Photos

From the MACA Tour of Fine Craft on Saturday.

Back to Art for a Bit

Since the sewing has been very slow these days, I have had the opportunity to work on some of my more artistic endeavors, such as art quilts, artist trading cards, and postcards. This is a good thing.
 On Mondays, I meet up with the girlz to sew and chat. This is a wonderful activity and many of the women there are also part of other more structured groups I belong to. This is the primary place where I work on my art quilts. The community center has great lighting and big tables. Sometimes I bring my machine and other times I just bring hand work, depends on the weather.
  I haven't spent much time lately dyeing or screen printing any fabrics and really need to get my head back into that. What I've been doing lately that I enjoy is quilting with block letters and writing all sorts of words and phrases on the quilts, in addition to using other quilting designs. The look of the writing makes for an interesting texture, especially when the letters are jumbled around and you can't actually read what it says.  
  Here are the long promised photos of the quilts I made and have been a little uneasy letting the whole world see them. This is a big step for me. These were not quilted with writing. The fabric used in these was screen printed about a year ago.  I feel that I am still in that emotional place and would like to be in a different place now. I still have two more pieces that are not finished. I'll show those later on this year when they are done. They use the same printed images and have writing as the quilting design.
  Also, I will show you the recent ATC with the stamps I carved for the design on the cards. The carving is done on some stuff that is similar to eraser material. It was purchased at The Art Center, one of my favorite places. The theme this month is "What's in Your Heart?" The smaller heart is separate and is supposed to look as if it is inside the broken heart, trying to come out. The stamp for that is an eraser.

I really like the yellow/green/beige band

This one has beads on it

the red of the big heart was enhanced with colored pencil

Blah blah blah

The quilt I started for the SAQA show in Cincinnati (fingers crossed it would get accepted) is coming along very well. I put some hand stitching on it today and am pleased with how everything looks. The machine quilting is pretty good too. It's mostly words I stitched in a block style of lettering. I like doing that style more than script and it seems to be easier for me to stitch. The words go in all directions which looks fun to me. It is readable if you really try.
  There is another quilt I've been sewing on that has the same style of writing on it and the words are pretty funny and harder to read. I'm loving that quilt. It also incorporates some of my deconstructed screen printing fabrics, which I totally love. When I get brave enough, I'll post photos of those quilts. There are some deep emotions stitched into those pieces, although most people wouldn't get it just by looking at pictures. So maybe I'll get around to taking photos and posting them soon.

It happens every year

Summer has arrived in the Mid South, with a vengeance. Triple digit highs for the day are the rule, it seems. Anything to do outdoors needs to be done before 8 am. Lots of things are not getting done. I have walked only a couple of times this week and really need to reverse that trend.
There is a very slim chance for rain today. It has been windy this evening and cooled off a bit. I hope it rains, the plants need some water that is not from a hose.
 The upside to all the hot weather is that I have been finishing some art quilts and getting other sewing projects done. I am working on a series that uses some of my deconstructed screen prints. Maybe I will be brave and take photos of those quilts to post here. And I will soon start on the pieces I want to use for next spring's quilt show at the West Clinic gallery. Plus I got inspired to put together some "puzzle"pieces from a swap with sewing pals we did a while ago.
Last week I taught a class on making a straight skirt with five women. That was FUN!! I hope I get asked back for another class.

Something funny

This is how last week was for me. Let me know what you think about my "quilty" writing.

Fabric

The fabric I printed with the recent screens turned out pretty good. I cut into it before I took photos of the whole piece but you get the idea. With other fabrics added to a design and some clever quilting and stitching, this could be a decent art quilt.

Back to fiber art

The original intent of this blog was to show anyone interested some of my fiber art and I have fallen away from that. The other day I got an idea for some deconstructed screen printing and put dye on three screens. Maybe today I can find time to put the designs on fabric.
  Lately I've been making visual reminders for myself to help me get past my need to control my surroundings. So I decided to explore a self portrait. First I made some trading cards to interpret the theme "Below the Surface" and you can see one of those ATCs on the link to Fiber Antics blog. Also you see the work of the very talented artist who writes that blog, a very bizzy gal for sure!

abstract filler

sequin waste and potato bag for texture

  The drawings I did for those cards inspired me to go further and that's the basis for these screens. How they will translate to fabric via the deconstructed process is anyone's guess, and I will post the results. Fingers crossed.

Summer Solstice

Yesterday was the solstice and I had a tiny celebration with a small stick fire and a glass of wine. (I highly recommend Relax Cool Red!) Of course I missed the actual time of the event, but at least there was a recognition of the day before it ended.
   The weather was decent considering the very high temps we have had this month, so I rode my bike for a bit in the evening and enjoyed the cooler air whizzing across my face and arms.
Earlier in the day, I did some deconstructed screen printing and I need to get busy washing that stuff today.
Happy summer to all!

