First it was all about quilting and then dyeing and then I started making books and zentangling and drawing. Now I have given up on limiting myself and this is all about my creative journey. Hope you'll join me on my journey and invite me on yours!
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Nancy Crow's Workshop
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!
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Leaving on a Jet Plane
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!
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, April 22, 2011
Friday Favorites
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!
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.
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.
Friday Favorites
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!
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Confession
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.
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, April 15, 2011
Friday Favorites
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!
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.
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!
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