A Challenge From Gypsy!

After most of the day off line yesterday, working on banners and otherwise being sore from weather, I check this morning and discover a challenge over on Gypsylulu Delights to *find* my block I made during a class years ago with Paula Nadelstern and post it here.
Well. Hmmmmmm..........
This was indeed a challenge because I have FIVE cabinets of fabric and fabric related items and I have moved things, and I have not sewed seriously in a long time.
A very long time.
So I crawled under the tables, and as luck would have it, found the one cabinet on the first try where this gem was hidden away!

It is not bordered out---that's just my normal black backdrop, but I always thought it would be elegant on some sort of black on black fabric. With, perhaps a little blue in it.

I cannot tell you how many templates I cut for this....there is piece after piece after piece. Some *look* like one piece but are not. (do click the photo and see if it will enlarge for a better resolution)

This shows the single *slice* (plus a bit)  that makes this wonderful block. I wish I could say I made another, and another. But alas, I did this ONE and that was it.

I have always wanted to revisit the process though. Maybe in my dotage, which is fast approaching, I will stop all this other nonsense I do and create more of these lovely creatures. I am sure I still have some of all the fabric......HAHAHAHAHA!!!!! In fact, safely secured somewhere is a drawer full of symmetrical prints, made long before Paula came out with her line of fabrics specifically for this use.

And this proves that if geometery was taught using quilting, I could have gotten an *A* instead of the.....well.....never mind!

So Gypsy, my dear friend, this post is for YOU!!!! Enjoy!!!

And for any of you that ever have an opportunity to take a class from Paula, go! Do not hesitate! She is a wonderful, down to earth teacher and fun to learn from. You can't ask for more than that. :-)

And now I'm off to work on the banners.......sigh.......

Pax.

Welcomes and Work

I've been remiss in welcoming new followers to the blog, so here is the official WELCOME!!! I'm glad everyone is here and bit by bit, others pop in. I am very bad about updating the blog list on the sidebar, and if you aren't on there and want to be, just let me know. Some things I'm right on top of (like the table when taking above photo....) and other things just sort of slip into the ether....

After fighting with the 12 feet of lined fabric and the weight of it all, it was time for a break, so here we are and yes, I am still looking for a Studio Pixie who just wants to help and enjoy the company.......LOL!!!

Posting a few photos so you can get an idea of what I have been dealing with, such as the above tassels. They started out being only the small purple part, without beads, trim, or bullion fringe. I basically build them for each set of banners. Premade tassels the size needed are far too expensive and never match anything I'm working on.....such is this life!

I did luck out on the candles not looking lost on the large background fabric and also, in the never-ending stash of fabric, found a sheer for the stars that allows the pattern of the b.g. fabric to show through subtly. I was afraid I was going to have to SHOP for something, and with my recent luck in getting junk, I was not looking forward to it.

Here are a couple of the other candles; the color is fairly accurate on them, though the fourth darker purple is out of the picture frame.

Physically and mentally, I will be glad when these are done as I am exhausted from the weight of all the fabric and batting. These have turned out to be pretty much like working with a stubborn quilt, especially the freemotion work required to put the candles on.

On the other hand, I like the design as it reminds me of some of the work I saw when I was a child in Europe, and there is a nice, reminiscing quality to dealing with them. Stars on Christmas cards were almost always the six pointed variety over there. It seemed a natural to do the same on these.

Well, enough......there's fabric calling me, and it's not calling me nice names! LOL! Yes, that's where we're at in this project relationship---calling each other names. Baptism by fire.......

I really do like them. Shhhhh........don't tell!!!

Hope everyone is having a good time and working on something that is not trying to throttle them! Have a good one; I bid you all......

Pax.

Collage Quilt From Tristan

I have had this hanging for over a week now in my front entry hall. Each day I kept thinking, "I must photograph that and post it to the blog to show what I got from Tristan." Each day I would stand, mesmerized by all the intricate pieces of the work, and of course, put off the photography for another day.
Having read Tristan's blog yesterday, I was completely shamed into getting this done! (yes, sadly gentle readers, I procrastinate and get lazy.....)
So here, in all it's amazing glory, is the piece of art promised in a blog swap we were involved in, oh, I can't remember how long back. To quote the maker, "It just kept growing. Like fungus!"
And a very fine fungus at that!!!
Please click on the pix so you can see all the detail that went into this......it's unbelievable!

