Mandalas

After the frustrations of putting together my piece, " The Old Summer Kitchen", I wanted a bit of a break before starting the FMQ'g and thread painting on it.  I also thought it might be an idea to do some warm up of my FMQ'g, as it's been awhile.  So I did the basic preparation for a couple of mandalas I'm interested in.  Getting these quilted, will give me some take-along hand work for when I volunteering at a local gallery.  The gallery is often quiet for periods of time, --an excellent spot for some quiet hand work--and the gallery encourages its volunteers to be doing something creative while they're on site.

The two pieces were created by placing wet fabric over a bas-relief ceiling rosette, and then pushing the fabric into the crevices with a paint -covered ( Pebeo Seta-Color-well diluted) brush. Then allowing it to dry, in place. This is a technique I've played with a few times, with mixed success, but it went fairly well this time.  The secret, I think, is to find the perfect depth of relief.  Here is the plaster rosette I used.  It is just about an inch thick in the middle and about 3/8-7/16th at the edge. The rosette is 12" in diameter. I bought is at a garage sale for $1.00.

The first piece I did was in red, yellow and blue.  Depending on how well the paint is diluted there is always some blending between the colours, and I think this is desirable.  I quilted loosely along the lines of the image, with Superior Kimono Silk, trying to match the colour of the thread to the colour of the paint. I plan to bead this with clear crystal No.8 beads.

Figuring out how to quilt the last border area was challenging, as none of the features of the bas-relief were imprinted.  My first thought were something geometric, but then I decided to continue the "soft" feel of the piece with curves, and used a modified McTavishing technique.

The second piece was done in blue and yellow, which, of course, blended into shades of green.  Again, I tried to match the colour of the thread (polyester, this time. I have no idea where it came from). Some of the quilting is done with silver metallic.  The imprint of the bas-relief is much clearer this time, and, I think this shows in how detailed the quilted ended up being.  But the final border was still not clear, and I was happy to use the modified McTavishing again.  This will be beaded with either the same clear crystal as the first one, or, maybe, smaller silver beads.

I'm considering the titles "Tiara", and "Tiara Too".  I plan to exhibit both of them later this year.
I plan to link this with Nina Marie Sayre's "Off the Wall Friday", and The Needle and Thread Network".

The Old Summer Kitchen

In the last post I ranted about the frustrations of putting together the latest piece--"The Old Summer Kitchen".  It has been a b---h!  Most of the techniques have been used before, but probably not all in the same piece. My usual work is much more abstract than realism.  My physical limitations have forced me to utilize a small bedroom as a studio rather than the entire finished basement I could previously access. But the basic construction of the piece was completed today, and all that's left is FMQ'g and thread painting.

Like many prairie families, my husband's parents had a summer camp.  They bought raw land with a sandy lake front, in 1942, and slowly developed it as  a haven for, first, their children and later grandchildren, great-grand children, and even a great-great grandchild.  After the privy, the first building was a kitchen.  The windows were screened and had only shutters.  This gave a protected area for the small children.  I remember my MIL cooking meals for more than 20 people,  on a wood stove with no running water,  in this very small space--probably only 10 by 15 feet.

Eventually there was a one room sleeping cabin to replace the tents, and later electricity and finally running water--but still with a very primitive system.  In the 1980's a bear got into the kitchen, and defecated in the wood stove.  Since the building had been built around the stove, and it couldn't be removed, a new summer kitchen had to be built, and this one was moved aside and relegated to a storage shed.

Sadly, the property recently had to be sold.

Here is the basic piece with most of the background fused.  Then the two birch trees on the right were added, and more fabric painting done

The building itself was assembled separately.  The fabric is mostly either hand-dyed or hand painted.  The sky is my last precious piece of "Fossil Fern"

And here is the building applied to the background.  This is only the basic construction.  There is still quite a bit of "tweaking" to do.

I plan to link this with http://needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.ca/.

A-r-g-g-g-h!

working on a new piece, hopefully, for a group gallery exhibition in November. This isn't my first rodeo.  I've been doing this for over 50 years, and have probably tried most techniques, at some point, in my life. This project is pretty straight forward--machine applique and FMQ'g, based on a photo--a landscape. The work has been in progress for over a week now, with me in the studio every day, often for hours. Every step of the way something has gone wrong.  I have never felt like such a doofus in my life.  I can't even cut a pattern, without getting it backwards.  Using fusible, as an assist for basting, I got fusible on my iron, ironing board cover, and my fingers. I didn't get it on the fabric, where it was supposed to be, did get it on fabric where it wasn't supposed to be, and ended up starting all over again.  Since much of the fabric is my hand dyeing, I don't have a lot of it, and probably can't reproduce the colour.  This has lead to some interesting colour decisions.

Ah-h-h, maybe tomorrow.

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

A small piece finished.