Summer has arrived

Last week I was wearing a hoodie to ward off the chill and now the AC is cranked up. I really miss having the windows open, but the humidity here is down right cruel. Walking has to be done in the early am or it is just too hot for outdoor exercise later in the day.
  My mileage for May has been very good--89.57 miles logged on the pedometer. That does not include walking back and forth in the house (where did I put my glasses? what did I do with my purse?) and errands that are close by that I was able to walk to instead of driving, plus I rode bikes with my granddaughter a couple of times while she's been here. We went to the Holiday Inn Express this past weekend and swam in the heated pool, but I'm sure the gyro plate I had at the restaurant totally wiped out those gains! Of course the eatery was in walking distance so we opted for that mode of travel.

  I did find the photos of my deconstructed screen print fabric and downloaded them this morning. It's okay but looks a little unfinished to me. Really needs something added. I'm sure I will find the time soon, although I do need to beat the dollar bushes this summer. Waiting tables sounds good right now, but I have zero experience with that and I am pushing 60. With all the weird stuff going on around here, I may have to conquer those fears and jump into unknown territories soon.

Whazzup

Just now realized how long it has been since my last post. Sewing has been reduced to a very slow crawl, in comparison to all the last few months of constant garment construction. I do have many photos to share, but haven't been inspired to organize and post. ???  Guess I need a little distance from the memory of all that labor before I can look at those white dresses again. They really turned out beautifully and I got lots of positive feedback from their people. Soon I'll post new sewing stuff with lots of construction photos.
  Last week I was inspired to do some screen printing. The dyed screens had been laying in the basement for months and I was a bit worried if they would work very well. Especially since we have had so much wet weather here and the basement floor stays wet during rainy periods. Anyway, I pulled some prints onto cotton fabric which had been treated with soda ash solution. Turned out very nice. I may go back and put some other surface treatment on it but for right now it's fine. I did take photos but can't remember if they are downloaded into my files.
  Also there's a few new art quilts in progress. And I have updated my walking sketchbook a little. Taking off a little time to air out my brain, but I will very soon need to beat the bushes for income. Put that freshly aired brain to good use! 

photo used for a trading card

  My grand daughter is here for a few more days. She just graduated from high school and we are chillin' for a bit. The walking continues and my mileage for May is GREAT, plus we had a little bike ride last evening, since the weather was very nice, and we needed to work off some of the massive amount of food consumed earlier in the day.

Quilt stuff

Before I forget completely, there are happenings on the art quilt front, which was the reason for this blog initially. The quilt I entered in the AQS show was rejected--boohoo.

notice the red dot

The group show I was in at the Jewish Community Center closed on February 28. What a wonderful surprise when I got there for the take down--one of my wall hangings sold!! That was a very nice surprise. I can only hope it has gone to a good home.
   This was made with some of my deconstructed screen printed fabrics. I really liked this quilt. I'm not used to using red in my art work, so this was a stretch for me.

Mental Health Monday

Today turned out to be an exceedingly good day, after a rocky morning. I finally was able to get out to the community center and have some community with my sewing friends. It has been nearly a MONTH since I'd been there, for one reason or another. Also, worked in a little retail therapy at the Super Target beforehand.

 Worked on the quilt for the guild challenge, which is due in February. Got to look at the books and magazines brought by others and took one of my recent acquisitions "Drawing Lab," one of the North Light publishers offerings. Sewed, chatted, had a Target salad for lunch, what a day!!!
Here's photos of the room before anyone else arrived. You can tell why we love going out there, even though it's nearly as far as the moon for me to drive. haha  And a photo of my latest deconstructed screen printing adventures. Love the blue. It's actually brighter in "real life". The next ones will be red!

Week's end

Although this week started out poorly, it has improved. Thursday was a very nice day, in spite of the snow. A little jaunt out to Shelby Forest for a meeting with sewing friends, made the snow almost inconsequential. In fact, it kind of set a soothing mood to the rest of that day. There was a snow fog that made it seem I was driving home in a big white bubble. Fortunately the roads were clear so there was no winter driving anxiety. Friday morning was quite a different story weather wise, with icy conditions and my vehicle commandeered by the husband going to work. So I spent the better part of the morning in the basement with some deconstructed screen printing--oh joy! Haven't washed it out yet so no photos.
  Today I did something I rarely do and that was to travel to Nashville for the day to meet with the other chapter presidents of the Tennessee Association of Craft Artists. It was quite a pleasant experience. I accompanied a friend who is also in the group, in fact she is the president of TACA, and had a really good time on the drive and at the meeting. Plus, we got to stop at Trader Joe's AND a totally awesome fabric store, Textiles, Inc. There wasn't really enough time to explore the shopping places, but I am motivated to go back to see more of what's available, especially at the fabric store.
   I am not much of a traveler, so this was a big deal for me. Going on a 3 hour drive is like going to the moon and way out of my comfort zone. Maybe there is hope for me.

