I am still feeling a little behind – natural I guess what with being away and then holidays. The kids are out of school this week too and so I have done a lot with them. The weather has not been very cooperative for doing work out of doors, but we did do a little. Raking the last of the leaves and getting the grass ready it’s first mow. The leaves are starting to bud out and screen off the views of neighbors homes and yards too. I enjoy the fresh green of spring and the transparency of the leaves. I am looking to start a new round of Project Divest- or perhaps it is just Spring Cleaning. I have contacted one of the local Elder care homes and I will deliver a dozen quilts on Monday to decorate their halls.
I will take photos this time and try to do a little article for the local news paper in order to encourage others to pass their work on into the world.
I did finish quilting my Dragonfly Days mini quilt for the SAQA auction this week. I need to add the sleeve and do the documentation and it will be ready to send. I had a good time outlining wings in Maderia metallic thread. I am hopeful about being a more active participant in that organization after the conference.
Progress Report:
The 3-D project is still on the wall. I am not sure where I want to go with it so I will let the piece rest until I “see” a future for it. I have been busy working on the tops that I had started before I was away.
Dawn’s Green
I need to tack the facings back and add the sleeve and this one will be complete. This is the end of Dawn’s green fabric from the DMC project and that is where the name came from. I had fun quilting this one with all it’s circles. As I look at it now however I may replace the silver beaded circle with a glass beaded one as it seems too strong for that location. Design decisions like this one must be made visually I think.
Glide
This quilt top was made on the same day as the one above. I sure must have been in a “Blue Mood” that day- or more likely I had all the colors out and they just came together in two works. Glide features some metal units that come from Grandmother Ruth’s home. Mom boxed up lots of stuff from her house when she emptied it and sent me several. As I keep sorting through them I keep discovering these strange treasures. The brown envelope only said glides on the outside so I assume that these where for furniture legs. I stitched each one down with a different stitch pattern to make them interesting. I am about half why along with the quilting with the triangular patterns.Purple Squared
This is the third quilt I started. I applied the silver drum beads in square patterns to reflect the print on the fabric this time. It is ready for me to begin quilting. I am still in the “think” stage for that step.
X ed Out I have lots of mixed feelings about this work. It was created from the leftovers of the cut up quilt that I made the mini from. They where all lying there on the cutting table and looked so challenging. I may have gotten carried away here. I love all the hand stuff- but I am in question about it. I really like the overlap of the applique parts- and the negative space is strong. I hope that trimming it up and squaring it off will help make the work feel more organized. The title may say it all and it may just be an experiment to toss. We all have failures when we step out of our usual methods of the creation process. I hope spring is dancing at everyone’s door.
I am just home form my wonderful experience in Philadelphia. I am sorry if you checked in last week and there was no post. I did the work on Wed and tried to post from the hotel on Thur eve- but I had no success. Sometimes the technology is beyond me.
I did enjoy the drive down to as the trees are starting to open and things are greening up the father south one ventures. When I went for walks along the river next to the hotel I saw Dog Tooth Violets and Blue Bells. The Van Goth Up Close Show at the Philadelphia Museum of Art was my first stop. It was amazing! I had only seen to of the works presented before so my eyes where hungerly looking at each work. I have always enjoyed his use of heavy paint- but I was not prepared for the use of the color red. There where paintings of grasses and fields in large numbers of green tons and shades and then Van Goth would throw in one ore two thin little dashes of red! It would wake up my eye and make me look for more surprises. I saw lots of red by the end of the show in all sorts of unusual places like the weave in a basked of fruit or in a shadow. I was jazzed by the end of the show and even though I tried to look at other exhibits in the museum- that process was useless- I was viewing brain full. As my friend Barbara would say of the students when we would take them to the Museum of Modern Art- I had”museum feet”- and was overwhelmed and needed processing time to absorb it all.
