The Filling Station at Road

Another great fun class for skill building free motion.  I've come to see all quilting motifs as either  visually stabilizing, harmonizing, or moving your eyes around your quilt.  Sometimes a mix of types is fun and effective. In  this class, students in learning marked  their motifs first..  some  motifs eventually  can be done without marking.... but this is a good way to skill build.  I saw people who had never quilted a feather create a beauty!
Here's an example of a marked curved fill

First stitching the larger curved divisions

Coming back in to fill the smaller curves. 

We also marked  and ultimately stitched a victorian feather 

The end result included horizontal rows of motifs that 1) visually stabilized... (mostly straight and box-like motifs)  2) harmonized ( that would be curvy stuff) and moved your eyes ( like angles)

This gave students a reference library of differing motifs they knew how to do... and which they could use to choose motifs that send the message they wish on new quilts. I am again teaching this class March 12th  2017 for/with San Diego Friendship Quilters.  Seems a perfect companion to "Media Mixer" ( previous post). 

Mixing It Up at Road To Ca

When I first came to Art Quilting, a wise person said... try most anything on fabric... It just might work.  That's exactly what students did in my Media Mixer Class at Road. Colorful napkins, kleenex, japanese and other handmade papers, tissues, stamps, stamped blotting tissues,  Wasi tape, etc... were used with an adhesive  art medium to adhere images to fabric to tell a unique story.  I brought lots of things for students to play with plus some brought  things of their own.  Fun was had by all.... Here a a couple of images from students work.    So fun!

Here, a delicate story about a love of all things nature

These mixed media pieces look even better once quilted . I brought this unquilted piece to class and have now added quilting motifs using several thread colors...   Here's the basic progress.

First laying out a likely plan to convey a young ladies  day dreams of wealth, love,  and travels.

Next step.. get images on the background fabric.

Then a stenciled overall image to tie elements together.

voila! 

Variegated gray thead used to raw edge the varied elements. 

To brighten this piece... I chose a variegated golden/apricot thread for background fill, a purple to outline the stenciled green plus the yellow flowers.

Minimal securing in black of tree trunk and limbs

Black stitch securing of under edge of upper eye lid, outer edge of nose flair, and central line between upper and lower lip.  

I added and stitched in Gold.. a stamping of an initial.. In this case my own to make it more personal. 

Fini !! ;=D 

I am teaching this class  March 13th  for San Diego, Ca's Friendship Quilters Guild.   

Painterly FUN at Road To California

January was a fast moving month for sure.  4 different classes of 5 days of teaching at Road to Ca Show. All one day classes were full and plenty of fun was had.  I'm always grateful when students send and give me permission to post pictures of their work. Tammi Gritters  took on her interpretation of this Sun and Moon piece in her first  Painting with Inks class. Way to go Tammi!   Now to iron, sandwich, and quilt! I hope we get to see the finished result! Such a great class of students!!! ;-D

Starting ANEW!!

He we go anew!!! 

Four Days back,  the day started  with that itchy feeling I'd been too long away from my passion. 

As the holidays had started to loosen it's grip on me , it seemed it was time to dive back in. What a relief to get lost in painting this small piece.  All white limbs were created by painting the negative (gray) space.  I'm never satisfied by adding white  ink painting atop a  darker painted area as the continuity of the surface seems altered.  Maybe seems a bit sick but I have always enjoyed negative space painting.   Fabric  now painted ( slight wrinkle in the rug look on left) ...... next to quilt. 

My goal in starting quilting is to outline with monofilament the major elements quickly and ditch any pins. That done I'm doing a whole lot of negative space quilting. Since the negative space is not the focal point, the infamous micro stipple (tight meander) works perfectly for my thinking.  There's hours in this micro stipple game  even on a small piece, but  if it's worth it, you do it!

Once background fill done, I added some thread detail on the cardinal, and did so with a goal of leaving much UNquilted. I am using a 100 wt poly thread which I love when thread seems called for but not in my face. 100 wt. is subtle. 

I've come to standing back and reviewing a subject just quilted, and often find small areas warranting correction. In this case an additional bit of quilting . The pins help me remember  where.

I think I like this Cardinal

Now DONE but for facing and other minor finish work.