(beautiful rusted pieces against shiny things...)

(a little tart tin for a BIG tart!!!)

(pretty sure this is me......)

And my gosh.....this fits waaaaaaay too well!
Thank you Tristan! For your time, your exceptional effort and above all else, your friendship.
My world is a richer place with you in it. (and my hallway too!)
Now all of you, repeat after me.......
"GO MAKE ART!!!!!"

Pax.

Right Before The Rain.....

....I happened to get good photos of these delightful and extremely red day lilies. I always refer to them as my "Vampire Lilies" because they truly are blood red. The weather this year has produced much smaller blossoms than normal, and fewer of course. After weather, the petals water spot and the beautiful pigment is muddied or gone. These still do not display the true color and they are extremely thick petaled flowers. I love them and desperately need to separate them....but I don't think I can dig them this year.
I had also spotted my hummingbird moth, but it disappeared before I could get the camera around the other side of the phlox. If you have never seen one, well, they are quite appropriately named. What an amazing little creature!
Managed a bit of studio time yesterday and also decided I needed a *time out* and went to Quilt Guild. Wonderful program put on by Linda Grey, who does exceptional art quilts and when they asked for holders and folders, I was up as fast as I could go. (not that it was fast......) Saw old friends and it was a generally delightful evening, even with the rain.
Today it's back to the studio to put some finishing touches on a small piece that I have had for a long time, hated, nearly threw away and then decided it would make a great background for a proper collage! Ah, how I love this art form! Hopefully by tomorrow I may even have a picture of it on here to share! Have some other work to do also, and the usual about the house that is very slowly getting caught up since "the great fall". I hate cleaning but dang......it's beginning to look like a Frat House here and that is beyond even my tolerance! LOL!!!!!
I hope you all have a creative, fun, productive day today with whatever you do. Talking with a friend last evening who has her own blog, we decided bloggers are pretty much the best! (but you knew that!)
Pax.

P.S. Since I finally could access the icons for everyone, I think I have all your blogs listed in "Places To Visit". If I should have somehow missed you, it is unintentional---please let me know via e-mail and I will get your blog posted. Thanks!

Fiber Art Fireworks--or--No I Didn't Lose This Piece In The Piled Up Studio!!!

Remember a while back I was all excited about my lack of massive purchases at the Kokomo Piecemakers Quilt Guild show? And that I got the fat quarter cut and sewn together, and a batik vine pinned on? (at least I think I had that part posted.....well, obviously it was pinned!)
And then there it sat, looking at me, asking for guidance, because my plans were not it's plans.
I was thinking of cutting leaves from the remaining piece of the batik and doing them dimensionally and for some reason, no matter how I tried to find a backing or the *right* fabrics, it wasn't working.
So I put it aside, and knew that whatever was to happen would, at the right time.
In the meantime, I had been corresponding with Linda Moran at Marbled Musings and she had offered me some silk flowers that she uses to capture all the remaining marbling paint in her trays when the sessions are complete. The only caveat was that I let her know what I did with them. I had, during our conversations, still been trying this and that and nothing was capturing my attention, saying "Sew me on!".
Nothing.
Zero.
But the piece was still on the table, in view so I could think while working on half a dozen other little *haf-tos*. ;-)
Then I go to the mailbox and there is THE envelope from Linda. I was working in the yard, filthy from cutting brush and shrubs, so I had to WAIT to open it. I knew what was in it and was just dying to see the pieces. After a bit of scrub-up, I poured out the most lovely little flowers and leaves I have ever seen! Silk flowers---marbled! Oh......the brain gave a large and frightening creak....those just might work.....I wonder.....
Off to the studio I flew, grabbed the piece in progress and laid a few flowers on. PERFECT!!!!!! But they were still dimensional from the commercial shaping process, so I slapped them under the steam generator, flatten them like a pancake and then pinned them on.
And that is where we are now. I'm thrilled! Click the photo so you can see these up close and personal. Of all the things I have seen available for fiber artists, these have to be the most unique and quite honestly, fresh, creatively in ages. It's not trendy, it's not a gadget---it's just perfect!
Thank you Linda!!!!!
Now all you all reading this post that do fiber art, get thee to Linda's blog and see what is happening in her marbling life!
Pax.

