A Little Creating This Week

Moat of my week has been spent manipulating photos and printing the fabric for my upcoming "Fabricating Faces with Thread " class at the NCQS. I enjoy this process but not quite as much as I do creating my own work. Soooo, toward the end of this week I decided that I needed to play just a little.

I've been trying to get the time to create my SAQA donation 12 X12 piece. I already had the background made so worked on thread painting a luna moth to add.

I printed the moth on organza and backed with Misty Fuse, then I triple layered Solvy under that and put it in a hoop. I don't normally use a hoop, but I wanted the thread painted moth to be a thin. The background is all silk and very light so the moth needed to be light as well.

This was my first arrangement using dark limbs entering the piece from the left. I had a meeting of my HiFiber Art Group yesterday and tool this piece to ask for suggestions on improvement. Laurie felt that her eye was pulled first, to the dark limbs and wanted to linger there. Since the Luna Moth was suppose to be the focus, I decided to tray two things, a lighter fabric for the limb and a lower entry of the limb into the image. I believe it works better.

 This post is linked www.ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

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Another Thread Painting Finished

12 X 12  
Before I go into my thoughts on working on this piece, I'm in a bind on what to name it. One of the things that attracted me to this gentleman, enough to ask his permission to take his photo, was his smile and the twinkle in his eyes.

That lead me to think of titles like, Sparkling, Twinkle, etc. I'm at a standstill, anyone have a good suggestion?

Sometimes, make that often, when I am working on a piece it takes me a while to get it finished. That doesn't mean I'm physically working on that piece the whole time.  I often will put a piece on my design wall that I am having trouble with.  That keeps it in view, which keeps it fresh in my mind.  I can then mull it over until I'm ready tackle the problem.

This doesn't happen with every piece I work but generally it does with more detailed work. I began working on this gentleman months ago and finally decided last week that I WAS GOING TO FINISH HIM this week.  So here he is.

 The biggest problem I had when starting out on this piece was finding the colors of thread that I felt represented the beautiful copper colors of his skin tone. I began a piece and discarded it because of this reason. Every where I went I shopped for brown tone threads. I finally found enough that worked to my satisfaction.

I usually begin a portrait with the eyes and then work out from there. In the piece I discarded, the color of thread wasn't the only problem I encountered. I was very unhappy with the eyes.

( Bad photo lighting shows his skin darker here.)

My second start worked for me, and as I began to work on the piece I could see where changes, or details, needed to be added
.
I wait until I have the piece all but finished to go back and create the details.

As I move forward I realize that the background is not working. In order to thread paint the hair you must finish the background first. This allows you to create the hair in the foreground. At this point I had to make a major decision. I had to fix this background, and I didn't have a clue as to how, or I had to cut his head out and attach him to another background. I had never done this and it was one of those heart stopping moments.

 After I cut his head out of the original background I auditioned different fabrics until I found one that I felt worked. Once I decided on the fabric I zigzagged the head to the background using a thread color that I would be using in his hair and beard.

I forgot to mention that I quilted the background before I added the head. I then finished his hair.






Notice his eyes, nose, teeth,  mouth and beard  here.

After carefully studying his eyes, nose, mouth and teeth, I added details that made those features look more like him.

One of the things that I feel is really important when you are working on a portrait is the high-lights and, of course, shadows that show on the face. This really shows off the nostrils, creases, and curves of the body. Last but far from least is the catch light in the eyes.
Without that the person, animal or insect will show no life.

I will be teaching Fabricating Faces with Thread  at the NCQS  in Wilmington, NC the weekend of May 29-June 1.

This post is linked to www.ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

The Need to Create

 Abstract Sunshine
19"X 19"
 It's been about two weeks since I've been in the studio to create and I am missing it. I've been busy creating and assembling patterns for two classes coming up this Summer.

 Mates 
15" X 18"

 May 29-June 1, I will be teaching at the NCQS in Wilmington, NC. I am teaching Fabricating Faces with Thread, and Mini Nature. 

July 9-12, I will be teaching Fabricating Faces and Mini Nature at the Blue Ridge Quilt Festival in Blacksburg, VA.

 Field of Flowers
12" X 12"

 While I much prefer my students create from their own mind, or photo, I always have patterns available for those students who don't have something or those last minute sign-ups. The photos seen here are the patterns available for sale.

 Sunshine
20" X 30"


This week has been devoted to creating patterns, printing photos and packaging.

Hey, Look at Me
 19" X 21"

I often think that I over prepare for these classes, but it is my goal to present a good class. For me, that means having everything that I, or my student needs during the class.

