First Friday

Well, I don't know about you but I can't believe that it's already April.
Time certainly does fly...
especially when you have a deadline looming!

This is how my studio work table looks today -

Items from Nature.

Unlikely work tools.

Vintage linens.

And memories from my grandmother's garden.

Sneak Peeks and a Beast

There you have it...

Two Sneak Peeks

and here's The Beast.

Growl...

I've Been Painting Again...

But it's a secret...
well, not really.
Only because my camera is not behaving...
For some reason, each time I try to take pictures,
you have to set it on a different flash setting to get a decent photo...
and then it's not that decent.
Go figure.
But, the Good News is this -
I've completed one of the fiber pieces
that I've been so busy with!
Great!

It's for a class at Random Arts.
A Rust Media Wall Hanging.
And I would love to share it with you
but
well, you know...
the camera issue...

But I can tell you this much.

It involves a stack of rusty strips of fabric, Kim Wipes, lace,

old tee shirts, pantyhose (new not used), tyvek,

drawer liner, mixed media fabric paper,

crocheted lace (by me!), gilded images,

drawn faces, beads, hand quilting

machine quilting and driftwood...

wow...

Doesn't that sound great?

All the rust dyed pieces have been

done by my husband and me.

Check out my teaching schedule

and

Random Arts for more details on this awesome workshop.

It truly is a

"One of a Kind" wall hanging!

Dancing In The Moonlight

I have wanted to begin doing more hand work in my fiber art.

After seeing Susan Sorrell's detailed work,

I started this piece.

I don't know if you can see the beading very well

but I have added quite a few beads already.

I have been doing free form embroidery as well.

And lovin' it!

Rose Applique Design

Yesterday I drew out this idea for a Victorian Applique style quilt. This is a picture from my sketch book.

I originally thought of it for a piece of 5"x7" fiber art...we'll see what comes of it (if anything). But the drawing is done so that I can copy it, then cut out the individual pieces for applique work. It could also be altered for stained glass.

If you have never tried the Marie Seroskie method of applique, you should. It makes the stained glass method of applique sooooo easy! Check out her web site for samples http://www.katielane.com/. She has a really cute Big Mouth Fish Bag pattern too!

Paper Fabric Collage

I started out in the studio on Friday working on my Fiber On A Whim project. I did get the netting burned and it is a really cool effect. It looks like an underwater scene now, complete with the fragmented underwater vegetation. I hope that blogger will allow us to enlarge the image, you can really see the effect of the burned netting. It also was quilted with Iredescent thread, bluish black color. The netting has a shimmer to it as well...making the entire piece really cathces the light when you turn it. I plan on adding some beads to it as well.

You know, I started out planning a 5"x7" piece with a grid , like a game board...I have gone about as far away from that as you can. Perhaps I'll keep the underwater one and just work on the original design...we'll see.

Anyway, here are pictures of the 5"x7" piece, along with a practice piece.

Now what happened after I burned the netting is possibily a mystery to even me...and I was there! I somehow got side tracked and began working on fabric paper...similar to what Beryl Taylor demonstrates on the QA dvd. As usual, I strayed from the directions and did my own thing...I really did start the whole thing like she said. But then I thought...hey...this would look good without the paint on top of it all...and you know this would look good without the tissue paper...and I ultimately ended up with a really awesome fabric/paper/found item collage. Here are pictures...oh yeah, I used Ranger Ink Distress Ink refill with Perfect Pearls mixed in a spritz bottle to color the background. I also sprayed it lightly over the top. The entire piece has a shimmery look. TYhe bark is from a tree in our yard. My dh had pruned a few trees and we were moving the limbs to a "burn pile" (yep, Cheryl, that's from the "burn pile incident" story!) and I saw the loose bark on the ground. I knew immediately it was going to go in a piece of artwork! So, here it is.

I also worked on another collage. I was trying different tissue paper pieces, thicknesses and colors. I did use the Kimwipes also...they held up just fine as long as I didn't brush it too many times with the glue/water mix. Oh, I guess I didn't tell you how I actually did the pieces, did I?

