Worktable Surprises!

As I said yesterday, I was quite surprised to see the images that were left on my worktable covered with freezer paper. This is after a day or two of using Golden acrylics, gesso, glazes, etc. I cut the freezer paper up. In the image below, I outlined the birds (one on a tree limb and two blue birds in the grass below), mountains and tree.

The image below looked just like a bottle with a cork.

I haven't figured out the one below...maybe just an abstract. I wonder if I can get these onto fabric? I do have the ink jet fabric transfer sheets. I will have to get a new printer cartridge and try it.

OK, I had fun with these...maybe I need to get out more.

Work Table

Here was my work table before I cleaned it up. When I took up the freezer paper that is covering it...Serendipity! See how painted and stamped and covered in paint? I cut it into usable pieces to stitch and glue onto quilts. Then I began to see images in the painted freezer paper. There are three birds, at least. Tomorrow, I will post the piece that looks like a forest scene with mountains and trees and birds. That bit of aqua netting on the right is a piece of plastic net bag I cut from a bag containing Vadalia onions. It made a great stamp. I put paint on it and then flipped it onto the canvas and used a brayer on it. OK, I know I posted twice today, but had to show off my work table. I'm off to work on a quilt (or two).

What's on My Needles

This is a wool scarf that I am currently knitting for a Christmas gift. It is 100% wool...warm! I am knitting the ribbing stitch, so it is slow going, knit one, purl one and sometimes is a bit boring.

This is the other knitting project...a throw. It is really a soft gold color knit in a basket weave stitch. Soooo easy! If anyone wants to know how it's done, leave a comment. I am just a beginner knitter, so believe me when I say it's easy. It makes it's own border on all four sides. The nice thing is after I had started this one, I saw one just like it in the new Better Homes & Gardens magazine in a decorating article. Who knew?

The nice thing about my knitting is that it doesn't take away from my quilting. I usually just knit at night after a long day in the studio. Any other quilters out there who knit? If you like free patterns and inspiration, then go to http://www.ravelry.com/. It is a knitting, crochet on line community that is so cool. When I do go there, I get lost in all the neat things to see or make.

New WIP

This is a beginning of a new series. The one above is just an audition pinned on my design wall. It is already machine stitched and quilted. I don't know if the "paint chips" (just pinned on) will stay or go. I may try something else all together. But it has been pinned to my wall for about a week, now and I need to finish it. Below is the "blank" version waiting for another audition of added accents.

I'm still working on the composition and will add a focal point.

This is the stamp I carved from an eraser that is the start of my new series which I will call the Ladder series. Sorry, the above picture is a bit blurry as the eraser is only 7/8" x 2 1/2". The quilt is 10" x 23". I used one of my favorite tools to enlarge the stamp into a quilt design...my overhead projector. You will see more of this series later as I work on it. Leave me a comment if you want. I love reading them!

More Backgrounds

These are all backgrounds made on 140# watercolor paper. I used the same process as making the canvas backgrounds yesterday. Fun! Can't wait to stitch these into a collage.

Backgrounds

Because we will now have changes for the better in the USA, I thought of what changes I could make in my own life. Wow, too many to list here. So, I thought of what changes I can make in my art life. It's a long list too, but hopefully it will inspire me to make more art. Speaking of inspiration, I am taking a class, Mixed Media with Paper and Cloth at Joggles from Jane LaFazio. I have taken classes with Jane before and always am inspired to keep creating. Below are the backgrounds I created for this class from untreated artist's canvas. I bought it at G-Street fabrics, but most any fabric chain sells it by the yard. I didn't bother to pre-wash it, just tore it to 10" x 10" pieces. I hung it up to dry. (An indoor clothesline would be nice, but I hung them from baskets sitting on my shelves.)

These are made from artist's canvas, painted and stamped with Golden Acrylics, Golden's Acrylic Glazing liquid and the "other" acrylics which you can buy for less than $1. I even used some of the stamps I carved which you see in the photo below. The large circle is the lid from a baby food jar dipped in paint. It's easy to machine stitch on this canvas, too, which will come later in the class when we build collages. Tomorrow, I will post the ones I painted and stamped on 140# watercolor paper, so stay tuned for more fun creations. You can stitch on paper, too.

What to Do While Watching the Debates

My favorite yarn...Noro

Emma's new sweater (She's 16 mos now!)

