Day of the Dead

I have been hearing about the Day of the Dead celebrations and did a little research. I was intrigued by the celebration as I just love Halloween. I was surprised to find that it is a celebration of loved ones that have passed and the day is dedicated to their memories. It also happens to land on my son's birthday! I am usually not interested in making dolls but spirit dolls and the like are really intriguing to me.

So I decided to play with some scraps of stuff I had and this is what came out of it:




The body is made of polymer clay. I baked it to harden it and then did a wash of acrylic paint all over to give it more of a skeleton appearance. Then used a black dye pen in the crevices. The orange piece is some flower lace dyed orange and beaded in orange seed beads to simulate marigold flowers. The "clothes" are pieces of ripped sheers, and black cotton fabrics. And I added a little dragonfly charm necklace.

The best part of this happy accident is that I mistakenly used glow in the dark clay! So now I can power it up and wear it when I take the kids trick or treating!

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.

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!!

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.

Watercolor Pencil on Fabric

I finally had a moment of free time. Well moments strung together to create something pretty cool. I was playing with the macro button on my camera because it was raining on and off. My orange daylilies were blooming so I decided to take some pictures. Wow! What a cool feature on my camera. Even better because I figured out how to use it. So I decided this one would be gorgeous as a fiber piece.


Original picture printed on a laser printer.



Materials - white cotton fabric, watercolor crayons, my picture for reference and a paintbrush. I didn't add the water because knowing me, I would spill it before starting. Not cool!



The flower sketched in with the watercolor crayons.


Fun part! I dip my brush in the water and start painting over the drawing. Some areas blend and others stay put. Once I was finished, I put it outside to dry. It is nice and sunny and hot so it dried very quickly! When it dries slowly, the colors migrate into one another a lot more.



Thread painted and then puffy paint to create the flower centers. I thread painted with a fire engine red thread for the petals, added a wine purple and a light blue to pull out more details. After the puffy paint dried, I heated it up to puff it. I painted them with dye pens and added shadows. The "pollen" was made with puffy velvet in yellow and then colored with orange dye pens.


And here is the final piece! I finished the edges with satin stitching in the same fire red color. I love how this turned out. I have to try a few more I think!

Take it Further May and June

So finally getting back on track. I have actually finished my June TIF way ahead of schedule!!

The first is my May TIF and I went with the color scheme. I needed teachers gifts for the kids and decided to combine the two projects. Patrick's teacher is getting remarried over the summer so I thought a photo album would be nice. But a black and boring album would not work. So I made a cover for it using my new sewing machine!!




I free motion quilted the entire surface to give it a loose floral feeling. The cut it to size to fit the book. The window was cut out and I satin stitched around the border. His teacher was thrilled - or so Patrick told me.

This one if for Madelyn's teacher. She is going for a double masters and has a few years left of school. She likes organization and notes and paper - I think. So I bought the padfolio and created a cover out of fabric on hand, thread from my stash and even the backing fabric. I used felt for the batting. I love how it turned out.




The yarns were couched on to create more texture and it was also from my fiber stash. She is getting her gift this morning as I just finished it yesterday afternoon!

Miscellaneous

Last Friday was my son's 3rd grade end of year picnic and I got to do the craft! I bought the t-shirts from Dharma Trading and had them shipped to my house. The paint was red acrylic paint mixed with aloe vera gel to make it easier to stencil. I photocopied their logo and then created the text in Quark. Made a very nice stencil - well three actually. Back was killing me from leaning over the table all afternoon but the results were so worth it! We made 60 and even the teachers got into the action. You would think my son's would be one of the nicest but he had a boo-boo in the corner. But he loves it and so did his classmates.


I was out on one of my morning walks and veered off the beaten path. They redid a bunch of areas around the river and I finally decided to check it out. Well this little dragonfly landed right on my leg!! How cool is that??




This is the view of the river from another direction. The water was so calm. Considering all the rain we have been having, I thought it would be a bit faster moving. I love how the trees make a frame. Hard to tell where reflection meets the sky.