a bit on it and am now adding stitches. My plan is to add some of Penny's holes in it too. And, once again, that is not a complicated stitch but a repetition of something quite simple. It is the repetition that gives it the power.

Again, Embellisher from India shows a repetition of a simple stitch in her pashminas that I find interesting. Seeing her work made me remember Kantha embroidery so I looked it up and came up with these two older posts on This and That. The first shows 2 stitches and the second shows 4. But do check out her tutorials while you are visiting her blog. I especially liked the one on chemanthy.

Tomorrow I am off to play with fugitive medium with FIVE. I am been experimenting --like in my Jungle Doodle--and am anxious to see the ides the others have. For me the fugitive medium is an in-between technique to use after the initial dyeing of the fabric and before any stitching begins. My plan is to get really good with fugitive medium so that I can lead a workshop on it at our Fall SAQA gathering.

Have a good week!

My Fugitive Jungle

2011-06-01T12:52:00.000-04:00

I have been playing around with doodles for a while. Here is the biggest and latest doodle. The piece is a fat half of cotton and is destined as a prize on "And then they set it on fire."

First I started off with white cloth that I doodled with a black gel pen--nothing special--not meant for fabric. Whenever I would stop, I would iron it to try and heat set the ink.

Then I colored it in with water-soluble pencils. I used them both dry and dipped into water. Not too much water cause that would make the gel pen ink blur. Kept ironing it too.

When I was done coloring it, I brushed it with print paste to bond the ink and pencil to the fabric. That made the colors and ink a bit more fuzzy. When that had dried I gave it a coat of very diluted blue Setacolor to blend the colors and background. When it was dry and with much trepidation I threw it into the washing machine. VOILA! The inks/colors stayed!! You can not believe how excited I was over that! Last step was to put a little smooch in spots to give a little shine.

First piece I have finished to this extent. I need much more practice but I am pleased by the experiment. Yep, tonight I expect a second piece will get started.

The rest of the story

2011-05-29T08:17:00.000-04:00

I forgot to finish my Friday Favorites with the postings about using scraps. Here is the rest of the story.

Kate North and I were having the same scrapppy problem. Here is the solution block she designed and a couple of quilts she has put together. I have just directed you to her blog since there is more than one posting about the scrap quilts.

And didn't Amanda Jean do a marvelous job on her Apple Cake quilt? It is all hand applique but I see no reason why it could not be machine pieced. Although, come to think of it, I am looking for a project to do while I sit beside my husband on the couch. This could be it.

Kathy Loomis has her own approach to leftovers. One of her statements got me to thinking. She talked about her "real" quilt. I think by that she means that she makes a small quilt using her idea before she tackles the larger more important quilt, like Nancy had us do at the Barn. Nice to know that time consuming but ultimately time saving trick.

Okay, that was the rest of the story. I am now going back to finish coloring my latest fabric doodle. Pictures later.

My voice and Friday Favorites

2011-05-27T20:00:00.000-04:00

I have been having an on-going hunt for my voice. You know, that distinctive something that when people look at a quilt they will be able to say, "OH! That is a Jdemilo quilt." or "That is similar to what Jdemilo does." I am told in various blogs that my voice should be unique (have they seen ALL the different types of stuff is out there???), not a derivative (as in completely unlike anyone else--have they seen ALL the quilters out there????), and is something coming from inside (think of a baby during labor). Well, I have found for my voice. My voice says that the task is too great for me. Instead, my voice says, I am going to concentrate on what I like. Can you hear my voice? LOL For more opinions on voice, check out Jane Dunnewold or David duChemin.

Friday Favorites
There were lots of lov-er-ly things out there this week like Terry Jarrard-Dimond sharing her hand dying process and Penny Berens's great hand-stitched circles. But I am focused on scrap piecing. Not granny's crazy quilt but something with some composition to it that uses scrap fabrics.

Here is what I found this week that will allow me to use up tons of fabric I need to get rid of AND still create some art.

Marbling

2011-05-23T11:23:00.002-04:00

I had a marvelous time marbling with FIVE on Saturday. Check out my results on the "And Then We Set It On Fire" blog.

A move and Friday Favorites

2011-05-20T08:00:00.004-04:00

When I came home from Nancy's Barn I told my husband I needed a bigger studio. My current studio is in a corner of the living room/family room/tv room/entry way/only public space in our tiny house. I gave him the option of moving to a bigger house where I could have a separate room or giving up more (perhaps all) of the living room. My dear husband said all he needs is a chair and a TV in my studio so he can be with me. Lets all say "AHHH" together because he meant it. I am a lucky woman on many levels and I have now taken over the living room. The consequences of the in-process move is that I can't find ANYTHING. Hopefully I will achieve a higher degree of organization by next week and have something to show off.

Friday Favorites After a couple of weeks being too busy to read blogs, I was excited to see what my friends have been doing. I was not disappointed!

Debra has several new-to-me things. First she has learned how to piece on her longarm machine.   She has also added some really quirky quilting to Laura's Rose Quilt. What do you think of it?

My friend, Beth, has also posted several entries that I somehow missed and I think are exciting. One shows the results of her attempts at thread sketching. I really like what she did. Sometimes I think the thread painting is just too much--the material won't even lay down any more--but this is really clever. The second entry is her results from attending a workshop by Jane Dunnewold.   Fabulous stuff. I get to see it in person on Saturday! Yeah!

I have quoted Elizabeth Barton many times before and here I go again. One of her recommendation is to let a 'finished' piece hang for a while before declaring it officially done. Overtime you will see any problem areas that still need some resolution.   So it was with this piece by Judy. It was good before but now it is really pleasing to look at. I really like what Judy did to it with the foil and the edging. I find finishing to be the most nerve whacking part of the creative process--what if I do something the ruins hours and hours of work? Perhaps following the suggestion of time to study the quilt before execution will make the finishing touches be closer to life-giving than murderous.

Elizabeth also gives us some good advice about how to not fritter away your time in your studio. My favorite is #5.

"Leave a start the previous session. Take a leaf from a writer’s book and leave something obvious from the day before so when you walk in it’s right there ready for you to get moving on. I like to leave something in the sewing machine"

Recent Ponderings about Quilt Construction

2011-05-18T09:41:00.000-04:00

After getting our first assignment from Nancy Crow, I had a moment of insanity when I asked Nancy how we were supposed to construct our 2 ft by 3 ft quilt. The answer was "Piece. We piece in all my classes." Obviously I should have known that. So I pieced all week and cut without a straight-edge and recut things that didn't fit because I didn't measure or use a pattern but I did wonder, is this the one and only true way of art quilt construction?

