Getting back on track

Still not finished with art quilt from the sketch in my last post. Somehow it is just not sparking my interest. Perhaps I'll go back to the sketch book and start anew. This canvas above was made using adobe clay paints in the traditional colors for used on adobe houses. The one blue square is more of a cobalt shade and the other colors are a little more crisp in person. This was the color inspiration for the background in the sketch below.

I am also working on my round robin page for FiberDiary and two other challenges. The Journal Quilt project and Remember Me challenge ideas are simmering on the back burner till I get the Self-Expression piece and RR book page done. Also due VERY soon are some birthday postcards. Wow! I need to get busy!

New Sketch

Dual Layer sketches for QU class. This piece will finish to 16x20 or a little larger. The flower is still iffy as far as colorway and technique. The color blocked layer will probably be made with paints like the surface design pieces below. The colors will change some, with a more albuquerque - adobe red - for the bottom left corner. The other blocks may change to lighter shades - still staying in the adobe family. *Maybe a little resist and dye for depth. +Stamping and stitching for texture. After the background is pieced I will start on the flower, keeping with the what if game. _OR_ This will all fall apart and back to the sketch book I go!

Surface design

After cleaning my studio space a little bit, thanks Linda, I decided to paint some leftover pfd yardage. This white fabric was calling me away from tree scapes and challenges, round robins and postcards. Calling loudly. Okay, I know, it's an excuse not to get busy but it sounds better this way. Anyway, I painted the squares with setacolor paints and decided to sun-print them. I had bought a package of those flat glass pebbles not long ago and thought they would be perfect for the print. I like the way both pieces turned out. Not sure yet what they will become but I had so much fun painting them I already have plans for more.

After taking pix for the blog I tweaked them in photoshop a little and got this nifty colorway below. Now I may have to try it with paint.

Spring Fever

Spring is starting to peek into my world. High of 71 today and I didn't get any sewing done! I spent some time outside enjoying the sun and thinking of what to plant. Last years gerbera daisies are only a memory and a file on my computer. Everything is still brown as far as the eye can see but it shouldn't be long now before some greenery comes along. After I came in from looking at all the brown scenery I needed a dose of color. The afternoon was spent cutting up sample paint booklets into a tiny 3x5 sketchbook. I like all the tiny color ways on each page. Now each page is getting a list of ideas that each color way reminds me of. This tiny little sketchbook is now overflowing with ideas and suggestions for all sorts of projects!

Diving Deep into Ugly

The challenge - make an art quilt with the ugliest fabric in your stash. How about this lovely parrot fabric? I have been wondering what to do with this colorful bit for quite some time. As soon as I heard we were to use fabric we found unattractive and hard to use this fabric came immediately to mind. At first this was going to be a flower quilt because the feathers could be made into petals. Alarmingly bright petals for flowers, I admit. Finding a background was not working at all. The primary parrots fought with all but the most bland of fabric. Doomed, these crazy birds were not going down without a fight. Aha! Take all the blue parrots and make a background fabric. Still alarming to the eyes, this fabric was becoming better suited to a dark closet than the light of day. What now? A layer of white organza toned down the wicked blue but now it looked like water. Flowers floating out to sea? No more flowers. Going with the flow, waves stitched in blue went on next. Drowning two of the red parrots by turning them into a fish was the next step in saving this fabric. After a little sea grass I couldn't resist a fish hook bent from copper wire. My own parrot was even happy with the results of this quilt.





This was a challenge for me but a very humorous one. This quilt makes me smile everytime I look at it. Perhaps because I got to drown the parrots?

No flaming, please, I love most birds. I am owned by a very loud green parrot by the name of George. *Even George was happy to see the other birds go away.*

Newest work

This piece started with a sketch and the gorgeous batik used for the background. The sketch was just a guideline and this is the result of just going for it. I feel as if I am struggling with value when I start with such a dark fabric. The balance would not have been acheived if I had not deviated from the sketch. The original circles would have been to heavy for the feel I wanted after I made the sun. The sun is painted with lumiere paints on silk dupioni and fused to window screening. I love the metallic look of lumiere paint and wanted this for the sun. All the circles are stamped with cookie cutters and jacquard neopaque fabric paint.

