Fabricating Nature with Marilyn Wall

Reception at the Clemson Art Center

2012-02-18T19:58:00.008-05:00

Last week a reception was held for the first Clemson Artist Guild Members art show at the Art Center. There was an amazing number of guest that evening. The top award went to Matt Kogol for his sculpture "Fractured". Matt was awarded a check and a one-man exhibit at the museum in Sept.

The bar was set up just inside the door and was the cause of much congestion but once you worked your way through you had a good chance to get into the gallery.

The Art Center is located in an old renovated elementary school. The space has been put to really good use, this is where banquets and receptions are held.

My piece "Spirit of the Kiva II" is just inside the door.

I didn't do a good job of photographing this piece, the lights are reflected in the glass.

My husband, Kermit also had work in this show. He creates beautiful piece from wood.

Another piece of fiber art. This one is knitted.

The piece on the left was created by Patricia Staab and she took home a third place award for the necklace.

The show will be up until March 8, 2012. If you find yourself in the area stop in and have a look.

It's Finished

2012-02-15T00:46:00.002-05:00

Well I've finally finished the thread painting of my granddaughter, Hannah. Once I started working on this piece I just couldn't quit. I have this thing about getting obsessed with what I'm working on and have to keep at it until it's finished.

Unfortunately, I left something else three-quarters finished. Oh well, it will be next on my list.

I decided about three weeks ago that I was going to try my hand at thread painting a portrait. I have some beautiful photos of one of my granddaughters and decided that this would be my subject.

Once I got started I just had to keep going until I had the piece thread painted. I finished yesterday. I am headed out tomorrow to visit my son's family in San Diego and I just wanted this finished before I left.

I have some thought on how I am going to finish the piece but that will have to wait until I return.

Feb, Hi-Fiber Meeting

2012-02-12T20:17:00.008-05:00

HiFiber met last Thursday for our regular meeting. Marge Edie, Donna Barnhill and Dianne Gjelsvik have been working on a logo for our group.

We thank them for their time spent creating this elegant design.

Penny brought a bag that her sister, Linda made. Linda used one of the feed sacks that Penny brought us last month. We all thought that using the red fabric with the chicken emblem was a cute idea.

I brought several pieces that I've been working on for show & tell.

Miss Lena Horn

When this piece is finished it will be in an exhibit at The Clemson Art Center. The exhibit is celebrating Jazz. Clemson is sponsoring a Jazz Festival in May and the exhibit is to be part of the festival.

I also brought a piece I've been working on that is my first attempt at thread-painting a portrait.

I brought it because our program for this month was thread-painting presented by Heidi Wolko. She has been making some amazing pieces using thread-painting as the main element in her quilts.

Heidi, drew Judy Rapelje's name last year for our portrait challenge. Heidi did a wonderful job capturing her.

Here Heidi is showing us the print that she is going to use as a demo. Heidi, recommend quite a few books to us about thread-painting. Some of them were, "Thread Painting Made Easy: by Terry White, "Freestyle Machine Embroidery" by Carol Shinn, and "Thread Magic" by Ellen Anne Eddy.

The June/July 2011 issue of "Quilting Arts" magazine was devoted to making portraits. One of the articles was written by Jennifer Day and it was on thread-painting a portrait. Heidi attributes her success to this article.

This piece by Heidi is totally thread-painted.

This wonderful piece by Heidi, is titled "May Day, May Day, Going, Going, Gone".
A closeup of this piece is below.

Heidi, gave an interesting demo and says that thread-painting is very addictive. I'll agree to that.

Happy Birthday Ann

2012-02-11T19:38:00.000-05:00

A portrait of my good friend Ann Hanewald for her ?????????birthday.

FFFC

2012-02-05T20:08:00.000-05:00

I decided that the piece I posted yesterday needed to be cropped. To much interference and other stuff to look at when I wanted attention to be on the face.

Fast Friday Fabric Challenge Feb.

2012-02-04T20:30:00.002-05:00

The challenge for FFFC this month is Let's Play! Kathy Lichtendahl was the hostess. The following tells about the challenge.

This month I am asking everyone to reach way back in their psyche to tap the
memories of childhood. The idea is to create a piece of artwork that recalls
your early days - to you at least - and possibly to the viewer as well. The
subject can be something or someplace concrete that brings back memories of
being a child or it can be a more abstract creation based on a recalled
smell or sound or fleeting impression.

The finished piece may be depicted in a childlike manner or it may be
channeled through the adult you that exists today. Try not to over think the
process. The goal is to create a design based on a feeling of being a small
person at that certain place and time in your life.

Many artists spend their entire careers trying to re-create the sense of
wonder and newness experienced as a child. Some well known examples are the
following:

Please enlarge this photo so that you can see the face well.

I spent a lot of time thinking about this challenge and thinking I didn't have time to get it done. I have been learning so much about PhotoShop Elements and am having such a good time that I decided I would see if I could get one my ideas to work in PhotoShop Elements.

One of my most vivid memories of my childhood was laying in the yard under a tree and looking for faces in the clouds.

I have quite a large stash of sky photos so I looked in that folder and decided on the photo above.

I loved the light that was shining behind the cloud, it just glowed.

The next photo I looked for was a face that really spoke to me. This is a photo I took of my granddaughter, Ellington. It was Christmas and she had gotten this Lite-Brite as a gift. She decided that she wanted to make a self-portrait. We turned the lights off so that she had a side light. I thought this turned out beautifully. I've always loved the way her eyes look in this photo.

I dropped-out the background and most of her hair. After I placed the face in the sky photo I decided it needed a bit more adjusting so I dropped out a bit more of the left side of her face.

In PSE you can move the image around, so I auditioned the face until I found just the right placement. I printed the results on an 11 x 14 piece of cotton sateen. Quilting will have to come later.

All comments are welcome

OKay So I Lied

2012-02-03T19:39:00.001-05:00

Try as I might to go into my studio in the morning and start quilting I just had to start working on Hannah again. I had made a plan for the week to quilt in the morning and thread paint in the afternoon. I went to my studio with the idea that I was going to quilt but once I entered the room Hannah called "work on me Nana". She's my first born grand child and I just had to pull her out and thread paint.

This is slow work, I'm here to tell you, but I am happy with what I've done so far. I'm not quite sure that I'm stitching in the right direction but I think by following the contour of her face I'm Okay.

I did work on the quilting in the afternoon so I'm not totally ignoring other work. I took a day off today. Went to my massage therapist and when she started working on my neck and shoulders said "What in the world have you been doing". I think she knew.

I Had So Much Fun Today

2012-01-30T20:45:00.002-05:00

I've been at my Mother-In-Laws for a week with no Internet access. Thus the reason for no post last week.

This is Hannah one of four beautiful granddaughters. I've decided that I want to try my hand at thread-painting faces. I've done quite a bit of thread-painting but never a face. My interest in creating portraits has lead me to try many different techniques.

This portrait of Barefoot Jackie is made with a four-layer method. I create a pattern on PSE and go from there. I teach this in my Fabricating Faces class.

This portrait was made with a totally different method. I also created the pattern in PSE. This uses eight values of fabric and is constructed with a different technique. I teach this in my Personal Places: Portraits in the Landscape.

I'm working on quilting another piece but I can only spend so much time in a day quilting or I go mad. I know that quilting is part of the creative process of making a quilt. However, I don't get the same creative high when I'm doing that process.

So this afternoon I decided that it was time to create a portrait in thread. Don't ask me what the difference is but in my mind I am creating when I thread-paint but not when I am quilting. I'm very excited about what I've done so far but tomorrow morning I go back to the quilting and then thread-painting in the afternoon.

Over-Thinking a Design

2012-01-20T20:51:00.006-05:00

I've been working with this design for over a month and I finally came to the conclusion yesterday that I should leave well enough alone. I composed the photo in PSE by combining two photos. One was of the ruins at Sheldon Church in the low country of SC. The other photo is of a beautiful maple tree, without leaves, located at the public library in Seneca, SC.

I did a few other manipulations in PSE, mirror imaged the design and ended up with this piece. It is rather large about 56" x 36".

I was so excited by the secondary design I saw after the mirror imaging was done that I thought I needed to add more to the piece.

I worked for a couple weeks with the other images to the extent of actually printing them on fabric. I just couldn't wrap my head around what I was seeing. It just didn't do anything for me.

I took it to my Focus Art Group on Wed. and they had even other suggestions for me to try. I worked on those yesterday and finally decided that what I have is a series. I think this piece needs to stand on its own.

This is a close-up of the center area. When I was at the ruins of Sheldon Church I had the most wonderful feeling of what the place must have been during the days of plantations.

After the printing was completed on fabric and I saw the large piece I knew right away that I wanted a ghost to appear in the piece. For some reason I saw this ghost as a woman running.

After a lot of manipulating to a copyright free photo I found on the web I came up with the ghost in the above photo. I'm thinking she might be a little to ghostly. I might need to add a little more substance to her. I hope I'm not over-thinking this too.

More later.

J. C. Campbell Folk School Art Exhibit & Auctions

2012-01-17T19:31:00.003-05:00

I've been teaching at J. C. Campbell Folk School for about six years. It's always such a pleasure to teach there. This year for the first time the school has put together an exhibit of work from some of their instructors.

The exhibit is at The Coca-Cola Corporate Offices in Atlanta, GA. The exhibit will hang through January.

I felt fortunate to be asked for two of my pieces to hang during this exhibit. The above "Love" will be offer for auction in Feb.

"Summer's Bounty"

This quilt is also in the show and will be offered for auction. On Feb. 4, 2012 J. C. Campbell will offer all the work that is now on display at Coke Corp. The auction will be held at the Atlanta Fine Craft & Art Auctions at the Woodruff, Arts Center in Atlanta.

If you are interested in more information please contact www.folkschool.org or go to their flicker site.
ww.flickr.com/photos/folkschool/sets/72157628842380147/

January HiFiber Meeting

2012-01-14T17:15:00.010-05:00

HiFiber met Thursday afternoon and the technique for the month was Notans. Ann Hanewald presented the program and we had so much fun cutting up paper.

Notan is a Japanese design concept involving the play and placement of light and dark as they are placed next to the other in art and imagery.

This photo show Beatrix, Penny and Diane cutting their design. As you can see the paper is folded into four sections. It can be folded on the grain or on the bias.

I think this one was by Shirley W. As usual I thought I would remember who did what, but.........

While you can draw your design and then cut it out. I found it more fun and came up with what I thought were better designs by just cutting. I just realized I didn't take a photo of my most successful one. Maybe I'll post it when I make it into a wall hanging.

A fun afternoon.

New Project

2012-01-11T23:52:00.001-05:00

I had quite a few emails about my transfer problem. They all told me I couldn't transfer an image on dark fabric. I had several people suggest ways I could accomplish the affect that I wanted. One was to paint the image on, but I really wanted a realistic look. Another was to print the image on organza. I've done this many times in the past with success. I use Misty Fuse as a web then cut out the image and iron to the dark area.

I enhanced this image in photo shop. Made several sizes and then using Word, inserted them on a template so that I could print many different images on one piece of 8 x 10 fabric.

I haven't photographed the image on fabric yet but will post on it later.

This is what I've been spending my time creating in the studio this week. I have spent every day working on images in the computer. Every time I do one image I see something else I want to try.

The biggie this week has been trying to figure out how to make mirror images in PSE. I finally gave up and made these images the old fashion way. Cut and Paste. However, I was determined to learn how to do this is PSE.

I emailed Gloria Hansen, she wrote "Digital Essentials", to ask her if she could help me. Gloria is such a sharing person always answers emails and shares her knowledge. She came up with the solution for me today. Hopefully I will have time to work with this later.

A few of the images I created today.

Planning Stages of a New Project

2012-01-07T11:31:00.004-05:00

For the last two or three days I have been in the planning stages for a new piece of art work. I'm not yet ready to show the entire printed fabric because I still don't know for sure what I'm going to do with the image.

The image is printed on a piece of cotton sateen that is 36" x 60". I sent it to Spoonflower, http://www.spoonflower.com/ an online printing service. I had done quite a bit of manipulation in PSE to achieve the image I wanted. When I entered the image on Spoonflower's web site I elected to have the mirror image printed. This provided some really intriguing secondary images. This photo is a very small part of the whole but one that I need to get settled in my mind before I proceed.

This image was taken in CA at the Huntington Gardens. Again I did some manipulation on this image to drop out the background as well as add a little to the image by cloning. I want to place this image in the dark center of the photo above.

This image was done with paper to explore the size I needed for the opening as well as the light/dark of the statue. I like this but felt the statue was to bright and wanted to dull it down a bit.

I printed an 8 x 11 piece of cotton sateen with the close up image. The dark area came up to light but I wanted to go ahead an explore using TAP (Transfer Artist Paper) to transfer the image of the statue to the background. I found the image to be too dark. I played around on the same piece of fabric transferring the image just to see what it looked like on different areas.

I reprinted the image on fabric again after darkening it a bit. I also lightened up the image by using the opaque control in PSE. As you can see the image hardly shows at all and I get a glossy/smeared look where the image was applied. I also tried different areas on the fabric print to see show the image looked on various locations.

Now to my problem. I love TAP, it transfers better than any method I've ever used.
However, it finally occurred to me that the transfer is ink and when you try to transfer black ink to almost black fabric it just isn't going to work. I hope someone out there has a solution for me.

Uncle Dave is Finished

2012-01-03T23:38:00.003-05:00

There was a time when I didn't think I would finish "Uncle Dave". When I first started the quilting I kept breaking needles, my thread would fray and break. I became so frustrated with the project that I put it away and decided I wasn't going to finish the quilting.