Pink Perfection
23" X 38"

 I love to teach. When I see the "light" go off in someones mind, or the smile of satisfaction on their face with a finished piece, I am truly well paid for my efforts.

Orange on Blue
18" X 20"

So, this week while I have moaned and complained, that I haven't had time to create my own work, in reality what I am creating is joy and satisfaction for someone else. That makes me pretty happy.

This post is linked to www.ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

Wall Art: A Retrospective at Southeastern Quilt and Textile Museum

I was asked, year before last year, if I would hang an exhibit of my work, at the Southeastern Quilt and Textile Museum in Carrollton, GA. in 2014. Time has a way of flying by, and while I planned for the exhibit, I didn't decide until early this year, how I wanted my work represened. I finally decided that I have been making fiber art long enough, to do a retrospective.



My schedule this year is pretty full, so I wasn't able to deliver my work and have a hand in hanging the exhibit. The staff at the museum did a great job. Had I given them input, which I did not, I might have hung each of my series together. This was my fault not the museums. I did not verbalize this message to the.



The staff, I know many are volunteers, has done a wonderful job, and I want to thank them for asking me to exhibit there. Unfortunately, I won't be able to see the exhibit while it is up. I asked my friend, Beverly to take photos for me and I send her my thanks.



I was a bit concerned whether I would have enough pieces to fill their space. Years ago, before the actual museum building was remodeled, I was asked to teach my "Fabricating Nature" class through the auspices of the museum. Because of that, I suggested that they might ask some of my students to display their work along with mine. The photos below are from that group.

http://southeasternquiltmuseum.com/

This post is linked to:www.ninamariesayre.blogspot.com


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A Visit to the NeedleChasers Quilt Guild

Last week I had the privilege of presenting a lecture and workshop to the NeedleChasers Quilt Guild of Chevy Chase, MD. This is one busy guild. I always use our local guild, as a measure for guilds I visit. This is the first one that, not only came close, but surpassed our guild. They have a little over fifty members, fifty very active members.

Their biannual guild show is this Fall. The show and boutique provides the funds for programming and workshops for two years. I didn't get photos of the boutique items, but what I saw were wonderful and beautifully made.

If show and tell was any indicator of what will be in the show, I urge you to go. Following are photos of few of the piece that were shown. I apologize for not having names but it just wasn't possible.










































I could post more but I just don't have the space.


While I am always treated well when I visit a guild, the people in this guild went out of the way to entertain and feed me well. I was treated to a trip into DC to view the cherry blossoms. Thanks Jim and Linda.



More to come on the workshop.

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It's finished: The Water Boy

It's Finished

The Water Boy        36" X 38"

 I began working on this piece almost two years ago. Often my large pieces take a while to mature. I start with an idea, work, look, wait, work some more and, if all is going well I finish within a reasonable time. All did not go well with this piece.

If I run into a snag I might put the piece up for a while. Sometimes, that is a matter of weeks and sometimes it's months. This one took many months.

I decided to share my thoughts and photos of this piece as it progressed, from an idea, to the finished piece.

Our son, Michael and his family have always lived a good distance from us. When they come home for a visit, my camera and I work overtime. On one of those occasions, I took this photo. It really spoke to me. I've kept it in my files, waiting until I came up with just the right way to interpret the image. 

A few years ago I became interested in using Photo Shop Elements as a means to manipulate photos as inspiration for my work.  One of my favorite techniques is to blend or overlay photos that share something in common. A few of the pieces that I've used this technique in is, Spirit of the Kive and Ohm.

While the photo of Connor was cute the background held little appeal, so I used PSE 11, to dropout the background. One of my favorite tools to erase images in a photo, is found under Image in the upper tool bar. I click on image, and a drop down bar appears. Magic Extractor is at the bottom of the list.  I usually have to use the eraser to do a little clean up around the edges, but this technique works well for me.

Then I began looking, in my flower file, for a photo that I felt would be a good companion for Connor. I actually found three or four images that I liked, but after superimposing Connor's image over them, none really spoke to me. As I continued to search my photo files I cam across a photo of a quilt I made several years ago. The title of the quilt is Through My Window. This is actually an image of my great-room looking through a window.

While I'm not able to grown geraniums in my window boxes, not enough sun, I do grown flowers there each year. I adapted a fabric origami pattern to to fit my rendition of geraniums and filled the pots.

My poor husband ends up watering these boxes all Summer. Even though it's only in a piece of art, I decided to give him a water boy, to do that for him.