The Identity:Context and Reflection conference sponsored jointly by the Studio Art Quilt Association and Surface Design Association started on Friday morning. There was a great lecture by Bruce Pepich titled ” Museums and Contemporary Fiber Art: Where Are We Today?”. He held up lots of hope for a strong growing interest in fiber works as a growing field for museums. He also noted the changing complexion of fiber/weaving departments in art schools curriculum’s as further proof of the change in attitude toward this art. The rest of the day continued with more information in the form of a slide show and two panel discussions about fibers. The evening included a trip to the Wayne Art Center where we participated in the opening and awards ceremony of the Art Quilt Elements 2012 Show. What a visual feast that was too. It was great to see and talk with so many of the artists about their work and have them explain about specific parts. I purchased the catalogue and although is does not have the impact of the actual event- I still find I am drooling over the images. Perhaps I was sensitized to red by the Van Goth experience- but it seemed like there was a lot of red and orange in this show too. Saturday morning we boarded buses and started touring Fibers Philadelphia. There where nine spots on the tour with at least two galleries in each area and five in several. I took lots of photos for my own enjoyment- but because I did not get permission form the artists I will not post any of them. I was amazed at the variety of images and materials from knitted wire jewelry to the fanciful use pin tucks for building surfaces in a fine quilt. For the second time I went back to the hotel with “museum feet” and image fulled head. The Sunday morning session was a good as Fridays had been. Sandra Snider did an especially fun bit of roll playing to the theme ” And What do You Do?” She helped us all see how we as Artist can approach this point at the beginning of conversations and present ourselves in a more positive light. It was great. I then hooked up with a three other gals, one from Texas and two from Oklahoma and we went back and visited three galleries we had missed the day before. Our last top was the studio of one of Dianne Koppisch Hricko who’s studio is housed in the same building as the “In the Box out of the Box” fiber show. It is great to see another artists studio space.
Dianne is primarily a fabric dyer who works a lot in silk. She is the gal in the middle of the photo. Michelle Lasker is far left, Janice Filler second, Dianne, Sharon Hedges is forth and I am on the far right. For a second time I went to bed with lots of new fiber images in my head.
I was glad to get up on Monday and go to a workshop where I would be focusing on one thing. Cameron Mason was my teacher and the class was Beyond the Surface:Sculptural Explorations with Soft Materials. What fun for me! She did a great little power o point to start us off . Them we did a little sketching and she demoed some ways of working and we all went to work. Our first markets where in paper and tape. It was fun to see how things would fit together. I settled on a open pyramid type form. I continued my exploration of openings with this project too. After the paper was worked out we moved onto cutting the forms in Pentex. She made us sew them together before we went forward even though we cut them apart. This step allowed for design changes before the fabric was added. The fabric made for a whole new set to design decisions.
This is one of the units half way assembled. I stopped and fray checked all the thread ends before I sewed the last side by hand. I think now that I used too may fabrics in the three units- but this is a beginning project and not for a serious piece.
This shot shows all three finished units. The wholes where the most fun. I sure like the shadows and sense they are not connected to one another yet I keep playing with new set ups. They might even make a very nice mobile too.
There were as many different directions to the use of the materials as there were folks in the class. Only the Kathleen, who was setting across the table and I did geometric shapes. You can sort of see the yellow box within the gray one from this photo. It was cool. The others were wonderful too. I want to keep playing with this idea and I hope to do some more natural forms in the future.
Several of us did not get things at all completed( note the clips and the books inside the one on the far right. It sure was a growth experience and something we all strive for when it comes to learning.
I am sure I will be playing catch up with myself for several days before I get back into the studio- but I am anxious to do so.
I am a bit off balance as there was an accident involving my friend on Wed. She fell and after stitches she is OK- but unwilling to go to Philadelphia with me. I am sorry and I will miss her presents this week, but I understand things change. I am fine doing the events on my own and the excitement will just be diminished without her. Life is really a paradox because we must act like all our plans will work as we intend, but there is always the possibility that they will not. So I need to stop feeling sorry for myself and just be glad that she will mend and we can share another experience in the future.
Good things happened this week too. My friend Barbara won a second place at the Recycled Show at the Rome Art Center. I am so very happy for her and I like this piece too.
I had several things accepted as well. These little Spice Girls as I call them were all presented on the mantle piece of the gallery.
I also had two found object collages in this show.
Both were created from stuff that was from my past and mostly out of my grandmothers house. In Blue Too is the watch that did not work even when I was young and the Hein’s Pickle pin came from the time we visited the factory in about 1958.
The glasses in Orange Objects where Aunt May’s and the elephants are carved ivory from a necklace that was broken when my cousin was wearing it at a garden party. We never found all the parts to put it back together again. They are both real memory pieces for me.
I got excited by the wonderful sunny weather and cut a stamp of a tulip and made Spring Cards one day this week. I put them in the mail this morning.
Progress Report: Angled Balance
This quilt is finished now. I really like how the quilting lines run across the printed fabric lines on this surface. It was fun to work on this one too.
Knot Know DMC Project #7 and Adventure Challenge
This quilt has lots of extra items after the title because it fits into to series. I used fabric from the DMC project for the colors. The black is the addition. I am nearing the end of the yardage from that project. I did however use the last bits in two other tops. The knots make this part of the Adventure Challenge as they are my own derivative from the Lois Ericson Book Design and Sew it Yourself. I have tow more ideas I want to explore out to that text and then I will be ready to move onto the next book in that Challenge.