I finally finished the small 12 by 12, that was started in a workshop with Bethany Garner.  I posted about the workshop awhile ago, but had never been able to devote a day to finishing the piece.  Not spectacular, but a simple little collage.

Here is a full view and a close-up.

Juncos

Having received the thread I needed for thread painting, I got to work on my latest piece, and have finally got it finished and hung in my studio.  I've been wanting to replace a framed embroidery, there, that I did in 1992, but have had problems with size as the area is over my ironing board, and the space is limited.

A few months ago, I blogged about doing a series of mono-prints on cotton to use as backgrounds for a series of hangings.  This is the first piece in that group.  I use the word group, as I'm not yet sure that there will be a series.  The mono-prints I chose for this piece were black and ultramarine blue, and there were three of them.  I first made a rough draft of my plan to determine the size of my thread painted focal point.  Then I did the thread painting.  I chose Juncos as the subject, as I very much look forward to the three weeks they visit my feeder, both spring and fall.

Next the surrounding pieces were cut and assembled, and the entire thing machine quilted, some of which was free motion. There was enough of the mono-prints left over to be able to piece the backing.  I usually add a false back to my pieces, but am toying with the idea of maybe entering this in a judges exhibition, so have allowed the quilting to show.   That is very scary for me! Here is the full view.

  And the reverse.  Because of the possibility of showing it, I've used an exhibition-size sleeve.

 And here it is on my wall, over the ironing board.  I plan to link this with The Needle and Thread Network, and maybe Nina-Marie Sayre's Off the Wall Fridays.

Practising

The thread I need for a special project has finally arrived.  But, it's been along time since I did any FMQ'g, and since the project involves both FMQ'g and thread painting, I figured I better get some practice in, before starting work on the project. I took one of the pieces I painted last week, and decided to cover it with matchstick quilting, done with free motion.

I've been doing matchstick quilting for a few years, but I was recently told that the lines should be no more that the length of one machine stitch apart, and mine are more like 2-3 stitch lengths apart. So my second goal was to work on making them closer together.

The background is a cotton Damask table napkin, about 20 inches square, that had been LWI dyed.  I then put some  dark lines on it with fabric paint.

I found that it is much more difficult to make the lines exactly parallel when they are longer, and that I was smart to do a practice piece before starting on the main piece. Here is the result. 

First the front view.  As you can see, I tried to alter the direction of the stitching within every defined space.

The effect might be more easily seen on the reverse

Having put this much work into it, I'm hoping it can find some sort of use, perhaps a tote bag.

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

Searching

I engage fairly often in a bit of "navel gazing".  We're told that we are each our own worst critic, and I think this is true.  Over the past few weeks, I've been searching for inspiration.  I've cruised the internet, and spent a fair bit of time in my personal library, trying to find a sense of direction with my art.  While thinking about this,  my need to stitch has lead to five charity quilts, of which three are now finished and ready to go.  The other two just need some simple machine quilting, and binding.  But the time has come for action.  

The weather prediction was for a hot sunny day, so I was up early this morning and prepared to go to my garden and paint fabric.  I planned to use fabric paint, acrylic paint, and was ready to "just do it!" My mantra for this year.

It's been a couple of years, so I started out with an old familiar task-sun printing.  But then creativity took over.  I got out some hand-dyed fabric that hadn't quite made the grade.  ( Nothing has "made the grade" lately, but that's another story.)  

Just as I had started, having brought half my studio outside, the wind came up and dark, threatening clouds rolled in.  So much for weather predictions!  However, despite the wind, and loss of the sun, I carried on.  By the time I finished with fabric paint, more than 3 hours later, I had 10 pieces laid out on the grass to dry, although only 6 are shown in the picture.

This is a previously dyed piece, that I over-painted with the green, and then put the 5 lids on to sun print.  The rocks are to hold everything down in the wind.  After it was dry, the resulting circles were void of green, but there is still not enough value contrast to make them stand out as much as I had hoped.  I 'm thinking of some hand stitching around the edges of the circles.  This can best be described as cheating at  clamped Shibori, but since the original dyeing was Shibori based, I feel no guilt.

The next picture shows painting over a bas-relief sculpture.  This is something I've tried in the past, but with mixed results.  The key appears to be the depth of the bas-relief, and this plaster ceiling medallion appears to be just about perfect.  I found it at a yard sale yesterday for a dollar, and certainly plan to use it again.  I have a glimmering of an idea about doing some circular mandala pieces, and this might show up in one.

If you look in the upper left corner of the first photo, you can see a plain purple ( trust me, it's purple- not blue )piece with three white ceramic tiles on it for sun printing.  I had written it off as a total failure, until I removed the tiles and found this.  I have no idea what I'm going to do with it, but it's a "keeper".

The other pieces are still working their way through my brain, and I have a couple of ideas, but nothing firmed up yet.  But after almost three years of artistic block, I feel wonderful at finally having "something", and I can't wait to get down to it.  Those other two charity quilts may just have to wait.

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