New Portrait

Photo I used of Aubrey for this portrait. This has not been quilted and the teeth have more work to be done.

A friend gave me as a gift a DVD by Maria Elkins titled "Making Faces". Maria is an awesome fiber artist and her speciality is portraits. Her DVD is easy to understand and Maria makes it look easy. While I have made several portraits they have been time consuming. The portraits that I made had any where from seven to eight layers of fabric and I have been quite happy with the results. However they can take as much as a week working almost eight hours a day.

Maria's technique is quick, it is a great way to make a quick, good looking portrait that resembles the subject. Maria's technique uses four layers of fabric. While I did not time the process, I stop and start a lot, I would guess that you could make this, working hard, in half a day.

Following are lessons I learned while making this portrait:

1-My photo didn't have enough contrast. (The photo is manipulated in photo shop and I am a beginner. I think someone with more experience could have done a better job getting more contrast. Maria goes through all these moves one by one on the DVD and I think the more I work with it the better I will get.

2-The range of value in my four fabrics were to great.

I will use this technique again and again I'm sure and hopefully my portraits will become as good as Maria's.

New Portrait

Layer four and the darkest value has been added.

New Portrait

The third layer of fabric makes the lightest value seem even lighter.

New Portrait

Step one: The light layer is on the bottom with layer # 2 laid on top. Already I see that the light gray is too light. However, I am continuing with my first choice of fabrics.

New Portrait

Fabric gradation. All four pieces were batik fabric. I think I used too wide a range of values for this piece. The light gray looks white up again the grays and the black, which was mottled with gray looks very black. Any comments?

Starting a new portrait

I've been preparing this photograph of my granddaughter, Aubrey to get it ready for a new portrait. I'm try a new technique by Maria Elkins. She has a DVD titled "Making Faces". I actually have the fabric prepared with the design, etc. and plan to cut on it tonight while my husband watches yet another football game. Hopefully I will have a portrait to show on the blog tomorrow. Wish me luck.

Ready to get back to work

"Mates"

I'm itching to get back in the studio. Hopefully by the end of this week I will be able to do so. After the Christmas holiday I can't wait to take my decorations down. I like them up early and the day my kids leave I'm ready to take them down. The organization bug always hits me as my husband and I put away the decorations. I've spent the last three days getting that behind me and am ready to WORK.

I am pleased to announce that Dawn Goldsmith author of the blog, Subversive Stitcher asked me a while ago if I would get something ready for her to feature me on her blog. I did so and she posted it today. If you're interested check out www.subversivestitch.blogspot.com

The Night After Christmas

Late this afternoon I was sitting in my great room talking to my daughter, Lisa. I happened to glance toward my bedroom and could see the windows that line the top of the wall. The sky was a blaze of pink and blue. Grabed my camera and went out to the porch off my bedroom to take these photos. These three photos took only seconds and within a few seconds the color had disappeared.

The Night After Christmas

It's always a little sad the day after Christmas, especially when your family starts leaving for their homes. Early this morning our son Lee and his daughter, Ellington left for Va.

Around noon our daughter, Lorin and her family left to visit Columbia and her inl-law's. We still have our daughter Lisa but she leaves tomorow morning. While it is sad to have them leave, we had a wonderful time with all but one family being here this year.

Lee and Ellington came last Sunday so we had them for almost a week. During that time we made "dough" Christmas orniments, beaded Christmas trees, a Christmas stocking for "E's" step father, she made jewlery for her friends and we all cooked and cooked.

Christmas Eve the other two families arrived and we ate and ate. We are so thankful for our families and the love we share. So I can't let myself be sad for too long. It's been a wonderful Christmas and you may see a few of the hundreds of photos we took.

The Night After Christmas

Happy Holidays

In the early 1980's we lived in France. I collected a product made in Provence called "Santon". Most of the ones I collected were about 12" in height but for the Christmas scene I decided to do very small ones. These are about 2" tall. There is a large number of pieces to the set. This is only a few.

I had lots of memories to post so if you're interested go to old post to see them all.

I hope that you have a wonderful holiday and I will be back posting after New Years.

Happy Holidays

Years ago cereal company's enclosed great toy and crafts in their cereal boxes. In the late 1970's they enclosed a sheet of something called "Shrinky Dink". I saved all the sheets and each of the children had one to trace and color a picture from a Christmas coloring book. This one was done by my daughter, Lisa. Several years ago I gave the kids ornaments that I had purchased during the years or that they had made but I couldn't give this one away. It is my favorite.

Happy Holidays

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A snowman made by our granddaughter, Hannah about five years ago.

