Posted on by

Unfinished Business

I still have not made any progress on the pieces for fast approaching deadlines.  The 3-D entry is not going to happen, at least not for its intended show.  I’ll keep working on it and use it for some other show entry.  I have not made a single stitch yet on the two Upcycle entries.  I’ve simply allowed myself to be distracted by other ongoing projects, so at least I am getting back into a creative groove.  One of the things that I have made progress on are some of my mini quilt collages:

The fabrics in these three “sketches” are scraps of my own hand dyes in the “Madri Gras” color blend.  The one on the far left was stamped with antique wallpaper pattern stamps and acrylic paint, then embellished with funky yarns.  The center one has strips of silk scraps to create a very skewed frame to the composition, then I seed stitched all over to secure the top two layers before pillowcase binding it.  On the far right, trial with using embroidery stitches to create textural interest in the solid colored shapes.  I still need do some final machine quilting in all of them.

I have no idea what I will work on this weekend, and I think that I am going to scale back to posting once a week until I get some issues worked out with the back end of this site.

 

Posted on by

Going in a Different Direction

A week has gone by, and I still have not started quilting either of my Upcycle entry candidates.  I have been working on something else entirely, something with an earlier deadline:

What are these little squares?  Some of the pages to an accordion-style fabric book that  I am attempting for another SAQA entry, the 3-D exhibit that closes at the end of the month.  I still have some other parts to the whole entry that I have not even started yet.  I don’t think that I am going to get it all done for this entry, but I will be able to use it for other shows someday.

I am almost ready to start quilting the gravestone rubbing tablecloth quilt that I discussed in my last post.

This is a wild experiment.  I have made line drawings of old buildings in and around my rural home onto water soluble stabilizer.  I will use these drawings as guides to quilt this piece by thread sketching.  The attempt could end in disaster, or turn out fabulously.  What will happen?

Posted on by

Still Playing with Crayons

I should start an occasional feature here with the theme, “how did this happen?”

This is a detail of a larger piece in progress that has an interesting story.  Well, nearly everything I make has an interesting story, that is why I create.  Anyway, the base of this piece almost ended up in the trash.  For a while, I was buying a fair amount of box lots at a local junk auction, of which I was interested in only some of the contents.  One such box lot contained a vintage printed tablecloth that had seen better days.  There must have been other table linens in the box that were in better shape.  This one had so many holes in it, there was no way I could re-purpose it into a garment or overdye it.  This ratty tablecloth begged me to give it another chance, and so I have.  One day last summer, I took it up to the cemetery at the top of my hill, along with a bunch of crayons, and started making rubbings of the carvings on the gravestones.  I didn’t stop until most of the cloth was covered in rubbings.

My next step is to start quilting this bit of crayon craziness.  I am going to start with thread sketches of buildings that once stood in the little community that surrounded the cemetery.  Check back next week to see if I actually started any of the quilting on this or the Upcycle quilt.

 

Posted on by

Welcome!

Welcome to my website!  Building this site has been and will continue to be a long, slow process.  I am planning on moving my Blogspot content here, and opening an online store in the next few months.  I am learning as I go, this will take time as I’d rather be stitching!  Please keep checking back for new content.

I usually post on Tuesdays and Thursdays, look for progress reports on art work, ramblings on the creative process, announcements about where to find me at upcoming quilt shows, and occasional tangents on some of my other varied interests.

Currently, I am working on two potential entries for upcoming SAQA shows: Upcycle and 3-D Expression.  I’m also hoping to have some entries for a few regional art shows as well.  Here’s a detail of my Upcycle entry-in-progress:

What is upcycled about it?  It is a collage that started with a chicken feed sack that long ago, a youngster with a terrific sweet tooth made into a gigantic trick or treat bag.

I added pieces of vintage printed feedsacks and parts of a vintage tablecloth printed with fabulous 1950s style chickens.  My next step is to start quilting with thread sketches of chickens.  I will go over the lettering in the above image with hand embroidered stitching, then add some candy wrappers to make this a mixed-media collage and keep with the trick or treat sub-theme for this piece.

Next time, I will show a bit of another large art quilt that I have in the works.