Need Help Naming a New Class

I'm looking for a name for a new class that I am putting together to teach at J. C. Campbell next year.

The process includes taking images that I have taken. In some cases, as with the photo here, I made a fabric portrait and then photographing it. I take another photo that I think has some connection with the fiber piece and merge them together and then print the manipulated photo on fabric.

These fiber pieces can be framed, as in the second photo, or made into a wall hanging. I've got a plea out to my art fiber group Focus, and am having some interesting suggestions. Thought I would throw this out and see what will happen.

It's good to be back home after being away for so long. Hope to be getting back in the studio soon.

Fiber Related Items in the Lightner Museum, St. Augustine, FL

Everything old is new again.

Today I spent the morning in the Lightner Museum in St. Augustine, FL. The building alone was worth the trip but the collections within were unreal. This museum started as the El Alczar Hotel built by Henry Flagler.

Mr. Flagler purchased other peoples collections to fill this museum. The collections are very eclectic but I am going to show fiber related collections today.

The exhibit on quilting.
I wonder if "sculptured pile" is not the same thing as felting?

I was intrigued with the button collection.

Isn't it wonderful how people have been able to make art out of utilitarian objects?

I love the silver button teapot.

And then there were cards of buttons some were made of bone.............

and black glass................

and inlay with silver, pearls, etc.

Crochet buttons..............

And a lady made of buttons.

I have much more but out of time. We are traveling again so it may be a couple of days before I get back with more of the Lightner Museum and St. Augustine.

Work Shop with Hollis Chatelain

Before I get to the workshop with Hollis I wanted to show the first place winner of the LMQG 24th anniversary challenge. This was created by Cathy Terry congratulations Cathy.

Our workshop began with Hollis explaining to us how to prepare the dye, fabric and preparing the area where we did the actual painting. Hollis demonstrated how she held the brush and applied the dyes. She then set us free to starting our own creation.

I took this photograph several years ago and have made a few small fused pieces using this image. I have always liked this close-up image of a geranium.

image before washing.

Image after washing.
This is the painted piece before it was washed. The color washed out a lot more than I would have liked. Hollis suggested that some of the colors wash out more than others. The red I chose happened to be one of those colors. To make up for the lost of color more dye should be added to the water when it is made.


Hollis wanted us to do a second piece and I chose this photo of a sunflower.
Image transposed.

My painted image after washed.

I did not get a photo of this piece before washing, I'm hoping that I can get that wonderful light with the quilting.

Painting with dyes is not an easy thing to do but Hollis was so encouraging. When I would say something about not being able to get the look I wanted, her reaction was "and just how long have you been doing this"? As with anything this technique takes time and practice.

I'm not going into the details of this class because this is Hollis' technique and she would be the one to tell how it is done. I will say that twenty of our members took this class and all twenty were blown away with Hollis as a teacher. She spent every minute of the class teaching. One of the best if not the best class I have ever taken.

Happy Anniversary LMQG

This year Lake and Mountain Quilt Guild is celebrating it's twenty-fifth anniversary. L&M guild has so many great diverse people as well as quilting styles and interest. Our board members did a wonderful job putting together this celebration.

Beautiful flowers and cake decorate the table. While the front of the room had one of the most spectacular quilts I have ever seen. "Innocence" created by Hollis Chatelain. This quilt was painted with dyes in six values of orange. In the quilting Hollis chose images of children and placed them strategically in areas to create light and dark values.

Hollis chose images of children from all over the world in all walks of life. She told us how many images were included and I think I remember that it was thirty-seven. This is a very large quilt and it's presence illuminates the entire area.

Of course, we wouldn't be a quilt guild if we never had a challenge. This years challenge was to create a piece celebrating the 25th anniversary. Somehow, I missed who's piece won lst place but I will add it tomorrow. Marge Edie is the creator of this piece. Marge used the technique of Japanese art called Notan to create this complicated piece. I think it took second place.

This piece was created by Donna Campbell. Donna is a newcomer to art quilting and she is really headed in the right direction. She won third place. Tomorrow I hope to post the first place winner.

Hollis taught a three day workshop on painting with dye and quilting. That is my next post.

More on Hannah

I had a good question from Tobi asking why I wanted to do more to the portrait. She felt that I should just leave it as a portrait. I didn't explain very well what I was doing in my last post so I decided to go a little more into detail. The above photo is the original photo that I used as inspiration for my portrait.

My plan was to place the portrait on the background and thread paint onto the background finishing Hannah's head, hair and jacket.

As I looked at this I realize that her portrait sort of disappears into the background so I decided to do a little fabric audition and see if it changed anything.

This is a mottled black.

This a mottled green. I think I like it better than the other two but I haven't committed to either. I am still considering leaving it as a single portrait. Any help would be appreciated.

I know that many of you are having trouble posting on my blog, unfortunately there is nothing I can do about the problem. If you want to post and can't just email me.

Back in the Studio

Wow, you can't image how good it is to get back into the studio. It's been about three weeks and while I had a great time visiting our son's family, I've missed working.

This is the way my mind is headed on this piece. I will trim the thread painted portrait and place it on the background with the vine wrapped around the post (not finished yet). I will then finish Hannah's head and hair with thread painting.

I'm hoping I'm going in the right direction. Any input would be appreciated.