All that week and still now, I compare Nancy's piecing with Elizabeth Barton's raw edge applique technique. Elizabeth cuts without patterns and states that f*** is a 4-letter word, like Nancy. But Elizabeth uses a small zig-zag machine stitch using matching thread to raw edge applique her pieces. That is so not Nancy.
Add to the mix the technique of Laura Wasilowski of Artfabrik who advocates tons of fusing and using your sketches as patterns for cutting, even to the extent of projecting your sketch so you can trace it for a perfect pattern piece. Boy, what I would give to have those three ladies in the same room!

I started out wondering which is right and which is wrong. What is art and what is craft. What is old-fashioned and possibly out-dated and what is new and fresh and extends possibilities. What is proper and what is just lazy.

I think I have ended those musings with a different concept of the difference--which is my voice? Maybe it is not a question of which is better or best or right or wrong or whatever. Maybe it is just a question of what is MY voice. I am still not sure of that answer but I think I am making progress to have at least finally recognized the correct question.

How about you? Which technique do you use and why?

Don't look, Kathy!

2011-05-16T12:05:00.000-04:00

I am doing a couple of surface design round robins. One is with FIVE, my play group, and the other is on "And Then We Set It On Fire". This fabric is Kathy's from FIVE. When I got it, it had just some green on it. You can see it best in the top left corner. Since I had some roses I was ready to dye with--some of them were even Kathy's roses that her husband gave her for Valentine's Day--I decided to to rose dye the fabric. I was hoping for leaf and petal prints but was not that successful. I did get some from the petals but none from the leaves. The coloring of pinks and greens is really pleasant in person but did not show up well in the photo. At any rate, the fabric now has it's second layer of surface design and is ready to go to the next artist.

Beth, also of FIVE, directed me to this wonderful tutorial by Jane Dunnewold about surface design round robins. Very Informational!

Nancy Crow's Barn

2011-05-11T18:35:00.000-04:00

I loved my workshop with Nancy Crow!

Sunday, set-up day, I was totally overwhelmed. The class was an advanced class and many of the women knew each other from previous workshops. They all seemed to have more fabric, better irons, bigger machines, EVERYTHING. I was totally un-nerved. I had to go out to the porch and cry for a while.

Monday I had pulled myself together and I bravely marched back to the barn. Our first assignment was to create a 2 ft by 3 ft quilt using a black figure on a white ground. It was due in 24 hours. I stayed till 10 pm and arrived at 7 am Tuesday morning to get it finished for the 9 am reveal. Here it is.

Tuesday we were assigned to create 3 tops that were 3 ft by 4 ft tops. The goal was to create a middle ground in the three quilts. The first quilt was to reinterpret the quilt from Monday using multiple blacks and whites and a grey. The second quilt was to reinterpret the first day's quilt using blacks, whites, greys, and brown. The third quilt was to reverse the colors in the 2nd quilt. We had till 10 am on Wednesday. I stayed till 10 pm and got there Wednesday at 7 am. At 9 am Nancy gave us till 11 am since no one had all three finished. I got the first two finished. Here they are.

The last assignment was to create a 4 ft by 5 ft quilt in full color using the same elements as in the quilt from the first day and the best of the quilts from the second day. The colors and values were supposed create various fore grounds, middle grounds, and back grounds. We had till Friday at 3 pm to get it finished. Guess how long I stayed and how early I arrived each day? Yeah, you got it. But I got it finished! Here is my quilt.

Nancy Crow's Workshop

2011-05-11T12:21:00.000-04:00

I made the strongest quilt I have ever made! The workshop was certainly worth all the stress and money and time and worry. In fact, I have now signed up for a second workshop with Nancy at Quilt by the Lake in November. I don't have time right now to show you pictures but I'll be posting them in the next couple of days. Just wanted you to know I was still alive!

Leaving on a Jet Plane

2011-04-27T16:14:00.000-04:00

Tonight is my last drawing class. Class finishes at 9:15 and then I go home and pack. Tomorrow I am catching a plane for Ohio and Nancy Crow's Barn. I have already mailed 50 yards of fabric and other supplies to the Barn but I have more I need to pack in my suitcase tonight. In fact, shall we play that fun traveling game?

Aunt Molly packed her suitcase and in her suitcase she packed an:
Apron for dyeing fabric
Black Dye
Camera (to digitally record my work)
Design wall (portable)
Extension cord (Heavy Duty)
Flower head pins
...are you getting the picture?

I hope to have room for some clothes and maybe my hugging pillow to sleep with but I make no promises.

No Friday Favorites this week or next since I will be preparing for, traveling to, and deep to my knees in the workshop. When I get a chance I will post pictures!

Friday Favorites

2011-04-22T09:15:00.000-04:00

This is the third time I have started this post. Blogspot doesn't seem to like it very well. We'll see if I make it this time!

First, remember last week when I decided I was not playing enough? Well, Margaret agrees that playing is important. So, before I talk about my favorites for the week, let me tell you a bit about my play for the last week.

I tried out Katie's direction for making a fabric stash string. Below is a picture of two small balls of string that I made. It is easy to make and I was surprised at how little ugly fabric it took to make a loooong string. I had kinda hoped it would use up my stash of ugly fabric faster.

After making some more I plan to use the string to play in Chapter 4 "Continuous Lengths" of Janet Edmonds's book Three-Dimensional Embroidery. I am really looking forward to that. Maybe I will make something that looks like Penny's bowl of beads or Karen's. I even have fabric beads waiting to grace the right bowl.

When I first started making the string I thought I would couch with it. I bought a new book from Interweave Press on Couching. I will probably do that in the future but the current string won't go well with the current couching experiment as seen below. This started out as a failed monoprint. Now with the addition of some stitching and some couching it might actually turn into something. It is not finished but has some hope now.

And I probably have not done anything to this painted fusible piece since I showed it to you last but it was lost for over a week and I am thrilled it is found again. While I was waiting for it to turn up, I watched Linda and Laura Kemshall's Design Matters TV. I watched the episode on painting fusible. Was nice to know I did it correctly. My year's subscription to the show is my dear husband's birthday present to me.

Friday Favorites

Jill at The Quilt Rat shows off her discharged moth with a new crazy quilt technique she learned from Bev White. Remember Jill's post where she showed us how to make that discharged moth? I had forgotten it so I was glad to see the moth again. Beth, Rosalita, Kathy, how about we play like this next time we get together?

