Not My Norm but Tons of Fun!

Doing new things is exhilarating!. I may never do another piece like this (who knows!) but I have learned some new stuff for sure and will incorporate the learnings along the way. This is an experimental piece like those previously shown. The central image is a collaged silkscreen on white fabric done by Sharla Hicks (www.softexpressions.com) and acrylic artist Chris Cozen. I've taken the original panel and incorporated it into a quilt. This was definitely a challenge for me as I generally approach my work as a brush painter. Sharla and Chris collaged stamps and stencils into a screen print frame (I cannot begin to tell you about this process quite yet...duh! sooo much to learn).
In the beginning.. the screen printed panel...


With all the white space....I felt it needed a border of sorts to contain the busy image. Bottom line, I decided to paint the border fabric ( why not?) using transparent acrylic paints ( AirBrush by Golden). I used white fabric (PFD), misted it, and applied mixtures of Airbrush acrylic and water. This felt a bit like finger painting. Lots of fun... then to let it dry and heat set. Don't be alarmed.... the matrix lines you see are my white plastic mat that covers my table.


Before adding the border, I used a dark hand dye for a 1/4 inch stopper. You might also notice I added some color to the white areas of the central bird image. It seemed like it needed some focus in the screened panel.

Then on to the machine to quilt. I used monofilament in the screened panel as I didn't want thread color or texture to interfere with the screened image.

Finally, I added some raw edge applique of other sample painted fabric at 2 corners. It seemed to bring some life to the piece and I was pleased to note that raw edge painted fabric doesn't seem to fray easily. YEAH! A final dark stopper binding and we're done.

It's Good To Play

Looks like acrylic paints are not all the same these days... I've been experimenting with how some of the newer artist quality acrylics work on fabric. I'm doing this NOT because I'm unsatisfied with working with inks... but instead.... because I know products change over time and maybe there's something to be said for acrylics... adding them to the tool belt for sometimes use. Well, here are some recently finished samples which could only pass my test if they survived the quilting process well.

The background on this piece was painted (on plain white fabric) using a 50%/50% mix of Goldens "Open" Medium and "Open" (product name) paint. There was a resulting 'tiny' bit of surface tension on the dried fabric.... tho it presented NO problems in the quilting process. YEAH!!!!



This next piece was was fast and fun. I used another Golden product... their Air Brush acrylic inks. In this example, plain white fabric was misted with clear water... then air brush acrylics were squeezed straight from the bottles allowing inks to move around, mix a bit. This made for a painted hand dyed look... without all the work of hand dyeing. It too quilted very nicely.

By the way, both pieces were heat set after they were completely air dried. I have some other samples I'll finish and get posted later! :-) Click on photos for close up view!

Workin' inside out

Well, I am working on some new stuff... but thought I'd include a tip here. Ya know how 'they' used to say quilt from the inside of the quilt toward the outside??? and then some proved it wasn't always necessary. Well... when you are quilting really heavy as in the "Winter Hunt"... you will likely be happier with the result if you can pretty much follow the old plan. Start in the middle and generally work outward. example... I first quilted the mountain lion....

then moved upward, outward, and downward in a fairly methodical fashion. It is easy to get puckers in the fabric if not really careful. Good luck!!!

After the mountain lion... some cool shadows...

Then quilted snow!

ONE MORE DAY

I will have a reduction in the number of grandchildren visiting tomorrow.... so hope to soon have some new stuff posted. I have had a ball with grandkids.... but... Grammie needs a time-out! I still will cry all the way to the airport. Such simultaneous joy and exhaustion! Kaley and 20 mos old Max shown here. A baby boy story I can only tell women...
Mom of little Max went home from Cabo... unpacked all but a box of tampons. Returning to the suitcase the next day to put the box away.... she found it completely empty. She knew the baby boy was involved in the disappearance, and the mystery was solved when she opened the refrigerator later to find all of the wrapped up tampons orderly placed on a shelf with equal sized packages of string cheese. THAT will be one to tell a future girlfriend. BOYS! :-)

Home to Great News

Finally home from Cabo... nearly as hot here at home. It has taken me til today to get unpacked, pick up mail at the post office and find that 2 of my quilts have been juried in to Houston International in October. Funny.. they want them to arrive over 2 months before the show.. like next week actually.... so have to finish 1 label and get 'em shipped post haste.
Both are in the painted quilt art category...
One : Winters Hunt... most recently finished. I can't begin to guess how much thread is on this piece.

The other " In The Beginning" was finished late last year. This one is about discovering/experimenting, and has great personal family significance since I 'scribbled' things on the quilted asphalt that my young grand kids repeatedly drew. This is currently on display at my church so I need to go get it.

It's such an honor to get accepted at Houston. I am teaching there again this year as well as at Road to California in January.(www.road2ca.com) Should be great fun!

Someone wanted to know about these Bulldogs.

Argh! Have you ever lost an email you hadn't answered? For the quilter from the QuiltShow.com asking about this piece, my apologies, but here's some general info about these dogs. I painted and quilted this piece to emphasize to students that even clip art is a great place to start for pictoral paintings. These doggies were actually from a royalty free coloring book... just a simple line drawing. So I had the original 8 1/2 x 11" image enlarged (in black and white) by 400% at the print shop. Then I was off to the net to research coloring for English Bulldogs. Once I had color sample photos in hand, I painted the images on white cotton using pigment inks and heliographic paints. I first painted the father, then pup. I had assumed the dog on the left was female and became a bit annoyed that even in the canine world, females wrinkled more than their male counterpart. Happily, I was advised by someone familiar with the drawing shown elsewhere, that this was a 3 generation portrait, so I'm of the belief this 3rd dog is grandpa. You Bulldog owners that really know can set me straight if you know otherwise. Anyway, it was great fun to paint and quilt. Hope you like it.

If I haven't answered your question, please email me at patt@pattsart.com or leave a comment here. And thanks for your interest.
Travelin' still! Patt

Swimming With The Dolphins

Lucky girl granddaughter Kaley..... visiting the Dolphin Center in Cabo San Lucas. Life is Good!!!!!


Gotta love this beautiful mammal!