Practising

While refining the designs for the next couple of projects, I knew I needed to practice my FMQ'g.  This is just a basic part of maintaining a skill.  At a recent LQG meeting I picked up a pre-printed panel intended for making a cushion, off the "touch'n'take table"-one of those things you used to be able to buy at the old fashioned 5 and 10 cent stores.  It is quite old, and I have no idea who the designer might have been.  It is  about 17 " square.  I drafted a pattern turning the single design into a larger 4 patch-type design.

Over the past week, I've turned this into a small whole cloth quilted hanging, all done  with FMQ'g.  As it was for practice, I didn't worry too much about things that weren't quite perfect-fair warning!

Here is the finished hanging, waiting for binding.  I used Superior So Fine in white, for the background areas and Superior Fantastico, 5024, for the flowers and leaves. It finished at about 32" square.

And here are close-ups.

 I had particularly wanted to practice using a combination of circles and matchstick quilting in the background areas, and in the technical aspects of creating a woven grid.

I plan to link this with Nina-Marie Sayre's Off the Wall Friday, and The Needle and Thread Network.

Must be Spring!

Three weeks ago I was despairing that I couldn't seem to get any sort of handle on any sort of new original project.  Now I seem to have them coming out of my ears, and I'm getting dizzy trying to regain control.  "Be careful what you wish for"--lol

One project is for a new exhibition, just now in the planning stages.  If worse comes to worst, I will be able to use the piecet in another exhibition, so I will proceed.  The size and theme are established, but my interpretation of the theme may be a little weird, and the tentative title I'm working with is "Shadows of my Mind".  I have hand-dyed fabric for background and backing, using a LWI process combining grey and olive green Procion dye.  The piece is quite large, as the size requirements are quite large,  and really out of my comfort zone.  But one must stretch one's boundaries.

Here is the result.  the full view is actually double, as, as I said the piece is going to be large.

and a close up.

I then set up two separate dye baths of the two colours, in a much greater concentration, thinking of using the results as applique.  I used scraps of what I thought was the same fabric.  Not so.

Well, what is it they say--"Man plans, God laughs"?

Yesterday I discussed my plans with one of my fibre art support groups. It was suggested that, if I was thinking of using the concept of the "mind", in my design, I should see an exhibit currently running at The Manitoba Crafts Council C2 for Craft Gallery--Neurocraft.

This show involves  collaboration between several teams, each of which consisted of conversation and interaction between a neurobiologist from the University of Manitoba and an artist.  Several art/fine craft mediums were represented.  So today I went.  OMG!  I was blown away. The artist statements and the biographies of both the artists and the scientists were detailed.  My whole design process is being revised.  I am so-o-o pumped!  I have ideas for further research, and ideas for additional techniques.

One thing that I will have to carefully keep in mind is the differences between the concept of "mind", and the scientific reality of "brain".  How exciting!

I plan to link this with The Needle and Thread Network.

Studio Day

While I've spent a fair bit of time in the studio lately,  it has involved a lot of working to deadlines, and catching up with my "to do" list.  Today I had a FMQ'g project on the machine ready to start stitching, but I didn't sleep well last night, and decided that I wasn't ready for a pains-taking job like that.  So, I decided to paint.  It's been on my "to do" list but not as a priority.  This means completely re-organizing my studio into a "wet" studio, as opposed to the fabric, or "dry" studio it usually is.  Doing something like that means doing a fair bit of production, as it's just too much work for one small piece. (In summer, painting is usually a job done out in the garden, but not in March when it's freezing out there.)

This is my set-up.  I protect my work table with an old tablecloth, and then use a 32" sq. piece of good Plexiglas on top.  Most of us who show and exhibit our art, also have smaller "bread and butter" items, that we use to assure our booth rental, and other expenses.  The items I make start with mono-printed cotton, so a great deal of my basic preparations involve pulling prints.  I do this once or twice a year, and aim for between 20 & 25 prints that I slowly process over the next few months.  

The large piece you see on the table is (I hope) the background for a fibre art piece that I currently only have in my head.  Today I only managed to get 14 prints, and here they are drying, below.

