Last Finish of 2013

Last finish of the year - winding down 2013 attempting to finish so many things!

 

  I've been at this one for over a month and it's finally finished and bound with a facing on the back.  Full size is 41.5" X 32.5", but these are smaller detail shots.

 

Hand dyed shibori on cotton. Machine quilted and hand embroidered with running stitches.

Hand dyed and batik.

Sections hand painted with Jacquard fabric paint, embellished with hand carved designs.
 

Goodbye to a year that had its fill of grief and sorrow, but also had many good times and a lot of persistent labor on and progress in my art!

 

I started off the year with a carving that foretold the focus of the rest of the year.

 

This year I entered my first submissions to a SAQA quilt show and was accepted by the curator !

 

I also showed at the Boston Modern Quilt Guild Exhibit at the LQF 2013.

 

We've wound down a group of book artists who finished our second collaborative book, this year was a fiber art book.  You can see my finished book here, although I still can't publish all of the pages just yet.

 

I've submitted a small art quilt that will travel with the SAQA Trunk Show during 2014.

 

I finished a quilt for my grandson Jack that I still haven't taken a finished picture of!  And for Josh.

 

I started a new small, private group of local art quilters which has turned out to be a fabulous collection of talented women, all doing their own unique fiber art. Collectively we have some high hopes for our future!

 

I HAVE BEEN BUSY!  And that's just some of the highlights and I've been sitting around on this computer still in my bathrobe for waaayyy too long. 

 

I better start preparing my New Year's Eve Dinner.  On the menu: Ceasar Salad,  Onion Soup, Beef Empanadas, and Fruit Salad with Gingerbread Cookies for dessert! 

 

 

 

"The Lake"

I keep thinking I need to find some new places to photograph but I  find myself drawn back to "The Lake" over and over again.   It never loses its appeal.  It's always ready to smile for the camera - not shy at all.  It just stands there looking back at me.  Why do I think I need to go somewhere else when this place always has the ability to capture your imagination, to make you stand there gaping at its natural beauty and aura despite all of its commonplaceness. I'm on my way to somewhere and suddenly the place calls to me, "Stop!" and I park and pull out my camera. Gotchya!

Historical quilts on exhibit at the National Museum of Women in the Arts

In the spirit of celebration, I share with you:

Historical quilts on exhibit at the National Museum of Women in the Arts

A Rippling Quilt

I've been working on an abstract piece that has a lot of quilting going on in  straight lines across the width of the quilt, both handwork and machine stitching.  There's also a variety of fabrics into the mix on this one, some are pretty thick pieces of hand painted fabric, some burlap and white cotton are commercial fabrics, the rest are hand dyed fabrics I made months ago.

When I finished I noticed that there was enough rippling happening to disturb me because it would keep it from hanging flat.  So, I went onto the SAQA list group and asked for some advice.  It turned out there's one way to avoid it that I learned - stitch only in one direction!  Allright!  For the next time.  But there were a few good options to straighten it out after the fact as well.  I tried the path of least resistance first - the simplest method was to "block" it.  And it worked  - hooray!  Easy, too.  Just took a lot of time to put that many pins into it.  If I hadn't just picked up a new box of pins, I would have had to run out to get them - lucky me and my impulse to buy these little accoutrements to the quilting habit.

Here it is all pinned up and drying:

I still have to bind or face it and I may have to do it again afterwards but that's not a problem - it will lay flat when it's finished.

Serendipity Study One

Believe it or not, it took me the entire day yesterday to make this little 10" X 7" art quilt.  I started with a gelatin print I made a few months ago. First, I made the stencil and it went from there.

Gelatin Print

 I traced my stencil onto parchment paper, reversed it, went over the image again in pencil, adhered it to fabric that was adhered to Misty Fuse, cut it out after it cooled down. Same technique for each of the shapes.  Ironed each piece onto white cotton then free motion quilted it between batting and backing. I then "faced" it to finish:  facing tutorial.

Art Quilt - fused raw edge.

Close Up of art quilt.

Pineapple Drawing

After  a nap yesterday, I finished my pineapple drawing.  Now, I'm trying to figure out how to use Photoshop to select just the image and place the top on top of the bottom - Grrrrr.... I figured out how to select the pixels with the quick lasso wand but not how to save it.

At the Drawing Board

So many things on my To Do List! I've been working on 3 different quilts and starting another in my head now.  All I've done so far on it is to begin a drawing.  My attention span for drawing seems so limited these days.  I used to spend hours on a drawing with no problem, but I have to do it in stages now.  Here's a pic of what I accomplished today so far...out of practice!  But good enough to turn into a template for a quilt element.

I guess that's why zentangling has been my favored form of drawing in the past few months. I often do my zentangles in bed and find myself sitting up in bed sound asleep, pen in hand, with ink on my sheets!

 

This might explain my nightmare!

 

Other times I sketch possible free motion quilting designs:

 

Then again, they may become more zentangles:

 

 



                                            

Multi-block Acorn and Oak Leaf Print

This is a multi-block print I made a short while ago.  All of the stages are here except the acorn which was the last to be added.