New Work Revisited

This is a work-in-progress of the start of my buildings and ladder series.  I had started it before I left in June for QSDS and now that I re-visit it, I want to finish it!  It is an abstract of a ladder against a building.  I have done tons of sketches in my sketchbook recently of buildings and ladders.  So, hopefully, I can get this one done soon.  All the fabric is my hand dyed and then screen printed pieces.   

Knitting Insanity

I have been knitting a lot lately.  Maybe because I traveled a lot this summer and I like to take a small knitting project along with me.  Or maybe it all started when we suspected our cat had used the internet to order cat food.  (We had cat food waiting in our mailbox when we returned from our trip to OH)  You have to do something to maintain your insanity.  Just like quilting, I can't settle on one thing to make and always have several projects brewing.  The one above is going to be a throw using my yarn stash and sock yarn.  One strand of any kind of solid color held together with one strand of sock yarn using size 13 circular needles. (29").  I love how the sock yarn adds surprises of color.  It's a "scrap quilt" type of throw.  I will just keep adding colors and yarn until I like the size.  After it is done, I will crochet an edging to keep it from curling (it's done in stockinette).  I like these kind of projects when I am watching TV.  Funny thing is, I can knit in my sleep.  I wake up and see some good stitches and a few bad ones that I have to redo. 

This one is a scarf I started in a rib stitch using size 10 1/2 needles and chunky wool yarn.  I must be expecting a blizzard this winter because look at the hats I knit below!  I made two hats in two days.  I love to knit hats and find them easy peasy. 

This is my new tote bag to be knit from Noro Kuryeon yarn.  It is wool, so the above picture is after I felted it.  As you can see, I am using wool to knit I-cord for the handles.  I hope to line it and use it for toting my knitting when I travel.  (Or it will make a really warm hand warmer for winter on the metro).    The picture below is before it was felted and shrunk so much.

Here it is knit before felting in stockinette using circular needle.  It is called The Boogie Bag and the pattern is free on Ravelry.  Time for me to end this post, the cat is eyeing me...I think I see a tiny credit card in her paw. 

Machine Quilting designs and Other Important Stuff

I have been thinking of making a whole cloth quilt using some of my machine quilting motifs. I keep samples of machine quilting designs and stitches (each about 12" sq. or so) pinned together. When I can't decide what stitch to use, I quickly flip through them to find something I want to use on a particular quilt. Lots of times, I start to quilt and end up with a totally different design. The design above is done on muslin using yellow thread. My inspiration for designs usually come from nature. There are so many intricate lines and curves and swirls in leaves and flowers or even the bark on a tree. I must get back to work on my art this week.

When I was in California, I bought Emma a yellow rain slicker at an Old Navy store. She looks so cute in it and even got to wear it once. This is a picture of her dad taking her out in the rain. (He reluctantly did so because any dog dressed in clothes is embarrassing to him). LOL! But she wore it and never tried to pull it off. She loves to wear her sweaters in the winter, too.

And if you can't get enough Emma pics, here she is in our back yard at our other house in Columbus, OH. It's a huge back yard and has a fence. She loves to run and chase her ball. I do miss having a back yard here...at this house, there is no fence and it's very small. So, we call the house in Columbus our country house.

This Quilt's For Me!

My New Quilt

Quilted details

Quilted Details

Back of quilt

This is a lap size quilt that I made using Fresh Air by Chez Moi for Moda. I had bought a few packets of the 5" squares several years ago while visiting the Bernina shop across the way from Mary Jo's in North Carolina. I decided it would be my vegging out quilt...nothing but squares sewn together. I managed to piece it between art quilts and finally machine quilted it last month. The thread is variegated Star thread by Coats and Clark. I quilted it on my Bernina and loved the way the thread blended with the colors. The fabric design reminds me of the crazy 70's. I swear I had dresses that looked like this quilt. Of course those dresses were double knit or polyester. Maybe that's why I made it my own. It will be nice to snuggle in while watching TV and knitting. Hmmm...now if I could just find my pep squad pom poms...

