Thursday, August 28, 2008

With One Voice

I finally found the pictures of my piece for Breaking Traditions - With One Voice! I was dumping a bunch of things off my computer because I was getting a disk full message and inadvertantly dumped my pictures of this piece. I had already sent my piece off to Lynn Krawczyk back in April so I couldn't take another photograph.

Well in talking to my friend Christine, I realized I had emailed her a picture of it to see if she thought anything looked out of whack. So this morning, I went back through all my sent messages since February (and I wonder why I am getting disk full messages) and found the email with the attachments!! Woo hoo!!

So without further ado, here it is:




I made this to honor everyone who does something to help save our environment and keep it from being viewed in a museum!

I quilted the background in two different directions and then painted it in layers of different browns to simulate a tree. I painted the borders in yellow and orange fabric paint. The cocoon is tea stained cotton fabric and gold angelina fibers are sewn over it using gold embroidery thread. I made the sides out of batting to create a window box feel to it and sewed black velvet to the back. I added leaves from cotton fabric and silk ribbon to create the leaves and branches.

The exhibit will be on display at the American Sewing Expo in Novi, Michigan, September 26-28 and then various others throughout the rest of 2008.

Monday, August 18, 2008

Journal Quilt - Elements

Well I was just notified that my journal quilt entry did not get juried in. Bummer. But I tried and that was a goal I made for myself this year. So I get to post it here for all who stops by.




I really had a great time making this one and experimenting with a ton of different materials. First I sketched out my design onto white cotton fabric. Then I created the large tree truck on top by using puffy paint and then dragging a stick through to create the texture. After drying, I puffed it up and painted it with acrylic paints. The bottom part was drawn with fabric dye sticks. The leaves were pink polka dot fabric, over dyed and rust dyed. I then cut out the leaf shapes and drew the veins in, sewing all down by hand. I added Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel over all to create the ice. When that was dry, I used sand paper to rough it up and cracked it in some areas. I added a wash of white acrylic paint on the outside in order to show the reflection better. The branch coming down was scraps of silk dye fabric and UTEE added for ice. The shadow was done using a black dye pen.

Someone is going to have an online show of all the quilts that didn't get in. Can't wait to see them all!!

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

TIF August and other pieces

So the August TIF challenge came out and I was pleasantly surprised to see that the picture I have started, matches the color scheme! I love happy coincidences.


So I started by taking a picture of flowers in my yard. This is my climbing vine whose name has completely escaped me at the moment. I loved the closeup textural quality of the picture and wanted to see if I could capture it with watercolor crayons, thread and pentel fabric dye sticks. Not there yet but off to a good start I think.

This one is another in my series of day lily's up close and personal. I am donating it to the Art for Autism fundraiser to be held in October.