Once, I had got this far, and took a break, I realized that it's been far too long since I sorted out my painting supplies and took inventory. This had to be done before I could do much more, as I had realized that some of my "go to" supplies have been all used up. So that was the next step.

Normally, my painting supplies are organized onto bins in a large book case.  I keep fabric paint, acrylic paint, water colour supplies, alcohol and other inks, and various art mediums, in separate bins,

 The various junk needed to use these things is kept on what was originally a wet bar. All of my metallic paints and Procion dyes are kept under the bar, just around the corner from the laundry room that I use for all of my dyeing, and some of my painting.

Not to worry, both have now been tidied up and a whole bunch of containers etc put out for re-cycling. I learned in university to buy the best tools I could afford, and care for them properly.  This attitude has served me well over the years, especially with my paint brushes.  I made myself a caddy for them, and have used it for many years. It is just a piece of good cotton that I embellished with Shiva Paint sticks.  There is a place for each brush, and the whole affair rolls up in to a neat bundle.

All together a very productive day.

I plan to link this with Nina-Marie Sayre's Off the Wall Friday, and The Needle and Thread Network.

Re-purposing

In my recent studio purge, there were two large hangings that I decided to re-purpose rather than discarding.  This is a fairly new activity to me, so I took one of them to my fibre art group, the Fibre Art Divas, for ideas.  One lady suggested table runners, and generously gave me a some technical hints.  Thank you Cathy Ugrin.

Here are the two pieces that have evolved from one of the hangings. The original piece was a large hanging comprised of commercial and hand-dyed fabric, discharged and raw edge appliqued into a representation of water flowing over rocks, heavily machine quilted.  In the final analysis it just didn't work.  This opinion was expressed by a few artist friends, who saw it in an exhibition.  I had already decided when I first saw it hanging, after being away from it for a couple of weeks.

The first piece is on white cotton sateen, and measures 36" by 16".  It is matchstick machine quilted horizontally.

The second is on creamy coloured white quilting grade cotton, and measures 14" by 32".  This is also match stick machine quilted horizontally.

This has been quite a learning experience for me.  I have frequently used matchstick machine quilting, done free motion, in smaller irregularly shaped areas.  This is the first time I've tried it this way.  It is much harder than it looks.

I plan to link this with The Needle and Thread Network.

I must be out of my mind!

I've often written about the stash reduction process I've been working on over the past couple of years, and plan to continue working on for the coming year.  My daughter has often threatened, in fun, that when I go, she is going to have the biggest garage sale the neighbourhood has ever seen.  My goal over the next 6-8 months has been to go through all of the quilts and hangings I have stored in the studio.  Some will be discarded, and some re-purposed. I am also in the planning process for 5 exhibitions that I will be participating in between now and the end of November, and hope to find a few older pieces that I can use to fill out the display. I have written up a "to do" list for the studio that covers the rest of the year. 

 But my strength (?) is in procrastination, and the process is slow.  My husband is very supportive.  He often helps in the studio, and enjoys doing routine cutting for me.  As I write this he is sitting in front of the tv, cutting beads off a couple of hangings, for recycling. 

Today, was to have been an effort to re-purpose a hanging that we culled out a month ago.  Husband came to see what was going on, and looking for a job.  To my dismay, having seen the list, he decided that today was the day that we would go through a huge storage chest, and cull out the pieces stored there.  Within half an hour the total studio was in chaos, and the project for today abandoned on the sewing machine.  Decisions were made, and I was left with a pile of about 15 hangings that had to be re-purposed or disposed of. My husband had suggested that we send them to the thrift store.  The thought of doing this chilled my heart.  But, the idea of trying to figure out some way they could be re-purposed also terrified me.  I have better things to do with my time, and I could see several months work in this, probably with poor results.

So I cut them all up with my rotary cutter and threw them in the garbage.  Here they are in five gallon pails waiting to be taken out to the garbage bin.

IT FEELS GREAT!!!

I plan to link this with The Needle and Thread Network.