P.S. Have a happy and safe Fourth!!!! And if you haven't signed up yet for the giveaway on the post of July 3rd, do so. Get in on the fun!

Fiber art day---or how I spent a drizzly, grey day in a bright studio!

With the pieces from the quilt show in hand, I began working, not sure where anything was going. Sometimes that's how it is with fiber; you need to just work and let the fabrics and embellishments speak as you go. Above is the fused sheet of Angelina---I used some of all the colors from the bag, plus a bit I already had. It is extremely difficult to photograph as it shimmers and changes color is the light from every angle, but in the photo below.......

......you can get an idea of how it has changed again, next to the flambouyant batik. It holds it's own though! At one point I was looking at it thinking, how will I use this monster I have just fused??? Ah well, back to the batik fat quarter.......I was envisioning something long, to set off the leaves in the wax print. I cut two strips 7" wide and seamed them. The pattern did not match but with the riot of color, it really did not show much.
Thus, the long piece in the photo below.

At this point I have backed it with a very contrasting batik I have yards of and put in some new batting that is a bamboo blend. It's quite soft and drapable---I could see it used for clothing easily, though I wonder about the possibilities of dying or painting directly on it. But that's for another day......

I began quilting only the large, detailed leaf motifs and opted for a clear thread, since it had been so long since I had done freemotion and I had little faith in my hands to work. Well, it went *okay*. It certainly was nothing like my quilting of yesteryear. The beauty of the clear thread is it doesn't show the boo-boos but provides texture.

The back shows the stellar quilting........someone really needed to find her reading glasses before embarking on this journey. >:(

When all the large leaf motifs were quilted and the piece was stabilized, I looked for a contrasting batik to tear some strips from. Torn across the grain, they have a certain amount of flexibility; a little coaxing from the steam generator and they curve almost like bias strips, but I can still retain the raw edges I love.

So that's where we are now; torn strips pinned on, more to pin, and did you notice that the Angelina is nowhere in sight? There are still a lot of decisions to be made on this, and I may have to pin and re-pin until I am happy with the dark, vining shape, as visually that will be the make-or-break part of the piece.

This is just the beginning; lots more to come.

Including some of that Angelina.......I just have to find the right spot!

I did learn my leg will hold up to sewing, and also that it needs a LOT of breaks. So when I resume the church banners, that should be interesting. No working straight through all day.

At any rate, I hope you find something today to provide the pleasure this did for me! And yes, I loved the smell of the batik under the iron......what can I say???

Gleanings from a quilt show

I meant to post about this LAST week after going to the Kokomo Piecemakers Quilt Show but somehow it got lost in the Swiss Cheese I refer to as brain matter.
I was, for the most part, a very good girl, as I only came home with a couple of purchases, but boy---do they GLOW! Click the pic above and check it out up close!
One fat quarter of batik, and one bag of mixed Angelina fibers, which worked soooooo well with the trimmings from the fabric I had donated that as they sat on the table I kept thinking, "This has to be something". I mean, really, does that mess not call out to be created into something wonderful? I think so.
I had a few moments of painting yesterday, time in the yard for a few photos and still, in the back of my head, this picture stewing.......what is it I see?
Nothing traditional....that's for sure.
Textural, 3-D, shiny and glitzy.
Yep, that's the ticket.
In the mean time, it's back to some desperately and long overdue cleaning, and laundry and ironing, and hopefully the obstinate leg holding out.
But I keep thinking about that ONE SINGLE FAT QUARTER purchase.
ONE.
ONE.
I think that is nothing short of miraculous, especially if you saw my stash!
Now go make something that glows!!! Come on, let me be a bad influence!
Happy Monday! >;)

I promised art.....