Pot Shards
I am done with this quilt except for the addition of the sleeve on the back. I did use the pottery design for the quilting patterns as I mentioned last week. I like the final effect here and may look to pottery again as a source for quilting designs.
Paper Pieces
This piece uses the last of Dawn’s crimson from the DMC project with a lot of tan fabric. One of my quilting buddies gave me these paper bits that she had created in Rayna Gillman’s class. They are all sealed with matt medium. I have carried them around in an envelope for a couple of years and they seemed to be the embellishment that this surface needed. I have just started the quilting on this one.
I know there will not be any progress on my works this week because of the Surface Design Conference that I am going to. But I will have lots of other news to talk about next week. Keep Creating
Tuesday we celebrated the Vernal equinox. Here it was glorious and continues to be the wonderful sunny blue sky days that fill me with delight. I have only really noticed the longer days because I am getting up in the light and it is still light at dinner time. Going out of doors with out a coat or jacket is very freeing. The air is filled with bird song. I find myself labeling them and looking into the branches. The spring warmth has cause the plants to open there leaves. The willows greens contrast against the pines and the silver maples rust colored buds are spilling pollen out across the sidewalk. There are many flowers up. I have the usual spring plants like crocus and snow drops and in addition there are daffodils open and even violets are blooming. I know violets use to appear near the end of April as my Mom often put them on my birthday cakes. With all this new growth around me I have been pushing out lots of work too. The fact that I had four full days in the studio with out any interruptions did not hurt ether. I seem to be more awake somehow and the ideas are really flowing. I am collecting them in the idea/sketchbook for the times when I am a little on the depleted side. I am enjoying all and I hope you are celebrating the wonders of Spring too.
Progress Report Cycling Circuits
Golden Rounds a Paper Quilt and Adventure Challenge
This work is coming along nicely. I am all done with the beading step now. I painted some inner facing to put behind the big openings I had cut into the quilt. I think I need to live with this work for a while now because it seems a bit busy to me. I find that time gives me fresh eyes and I an usually spot the problem.
Fireworks
This quilt was a lot of fun to work on. It is not a part of any old series unless one thinks of fooling around is a series. Several years ago I taught a friend how to use Angelina and there where some examples that I could not bring myself to toss. The little felt squares where an experiment too. They worked together in this quilt.
I had a good time quilting this work with metallic thread in an explosion type of pattern.
Blue Frogs- Adventure Challenge
This quilt is done I think. I like the contrast in the two sizes of cording and how it makes the same Frog Knots appear so very differently due to scale. This quilt is my second exploration of the frog idea from Lois Erison’s book and that is why it is an Adventure Challenge quilt.
New Work: Angle Balance
This is an example of how ideas spring one from another. I have had this intense purple fabric for a while and was having a difficult time using it. When I saw how well it worked with the Angelina in the Fireworks piece I just kept on playing.
There is a possible third quilt using the fabric and the Angelina together.
Knot Know- Adventure Challenge and DMC #7
I am reaching the end of the fabric from the DMC challenge. I still have some crimson of Dawn’s remaining and some green f from Marty, but I do not see any more work in this without a lot of supplementary fabric so I do not feel is stays within the spirit of the project. I put it in the Adventure Challenge category because I was still playing with knot idea from the Ericson’s book. These knots are all my own inventions because I now understand how they are built. So I tried my own hand at creating some of them.
The big glass beads that I used in this work are from the stash of my Mothers stuff that I am slowly sifting through. They were a part of a necklace on a leather thong. This is a case where my personal goal to learn something new and apply the concept in my own way really came to pass. I am delighted.
Wrinkle Work – Adventure Challenge
This is a pure play start here. In the Louis Ericson book Design&Sew It Yourself on page 74 she talks about using wrinkled fabric. The book says to use natural fibers so I pulled some silk out of my stash. The next step is to wet the fabric and then tie it into a bundle and allow to dry. When you carefully unroll the dry fabric you do not smooth out the wrinkles, but stitch them down on a base fabric. It was a fun experiment but I do not see any direct application of what I created at this time.
