Spectacular - Painted Quilt Workshop

Cindy Ebbe was on her game for sure at this retreat. First a tiger

Followed by a dramatic floral.Sure looks photographic doesn't it? You know an interpreted image is really 'right' if it translates well in a photo. Good going Cindy.

Cindy settles in to her art, quietly works toward a successful product. A third project began too.

Grandmothers Pride

Okay.. a bit of break from retreat photos as THIS JUST IN!! In the mail.. that is. A group of photo prints of several things my Coloradoan 'beautiful and brilliant grand daughter' Kaley accomplished her last week of school. I'm proud of all of this... because Kaley applied herself toward doing well. You go Kaley!! a) an A+ in art for this work interpreting an artists work of her choice. She chose "My Gentle Giant Ben" and did this all in pencil. I suspect she used several pencils. b) Achieved Principals Honor Roll for a 4.0 GPA and National Junior Honor Society c) Received Best in Math honor for her outstanding math scores. I will brag about anyone simultaneously developing both sides of their brain. Yeah Kaley. On top of this all, she is socially well rounded and loves sports (an accomplished Goal Keeper in soccer). Most of all, she's my dear love. Lucky me!!!

Melodys Free Spirit!!! - Painted Quilt Workshop

Melody by trade does film restoration so you can imagine she has a well defined desire to match the original. This weekend, she threw caution to the wind and did whatever she wanted. This was thrilling to observe and be part of. Lots of fun followed.

Don't you love this finished piece completed since I last saw Melody. She began with a free motion/no marking thread portrait on white fabric. Then ink painted the BACK side to make a 2 sided quilt.

PRODUCTIVE!!!!!!- Painted Quilt Workshop

Rachael ( the bulldog painter ) completed 2 additional paintings. She is a mother of 3, wife, teacher so this weekend is one of her few times she can do what she wants. That said... Rachael really focuses and gets things done.

Th darkest darks are yet to come.

Foxes and Bulldogs - Painted Quilt Workshop

Marguerite Sawyer is in progress on 2 adorable baby foxes. Having never examined a baby fox, I was surprised to see their eyes appear cat-like. Too cute!

Rachael is a pretty talented painter, I'd say, and a great friend to the owner of these adorable bulldogs. All painted, we also worked together to create a quilting plan for her to follow (maybe). I always create a plan but find after I'm into it, some areas could use something slightly different. The message... It's okay to change our minds. YES!!!!!

Tiger Cubs and Sedona Larry's Way- Painted Quilt Workshop

The husband and wife team of Cindy and Larry Tinsley are such a joy to have in class. Cindy is working on three baby tiger cubs. Their eyes are gray in her reference photo.. Grayish eyes must be for brand newborns??? Love to know the answer to that question.

Cindy and Larry LOVE Sedona, AZ and this represents an in progress work of Larry's cut and paste idea of his favorite Sedona spot.

From Barns To Balloons - Painted Quilt Workshop

I'll showcase 2 students in progress work from last week/weekends retreat. First Terri Hunt from Apple Valley is creating a fairly large old Barn painting. This is going well... Terri is well on her way.

Janmarie Halladay from Placentia, Ca is completing her painting for the upcoming Route 66 traveling exhibition which will begin in August this year. Click here for info about this exhibition which I am co curating with Jukeboxquilts.com.

This beauty represents the annual balloon festival in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Where Have I Been?

It's been a both a hectic and wonderful week. I spent most of it conducting an oh so incredible Painted Quilt Art Workshop in Temecula, Ca. Both returning and new students knocked out some incredible stuff! The following came with Terri Hunt from Apple Valley Ca.... Gorgeous!! These are intricate quilting patterns turned into ink painting. Terri began with a plain or colored fabric, then inked the design and filled in the dark background. WOW.

and my favorite:

plus

More later but I wanted to get this online as it is so very clever. Yeah Terri!

Hand and Printer Text

Finally.... following Main Street ( a mere 8 feet in length)... comes U.S.A. This took a while (each letter is almost 18 inches high), but it was worth it.

Now to get printed text for town names. I used letter size 8 1/2 x 11 freezer paper (C. Jenkins Freezer Paper Sheets)click here to find these available at softexpessions.com. After ironing fabric to the freezer paper sheets I then trimmed to paper size. I ran these through my lazer printer using Microsoft WORD to create the printable text boxes. Remember, if you use a laser printer... fabric side goes in to the paper tray FACE UP.. directly opposite to Ink Jet printers by HP. One sheet in the tray per print request... just like you would do for an ink jet. Trying to load more than one sheet easily results in a JAM!

