CHALLENGE: Abstraction

“An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.” -Oscar Wilde

My 12x12 group had the challenge theme- 'Abstraction'.  I really struggle with creating abstract art and this piece was a struggle throughout. I never quite got into it or as the quote says above- it never became 'dangerous'.  I completed the exercise, but still am not happy with the finished piece, even considered disposing of it.

 An interesting struggle was when I  begun hand embroidering circles haphazardly on the top but it looked AWFUL!  I had marked the circles on the fabric with a Pilot Frixion pen (draw with the pen, iron it and it disappears); I love these pens but when you iron it, it takes a little color with it.  To make lemonade out of my lemons, I made circles ALL OVER the piece, ironed it and made it a design element!

I am hoping my next one is more inspiring!

COLLABORATION- Art Show at the Carnegie

Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean. ~Ryunosuke Satoro

A week ago a group of fiber artists and I had an opening for art show that is being hosted at the Carnegie Center for the Arts in Three Rivers.  Here is the link about the show:
Another Season–Artists Exploring Fiber Art and Mixed Media .

We had an opening on June 8 and below are photos from the reception. I am so lucky to be part of this creative group of women!

EXPERIMENTATION: Free-motion Eyelets

Sewing mends the soul.  ~Author Unknown

Sometimes UFO's find the right time to become FO's (Finished Objects).  This week was just the case; I had the tiny garden piece below that I began 4-5 years ago. I decided that it just needed some petals and it's final mounting. 

When it began, this piece was made by using free-motion eyelets; essentially, you cut a small hole in your fabric, put you machine on zig zag, drop you feed-dogs, and sew around the edge of the small hole. It comes together much easier than you would anticipate. 

I planned where I wanted my eyelets, made one, then made the hole for the next eyelet as close as I was comfortable to the previous one. 

For the stems, I removed the cross-grain threads from the denim and then covered groups from the straight grain with embroidery thread. 

I decided to mount this piece on a frame, but the issue became that the denim was not large enough to cover the sides.  I chose to add cotton fabric to the sides and am more delighted than if the denim had covered it.  Happy mistakes!

Remnents

I found this delightful sewing reality show on British television called The Great British Sewing Bee. The show just finished its second season in Britain, but you can view the first season via the link below:http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x130bwl_s1e1-the-great-british-sewing-bee_lifestyle

I loved this show because of the people.  I used manage a plant in England and this show brought back memories of the workers.  I believe you, also, will find these contestants every day, lovable people with outstanding skills.  I smiled through much of this first season.

Enjoy!

CHALLENGE: Using Words

 "A woman is like a teabag, you never know how strong it is until it's in hot water". 

~Eleanor Roosevelt

The last challenge for my 12 x 12 group was about using words on our art quilts. You can read about our 12 x 12 Challenge group here. I chose my favorite quote is from Eleanor Roosevelt, "A woman is like a teabag, you never know how strong it is until it's in hot water".   

I began with white fabric that I used Jacquard's color magnet on by making a dot pattern with the pen. When I dyed the fabric with periwinkle dye, the dots become darker than the rest of the fabric. When you look at the piece about, you can see dime-sized dots throughout the background fabric.

I hand embroidered the outlines of the letters for the quote. My teacup and its flowers are machine appliquéd with some puff-paint accents. A fine China teacup usually is gold rimmed, so I thought it fitting, I trimmed the entire teacup, saucer, and handle with gold paint.

Finally outside of the quote's circle, I did a pattern of French knots. Inside of the circle I did a diamond hand-quilting pattern. One of the niftiest parts of this 12" x 12" quilt is the binding, it's the first binding I ever did that was entirely machine sewn with no handstitching needed.

Remnants
When school ended for the summer, I had such high hopes of catching up on my blog and my art in general...best laid plans...The first 10 days of summer vacation was spent in Phoenix helping my sister care-giving  my dear niece.  Sis and I are leaving this weekend for a second trip.  I decided that I would make a series of prayer flags for my niece that she could hang in her room.  This coupled with a friend going through a stem cell transplant put me into the pray flag making mode. Below is the first prayer flag:

Here is the beginning of the prayer flags at my friend's home awaiting his return at the end of the month.