Shards- Special Features Quilt
This top was created from remainders of the Twinkle series . I had thought I could use it as the background for Blue Frogs. But is just did not work. I think it will work however with the pottery shards that my Mother collected from area where my brother was a Dentist for the Indian Health Service. I call it a Special Features quilt because the pieces have been setting in the dark of a drawer sense I brought them home from my Moms house when we emptied it after her death 12 years ago. I went to my book American Indian Art by Norman Feder were I found this great pot image. I intend to adapt the incised pot designs to become the quilting pattern for the quilt. Watch for the development of this idea. The squared area will be good locations for the shards.
Mini 5
This is one more of the framed mini quilts that came from the cut up work I did a few weeks ago.
There will be no post next week as I am off to the Identity:Contest and Reflection Conference put on by the Studio Art Quilt Association and the Surface Design Association in Philadelphia. I am excited about this as I have never been to a conference by either of these organizations and I am a member of both of them. I have also managed to get tickets to the Van Goth Up Close show at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It will be a stimulating week for me.
Keep Creating and I will see you in two weeks on the 5th of March.
We have reached the” Ides of March”. This comes from Latin ides… that means the middle- and the 15 is of this mouth. The reason we in the western world note the date is because Julius Cesar was stabbed that day. I will admit that the mouth has been rushing along for me. I enjoyed the waining half moon this morning as I did my daily check of the sky. I am still a little sluggish in the morning having not made the full switch of the lost hour that day light savings time brings. I did start spring cleaning as this week. The quilter in me makes me break up the task into lots of little pieces. So I tackled my ribbon wall on the back of the studio closet .
This is a before shot…….. then we have the after shot. I should be able to access colors a lot better now. I will keep at the clean up one little piece at a time and perhaps by the Ides of April I will be nearly finished.
Progress Report: Spiraling Out
This quilt caused me some frustration this week. I had quilted it following the spiraling action….. it was awful! So I spent an evening removing all the machine work. I am still not sure this is the answer for this work. I guess I will need to put it at the bottom of the stack for a while and see how I feel when I can look at it with fresh eyes.
Crimson Diminished DMC IV
I am still using us the fabric from the DMC project. I feel I have gained a great deal form this process. Making me slow down and not try to do everything on one work is one of the main lessons for me. I believe this work uses the new material well and it still holds to the simple approach. I think there is just enough fabric – mostly in Dawn’s crimson and Marty’s turquoise that I can add one additional fabric and create one last work in this series.
Cycling Circuits
I am now ready to begin to fill in the openings. I have several treatments to audition.
This is cotton netting in a navy blue
This next trial is inner facing painted in pink and rose with some of the area left white. This treatment could use some spark- like beads too.
This third image shows a purple plastic screening in the opening. This one too needs some embellishment to make the whole more interesting. I will again just have to live with these for a while before I will know what is the most effective.Golden Rounds Paper Quilt IV
This is a full view of the paper quilt in progress. I am having fun doing more of the Faggotting between the paper sections. I have learned several things along the way here. Number one- when cutting a curve the spacing is difficult- at least for me. This irregular spacing, plus the uneven sizes of beads is the second thing I learned. And that is I must try each set before I stitch into the section across the opening. I do like the effect! It has been fun. Sugar Spill
This is a quilt that uses a simple composition a and special materials. I played with the Angelina adding sequins and felt in the mix. It was an enjoyable exploration process.
I reflected the squares of felt in the quilting in this work. I created a pattern that I may repeat in a future piece.
New work- Fire Works
This is a new piece that I am excited about. After playing with the Angelina for Sugar Spill, I did my typical” What IF????” and this new thing with fire works came into being. I have had this strong purple fabric with the turquoise in it ever sense the DMC project got started. But it is so intense a color that I had not used it before this time. As you can see here I am still intimidated by it and have mostly covered it with the Angelina. This work also spawned a second new piece were I am trying the powerful purple fabric as a whole cloth unit.
Mini 4
I still have so much to learn about the photo process. This time I did manage to not have the flash show on the glass- but it is very tilted! I see this as room for growth.
Good morning, and please forgive me for being late on this post. I like everyone at one time or another I got off track. I enjoyed my walk yesterday and loved noticing the wonders of spring. I spotted my first Robins- two males singing at full throat in the top of two different trees. At ground level I saw Snow Drops and Wind Flowers showing there faces through the soil. My Tulips are pocking through- only about an inch It always makes my heart light. When I got home I was informed that we were having guests- so I spent my morning cleaning up in preparation for that instead of doing this project. We had a good time and I enjoyed seeing the old friends but by the time they departed it was late and I like to do this project with a clear mind. I think what I really have learned from this is that I just might start before Thursday morning to build the blog.