Happy Holidays

There are lots of people in our family who think my husband, Kermit and I are two peas in a pod.

Happy Holidays

Here at Lake Keowee there is a peninsula of land near our home that has a huge amount of mica lying around the shore. The grand kids always like to go there to collect treasures. Last Christmas after the collection was brought to our house they made Christmas wreaths for our tree.

Happy Holidays

Our daughter, Lisa made these Santa ornaments from star fish.

Happy Holidays

In the late 70's we lived in Meadville, PA. We were host to a student from Switzerland, her name was Monica. The Christmas after her year with us she sent everyone in the family a glass ornament that she had etched with a decoration and our name. Obviously this one is mine.

Happy Holidays

One of my favorite ornaments made by a friend of mine who passed away from breast cancer many years ago. The cotton is ratty and yellow but I love it anyway.

Happy Holidays

One of the few ornaments I have from my childhood. This was made during World War II when the military used all the metal and there was none available to coat the inside of ornaments.

Happy Holidays

My husband's name is Kermit so we get lots of frog ornaments.

Happy Holidays

A simple felt ornament made over thirty years ago. The metal on the skate is a paper clip.

Happy Holidays

My mother-in-law added many ornaments to our tree. This one was done by needle point and when you opened the mail box you found a chocolate kiss.

Happy Holidays

This elf was made more than thirty years ago by my son, Gary.

Happy Holidays

I made this reindeer from wooden cloths pins with the grandchildren several years ago.

Happy Holidays

I made this huge Santa when we lived in Tuscaloosa, Al

Happy Holidays

This ornament came from a Christmas Shop at Atlantic Beach, NC in 1976. There were lots of ornaments that year celebrating the centennial.

Focus Christmas Meeting

Every year for the holidays our Focus Fiber Art Group does a little more than usual for our meetings. Normally we bring our own lunch with a little extra thrown in by the hostess. For the holidays we have a potluck lunch with the hostess, (me this year) making a meat. Everyone else brings a side dish or dessert. Everything is always so good but the great part is the interaction with each other. While we always socialize a little at our meetings the December meeting is more about enjoying friendships.

That's not to say we didn't have show and tell. Please scroll into past post as I posted so much it went into old post.

After the meeting we all piled into our cars and drove into Seneca to see my show "Wall Art" at the Arts Company. Hope you enjoy our show and tell.

Focus Christmas Meeting

The Focus group in my great room.

Focus Christmas Meeting

Barbara Tennyson brought a box of blocks she had put together about two years ago when she lived in Iowa. The blocks are made of wool clothing she wore in school (Barb's a grandmother now)and old neckties. The solid fabric is an off white, or beige colored wool. Since our SC weather doesn't really call for wool blankets Barb is thinking of making a throw for her den. I only took a photo of one block but there was so many fabulous color combinations. I'll look forward to seeing this one done.

Focus Christmas Meeting

Pat Kilburg was a member of Focus until recently. After many years as a fiber artist Pat's focus has moved to collage and painting. We invited Pat to come to our Christmas meet and I'm glad she could come. I love the direction her art is taking her.

Focus Christmas Meeting

Judy Simmon's hand-dyed rusted silk scarf.

Focus Christmas Meeting

"Ice-less?" is Martine House's new offering. Martine always has a message in her art work. Obviously here her message is one of environment. On the outside Martine felted wool for the fiber, she has stones embedded in the design as well as her fabulous hand embroidery. Please continue down to see the offering unveiled.

Focus Christmas Meeting

Martine's offering after it's first opening.

Focus Christmas Meeting

When Martine's offering is opened a beautiful red silk bag is exposed along with her exquisite embroidery.

Martine is one of the best technicians I have ever met. Her pieces are always so intricate in their constructions. I have never seen her fail in her quest for a way to construct her offerings. Here she strung beads to hold the sides of her triangles up when they were opened.

Focus Christmas Meeting

The treasure inside of the red bag is one of Martine's beautiful hand beaded necklesses.

Focus Christmas Meeting

The caps to Martine's new offering.

Focus Christmas Meeting

Judy Haywood shared with us some progress on a new piece she started last month. Judy also brought some yummy home-made Carmel candies.

Focus Christmas Meeting

Janet Ginn brought in this brightly colored piece today. Janet loves color and does such a great job pairing just the right colors together. I think I said in my last post that I love bright colored fabrics with black and this is just what Janet has done here. She was trying to decide if she was going to place these fabric beads that she made on this piece. I liked them.

Focus Christmas Meeting

Marge Edie our guru of bargello quilting showed this new strip which is the beginning of a quilt for her grandson.