 I also made three extra flags that will be on my Etsy store later this week.
Enjoy!
Kathy

CHALLENGE: Kathy's March Crayola Challenge

If they were starting their careers today, Rockwell and Picasso would probably both be painting on black velvet.

~Brad Holland

My, oh my, has life gotten in the way of creating.  The last couple of months has been challenging with every minute of every waking hour consumed.  I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel...winter semester of the school year ends in TWO WEEKS!  Yesterday, I could not contain my excitement and made my list of what I want to accomplish this summer; it will only take 58 hours of work per week...OK, maybe I need to trim somewhere!

As I talked in my last post,  the March meeting of my Art Quilt Group meeting brought so many wonderful pieces (you can read about it here). The  March colors were Indigo, Red, Red Orange. I did not get the chance to talk about my own creation, so here it is....

Since I began dyeing a couple of years ago, I have been most excited about dyeing velvet for projects.  I have a dream of a velvet swing coat...but that will be another day. I decided that the March challenge would be a great month to play with velvet.  Luckily, I had the three Crayola colors readily available in dyes.  I began with prepared for dyeing velvet and painted areas of each color around the piece.  I sprinkled salt crystals on the (it is supposed to created star-bursts) and dampened the entire piece with a water spray bottle to get the dye flowing. I was not impressed with the salt effects, but the rest was just what I needed.

 I drew a fleur-de-lis inspired pattern on the piece. I created a quilt sandwich using double thickness of a high loft batting, the velvet top, and muslin bottom. Yes, I said, double thickness of high loft batting and yes, it was VERY thick going under the machine for the first time. I sewed the outline of the pattern and then I thread painted to my heart's content.

As you can see below, I completed a very dense machine thread painting using the three Crayola colors.

When the thread painting was completed, I stuffed additional batting into each relief section. I ran into the difficulty of the backside was equally mountainous as the front. Using my regular quilt batting, I created this cut-out shape below to help level the back.

 I then used the excess top velvet to self bind the quilt.

 Here are some close-ups.... 

And alas, the final piece.  I am very pleased with the final work.  I have experimented with two additional pieces that I will share in a later blog....

Remnants

There are so many fun and helpful bits that I would like to share,  I am creating this last bit of my blog each week,  My hubby, Mark, came up the the name of this section, Remnants, so named perfectly as its definition is: a remaining, usually small part, quantity, number, or the like.

My first remnant is the announcement that Pokey (Patricia) Bolton has decided to leave Quilts, Inc! and as she states, "I am ready for a break after a lot of change in my life the past few years."  A you probably know, Pokey is the founder/creator of Quilting Arts and Cloth, Paper Scissors among others.  She has inspired so many of us in our quilting and mixed media journeys.  I wish her the best!

You can read more about Pokey's bucket list for the next phase of her life here:

Pokey's Bucket List.

ART QUILT GROUP: Life is Like a Box of Crayons....Part III

Never invest in any idea you can't illustrate with a crayon.  ~Peter Lynch

Our March meeting of my Art Quilt Group meeting with crayon challenge brought so many wonderful pieces.  The  March colors were Indigo, Red, Red Orange.

Below is the rundown of what everyone made.  First is Anna Mae's piece; it reminds me of a sparkly diamond ring!

Next is Carolyn's.  She began with hand-dyed organza and then, due to traveling, she moved on to hand stitching and beading.

Here is Diane's (and sorry, my camera did not capture the color well here).  She was inspired by the artist Charley Harper and his cardinals.

Here is Doha's work.  Doha is our newest member and I am glad she has decided to join us. She chose to applique lots of fun fabrics.

Here is Evey's; I believe we all agreed that this reminded us of a campfire with sparks.

Jackie did some indigo dyeing with Shibori; she is continuing to complete the piece with sashiko stitching  The beauty of this piece in person is phenomenal.

Jackie has a second piece of a skunk cabbage that is in its early stages.  She said that she imagines there will be lots of French knots on it.

Jenny used this month's challenge to work on her applique; she is emphasizing her applique with sashiko stitching.

June used hand dyed fabrics and couching of fibers; she finished with circle quilting (her specialty).

Mary was inspired by Gwen Marston liberated stitch blocks along with Amish quilts.

I do not have any pictures of my own submission.  I will work on this and put it in my blog for next week.

Our colors for the next challenge are: Red Violet, Salmon, Granny Smith (now these are colors I can get on board with!)