I had finished quilting the face at that point and I knew that the piece was not one that I would enter into a show. The unfinished piece lay in my spare bedroom, I use it as a sample when I teach. I really don't have many UFO's and this one really bugged me.

I'm about to start quilting on another piece and needed to practice to get back into the swing of free motion quilting. So, I decided to pull out "Uncle Dave". I'm glad I did. The piece actually ended up being Okay. I still don't think I would enter it into a show but it does make a good sample for my class. I learned a lot on this piece. I know that next time I use real clothing, as I did for Dave's shirt, that I will cut away what's left turned under. There was a lot of fusing on this piece so between fabric and fusible web the layers really add up.

I don't really think my pieces through like a lot of people so I learn by making mistakes. This is one I hope I don't have to repeat.

Inspiration outside my back door

2012-01-02T19:48:00.005-05:00

We have had unusually warm weather for this time of year here in NW South Carolina. That is about to change. It is suppose to dip into the low 20's tonight. When that happens the open blooms on our camellias will freeze and turn brown.

If we are lucky and the cold doesn't last a long time the buds will open up with little damage.

My husband brought me a basket of these in this afternoon so that we can enjoy them inside.

When I was photographing my arrangements this afternoon the sun was coming in through our great room window. The angle was such that I got this interesting sun-flare in the photo.

I've been having sewing machine problems, breaking thread, tension, and skipped stitches. I've done all the usual. Changed the needles, several time, changed and rethreaded the machine and bobbin. Cleaned the dust out, etc, etc. Spent a very frustrating day Saturday trying to get the problem solved. No luck.

I started the day today with a fresh outlook and was determined to solve my problem. Aurifil Thread Co. gave samples of their thread to our state guild, Quilters of SC, for our Fall Retreat. I decided to open the packet and try new thread in my top and bobbin.

It worked. Don't know why, I tried many brands on Sat. but nothing was happening. I'm still not sure what was wrong. I did have to change from the Aurifil to another brand because I didn't have the right colors for my project and the machine worked fine. Who know!

Hopefully, tomorrow I will finish the quilting on Uncle Dave. Yes, I finally dragged out Uncle Dave to finish. If I do you will see it right here tomorrow night.

New Year and a time to Reorganize

2011-12-29T20:33:00.002-05:00

Recently folks on the ArtDigest list have been talking about reorganizing their workspace. It has inspired me to do the same. My husband built a really wonderful table/storage for me during the Summer. It is exactly what I wanted but takes up a lot of space in my 12 x 16 room.

originally I had the table pushed up against the black design wall. While the table is on rollers it is still pretty hard to move around and I found that I wasn't using the design wall very much.

Someone on the Digest suggested that the table be put in the middle of the room. I tried this and it works quite well. When the sewing table leaf is down there is lots of room to move and when it is extended to quilt I can still get around the table.

This view shows one of my design walls.

This peg board holds lots of my tools in order and the shelves below organizes my books, and other goodies for my work.

One of the things I did was get rid of patterns that I have made and used for all my quilts. I decided they were just taking up much needed space so out they go.

Does this look like fifteen years of work?

With a cleaned and organized studio I have no excuse not to get to work. Hope to have something new to post soon.

Finally, Some Time to Post

2011-12-17T16:00:00.004-05:00

Sanctuary II

It's been almost a month since I've had time to post on my blog. I've been busy teaching, and getting my studio back together. Life has also gotten in the way. Good things but not leaving me time to do my art work.

I've missed working more than I can say and I'm really looking forward to the New Year and having more time.

The Arts Guild of Clemson, SC is having their first members show in January and I have decided to enter two pieces. Sanctuary II is two photo I manipulated in Photo Shop Elements. It is printed on cotton sateen and matted and framed.

This is a silhouette of a bird taken in a sanctuary on Harbor Island, SC. I did a little color enhancing to make the background a little more pink. I then decided to add the following photo.

The color was removed from this photo and I added a pinkish color. I then blended the two photos to achieve the following photo. I also flipped the photo so that the birds would look better together.

When I framed the piece I felt that a little needed to cropped off to make the design more interesting.

Spirit of the Kiva II

This piece was treated similarly to the one above. I began with the photo below taken when my husband I were visiting NM.

This is the interior of an American Indian Kiva or Holy Place. I felt so blessed to be in this space. The lighting was wonderful, I was in there by myself and fortune smiled upon me.

This beautiful child's portrait was taken in Copper Canyon, Mexico while my husband and I were on an Elderhostel trip several years ago. I then constructed the following portrait.

After I photographed the portrait of my little Mexican beauty I blended that photo with the photo of the Kiva to achieve this final design.

I quilted this piece before I matted and framed the finished piece. I chose to quilt the lines of the Kiva leaving the girl to appear as a presence.

I will be off line until after the holidays but I wish you all the best of the Season.

More Folk School park two

2011-11-20T18:13:00.005-05:00

This is a group shot of the amazing students I taught at J C Campbell the week of Nov. 6. How is it that I luck into having such wonderful people as my students. Maybe the atmosphere at JCC has something to do with it.

As promised I am going to post the remainder of my photos tonight. This is Tone C. with her beautiful daughter, beautifully rendered by her Mother. Tone is also an instructor at JCC. I'm always a little intimidated when I have a teacher in my class. However, Tone put me at ease and let me believe I was really teaching her something.

A close-up of the finished top. Tone is also is a felt maker. She used her own felt for her daughter's hat. She also free-motion thread painted some of the flowers in the background. Beautiful job Tone.

Mary was another student who really didn't need my help in making the portrait of her daughter and son-in-law. Mary is a doll maker and a wonderful one at that. She came to the class with a vision of how she wanted this done. I think her vision was right on. Another beautiful job.

Susan C. is doing a wonderful job on this piece. The portrait is of her good friend, Ellen. Ellen taught Susan how to quilt.

Susan was having a problem with the fabrics for the portrait. I have to assume responsibility for that as I guided her in this direction. I recently received a note from her and I think she has this worked out in her mind now.

Susan had perhaps the hardest landscape to make and she got a lot done considering we only worked two days on the landscape. Another job well done.

Susan M. is Susan C's sister-in-law they decided to take this class together. I got the feeling from Susan that this class was way out of her box. I believe she told me that she had never done anything like this before. I really would rather have someone who doesn't have a preconceived idea of what they need to do. Susan was very open to suggestions and really listened to my instructions.

Her portraits did not have as much information (pixel wise) as do most of the others. This made the pattern a little harder to read. I was so proud of what Susan did in this class. I can't wait to see it finished.

This is Beverly K's grandson. Beverly is one of those people who is her own worst critic. (She admitted this to me) She did such a wonderful job on this piece, but it was not without inflicting self wounds. I'm stretching this a little to make a point. I really want my students to enjoy what they are doing. I also want them to work to their best ability but love of creating should overtake perfection.

Now that I'm off my soap box, Beverly was unhappy with the dark fabric around the outside of the face. I agree that the transition was to stark. After Beverly returned home she changed that piece.

This is the redone face. Great job.

How do I do this every time. I missed getting a photo Donna D's granddaughter. If you read the previous post Donna created the landscape of the lake. Her granddaughter's photo was another hard one to work with. Her face was in shadow and we had to guess at some things. However, it was really turning out to be a very good portrait. Sorry Donna.

Jane O. did a great job on her granddaughter. She has a very complicated portrait to work on as there are three people in the photo. Jane sent me the photo and I just fell in love with these three faces.

I usually recommend that my student start with one portrait but when you think about it that's what they are doing. They just finish the other two at home. Jane did a super job on this and I can't wait to see the finished piece.

This is Mary M. with Stephanie and Grace. Mary is a real animal lover. These animals are lucky to have her in their lives. Mary wasn't real happy with her fabrics for the dogs. She was thinking about changing them later. I thought that they worked quite well. The fabrics were heavy, textured fabrics. I see those as working well for animals.

We all decided that Mary's leaves worked really well for this piece. They lend a feeling of folk art to the piece.

What can I say now. I have made eight new friends in the quilt world. I hope that I inspired in them the desire to continue creating. I know that they always inspire me.

More Folk School

2011-11-19T17:55:00.001-05:00

I'm going to finish blogging about the landscapes that were part of this class last week. Beverly K. wanted to portray her grandson at the lake where he likes to fish. She brought a piece of batik fabric where colors blended into each other and represented the water quite well. After adding a little paint to get yellow in the right areas she had the perfect piece.

Since we only had two days to actually work on the landscape Beverly was not able to get the leaves of the tree finished. She was throwing around several ideas one being snippets. There are several ways this could be done.

What she has on the background now is leaves that she fussy cut out of printed fabric. I demonstrated a technique I use where you cut out small pieces of fabric and place them between tulle and Solvy. You then thread paint over the surface and connect them by threads.

Mary K, sent me a photograph of her daughter's wedding. They were married in a field in Ohio that was lovely. However, Mary wanted to present them in a landscape with Stone Henge in the background. Stone Henge represented the careers of both bright and groom.

I knew before Mary came that she had a vision for this piece. I love to see students do their own "thing". I only guided a bit so I can't take much credit on Mary's piece.

Mary is also a doll maker. If you look up in the right hand corner you will see a stick doll that she made out of a piece of broken tree limb and fabric.

Mary M. is a lover of animals. She rescues both wild and domestic animals. She is certified to take wild animal babies into her home and nurse them back to health. She is also the owner of five dogs.

It was natural then that Mary chose two of her dogs to portray in her piece. Mary's family has owned a piece of property on a lake for a long time. She chose that location for her landscape.

Tone C. worked on the largest of the landscapes made last week. Don't know how but I failed to get a photo of just her landscape. During the time we emailed before class I got the feeling that Tone would be open to an abstract piece. I emailed her about the possibility of an abstract and she was eager to proceed in that direction.

I'm going to leave her photo for the post when I talk about the portraits. More later

J. C. Campbell Class

2011-11-16T17:58:00.004-05:00

It seems I've been burning the candle at both ends recently. Out of the last 24 days I've spend eight of those days at home. The at-homes days were scatter here and there. I've enjoyed teaching and my trip to Houston but am now paying for the stress with a sinus infections. Don't get me wrong I would do it all again I'm just feeling a little sorry for myself right now. (besides it's rainy and I always feel better on sunny days.)

This beautiful red oak tree decorates the parking log at the Fiber Studio on the Campus of J. C. Campbell Folk School. I have never been to Campbell when I wasn't inspired by its beauty.

The title of my class last week was "Personal Places: Portraits in the Landscape". This class combine two classes into one. A landscape class and a portrait class. Both are quite an undertaking for a week class but the two together makes for a very intense class. This group came through with flying colors. I'm going to break this post down into two or three sections. Today I'm going to post about the landscape sections.

I like to start this class with the landscape for several reasons. It is a simpler class than the portrait one and it also gives me a chance to see how each students works with fiber and how she/he sees fabric. It also provides a canvas for the portrait.

Susan C. chose a photo of her friend Ellen to create in fabric. Ellen's home is in a word "homey". She has wonderful antique pottery and furniture. She does a lot of quilting so Susan wanted to portray her doing just that.

Because I exchanged many emails with Susan before the class I knew that she had experience with landscapes. I asked her if she would like to begin her piece at home by working on the quilt in the photo. She did just that and gave herself a little hands-up on the project. Her quilt will show up later in photos to follow.

This piece is being worked on by Donna D. Donna wanted to make a portrait of her granddaughter. The setting is a lake that means a lot to their family. Donna seemed to start off a little slow and then I turned around and looked back and she had the whole forest finished.

Jane O. sent me a photo with three of her grandchildren included. I usually discourage more than one portrait in a beginning class but as long as the student realizes that they won't be able to get more than one made I don't object. Besides, I loved this photo and wanted to see Jane work on it.

The beach means a lot to Jane's family. The kids were sitting on steps that went down to the beach. The steps were out of focus and would have made a really interesting abstract background. However, Jane wanted to have the experience of making a landscape so we chose a scene from the beach. Jane will thread paint sea oats on the sand dune.

I've gotten too wordy and will post more later.

Off to J. C. Campbell Folk School

2011-11-05T21:04:00.001-04:00

View from the porch at the Keith House.

My cars packed and I'm ready to roll. Off tomorrow for a week at J. C. Campbell Folk School. Looking forward to meeting new students and spending a week at a wonderful place. Keep a look-out for more.

A Trip to Houston and IQA

2011-11-04T20:42:00.002-04:00

This photo was taken from my seat in about the third row for the awards presentation on Tuesday evening. My plane was late arriving and I had to wait on my shuttle. I got to my hotel at 5:00 and the awards ceremony started at 6:00. I had time to shower get dressed and get another shuttle to Brown Convention Center.

I arrive about two minutes before the presentations started. I was still getting my breath when they announced that Digital Imagery would be the first category. They announced the third place winner and it wasn't me. I took a deep breath and then they announced that "Ohm" by Marilyn Wall had won second. They flashed a picture of it on the screen and I went up to accept the ribbon.

Afterward I was kind of in daze and don't even remember the next few awards. After all these years to have my work recognized at this level is truly rewarding.

Hope I will have time to post more later. I leave Sunday to teach for a week at JC Campbell so I'm busy, busy, busy.

Fast Friday Fabric Challenge: Oct.

2011-10-30T20:33:00.001-04:00

This month's FFFC is to create a Notan.

Notan is a Japanese concept that utilizes black and white to demonstrate the contrast of positive and negative space. Often done as pen-and-ink drawings, Notan can easily be adapted to fabric with stunning results. This technique can help us evaluate our own skills with balancing the positive/negative space in our quilts

I have always enjoyed working with positive and negative space. Often when I am looking at designs I see the negative space first. Won't ever forget when the first Batman logo came out. I couldn't see the bat and wondered what the logo had to do with Batman. I still have to look at it and concentrate on the image before I can see the bat.

