Jean Jacket

So I finally found the pics of jean jackets I have done in the past and thought I would share some of them with you. I will have to break this up into several entries I think. Otherwise it might be all pictures and very few words of description. In this entry I am showing two jean jackets with closeups of the each. They were made for a friend. The first was a commission piece of her spirit guide. The image is of her guide as he came to me and it has a bear claw in the background with an eagle in flight. He is painted with fabric paints and then I beaded the necklace and added novelty yarn for the hair. I hand painted the eagle feather in his hair. The tips of the bear claws also have beads. The piece was stolen out of her car while shopping one day.
So I gave her another jacket which was of a wolf pearing from behind the tree. I also painted him using fabric paints. The tree was made from puffy paint and then painted over to add more detail to the bark. The wolf to me seems a little sad to me but I may be too attached to the piece.

My First Entry

So I officially made it into my first Quilt/Fiber/Art show! Woo-hoo.
I was unable to attend the American Sewing Expo so I asked the Quilt Art list for help. Lera Cavanaugh was kind enough to photograph my Dancing With Jelly's piece and email them to me. I am putting them up on my blog as proof! Ha-ha. I also was notified today that I will be getting my postcards back. The peacock made it into the top 50 picks. Thanks to everyone who voted for me! They are putting together an idea deck for those of you who may be interested in learning how to create postcards from fabric and fibers and various other do dads.

Floorcloths

I was digging through all my digital photos looking for some pieces I had photographed, but couldn't remember where my DH filed them on the computer. In the course of looking, however, I stumbled across some of my floorcloths. I painted the monarch butterfly from a small photo in a book and the peacock was from a childrens book in the library. I created him with metallic paint. I loved how they turned out.
I did sell both of these pieces. Now I miss them. But at least I have photos of them and I can share them with you guys. I have some more but I guess I will find them when looking for something else. Ha-ha

Time to vote!

Alrighty people. The time has come to vote on your favorite postcard. It's a tough choice since there are 162 entries! I have two of my postcards in there. One is Peacock and the other is Ancient III. The link to vote is posted at the bottom of this post.
Peacock was created on blue fabric and I used a rubbing plate to create the "feathers". Fabric crayons rubbed on the plate, heat set and then hand quilted on the lines in a varigated green sulky thread. I then painted the peacock body using fabric paints in regular and metallic. I beaded the top of the feathers on the head and then used gold and green sequins with blue beads to create the "eyes" in the feathers.
Ancient III was created using my rust dyed blue fabric. I used a foam stamp and fabric crayons to rub on the leaf form. I heat set it and sewed around in thread to highlight certain areas. I then sewed on small beads for added interest.

Here is the info for casting a vote:
TIME TO CAST YOUR VOTE
It's time to see which cards will be featured in the 2007 Idea Deck! For registered voters, our Gallery will be transformed into a "voting booth". To cast a vote for your favorite postcard, simply click the button beneath its photo. You get only one vote and it can't be changed, so click with care!

Voter registration is easy and password-free, requiring only your email address for fairness and security. A Voter access link is your "ballot" and will be emailed to you automatically, so be sure to check your Junk Mail if the message doesn't arrive in your Inbox within a few minutes.

To limit the potential for abuse by outsiders, only 300 access links can be sent each day. The voting booth will be active until 11:59pm on Thursday, September 13, so there's plenty of time and ballots for Weekly Update subscribers, the card artists, and everyone's friends and family to cast their vote.

To register to vote go to: http://www.artcardideas.com/2007/vote

Snapdragon challenge quilt

Well hello. I know you have all been anxiously awaiting all my cool stuff. Yeah right. But I am finally posting my latest piece. It is a snapdragon piece for the flower power challenge. Once everyone has their quilts in, they will have an online gallery showing. I will send you the link when it is up and running!
I created it on hand painted fabric. I created the flowers out of cotton face pad cleaners. I dyed them and then sewed around the edges to get the wavy look. I used fibers to create the stems and leaves. Then beaded the background with various flowers. I also fused dyed dryer sheets onto the background to create poppys. I added detail with thread, fabric crayons and colored pencil. Let me know what you think!!

Patty

All things Peacock

I have always loved peacocks and their feathers. It is kind of ironic that I married a man with the last name Cox. When writing my new married name, I realized I was P.Cox. Hence the name of my blog. I guess you figured that out on your own.
Since then, I have created some pieces using the peacock. I am posting my peacock jacket today. I have done an ATC which was in a previous post, an art bra which I entered into a contest but don't think I made it in and I have just finished a postcard of a peacock. I will put that up in the next few days.
I finished it over a year ago and had the guts to wear it to the International Quilt Show here in Chicago in April. It was my first art show attendance ever and I was so excited. I completely forgot I was wearing it until I kept getting stopped to "model" it for everyone. What a heady experience! I had one lady tell me to submit it to Belle Amore and another one asked me to show it off so she could take pictures! I felt like a mini celebrity. A lot of people wanted to pet it! I have to admit, my self esteem got a much needed boost that day. My mom kept teasing me because I would apparently blush profusely when stopped and asked about it.
What a glorious day. It made me all the more determined to keep at it with this medium. I think I have become more fearless because of that experience. So much so that I put my art quilt on line at HGTV's Rate My Quilt. If you would like to check it out, it is labeled as Waterfall. Too bad the photo was so dark. I think it would have done better had the picture would have been a little brighter. Oh well, you live and learn.

Rust Dyeing

I have been a lazy slacker when it comes to my blog lately. But in my defense, I have been busy signing up for various challenges and finishing up other projects.
For instance, I did rust dyeing on fabric for the first time and it inspired me to do my last set of postcards for my exchange. Very cool to get something done.
Rust dyeing fabric was deceptively easy. I thought it would be this long drawn out process that required all my time and a bunch of expensive materials. Was I wrong! I used a remnant piece of white cotton that was prewashed and soaked it in vinegar. I placed it in a pan and put things that rust on top of it. I used steel wool and long rust nails. I placed it in the sun - 90 degree days) and watched the miracle unfold. I just kept moving the material around as various areas rusted and added more vinegar when it was looking too dry. Two days later, I have new material to work with. You have to rinse out the vinegar. I rinsed until it was clean and then added some soap and water to make it smell less like rust. I let it hang dry and it was ready to go. I don't recommend the steel wool because it breaks down into tiny pieces and is a mess to clean up. Use nails, screws etc. - much better.
I am posting photos of the two I did. One was on the white fabric and then for fun, I used a predyed sky blue fabric. That one turned out awesome and was the inspiration for my postcard series. I will post them once I finish the last one. But the blue fabric turned this interesting rusty orange/brown and green color. So now I will have to make some more since it was fun and easy. However, I ran out of vinegar and need more. Some people add salt to there vinegar. I tried both ways and both work.
Later