.....I just didn't say if it would be vintage or not. Here's the scoop; I was exhausted when I got home last evening, one of our friends dropped of a lawn roller, which I filled with water and worked on the yard way too late, then came in and cooked and this morning I can barely move and of course, have to hustle to get ready for PT. Spent the night with a bad stomach ache and still not feeling good at all.

I don't remember what year I did this quilt; it took a Governors Award and a Best of Show. Other than that, the details are vague. There is tons of machine quilting in it; it was an amazing work to put together with tiny pieces of fabric being cut and then applied with a fine line of glue, then almost everything secured under a layer of tulle before going under the machine.

I wish I had somewhere to hang this in the house, but it is BIG. One of the last pieces I did this large. I completed this one before I started having back and shoulder problems.

Maybe.....maybe, maybe.....tomorrow, I will have the box canvas posted. It is almost complete for all intents; just needs a final coat of varnish and lots of photos. LOTS.

So hopefully you won't feeling like digging out a cut from the crypt in you creative ventures today----unless, of course, it's one you really want to finish!

Here's to freshness and imagination and starting new projects!

Go for it!

Weather....

....as in "Under the weather...."

Lucky me! I woke this morning feeling odder than usual (yeah, that's a stretch!), found I was hoarse and nose running. Well, I can almost schedule these things. I avoided the Holidays with it but, you know, when you really need to WORK....these bugs seem to be waiting outside your door, ready to pounce. If I take a few days off from here it will be due to bugs.....unwanted, and uninvited!

So today, I'll post something I did as a fiber sketch last year. This is small, less than 8" x 10" and was quickly put together while I was trying out oil pastels on cotton. I believe it was a PFD scrap, but it might well have been regular bleached muslin. As I recall---since I never keep notes---I drew the pears, ironed them to set the pastel, probably added highlights because I remember adding outlines with quilting and the foot was covered with the pastel, then either quilted the b.g. and did fluid acrylics, or did the first wash of fluids and then quilted. At any rate, while the fluids acted like watercolor and TOTALLY avoided the oil pastel, I found the background too bright for the pears and then took craft acrylic and did a bit of dry brush over the quilting, producing a softer background area at the top and a bit of highlight in the foreground.

These are cheap oil pastels. Actually, the only expensive item was the Golden fluid acrylics. But they are so highly pigmented that it takes little; in the long run, they are worth every cent. I have become addicted to them and in my mixed media work, they are Numero Uno!!! I use less expensive acrylics for a base coat, then do the glazes and additions with the fluids. Or build up fantastic, translucent depth.

Another product I cannot live without is Demco Gesso. The artist quality one, not the student grade. It is exceptional. But that is another post---or book!---in itself!

And so dear readers, enjoy the pears.

That may be all the visual nourishment this blog has to offer for a few days..... <:(

To quote the Ramones:

"I wanna be well......"

P.S. Somehow, I managed to forget that this was my dad's birthday. He and mom both passed in the summer of 1990, 17 days apart. They constantly bickered over who was going to die first, and he did. I have no doubt that when mom walked the tunnel of light, he was at the other end laughing and saying, "I told you I'd get here FIRST!!!"

The photo is of him when he was young, in WW II, and I believe it was taken in Australia.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Fiber Art: The Divine Marilyn