What I did This Summer...

Traci & me (in California) 3 Leaves (quilted)

3 Leaves (detail)

I did have a very busy summer! In fact, it was a very productive summer with lots of new work. I am now back from my whirlwind trips with a new mindset to keep my blog updated. I have way too many new things to put in one post, but I will start with the finished "3 Leaves". (I see I have to yet again update my photo lighting. The overall pic seems a bit off in color. )

In August, I gave a lecture/trunk show at The Tavern Quilt Guild in Heathsville, VA. What a nice group of quilters! It's too bad they are so far away...they do so many fun things! I gave them my "Top Ten Machine Quilting Tips" and showed them some of my quilts.

I visited my daughter in California and had a wonderful time! We did so many things! We took an open air jeep tour of wineries in Santa Barbara. We stayed at the luxurious Canary Hotel and the jeep tour guide picked us up. We took an old stagecoach road through the mountains to 4 different wineries. Fun!! I will have to post pics on my flickr site because there are way too many to show here. Paradise Cove was fun, too! It's where the movie "Gidget" was filmed. We even encountered rattlesnakes on a hike in the Santa Monica mountains!!

We also too several trips to Ohio to work on our house there and visit our son. I feel like I've been gone all summer!

OK, I'm off to take more pics of the new work. I will post again tomorrow!

New Quilt and What I have been doing

New quilt in progress

Layout on my design wall, WIP

We are just a metro ride to the Capitol

Begonia at Botanical Gardens in DC (love the Polka dots)

Me at Botanical Gardens in DC

Vern at Botanical Gardens in DC

Westmoreland State park in VA where we went hiking

George Washington's birthplace (1732) formerly known as Pope's Creek Plantation

Birthplace of George Washington right on the Potomac river

Squirrel at GW birthplace (compare this skinny little squirrel to the one below)

Squirrel on the National Mall (who stopped to pose for me as squirrels always do that)

Emma, having fun

More QSDS

detail above of a purple/yellow piece

Here are a few of the paintings I did at QSDS...I made painted fabric, not pictures. I really like the effect of layering paint. It is all done on 7 oz. canvas using fabric paint and thus is easy to sew to other fabrics. The top piece has many layers and was an experiment. It might be hard to cut these up and use them in quilts.

QSDS (Quilt Surface Design Symposium)

my board (above) with photos of my previous work and some new paintings

on day two (yes, the boards are bowed)

my board in the class on day seven

here I am getting ready for a presentation to the class

(I look so serious)

my friend, Susan Nash, and her board

QSDS was 7 wonderful and intense days of art composition, painting and fun! I took a master class with Elizabeth Busch. I highly recommend her as an instructor if you ever get to take a class with her. I came away feeling refreshed about my art work. I can see me going in an almost different but better direction with my art. This class really made me think about composition, color and how to better interpret my designs in fabric. I ended up putting away the two pieces I had planned to work on and started a new design. The board shows my paintings and some pieces of the new work. I got to room with my good buddy, Susan Nash, who is a very talented art quilter and always inspires me. Each day, we did little 4" x 6" studies on index cards...the designs aren't in these photos. I will save those for a later time when they are made into quilts.

It's good to be back home, but it was nice to be in an artist environment for a while. (no cleaning, no cooking and big, fat chocolate chip cookies or cheesecake at each meal).

Check back tomorrow...I will have some details of the paintings.

Sacred Threads

me & my quilt at the opening reception

my friend, Susan Nash and her quilt, at the opening reception

The Sacred Threads exhibit was wonderful once again! I was so honored to have my quilt juried into the show. I can't describe how great it is to see the quilts and read the artists statements in person. It was so nice to meet fellow artists who also have a piece in the show. I also got to see friends who I haven't seen in a while. It does a heart good!