Arlee at Albedo---Chronicles of Concupiscientia Oculorum shares a mini embroidery tutorial on making a raised buttonhole stitch. Haven't tried it yet but I think it will look lovely with my hand dyed pearl cotton on my heart of steel series. I included this posting by Deb at More Whiffs, Glimmers, and Left Oeuvres because of its relatedness to embroidery. Deb says that she can do fancy stitches but rarely does anymore. I find that the same in my work. I want the embroidery to add to the quilt but not take it over. I think her little crosses would fit the bill. And I think that Deepa's knotted chain stitch variation might find its way into my work too. The more open variation feels too fancy and frou frou but I like the elongated stitch variation a lot!

Sherrilynn Wood at Daintytime has started a tutorial on making a crazy type quilt she calls a Mini Keepsake. She has several tutorials for it but my favorites so far are the one on piecing curves and the one on fitting together the pieces like a puzzle. Those tend to be the hardest part of improvisational piecing for me.

Okay, my play for this coming week has been inspired. I hope yours has too!

Confession

2011-04-20T18:03:00.000-04:00

Melanie Testa in a post named "Research and Personal Development" tells about finding a dead bird, fetching it back to her studio, soaking the flesh from the bones, and saving the skeleton in a ring box. She did not seem to find that strange at all. And she didn't mind telling her vast readership that she did that. I am thrilled.

For years I have collected bones. I would never go out and kill anything nor would I treat their remains disrespectfully. But I do love the bone structures. A couple of years ago I brought home a fresh road-killed porcupine. I just let it sit at the edge of the woods and let nature take it's course. Now I have quills that I have made jewelry with and hope to incorporate into an art quilt. I have the skull. From the teeth I know it was an older animal and that porcupines are not carnivores. I also see the huge sinus area and know that porcupines must have a great sense of smell. I can identify the shoulder blades, pelvis bones, vertebrae, ribs, and tiny little foot bones. How marvelous they all are.

This week I came across a fresh road-killed raccoon that has come to reside at my house. My new dead pet. I had to carefully stake him out. The porcupine was not a problem. No scavengers wanted to wrestle with the quills. The raccoon, however, would get drug off into the woods for someone's dinner leaving me no bones. So he is staked out waiting for nature to occur. I will check it regularly to check its progress and to see what types of insects are currently active. Overtime the flesh will decay and be returned to the earth in one form or another but the bones will remain. They will tell stories about the life and death of the raccoon.

Yep, me and Melanie. We see the beauty in bones.

Friday Favorites

2011-04-15T10:45:00.000-04:00

Are you tired to my talking about Wen's workshop yet? This time I am writing about what I learned from her studio. Her studio was very eye opening to me. It was full of lots of different types of art that she had made--big things, fabric things, hanging things, paper things, fabric and paper things, framed things, and more stuff. It was full of stuff for sale for $20 and stuff for sale for a LOT more. Now I know that Wen has just had pieces accepted into a lot of juried venues. She makes great fabric pieces. But clearly she did not sit back and wait for that perfect idea to come around to execute. She was playing and experimenting and finishing tons and TONS of stuff.

I find that sometimes my head gets warped (not wrapped) around the idea that I should be making Art (capital A) all the time. I don't want to waste my time making art (little a). Wen's studio really showed to me that there is a fine line between the two and you produce Art when you are practicing and experimenting and finishing art. Without the art, there is no Art. So this week, in my Friday Favorites I have look at creative works of Art/art that others are producing and applauding them.

Friday Favorites

Arlee ecoprinted some paper that could be used in some lov-er-ly art quilts. I have resisted using paper in my art quilts for some time but, lets face it, 1) a good quality paper is mostly rag or fabric anyway, 2) art quilts are meant to be hung on the wall and not to be washed so what does it matter, and 3) it is my hang up and I need to get over it.

Katie is making fabric stash string. She uses it to make 3-D objects but it would also be very effective couched on the front of an art quilt. The making of it seems to be very meditative which would make it a good activity when I want to be productive but my brain does not want to have to think anymore.

Nat is combining shibori with ecodyeing--it makes a great combination. And Laura is combining shibori with parfait dyeing. Both are successful attempts and both postings give you some how-to's so that you could try the attempt. Connie Rose is also getting some exciting results with her dyeing.

Patty the quilt lady is having fun making improv quilts without a pattern. She has four tutorials posted (one and two and three and four) that show you her process. I had enough information at the first two tutorials but beginners will want to watch all 4. This is a new blog for me and I have become one of her followers now. Eva is fiddling with the tiniest of scraps and having fun ( and here, and here)with an improv quilt, although her style is much more hand work and smaller pieces so it takes time.

Well, that was some of my inspiration to be creative this week. I hope that you find yours!

Digging into Digital Printing with Wen Redmond

2011-04-12T12:40:00.001-04:00

Saturday FIVE went to NH for a workshop with Wen Redmond. It was a private workshop that Beth negotiated with Wen and was held in her studio at an old mill. You enter in the green door.

And then you go up the winding staircase to the third floor. Her studio has a primo space because it is right by the bathroom and the windows look out over the river. Beauty and Practicality all wrapped up in one location.

The workshop itself was experimental. That means we got to play with lots of different types of paper, fabric, and precoats for digital printing. We came home with lots of samples of what we had learned. I am only going to show you the fabric ones because that is what I am the most interested in.

We were told to bring pictures on a flash drive already pre-sized to 4x6 inches or 5x7 inches. I chose several but as you can see, I printed mostly the picture I took of an Osage Orange grove in Columbus OH. The first two are both fabric collages. The one of the left is linen/silk organza/linen fabrics with an orange something in the middle of the organza. The one of the right is a collage of all see through fabrics coated with different types of Inkaid. Because of the fagility of the fabric, we collaged the fabric onto a sheet of plastic before we coated it with the Inkaid. After the Inkaid dried, we ran them through the printer to print the picture. Nothing special was done to the printer in order to print. I really like the picture and really like it printed on the fabric. I want to do a third one with more orange in the middle and make them a threesome.

These two pictures are 5x7. The one on the left is a picture I took at Popham Beach. It is printed on black fabric that was coated with a white Inkaid. I could have covered the fabric more completely for a less abstract picture but I like this effect. The picture on the right (recognize the trees?) is a piece of white fabric that I pre-painted, let dry, coated with Inkaid and then printed. When the painting is done with an idea of what is to be printed I think the effect would be very powerful.

This last picture is printed on a canvas fabric that comes already prepared for printing. The white diagonal lines are from a white crayon scribbled on the fabric for a resist. Again, when used with intent, I think the technique has possibilities. I did not bring the photo printed on a piece of fabric treated with molding paste to give it some texture, coated with Inkaid and then printed but, as you can imagine, it has texture. Cool.