Well, I started out with a piece of plain muslin or PFD fabric. I then mixed half craft glue/half water. I applied this to the fabric with an old paintbrush. Then I arranged torn papers on the piece. Most of the time there was enough glue to hold them down without adding more , you've got time to move them around also. I preplanned one of them but the other ones evolved as I went. I placed torn pieces of handmade mulberry paper here and there, adding pieces of other handmade paper as I went. I applied a thin layer of the glue mix over this. I then applied either tissue paper or kimwipes over most of the piece. I wanted to see how the fabric paper (or paper fabric?) would respond to being sewn after it dried. I liked the effect of the thin tissue paper, you can still see the color of the paper underneath it. The kimwipes behaved about the same way. The thicker tissue paper changed the color of the underlying paper a bit more but was very nice to work with. It didn't move around or scrunch it when I painted the glue mix over it. I'll try sewing it later today...it will be interesting to see how it does.

Here's a picture of the last one that I did yesterday.

Fiber On A Whim Donation Piece

Fiber On A Whim , an awesome mom-daughter shop in Atlanta, has a project going on for the Atlanta Breast Cancer/It's A Journey group. Rather than try to explain it in my own words, I'll just copy what they had on Fiber On A Whim Blog. Can I do that? Oh well, those of you that know me, know that I'm going to do it anyway and deal with the fall out later... It's all for a good cause though!

Brazenly Radiant Art (BRA)
You can make a difference!!
Fiber on a Whim has decided to take the Atlanta Breast Cancer Challenge put forth by It's the Journey, Inc. Simply make a 5 x 7” piece of art using whatever medium you wish and donate it to Brazenly Radiant Art (BRA) sponsored by Fiber on a Whim for It’s the Journey, Inc! It’s the Journey, Inc is a non-profit organization located in Atlanta, GA. They support local research, awareness, and support of breast cancer. FOAW will start collecting all donated artwork immediately. Please make sure it is some of your best. Your donation will be put up for online sale as early as June 15, 2008. The artwork will be available for purchase for a $40 donation to It’s the Journey, Inc. For more information on It’s the Journey, Inc. please visit: http://www.itsthejourney.org/
Also feel free to join our yahoo group: BrazenlyRadiantArt_BRA

So, I decided that since I LOVE FOAW (I'm tired of typing the shop name!) and my life has been affected by breast cancer (my grandmother and my husbands mother) I wanted to participate.

I have been working on a couple of different things and because I expect so darn much of myself, it's taking me a while. I need to get over the "it needs to be perfect or at least just right" syndrome cause it's wearing me out/slowing down my creativity/too stressful...anyway, I'll post a couple of pictures of ideas or potential pieces.

If you'll notice , I used the same background fabric in both pieces but they look different. You can't really see it well, but the one with the fiber on it has a thin tulle or netting over it. I plan on going back today and burning some of it off to peak at the fabric underneath. We'll see how it looks. Nothing like a good science class type sewing experience I always say!

Quilting Design

I don't know how well this is showing up but here is the quilting design that I put together for the small paper quilt that I made. The original ornament was from a Dover publication. I'll try to post it and show you how I developed this design. It's a pretty simple yet effective process. I studied Judy Perez's quilting motif in the QA magazine and then looked through , oh, probably hundred's of images until I found one with (what I thought would be) the right shape/look that I was trying to find. Even if I don't use this on the small quilt, I thought I'd use it as a practice piece anyway...just to see how it stitched out. The individual circles may be problems...I might leave them out...that's the good thing about it all...I can always change it as I go, based on what works and what doesn't.

Fiber Art Alliance

Well, today I am going to Asheville NC to the Fiber Art Alliance group meeting. I mentioned in a previous blog that I had been encouraged to go by Patsy Thompson and Gen Grundy at the MQS event. So here I go !