I let the fabric sheets sit for several minutes before pulling off the fabric from the freezer paper sheets. Even though the toner was dry, I heat set on a dry cotton setting before trimming to ultimate size to be appliqued to the big maps.

Kudos to Moms of all ages

Heading home from travels today. Before I hop in the car, I want to wish mothers of all ages a great day. God Bless Mommies!

The Beautiful Sedona Landscape

We went out today for a walk. The camera is always in my pocket so I'll show a few snapshots of things viewed. Cacti here are so very colorful....

and

Early morning balloonists float across the distant landscape. Gorgeous!

Main Street USA.. Here we come!

"Main Street U.S.A." is to read at 10 ft width ( ie. a full panel) ... egads.... this will take forever... but I think/hope it will be important to the total 6 panel 8 state map. I drafted letters in pencil on paper... then used a permanent black marker and outlined letters on paper. Finally placed fabric over paper one letter at a time over a light box to outline each letter in preparation for this step of filling in with bottled ink. An acrylic Omnigrid ruler comes in handy to sit ink bottle and rub cloth within a work area. I NEVER sit an ink bottle directly atop fabric while working. This ink product is user friendly but nonetheless risky!

This is time consuming but admittedly a bit relaxing. La La La !!!

East To West on the Panhandle

That long land expanse across northern Oklahoma and Texas is next up. First things first... a third 10 foot permanent marker drawing of the panhandle route and points of interest.

The western half of the Oklahoma route has a great deal of open highway... so I've shown a few traveling vehicles. Many a young man in the 60s/70s took an open road trip on this route... just because. Few did it in a corvette but I suspect given the opportunity many would have.

This truck was old even then...

Leaving western Okla., and entering the Texas panhandle, I have an artist representing something in Shamrock, so its water tower is going on the map.

A little further west is the Devils Rope Museum (a.k.a. barbed wire).

Then Groom Texas I'm told has a leaning water tower that somehow is surviving. Why the name Britten is on the tower in Groom, I need someone to tell me.

Closer to Amarillo is the famous Cadillac Ranch of old "Caddies" buried nose down and painted as abstract art and as graffiti canvas of sorts.

Where do people come up with these ideas??!! I also hear there is a SLUG BUG Ranch ( of VW bugs.) Story has it that windmills in northern Texas have Bow Tie's on 'em.

WHY KNOT!!! I say. ;-)

2 Panels Painted 4 to go

WOW.... This is taking much longer than ever expected... ( Isn't that always the way?!) So far I have 6 days work into creating base fabric plus 2 10+ foot panels. Below you see the 2 painted panels end to end in the long hallway of my Sedona timeshare ( still in need of some city and state name identifiers... will be printed and machine appliqued). First... Spring is here and the flowers are breathtaking. Had to start with this macro.

The long hallway...

Moving east to west... Chicago

Mitchell Illinos, the Luna Cafe

St Louis, Mo.

Catoosa Oklahoma

"Oklahoma City is mighty pretty"... as the song goes!!!!

Now The Really BIG Show!

So, here we go.... stretching what was created on the 6 foot map to now take every inch of the old version to a full foot of the new version. I've made a clear plastic grid marked vertically every inch. This plastic transparency gets placed over a 10 inch section on the old map version.

Now I cut a 10 ft length off a roll of white butcher paper and marked the bottom edge every foot.. eg 1 ft, 2 ft, up to the 10th ft. This marking makes it pretty easy to figure placement of cities along the route. My first goal is to get the city locations in place... I began with about a 3 inch yellow circle. Then knowing it required a bigger presence, I chose to place the yellow circle centered on what will be a texture plate rubbing. The plate I chose has radiating circles growing larger the further from the center it goes. It was much easier to get the rubbing plate in the right place if I taped the plate to a light box which I placed under the fabric.

Now using a fantastix with an emerald green ink... I dry brush rubbed the stix across the circle rubbing plate to get a radiating texture. It ofcourse will go all the way around the yellow circle.

This texture will offer a slightly bigger presence for the cities along the route. After this, I chose to add a surrounding red edge to the yellow circle before adding the city name.

The really large cities will be called out within boxed areas with an triangular point to the heart of the city. I'll add a layered texture of first basic soft yellow and a green texture plate rubbing surrounding the city name.

A black drop shadow is added using a marker.

And finally, it seemed a simple almost unnoticeable darker outline of each letter seemed to finish things off nicely.

All the city locations get added before the physical route is drawn in between cities. I'm getting a simple line in for now... and will add surrounding color all at once when the 10 ft panels are done. Along the route, from time to time I'll add things I believe will be of interest to viewers... real things that existed at that location along the old route. Shown here is a restaurant sign from Mitchell, Illinois.. "The Luna Cafe" was a Route 66 hot spot for dining.