A workshop well worth going to. I expect to experiment more with the techniques and to incorporate some of them in future projects. However, if you go to Wen's studio, don't make the mistake I made. I looked at some of her work. This piece came home with me. I am going to float it on a piece of black mat board, frame it, and hang it in my studio for inspiration.

Line Upon Line

2011-04-11T10:52:00.000-04:00

Started a new quilt over the weekend. The fabric is plain white with fusible squares (fusible painted with ink last play date) fused and overfused to the surface. I am adding a layer of quilting using pearl cotton I have dyed. I then plan to add a layer of silk organza with pictures/words printed on it using techniques I learned from Wen Redmond's workshop. I will do more quilting on top of that. Obviously hand quilting as you can see the needle and thread hanging down.

The working title is Line Upon Line. I thought of that since the squares all have lines of ink of them. I am not sure of the orientation yet. That may change as I work on it. But I do love the colors. Those came from the new acrylic inks I am experimenting with.

This week's fun and Friday Favorites

2011-04-08T13:46:00.000-04:00

This was the week I was supposed to have fun. I got started last Saturday but then didn't get a chance to go back and finish. Saturday was a meeting of the FIVE. Well, it was supposed to be a meeting of the FIVE. Kathy was snowed in; Rosalita (featured here) wanted to spend time with her husband; Charlene had to work; Beth (featured here) and I met and played with painting fusible and foiling. Beth says that we are no longer foil virgins. Anyway, I got started on a couple of good projects but then nothing. Beth turned her projects into 3 finished quilts. ***Heavy Sigh*** I have got to give up sleeping.

Here are my beginnings:

This one is just squares of the ink-painted fusible fused to white fabric in a random pattern.

This one will be an ocean scene. It uses fabric I parfait dyed, painted fusible from Beth, and then silver foil. It still needs alot!

Friday Favorites:

This week it seemed that I saw posts that reminded me of my friends. Laura, this post on Inktense Pencils is for you! Enjoy!

Beth S., this post is for you! Jane Dunnewold has become an urban guerilla tagging her neighborhood with her art. And speaking of Jane, my friend Beth S. is doing an independent study with Jane as her mentor. WOW!!! You might stop by Beth's blog and wish her good luck as she undertakes the task of finding her unique voice.

Surface Design Stuff.
I posted over at "And then we set it on Fire" a Surface Design Round Robin I am organizing. We need more players so please hop over and take a look. Also, we have someone in the Netherland who wants to play in a European Round Robin. Any one interested?

And here is some great inspiration for surface design! Connie Rose posted some fabulous pictures of her playing around with surface design. Judi Hurwitt took another approach to surface design that I found really interesting. Laura, an Iron Queen at the Chicago School of Fusing, shares her bias towards fusing. And here is some finished fabric I fell in love with and which you could purchase from Spoonflower. Which, of course, any of us could do with our own designs at Spoonflower.

Tomorrow I am off for more fun with a workshop with Wen Redmond down in NH. Goody!

Final Assignment for Drawing Class

2011-04-07T11:36:00.000-04:00

Our final assignment in class is to draw 3-5 pictures that show an elapse of time. The instructor showed us pictures that other classes have drawn for this assignment. Some were like little storyboards. Some went the route of generation and drew pictures of family members or of their houses.

Because of what I have learned from presentation on Elizabeth Barton I am going to work in a series with different lighting and shadows showing the elapse of time. So, Lake Messalonskee is not far from my house and I pass a wonderful view of it every morning and night. I have long wanted to do something with that view and here is my chance.

Here are two pictures that I have taken today. The first was at 8 am and the second was at 10 am. Look at the difference in the shadows and the reflection in the lake. I'll take more pictures later today. I think this may turn into a great project!

Friday Favorites

2011-04-01T08:00:00.004-04:00

I have decided that I am just not playing enough. I am dyeing for my quilt class with Nancy Crow and drawing for my homework in my drawing class but just playing around? Not so much. I have been inspired this week by the fun others are having. They are not producing the next great art quilt that will ensure world peace, end world hunger, or make the artist rich and famous (yea, right). What they are doing is stretching their creativity muscles in short studies and smaller projects which will ultimately better prepare them for that future stupendous art quilt. Okay, you have heard it here first. This week I will make some small simple project just for fun. I have the perfect project in mind. Results will be shown next Friday.

Friday Favorites

Vicki and Estelle had fun with a variety of transfer techniques and was nice enough to show us their experiments. Vicky followed up with her next post to tell you how TAP washed. I agree with Vicki; no "special" clothing gets pampered at my house.

Laura c-w over at the Sketchbook Challenge is an artist after my own heart. Here she draws thawing ice using pencil, water-soluable pencil, and ink. Looks like a project out of the Drawn to Stitch book. Fits right in with my drawing class.

Also at the Sketchbook Challenge, Kelli is getting practical with her sketches and provides a tutorial for turning them into an Ipod or phone cover. This is the post that really made me think about all the fabric I am dyeing and pictures I am drawing and then putting them all away. Time to make something FUN out of them!

Take at look at what the Quilt Rat is doing with de-clourant. I have never thought to use it this way! And she is using a brand she got at the grocery store. The grocery store! Not something she had to send away and wait for and pay postage on. Like, how cool is that!

Jane LaFazio at Janeville is having fun with freezer paper stencils and paint sticks. I agree with Jane that she is not done with the little quilt yet--it still needs something--but I have every confidence that Jane will discover what is needed. At any rate, you can check out her tutorial on freezer paper stencils while you want for her quilt to "ripen."

And Jackie, at art4moi, is having fun with lino prints and Shibori. In fact, several of the blogs I follow are featuring shibori because they are all taking an online class. All of them are raving about the class. And let me tell you, their "homework" is fun just to look at. I am sorry I am missing it.

Arlee is thinking spring with some of her eco-prints. Her dyeing is such an inspiration to me. And then, add what she does with the fabric, and I am truly humbled.

I have been looking around on-line to make sure that I have not missed any art quilt blogs that I really, really, really need to see. And I came across this post on an unfamiliar blog about removing rust if your fabric has rusted too much. This blog is one of many by author/artist K Baxter Packwood. She has written some books on eco-dyeing that I want to take a look at.

Remember last week when I linked you to a tutorial on facings for quilt binding? I like this tutorial better--Judy Coats Perez miters the back corners for a even more professional look. And as Miss V says, "when you are selling your art quilt, you are selling every inch of it." Or, the back counts too. Don't forget to follow the links to the other spring tutorials. (I had wondered at the supposedly spontaneous eruption of tutorials last week. Now I understand.)