I'm not sure what that has to do with any thing except that I think I must see negative space first. That said I loved this challenge. Unfortunately my time won't allow me to do an actual piece but I will get back to it ASAP.

This project is one that you can work on any where. All you need is a piece of paper and scissors. I did this design sitting on my sofa watching the World Series.

Since the Palmetto tree and crescent moon are SC logos, I decided that I would work with those images. It took a while to realize that I had to make the moons one at a time. I was able to cut the tree out of folded paper by cutting out one tree.

This is pretty easily done with free form cutting.

Fabricating Faces at QSC Retreat

2011-10-25T20:55:00.002-04:00

Amanda B.

This past weekend I taught a class at the South Carolina Quilt Guild's Fall Retreat. I had twelve students in the class all of whom caught on to the technique right away. Being able to teach this class in a weekend instead of a one day class was so nice. I was able to cover more of Photo Shop Elements than I can do in a 6-hr class.

Ann S.

I had a set of sisters as well as a Mother/Daughter in the class. This was a great way to visit and yet learn and have fun.

Jeanne P. did this portrait taken by a friend who visited Africa. Ann and Jeanne were the sisters in my class. Jeanne is going to use this in a larger wall hanging. She is going to bead the earrings and the neck piece. Can't wait to see this finished.

Carol A.

Is he not a cutie? When Carol sent this photo I fell in love. She did a really good job. Carol was one of the two computer geeks who were invaluable in my class and I thank her again for her help.

Darlene

This is the portrait I posted last night when I blogged about lips and eyes. Darlene also did a great job. She was my second computer helper and really owe them a lot.

Haley K.
Haley is a member of our local guild and it was really nice getting to know her better. She did a portrait of her son when he was a few years younger and one of her first grandchild. Both beautiful.

Nancy
This cutie is actually a baby photo of Amanda who's portrait leads this post. Nancy and Amanda are Mother/Daughter. When Nancy was almost done with her portrait I walked by and asked her if she would mind cutting the last layer over again and changing the fabric to a lighter value. She agreed and I think she was very happy that she took the time to change to a lighter fabric. You have to enlarge this photo. and look at the drop of slobber on her bottom lip.

Four of my student left before I could get a photo of their finished portrait. I hope they will send me a photo so that I can post them as well. Hopefully more later.

Fabricating Faces

2011-10-24T19:55:00.008-04:00

I commented on my last post that often students want a defined mouth and eyes in their portrait. Sandi made a comment asking if I would post a comparison to the example I showed of my Dad. In my class this weekend Darlene's granddaughter's mouth was a perfect opposite of my Dad's.

My Dad's lips are just shapes of dark and light where Darlene's granddaughter's is what we think of as shaped lips.

The same goes for the eyes. My Dad's eyes here are shapes of black not round as we think of the iris as being round and some people have a problem with just adding shapes as I did in my Dad's portrait. Again this is Darlene's granddaughter and her eyes look "normal" to us.

What I want students to understand that Darlene's photo was perfectly lit. Her granddaughter's eyes do not disappear when she smiles as many of ours do. Therefore the photo made a great pattern with witch to work.

My Dad's portrait was made many years ago and I had to scan it into my computer. So a pattern from which to work was not as clear, and like me, his eyes tend to disappear when he smiles.

However, both photos made a pattern translated into a likeness.

Check in again soon, I'm going to post on the great class I had at QSC this past weekend. Didn't Darlene do a great job?

Off to QSC Retreat

2011-10-19T20:43:00.005-04:00

I'm off this week-end to teach at Quilter's of SC Fall Retreat. I'm going to be teaching Fabricating Faces and as always I like to make a new portrait just to refresh my memory of how the steps go.

I was going through some family photos recently and found this photo of my Dad. I scanned it and downloaded it to my computer to do the work in Photo Shop to get a good posterization.

Often my students will want to have a defined mouth, nose and eyes and that does make sense. Those are features that define us. However, I have made several portraits where all those features aren't defined and they turned out looking just like the person I was portraying. I wanted to make another one so that I could point that out to my students.

What do you think?

October HiFiber Meeting

2011-10-17T21:02:00.001-04:00

Last month HiFiber members presented portraits to the person who's name they had previously drawn about eight months ago. Those who were not going to be there asked that we not display their portraits until this meeting. Judy R. on the left presented Penny L with her portrait.

Penny is a world traveler thus the world with the bite taken out of the side.

We all filled out a form with lots of information about ourselves to help the member come up with ideas.

Judy R. also gave a demo about how to make fabric beads. It looked like Judy had brought all the embellishments she has in her studio. She showed us paints, tyvek, yarn, you name it and you can make beads from it. I was so engrossed in the process that I forgot to take photos of all the members in action. The beads above are some that I made.

Penny L. was the only one to bring show and tell. We meet in a gallery and don't always have wall space so we laid this one in the floor. Doesn't show it off well but it is quite lovely.

Penny asked for helpful suggestion on how she might quilt this piece. As usual we had plenty of ideas. I think Penny decided that she was going to machine quilt horizontal wavy lines across the piece. We hope to see it finished soon.

More October Focus Meeting

2011-10-16T16:23:00.000-04:00

My blog continues with more of the Focus Meeting. I wish to make this statement. The photos do not give credit to the quilts. They were pinned to a hanging quilt rack with black fabric behind them. It's impossible to get them to hang straight. So on with the show.

One of Dixie's beautiful Pineapple quilts took third place at the Asheville Show. Sorry I don't know what category.

A new Pineapple quilt that Dixie is working on.

This won best machine quilting for Sabrina in the Spartanburg Guild challenge.

Donna brought three pieces in progress. The last one had been attached to a canvas and Donna wasn't happy with the way it was finished. Several choices were discussed. We'll hopefully we will see all three of these later.

Diana won a Silver Award for Machine Quilting on this piece at the Floyd, Va. quilt show last month.

Diana and her husband, recently retired, are doing some much anticipated RV traveling. She decided to have a project ready to hand piece during these trips. This beautiful piece is one of them.

OOPS! I gave the Silver ribbon to the wrong quilt. This one won a Silver ribbon at Floyd, Va.

Diana's been in Veronica's scrap bag again. This piece looks lake a Scrabble game to me.

Marge's "Heartwood" won second place in the Art Quilt division at the Asheville, NC show. Marge also took us up to her studio to show the progress of her HUGE quilt that we have been following for more than a year. It's almost ready to quilt.

I know I've missed taking some photos and I've already posted what I took for show & tell so won't do that again. I apologize again for the poor photos and for missing so much information. I was quilt handicapped hearing all the back and forth information that should go with some of these quilts.

Be on the lookout for my next post on my HiFiber Fiber Arts meeting.

Oct. Focus Meeting

2011-10-15T15:57:00.003-04:00

This has been one busy week with meetings, appointments and one fun day with an old friend. It's been so busy that I have ignored my blog.

So, here goes. Focus met this week at Marge Edie's beautiful home. A few members were missing but we were happy to have an old or should I say ex member join us again. Judy Hayward has moved back to our area and is again joining us.

This is "Summer Soiree" which won Best of Show at the Asheville, NC quilt show this month. Judy's quilting in this piece is outstanding. In fact all her work is outstanding. I was able to get some close-ups of a few of the motifs used in this quilt.

This is the center design.

One of Judy's beautiful designs.

Judy also joined the Fast Friday Fabric Challenge this year.

Not bad for a little over a weeks work. Wish I could do my own work faster. Actually that's why I joined FFFC last year hoping to be able to move my process on a littler faster. This month I didn't even try, to much other STUFF going on.

This is a new piece that Judy is working on. She has a series of flower quilts that are titled with "lady" as part of the title. Can't remember what she said the name would be on this one. Sorry Judy, a senior moment.

This color palette is very different for Judy. Can't wait to see it finished.

I can see that I'm not going to get this finished today, too much to say. More later.

Mother Nature "Best of Show"

2011-10-07T01:13:00.003-04:00

Last weekend the annual Keowee River Scarecrow Festival was held in Seneca, SC. Various organizations were invited to make a scarecrow for the festival.

My friend and fellow fiber artist Judy Rapelje along with Donna Juras are members of The Artist' Loft located at 121B Townville St. in Seneca. Judy and Donna took on the job to make a scarecrow for their group.

Mother Nature was made to sit by their tent at the festival. As we all know Mother Nature, especially in the Fall, is know for her beauty. Judy and Donna's represented her well as she won 'Best of Show'.

Mother Natures's Bra

Donna Juras and Judy Rapelje creators of Mother Nature

She now resides at the Loft and should be around until well into November should anyone care to visit her. The hours of The Artist' Loft are 12 - 5 Tues. through Saturday behind the purple door.

A Happy Dance--Art Quilts XVI: Something to Say

2011-10-03T20:39:00.004-04:00

I received an email today from Vision Gallery in Chandler AZ that "Connor" was juried into Art Quilts XVI. The show will hang from November 28, 2011 through January 28, 2012. This is the second year that I have been juried into this show but this year is just as exciting.

This quilt is personal for me since it is of my grandson, Connor. I've told the story behind this quilt before but if you will bear with me I will tell it again. Last year my husband and I celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary. We took our family to Costa Rica as a celebration.

One of the tours we took was of a pineapple plantation. The guide was very personable and made the information interesting to young and old alike. He stopped our trolly and taking his machete cut a pineapple out of the field. He proceeded to cut the pineapple up into small pieces to pass around for everyone to have a taste. Our grandson, Connor was at the back of the trolly and when the guide got to Connor all the pieces were gone.

Connor had a turned down smile when the guide got to him. He was presented with the core of the pineapple. The look on his face as he reveled in munching the core was caught by my son in this photograph.

As soon as I saw the photo I knew I had to see if I could capture his look in fabric. I think I did and I'm excited that it was juried into this show.

Memories

2011-10-02T15:52:00.002-04:00

This is a photograph of my Father just a year or so before he passed away. I've been having a bit of sadness today as I prepare his photo as a demo for an upcoming class. I always try to do a demo portrait as I explain the different steps to my class.

Today I decided to search through my photos to find two photos of my Dad that I remember so well. They had not been digitized and I really had to do a closet search to find these two old photographs. I knew they were in a box but not where the box was located. Finally I found them.

I scanned them into my computer and am working on the steps to make them into a pattern for my "Fabricating Faces" class.

I love this photo. In the original my Mom is beside him. Daddy wore a light blue sweater and Mama a pink dress. I always thought my Dad was the most handsome man I had ever met.

Today as I work with the photo of Daddy as an older man I am struck by the kindness in his eyes. I see his gentleness in my son Gary, his love for all people in my daughter, Lisa, his love of God in my daughter, Lorin and his love for nature in my son, Michael.

My children remember how Daddy was able to make his ears wiggle and were amazed at him being able to take his tongue and move his teeth out and back into his mouth in one fail swoop. They remember how devastated he was when we came back to NC for a visit and the children found out their special Mimosa tree had been cute down. He hadn't realized how special that tree was for them and he was so sad that he had cut it down.

He had the most beautiful hands. I don't think hands are something that are noticed on a man. He was a laborer, a wonderful Father, a husband, a brother, a man of music. He was a wonderful man,.

A Play Day

2011-09-28T20:25:00.007-04:00

Yesterday I got together with friends Bonnie Ouellette and Ann Hanewald. Bonnie had us over to her house where she had already mixed dyes for us to play with.

Ann and I have been wanting to dye silk scarves but weren't really interested in going with dye made for silk. Bonnie uses Procyon dyes for cotton fabric and we have been reading on the Art Digest about using Procyon dyes on silk. You have to soak the silk in white vinegar for 30 minutes, ring out and add dye to a baggie.

You then place the baggie in the microwave and steam. We set the time for 2 minutes and, with the exception of the green dye, the dye set in that amount of time. Don't know why the green took longer.

Bonnie and Ann waiting for the silk to steam.

It was so good to get out of the studio and do something other than work on classes. I want to do some stamping on a few of the scarves to see how that works. Back to working on classes for now.

Hang In There With Me

2011-09-26T21:13:00.001-04:00

I'm busy writing information for a new class that I will be teaching in Nov. I am spending almost all day on the computer. That makes posting not very appealing at night when I usually do this. Hopefully I'll be creating soon.

Finally A New Post

2011-09-22T20:01:00.001-04:00

It's been a while since I've had time to post. I was on vacation last week and had a very relaxing time. I've been very busy since then but most of what I'm doing is preparing for two big classes that are coming up.

I'm teaching a long weekend class for the Quilters of South Carolina Fall Retreat. The class is "Fabricating Faces" and I prepare the pattern for each person's portrait. I always go over this part in my class but time doesn't usually allow me to spend much time on that part. This looks to be a fun class.

QSC Fall Retreat is held at White Oak Baptist Conference Center. It's a perfect place for this type of retreat. Hotel, food, class rooms and an auditorium for night meetings. The retreat is Oct 20-23.

In Nov. I'm teaching at J. C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC. The class is Nov. 6-12 and is called "Personal Places: Portraits in the landscape. When I found out last week that I had won a ribbon at the IQA Show in Houston I decided that I really wanted to go to receive the ribbon in person. When I made that decision to go I knew that all my projects would have to be put aside and I would have to have everything ready to go to Campbell before I left for Houston.

I've spend the day working in PSE 8 getting photos ready for that class and emailed to the group. For some reason I always think that I haven't accomplished anything when I spend the day doing computer work. I hope to share some of these blended photos but am waiting for my students to give me the Okay. During lunch I broke a tooth eating, of all things, a toasted cheese sandwich. So I'm off tomorrow morning to see how many trips to the dentist that will take.