New Quilts

Beach Landscape #1

Beach Landscape #2

I just had to use the rusty color hand dyed fabric, so of course I had to use it for a beach scene! The multi-colored fabric was just the right color for a sky with sun rays quilted in. Beach Landscape #1 was quilted with feed dogs up and using my 1/4" foot on my Bernina. I really like quilting narrow lines, but it is time consuming! The next one has a bit of free motion quilting added.

I thought I better post since it's been so long since my last post. I have been crazy busy in my studio getting ready for QSDS! I leave tomorrow! Yippee! Saturday, I have the Sacred Threads Artists Reception to attend. I hope my quilt made it there without too many wrinkles.

I must finish packing my projects tonight and it's late already! I have some cool new pieces I am excited about. QSDS will be so much fun but really hard work, too. I will try to write a blog post while I'm there.

Fabric Dyeing

I dyed a little over 18 yards of fabric this week. (Doesn't look like 18 yds when folded, does it? Well, when you iron it, it sure does!) I think gathering my supplies, bringing them to the kitchen and doing the prep work of protecting my counter tops, etc takes more time than the actual dyeing process. But I love the results. I used three different types of fabric. One is Kona Cotton PFD which I really like and another is Kauffman Pimatex PFD which has a tighter weave and the feel of batik fabric. The other is one I don't like but had a lot of after taking a dyeing class. It is a coarser type muslin that wrinkles like crazy, so not my favorite.

This is another shot of the folded fabric...mostly 1/2 yard pieces. Below are my favorites...it's always hard to cut into your favorites. I used Procion MX dyes. I did get better color by first soaking my fabric in the soda ash solution, premixing the dyes and adding the fabric to the dye vats (rubbermaid and various plastic containers with lids). No salt added this time and I let them sit overnight before the rinse out.

I pour teal over antique gold to get this effect.

Screen Printing

Screen Print with Mono Print

Screen Printing is fun! The fabrics above are printed using Jacquard Fabric paint and a produce bag. There was enough paint left on the produce bag to do a mono print, too. The fabric is some of the fat quarters I hand dyed last year. I sort of ripped and stretched the vinyl bag so I could get better texture and design when I printed.

This piece is the first print using the produce bag. It does use a lot of paint, but I love the results.

This is a screen print done on a commercial fabric using a freezer paper stencil I cut. The red print below is an abstract leaf that I cut from newspaper. It was my first print. Sorry about the photo quality, I just snapped a picture while it was drying on my design wall. I love the crisp quality of screen printing...maybe I should do it on a T-shirt??? Nahh, got to save the fabric paint for quilts!

Yesterday, I dyed some more fabric using three types of fabric. I am ironing it this morning and will take some photos to post tomorrow. I'm getting ready for my master class with Elizabeth Busch at QSDS, so for the next three weeks I will be working on some new pieces and some old ones in my studio. I was bogged down for a while and realized it was fabric colors I needed to inspire the muse, so hopefully the dyeing session will help in that area.

Two of a Kind

Pears Two

Pears Two (detail)

Here is another pear quilt I recently made. Techniques used: machine embroidery, fabric painting, chalking, machine appliqué and free motion quilting. Materials used: textile paint, acrylic paint, cotton batting, hand-dyed fabric, commercial fabric, fusible web and chalks.

These remind me of the giant pear tree in our neighbor's yard when we lived in Altus, Oklahoma. Our neighbor didn't like pears, so I got to harvest all I wanted. I made lots of pear jam and jelly.

Thanks for reading my blog and I welcome your comments!

New Work and happenings...

Three of a Kind

Three of a Kind (detail)

This is one of my latest works. This is inspired from a photo I took of the pears that grew on my little pear tree when I lived in Ohio. I took many photos of them, rearranging them in singles and pairs and by three. When I finally got around to cutting one to eat...they weren't that tasty. But they did make wonderful subjects for art quilts. Techniques used: machine embroidery, fabric painting, machine appliqué, free motion quilting and chalking. Materials used: textile paint, acrylic paint, chalks, hand-dyed fabric, commercial fabric, fusible web and cotton batting. Tomorrow, I will post another pear quilt in which I used painted fabrics.