Progress Report: Blue Frogs- Adventure Challenge
This quilt is coming along. I did a bit of shifting of the frogs and now I like the lay out. I have started to do a bit of reflective quilting around the out side of the frogs to keep the undulating feel.
This close up shows the how the striped fabric makes the movement of the knots show when you tie this frog. I intend to explore this knotting frog technique a bit more .
Spiraling Out
As this view shows I am still adding buttons to the spiral. My wonderful friends at the Tea Cups and QEG’s meetings gave me additional buttons and I am making progress. I showed this quilt in progress at the meeting on Tue and got some great feed back on how to do my facings in a more accurate fashion too. So I tried that method on one of the other quilts this week. I like the effect. It is great to have lots of feed back on what one is doing.
Crimson Diminished DMC VI
I had this quilt laid out last week. This is the sixth quilt where I am still using the limited pallet from the DMC project. I have added the text like fabric in this case. I think there is just enought to build one more piece to complete this series. I have added ruby beads and silver roses to the surface here . I am quilting with the machine in a geometric pattern that is created by the shapes of the pieced units. I am enjoying this project and over doing as I always do.
Cycling Circuits
This is just one corner of this quilt. I am done with the quilting step and I am applying the new facing technique that Noel told me about at the QEG’s meeting. She also had a great suggestion for a better way to face shapes that I intend to apply to the next work were I use that idea. I have several ideas for what I want to do in the openings and will work at that prat of the process this week.
I intend to keep enjoying the wonders of spring this week .
Button Necklace Instructions: Carol Boyer March 2012
Step A. Sizing the necklace:
1. Sort your buttons by size into at least five stacks. You need the most buttons in the smaller sizes and as few as five of the biggest ones. ( but do not worry if you do not have a lot of the smallest ones- I usually do not use them too much after the first group of 5(the first two inches) and the last 5( final two inches) of the necklace construction. I usually throw in a few “Fancy” and or color contrast buttons too to add interest. Now you are ready to begin constructing the necklace.
2.Using crochet Hook #6 start by chaining through a shank button twice( I tend to choose a color that is different from the basic color of the necklace so I can find it easily when I am wearing the finished necklace)
3. Then chain for 20”. Taking note of this point- chain 12 more stitches slipping the last one into the end of the 20 stitch to create a loop. Now stitch over all the stitches in the loop until you have returned to the 20” section.
4. At this point chain through all the stitches back to the button.
5. Using safety pins- mark the 10” location on the chain between the button and the loop. (I usually put two pins here so I can easily see its location as I work back.) Then mark with safety pins every two inches on the chain.
Step B Adding the buttons:
1. Using the hook and thread turn back one stitch toward the loop end of the chain.
2. Skipping one stitch then slip the hook into the second stitch and make three stitches that hang below the chain.
3. With the third stitch slip the hook through one of the buttons form the smallest pile (you may need to change to the smaller hook to do this process)
4. With the hook, grab a bit of the thread and pull it through the whole in the button and make a stitch with it.
5. Now Stitch back through the first stitches until you are back to the base chain.
6. At this point set aside a button of similar size to the one you just used to be used at the other end of the necklace.( I usually put the set aside buttons in a zip lock bag that I mark A)
7. Chain into the base row, skip a stitch and chain in again.
8. Now you are ready to add the next button by chaining down three stitches.
9. Repeat steps 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 about five times or until you reach the safety pin. **
Step C Adding two buttons
1. Skip one stitch and chain down three stitches.
2. Slip your hook through the next size up button from your collection and pull the tread back through the loop so the button is on the thread.
3. Now chain down two more stitches and add a button (one of your smallest ones if you have enough to do so) in the same manner as you did the first five times.
4. Now carefully chain up the whole five stitches back to the base chain, being careful not to pull the thread too tightly so the hanging units become stiff.
5. Chain into the base row over two stitches.
6. Start as second zip lock bag to hold the matching buttons for the second two inches on the second half of the necklace. Mark this bag B
7. Repeat steps 1 to 5 under heading C adding buttons to the necklace base and to the bag as you proceed to the next safety pin. **
Step D Adding three buttons and four buttons
1. Skip one stitch and chain down three stitches.
2. Slip your hook through the next size up button from your collection and pull the tread back through the loop so the button is on the thread. (This is the third size)
3. Now chain down three more stitches and add a button (one of your second sized ones.) in the same manner as you have been doing.
4. This time you chain down two more stitches and add the smaller button to the bottom before you turn and chain back up to the top. Again be careful not to pull too much so the chain is stiff. Begin bag C with matching buttons.