I'm So Excited and I Just Can't Help It.

2011-09-15T22:17:00.001-04:00

"Ohm"I got a phone call from Crystal in Houston today to tell me my entry "Ohm" was a winner in the IQA Show in Nov. I am still shaking. Tuesday we left to go on vacation to Hilton Head, SC. We didn't get here until about 5:00. As I was putting our clothes away my cell phone rang. When I answer it I was disconnected. Didn't think anything about it but later decided I should check my recent calls in case it was one of our children trying to reach us. The phone number was listed and it said Houston, TX. I had a little heart flutter but decided that it must have been a wrong number. The next day I carried my phone with me all day but once again missed a phone call from TX. About this time I say Marie Elkins post on Art Digest saying she had gotten a call from Crystal at Houston telling her she was one of the top eight winners in the show. So I was really getting excited that perhaps Crystal was calling me to tell me that I was a winner in something. We do all dream about this right? Today she called again and I actually got to speak to her. She told me that I was cash winner but she couldn't tell me what place. I am still shaking. This is beyond my wildest dreams. I hadn't planned to go to Houston this year because I start teaching a week long class on that Sunday. I'm going to have to get very organized and get my stuff ready because I AM GOING TO HOUSTON.For some reason blogger wouldn't let me use paragraphs in my post. Sorry, that makes it difficult to read.

A Tribute

2011-09-10T21:45:00.002-04:00

Doll by Betsy Dunkle

HiFiber Art Group Meeting: Fun, Fun, Fun

2011-09-08T20:24:00.000-04:00

At the beginning of the year Bonnie O, Judy R, and myself took on the task of scheduling the months meetings for HiFiber 2011. Some months we had demos that resulted in a finished project. Some months we just had instructions that were to learn a new technique with no project. Judy, Bonnie and I rode to Paducah, KY together in Dec. to see the Everychanging River exhibit at the Quilt Museum. While there I purchased "Mixed-Media self-portraits" by Cate Coulacos Prato. This book inspired us to propose a challenge where we drew names of another member to make a portrait, rather than do a self-portrait. The challenge was wide open. It could be realist, abstract, representational or just something that represented that person's life. We met today for the unveiling.

This piece was done by Beatrix R. shone on the left of Donna B. shown on the right.Beatriz chose to abstract Donna's image as most of Donna's work is abstract. Very nicely done and while abstract you can certainly tell who she is.

There were two of our members who were unable to be at this meeting but they sent their portraits. This piece was made by Sandra R for Dianne G. Sandra used symbols of Dianne's life and art work but in the center she placed a flap with Dianne's portrait printed on fabric.

Closeup of Dianne's piece.

Bonnie O. on the left, my portrait, me on the right. I was so sure that someone else had my name that I didn't realize that this was me. Bonnie portrayal of me was inspired by some of my art work. "Ohm" shows me in a yoga pose, "Love" was another piece of mine. My classes are called Fabricating Nature, thus the Nature Girl. Then there was Hollie our little dog of eighteen years. I love it!

Closeup of my portrait.

And then it was my turn! I got Bonnie's name. I have to confess that I rigged the drawing so that I would end up with her name. Bonnie has a reputation of having her daughter take nude photos of her backside when they go on vacations together. That was the photo I received of Bonnie. So I decided to make her a doll.

Me on the left and Bonnie on the right.

I had the most fun making this doll. Bonnie is really into fish and fishing so I made her a pair of fish earrings. She has a tattoo on her leg of a fish and I was able to apply that by using TAP transfer paper, My friend made her a pair of glass and they are placed on her forehead. She is placed on a large B platform. Fun!

closeup of piece made by Donna B. for Heidi W.

Heidi W. on the left with Donna B. on the right. Donna wanted to portray Heidi as a busy person, a colorful person and a prolific quilter. The image she used in all the solid color pieces show Heidi as if she is blurred. Very nice piece.

This piece was made by Penny L. for Beatrix R. Penny sent it in because she wasn't able to make it to this meeting. Penny wrote a whole page explaining why she chose this piece for Beatrix, I wasn't able to hear most of as it was being read, but it is a beautiful piece. Hopefully I will have more info later.

Closeup of Beatrix R, piece made by Penny L.

Heidi W. on the left with Judy R. on the right. I think it's pretty obvious here who the maker and who the subject is. Heidi did a wonderful thread painting of this portrait of Judy.

Closeup of Judy. This is a very impressive piece and Heidi says it was easy. Yeah right!There were two more portraits that I'm not showing on the blog because they weren't able to be at the meeting. We will save them for the Oct. meeting. More fun to come.

Fast Friday Fabric Challenge part 2

2011-09-07T19:17:00.002-04:00

After pondering the images for a while I decided that I needed to print some more images. I decided to print four, since I could get them all on a sheet of fabric, and then decide how many I wanted to use. I chose this image and enhanced it PSE.

After printing my images it's now time to look for a background. Three years ago I went with my friend, Ann to QBL in NY. there was a wonderful vender there selling hand dyed cotton sateen. I often get the pieces out that I purchased but have yet to use them. I knew I would find the perfect use for these some day.

This is the original configuration. But there was something bothering me. It always helps to discuss my pieces with someone who's opinion I respect. I called my friend Ann and asked her to look at a photo I had just emailed her. One of the things that bothered Ann was the order in which I had the images displayed. That wasn't what I was seeing but after she brought my attention to the area I agreed with her. Still the top left image and the bottom right image seemed to be just a smidgen to light. I place two layers of tulle over them and voila, I liked it.

This is the finished image, now to get it quilted.

Fast Friday Fabric Challenge: Aug/Sept

2011-09-05T20:04:00.010-04:00

Challenge #60: Mood/Atmosphere

The challenge for this months FFFC was to use color to create an atmosphere and mood. For a change from our normal fiber only, we could choose a different medium than fabric if that appealed to you. Paper art, photography, mixed media, painting, drawing or whatever else. The challenge was created by A. Carol Grant a long time member of FFFC.

"Sanctuary" 37" x 45"

This is what I've been working on all week. The project started out to be a study for a piece of which I wanted to make a large wall hanging. My original idea didn't pan out and this piece morphed from a 13" x 18" to 37" x 45".

I'm going to map out where I started and give a little info of how I arrived at the final design.

Heron

Ibis

I took these photographs at a Bird Rookery on Harbor Island, SC. I played with them in PSE and this is the blended photograph that I came up with.

I am really pleased with the outcome of the blending and enhancement of these two photos I made in PSE. I really had another idea for this piece and still may give it a try later but for now I'm happy using it in "Sanctuary".

I printed this photo on two 13" x 18" pieces of fabric. One was silk and the other cotton sateen. I printed them on my Epson Workforce 1100. They came out beautifully.

When I decided that I wasn't going to be able to accomplish my original idea I started playing a little. I printed out another piece on 13" x 18" organza and at some point during the printing process I think I hit the stop button. The printer spit out a partially printed piece. That turned out to be the single Ibis.

This gave me an idea so my next printed piece on organza was the original Ibis photo.

This is a long post so will finish at a later date. Hope you will be back.

And The Winner Is?

2011-09-01T23:22:00.004-04:00

Congratulations,Linda Robertus. Winner of Masters Art Quilts Vol 2. Please email me your address so I can pass it on to Lark Publishing.

Masters Art Quilts vol.2 Give Away part III

2011-08-31T19:21:00.004-04:00

Last year an exhibit I participated in, The Ever Changing River, was exhibited at The National Quilt Museum in Paducah. A group of us went up the week end of the opening and had a tour of the museum given by Judy Schwender. Judy is the curator. Our exhibit takes a fair amount of space but there was a lot of wall space left to fill. Judy decided that she wanted to have the whole exhibit to focus on rivers. After all Paducah is located on the mighty Ohio River.

Among the many wonderful pieces of art hanging in the exhibit was a piece by Karin Franzen.

Pirouette III
49 x 42

Pirouette IV
49 x 42

I believe this is the piece that was hanging in that exhibit. Photographs can not do this piece of art justice. I can't begin to describe it either. I can tell you a little about her work as described in Masters Art Quilts Vol 2.

Karen's backgrounds are pieced or built up from multiple layers of silk organza, which she dyes, discharges, and screen prints. She fills each piece with details, which draws viewers in.

I totally agree with that comment. I could have spent the whole day looking at this piece. I would have then walked away still not knowing how she was able to accomplish her work.

I could go on and on but will just show you another piece of her work.

A Time to Dance
49 x 45

Leave a comment on my blog and you might be the winner of this wonderful book. I will draw a name at the end of the day tomorrow.

Masters Art Quilts vol.2 Give Away part II

2011-08-30T19:33:00.005-04:00

More Eye Candy. Post a comment for a chance to win this beautiful book.

Jim Smoote

Isabella Baykova

Isabella Baykova

Tomorrow I will post my very favorite artist and some of her work.

Masters Art Quilts vol.2 Give Away

2011-08-29T20:24:00.003-04:00

When I was asked to write a preview of Master Art Quilts vol 2 and participate in a blog hop I decided that I wouldn't look at any of the blogs scheduled ahead of me. I didn't want to be influenced by what others thought.

While I stuck to that I've decided not to write a preview but to feature a few of the artist that really caught my attention. I'm sure that if you've been following the hop you've already been told what eye candy awaits you in this book.

I'll warn you ahead of time, since my interest lies in people and portraits my choices have been with that in mind.

Carolyn Crump

Genevieve Attinger

Blogger is acting up tonight won't let me add more photos, hope to finish tomorrow night. I will be giving away a book on Sept. 1. Write and leave a comment and how to get in touch if your name is drawn. The book will be shipped to you from Lark Craft Inc.

The list of artist participating in the blog hop is below:

8/29: Diane Lochala-http://dianedoodles.blogspot.com
8/30: Sue Bleiweiss-http://www.suebleiweiss.com/blog
8/31: Gerrie Congdon-gericondesigns.com/weblog
9/1: Marilyn Wall-http://www.marilynhwall.blogspot.com
9/2: Laura Wasilowsk-http://artfabrik.blogspot.com
9/6: Sherryl Buchler-http://skb2000.blogspot.com
9/7: Cheryl Lynch-http://www.CherylLynchQuilts.blogspot.com
9/8 Deborah Boschert-http://DeborahsJournal.blogspot.com
9/9: Brenda Gael Smith-http://serendipitypatchwork.com.au/

"Lost in the Music"

2011-08-25T20:20:00.006-04:00

I belong to an online group called Fast Friday Fabric Challenge. The last Friday of each month a challenge is issued and theoretically you have a week to get it finished. This month I was able to get the top made but didn't have time to do the quilting. I finally got around to it today.

The challenge was to us the word "Solitude" using abstract realism. I came up with this piece of my granddaughter, Ellington in a dance recital.

I decided to echo the quilting lines and have them get wider to the right side of the quilt. This represented movement. I used YLI thread for the echo quilting in a color call "thunder". I love the way this thread changes color every inch. The variation of color also show movement.

I thought I might walk you through the steps I took to make this piece. To get my pattern I usually enhance a photo in PSE8. I make a pattern and place it under my applique sheet or on a piece of parchment paper. For this project I started the dress first and constructed it on my design wall.

I then took the dress down and laid it over my applique sheet on my table. This made it a little more convenient for me to work on. Here I have started her head and hair and hair as well.

I've combined the body and head but the top of her dress is wrong. I usually keep the original photo handy as a reference to help me see what the problem is and make the adjustments.

Now I'm happy with the neckline so I iron the pieces together. I always make sure that everything is in the right place before I place the iron to fabric. Misty Fuse is pretty forgiving and it's possible to take a piece or two off to move it around but if you check everything twice you won't have to do that.

I then placed the body on my background fabric and iron in place. The black with a little mottled gray was just the right piece of fabric to depict a stage curtain.
This was one of my favorite challenges. We will be issued another one tonight at midnight. Can't wait.

Finally, Some Time In My Studio

2011-08-24T19:46:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I had two hours to spend in my studio. The first in about a month, with the exception of helping my two granddaughters make a little project while they were visiting. It felt so good to be in there working again.

I'm working on a very special doll. It is way larger than I thought it was going to be but I think it will work out for my project anyway. I can't show the doll yet because it is for an exhibit. I'm excited about working on this doll because as I said earlier it is special.

I am in the process of stuffing the doll and it is starting to take shape. I'm hoping to add a little unusual embellishment. I've not done the process for that yet so it will be experimental. Have I got your curiosity yet? I'll let you know when it's finished and I can post a photograph.

The New Home for Peacockiness

2011-08-22T20:23:00.002-04:00

Last year I sent a quilt to Houston for the "In Full Bloom" exhibit. It sold while in Houston but it traveled around the rest of the year to IQA's other shows. The new owner now has the piece and she sent me a photo of it's new home.

She has been remodeling a house and picked out the lighting to go with the colors in the art work. How cool is that?

It always makes me feel good to know that when my work leaves me it is being appreciated and loved.

Student's Portraits from Workshop Today for LMQG

2011-08-20T20:10:00.008-04:00

Today I taught a class titled "Fabricating Faces" for my local guild, Lake and Mountain Quilt Guild. We worked seven steady hours today taking only a little break for lunch. I'm tired but it's a good tired. We accomplished some really nice pieces.

This piece is a self-portrait of Christina. She has a few more things to add to this piece but not much.

This is Becky M's portrait. I have to laugh because Becky was so worried she wouldn't be able to do this class. Well, you only have to look at this portrait to see that she listened and proceeded and she did a wonderful job. She also has a little more to do to call this finished. She is going to add some whisp of hair along the forehead and a few other little details.