When I woke this morning, I had ten reasons why I haven't blogged sooner, but the number one reason was a hard drive crash. Luckily, my hubby had just built me a new computer. He was able to transfer the files from my old computer and after a few tweaks, I'm back again. This new computer is so much faster which makes blogging so much easier! So, I look forward to sharing lots of new creations and happening with you.

As always, I welcome your comments and thanks for visiting my blog!

Canvas & Cherry Blossoms

Cherry Blossoms in DC

I finished quilting my Ladder pieces and mounted them to painted stretched canvas. Above is one of the first pieces I mounted to canvas. It is always hard to see the canvas with a front shot, so I shot this one a bit skewed so you can see the side. This is such a small piece, that I think it looks better on the canvas...I always worry that what if in the future someone thinks it is a "pretty potholder"?! So, canvas it is...but I still haven't named it.

This is what I used for the canvas...readily available in art supply stores everywhere. First, I brushed on a coat of gesso and let it dry. Then, I used Golden and inexpensive acrylics mixed to achieve one of the colors (or close to it) in the little quilts. Below, I painted it on the canvas. I realized I didn't have to cover all of it...just the edges and part of the front. I used my heat gun (careful...it can burn) to hasten the drying process. I think it took several coats of the acrylic to cover well.

Painted canvas, drying.

After the canvas dried, I used invisible thread to stitch in various places through the canvas and the the little quilts. This is the hardest part...I really hate to use glue on them, but if I can't find a better way...anyone know a better way?

Here they are finished...The Ladders...hanging on my design wall

Cherry Blossoms 2009

On Saturday, we hopped on the metro and spent the day in downtown DC. We first went to the National Archives where we saw The Constitution, The Bill of Rights, The Declaration of Independence and various other historical documents and exhibits. Then, we went to the National Gallery of Art for lunch. There we saw the Small French Paintings exhibit and a magnificent special exhibit called Heaven on Earth which is all Illuminations. Very cool to see! We decided to walk over to the river basin to see the Cherry Blossom festival since it started that day. Did I fail to mention that the day was dreary, rainy and overcast most of the day?

The Washington Monument with cherry trees in the foreground

The blossoms were not as magnificent as last year. But nice to not have the large crowd, too.

The Jefferson Memorial

Love was in the Air

Can you see the female duck? She almost blends in with the ground. Her hubby was waiting patiently while she chose the best worms and played in the water. (Kind of like my hubby waiting for me while I'm in the fabric store or yarn shop.)

It's All About Aqua...

Detail of Ladder( I started the quilting)

As you can see below, I have been rather busy. I moved my studio to the third floor! I really love it there...yes, it's a bit smaller, but it actually feels roomier because I'm not sharing the room with my computer desk or HQ16 table. And, the best part...I painted it a color I love...a lovely aqua color. It's bright, cheery and makes me want to create. I also have my machine in front of the window so the light is terrific! One of the nice things about moving an entire room is that I can organize it. I know what I will use for my art quilts and only those things went in there.

New Studio with Emma

My sewing machine in front of the windows

I will have to include a picture of the other side with the closets...seems I missed taking that one. Below are pictures of the before dark color when it was a guest room. (We moved the guest room to my old studio). I probably failed to mention that the move to the third floor was my birthday gift from my hubby. : ) That's all I wanted and wow, was it hard work! Carrying all that stuff up the flights of stairs was tricky and gave us a workout! We did it all in a weekend, including the painting. I still have a bit of tweaks such as painting over spackling where I filled nail holes, but it's ready enough for quilting.

Vern & Emma prepping the walls for new paint

Hmmm....what is that thing?