5. Chain into the base row over two stitches and repeat step four. Do this action three times.
6. On the fourth trip down you add one more button any were along the way that you feel it needs it. I usually feel the necklace needs and extra button near the top. Do this for drop rows four and five and you should be to the next safety pin. **
Step E Adding five and six buttons
1. Skip one stitch and chain down three stitches. Now add one of your biggest buttons and chain down three more and add another button.
2. Continue to chain and add a buttons in ever smaller sizes until you have five in the line. Then chin back up the string to the base row. At this time I also start to add a novelty button into my mix if I have any. Start a new zip lock bag.
3. Chain into the base row over two stitches to start the next addition. You may increase to six buttons as you near the safety pin if you desire as this is the center of the necklace.
4. Repeat steps 1 to 3 as you proceed to the center safety pin. **
5. CONGRATULATIONS! You are half way done.
Step F Adding five and six buttons.
1. Skip one stitch and chain down three stitches. Again add one of your biggest buttons and chain down three more and add another button.
2. Continue to chain and add a buttons in ever smaller sizes until you have five or six in the line depending on you previous choices. Then chin back up the string to the base row. I continue to add the novelty buttons. Now you remove buttons from the zip lock bag and put them on the necklace.
3. Chain into the base row over two stitches to start the next addition. If you increased to six buttons try to decrease to five as you near the safety pin.
4. Repeat steps 1 to 3 as you proceed to the next safety pin. **
Step G Adding three and four buttons.
1. Skip one stitch and chain down three stitches. Now select a button from you bag marked C.
2. Slip your hook through the button from your collection and pull the tread back through the button.
3. Now chain down three more stitches and add a button (one of your second sized ones.) in the same manner as you have been doing. Repeat until you have four buttons on the chain before you turn and chain back up to the top.
4. Chain into the base row over two stitches and repeat step 3. Do this action two more times.
5. On the fourth trip down you add only three buttons before returning to the top. Repeat the three button addition twice. You should be at the safety pin. **
Step G Two buttons
1. Skip one stitch and chain down three stitches.
2. Slip your hook through the next size up button from bag B and pull the tread back through the loop so the button is on the thread.
3. Now chain down two more stitches and add a small button.
4. Chain back to the base chain.
5. Repeat steps 1 to 4 until you have reached the safety pin. **
Step H Final buttons
1. Skip one stitch then slip the hook into the second stitch and make three stitches that hang below the chain. Add a button from the bag marked A
2. Chain back to the base. Continue to do step 1and 2 until you have fie ore six buttons on the base or you have reached the loop.
3 Tie off the thread with two knots and weave the tail into the chain.
**
**GLUE**
I recommend that you do this every two inches or each safety pin- but you may not want to stop at the safety pins.
1. on a piece of scrap paper squeeze out a drop of white glue.
2. With a tooth pick dip into the glue and then slip the tooth pick into one of the stitches in each hang down row of the necklace. This little bit of glue dries clear and will assure that the necklace dose not pull apart.
CONGRADULATE yourself and wear you buttons with pride.
As I started the day this morning I noticed how dry my hands were feeling and I stopped and put some special hand lotion on them. I tend to get splits on the tips of my thumbs and index fingers in the winter. But I can keep that problem at bay if I pay attention and keep them well lubricated. I learned the value of my hands when I had to have a carpal tunnel operation and had to live without the use of my right hand( for me the dominate one) for six weeks. That was six years go now and I am fine- but I learned my lesson about the value my fingers are to my creative life! Hands have always been important to me and a subject of may drawings. I think every sketch book I have ever
created has at least one hand drawing in it. And one time in high school a drawing of friends hands won a ribbon in a school fair. I wonder if she still has the drawing. This drawing is from the current sketch book. My hands are not what I would call pretty, in fact I find the fingers short and stubby- but they are still my most reliable tool! They are get a lot of use on a daily bases from tying of shoes and putting butter on toast in the morning to opening pill bottles before bed. I have a needle threader on my sewing machine- but tend to do it by hand any way. And they are always giving me information about the texture of things. And texture is one of my passions. My friend Susan suggested that I may just love texture because the world has become very slick. Smooth cups, cans, handles, nobs, screens, surfaces and smooth phones as well as various other devices that we use every day. She does have a point- but I think that touching a texture is very reassuring and individualistic. A baby’s hair, the fur of a cat, the stubble of my husbands beard, a brad all are hair but have very different textures and I enjoy them all for their differences. When I mentioned my thing about textures at the Tea Cups meeting a second friend named Susie agreed-ed with me and went on top point out that texture catches the light better and is more attractive to the eye too. So I had better keep the lotion flowing on my fingers so they do not snag on my material as it passes through the machine on its way to becoming the next textural creation.