Mud tray

This is the picture of the mud tray/postcard holder. The reflection from the mantle makes it look as if the tray is made of wood. This was the best place to take the picture because the surface of the tray is so reflective. It was like taking a picture of a mirror. Doesn't the tray look nifty? The postcards can all fit and be seen because of the width and depth of the tray. The left most pc is the front of my 17 swap book. The card was made by SuZ Widecrantz, she was our moderator and so I put her pc as the first page. The pc in the middle is one of my Time themed cards from Threads of Sanity. This hand-painted work of art was made by Linda E.W. (Edzellinni). The pc on the right was made by Kate a.k.a. Flutterbugartgirl as a fabulous b'day surprise. Thank you guys!

All those cards!

What to do with all the postcards? Post cards were everywhere, overflowing my little wire basket. Since swap 17 is finished I took those cards and bound them into a book and this helped a little. Still needing a new place to show off all this art I thought of making a basket from hardware cloth. First thought, no time with all the other swaps, classes and challenges going on. So what to use? I bought a mud tray from Lowe's and added drawer pulls for feet! Yeah! A really nifty display for all the cards. The best part? Room for more. It looks sorta industrial since it is silver and I used brushed nickel pulls for the feet. Love it.... may have to make more of them for other items.

Maggie's Portrait

This is a portrait painted by my mom of my daughter Maggie. Mom says that it looks just like Maggie. Dad, however, says it is a portrait of Maggie's personality.

Either way, I love it! Maggie's favorite colors, her ballet bun and sparkly paint...... what's not to love!

Collage

I had never really thought about making a collage about my likes and dislikes. Well that was my assignment this morning for a class at quilt university. Quickly choose images that I like and dislike from magazines and make a collage of each. It was so easy to find images that I like and that pile was about 3-4 times larger than the other pile. I know some ads and images are not my favorite but do I dislike the image or text? I never thought about it that way before. I am not really sure why I chose some of the images in the bottom, dislike, collage. The images do not represent my style and I would not choose the items for my home. However, a few of the items in the picture I think would look wonderful in my friends living room. They are just not what I like.

The top collage of things I like was very easy to create. Ultimately most of the images I collected had to be put aside..... unless I wanted to wallpaper with the collage. Now that I have finished the two pages I can see the differences and similarities. The rest of the assignment involves making lists and writing about the collages. I really think this class will be exciting and have a large impact on the way I work. Thank You Myrna!

Texas Tech Open

Our weekend was spent in Lubbock, Texas at the Texas Tech Open Fencing Tournament. No ratings changes but a great tournament.

Art 2 Mail 19

What do you do when the weather causes all your plans to be cancelled for the weekend?
You make postcards for Art 2 Mail 19 of course.

When I started making journal quilts a few years ago the contents of my sketch books changed. Most of my sketches started to have little notes jotted all around them with ideas of stitches and fabric choices. Last fall I joined an Art2Mail group and most of my sketches became postcards. About halfway through with that group I started making a list of all the different techniques and crazy ideas to try on fabric. That list grew to about 30 ideas in just one afternoon. Still more ideas and ways to change sketches are added almost daily. Some ideas ... were a little crazy ... but I do know my smoke detector is in good working order!

The list of techniques has really helped when starting a new project. Looking over the list of ideas and through the sketches always helps me see the finished quilt in my mind. Sometimes with a new sketch I will look over my lists and change the ideas around to fit. Lately I have more ideas than time. Before the list when I had time to create something I would sit with a blank page and spend most of my time coming up with a design. I challenge all the Threads group to make a list of techniques and ideas they want to try. Use the list for the theme challenge or the birthday cards and just go for it.

What to do when you have not found time to blog lately:

What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Dedicated Reader You are always trying to find the time to get back to your book. You are convinced that the world would be a much better place if only everyone read more.
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