Okay, tomorrow is a play date with the FIVE. It is a bring-your-own-project day. I am taking a drawing I made for my drawing class and following some of Elizabeth Barton's rules to turn it into a small art quilt. If I don't burn it (just kidding....maybe) I will show you my progress next week.

Whoooo HOOOOO!

2011-03-30T16:43:00.002-04:00

Here is a picture of my Heart of Steel quilt in the Volusia: Wrapped in Fiber show.

Busy Weekend

2011-03-26T19:49:00.000-04:00

Ten yards of fushia gradations to add to my stash for Nancy Crow's Workshop

Old copper pipes wrapped in modant-soaked cotton waiting to get buried in my compost pile. Results in a month.

Quilts for Japan and Friday Favorites

2011-03-25T08:00:00.000-04:00

Quilts for Japan

Kathy Loomis at Art with a Needle has an opinion about how to efficiently help Japan. Her approach is certainly valuable and needed. And/Or you can less efficiently but very compassionately donate a quilt through Quilters Newsletter. I personally think any help and show of compassion is a good thing and feel no need to bash those who choose a different pathway of service. Here’s how you can be part of the quilt donation, if you choose:

• Send quilts of any size from baby to adult to:

Dana Jones

Quilters Newsletter

741 Corporate Circle, Suite A

Golden, CO 80401

• Mark your box: “Quilts for Japan.”

• Send quilts as soon as possible and no later than April 30, 2011.

Friday Favorites

The last few Fridays have seemed kinda bland to me but I wasn't sure what was missing. Then Kathy posted her tutorial on the perfect facing for a quilt. Tutorials! There have not been many tutorials lately! Anyway, I don't know that I agree with Kathy that a quilt has to be faced to be considered a work of art and not a pot holder but I do occasionally like to use a facing.

Another tutorial is here. It is a picture tutorial on tying a quilt without leaving tie ends flying in the breeze. The method is called a decatur knot. I am going to be trying that out!

I have been working on my artist presentation of Elizabeth Barton for my drawing class. As I have perused her blog entries for the last couple of years, I have found wonderful blogs that when put together could be a book on how to create art. Here is another excellent post--this one is on using values in a quilt. I don't know that it qualifies as a tutorial but it sure does teach me a lot.

The last tutorial I want to highlight this week was written by Rosalita at "...And Then We Set It On Fire." Rosalita went to great detail in her instructions for parfait dyeing. Do take a look at the tutorial, give the technique a try, and post a comment on the Fire blog.

Lastly, a give-away! Lynn Krawczyk is being interviewed this coming Sunday on Blog Talk Radio. To celebrate, she is going to give away a copy of her brand spanking new, not yet released DVD, "Print, Design, Compose" to a lucky listener. Here is the information about the where and when. The how will be told during the interview.

This Saturday is another dyeing day for me. I will be finishing my dyeing for Nancy Crow's class, doing some snow dyeing before the last of the snow melts, and maybe trying Rosalita's tutorial.

Not in Love

2011-03-23T09:30:00.000-04:00

My newest ATCs for the monthly swap. I am not in love with them but they will do. The theme was "things that change other things."

Black Magic Rainbow

2011-03-19T20:19:00.000-04:00

It took me 2 weeks to get all the fabric ironed that Rosalita and I dyed but here it is, minus the yellows that I accidently left at Rosalita's. We dyed 45 yards ( 5step value gradation of 9 colors) following the directions in Hand-Dyed Fabric Made Easy by Adriene Buffington. The book is out of print but you can find it used online. The Black Magic Family begins with a weak dye solution, moves to a strong dye solution, and then starts adding black for the dark tones. The directions are for 10 steps but we only dyed the even steps.

Now I am going to pack it away for my Nancy Crow workshop the first week of May.

Friday Favorites

2011-03-18T08:00:00.004-04:00

Drawing Update:
No pictures to show but I had a great time drawing our nude model Wednesday night. I am 57 and I discovered that I had never really looked at a human body before. Oh, like I have seen mine, and I have seen other women's as we dressed and undressed in the locker room and, of course, there have been husbands and babies, but it was not the same. This time we were supposed to look long and hard and maybe even stare a bit. I discovered that the human body is really beautiful. I loved being loose in my drawing and being able to caress the curves with my charcoal. Very satisfying.

Friday Favorites:
I still don't have the collage technique down yet. I have read multiple blog entries with instructions, pictures, even tutorials but when I try it...well, it ain't pretty. But once again I am being lured into another attempt by Jane at Janeville. I like the whole idea of creating my own fabric. I just need to put my big-girl boots on and keep trying till I have magic like Jane's students. Any secrets you want to share with me?

WARNING WARNING
The rest of this blog has to do with eco dyeing. If you have not yet been sucked into the void, run now.

I have been reading India Flint's book, "Eco Colour." It is a very personal view point read. India certainly has strong opinions about how we should be treating the earth. I doubt that I will become as ecologically friendly as India but I am watching for the first signs of green here in Maine so I can start dyeing fabric with the leaves. I already have my buckets of seawater for a mordant. I look at them every morning making promises that soon, very soon, I will be using them.

She is going to be presenting a workshop at Haystack later this year but it is my busiest time of year at work. I asked my boss what he would think if I asked for that week off of work. I can't remember exactly his response but it was something like, "I would think you are tired of working here." LOL

Speaking of Eco Dyeing, Kaite has been trying her hand at it. Here is the fungus she found and started soaking as a dye. And here is the first results.

Related is the "Out There" project in England. They grow plants specifically for dyeing.

And Jasmine has her own eco-dyeing/erosion bundle going as wrapt trees. I do think my erosion bundle next year might look more like these wraps.

I hope you have a great weekend. I will be home for the first time in several weeks. I have some dead roses from Valentine's Day that have been waiting for me. We have a date on Saturday.

Drawing Class Update

2011-03-16T10:57:00.000-04:00

Monday night we drew self-portraits while staring into a mirror. Notice the look of confusion and horror on my face as people say it looks like me.

Tonight I get to draw a naked person. I have never gotten to draw a naked person before so I am very excited for the opportunity. I don't think I will be posting those pictures though.

Light on the Ocean

2011-03-13T21:59:00.000-04:00

Spring is starting to arrive in Maine and I have been wanting to go down to the ocean. Then, when I read that sea water is a mordant for eco-prints, WELL, that was just the incentive I needed to go to the beach. We did not arrive till early evening. It was not by design but it was the time of afternoon/evening when the light is golden. Enjoy the view!