This is a portrait of Betty's daughter. The photograph we used to get the pattern was very contrasty. She was actually on the beach, I believe in Hawaii, for a wedding. I wanted her to be able to use this photo because it was special. She did not get the details that some of the others were able to get but I think the portrait came out well. I can see the wind blowing her hair.

This little guy is so cute. Donna C. is doing a great job on this piece. She has yet to add the details around his eyes, another layer to detail the sweater and then she can add the light to his eyes and have a wonderful portrait of her grandson. I hope I am able to get a finished photo so I can share it here.

Donna's choice of fabric for the hair has really turned out nice. The design on the fabric is actually a wood grain design but it make great hair.

Lynn has details to add to this portrait taken from very old photograph of her Grandmother. We had to scan it into the computer in order to make the pattern. It really didn't scan well but I think that this piece captures the look of an old photo.
A job well done.

Martha S. struggled and struggled with the drawing of the pattern for this piece. Her struggles came from the fact that the face was cropped out of a photo that included the little girl sitting on a swing. The cropping made the pattern unclear.

After struggling and finally getting a pattern she could use, Martha went to town and ended up with this wonderful portrait of her Granddaughter. A lot of the struggling was my fault in not saying "this photo isn't working lets find another". But, Martha ended up with a nice portrait any way.

Isn't this wonderful? Peggy is going to add a few more cut outs in the dark part of the hair to let some of the lighter highlights come through. This piece turned our really nice and I think it was a combination of right photo right fabric and attention to detail.

Isn't this little guy cute? I wish I had asked Shirley C. how old he is now. I'm pretty sure he is in college and I can see him looking at this and saying "Oh Mom".

I loved the fact that Shirley chose the blue fabric to make this portrait. The value changes are subtle but enough to work for this technique. She still has some detail, especially in the eye area. I hope to get a finished photo of this piece as well because the details make a big difference.

Now, Judy work diligently on this portrait of her fair skinned Granddaughter. In the end we decided that she was really wasting time trying to finish the piece in fabric. Again I take the blame. The photo didn't have enough contrast for a good pattern and used more than four layers to get a pattern. Because of that Judy chose white to black fabric. It just wasn't working.

We decided that she should send me another photo and I will make a pattern for her. She will then make a a new one using pink fabric. Judy understands the concept of how this is done and will be able to make a satisfying piece. No matter what was done to the white/black fabric it wasn't going to be satisfactory.

Donna was my other student but she was also the facilitator for the class. Her photograph included parts of a Teddy Bear and she decided that she wanted to make the bear black and white and the face of the girl in other colors. She didn't have the fabrics she needed, so will work on her piece at home.

It was a great day, I love to share this process and see my students amazed at what they are creating.

A Request For Help For 911 Project

2011-08-19T08:28:00.000-04:00

This message came from an on-line group to which I belong. I think it is a great idea and wanted to pass it on to you.

Dear Friends from around the world!

In remembrance of the tragic events of September 11th, we invite you to be a
part of a call for peace and reconciliation. Add your voice! Create a wish
for peace for the world, in a common "Thread" of Human Fellowship and Unity.
These ribbons from around the world will be tied together and made into a
unique work of art.

Steps to participate:

1) cut a 12 inch ribbon (or fabric, yarn or other knotable material)
2) write a message of hope or a wish for the world, or just sign your name
3) mail in or drop off the ribbon at the address below:
4) SPREAD THE WORD/"SHARE" THIS INVITATION PLEASE!

HumanThread Center
645 W. 18th Street
Chicago, Illinois 60616
U.S.A

Family Fun

2011-08-16T21:04:00.003-04:00

It's been a while since I have had time to post on my blog. We have had our children and their families here for about two weeks. Some came and went at different time but we had them all here over the weekend. Had a wonderful time. I'm water logged from so much time in the lake.

Our last family left today, they live near San Diego so we only see them about twice a year. We had one on one time with the two grandchildren yesterday. My husband took Connor into his shop and worked with him on the lathe to make a honey dipper.

Sydney who will be eight on Thursday came into my studio to make a pillow. Sydney loves to create, when we were visiting last Feb. she came our of her room with clothing she had made for her stuffed rabbit.

I chose a pattern by Raggedy Reverse Applique titled "Bugaboos & Flowers Too". Since it was Sydney's first time using a sewing machine I chose the simple flower patter. I then told her to choose three different fabrics from my stash. When I opened the closet she exclaimed "Wow! I loved it another fiber junkie in the family.

Sydney is very intent when she does something. She listened well to my instructions and she really wants to do it all herself. She did a great job tracing the pattern on paper which she then attached to top of three layers of fabric. After following the pattern I showed her how to cut out the layer of fabric to uncover the color she wanted for each part of the design.

This is what the top of the pillow looked like before it was washed.

This is the pillow after washing and drying. Sydney also stuffed the filling and sewed the closure seam.

The proud sewer and her finished pillow.

I loved teaching her. We are hoping to spend a little more time in San Diego next year. You can bet I will have a new project lined up to teach her.

I failed daisy beading

2011-08-03T19:38:00.007-04:00

Yesterday I attended a beading workshop taught by Mary Stori. Mary was the lecturer at Lake and Mountain Quilt Guilt this month and stayed over for a beginning beading workshop.

It was quite obvious that Mary had taught this class a lot. She was very organized, explained herself well and most importantly wanted us to understand why we were doing what we were doing.

In the photo above you can see the set up Mary used for teaching. I know she taught this class for years with out with this technology and I can't imagine how tough it was for her to have everyone see what she was doing.

She had a camera set on a small tripod that projected her hands, beads and fabric on a screen behind her. This made it great for the student to see everything up close.

I've done very little beading in my fiber art career. Beaded the center of some of my flower quilts. One actually went to Houston several years back. I realized yesterday just how badly I had it was done.

Mary presented the class in two sessions. The first class we made straight lines with seed and bugle beads. My lines are not quite straight, but what do you expect from a beginner? Mary actually taught us a technique to straighten those lines out.

We learned about basic stitches, thread, needles and frames.

This is one of Mary's felted pieces. Obviously she loves buttons but also notice the beaded boarder.

Anything look familiar in this piece? How about those buttons?

In the afternoon class Mary taught a few of her more more difficult designs. This is were I got in trouble. Couldn't figure out the daisy design and I wanted to move on so I let it drop. I think the very next design I missed something she said and again needed help, this time I asked. Mary came over and quickly show me my problem.

As the class progressed I started thinking of many applications where I could use beads.

These are some of my favorite pieces made by Mary. My apologies for cutting parts of some of the quilts off.

I saved my favorite for last. Isn't it just like a (man) to tell us to get a hobby and tell us we're spending too much money. Sorry I didn't get a pic of the whole quilt. You do get that she is in psychologist office, did you notice the crazy quilting along the edge?

Thanks Mary for a great class.

Interesting Photographs

2011-08-01T20:31:00.002-04:00

I've been canning tomato sauce and blueberry jam. Baking breads, desserts and entrees for the freezer. My family will start arriving this coming Saturday and someone will be here through the 17th of August.

I like to have food prepared for a lot of meals so that I don't have to spend too much time in the kitchen. I like to enjoy having them here and that helps me do just that.

So my posting will be sparse until after they leave. The only time I will have in my studio this week will will be preparing for a class on "Fabricating Faces" that I will be teach at our local guild on the 20th. I look forward to posting photos of that class afterward.

Tomorrow I am taking a breather from cooking and will take a class in beading by the bead queen, Mary Stori. I hope to have photos and a post about this class. Don't give up on me. If I don't have a post about making art I will post some interesting photos.

Mexico

Fast Friday Fabric Challenge

2011-07-25T19:15:00.002-04:00

The first Friday of every month a challenge is issued to the members of FFFC. I haven't been able to do the last two or three. There are some members who are able to meet each challenge, however, you aren't required to do so. I've been working on finishing up a couple of large pieces the last few months so I have chosen not to participate.

When I saw the challenge for this month, I really liked the topic and so decided to get at least the top done for this one.

The challenge is explained below:

Challenge 59 - Solitude
July 2011 Challenge 59 – Solitude Host: Ann Turley Due: July 30th noon ET

What comes to mind when you hear the word “solitude”? Do you think of the state of being alone, yet not really lonely? Solitude and loneliness are often thought of as being similar, yet there is a definite difference. Loneliness is accompanied by a sense of isolation and separation, and a feeling that something is missing. Solitude is a state of being alone without being lonely. It is a desirable state, one that can be used as a time of reflection and personal growth or enjoyment. A great example is reading, a very solitary activity. And for our own purposes here at Fast Friday, when we engage in the creative process of developing an idea, we work in happy solitude. I’ve included a link to an article from “Psychology Today” that I found to be useful in writing this month’s challenge: http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200308/what-is-solitude

Your challenge is to create a piece of fiber art that demonstrates solitude in a representational abstract manner.

"Lost in the Music" size 22" x 27"

I used a photograph of my granddaughter as inspiration for this piece. The lighting was low on the stage making it hard to get a photograph that wasn't somewhat blurred.
When I worked on the photo in Photo Shop Elements I got what looked like two or three images around her body. I thought this was quite cool and fit the abstract requirements for this challenge.

I had an incredibly beautiful piece of Sky Dye fabric that I've been hanging onto for years that was the perfect fabric for this piece. The dress is cut from the same piece of fabric in different areas to get the movement I was looking for. I used turquoise tulle fused with Misty Fuse to make the pleats on the skirt. Misty Fuse adds a little texture but doesn't interfere with the open look of tulle.

I made use of scrap fabric left over from "Connor" to make the face and body. The background curtain is a black on black cotton.

As I said earlier I've been doing a lot of machine quilting and while I find quilting creative it doesn't really satisfy my need to create. This project was small enough for me to at least get the top finished within the time frame and meet that need to create as well.

A fun project.

Focus Fiber Art's July Meetingt

2011-07-24T19:25:00.006-04:00

Focus meet this past Wednesday at my home. Dixie Haywood is still in the clean out mode. She is trying to use up samples made over a thirty year career as a teacher and author. She has been making "Lovies" for Diana and Veronica's guild in Spartanburg.
Marge, Donna, Janet and Diana look over some of the 18 lovies Dixie made this month.

This is also one of Dixie's pieces that she will also use as a donation.

Diana's husband retired in Jan. they purchased and RV and plan to do a lot of traveling. Diana wanted some handwork to keep her busy during these trips. Here it is just six months later and she already has this wonderful piece put together. She has started quilting it and hopes to have it ready for the Asheville, NC Quilt Show.

Before starting the quilting of a new piece, especially if she hasn't free motion quilted recently, she works on a comfort quilt to warm up.

Marge Edie's very large quilt was the inspiration for Diana to use diamonds in her hand sewn quilt. Marge has been working for over a year on this one. I can't wait to see it finished it is going to be a master piece.

Donna Barnhill's first brought this piece to Focus a couple months ago. As usual we had some ideas to share with her and she culled out what she liked and ended up with this neat piece.

Donna added many different pieces of copper as embellishments and turned this traditional pattern into a piece of artwork

Janet Ginn brought this piece last month, all she had were a few of the circles made and was asking for advice on how to mount them. As I said earlier we always have advice.

One of the great things about Focus is we can ask for advice but we don't feel as if we are hurting anyone's feeling by not taking that advice. Janet did just that with this piece. Best I remember we were looking at a black and white background. Janet decided to add some squares to go with the circles and now she has a wonderful bright comfort quilt.

Okay I know you've been waiting to see a number of pieces by Veronica. Well it seems that exercise and blueberries have been keeping her busy this month. She did manage to get this piece beaded. It was interesting to walk around the piece and see the beans sparkle.

I shared this sample piece that I am practicing on. I wanted to try the quilting design on the small piece to make sure it was right for my larger quilt.

More Quilting on "Spirit of the Kiva"

2011-07-21T17:06:00.004-04:00

After taking yesterday off for a Focus Meeting, more on that later, I began working on the top of the Kiva today.

This area is underground. Wooden beams and planks support the earth on top. There is an entry hole with a ladder for you to use to enter the Kiva.

I entered the Kiva at just the right time of day. The sun was in a position that made wonderful shadows of the ladder and opening on the floor.

I decided the stones needed a darker thread outline.

This is the finished sample. I think the quilting lines accomplished the look I was after. The Kiva stands out while the girl appears as a spirit.

I posted the photos a littler larger than I normally do so you can enlarge to get a better view of the quilting. These photos were taken without the aid of a tripod so they aren't quite as sharp as they should be.

Any comments would be appreciated.

Happy Dance

2011-07-19T17:09:00.000-04:00

I got the fat email from IQA Houston today. "Ohm" was juried into the World of Beauty Show at Houston.

"Caught in the Web" did not make it but I'm happy to have one accepted.

Quilting "Spirit of the Kiva"

2011-07-17T20:54:00.010-04:00

After quilting "Connor" recently I decided that by using a photo of the finished fabric face I could mark quilting lines on the paper to see if I liked the design.

These are the two photographs that I blended in Photo Shop Elements. The idea that I wanted to convey was one of spiritualism.

I felt that the blending of these two photos did just that. So instead of printing this one on paper I decided to use my new Epson 1100 and print it on fabric. With this printer I can print a 13" x 19" piece of fabric.

This size is large enough to actually quilt and get a better idea of what the large piece will look like.

I decided to start with the stone wall at the bottom of the ladder and moved on to shadow inside the Kiva.

I marked the shadow on the fabric.

And began quilting.