And finally, a picture of the Incredible Edible basket of fruit my daughter sent me for my birthday. My birthday was St. Patrick's Day and I received wonderful cards and gifts from friends and family. Thanks! : )

Happy Dance...Sacred Threads

Moonlight On the Water (detail)

Yippee! I am very honored to post that my quilt, "Moonlight On The Water" was selected for the 2009 Sacred Threads exhibition! Above is a sneak pre-view of the quilt. I will post the entire quilt later. I hope to attend the opening by extending my stay in Ohio when I go to QSDS. June will be a busy month for me!

More Ladders...

WIPs...More Ladders to be

I have delayed, procrastinated, pondered and finally did it! I didn't know if I should continue my "Ladder Series" I started last year because I found out after I started the series( more here) that other people were doing the same series. I suddenly stopped because I didn't want anyone to think I copied the idea. But no, my Ladders came from my own creative muse. I was really amazed and a bit shocked when I first saw that others were doing the same thing. I think this may happen to lots of artists...they find that their idea is not unique. I think it sometimes discourages artists to continue with certain ideas but I had so many drawings already done and I felt I just had to get them into fabric. I wonder if the Creative Muse sometimes flutters by more than one artist giving them the same idea. I took the smart advice of a brilliant artist friend of mine who assured me it is OK to continue on these because it happens all the time in the art world...artists get the same ideas without even knowing or seeing what others are doing. So, I will get these done. This set of three (I seem to be stuck on sets of three lately...hmmm) will be mounted on stretched 4" x 12" canvas. As you see them now, they are not trimmed and I have just started the quilting. One of my first ladders (the black/white one below) had "paint chips" added as a color feature. I may leave these plain except for the quilting. I think it is the quilting that I love on these little pieces. The background is my hand dyed fabric. I also spent a day trying to get the correct colors I wanted to use. I finally threw out the color wheel chart and decided to go with my heart on this one. I love this color combination...sort of beachy. Who knows...I may embellish these with more "paint chips" of fabric or...oh, an idea just hit me in the head...more later.

I started the fun part...machine quilting

Ladder #1

Machine Quilting...The Thread I Love

As many of you know, I love to machine quilt! Here is one of my favorite threads to use. It's Mettler Fine Embroidery No. 60 wt. It is strong enough to do the job and thin enough to sort of melt into the fabric. It is cotton and comes in yummy colors. My Bernina loves it and she is very finicky with most threads. I use it in the bobbin if I have enough of one color, or I use size 50 cotton in the bobbin. If I don't have enough size 60 in a certain color I need, then I will use the Mettler no. 50 on the top which also comes in even more colors.

I have been working like crazy on some new designs that I can't post, yet. I'm also looking forward to QSDS in June. I am taking a 7 day Master class from Elizabeth Busch. Any one else going to QSDS? One of the nice bonuses is that it is in Columbus, Ohio where I use to live. I get to visit with my friends and our son who lives there.

I guess you saw on the news where we had snow here in the DC area. Funny how 8 inches or so can shut down the city. I didn't even bother to shovel it this time. The sun is out, but brrrrr....it's still cold. I remember in Ohio when we didn't see the pavement for over 30 days at a time.

I am working on some more of my ladder series today. In my spare time or down time while watching TV, I am knitting. I just finished a bag to felt and am starting a cropped short-sleeve cardigan. Anyone else on Ravelry.com? As I said before, great inspiration and wonderful free patterns.

Emma is asleep dreaming sweet puppy dreams after a fun playtime of playing fetch with her toy. Taylor is sleeping in her basket dreaming of mice.

Please leave comments...I love to hear from you! : )

My interview

I recently did an interview with the The Alliance for American Quilts. You can read it here: http://www.allianceforamericanquilts.org/qsos/ It is now archived in the Library of Congress Folklife Center to be used for research. If you want to see the other Obama quilter interviews, click on Projects on the right top and then the Barack Obama QSOS.

I am currently working on some show quilts so that is why I haven't blogged lately. But I will very soon!