Knit! I recently got interested in knitting again. So, I made a scarf (nice red wool tweed) and a new sweater for Emma. Her sweater is acrylic. The scarf was the first actual knitting project I ever finished. I find it very relaxing to have something to do while watching the debates or news or movies on TV at night. I don't like to do quilting when I watch TV as most of my quilting involves machine work. This weekend, we found a new to me yarn shop that is packed with the most delicious yarn!! Lots of hand dyed wool and lots to pet. As you can see in the picture below, I found some of my favorite which is Noro Kureyon, a Japanese yarn. It is 100% wool and comes in the most wonderful variegated colors. I so wish it were sold at AC Moore or Michaels as it is easier to get to those stores than the yarn shop in Vienna. Saturday, we went on an adventure looking for the yarn shop (Vern was driving). We found it after a beautiful detour in the country. He waited in the car (with his laptop) while I ran inside. When I came out, the car wouldn't start! This is a Honda Accord, only two years old! Never an indication that the battery was low, but yep, we were stuck. Not having our kids to call, we called AAA. I was expecting the traditional tow-truck driver with a cigar stuck in his mouth and all that goes with that scene after waiting an hour. But no, within 10 minutes of our call to AAA, a nice young man, probably college age, drove up in his nice car with a AAA panel on the side and gave the battery a jump. We were soon on our way to the dealership where we purchased a $new$ battery. Maybe the world has changed. We need more changes like that.

Yummy Yarn

Finally, a New Post & New Work

Sunshine Dreams

I realize I took too much time off from my blogging! I have been designing and creating quilts, studying art theory and doing lots of reading. So, here is a very whimsical finish of a quilt that I did for my local art theory group. Below is a detail shot. I really should take a better photo, but it is now hanging at "The Artful Quilter" in Centreville. So, hopefully, this one will do for a posting. You can't see all the details, but if you look at the photo with all the challenge parts lying on my sketch pad below, you will see why I made it a "whimsical" quilt. Our challenge for the art theory group was to use all the parts in an art quilt. I used them all except for the feathers. There were beads, buttons, ribbons, papers, wire (which I curled and attached) and I can't remember all of it. I don't normally like to use so many embellishments so it did stretch my brain. I cut up as much as I could and added it to the sun which has a layer of tulle. I'm glad this one is done, my assignment is done and I can move on to things I really like.

Detail (the buttons and yarn were white and I painted them)

Challenge parts from art group

I'm currently working on a new design that I hope to finish up this afternoon and I will post tomorrow. I'm writing myself a post-it note to remind myself to blog tomorrow. I have to tell you about my adventure to the local yarn shop which involved AAA.

Fun Photo:

Here is a picture of Traci & Matt, our kids, at a petting zoo. Wow, they grew up fast! Now they are grown and out on their own.

Fun Shapes & Quilt Exhibit

These are paper shape cut out exercises in a book that I am currently studying. "Finding Your Own Visual Language" , a practical guide to design & composition by Jane Dunnewold, Claire Benn & Leslie Morgan. I highly recommend it if you are an artist who wants to move forward, dig deeper and create more art. My paper shapes started as a square, rectangle and leaf shape. I then cut and expanded them, still trying to maintain the general shape. I will expand, shrink and combine them to use in my quilts.

My quilt, "Taffy Cat" is now at the Breaking Traditions exhibit in Novi, Michigan. If you click here, you can see a close up of him and read my statement. The online catalogue is here. There are some amazing quilts in this exhibit which benefits the American Cancer Society. Click on each one to read their statements. The theme for 2008 was "With One Voice".

What I've been Stitching

Just wanted you to know that I have been busy. I have been in the creative process...sketching, planning, etc. This one is an ocean scene that I am currently machine quilting. I'm sure it will have embellishments...yarns, beads and shells before I'm finished with it. The two below are on my design wall waiting for a few more pieces to be added and then I will quilt them. It all started with the one below ...the one with the sun. We had a challenge in my Art Theory group to use a lunch bag full of goodies (embellishments) in a quilt. There were yarns, ribbons, candy wrappers, beads, gold threads, wire, paper, etc. I put it all in a dish and painted it ocean colors, of course! I still have most of the bag of embellishments left that I have to put on the quilt. It will have a center in the sun that is made of tulle holding the shiny beads, ribbons, etc. I couched some of the ribbons in the waves. This will definitely be a whimsical, fun quilt. While making the background to this one, I cut backgrounds until I had several ready to make into quilts...a new series. It was truly improvisational. I usually use one of my photographs and sketch out the design. I found this method really fun. I hope to do more like this. I did use Liqui-Thread on the edges (liquid fusible) which I applied with a brush. I really like that stuff for raw edge applique. I hope to finish these soon and I'll post the results.
Work -In-Progress
Work-In-Progress

We went to Ohio over the Labor Day weekend. Here are some pictures below. Emma was soooo tired after a wonderful weekend of hard dog play with Maya & Barley that she slept all the way home and most of the next day! We had a great time visiting them.