Art Work at Wings Gallery

These are my three pieces hanging in the gallery at the West Clinic. The opening last night was great and there are a total of 45 pieces in the show. Watercolors, paintings, mixed media, photographs, and wire sculpture. Everything looks great hanging together. Big thanks to Sarah Blackburn and her team for making this all happen.
   I used some of the fabric I made with the deconstructed screen printing process along with hand dyes. Machine quilting and a few hand stitches completed these pieces and I like how they turned out.
   They are for sale and 30% of the proceeds from all art sales goes to fund the cancer support programs provided by Wings for the patients at West Clinic.

Bizzy werk

Some of the deconstructed screen printing results were not so wonderful I need to keep them to pet on a regular basis, so I made book covers from the less desirable fabrics. They look pretty good. The one on the upper right is something I monoprinted and then stenciled over with textile paint. I highlighted the design of the stencil with a marking pen.

I'm going all 21st century

My son came by today to bring me a portable hard drive and showed me how to put music on my computer. I didn't even know I could do that. Right now I'm listening to Brian Eno and David Byrne's "My Life In the Bush of Ghosts", one of my all time favorite albums. Life is good. I've spent the better part of the last week in the dungeon, er, basement with the deconstructed screen printing. My red dye is acting up though and I've gotten some very unpredictable results, but nothing I can't save by over dyeing or over printing. I received an invitation to be in a gallery in October so I've busied myself making book covers. Photos later. The postcard workshop has inspired me to make some more to have available to sell at the gallery, too. I mailed one to myself to prove they could go through the post office, but when it came today it wasn't even postmarked and the stamp has not been canceled. Shhhh, don't tell anyone. I'm going to remail it.
   The new theme for the online challenge is "Music" (queue Twilight Zone music) how appropriate for today now that my computer has a song to sing. I have no clue how to interpret this theme. The others came to me so fast and I had the quilts constructed in my head right away.  And the other quilts had symptoms of the problems I've been dealing with this past year. Music never figured into any of that crap except as an escape from the anxiety. Hmmmmm.....I smell an inspiration. Oh my, the song playing now is titled "Jezebel" where can I go with this???

More screen printing

green prints

charged screen

I did another round of deconstructed screen printing and used a greenish dye and a different motif on the screen. I used a couple of plastic lace coasters, bubble wrap and potato bag. The bag didn't show up as well as I hope but I can always go back and add some of it's texture with paint. There's a fourth screen ready to go that I covered with the dye then scraped in a freehand design with a palette knife. Fingers crossed on this one turning out as well as I expect it to.

Adventures in Fiber Art

my basement studio-the dungeon

screen charged with dye

the placemat

fresh screens

direct prints

In my last post, I failed to mention that Mrs. Gilman gives credit to Kerr Grabowski for the instruction for deconstructed screen printing. My second attempt was much more fun and fruitful. The consistency of the paste to mix the dye in is very important. I made 8 prints from the screen I charged the other day. No pictures of those yet.
 I used a plastic placemat for the design. I will give the friend who gave it to me first choice of prints. If she wants one that is. Of course the photos are all crazy and I don't know how to get them in the proper order, but here is all the stuff I've done for the last two days. Notice there are NO photos of laundry.
  The place mat was covered in dye after I squeegeed it on to the screen, so I soaked two pieces of fabric with activator, wrang out the excess, and layed them on the placemat and got a couple of direct prints, which look pretty good. The pieces I did today look good too. And I charged another screen with the same dye that has a little yellow added to give it another color. I used different objects for texture. We'll see how that works another day.
   I'm very proud of my screens. I made these three for less than $15. It took me about an hour to build them then I sprayed them with clear enamel paint before adding the screen fabric. I already had the supplies and got to use my miter box and stapler. Then I had to wait for the tape to "cure". Notice (or don't) that I forgot to put tape on the sides of the charged screen above. It's one of my old screens. No one died.

Believe it or don't

On the way to breakfast Saturday with my son, we spied this rare creature here in midtown. We were very amazed at such a sight as neither of us had ever seen an albino squirrel before. There are plenty of raccoons with this genetic make up around here and everybody's seen a white rabbit. If anyone out there has seen one of these guys, let me know.

I spent most of this day on cleaning and  laundry (bleh) and part of it making screens for future screen printing adventures. I'm experimenting with deconstructed printing ala Rayna Gilman (studio78 on my blog list). My first effort was not so wonderful but --fingers crossed--the next ones will be. I think the first time the paste for the dye was not quite thick enough. I made some more that is really stiff and so far is working and holding the image I used under the screen.  More on all this later with photos of the process.