My idea for this piece is for the girl to be the spirit in the Kiva. Because of this I decided that the Kiva should be the only quilting lines in the piece. I was concerned about actually placing quilting lines through the eyes of the girl and that is the reason I decided to print on fabric.

I got this far with the piece today and think I am on track. However, sometimes I feel that I am too close to the piece so any feed back would be appreciated.

A lesson Learned

2011-07-16T21:16:00.000-04:00

I spent two days this week at the AQS Quilt Show in Knoxville, TN. It was a good show but I noticed that many of the quilts were really wrinkled. This distracted so much from the beauty of the quilts.

I've sent many quilts to AQS shows over the years and know that they take good care of them. I have to assume that the wrinkling came from being packed incorrectly by the sender.

I looked on the Internet to see if there were instructions for folding a quilt for shipment. There were many. One was to fold on the bias, folding corners to the center and eventually ending with a rectangle. One of the quilts I saw there had very obviously used this method, you could see all the folds. This method may work in many cases and I'm not condemning it, but it did not work in this case.

The method that works for me is to roll tissue paper or bubble wrap and lay it in the fold of the quilt. I make as few folds as possible to get it in a reasonably sized box.

Rolling the quilt and mailing it in a tube or three sided box makes for a crease free quilt upon arrival.

If I'm lucky enough to have more quilts accepted in shows I will make sure that when my quilt arrives it will be wrinkle free.

More Information on Connor's Pineapple Quilt

2011-07-11T15:20:00.013-04:00

I received a lot of request from readers to post a larger image of my finished Connor piece. Here it is. I've also decided to go through the process of making this quilt.

I start with a photograph that I like. I enter it into Photo Shop Elememts and after doing some tweaking to the image I posterize the photo using 8 layers. I then enlarge the photo to the desired size.

I chose my fabric. This is hand dyed to my specifications by Vicki Welsh

I trace the image onto muslin with pencil. I always begin working with the eyes. Two reason for this. The eyes set back further than any other part of the face so they need to be in first. The eyes are almost always the first thing we look at in a person's face. Therefore we want them to be correct.

I progress from around the eyes. Always use the lightest color on the bottom so you do not get shading.

Here I have finished Connor's face and started the pineapple.

I've chosen Connor's shirt fabric, the background fabric and the foreground fabric and add them here. I am not happy with the eyes but have to look at it for a while before I make a change. NOTE: I have not ironed down anything. This is the last thing I do. You might note that the eyes and background have changed from this photo to the finished photo.

Oops, almost forgot the hand. I built my images separately and then put them together similar to a puzzle.

Hand and pineapple greenery attached together.

This photo shows the old background. Take a look at his teeth, they are far to white. I changed that as well. After getting this far I let the top rest on my design wall for a couple of weeks.

When I started quilting I again started with his eyes.

Finished his face and hair and then went onto other parts to finish the quilting. I learned a lot making this quilt but I learned the most about the actual quilting. If you have any questions or would like some of the photos posted larger let me know.

Almost forgot I had a request for a closeup of the pineapple. Here it is.

Whitewater Rafting Bull Sluice on the Chattooga

2011-07-08T19:32:00.010-04:00

I don't often blog about family things but I did something today that I wouldn't have believed doing in a million years. I went whitewater rafting down the Chattooga River (Think Deliverance). After heavy rains upstream last night we went down, what our guide said were, class 5 rapids.

Bull Sluice is well known in our area because it's a short distance from a main highway. Lots of people hike up to the bottom of the sluice to watch crazy people go over.

We were some of those crazy people. We have two our our granddaughters visiting from Mt. Pleasant and a friend each. Nana and Papa wanted to entertain them. So crazy that we are, we took them whitewater rafting.

The only people you can see here is our guide, John, who is my new hero, myself, with an unadulterated look of fear on my face and my husband Kermit.

My hero is keeping me in the raft.

The only people seen here are two of the girls and John. At that point I'm under water, but still in the raft.
.

Time out for a group shot.

And we are on our way for more rafting. Fun? Yes, but I don't think I want to do Bull Sluice again.

Connor's finally finished!

2011-07-04T20:17:00.004-04:00

Before Quilting

After Quilting

An interested thing I found out about designing, making and then quilting a piece like Connor's portrait is that the free-motion-machine quilting took as much time as did the actual making of the front. I've been quilting since 1996 and it took me 15 years to reach this conclusion.

I've always know that the quilting was an important part of the process but I think I have just realized how important it is. I've resisted machine quilting though I know how important it is to what I do.

Why? Because I never felt I was a good machine quilter, so I put off quilting as long as I can. Well, while this piece is not quilted perfectly I feel that I made a break through in my quilting.

Probably the biggest break through came when I decided to make a photo of the different elements on the quilt. I took a photo of Connor's face and while looking at the original photo I drew lines on the photo where I thought I should machine quilt. This approach worked quite well for me.

In the past I have started quilting without a plan. Because I did plan this time I knew when I got to a certain point where I needed to go next.

My next break through came when I decided that unless I absolutely can not make a portrait without Steam-A-Seam Lite I won't use it any more. I am a big Misty Fuse fan but because it doesn't have stickum on the back it doesn't stay in place as well as SAS.

It is because of this fact that I have been using SAS Lite. However, I find it to be difficult to sew through and leaves major needle holes in my face. It is tough and gums up my machine. My next portrait will be an experience in using Misty Fuse.

This are two lessons that I'm grateful for learning. Now I just have to put them in practice.

More Quilting on Connor's Face

2011-07-03T21:07:00.002-04:00

I began my quilting on Connor's face by starting with his eye's. Actually that is were I began when putting his face together as well. If you were to layer a face, you would find that eyes are the deepest layer, so I always start there.

After finishing the eyes I started working around the eye and worked outward. As I said in my previous post I had taken a photo of Connor's face from my finished fabric piece and drew my quilting design on it before I started the actual quilt. That gave me a good idea how to proceed.

I finished quilting his head by stitching his hair last. I had used several shades of brown in his hair showing high lights and shadows so I basically followed those areas using different shades of brown thread.

I am not an accomplished free motion quilter and I have yet to come up with "a favorite thread". Normally for my work I prefer cotton because I don't like the sheen that Silk, Rayon and Polyester give off. For this project, however, I did use all three of the shinny threads. My favorite was the silk.

Tomorrow I will post the finished project and give you a few more of my thoughts on things learned.

Happy Fourth!

Machine Quilting Connor and Computer Virus

2011-07-01T19:37:00.004-04:00

I've been away this week because my laptop computer acquired an expensive virus. It makes me really angry that I have to pay someone to get rid or a virus that I had nothing to do with. The computer geek had to delete all my programs, but luckily he could save my files. Oh well, I'm up and happy now.

I have been working this week on the machine quilting of the portrait I made of my grandson Connor.

If you read my blog often enough you will know that this is not my favorite part of the process of making a piece of fiber art. Well, I surprised myself by enjoying quilting Connor's face.

I prepared to quilt by taking a photograph of Connor's fabric face and printing it on paper. I also laid the original photograph of Connor beside the fabric face. I used the printed copy to draw a design on so I would know what I wanted to do.

One of the problems I have with machine quilting is getting to a section and not knowing where to go next. By using the photo to sketch on it gave me a much better idea of where to go and how to get there. It's actually like drawing.

Tomorrow More quilting.

The River Flows Again

2011-06-27T07:14:00.003-04:00

A reception was held yesterday for The EverChanging River at the Oconee Heritage Museum in Walhalla, SC.

The food was wonderful.

You may recall that three fiber art groups participated in this challenge. Focus, Thread Heads, and Fringe Sisters. This showing is two-thirds of the exhibit. The Fringe Sisters will be showing their section in a show in Columbia later this Summer.

The turn out was good considering it was a beautiful Summer Sunday.

The exhibit will be hanging until July 15.

If you're in the area stop by.

Focus Fiber Art June Meeting

2011-06-25T20:57:00.007-04:00

Focus meet at the home of Barbara Tennyson last week. We had the meeting in her den as her studio is a little small for our group. Barb spread a sheet out over her fireplace and it worked quite well for a design wall. We sent Barb upstairs to bring out her wool/tie quilt. When Barb was making more traditional quilts she cut the blocks out for this quilt. If I'm remembering correctly it is about 25 years old.

Diana found these little fabric flowers at a show. She decided she just had to have them for her Mother. Well, they now grace Diana's new RV in a cute little piece of pottery she purchased in NC.

More comfort quilts from Veronica's stash. Diana took on the job of taking all of Veronica's scraps and organizing them into color waves. This must be the four or fifth little quilt to come out of that stash.

Penny Little gave Donna Barnhill a small piece of fabric she brought back from Africa and this is the finished product.

Closeup.

Janet Ginn brought some circles that she's been playing with and wanted our input as to what she should use as a background. These black pieces are some of the idea's thrown around.

I brought the portrait of my grandson that I've been working on. It is the first time they have seen the piece. I'm quilting on it this week and will be showing in my next post.

This is the back of a new piece I've finished titled "Echoes of the Past". I had these photos of our family printed on fabric left over from the 50th Anniversary quilt I made. So I decided to put them on the back of this quilt.

This piece was made by Sybil Radius, one of our new members. Sybil wanted to enter this in a local quilt show and they pin the quilts up. She had to come up with something to use as a hanger that could be pined.

She came up with a really neat and very real looking fabric branch. She took fabric and wrapped around wire, them she took copper wire and wrapped it around the branches to hold it together. I think this looks great. I believe she told us she won a ribbon for this. Sorry Sybil I didn't take notes and can't remember.

Sybil made this piece after seeing postcards that a friend of hers received. Her friends daughter actually took a trip around the world. These postcards came from many of those places. It is titled "Postcards from around the World".

How cute is this? Sabrina Myers brought this "Good Witch". She is made of recycled material and is truly a Green Piece.

Sabrina took a class in Mandella's taught by Gail Blate. This was the result, however, it was not truly round and Sabrina was looking for ideas in how to finish the piece. I think she is using a piping around the outside but hasn't yet decided the orientation of the piece.

Now we come to Miss Over Achiever, I'm only kidding Veronica. Veronica Moriaty works full time and yet she seems to bring more for show and tell than anyone. I kid about this but I am amazed at how much she gets done.

This piece has been quilted but she is interested in adding beads to embellish it somewhat. We discussed some possibilities.

This piece is ready to quilt and Veronica wanted some help with ideas for the quilting.

Another piece finished and ready for a show.

These are corners for a hand appliqued quilt Veronica has been working on for a while. The center piece is truly breath taking and I can hardly wait to see it finished. Veronica was also asking for some suggestions about how to quilt this piece. She usually quilts and all over pattern on her quilts. I feel that she should outline the design and quilt in the solid part and not over the appliqued design. It is so beautifully appliqued that I would hate to see the appliqued quilted over.

Well that's my story and I'm going to stick to it.

Wounded Warriors and Quilts

2011-06-23T16:00:00.014-04:00

This lovely lady, Penny Nichol.

And this lovely lady, Marilyn Ingal had the idea to present each Wounded Warrior vising our area a quilt when they left. Hopefully the quilts will be gentle reminders of their visit and our gratitude.

This past week on the Quilt Art Digest, a forum for art quilters, an interesting thread about quilt guilds and comfort quilts has been circulating. I found it very interesting. I have belonged to a guild that did not accept quilters as artist and one who is very supportive. Lake and Mountain Quilt Guild in Seneca, SC is a supportive guild to all its members

It also supports the community by making and giving over 100 quilts a year to local people and charities in need. This year we sent quilts to Japan. Made quilts for our local Hospice and we support a local nursing home by giving money for them to buy items for residents who cannot afford them. We support the local food bank and this year collected many items for the local free medical clinic

I say this not to toot our horn but to say what a group of wonderful caring women and men we have in our guild. I had no idea how giving they were until late last year one of our members, Penny Nichol, put out the call for quilts to be given to men/women in the service who have been wounded.

This area has been hosting, for the third time, 40 Wounded Warriors at Keowee Key and the city of Seneca, SC. This event was initiated by a couple of ex-service men who reside in Keowee Key and who felt there was a need to give the service men/women some well deserved recognition.
The troops come from the Marine Corp Special Operations Command Camp Lejeune, N.C. and from The Marine Corps Wounded Warrior Regiment from Greenville SC

N.C. and from The Marine Corps Wounded Warrior Regiment from Greenville SC.
This event required the partnership with the Greenville Hospital University Medical Center and Roger C. Peace Rehabilitation Hospital. The hospital makes available adaptive ski and golf equipment for those who need such support but more importantly, provides highly qualified therapists who oversee the well being and safety of the participants.

"Honoring their Service" is being chaired this year by Joyce Tarman and Tim Callahan, with help from a loyal corps of volunteers. While they are here, the men/women are offered the opportunity to golf, swim, fish, Skiddoo, water ski etc. The area holds a parade from Easley, SC to Seneca, SC accompanied by motor cyclists. The route is bounded by well wishers on each side of the road.

A dinner was held in their honor in Seneca including music and fireworks and an outdoor bar be que. A formal dinner at the Keowee Key County Club is the next evening, then on the last day, a Breakfast at the club.

Lake and Mountain Quilt Guild members, Penny Nichol and Marilyn Ingalls decided that a great way to thank the men and women for their service would be to present each a handmade quilt upon their departure. Penny, presented this to our guild and 50 members responded making 47 quilts with a patriotic theme. These quilts were presented at our June meeting.

The quilts are meant to be a gentle reminder of how thankful we are for their service. These men/women all volunteered to serve, how wonderful is that!

I would love to say that I was one of those unselfish women who made a quilt for these deserving young people, but I can't. I thought I had to many other things that I had to do. Believe me if the guild does this again next year I will have a quilt made.