My Heart of Steel on display

2011-03-13T21:33:00.000-04:00

Look! Juanita Yaeger at Art-Quilt-Works attended Volusia: Wrapped in Fiber where I have my quilt displayed. She mentions it in her blog and a (tiny) picture of it can been seen in her pictures. Look for the picture with the flowered dress with two white stands on either side. The one on the left has my Heart of Steel piece on it. It is a side view but still I am super excited.

Erosion Bundle is getting some color!

2011-03-12T18:58:00.000-05:00

Drawing Class Update and Friday Favorites

2011-03-11T08:00:00.008-05:00

Drawing Class
I am really psyched! For my drawing class, each student needs to choose an artist for a class presentation. I checked with my instructor about choosing a modern, living, fabric artist and she approved. I chose Elizabeth Barton for several reasons. Primarily I suppose, I really like her work. But just as important I think is that she writes a really good blog. She has many posts that show her work from the beginning photograph, to her drawings from the photo, and then to the finished quilt. And it is not just the pictures but she talks about her thinking process along the way, stuff like why she emphasized this and not that. Lastly, I chose her because her use of drawing to turn the 3-D world into a 2-D quilt is my reason for taking a drawing class. Seemed like a good fit to me.

Anyway, I am psyched because I wrote Elizabeth Barton and she sent me an email back. I was concerned that the only way I could do the class presentation was to capture pictures from her blog and website. Would that violate copyright? I was not sure so I thought, better safe than sorry, and I emailed her for permission. ***fingers crossed*** She said "yes!" Woot!

Friday Favorites
Module 5 of Sharon B’s Stitch Worksheets are ready and, for a short time only, are for sale at half price. This module of instruction for hand embroidery includes 17 stitches, most of which I don't recognize. Fortunately, if you need some of the basic stitches in order to understand these more advanced stitches, she has FREE links to the introductory stitches at the bottom of the post. And if you need some more embroidery thread, this site is giving away 3 free skeins.

Some people like this kind and some people like that kind of fusing material. Laura weights in with her opinion. Sounds like WU WU is her mostest favorite although she does talk about different material/techniques have different requirements.

Carol Sloan at the Sketchbook Challenge gives us a little tutorial on how to paint/draw a tree. A pine tree actually. Hers turned out looking pretty good. I will give it a try but will use my fabric gel pen and Inktense pencils on fabric whether than water colors on paper.

In case you have not yet tried Citra-Solv, here is a tutorial posted by Lyric on the Sketchbook Challenge . At the end of the tutorial she says you can color the black and white image in a variety of ways. Here is what I did for the November Challenge of Interpret This! The quilt started with a picture I transferred using Citra-Solv.

Thanks for reading!

What's that?

2011-03-06T21:42:00.000-05:00

That is part of the 45 yards of fabric Rosalita and I dyed on Saturday. I will show you better pictures when I have it ironed. **Groan**

Friday Favorites and a book review

2011-03-04T08:00:00.000-05:00

Friday Favorites and a book review

Well, perhaps a an update on my drawing class, a book review, and then Friday Favorites.
Last week was Spring Break and it was a very good thing because I was behind on my homework. I finally got caught up with my 2 great masters in my sketchbook, my large copy of a great master, and the large interpretation of a Japanese Wood Block Print. Last night we started a new technique, chiaroscuro, which I will need to practice before I show it to you but I thought I would show you a couple of pages of my sketchbook.

My instructor commented that she liked the way I had set up my sketchbook. On the left I have printed instructions and an example (generally found on the internet) of whatever technique we have recently talked about and then on the right hand page I have my attempts at the style. My goal is to make my sketchbook a reference manual for me to refer back for the different techniques.

Book Review
My friend, Beth, a fellow member of FIVE and an artist on "And Then We Set It On Fire," loaned me her new book, Three-Dimensional Embroidery. She was right. I have fallen in love. I don't care for books that just show pictures of others' work for me to drool on. I want instructions. But I don't want instructions to make a purse or a bag or a whatever, I want technique instructions. This book (!!!) has projects I really want to do. I want to experiment and play. I want to stay home from work and stay up at night and work on these projects. I am giving Beth back her book because I have bought my own.

Friday Favorites
Karen, who was the guest blogger this week at "And Then We Set It On Fire" posted a nice description of her experiments with TAP (Transfer Artist Paper) and Lutrador. I have both of those products but have not really experimented much with them. This was a nice reminder to me to get them out again and see what I can do. I think I can incorporate them in my experiments with inks this month.

Crazy (please hear me saying this as K-raaa- z) Mom (momma) Quilts gives a free pattern for a stash buster quilt. The rest of this paragraph is just me being philosophical if you want to skip it. I struggle with myself over patterns like this. It is quick, easy, pretty cute, fine for a baby to throw up and poop on quilt. As an "textile artist" am I too good to make it? Does all of my work need to be original, inspired, quilt show worthy quilts? Or is it okay for me to sit down and produce something that takes less creative juice but will probably be appreciated as much (probably more by some people) than an original design. I don't have the answer but would love to hear yours.

Sharon at Pin Tangle has found Kuler. "Cooler?" you say. "Yea, Kuler," I say. It is an adobe application that allows you to choose color schemes. Check out what Sharon has to say about it and click her embedded tutorial on using it. Pretty cool. I tried unsuccessfully to figure out what color wheel it uses --the traditional RYB one or the corrected YMC wheel. Makes a difference for artists mixing paints or dyes. Do you know? At any rate, I tried to find my favorite color scheme (orange, purple, and yellow-green) which is a split triad but couldn't get that combination to come up.

This link goes to Wen Redmond's blog rather than to a specific post on the blog. She took a commission for the Elliot at Rivers Edge in Manchester NH. In 3 or 4 or 5 blogs (I lost count) she takes you step by step from the commission to the finished product. It is an excellent 1-2-3 tutorial. Thank you, Wen!

Vicki Welsh is a woman after my own heart. She loves experimenting too. Here are her experiments with Shiva Paint Sticks.

I am sure there are many wonderful blogs that I have missed this week but it is time to publish. They will have to wait for another week.

Can't wait till Friday Favorites

2011-03-01T12:42:00.000-05:00

My friend, Debra, sent a plea for help with a charity quilt she would like to make. At first I thought I would include her plea in my Friday Favorites but since there is a short time frame for the help, I decided to send out an "Extra." I plan to participate.

