Another surprize

I was at the small gallery today to pick up the other two pieces, that were in the show, and while I was there, another hanging sold. I was stunned, to say the least.  When I got home, I e-mailed my family and friends to tell them of my "happy dance".  A little later I got a short response from a sister, pointing out that both of these pieces have been made within the last 8 months, and questioning whether the two sales indicate that my "sabbatical" has resulted in a renewal of my creativity, given the public response to the results.  Yes, very much so.  I have so many ideas that I can't get them down fast enough.  And each idea builds on the previous ones.  I'm looking, again, at the small "quiltlets, that have received a good response in the past.  These are 12" by 12", original designs, and contain a lot of hand work. they are smaller, as that is the only way I can actually bring a design to fruition, before it is pushed out of my brain by another very valid concept.  There are so many ideas. All of them have to be tried out, even with knowing that not all of them will be worth finishing, but I learn something from every attempt.

I wish I could show some pictures. I took my camera out to the gallery today, but then found that the memory card ( yeah, the large memory-- 252 images--one that I use all of the time) is cracked and useless.  I have a small--10 image--one and will have to dig that one out, but both hangings will have been picked up by their new owners before I can get out again.

Got fooled

I did the test  of how the machine took to FMQ'g through various types and thicknesses of acrylic paint.  Quite fine!  I don't have to worry about that anymore.  So my only decision is colour, and I think I'm going to go with the oil paint sticks because of the sheeen the iridescent paint leaveson thefabric.  The next step was to design and paint the waterfall.  A lot of research left me with the understanding that:
          -you don't see coloured water when you look at a waterfall from a lower position, only if you look at it from above.
          -as soon as the water goes over the edge, it becomes white foam.  There may be areas of slightly darker foam but the basic and predominant colour is white.

Well, glad I did the research, but don't know where I'm going from here.  An acqaintance told me recently to stop obsessing with waterfalls, and to "chill out".  O-k-a-a-ay--didn't realize it was getting that bad.  Artists obessess on regular basis--don't they?

Very pleased to report that one of the pieces I have in a small local gallery has sold.  This was quite unexpected, and has left me with a slight problem.  I had planned to bring the piece home, take it partially apart, re-size it and enter it into another show---the show it was actually made for.  After giving it a lot of thought, I decided to go ahead and make another piece based on the same concept.  I will use a similar colour scheme but, perhaps, some different techniques, and a very different overall appearance.  So the pieces will be different, but a viewer would also be aware that they are part of a series.  It is interesting that anyone who has seen the original piece and spoken of it, refers to it as being black.  It is actually navy blue, so very blue that I did all of the quilting with black thread to try to mute the colour.  Guess it worked.

To help me "chill out", I have started to work my way through a fibre design book.    I'm really not sure where this will go.  Either I will learn something, or what I have learned in the past will be validated.  An interesting process, none the less.  I'll keep you posted.

Getting down to business

The two pieces I have in mind are setting me off in a new way of working.  In the past, I've usually had something planned in my mind, and then jumped right in with fabric and paint.  This time, I have a certain "look"  I want to achieve, and have to figure out how to do that.  I thought I had two options--fabric paint which is transparent and acrylic which is opaque.  My brain was telling me that I wanted opaque, but never having used fabric paint over the whole quilt top, I figured that I needed to learn more about it before starting to slap it on my limited amount of fabric.  I bought a video download lesson on painting on fabric.  The teacher uses a fairly thick layer of paint, but then FMQ's right through it.  This concerns me.  I've quilted through a thin layer, of acrylic, but noticed quite a change in the sound of the machine when it hit a slightly thicker section.  So I did a test strip with sections of all of the thicknesses and types of paint I was considering, planning to quilt the strip so that I had a tru comparison.  I have fallen in love with, and are determined to use, a polished cotton, so did a second test strip of the cotton, after it had been washed but before painting it.  I wasn't really happy with the look of either of the paints, thick or thin.  In desperation I tried a couple of Shiva Paint Sticks that I had on hand.  Absolutely perfect!  Exactly the look I want!  Once this test strip is dry, I'll quilt it and then apply some acrylic paint, as I plan to do in the finished piece.  I need to be sure that the acrylic paint will adhere to the dry oil paint.

I have been on the internet looking at pictures of the images I plan to use.  I find that it helps to view a lot of different images.  They tend to blur together in my mind, but the distinctive bits stay, and come together to form an entirely new, and original, arrangement.   In the meantime, I need to do a sample of the FMQ'g pattern that I hope to use.  It is quite complex and practise in indicated!