I'm sure many of these women have relatives who are now in or have served in the military. I happen to know that Ronette's daughter is one of these. Ronette's quilt is the one with the flags in the center.

One of the threads on Quilter Art Digest has been "Do you do your best when making a comfort quilt or just throw something together". I think you will agree with me that these women did not just throw something together.

I hope you've enjoyed this quilt show and my hat if off to the ladies who participated in this endeavor.

Wounded Warriors and a Bar B Que

2011-06-22T13:48:00.008-04:00

Last night the city of Seneca SC threw a Bar B Que to honor the Wounded Warriors and invited the local residents. The gates opened at 6:00 and the WW were scheduled to arrive around 7:00.

Just a little before seven word went around for everyone to make two lines from the gate for the soldiers to walk down.

The Marines lined up outside the gate and marched in. It was so neat to see these young men and women in casual clothes but still proudly displaying the fact that they were soldiers.

The people lined up just inside the gate came on buses with the Marines. It is my assumption that they were host families.

There were two bands playing for entertainment, lots of bar b que, beer and plenty of free water. While we were sitting enjoying the band some movement to my right caught my attention. It was way over on the side of the fiend. I realized it was kids playing football. Upon further investigation I realized there were some big kids playing. The tall ones with gold shirts are WW.

Just a note: at 6:00 PM the temperature was 97 degrees.

I just wanted to add a few more photos. Tomorrow night comes the quilt connection.

Wounded Warriors

2011-06-20T18:16:00.002-04:00

This afternoon my husband and I went to downtown Seneca, SC to watch a parade of Wounded Warriors who will be spending some R&R on Lake Keowee.

Keowee Key residents have acted as host to these Marines for three years. It started off when a couple of ex-service men who reside in Keowee Key felt there was a need to give service men/women some well deserved recognition.

The first year there was a small group of motorcyclist who lead the caravan, last year over 100 lead the group. If there was one this year there was 200. Most cycles had flags flying from their back. Some were vets wearing their military hats.

This experience, for me, was so emotional that I forgot to take photos when the soldiers were riding by. I saw some crying, most smiling. If I had let go I would have been sobbing. Can't explain how I felt.

Tomorrow I will post on a cook-out honoring these Marines and the post after that will make it quilt orientated.

My Husband a Great Carpenter and Father

2011-06-18T21:49:00.010-04:00

My husband is a great carpenter and Father, but tonight I'm talking only about the carpenter. It started here. I came just in case he needed my help.

This is what I did while I was waiting for him to choose each board for the project.
You do see a bird face, don't you?

This is the finished table. My husband decided to build me a table because my old cutting table gave up the ghost. I also needed more storage space so my DH gave it a lot of thought and came up with this great design.

He spent weeks cutting, sanding, measuring and painting. I'm thrilled with the results. It allowed to to reorganize my studio.

I was forever moving things from on place to another because I didn't have space for everything. Now I do. I'm hoping that this will make for a neater studio.

I asked for a short shelve near the top to store things that I use on my cutting table often. Things like freezer paper, fusible web, mats,etc. The other shelves are for things I don't use often but need a storage space.

Organizing my new space called for a reorganizing of the whole room. I even cleaned out the doors in my sewing table, my files, and storage boxes behind my sewing table. I didn't get to my design walls or fabric. That will have to come much later.

Right now I have two quilts to finish and a husband to treat royally for Father's Day.

Ready to Quilt

2011-06-17T20:05:00.001-04:00

This week I've been spending my time finishing the tops of two pieces. I'm quite pleased with the finished product. Now I just have to do the hard part. Quilting has always been difficult for me. Even when I hand quilted I would put off starting the process because I couldn't decide how I wanted to quilt the piece.

Not to much has changed now that I do all my quilting by machine. Perhaps I procrastinate even more. I usually find that once I get started ideas start to flow and I get in the rhythm of the machine.

I don't feel that I'm a very good machine quilter, perhaps that's my problem. I don't have any confidence in what I'm doing. Practice, Practice, Practice. Well I'm about to get plenty of that. Wish me luck I really want these pieces to turn out well.

I won't be starting right away, my husband has been working on building a cutting table for my studio. He has it finished and installed it this afternoon. Now I have the job of reorganizing my studio. When I get that done I will post some photos.

Look What's Built a Nest

2011-06-14T16:55:00.000-04:00

I knew I chose Fabricating Nature as my blog title for a good reason. Look what's on the corner of my house.

Working on Connor's portrait again

2011-06-13T19:47:00.005-04:00

After my mad obsession of eight days working on Connor's portrait I put it aside for a few weeks. It's time to get him out and hopefully get it finished soon. Something was wrong with the portrait and I felt sure it was the eyes.

This is the photograph taken this past Summer when we took our family to Costa Rica.

After studying the photo for a while I realized that his eye lid was covering a little of his eye and that it actually looked like a little bit of skin over the eye lash.
I think I have it right now. It looks much better to me.
You might notice that I changed the green background as well. I wasn't real happy with my first choice and I really like the new one much better.

A closeup of his eye in the photo.

I think that when I get the thread painting done along with perhaps a touch of paint that the eyes will be just as I want them to be.

June HiFiber Meeting-Zentangles

2011-06-12T17:26:00.003-04:00

Penny little presented a workshop on Zentangles last Thursday for HiFiber. She gave us a little history of how it started and acquired it's name. Rick Roberts (a monk) used doodling as a form of Zen. Maria Thomas (a quilter) incorporated them into quilts and became Zentangles. However, Pat Ferguson took the quilted Zentangle to a higher level. More information at http://patfergusonquilts.com/zentangle.com/indes.php

My apologizes to Penny for not getting a photo of her demo. I do have photos of a quilt in which she incorporated Zentangles.

Penny made little journals for each of us to add Zentangles on paper. She also incorporated a piece of fabric so that we could make a Zentangle for the front of the journal.

Working with Micron pens, we drew outlines using a CD and then created our own Zentangle by making different designs in each section.

Some interesting designs don't you think?

While we worked on our designs Penny ask those who had show and tell to let use see what they brought.

Sandra brought this finished piece combining the painting workshop with the 3-D workshop.

Beatriz shows us the beginning embellishments she is adding to her hand-dyed Shabori piece.

Diana brought this finished underwater scene made by using the 3-D technique taught by Barbara Sokol.

We exchanged portraits at our last meeting and we are to have a fabric portrait ready to show at our Sept. meeting. We decided that they can be any size with a minimum of 8 x 10.

Heidi Wolko will give a demo on discharge in July.

Echoes of Memories

2011-06-10T21:01:00.002-04:00

I finished my piece on memories today.

I decided to name it "Echoes of Memories". We have been digitizing slides that were made from 45 years ago up to digital age. Looking at these flooded me with memories of our 51 years of marriage.

When I saw the call for entry from SAQA titled "Layers of memory" I decided to make a piece to enter. I did just that today now it's wait and see.

More Memories

2011-06-06T21:45:00.005-04:00

Today I wanted to add text to the piece I've been working on for about a week. I had printed on a thin plumbers fabric but didn't like how the outline of the fabric showed. (photo below) Some time during the night I remembered that I had purchased a product called TAP by Leslie Riley.

First thing this morning I got the package out, read the instructions and proceeded to run the text through my printer onto the TAP paper. Leslie's instructions are clear and easy to follow. Even so I forgot to flip or mirror image the text. I found after printing correctly that a hand mirror helped when placing the text on my fabric.

This photo shows the text image added to my design. I've started quilting and hope to get that finished tomorrow.

Update on Memories

2011-06-06T09:23:00.001-04:00

While it doesn't look as if I've progress much on this piece, I did work on it for several hours yesterday. The printing of words is not finished, I cut them out last night and if I can't figure out how to transfer them to the fabric I will iron these on. Then it will be quilt time.

When I zoomed in on the writing I realized I did not have the wording in the correct order. Will fix that today as well.

A Little Sun Dyeing

2011-06-04T19:54:00.010-04:00

Got out my Set-A-Colors today hoping to sun dye some fabric for the photos I posted yesterday.

I wanted to dye some fabric that looked like sepia as well as some blue.
I'm not real good at mixing colors but I know red and green in equal amounts make brown I then added a little gold and this is the results.

The blue shows a little of the sun's effect. I placed cut outs of the images I printed last night and used them as templates for the sun block.

When I put this piece on my design wall I decided I should have placed the templates in the upper right corner.

As I looked at the fabric I placed more templates across the fabric at and angle making each templates a little larger.

So I got out more paint and placed paper templates across the fabric, this is the results.

I'm still not there yet. I need to print more photos on fabric. I want the smaller photos on the right to be faded as they are the oldest and the newest photos the brightest.

I have more printing to do tomorrow hopefully I will make up my mind how I want to print them and get the top finished.

I'm also working on some words that I hope to print in the upper left. Any input would be appreciated.

In the Studio Again

2011-06-02T17:26:00.001-04:00

I've been working on printing photos on fabric today. I'm just going to post each photo and will show more as I progress. I'm not real sure of where this is going, I've some ideas but will just have to play a little.

The Fabrics of War

2011-05-30T19:56:00.006-04:00

Last week my husband and I spent a wonderfully restful week with friends on Harbor Island, SC. One of our day trips was to the War Museum on Parris Island. I knew the guys would enjoy this trip but quite honestly I wasn't to excited about a war museum.

The trip turned into quite an education on the US and the many wars in which they have been involved. However, you put a fiber person in a museum and what do you expect they notice the most? Right on. The uniforms and fiber associated with that particular war.

You see from the photos that I've attached so far that each period is dated so you can get an idea of the fabrics used.

I don't know why the WW II era interest me so much. Some times I think it is the unimaginable things that happened during that time. I find it hard to accept. Just read (The Postmistress) a sad but well written book about that period in the US.

My Dad was drafted into the Marines during that time and was sent to Parris Island. He had been in a wreck a year or two earlier, that cut muscles in his arm, making it difficult to load a gun. After three months he was honorably discharged with a medical disability.

The flag was found in a Japanese camp. The stars had been removed and it is speculated they were used on their uniforms.

This was also found in a Japanese camp. I love the sentiment that goes with the idea.

If you are a woman reading my blog you might find it interesting that until the 1970's women were given a discharge if they became pregnant. After 1976, pregnant Marines were allowed to stay on active duty and in 1980 the first military uniforms for pregnant women were issued.

Nurses uniforms in the early years.

T-shirt worn by the press. How would you like to rely on a T-shirt to keep from being shot?

This is a bandage found in Iraq. I would hope that the Medic would have had enough training to know how to use these bandages without needing the pictures.

If you are ever in the area of Parris Island, SC I would say take the time and visit. I don't think you will regret the time spent there.

You Win Some You Lose Some

2011-05-26T08:16:00.001-04:00

About a month ago I submitted this piece to be judged for an exhibit titled "Deep Space". I had several ideas but didn't have the equipment to carry out one of the ideas. (I needed a wide format printer).

I decided to go with the idea above. This is a reversed applique piece that came from a photo of my grand daughter doing yoga. I used Photo Shop Elements to eliminate all the gray in the B & W photo. After making the reverse applique I quilted the piece starting with a gray/black variegated thread on the left size and then changing to emerald colors finishing the piece.

My thought for this piece fitting the theme "Deep Space" came with the feeling that with meditation you can reach the into the deep spaces of your mind. For whatever the juror's reason they chose not to accept "Ohm II" for the exhibit.

This is the first time I've ever made a piece, with a theme, with the intentions of entering it in a particular show. I enjoyed making this and will enter it in another show somewhere. You win some you lose some.

Focus Fiber Art May meeting

2011-05-19T20:25:00.005-04:00

Our May meeting was held at the home of Dixie Haywood. You might be interested in seeing all the ribbons around the top of the room. Ribbons from AQS and IQA and all the other big shows can be found there.

First up for show & tell was Marge Edie. We decided at the meeting that Marge first brought this complicated design to Focus last May. That makes a year. This design came from looking at a crystalized metal photo from a Scientific Magazine from about 30 years ago. She worked on the computer drawing and designing until she came up with this amazing design. I think I'm right to say that there are four shapes of diamond patterns making up this design. I might add that Marge is sewing this together on the sewing machine.

Veronica Moriarty brought two finished quilts and one in progress to share. This is one that she had shown early to us asking for advice. The conclusion was to bind the quilt with a peach batik.

Veronica's daughter graduated from USC this year and is entering the work force. She wanted something from home and wanted her Mom to make her a quilt out of her sports shirts. She participated in Track & Field at USC as a pole vaulter. Veronica really didn't want to make a t-shirt quilt but sucked it in for her little girl.

I showed and talked about the piece I'm working on now. The working title is "Spirit of the Kiva" I got some great input from the group and am mulling it over in my mind.

Dixie is showing her finished quilt made for the Wounded Warrior Project at our Lake and Mountain Quilt Guild. (More about that on another post) Dixie machine quilted words in the border like "Thanks you for your service".

Dixie has been on a marathon to get rid of all her UFO's from years and years of teaching. The little finished pieces are for a project from Diana and Veronica's quilt guild in Spartanburg. These little quilts are given to needy children and they are called "Lovies".

The two wall hangings are old pieces from her Pensacola, Fl guild or older UFO's.

Donna Barnhill, one of our new members, brought this piece that she started in a class several years ago. Donna is far from being a traditional quilter. While Donna taught Home Economics for years she did not have time for much quilting. From the beginning I knew that Donna was not a traditional quilter.

After she placed the piece up on the design wall she pulls out squares of copper screening and places them on the design. Then the fun began. The squares were moved around until a very interested design appeared.

Several other ideas were discussed, can't wait to next month to see what she does.