Progress Report
I seem to be a bit stuck on Blue Frogs. When I looked at the image at the end of the post last week I realized I did not like the lay out. So I put the work on the bottom of the stack and I have not looked at it for a week. Even in my minds eye I do not see a solution so I will continue to let is set. I did not touch Golden Rounds either. It is all ready for some intense work but I have not had a block of time to work on that type of thing this week.
Spiraling Out
This may be as far as I can go on this quilt for a while too. I have used over three fourth’s of the buttons that I had in the pale blue and purple. Most of them are from my Aunt May’s button box and some are from Grandmother Esters. It looked like so may until I started applying them. So I have asked a few of my friends to do a little searching to see if they can help me finish up the spiral. And I got some additional buttons already.
Sax Circles- DMC 5
This quilt is the fifth quilt using the DMC fabrics plus two additional ones. The pale blue green and the blue printed fabric are additional. The building process is similar to several of the others in this series as well. I am nearly finished with this work. I am going to mount it on black fabric and stretch it. I am working on different ways to present my work and this is just one more exploration. I may frame it when the stretching is done, that will be a decision I make later.
DMC 6
I was frustrated with Blue Frogs and the paper quilt so I moved on and created this new top with more of the left overs from the DMC fabrics. I do not have a title yet nor do I know were I am going with it. That will come with the process. I think there may be enough basic DMC fabric for one more small top and then I will have to close this combination. I have enjoyed it.
Cycling Circuits
I finished doing the back of this quilt this week. Then I added the circular appliques to the top. I am now ready to quilt the circuit connections into the work. I also want to add some painted lumiar in the openings. Because this quilt is about 40 inches wide and 44 inches long is it a much slower process than the other work I am doing. I like how it is going however.
Friends
This is a before shot of the top.
This is the newest form of my friend Sally’s top. She was unhappy with it and she sent it to me to work with. I decided that the shapes she had used were too big so I sliced them and added in three batiks of my own. All the additions were horizontal stripes- one in pinks, one in creams and one in blue purples. There simplicity worked with the others to break up the surface and not destroy the unity of the work.
I have quilted this quilt with words that describe my friend and how I feel about her. I put a heart between each word to make it easy to see were one ended and the next began. In looking at the quilt this morning I see that I will need to add additional row s of just the hearts in the spaces between the rows of words.
Mini 2
This is the next in the mini series. I am going to give it to the Meals on Wheels program for their fund raisor. I am also going to give them a small quilt- but I have not decided what one yet.
It is a bit gray this morning, but the last few days have been beautifully sunny. The planet is shifting slowly south and the sun dose shine into my studio that is on the east end of the house. I am not changing the time I rise so I am aware of the increasing light every morning when I enter. In a week I find I am no longer looking at the pin wall and seeing works in shades of gray and white. Color greets my eye and not just in the studio. The group discussion at QEG’s and the books on color that I have been reading have really made me aware of its presents. I even used my 3 in 1 color tool to make a choice when it came to color for one of my works this week.
Progress Report Adventure Challenge- Blue Frogs
Here is where I use the color tool. I would not have selected the “orange”- I see it as golden brown to add to this blue combination if I had not looked at the chart. I love the way the frogs are created with a continuous line. This idea is from the same book”, by Louis Ericson, Design It and Sew It Yourself. I know there will be more work with this idea. I find it so very fascinating.
Spiraling Out
My continuing fascination with the orange and blue combination has also lead to this new work. I really think the print fabric is mostly responsible though. I love how the artist put so many colors together and they really dance well. Not until I though of using fabric that had very little or no print of its own did I find a way to use it. This work is getting a texture treatment in the form of various buttons that will spiral out from and off center location. I started with an enamel button that I had purchased years ago. It has like the fabric always been such a strong bit that I have not been able to use it in the past. I do not think it will over power this work.
Sax Circles
This quilt top is an extension of the DMC project. I added two other pieces of fabric to the combo of the Crimson and blue green to do this one and I used the same construction method I used on the last three works in that group. I though that is needed a little kick of texture so I am adding to the surface. Years ago a friend gave me some old pads are from the keys of Saxophones. I painted some blue and aqua and now I am adding them to the surface to add the interest I think it needs. As you can see some of the pads took the paint better than others.
Cycle Circuits
This quilt is now a full top. I like the openings and that is just a continuing explorations thing for me. I am to the tedious part of this project were I have to carefully add the batting in between the openings and add parts to the back by building onto the facings of each opening too. I am much more excited about some of the other work I am doing so this keeps getting pushed to the bottom of the work stack.