From Debra' Design Studio

9 Patch Blocks Needed!!!!

Every year Bentwater, the community in which I live, raises alot of money for the American Cancer Society. Last year's tally was over $50,000 and I was told we are the 2nd largest contributor to the ACS. One of the biggest events is the annual Auction held in April. Last April one of my crazy quilts brought in $1500 during the silent auction.

This year I would like to make a 9 patch quilt for the auction. I may embroider flowers and birds through the middle blocks and border. I haven't decided yet.

But----I need some help getting the blocks made!

Would you make some 9 patch blocks (or even one) and send to me?

9 patch blocks need to be 3½ inches (use 1½" blocks or strips)
Use the same 2 fabrics in the block (all the X position is the same fabric, all the Y position is the same fabric = 2 fabrics per block)
INNER 9 Patch----colors should be clear to bright in hot colors; i.e. reds, oranges, yellows, red-violets Paired with clear to bright shades of blue, green or blue violets
OUTER 9 Patch----colors should be shades of (bright)Yellow Paired with tone on tone cream (for strong contrast)
Fabrics can be solid, tone on tone, hand dyed, small print, very subtle textures.

The Theme for the quilt is a SPRING GARDEN-----Visualize the new flowers coming out of the ground in bright colors.

The quilt needs 55-75 Yellow and Cream Blocks
100-125 Red and Blue Blocks
This is for a Queen sized quilt.

The deadline to get the blocks in my hot little hands is March 15th. I will need time to get them arranged, the top pieced and then quilted for the early April Auction.

If you don't have my address, email me. If you could also email me with Your Intent so I have an idea how many people and blocks I can count on. Think about it--- this is a very easy thing for you to do to contribute to a huge cause. Please help me out!

(Colors are approximate!)

Snow and Ice

2011-02-27T21:49:00.000-05:00

Tickle Me Pink

2011-02-26T08:00:00.004-05:00

New ATCs. Theme was feathers. I have 3 extra if anyone wants to swap. Leave me a comment if interested.

Friday Favorites

2011-02-24T22:59:00.000-05:00

Friday Favorites

I don't know about you but I have had a great week! The university is closed for winter break, so few students to assist and no drawing classes for me this week. Last Monday, a vacation day, was a play date with the FIVE. We each worked on our own thing and I started the binding on the Black, White, and Red All Over quilt for my sister. As you see not done yet.

I also got to meet Laurie Brooks, another Maine Artist. She was a guest of FIVE. She is combining fiber and drawing in unusual ways. I am excited because it is putting together the two skills I am working to develop. I will be following her blog as she develops this technique.

With the more relaxed schedule I have gotten to spend a bit more time perusing blogs this week--one of my favorite activities. And other artists must have been having great weeks too because here is what I found this week.

Friday Favorites:
A new blog! The link goes to the blog rather than to an individual post. She has a post on painting with thickened dyes AND a picture of her quilt for the SAQA Trunk Show AND a post comparing low-water immersion dyeing to snow dyeing AND a post.... I could keep going. It is worth check it out if you have not found it yet. The artist's name is Elaine Quehl.

And another new artist! Averil Stuart-Head is originally from New Zealand but now lives in Italy. Her blog doesn't have any tutorials but her work is right up my alley (Thank you, Beth, for bringing her to my attention!) with lots of color and texture. Here is what she says about herself "I paint with fabric. It is my favourite medium and I love it. It is tactile and soft. I love the feel of fabric and the different ways you can manipulate it." Can't you just see her with some fabric in her hand just feeling it and a dreamy look on her face? I know exactly what she means!

Elizabeth Barton wrote a wonderful post on drawing for fiber folks. Is this just like serendipity all over again? LOL She gives 11 tips she has learned through study and practice. I like the last one best. Put the work on the wall and let it "mature." I always need to do that before I know if a piece is finished or not. I thought it was because I lacked skill but if Elizabeth does it then it must just be the way good artists finish a piece.

The Sketchbook Challenge is having a Sketch-In on Sunday, April 17, 10 am to 4 pm in Westford MA. At first I thought it was an event you could drop-in to play but it is a workshop with fees. Be sure to check out the post for details if you are interested.

The Quilt Rat gives a lesson on painting on fabric. She is using a variety of fabric paints and inks and does not go into depth on them. She does show a step by step process of what she painted first, second, third, etc. and how she stitched it. It is a good place for beginners to check out.

So sorry to end on a sad note but I just learned from Cheryl about the change in Southern Belle. Southern Belle is a white muslin that is inexpensive and a pleasure to work with. Or was. Many of us surface design folks had chosen it as our "go to" fabric. But according to Cheryl, it has changed! Oh NO! Have you found that true also? If you are in the market for choosing a favorite fabric, you might want to take a look at Un-Multi-Tasking's Great Fabric Test. Her favorite fabric also changed so she did a comparison test of 7 different materials comparing them on several different scales. Good luck and let me know if you find the perfect fabric for surface design!

New Onesies

2011-02-22T21:12:00.000-05:00

Co-worker had a babyshower to attend so I made some more onesies.

Nathan singing in his tie-dye Onesie

2011-02-22T12:35:00.000-05:00

Here is a video of Nathan in his tie-dye onesie (see that makes it about quilting and not about being a proud grammy) singing Itsy-Bitsy Spider with his sister Abby.

Update on Erosion Bundle

2011-02-19T09:55:00.000-05:00

Still there. We have had a few days of above freezing temps so the snow has melted off of it. I am debating putting a little kosher salt on it for flavoring.

Friday Favorites

2011-02-18T08:00:00.009-05:00

Drawing Class Update:
We have started talking about value. Our exercise was to copy a Japanese wood block print in our sketchbook. Here is mine.

Our bigger assignment is to make a large original drawing inspired by the Japanese wood block. Mine is not done yet--it is a multi-week project-- but here is what I have started. Maybe I should enter it into the sketchbook challenge under the theme of Opposites. The first duck is calmly sitting on a wood plank by the edge of the ocean with a moon and palm fronds in the background. My drawing has a bird in terrified flight from menacing claws (inspired by the palm fronds) in front of a moon. Kinda opposite, wouldn't you say?

As I keep telling you but have yet put into practice, I am taking the drawing class to increase my skills for surface design. While it is not fabric and the tools used will differ, I figure most of the lessons on line, value, positive and negative space, composition, balance, etc. will translate well. Elizabeth Barton is also taking an art class (not having to do with fiber) and is also trying to make some translation in her work. It is all how about to get from here to there.

Friday Favorites:Vicki Welsh at Field Trips in Fiber is offering raffle tickets for her quilt guild's quilt--it is not bad looking--and then she is offering a drawing for hand dyed fabric for anyone buying a ticket from her. Her hand dyes are fabulous! Here is the link for more information. Dead line is March 15th.

