Slow progress

Preparations for Christmas have taken up much of my time for the last few days, and progress has been slow on my "Controlling the Pain" piece, but about half the red pieces have been sewn onto the background, complete with their Prairie Points.   Now I have to spend time making more Prairie Points before I can go much further. They are all cut out but have to be pressed into shape.  I'm still workingon the original 126 that I cut out, but I'll probably have to cut more. Maybe Monday.

"Controlling the Pain"

Yes, that is the title of this piece.  it is quite personal and will never be considered fine art--but it is the right project for me right now.
Yesterday I prepared the background on which I will be adding applique.  It is meant to represent a stylized image of an old west jail cell as viewed through the window--complete with bars.  Of course, the window frame and wall have not yet been added, but this background is machine quilted everywhere that will be without applique and visible.  All of the lines indicating placement of the applique have been machine basted with a light blue thread, as i didn't want to risk any markings either disappearing or becoming permanent during the applique process, which will include using the iron.  I prefer to use a Frixion pen whenever I can.

The next step is to cut out the aplique pieces from a piece of batik, that was specially purchased for the project.  It contains dark burgundy, red, orange, and yellow.  When I was planning ther priject.  I made a master pattern on good paper, then traced it onto tracing paper.  This will be used to confirm placemetn of the appliques as they are added, if necessary.  Then it was traced a third time onto tracing paper again, to crate a pattern that could be cut apart and used to cut the fabric.  As the pieces were cut, they were pinned onto the background in the appropriate place.  As each pattern piece was positioned onto the Batik, it was traced around using the Frixion pen.  As each piece is used, this line ine stitched to create a permanent line for folding the seam allowance under.  This line will not be visible on the front of the finished piece.  The individual pieces were cut from the fabric qnd replaced onto the background immediately so they wouldn't be lost.  Because the design has some pieces that appear to be behind the window bars, care had to be taken to make sure that colour, on both sides of the bar, matched , or appeared to transition in a logical manner--always a challenge with batik.  The first picture below shows the first pieces placed ontothe background.  The second shows all of the pieces, pinned in place, ready for the next step, maybe tomorrow.

Of course, there are scraps of the batik, and already I am seeing, in my mind, another hexie project.

Hello again!

Medical issues have consumed my life over the past few months, but now I am coming to the surface again and trying to get back into the studio.

For the past few months I have retreated into my comfort zone and dabbled a bit in traditional quilting, but have produced very little inthe way of more art-y pieces.  To try to get my back into the more demanding world of art quilting, I am --sort of--retracing the steps I  took to get there in the first place.  One piece that stirred my soul several years ago was a tote bag designed by Linda and Laura Kemshell, based on traditional Kantha work out of India.  The original piece I made has long been living in the studio of a friend, so I have decided to doit again but use ing the current fad of Hexies.  I estimate that I will need at least 325-1" Hexies, and probably more.  I am using a stock pile of Japanese influenced taupe-ish fabric that I have in the studio.  So far I have jsut over 200 of them done.  Want to see what 200 1" hexies look like?

The ones over to the left have not yet been pressed or counted.

The second project will involved many, many 3/4" Prairie Points--not sure how many, but my fist batch is 126.  I have chose to use an alternative to the usual method of making them.  Usually you  start with a square, and fold it corner to corner into a triangle and then fold one end in to make a different triangle.  Here is what I'm doing. Start with a 1 1/2" square of fabric.  I have shownit here with a quarter to give an idea of the size.

Fold this in half , into a rectangle and press.

Then fold ione upper corner to the centre of the bottom of the rectangle.  Because i made a mistake and bought a cheaper fabric for the colour, this fabric doe not hold an edge well, and I have had to put a tiny piece of fusible web under the edge to hold it in place. Tthis is the faint shadow you see in the middle of the bottom edge of the rectangle.

Now fold the other upper corner down to meet the first one, and press into place.  Here's what they look like once they are ready to use.  Remember that quarter?  I'll continue to take pictures as the two projects progress.

Sale Day!

Yes, the yearly "big sale" was last Friday and Saturday.  Friday was a washout, and Saturday not much better.  We barely made travel expenses, and both ended up exhausted with heat and boredom.

But, I did have time to take a good look at my production over the past year, all grouped in one spot, and was dismayed to see how much my art has regressed.  I appear to have reverted into my comfort zone, producing more and more traditional work.  Far more than half of what I displayed was constructed from commercial fabric  Only two small pieces were painted, and only three hand dyed.

The past year has been a year of many transitions, both personal and artistically.  I have been searching for a niche, trying out various techniques and skills that attracted me, but never settling on any one facet of fibre art.  This has been compounded by the sort of brain fog that comes from chronic pain and analgesics.

Prior to packing for the sale, we culled the work on hand, actually destroying and garbage-ing a fair bit.  Most of this consisted of items that have been taken to sales for several years, and not sold, even when marked down. None of these had any potential for "re-purposing". I have no regrets about this, and am now wondering if we went far enough.

 Once we were packed for the sale, I sat down and developed a "to do" list, which always helps me clear my mind and set priorities, even if I never look again at the list once it's done.  One thing I missed, was a need to get the traditional stuff out of my life.  It is so easy to revert to that comfort zone.  I am even considering getting the commercial fabric out of the studio, so that I go to the had dyes first. It actually sits there and says  "You bought me, now you are obligated to use me".

But, all this being said, I did trade one piece for a lovely painting to hang in my living room.  So the weekend was not a total loss.

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?

Mixed Media Explorations

Over the past few weeks, I have been playing with mixed media.  Mixed |Media techniques have always been a part of my work as an art quilter, but now I am able to view the whole thing as a continuum, from pure textile work such as hand embroidery, through quilt making onto painting fabric, adding embellishments and working into doing exactly the same things on paper, board, and canvas, slowly progressing to the point of using pure paint.  I have been very surprised to find that artists who have begun their journey at the other end of the continuum as just as fascinated with the mixed media techniques as we fibre people.

Being sure that I was entering the field of mixed media as a neophyte, my first step--of course--was to sign up for a class.  While waiting for class day, I ended up in a discussion, with a group of painters, about--of all things--artists trading cards (ATC's).  This lead to the realization that I probably have more experience than most of them with mixed media techniques.  Then came class day where the techniques were much closer to painting than fibre, along the continuum.  But I still knew enough to feel quite comfortable amongst the group of painters.

This has been a major epiphany for me.  I really don't need to feel like a poor relation when I associate with other artists.  I have something to contribute!

The end result is that I have been asked to lead a "Play Day" in Mixed Media Techniques.  Several of the people who have signed up for this are artists whose work I have admired for years.  Boy!  I better get my act together in a hurry!!