Latest work

We are no down to the crunch in preparing for the sale later in the month.  Overall, I have not been able to complete nearly as much as I had hoped, but the sale is the major event of the year for the Eastern Manitoba Artists' Collective, and I want to support the organization.  It is also the one time of the year when we all get together, face-to-face.

Awhile back I wrote about dyeing fabric for a piece inspired by my trip to Cuba in March.  I used a LWI technique to create a fabric of mottled golden yellow, various blues and green, representing the sun, the sky and water, and the foliage.  I had planned to thread paint some Celtic symbols to represent the skin art I had seen.  The symbols turned out less symbolic than I wanted, but I am very pleased with the overall effect.

This amount of concentrated stitching lead to tension problems, despite three layers of stabilizer, as well as the dense batting and layer of backing.  The basic quilting is parallel vertical lines about 1/8" apart.  I still had to use some pretty heavy steam pressing while working on the piece and then had to block it after the work was finished.  It has been very wet and humid here lately, and I hesitate to take it off the blocking board until the weather dries up a bit, so that is the pink Gingham you can see behind it.  It will be bound in the background fabric.

The piece is 24 3/8' by 35 1/2".  The "black" is done with Superior's King Tut in Obsidian, a great cotton thread that is variegated in black, silver and brown, resulting a a wonderful texture, when viewed from close up.

At sales, I like to be able to offer items at a variety of prices.  Earlier this year I bought a pre-cut package of 6" WOF strips of Batik fabrics thinking I was getting a variety of deep reds and burgundies.  Wrong!  It turned out to be more pink, browns and peaches.  I have now made two small, much more traditional appearing hangings, that I will be able  to offer for less than $100.  This is the second one, bound and ready for hand finishing.  It is what it is.

Now, I have to get ready to make a few much smaller and less expensive items, that I am able to produce assembly-line style.  Would you believe that I actually have an order for Coffee Cuffs?