After I was satisfied with the manipulated images. I sent a copy to Spoonflower. www.spoonflower.com to have it printed on fabric. I had had 5 " samples made, with this image, on different fabrics and chose the cotton-linen. I felt it gave a truer color.

This was by far the largest piece I had ever thread painting. I knew I wanted to thread paint Connor very closely. My plan then was to quilt the rest of the piece, just not as densely. I often start a project not knowing what I'm doing. It often gets me in trouble as it did here. This is the time to stop, think, look, plan, read, and mull it over.

Notice the puckering near the dark blue at the pocket. It's quite heavy, though hard to see here. My choices, as I saw them, were (1) to plunge ahead and hope that after the thread painting was finished, I could make corrections in the background. or (2) decide now, that I would cut Connor off and threat it as two separate pieces. I chose two. It actually became easier, to thread paint, as I had less material to guide through the machine. I decided to send the image of Through my Window to Spoonflower to have it printed separately. This would solve my problems, or at least I hoped so.

 If you have ever thread painted, you know that distortion is inevitable. You can get a bulge or volcano as it is sometimes called in quilting. This happened to the water can. Thanks goodness for artist like Carol Shinn. She wrote Freestyle Machine Embroidery, and that book has saved my butt several time in this process. She recommends cutting through the thread painting, yes it is heart stopping, overlapping the image and trim out the overlap. You can then place a piece of fabric on the back and thread paint over the trimmed image.

The repaired image. Can you see where I cut? I bet not.  Okay I'm on my way to the finish.

Last year my friend and fellow fiber artist, Gail Sexton and I collaborated on Spirit of the Kiva. Gail is a wonderful machine quilter. I asked her if she would once again collaborate with me on this piece. She finished the quilting, beautifully, I might add, several weeks ago.

I have since been facing the background and attaching the thread painting. This was also no little matter in it's self.  The thread painting had to have the backing fabric attached.  Woe, enough already. I think you get the idea. It's finished and I'm happy, happy, happy.
This post is linked towww.ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

Busy Week

Before I get into describing my week, I want to toot my horn a little. "Spirit of the Kiva" won a third place at the Smokey mountain Quilt Fest in Pigeon Forge, TN this past week. Totally stoked.

The past three weeks have been very busy in my studio. I have lots to share but I'm traveling this week, so details will have to wait until I have more time. I want to get the photos and words organized in my mind first.

I've made several sample for upcoming workshops. One of these is way out of my comfort zone, but I'm excited about how it turned out. I am also putting the finishing touches on two major pieces, hope to have at least one of those ready to show next week.

I am on my way to the Mancuso Show in Savannah, GA. The SC/GA, Region of SAQA exhibit, "Southern Exposure" is having it's premiere showing this weekend.
I am also delivering a car full of my quilts to a representative of The Southeastern Quilt and Textile Museum. They are headed to Carrollton GA for my solo exhibit titled, Wall Art; a Retrospective. Lots happening in my life right now. Lots more to come.




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Memories

I don't usually post about my family life but I am going to make an exception today.

Memories 31" X 27"
Fifty four years ago on March 20, 1960 my husband Kermit and I were married. We were just kids but it was not uncommon in the South, at that time, to be married young.

Kermit went to college while I worked and during his junior year our first daughter, Lisa was born. At times we literally did not have two cents two rub together. However, we were happy, worked hard and still had time for fun. Kermit earned his degree in engineering. We moved to Pennsylvania when he accepted a job with Talon Zipper Co.

Three more children, moves to NC, back to PA and then a job change. Moves to SC, Alabama twice, France twice, Nova Scotia and back to SC. Four successful children, four wedding, six grandchildren.

The back of Memories

We've had ups and downs but worked them out. I could not have asked for a better man, husband, father to my children, friend and help-mate than the one I have spent the last fifty-four years with.

These past few weeks have been very busy ones for me. I have an exhibit coming up next month. I also have a teaching job in MD during the same time. Both, while trying to finish two major art projects. Kermit has been my rock my support, my fix-it man, my computer support, and as he likes to call himself, my beast of burden. For that and all the other things he has given for the past fifty-four years I am thankful. Life is good!

I made a little piece of fiber art commemorating our years together. I chose a photo of us as the young couple the year we were married. A photo of us the year we celebrates Fifty years and a photo of our family during a camping trip in Cooks Forrest, our favorite place to camp. Each grouping gets smaller and lighter as it recedes into the past. This signifies that some memories may fade but the most important ones stays with us a lifetime.




This post is linked to www.ninamariesayre.blogspot.com
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