Unconventional Materials

A while back, the QuiltArt list had a call to artists to create an art quilt out of unconventional materials. We had only a month to pull that off. Not sure what there was about this call that grabbed my attention but I immediately had an idea of what I wanted to do. This piece came together in a matter of days! I think it was because I hadn't been doing much art this past year. Life was seriously getting in the way.

I started with a piece of fabric I had been using under my rust dyeing experiments. The material is from my mom. It has a type of rubber backing on it to prevent leakage and reminds me of stuff used in baby's cribs. It had some great rusting but needed a bit more color. So I dug around in the garage and found some old sienna brown glazing paint used for faux finishing. I added that in areas to create more contrast. The plant is modeled after my day lilies after a rain. I painted some thin foam material that had been used to ship some computer stuff to my husband. When dry, I cut various leaves in different lengths. I hand sewed the leaves to the background and had to be really careful not to rip the material. The spider web was made using a hot glue gun. I was going for a web with dew or rain stuck to it. I was happy with the look.

I finished up the piece by sewing on different sized washers onto it. They were to add another element of texture and create more of an earth feel. Viewing the final results, I was pretty happy with the project.

ATC - Two

I had to decline participating in our December trade which was a flat Santa trade. They were absolutely adorable. But everything is calming down once again and our January trade was TWO to celebrate our 2nd anniversary. I can't believe we have been doing this for two years already! So many wonderful pieces were traded!
My contribution for the two trade was based on the anniversary and what does one give on the second anniversary. How interesting that it is cotton! So I used cotton fabrics to create little cotton plants to give on our second anniversary. The background was my flour paste resist in blue for the sky, then a metallic green for background plants and a combo rust dyed with tanin on white cotton for the earth colors. I used puffy paint for the plant and cotton balls sewn in for the cotton of course.
I have managed to misplace my camera so a friend was kind enough to use her camera phone to take a picture for me. So no group shot this time around. Sorry

Radiance-Hardware ATC Challenge

I would have done this sooner but my email account seems to have disappeared. Of course, everything was attached to that address and my last week of life has been somewhat of a nightmare! GGrrrr

But I managed to soothe my jangled nerves and produce a piece for this challenge. We were supposed to be using hardware. Stuff you find at the hardware store. Keeping in mind that this is a small piece and that it has to go through the mail, really limits what you can use!




I started out with a piece of hand stitched rust dyed fabric. The piece was started and blown off a while ago. It just wasn't working. So I measured out my cards on the fabric with a black marker and screwed one of them up by not double checking the size before hand! That's why I make extras for mistakes such as these. I wound some copper wire that was from a picture frame hanging kit (at least I think that is where it came from!) Boring. Painted some washers in metallic blue and hand stitched them on. Better but still boring. Looked at the one that I wrote on and realized if I made an intersecting line running down, I would create a focal point. Hmm. More washers, and blue metallic thread gave me the wonderful masterpieces I finally ended up creating! Please note that this is the second ATC in a row that was not a TREE!! I am really growing! Hee-hee

Rebirth Challenge piece

Well I have finished the third piece in our 12"x 12" challenge series. The theme this time was Rebirth and it could be interpreted any way we wanted. I created mine based on the butterfly. When the challenge word was revealed, we had just received our caterpillars at the preschool and we watched each day as they got bigger and then went into the cocoon stage.

I found some great fabric my friend Christine had given me and used it for the background. I quilted around the piece to give the feel of tree bark. I used rust dyed and hand dyed fabric to create tree branches. The leaves were two fabrics fused together and then cut out to look like leaves. The cocoon was from more fabric my friend Christine gave me - she thought it looked like mud and I of course said I would take it! I added some angelina fiber over the top and machine quilted it to add more texture. I then stuffed it with fiber. I created the butterfly wings by fusing to pieces of white fabric together and then drawing in the wing patterns using fabric markers. The edges were faced so there would not be a border (I hate making borders if you haven't noticed!! LOL)

Rust/Metal ATC Trade

I did these in half the time as last. Some designs take time and others just flow out quickly. Our challenge was to incorporate something rust or metal. I used rusted fabric. I was inspired by my visit to the Field Museum in Chicago and took a bunch of photos of the fossils. The fish grabbed my attention so that was my inspiration. I made 8 up on a page and printed out on my color ink jet printer. Then I photocopied it on a copier. Each fish is printed on the card using the citra-solv method. I found the lavendar version at the IQA show in Jane Davila's booth. I wanted to make them look like they do in the museum - saved in the rock they found them. Didn't quite work so I added black puffy paint to add dimensionality to them. I stitched around each and then FMQ the background to make it look like a rock. Didn't really work but I do like the fishes!

