Perfect Timing!!!

I  had a GREAT WEEK last week... working in the judging room at Road, setting up our incredible Route 66 exhibit, doing a bit of shopping ( actually alot) and, taking a couple classes  'CUZ I COULD!!!! .

A day with Linda Taylor .. great fun!!! We played with new meanders and fillers ('think she calls this class "beyond stippling") for intermediate / advanced students...  I'm definitely NOT the advanced student on the long arm.   ... Lots to learn, but  FUN! FUN! Linda was great!! Here's a mere practice star designed to play with lots of things in one small spot.  Click on photo for closeup view.. but no laughing allowed... It's a PRACTICE and play piece!

Then a play day with Cindy Needham just cause I love her and didn't have to do more with my exhibit... This was a class strictly about designing and marking a linen quilt top. I had a ball.... but noticed a slight problem at the end of the day.  This quote is MOST applicable.

Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves, for they shall never cease to be amused!"

I beautifully marked the BACK side of the linen.  I AM SOOOOOOOO amused!!!

Happy Quilting all...

Seasonal Changes

The last of my returning quilts is this quite large piece.. The dueling images of baby and 'older gentleman.. BOTH represent my husband.., the younger.. The Summer of 42... the older.. current summers.  I called the piece seasonal changes though you will surely note many similarities.
Click on photo for a larger view.

A Pair of Koi

I love it when former students send me photos of finished pieces.  Georgia Heller  of Arizona beautifully captured these 2 Koi in ink.. then appliquéd them to a dark mottled hand dyed background. Gorgeous work Georgia. I'm thrilled when one time Patt students take off leading there own journey. Yeah! .. and very nice photography by Bill Bohnhof.  Click on the photo for a view of Georgia's great  painting AND quilting.  Thank you Georgia for letting me share this with everyone.

Outside My Window

Mountain people generally all love Fall.. at least I do... leaves turning, squirrels plenty busy storing acorns...I snapped a photo of this Jay.. just outside my dining room window.  I had to paint him.

Spring Break

The first Season quilt traveled as Spring Break... Nothing at all serious about this piece.. just all in fun. 

Artists Meet on Route 66

What a great evening last night at The Road To California Quilt Show... Many of the contributing Route 66 Artists were able to  come to a gathering preceeding the Shows opening... and once the doors were open... they had some more fun. Thanks all!!!  

Then a couple of my friends hopped a ride on the Candy Apple Red Harley in front of our exhibit.

 

Ride it Janmarie Halliday

 

and Karon Cornell was right behind her owning the road!

 

Ready For Road

Yahoo... I spent the morning with Noel Halliday( thank you Noel)  hanging this exhibition that will open tonight at Road To California. It looks spectacular.... and admit we had a lot of workers stopping to preview this exhibit. NOTHING BUT GREAT NEWS!!!!    We'll have a 6:30pm artist gathering in room 102 just before the premiere night doors open at 7pm.

This is so exciting to see the exhibit hung with panels along one wall . We're thrilled.  Hope to see some of you at Road!!!  

Quilt Children Return Home

Yes. This sounds silly, I know.... but several of my quilts that have been traveling for anywhere from a year to 4 years have come home to me.  The youngest of these was traveling with Machine Quilting Unlimited Magazine as they set up from show to show throughout the U.S.   They asked me to represent the Winter season.... thus this 18 x24" quilt honoring the arctic fox.

As long as I was in to blue and white...another group ( The Noble Seasons Artists) finished off a four year exhibition series also with Winter.... this piece titled The Long Winter Veil... (created for 2012 travel) represents how I feel about the winters in the mountains where I live.  They are LONG... and exceptionally cold.  Poor snow bunting bird.  This quilt is  actually a pretty good size despite it's image here  ( about 36" wide).This honestly is one of my favorite all time pieces of mine...probably because the subject is pretty personal.  I'm cold right now. 

Click on photos for detail view. 

Bumble Bee

The third and final rubbed image.. again done the same way as the 2 previous

Markers ink starting to add weight and interest to the bee

Putter putter... and I think he's done.

The inks used to embellish were much the same for each image .  Now to move toward quilting.

Butterfly Butterfly

Working the second of the planned 3 images....a butterfly... done exactly the same way as the previous image.

Starting to embellish the wings a bit with added inks

Starting to look like something now.  You may have noted I placed the flourish on the bottom of this piece as my thinking is to stack all 3 ultimate pieces one atop the other with The dragonfly on top, the butterfly at the bottom and the next image in the middle. Why the butterfly at the bottom... it frankly has more perceived weight than the first image.

Stamps are artists friends!

To surround the dragonfly with greenery I'll be using several types of stamps... on the left gel stamp pieces intended ( as a traditional positive image stamp)  to be affixed to a hard piece of acrylic, plus a foam backed stamp( by Clings)  also intended as a traditional stamp

The back of the Clings stamp is rubber.  I am choosing stamps that have strong images, in this case meaning not a large area of stamp surface for any given area of an image. The more obvious detail you can see on a dry stamp, the more detail will appear in the rubbing.

