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. 

Wanabe Quilters Christmas

I was in a great party mood for last Friday's annual Christmas party which included great friends and admittedly a few mimosas. One of my favorite secret pal gift exchanges came from Karon Cornell ( a wonderful oil painter ) to Janmarie Halliday. The subject :  Janmarie's then little girl/now grown woman Noelle .

Cute kid, eh?

Gift from Mary Lou Ripper on the right to Karon on the left. LOVE this pattern

Wool is in !

Carol Lundquist (Left) received this piece from Carol Brodie ( Right.) Carol B is an applique queen who loves Grandmothers flower garden.   Oddly enough, Carol L was Carol B.s secret pal . Her clever gift.... several  premade  frozen meals ready for the crock pot. 

I missed pics of some... including my own   Shame on me.   I have a mimosa excuse.

One last quilt to quilt for 2016

A couple years back, several friends from my Wanabe Quilters group took on an old Alex Anderson pattern  Christmas Quilt.... This is the second one finished by Hilary Field, ( my own version is one  of my "Quilts in Waiting" stack in one of those zipped plastic bags)  This is a good size quilt 78 x 93 ....  The mixed  black and white fabrics and multi colored Christmas trees called for a simple quilt plan... I used silver thread.

I was looking for a way to keep quilting cost down but knew edge to edge quilting would NOT look great on this quilt so I sought  a simple no need to mark motif for the dozens of trees. Settled on this continuos line swirl.

Playing President at the Beautiful Mission Inn

So much to do this time of year.... Had a lovely lunch with several friends at the exquisite Mission Inn in Riverside, Ca.  Here, good friends (  first Karon Cornell ) and Janmarie Halliday check out the chair built for back when U.S. President Taft.  It's big chair for a big man. Both friends felt sooo tiny in it!

and Janmarie

Definitely a place to visit in the holidays!!!!   ;-D

Ho Ho Ho Brownie Based Santa Hats

I've been M.I.A. for over 2 weeks  cruising the   heavenly Pacific Ocean ( someone had to  ;-D ). Now back and have a party  to attend this evening.  There will be lots of young people... so I wanted something fun to present.  These Santa hats take hardly anytime to assemble assuming you pre baked a store bought brownie mix.
here's the basics..
We're using a  circular
cut out brownie as the base
One could use a shot glass or round cookie cutter  ( I used a round clay cutter -shown below). 
Mascarpone cheese as a hat brim and top knot For 12 hats I used about 1/3 of the container of cheese placed in a bakery cone with a large round hole tip. 
A strawberry as 'the hat' 

Pretty simple stuff....
Squeeze mascarpone on top of the brownie base
Place  a strawberry on top

and add a squeeze of mascarpone at the top of the berry

pretty cute plate hat set! I think kids of all ages will like. 

If you've never purchased Mascarpone, you will usually find at a local Italian market. It's a dense cheese used in Tiramisu or the like so it will hold up well sitting out for a while.  Whipped cream wouldn't hold up so well if you were considering that as an alternative.  I have seen mock Mascarpone recipes on-line using cream cheese, a wee bit of sour cream, and very wee bit of heavy whipping cream. Google is our friend.  Party starts in 24 minutes so here we go. 

Post party update... emptied plate returned!