Rust Dyed Challenge entry

Well I finished it finally!!! I had some technical difficulties and kept putting it off to the side while I figured out how to fix it.




Here is a closeup of the face.

Not sure I posted this in a previous post but here is a quick explanation of this piece. The face is my father's. I used a photo my BIL John Armentrout took of him (he gave me permission to use!) My father was diagnosed with hepatic cancer right around the time hawks entered my life. I first had a visit in my back yard - he landed on my trampoline! The next day I found out he had cancer. From then on, they started to show up all time. On the day of his death, I was driving down the tollway to see him and they were everywhere on my entire drive down to my parents house. Since then I have always associated the hawks with my rather. So I titled this piece - They Came To Take Him Home.






The fabric was rust dyed and then the birds were sketched in with pentel fabric crayons. I painted the background in blue using setacolor mixed with aloe gel to thin it. I thread painted the birds and face. I didn't use a stiffer backing behind the face as I wanted to create the wrinkles without having to stitch every last one in. The result was great but puckered and didn't lay flat. I painted the background again using shiva paintstiks in blue and white to blend in a little more. Then I used a trapunto technique to fill out the face more and stabilized the back of his head. There are still some puckers but overall I am thrilled with the final result.

Ever Watchful

I finally finished my piece for Art Now For Autism! The piece was due by September 1 so I am way ahead of the game for me!






This summer has been so crazy with weather and kid activities. I haven't had time to post anything in quite a while. I just got my sewing machine fixed and cleaned so I am now feeling more creative finally!

So I started out by rust dyeing some fabric and then drew the hawk with black fabric crayon. I had also painted the background in a blue which with the rust color background, turned the color more turquoise. So I thread painted the hawk in black and then quilted the sky. I used shiva paintsticks on the background and a little white on the hawk. I love how this turned out and hope it does well for the reverse auction.

Trying to Get My Groove Back

I have been in such a creative funk for some reason. I think this last school year was so incredibly crazy that my mind went blank when it finished. Trying to push through it and get back to creating. The weather hasn't been helping either. Below average temps, mosquitos the size of small dogs, gloomy days have really taken their toll.

But today dawned warmer and sunnier so I forced myself to get outside and work on a piece I had started a while back. I rust dyed some fabric and thought they would work so perfectly for hawks. I have them all over the place around my house and I could watch them for hours. I first noticed them in my life right before my dad was diagnosed with cancer. All the time leading up until his death, they were around me always. On the day he died, I was driving down the highway to see him and there must have been 24 of them circling and following me to my parents house. Since then I have always associated the hawks with my dads passing. I have had this piece stuck in my head for years and finally am ready to put it into reality.

I started with this smaller piece to see how it would work. I will use it to work out ideas for the bigger piece and it will be my donation to Art now for Autism.




This is the piece I will create for the Rust Tex challenge. I am planning on thread painting the hawks and my fathers face in black thread. Then I will quilt the background and add more details for the clouds as needed. I am happy to have gotten to this point. I just need to push through.



The photo of my dad was taken by my brother in law and I have had a copy of it for a few years. He granted me permission to use it for this piece. What a nice BIL. Thanks John Armentrout! a.k.a troutphoto.

Experimentation

So I went to IQA and bought a few things to play with in regards to fabric. The one thing I have actually had time to use was tannin. I bought it from Lois Jarvis of RustTex fame. After you start rust dyeing your fabric, you add the tannin to get the grays into the fabric. I didn't let my fabric rust dye as long as I usually do as the weather has been crazy? 25 degree temperature swings, rain and sunshine. So I let it rust for the afternoon and then added the tannin. I let it sit overnight because I forgot about it and it was raining again! Anyway, here are the results:






And of course I had to add an update of the puppy who is already 12 weeks old! He is quite content to hang out on my son Patrick. Aren't they cute?