HiFiber Meeting for May

2011-05-17T20:56:00.004-04:00

At our May meeting I wanted to show our members the different paints, pencils and ink that are available for painting on fabric. I have almost every type of these in my stash. Some I really like and some not so much. However, I wanted everyone to be able to experience each product to make up their own mind. I prepared a leaf and a flower petal for each person to experiment painting.

I rarely paint the whole piece of fabric to get the flower or leaf design. My use of paint is more to create depth and dimension. However, for the class I wanted them to use as much paint as possible just to experience each product. On the sample below I used about five different products to paint the leaf. I labeled each product for identification.

One of our members, Sandra brought her daughter, Chris as a guest. Chris is a commercial artist. This is what she did with her petal. I was happy to see Chris make a Calla Lily out of what I had intended to be just one petal of a flower. This gave me the opportunity to talk about keeping your mind open to "what if" I did this instead of that.

Due to being occupied with teaching I had little time to take photos of every ones samples. I thought I had taken more photos of each individuals samples but I guess not. Hopefully some will be brought back to the June meeting and I will post them then.

HiFiber Meeting for May

2011-05-17T05:38:00.004-04:00

At our last meeting Bonnie Ouellette gave us a short demo on how to make Shaborri fabric. Bonnie gave each member four pieces of fabric. One square each of damask, linen, cotton and Aida. For me one of the most interesting parts of this experiment was how the different fabrics accepted the dyes. As it turned out the fabric that Bonnie though was cotton was not and did not accept the dyes as well as the others. I felt the best fabrics were linen and damask.

Since we were meeting in a gallery and we didn't have a wet place to work Bonnie came up with a method for us to take all the ingredients home to actually dye the fabric. During the mini workshop we tried many different ways to fold and manipulate the fabric for resist.

Beatriz left the thread in this piece so we could see how the thread worked as a resist.

Barbara chose to dye thread along with the fabric, a great idea.

These three were very interesting designs and I believe dyed by Donna.

I did this piece and the design was accomplished by using golf balls secured with wide rubber bands.

Heidi has specific plans for this piece.

These were some of the images done by Bonnie. There were many great designs that came out of this experiment. After everyone did show & tell, Bonnie challenged us to make an art piece using no other fabric than the four pieces we dyed. The piece can be embellished with any thing. This should be interesting.

I did the program for the May meeting, demonstrating different paints used on fabric. More on that later.

Spirit of the Kiva

2011-05-11T21:35:00.000-04:00

I decided to write my comments as a blog post mainly because I wanted to thank you all for your comments. I have loved this piece since I first blended them in Photo Shop. I can't begin to tell you about the experience we had during the trip to New Mexico. I wrote about it in my journal on my trip home. It took the whole flight for me to write my feelings and experiences.

Perhaps when I get this finished I will pull the journal out and condense it a little for a blog post.

About the photo, I did not use flash on this photo only overhead light. I will try it outside and see how it comes out. Thanks again for your comments and I will keep you posted on its progress.

New Work "Spirit of the Kiva"

2011-05-11T01:21:00.005-04:00

I'm working on three different projects at the moment. The working name for this one is "Spirit of the Kiva". The photograph has been manipulated in Photo Shop Elements blending two photos.

Months ago I used this photograph which I took on vacation, of a beautiful little girl, and made this fabric portrait. I loved the haunting look in her eyes. This whole trip had been very spiritual for me.

Months before we had been in New Mexico visiting many of the American Indian Pueblos. We were taken to this Kiva which is a spiritual meeting place for American Indians. The feeling of these places and people were very special to me and I wanted to portray this in "Spirit of the Kiva".

I chose to blend the portrait that I made in fabric of the little girl with the photograph of the Kiva. The child is representing the spirit as it fills the Kiva.

It is printed on cotton sateen fabric and is 36" x 40". I have done some research on American Indian symbols and have drafted a pattern for a boarder of pieced Kiva Steps. I am also going to stencil petroglyphs on the interior boarder.

Still have lots to go but am fairly well satisfied with this piece so far. I have found that cotton sateen reflects light and is difficult to photograph. Any comments on the piece would be appreciated.

A Night with Dixie Haywood

2011-05-07T20:10:00.009-04:00

I know I promised photos about the Picken's Museum opening but I forgot to take my camera. I hope to go back before it comes down as there was a very interesting fiber piece that I'd like to post.

Last night I had the opportunity to see Dixie Haywood give a retrospect of her work dating back to the l980. Dixie is a friend of mine and was giving this rare program to raise money for her church.

Crazy Quilt Series

Dixie explaining to her audience about what a crazy quilt and foundation piecing is all about. I will apologize in advance for the quality of my photos. I didn't want to use a flash and I think I was to far back in any case for it to help. Some of these are a little soft.

Pineapple Series

Pineapple and Star

This may be one of Dixie's most honored quilts.

Hot Cotton

My favorite quilt ever of Dixie's is Hot Cotton. It is shown here front and back. The back is as beautiful as the front, maybe not as colorful but just as beautiful.

My apologizes to Dixie for the bad photography. I also started with more info by each quilt and lost the post. Just couldn't post all that again.

Most of these quilts can be seen in Dixie's books co-authored with Jane Hall. This retrospect was indeed a chance in a life time to see all these beautiful works in one night. Thanks Dixie and Happy Birthday.

Pickens County Art Museum Juried Show.

2011-04-29T20:12:00.000-04:00

You are invited to the Thirty-Second Annual Juried South Carolina Artists Exhibition. April 30 till June 9, 2011. Juried by Frank Thompson of the Ashville Art Museum. Opening Reception Saturday April 30, 2011 5 to 8 PM.

My piece "Love" was juried into the show, I'll have photos Sunday. Come if you can.

Sacred Thread Exhibit

2011-04-25T19:27:00.002-04:00

"A New Beginning"

I found out yesterday via email that my quilt "A New Beginning" had been juried into the 2011 Sacred Thread's Exhibit in Hemdon, VA. The show opens June 22 and closes July 4, 20ll. An opening to meet the artist will be held June 25 from 2-5. To learn more about the exhibit go to http://sacredthreadquilts.com/

I first heard about the Sacred Threads Exhibit several years ago and found it to be a very inspirational exhibit. It is only held every two years. The quilt I chose to enter is one of my older pieces but one that I felt should be in this exhibit.

Several years ago a friend of mine, Claude Smith, died of cancer. He was a member of our Focus Art Group. Claude had already fought cancer once only to have a different type attack him years later. During his many hospitalization Claude filled his sketch book with designs that he wished to make some day.

That some day never came for Claude. After Claude's passing, I approached his wife Carol and asked if she would permit our Focus group to choose a design out of Claude's book. We each wanted to take his design and portray it in our own fashion. Carol agreed and we were able to have this exhibit in the Spartanburg SC Art Museum.

During my time working on this piece I felt Claude's presence in my studio. I can't remember a time before or since when every fabric I pulled from my stash worked. Every design I chose for the quilting worked. I found myself talking to Claude as if he were with me.

When I saw the entry ad for Sacred Thread I knew that I wanted to enter this piece in the exhibit. I'm so glad that Claude's design will be seen by so many people.

My good friend Judy Hayward also has a wonderful piece in this exhibit. "Imagine" You can see it on her blog www.judithhayward.blogspot.com

Having a Wonderful Time in my Studio

2011-04-21T19:40:00.010-04:00

Day Seven: I started working on this piece of my grandson, Connor seven days ago. I have been doing nothing but eating, sleeping, and working in my studio. Yes, I'm loving it.

When I see these two photos together I see some things I need to do, especially to the eyes.

I'm going to post a photo of what I accomplished at the end of each day.

Day one: I felt that I got off to a good start.

Day two: Got the rest of the face done today, with a little yet to do around the eyes. Started on the yellow part of the pineapple but hit such a wall that I decided to move on to something else.

Day three: You wouldn't believe it took me all day to do this would you?

Day Four: It's starting to go together.

Day five: Not an easy task to build a hand. I know it doesn't look like much here but the missing parts will be covered up. Again a whole day's work.

Day six: Had to search for fabric today to make Connor's shirt. For the background behind his head and for the table under the pineapple. I had a fabulous piece of navy blue fabric with lights and darks to make the folds and highlights hand dyed by Vicki Welsh. I found two pieces that I thought would work for the background and decided on this commercial green/gold. The table fabric is also a hand dyed piece.

Day Seven: Worked on the fruit of the pineapple today, added the bits and pieces to make the area around where the leaves stop and the fruit starts. Put everything together and it's almost done. I have a bit more to do around Connor's eyes and a little adjusting in getting everything to fit and the top will be finished.

This is the most intense I have worked on a piece in a long time. It usually takes me months to get this far. You might say I'm obsessed. I quit about 5:30 today so I could make dinner. After I went upstairs I called back to my husband and asked him to go in my studio and "if you can find it, please bring my camera up". When I got ready to download my photos this showed up. Funny husband!

Guess what I'm doing tomorrow?

New Work: Ohm

2011-04-18T20:24:00.016-04:00

This is a piece that I've been working on since last July. I took a class with Pat Mint at Arrowmont in printing on fabric and learning photo manipulation. While playing with several photos from my files I decided that I wanted to blend them and make one photo.

I took this photo of my granddaughter, Aubrey

and this photograph of a hosta from my garden.

and after playing with them in Photo Shop Elements 8, I came up with this. During the process of manipulation I held a key down to long and all the color except black and white went out of the picture. I loved it. I finally figured out what I did and I can do it again.

With Pat's magic formula I printed four banner sections and then sewed them together to a size that equals about 30" x 40". Now I had to decide how I was going to make this into a quilt. My first idea was to print three photos of the Hosta using different filters for each print. I also wanted to use three photos of Aubrey using different filters in black and white.

I looked at this for several days and thought this is Okay, but I wanted more than Okay. So I played with a few more ideas.

I hadn't liked how the printed hostas looked so I took those away and added more photos of my granddaughter to the other side. Again this is Okay but not quite there yet.

One of the things that was bother me was the fact that everything was symmetrical. So I decided I was going to take away one of the side panels. After looking at this for a while an idea hit me. I should make the side panel all black using one piece of fabric and cut her portrait out in three places. After a bit of math, not my strong point, I figured out where each portrait should be placed and cut out the black, adding white fabric behind. It is similar to reverse applique only done by fusing.

During the process of making this piece I decided that I wanted to diminish the effects of the hosta, so I used acrylic paint to dull it some what.

Now I'm to the part I hate, quilting. I had decided that I would following the lines of Aubrey's face and hands. I started machine quilting and had about a third of the face finished. I put it away again and when I got it out I decided that I was going to work on the black panel. I had an idea but I wanted to try it out first.

Since I had lots of these little pieces made I decided to make one as a wall hanging for Aubrey and practice the quilting at the same time. I really liked the effect I got from the design. I used YLI Variations color:Thunder, I really like this thread because the color changes often and you don't end up with blobs of color. I like the straight/wavy line so much in the black panel that I decided to take out all the quilting on her face and carry the line motif across the quilt.

Well, that's it. Comments would be appreciated.

HiFiber Meeting for April

2011-04-17T19:55:00.008-04:00

HiFiber met last Thursday for it's monthly meeting. Bonnie Ouellette did a demo on how to dye shibori fabric. I'm going to post on that meeting next month so I will have some photos of the results of our experiments.

I didn't talk about the demo Marge Edie did for our group last month because we had some missing members and Marge was going to give them a demo before this months meeting. Several of the members brought their finished pieces this month.

Marge gave each of us an envelope that contained several copies of the same photo as well as one copy that had been cut into 20, 2" pieces.

We were to choose 10 pieces that we didn't like and eliminate them. We then chose 5 and on until we had one left that we really liked. This piece was for us to reproduce into a 2" fiber piece.

Bonnie Ouellette's piece placed on the photo from where her 2" square was cut. Bonnie works with beads, can you tell.

Beatrix chose to paint her 2" square. I have a feeling that is the way I'm going with mine. I have lots of things happening in my 2" sq and I don't think I want to try and cut something that small.

Marge's demo photo.

Dianna brought her finished pieces, yes pieces, she tried two different ideas for her sq. unfortunately my photos of her pieces didn't turn out. Sorry

Next month I hope to have some samples of the Shibori technique taught by Bonnie.

More Photos from Campbell Class

2011-04-15T20:10:00.005-04:00

Kayren, did an amazing job on these portraits of her son. She sent me the second photograph first and she really wanted to do this one. However, there was a lot of background that made it hard for me to see where his face ended and the background began. The background could be dropped out but that was more than work than I was doing on everyone's photos.

She sent me several more and I was able to get a good pattern for her out of one of them. After she finished her first portrait she asked if we could work on the one she really loved. She dropped out the background and the fabric she wanted to use was too small for the technique I was teaching.

However, I told her I would help her with another method. We blew up the photo to 20 x 20 and printed it poster size to get the right proportions. I then showed her how to make her pattern pieces and look at the results.

This isn't done because she wants to add his upper body and hand which was holding a dandelion.

Kate is one of my return students from Campbell. She attended my "Fabricating Nature workshop" a couple of years ago. It's always so good to see my students return for a different workshop.

Kate made a wonderful portrait of her grandson and has plans to make portraits of the other three as well.

Stephanie chose to start her class by making a portrait of her brother's son. It turned out great.

Along with Kayren, Stephanie was pretty skilled in PhotoShop and was able to produce the pattern for her husbands photo. He has a lot of hair, both black and white (including his beard). Stephanie chose a kit I brought that worked really well for this portrait.

Stephanie plans to do some thread painting on Tom's beard and hair to make it more realistic.

I'm so proud of what was accomplished this week in my class. These women did a wonderful job.