This piece, though sold and gone, is without a doubt, one of my favorites. I miss Marilyn. The title "Cursum Perficio" was the name of her home in Hollywood, as I recall. (the research I did at the time is mingled with the dust bunnies of my grey matter...)
I broke barriers with the construction of this piece. There were portions of the hair that were my actual hair--saved from going short after years of letting it grow out-- I had wefted and then gently pulled through the fabric. The front of the dress has, ummmm, *breasts*---i.e. padding to give it dimension. I remember showing this at quilt guild and the lady helping to show it all of a sudden blurts out, "Oh my God! She has BOOBS!"
Well, she did... ;) The face is fabric I very lightly printed, then took Prismacolor pencils and totally redrew the portrait. It was so delicate in color, but it needed the punch of the lipstick to make it work with the monochrome fabrics surrounding. I used small images from when she was *Norma Jean* (at the beginning of her modeling career) and ironed them on to silk organza, then used a blank film strip image to frame each out. They had the slick look and feel of a piece of 35 mm film.
You really need to click on the image to see all the detail. It is subtle, subtle.
But of course Marilyn isn't. She's dimensional and sexual and ready to step out and sigh and wink and giggle. That was what I wanted.
And do you for one minute think this quilt won anything?
Nada.
Nope, the one's people love/buy are NEVER the ones the judges choose.
Which is a lesson to all:

Make art your heart loves, that you are passionate about and that you can fall in love with again later, long after it is gone. Otherwise, you're just fooling yourself and selling out to people you don't know and will never see again.

Making art means building backbone and a tough skin, but when it works, it is so very much worth it!

PROGRESS!!!

Things are going fairly well. If you read "D-Day" then you should recognize the following photo as the wall-of-doom, uncluttered. The chair still needs the seat and arms upholstered, but that is for Spring. Just close your eyes and pretend that it is done in a lovely fake leopard print......yeeeeaaaaahhhhh!!!! (because that's what I have for it!) I bought some sheer curtains to hang over the shelving area--really neat . A white b.g. with these intense bright circles on them! FUN! It should help to keep the stuff on the shelves clean. (yeah, right, Anne. you bought them because you loved them and that was the only place to put them....)

While we're at it, I am including the cleaned out bathroom, which is excessively small, so the angle of the photos are wonky. Yes, I did the tile floor. That was not a pleasant job for someone with long legs......I could barely walk, plus it ended up costing me a fortune. Every piece, hand set........

I sponged and wiped the walls with a bronze paint, then stenciled silver Fleur-De-Lys. I painted the baseboards fancy too; don't know if they show up here.

So finally, since 2001 when this studio was constructed, I will have it all in order.

Which means the top half will fall apart any minute!

This is the back of the basement, which is overflow storage and has turned into an efficient area. Before it was just junk piles on a little plastic table (useless!!!!) and then on the floor. Now it is stuff actually worth keeping and up and in something of a state of order.

I did the small quilt on the right wall when I was working in a fabric store years ago. Uh huh, like having an alcoholic work in the liquor store.

I quit for my bank account's sake.

And I still wanted to have a place to live...... ;)

Now, the sad part of all this is I have DH home all next week,so I suppose my progress will be bits and pieces as time allows. I do a lot better with whole days to slave away!

Okay, enough.

Wow.

You got to see my latrine.

Have to go water the parakeet before he pulls his bowl off the side of the cage.....

DANGER WILL ROBINSON!!!!

Yes, Idiot Stick is going to town to fight the masses and see what is left of Holiday decor at a very discounted price.

This is PROOF that your gentle author is completely and utterly mad. (those who know me already were aware of this fact, but I share it with you early on in the blogging stage.....so you can run if you wish!) One of my friends had given me a sticker I have on my studio door that says;

"Scream and run away now. It will save you time later."

Somehow I think that quote applies to my venture today! (thanks Vicki! it's a gem!)

So if I survive and if there are any rants worthy of the time to sit and type, I will add to this later in the day. My traffic rants don't count........those are constant!

I did want to add one thing art related that is really cool. I subscribe to the Robert Genn Twice Weekly Newsletter and today he had a superior article about painting abstracts, which I am clueless to doing. But it is one of those niggling things that I want to do but cannot quite figure out where to start. I feel doing it, learning it could be beneficial from two aspects;

1. I learn a completely new technique, which always is beneficial to creative growth.

2. I can't help but feel that there is a buried link between abstract and quilting/fiber art, so there would be a definite benefit there.

You can go to the page through the "Clickback" section or you can go directly to the photos of painting the abstract here and it also includes the background of the *artist* doing a good portion of the work! A very interesting story, even for you nonpainting folks!

And now I'm off....any way you look at it.....