Art of Day is sponsoring an exhibit of art from Deborah Lacativa. Oh, I adore her stuff! I just want to breathe it in. Let the creativity fill my lungs. Let the blood circulate it till every part of me tingles with the electricity of it. Yea, it is that good. And then it is worth reading her artist statement too. I have been working on mine and I find hers a good model. She has some bundles of her hand dyes that are good for hand stitching for sale here.

Lynn Krawczyk has posted two YouTube tutorials on screen printing with thermofax screens. That is almost 20 minutes of free teaching by Lynn. Thank you, Lynn!

I have saved direction after direction for making my own books. New books out of old books, egg cartons, and empty thread spools. I have techniques for folding, cutting, dicing, sewing, and gessoing over written pages. I have yet to make a book. But here is another book I will save the tutorial on how to make. It is a butter box book. And Melanie tells us how she is going to use her's. You go, girl, but before you grow your hair back, please consider this option. I think you could make it work!

I keep trying to think of a tagline to use to close my Friday Favorites. So far I have only thought of trite phrases, nothing that feels like me. Any suggestions?

One World One Heart

2011-02-17T20:20:00.000-05:00

My random number generator (AKA husband) chose number 92. That happened to be "Gracey is not my name..." Congratulations!

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-15T16:05:00.000-05:00

I hope you all had as great a Valentine's Day as I did. My lover (AKA, My Maine Man, Love of my Life, Husband) made me dinner (he is a good cook), bought me my favorite ice cream (chocolate covered cherries), and gave me a dozen red roses to dye with! How wonderful life is! LOL

Someone likes my blog!

2011-02-14T18:08:00.000-05:00

Cathy Tomm has presented me with the Liebster Blog Award. Cathy even asked me if I would accept it before she gifted me with it. That was an extra nice touch. Since I don't turn down any positive recognition I can get, I said "YES!" and am displaying it proudly.

And I am happy to get it. Don't get me wrong. I am glad that Cathy has visited my blog and likes it. I am also glad that Cathy's blog was one of three blogs who received it from Lisa at Scraps of Life who was one of three blogs that received it from Mary-Frances of Outside the Line who was one of three blogs who received it from Anne of Seize the Day Quilting who was one of three blogs who received it from Sharon of Camp Gramma all within the 14 days of February. (Sharon got hers on January 30). So, if I have my math correct and assuming that the other winners are also giving the award at the same speed and to three recipients, I am one of 3 to the 5th power or 243 blogs in this particular chain that have received this award in the first half of February this year.

I tried to do some history to find out how long the award has existed and who Liebster is that presumably started it or for whom it was named. Google couldn't tell me much other than listing lots of other blogs who have also received it this year. Lots of other blogs. Lots and LOTS of other blogs. Anne of Seize the Day Quilting managed to trace the award to Germany which I can believe since many of the recipients are in Europe and the UK. But there the track went cold so I don't know if there is a distinguished person or time or place or event that is associated with the award.

My chain is all from quilters but as I have looked up other blogs from Google who have received it, they are from lots of different types of categories. I was gonna tell you some examples but, Honey, there are a few really weird ones that I could not describe. You will just have to look them up yourself.

Apparently there are only 2 requirement for receiving the award. The first is that someone who read your blog liked it. For me it means that Cathy likes my blog. The second is that you have less than 300 readers for your blog. It has been interesting as I have looked at other recipients at how they phrase that: "Unknown blogs," "unknown, good blogs," "small blogs," and my personal favorite "talented beginners."

Okay, so the award is not ~~very~~ exclusive. It does not come with money, a banquet, or a shiny object to place on a mantle. The history of it is unknown and the association with fame is...well...doubtful. It does not mean you stand out in any particular category but does require that not many people know you exist. Does it mean nothing then?

I guess we each have to answer that question for ourselves. For me it means that Cathy (who I don't personally know) from Leduc, Alberta, Canada (a place I have never been) likes my blog, said so without my having to prompt her or pay her or nothin',and is not ashamed to say so on her blog (for under 300 people) to read. It makes me feel good.

Am I gonna pass it along? You bet!

Friday Favorites

2011-02-11T08:00:00.003-05:00

Drawing Lesson Update: Last night we warmed up doing quick sketches of shoes. We used a new technique--cross-contour drawing. So far the score is Contour Drawing --I suck. Gestural Drawing--I rock. Cross-Contour Drawing-- that one is mixed.

Our homework is to finish in our sketchbook 2 drawings by great masters. This one is a Rueben. Not done yet. Still don't have the mouth right.

Friday Favorites. In our play blog "And Then We Set It On Fire" and play group "FIVE" the question often comes up after making some wonderful fabric, "Now What?" Arelee helps to answer some of those questions with a series of recent posts. Her goal is not to give you patterns for stuff to make the fabric into but to work with the fabric to let you create an art work. My 2 favs are: Part Two tells you to hang the fabric and let it speak to you, and Part Four that shows how to go from sketch book to the fabric.

Sometimes when I am working on a piece I know its name. I know it before I start it. I know where I am going. Sometimes the name changes but generally I know what I am doing. Not always. Sometimes what I am doing is experimenting with a technique, or even more likely, calmly meditatively just playing around. Those pieces may be very satisfying but may not have a name at either the beginning or the end. Debbie (who lives in Jerusalem and I met through One World One Heart blog hop) had the same problem and asked for suggestions. Here is her post with suggestions from other fiber artists about how they title a piece.

Oh Man! Oh Man! Take a look at Terri Stegmiller's new inks! Here is the description of the inks and here is the tutorial and finished project. I have my ink and gel pen ordered and (heads up "And Then We Set It On Fire" play mates) I am gonna be playing like this in March! This is the perfect next step for my drawing classes! I am also interested and have been for a while in the difference between working with dyes, paints, and inks. This will give me a chance to find out.

While perusing blogs this week I stumbled upon Fannie Narte. She creates fabric she calls artful cloth. I am linking you to her blog rather than to a specific post so that you can see more than one of her artful cloths. Enjoy. I did notice that her pieces start off with shibori and then get added to with wax pastels. Good to know for those folks who asked what to do with their shibori pieces.

You may not be into handwork, and that is okay, but I discovered a new embroidery stitch that I am thinking about using on my heart of steel series. Most stitches that I see demonstrated are variations and combinations that just look busy and over done to me. This woven picot looks simple and I think will make a nice addition to the blanket stitch that is my 'go to' stitch for the quilt series.