Vern playing baseball the easy way...Wii.

We went to the Greek Festival and had yummy food and enjoyed the colorful festivities.
Emma had someone (Maya) to play tug-o-war with her.

Taylor in her "cat house"

Finished Quilt!

Taffy Cat

Taffy Cat (detail)

"Taffy Cat" is now finished! I just need to get it in the mail. Hope he likes Michigan. The quilting detail didn't photograph as well on the canvas, so you may have to click on the images to get a larger view. I think it's time to move my photography lights and tripod to the guest room. I keep tripping over the light stands in my studio.

Thanks for the nice comments left on my previous post! I appreciate all of them. Now I'm off to try some screen printing...

New Quilt in Progress

Here is a preview of my latest work in progress. It will be a 12" square quilt. The cat is my old cat, Taffy, who we adopted from the Humane Society in Ohio. Taffy was such a sweet, sweet and lovable cat! He passed away about 2 1/2 yrs ago. This will be for the "Breaking Traditions" Art Quilt Exhibit in Michigan. The theme is "With One Voice" which is to give a voice to all those people and organizations that do good in the world. My quilt will honor all the Humane Societies that care for homeless pets. I have to thread paint it, quilt it and send it on it's way. I used Golden acrylics on canvas. I will post another pic of the finished quilt when it's done.

It has been a while since I posted to my blog, I see. I have been busy, busy with setting up my website and enjoying a family vacation in Hot Springs, AR. We had such a wonderful time there. The weather was like being in an oven! I actually had a bit of a chill when I stepped into the much cooler weather here in Virginia.

I made a website: Thread in the Studio. It's in the "soft launch" stage...meaning not many know about it. I still have some tweaking to do on it and pages to add, but it's a start.

I better get to work. I have lots of new ideas.

New Work

I've finally started working on my "Pods" series again. The quilt on the left is the first and it is also part of my banner on this blog. The one on the right (WIP here) is my auction donation for SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates). I will have to make another one if possible to add to this series of pods. Tomorrow, I say goodbye to it and mail it to CT. As you can see in the background, I like to use the 3-in-1 Color Tool by Joen Wolfrom. It makes it so easy to find the right complementary color or plan a color scheme.

"Pods Revisited"

Here it is finished with the binding added. I used some of my recent hand dyed fabrics and some commercial fabrics. I found a really neat thread that seemed to pick up whatever color it was quilted on. It is Metler 60 wt, color 903 which is a lime green. I didn't discover it until I tried it on the last part I machine quilted which is the top part...the green, yellow and orange batik. Sounds crazy, but it shows as orange on the orange and green on the green and yellow on the yellow. I haven't tried other colors, yet, but I suppose it's simply the fact that it is a size 60 wt.

Thanks to all of those who left comments on my blog for the hand dyed fabrics! I really appreciate it! It's been a busy, busy time. Our little deck garden has already given us squash, zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers, basil, mint, and bell peppers. We don't get bushels or quarts, but it's fun to find a ready to pick cucumber or a couple of squash to add to a meal. I did make pesto for the first time and it was the most delicious recipe! It can be frozen in ice cube trays and used later, too. Great on pizzas! (Veggie, of course).

Making this quilt has rejuvenated my creative muse. Only problem is, you should see or not see, my cutting table...covered in fabrics, rulers, scissors, threads...it always takes me longer to choose the colors than to make it. I drew the designs last winter, so that helped a lot. I'm off to pick some more basil for pizza tonight.