Marge also brought in a piece she has been working on to ask for opinions from our group. I love this process. We always have lots to offer, good and bad, but the artist asking for opinions always feels free, to take or leave, any or all of those opinions without hurting anyone's feelings. Only time will tell if Marge is taking or leaving.

L.I.N.T exhibit

Judy Simmons is a friend of mine and the reason I attended this show. In my opinion Judy is the guru of image transfer. She does every technique I've every heard of and does them all beautifully. Judy is such a great teacher and shares her knowledge freely. This piece was inspired by the birdhouse photo Judy took in her backyard.

You only have a few more weeks to visit this show at the Grovewood Gallery in Asheville, NC. If you get a chance it's a wonderful show.

L.I.N.T exhibit

This is a closeup of Norma Bradley's work. Norma uses beautiful sheer fabric and you have to look close to see all the hidden images in the piece. This closeup shows a photo transfer on sheer.

L.I.N.T exhibit

This piece by Peggy DeBell was very interesting. I met Peggy many years ago at the Southern Highlands Show in Asheville. She does lots of wonderful thing with computer generated images. I couldn't quite tell what materials she used. It looked a lot like plastic but it could have been fabric that had been shellacked. A very interesting technique

L.I.N.T exhibit

Sondra Dorn uses a lot of photo transfer in her work. The stitching of the vines in this piece really intrigued me.

L.I.N.T exhibit

When you enter the door to the gallery, this piece by Jude Stuecker is the first thing you see. I loved the people inside of the car. It really caught my attention because I am working on piece where I am adding my five grandchildren. This gave me an idea of how to go about doing that.

L.I.N.T exhibit

I was first exposed to Bernie Rowell about six or seven years ago when our Focus Fiber Art Group went to Asheville and saw her work in a gallery there. While Bernie was making collages then her work has changed over the years. I love her use of envelops in the pieces she has in this show.

L.I.N.T exhibit

I like bright colored fabric so this piece by Kathy Spencer caught my eye right away. I like bright colors even better when they are on a black background. Check out the quilting on this as well.

Exhibit from L.I.N.T. in Ashevile, NC

Last week a small group from our "High Fiber" group in Seneca, SC went to Asheville, NC to the Grovewood Gallery to see and exhibit from a group of fiber artist named L.I.N.T (Ladies in New Textiles). Unfortunately, I won't be able to post photos until next week as my wireless is down and all the files are on my laptop.

The Grovewood Gallery is a lovely gallery located next to the famous Grove Park Inn. The gallery is filled with incredible hand made art work from acrylic paintings to wood work. The upstairs gallery has hand made furniture of the likes you have never seen. There is also lots of fiber art displayed on the second floor. Wonderful creations by Barbara Webster, www://starforestquilts.com, and Susan Lenz, artbysusanlenz.blogspot.com. If you go to Susan's blog scroll down until you see the BLV series those are the pieces that are so impressively represented at the Grovewood Gallery.

Now on to the L.I.N.T exhibit. There are featured works by Norma Bradley, Peggy DeBell, Diana DeNardis, Sondra Dorn, Vicki Essig, Suzanne Gernandt, Susan Webb Lee, Janice Maddox, Bernie Rowell, Judy Simmons, Kathy Spencer, Jude Stuecker and Jen Swearington.

These works are so in depth. You can't just walk by them and have a look you need to stop and really study the pieces. I wanted to get this posted because the exhibit ends Dec. 31 and there's not much time left to view the wonderful show. Hopefully I will get some photos up soon with a little more detail.

Lake and Mountain Quilt Guild Christmas meeting

Last night Lake and Mountain Quilt Guild had their annual Christmas Meeting. Everyone brings a finger food to share. We also bring a small gift. Everyone stands in a circle around the room and a story is ready featuring Mr. and Mrs. Wright and their family. Every time the word right is mentioned the gift goes to the right. Every time the word left is mentioned the gift goes to the left. When the story is over you take home the gift you are left with. (That's right isn't it?) This is always such a fun game, inevitably someone ends up holding two gift at once and we have to stop to find someone without a gift. This meeting is one of few times we get to spend the evening socializing and it is always so much fun.

The photo here is of Joyce Atkinson. I fell in love with her snowman jacket and just had to feature it on this post. I hope you enjoy LMQG's Christmas party.

Lake and Mountain Quilt Guild Christmas meeting

The back of Joyce's snowman jacket

Lake and Mountain Quilt Guild Christmas meeting

The table full of goodies brought by each member looks wonderful (it Was). The center pieces were given to our LMQG past president as a thank you for their work.

Lake and Mountain Quilt Guild Christmas meeting

Members eating and having fun.