Golden Rounds Paper Quilt I picked the paper quilt and after a bit of sketching, I started cutting away at it. I am not sure if I am done with the cutting- but I do like what is happening so far. I am thinking about adding beads in the opening to do a bit more Faggoting. It is worth a try
Mini’s Lastly I did frame two of the mini works. I am having trouble shooting them as they do show the light on the glass. I have though about that as I have been working this morning and I think I can conquer that problem if I put the light source from the side.
I also want to get a little closer next time to show the detail more.
It has been a full week as they all seem to be. I will keep looking at and thinking about color and light in the days ahead.
When I walked into the studio this morning before I turned on the light I looked at the pin wall. Because the day is gray the light was not strong so the wall appeared in colors of darks, grays and tans. Is this what a color blind person sees all the time I wondered? I love color and it dose effect my life. I am keenly aware of red this week for lots of reasons- Valentines day being a big part of that. I was a hostess and had to bring balloons as table decorations to the luncheon on Tuesday. Getting four of these clusters of balloons in the car was a challenge. But the process made me smile all day long. I have one cluster in the studio now and I am still grinning about the whole idea. My husband gave me Red Roses for the holiday too. They are another study in the wonders of red. Color is a strong influence on my life.Color is so very complex. There are labels like tint, shade and hue. They are used to label feelings like” black moods”, ” seeing red”, and “feeling blue”. We all have our favorites and colors we dislike for various reasons. Angela’s suggestion from the QEG’s meeting was that we study color, so I have purchased two books on that subject.( there are lots of them) I intend to read do some exercises and see if I can build some additional color confidence. In the mean time I will keep my eyes open and try to be more aware of the color that fills my world, being thankful that I see them.
Biases Bound is now done. Those biases strips sure started a lot of different projects and I learned a lot about color using them too. I am still enjoying the process and plan to try to work again with solid fabric strips on the next one.You can see from the close up how complex the strips were and understand why they frustrated me a bit. I do like the way they look however. As you can see I have added the size to the title section of the blog. I am not sure if this is were it will remain- but I feel it is and important bit of information about the quilt. I also am trying to find a standard small item to add to my close ups so the viewer will get a sense of scale there as well. A postage stamp perhaps……
Paper Quilt – Rocks and Water 13.5″X22″
I am quite happy with how this quilt finally resolved its self. My wanting the “river” like cuts to be uneven did not make it an easy process however. I like the use of the purple ribbon in the back as it adds to the depth of water feel I was after here too. The process is still a challenge to me so I will keep working in this fashion for at least a few more pieces. I can see so many ways to keep adding and playing with this concept- adding buttons or beads on top. More fabric and how about paper from other sources? Fun in the future.
Black White and Burgundy 18″X 24″. I am trying new ideas for presentation of my work. Some where I read about mounting art quilts on canvas. I do not remember where I read this or the exact method the author was pushing so I had to try my own thing. I just stitched the work to the surface- only at the top this time.
This quilt grew out of the Adventure Challenge . I made this background for the biases work and it is strong- but far too much action for the biases strips. I like the color balance here. The mounting process does shows off the quilting well. I like the way the beads show up here as well.
I am learning that I must really keep myself in check when I am building a small back because I get into the design process so much this type of thing happens. The work that I referred to at the beginning of the blog is one where I have let that happen. Over doing is so easy for me.
Mini Series I have lots of old quilts. Some I am reworking like ” The Moon She Called Me” ( Feb 2 posting), but after talking with my friends Barbara and Beth at there studio a few weeks ago- they suggested I look at some of the older work and try to make them into smaller units. Here is my attempt. This quilt- Juggling a Friendship was 38″X44″ and it was created in 1994. Now I feel there is just too much happening in this work so seeing it is a prim candidate for the cut up. I made a frame with a 5″X7″ opening and moved it around on the surface until I found an area I though was pleasing. Then I pulled up my courage and cut…….. I kept moving around the surface until I ended up with a dozen little works that are about 7″X9″. That size because then I can put them easily in standard matts and frames. I then zigzagged around the raw edges to stabilize them. I discovered that the edges would not warp as much if I put paper under the edges. The picture shows the pile of mini’s with the paper bound pieces in the top. It is going well I think and I am happy with the little works. Now I am off to do the framing and the glass. I hate to admit that the pile of scraps is calling up a new idea too……..
I hope you are all being creative and enjoying the wonders of the season. Have a productive week.