Fabric Dyeing

I have been busy! Here is one of the things I have been doing...dyeing fabric. Actually, this is the third try for some of these fabrics. Seems I kept getting a gray or heather look after dyeing, so I would try again. This time, I got out my "Color By Accident" book and did the process a little different. I used Robin Egg Blue Procion MX Dye. I left it in the dye solution for about 15 minutes and then poured a soda ash solution over it and mixed. Then, I left it covered for two days. This is really what i was looking for...soft ocean colors. Some of the previously dyed colors that were grayed aren't so gray anymore. I can use them in the ocean series of quilts or in some landscapes. I don't know what caused the graying effect...if you have any ideas, let me know. Most of the fabric is Aurora Muslin and some is Kauffman PFD. I like the PFD better because it seems the colors were clearer than the Aurora. But it may just be this batch. I guess it's like baking cookies...some are OK and some are delicious. Hopefully, all the delicious fabric will be gobbled up in a new quilt. The bonus I got was all the dyed threads that tangle from the edges will make a nice material to couch.

Landscape Quilt

On The Way

I finally got it out of my basket (it's a large basket) of unfinished quilts. All it needed was to be appliqued, quilted and binding added. I decided to use different quilting designs for each hill (or mountain). I think this piece depended on the quilting to give it life. Now, I love it! It's a small quilt, only 8" x 9", but it has a big impact. I am calling it "On The Way" because it reminded me of the mountains we use to see when we traveled to the beach from Ohio. Once we got through the mountains, I felt like we were finally on our way to my favorite place. After I quilted it, I discovered it had another meaning for me and that is I think I finally feel like I am on my way to discovering what I'm suppose to be doing in my art work. It seems I have been at the start of my journey for a long time. I keep trying out new ideas, taking classes, reading lots and always waiting for the right moment or time to come along. Waiting for that right moment has kept me from moving onward toward my goals. Of course, taking classes, and discovering new techniques have all helped me and I will continue that. But I have been using them for an excuse to "stay in my mountains" and not move forward toward my goal. At some point, you have to step on the gas and see where the road takes you. Hopefully, it will take me to the beach. : )

Fun In The Sun

This is a new ATC I recently made, "Fun In the Sun". I decided to combine stitching and paper on this one. I love this stamp by Time To Stamp. I added some ric rac and punched out a gold star. The bubble on the star is one of the clear rain drop stickers.
I hope everyone has a fun, safe Memorial Day weekend!

Happy Birthday!

Today is our daughter's birthday! Happy B-Day, Traci! I made her this card but couldn't post it until she received it in California. While she was here visiting recently, we gave her her birthday present. The picture of her is either her first or second birthday. I will have to find the original to be sure. (This is one I had on the computer). She's still our little sweetheart.

Happy Birthday, Trace! : )

Almost Connected

"Almost Connected"

detail

While looking at on-line pictures of a current quilt exhibit, I saw a quilt that reminded me of my quilt, "Almost Connected" (Sold), that I made in February, 2005. So, I perused my Adobe Photoshop Elements and found the picture I had taken. I was really into circles at that time. I think I may make another one because I liked it so much. I made it for the "Keiko and Friends" exhibit by Laura Wasilowski. It's posted on this website with the other art quilts if you want to take a look. There are some wonderful quilts there to inspire you. Sometimes, it's nice to be reminded of the good things you made in the past.

I just finished cleaning out my studio closet. Someone could write a book on studio closets. Mine is actually a bathroom to be...meaning all the waterworks pipes and vents are there. But if I turn it into a bathroom, where would I put those necessary things like board books (I may alter them one day), latch hook rug canvas (it makes a cool stencil), empty heart-shaped valentine candy boxes (I saw something somewhere on the web for turning them into something), boxes of Easter egg dye (it dyes tags and other things), and other necessary items? I did use my label maker and labeled the clear stacking drawers and containers. One nice thing I did let go of was all my old quilt magazines (some from the 90's!). I just tossed them all in the recycle bin. I won't let go of my Quilting Arts or Cloth, Paper, Scissors. There is always an article or two that I re-visit in those publications. Maybe I have Spring fever.

Stencils...and Masks

This pear stencil, of a photo I took, was cut using freezer paper. I then ironed it to canvas and painted the pear using Golden fluid acrylics. Then, I masked it and sprayed the background with Tsukineko's Walnut Inks and added more Goldens. I machine quilted it and then added a binding. The tag is painted canvas and stamped. Above: The pear stencil

This one is done on canvas, also. It is a mask of my beach bird taken from one of my photos. The background is painted with Golden Fluid acrylics and I added some swirl stamps. Then I place the mask over it and sprayed it with the Tsukineko Willow Walnut Ink. (Thus the green bird mask below, which actually gives me more ideas as I love green birds). I don't know what I will make from this piece, maybe a journal cover.

Too cute green beach bird...wouldn't it be cool if God made some real ones this color? : )