Anyway, I asked my son to take a picture of me so I could post one on the blog...what an hoot that was ! I'll post a couple , not because they are good pics of me but for a couple of other reasons.

In case you didn't notice, that's me in the front. What I wanted you to see is behind me...the "love you" wall hanging. I made it as a Valentine's Day/Anniversery "card" for my husband. It has beads all around each color of background fabric and I also made loop fringe along the bottom edge. It's amazing how quickly you can create something when you "see" the finished product in your head. I was working so feveriouly that an onlooker would think I was possessed...and perhaps I was.

Anyway, here is another one that illustrates my "cool" hair...thanks Cheryl Prator's mil for that complement!

As you can see in this picture , I have random stripes (and strips) of VERY white hair. It may be beyond white (can that be?!?) as the doctors told me it had "lost its pigment"...what a horrid thing ...to lose ones pigment. I was just thankful that it grew back , no matter what the color!

Here is another that shows just one of the many doilies that I have made. I haven't crocheted any in a while...I did crochet snowflakes this past Christmas though.

Speaking of my son, Will (who is 19 and an awesome artist) . I'll post a couple of pencil drawings that he did. I swiped them from him , as I never know what he does with his "stuff". See if you can guess who they are...

He drew these about 3 years ago...not too shabby for a 16 year old just doodling around.He will probably choke me if he finds out that I posted them...but it won't be the first time he's been upset with my behavior , now will it ?

While at the meeting yesterday (and yes, I began the blog yesterday - Tuesday- but am finishing it today - Wednesday) some of us met for a brown bag lunch and had a bit of "show & tell". Gen had told me about the group doing this , so I had taken a few things to share. Below is a teeny tiny fiber art piece that I made to go in the kitchen. It's hanging right above a black wrought iron herb rack . It measures ablut 3 1/2" x 5".

My husband made a cabinet for our new microwave (I told you he was very talented , didn't I) and had to cut a hole in the front of it for access to the venting system. He was going to just build a door to cover it but I suggested that perhaps we could do something besides a simple door (plus it seemed lot a lot of trouble for a little cabinet door!). Here is what we covered the hole with...

Please excuse the pictures. These have been aken quickly or were already in the computer. I'll try to do better in the future. Anyway, you can see where the teeny tiny quilt came from...I had not been pleased with one of the small panels on this wallhangiong , so I just made another. This one measures about 23" x 8". As I said , it was "made to fit" the opening in the cabinet. I the black background and completely quilted it/ added binding too. Then all of the small panels are also completely quilted and bound and then added to the background. It's a awesome way to make a really interesting wallhanging. It cam from Jean Well's book "Portraits From Nature". This was also my first attempt at free motion quilting. I loved how the background turned out.

Nuff for today. I think I'll ride to Rock Hill with my husband .

Well, I finally gave in

and started my own blog. I read others and really enjoy them. What I really enjoy is seeing what all the other artists are creating...how they are creating it...I enjoy the learning experience as well as the sharing of info with others.

I will begin my Blog with a picture of my latest project. I went by Judy Coates Perez directions in the Apr/May Quilting Arts magazine. I changed a couple of things so I could use what I had available at home. Instead of using tea bags, I used an awesome product called Kimwipes. It's a low lint wipe used in a lot of industrial settings. My awesome husband is a sales engineer in an industrial setting, so I have access to them. They come in a box of 140 and measure 14 x 16 inches , plenty of room for a large design image if you want. And I believe they are reasonably priced ( even more so if you figure just how many designs you could put out with that many sheets!).

Anyway, here's the (unquilted) paper quilt.

I have had so much fun with this and learned quite a few things. Some things that I will do on the next one and some things that I won't. The tree in the center, the key hole and the small tree are all from the Kimwipes. Notice how the wipe paper almost disappers into the fabric background. It is also very transparent so it's easy to trace images. If you are interested in trying it , let me know and I'll try to get some.

Well, this has been a great week so far...I've actually been able to cross off a few things from my (growing) "to do" list...this blog included.

More later.