This is a piece of rubber stamping material with NO mounting plan at all. In fact, this stamp was found with soap making materials intended to be pressed into soap bars before they dry. Unmounted rubber pieces work great for this project.

And lastly, I gathered some flourished gel stamps I might use to add an element of fancy to the intended piece.  I am just beginning with these ideas... Who knows where the journey will lead.

Now to get ready to to rub!!

I'm starting to like this evolving image.  I'm essentially rubbing across stamp surfaces the same as I did on the rubbing plates... I used bottled Tsukineko Ink , semi dry brush and rubbed across fabric surface with the stamp surface directly beneath the fabric.  I'm going to add some additional foliage on the upper outer border areas too. In this picture, you also see a Fabrico  fabric ink marker by Tsukineko. I  used the marker to darken some of the tips of flourish images.

I started playing with added color on the dragonfly.

I  finally chose to use additional markers ( blue green, purple, rust) to intensify the central dragonfly image and some lemon yellow bottled in on the wings.

One insect down...two to go.

New Experiment... Rubbing Plate Art

I so enjoy embellishing my art pieces using textured objects in design of the textile surface.  I decided I would like to try a project exclusively using rubbing plates,  rubber and cling stamps and see how it all turns out.  I envision a mostly monochromatic piece of a flying creature.  I'm going to do 3 mini quilts but am beginning with a dragonfly. So here we go.  I'm working on a base of a soft light value green fabric. I've quartiles this piece from my stash so I can do 3 pieces the same size.

I've chosen a Roylco set of rubbing plates and am using this one for this piece.

I place the rubbing plate( rough side up)  on my work surface and tape it at 2 corners to avoid movement.

The fabric goes on top right side up,  is centered over the rubbing plate, and taped  at corners to minimize movement.

To create this initial rubbing, I use a brush tip fantastic ( by Tsukineko) and Tsukineko bottled ink into which the fantastic has been dipped and tested on a piece of scrap fabric.  You don't want the Fantastix saturated for this effort.  Rub  the brush tip on scrap to get it approaching dry brush state.  Then holding the edge of the plate through the fabric, brush the fantastic applicator horizontally across the rough part of the rubbing plate covered with fabric.

From this you get a fossil-like image we will later embellish with markers and other inks.

This is just the beginning so hang on.

Bordered Up

Bordered , bound, labeled, and sleeved.  This 2014 cruise will be a special one.  Click here to go to worldofquiltstravel.com. Six teachers.. all classes included in cruise pricing and are on days at sea so you won't miss a thing.  This piece is a class  where the quilt blocks at bottom left CAN become photo images of your trip instead.  Lots of fun. There will be flyers at Road to California next week.  Begins in Florida, goes through the canal with stops in South and Central Americas, then concludes in San Diego, Ca.  So much to see and do at a great price.

Surf, Sand, and Signing

A simple horizontal meandering fill pattern works fine for the still waters. Click on photos for more detailed view.

The far away waters were a serene blue and I matched thread to it, while the closer waters have a blue green tint thus I transitioned to that color scheme as I got closer to the edge of the water. Same color/value threads sink into the background and pretty much disappear.

The sand just needed to be secured in a nondescript pattern different than the water. I used a curvy back and forth fill pattern that went fast!  A medium to light yellow and almost cream variegated gave it a little interest. Variations often help an otherwise nothingness area (I didn't want to call the sand boring.)

and finally the sign off!!! I drew 2 horizontal lines ( the height of the letters)  with a wash out blue marker. 40 wt thread on the machine. Each word (name) written forward, then reverse traced backward to give better weight and make minor corrections.  Wet the marking lines and it's done.

Now to finish the border and bind. 

For The Little Grass Shack

I liked this simple little shack on the water.... There will be plenty of quilting in the water so other than the roof, I'll keep it simple on the walls of the shack and the landing deck.

A small clustered leaf fill pattern seems to work for the roof.

A few securing lines around the rest and that seems all thats needed. There will be a goodly amount of quilting in the water surrounding the shack so minimal quilting on the walls is actually additive. That old saying of sometimes less is more can indeed be true.

Lining The Ships Hull

The title says it all....   This is the simplest quilting plan of any....    We'll take this plain area of hull and just use lines that emphasize it's length and the curve of the ships nose.

   I played a bit with photo saturation so you could see the simple lines.

Circling the Clouds

I don't want to quilt the heck out of these clouds.. I like the puffiness BUT some areas are large enough they call for something to secure them.

I will do a wee bit of what I call bubble-up fill not to fill the whole area... just a bit of nondescript securing. I'm selecting areas where I had previously painted in soft blue shadows.