Flower POWER

My Granddaughter, Elizabeth, loves peace signs and symbols from the flower-power era.  So, when she said she wanted a peace sign quilt, I found some cute kid fabric and went to work.  I created the peace sign blocks on paper and printed them off on fabric...ditto, for the large flower.  I decided to work them in with a stack of blocks created from striped fabric in two different color ways - one bright and one darker.  The bright ones really put the punch in "power".  I decided to create another quilt for the back so her work, a self portrait and two peace symbols, would be featured there.  Needless to say, I like her blocks better than mine and I now wished I would have put them on the front!  For some reason, I think of Cherry Blossoms when I look at the front.

Now to finish Abby's.  It's been waiting patiently for a border for several years and if I do not get busy, she will grow out of it!  Does this sound familiar?

                                           Flower POWER (Front)           58 1/2" x 58 1/2"

Flower POWER (Detail)

 

  

 

 

 

  Flower POWER (Back)

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Duo - Sissy and Bub

 

 

 

 

 

 

Making a Commercial Fabric Work for You

I have been painting on commercial fabric and making it my own for use in quilts and art quilts for some years.  When I recently found a great commercial decorator fabric (Fig. 1) to make pillows for my family room sofa, I knew I would be altering this fabric and adding to my painted fabric repertoire.  The fabric said 1950's to me but I wanted some bright yellow and a little black in it (to go with yellow leather chairs also in the family room).  I got out the paint and made it my own (Fig. 2).  And, the finished pillows look good on both the sofa and chairs (Fig. 3 & 4).

               Decorator Fabric  (Fig. 1)

 

 

 

                           Finished Pillow 18"x18"  (Fig. 2)

 

 

 

On Sofa in Family Room  (Fig. 3)

 

 

 

                                      On Yellow Chair  (Fig. 4)

 

 

 

To Cut or Not to Cut? That is Always the Question

Two of my fellow FiberVoices art quilt group sisters, Linda and Nancy, and I spent a week at the beach cabin.  We decided to paint, stamp, stencil, screen and otherwise mark fabric - colors on white, black on white and white on black.  When we were finished, we divided each work between us (Fig.1).  The question after we created the fabric was what to do with it.  In the end, however, cutting it and using it is the "name of the game".

I decided to make a fantasy pot of flowers wall-hanging for my 8 year old granddaughter, Elizabeth, using the black on white fabric as a background and other fabrics I painted that week for flowers.  The white on black fabric was used for the pot and some of the leaves.  The two commercial fabrics in the work are the brown/white circle flowers and the dark green fabric used for floral greenery.  All other greenery, flowers, etc., were painted designs on white fabric.  You can see from the Work-In-Progress photo (Fig. 2) that the background was too graphic, busy, and not very interesting.  I used a Gesso wash to dull it down and loved the contrasting results (Fig. 3).  The background seems settled, serene and inviting with the foreground bright, fanciful and full of life. 

                      Beach Retreat Work 2013     (Fig.1)

 

 

 

 

 

                                  Work in Progress      (Fig. 2)

 

 

 

 

 

       Flowers for Elizabeth 2013    16-3/4" x 25-3/4"  

                                                                    (Fig. 3)

 

 

 

 

 

  

Grammy and Abigail - Inspiring Each Other

My granddaughter, Abigail, came and stayed with me for a week when she was three.  Each morning, she would take me by the hand and say, "Come on, Grammy, it's time to go to your studio and do art"!  She had her own small table set up with paper, paint, water, pens, pencils, all the stuff necessary to have fun, and her favorite programs on the Tele (Abby work, Figure 1).  After she left, I painted some fabric (Figure 2) while the Abby impressions were fresh...and created Abby at Three (Figure 3).

...and, perhaps, some of my work has inspired hers (Figures 4,5)...

          Abby Painting 2007  (Fig. 1)

 

 

 

 

 

 

                          Assorted Painted Fabric  (Fig.2)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                           Abby at Three  20"x20" (Fig. 3)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

             Grammy's Fish Fancy  12"x15"   (Fig. 4)

 

 

 

 

 

 

             Abby's Watercolor 2011   9"x12" (Fig. 5)

Quilting Arts Magazine Articles

In 2008, I published my first article in Quilting Arts Magazine, Thread Trash - Using Old Threads for New Surfaces, which discussed the use of thread trash as a surface design element in work.  People have used thread trash in their work over the years but its use is not common (See Fig. 1).  I have used it over the years regularly in my work (See Staying Connected & other examples in my blog)...until...I began playing with painted coffee filters and paper towels.  My early compositions were cut bits applied with matte medium onto peltex with additional paint applied where needed, then quilted.  This led to a more painterly approach using torn bits.  I found I could manage light and dark values with the paper itself (using no paint "tweaks" in the final product).  Painting with Torn Paper and Stitch - Create an Impressionistic Collage, is now a feature article in Quilting Arts Magazine, April/May 2013 (See Fig. 2).  The work featured (not shown here) was created using no paint tweaks at all.  Morning Ruminations, below, is my latest work, still in progress, using this process.

Figure 1:  Quilting Arts Cover, June/July 2008
Figure 2:  Quilting Arts Cover, April/May 2013
Figure 3:  Fall Forest (collage with paint tweaks and thread trash)
Figure 4:  Blue Vase (collage with no paint tweaks and thread trash)
Figure 5:  Morning Ruminations, a dyptich work-in-progress

                                        June/July 2008

                                                     Fig. 1

 

 

 

 

                                     April/May 2013

                                                    Fig. 2

 

 

 

 

 Fall Forest            (#1 of tryptich)

5"x7"                                   Fig. 1 

 

 

 

 

          Blue Vase         8.5"x14"

                                      Fig. 4

 

 

 

 

   Morning Ruminations - WIP               8.5"x16.5"

                                          and 12.5x16.6      Fig. 5

 

 

 

 

  

FiberSpeak Studio Now Open

I recently moved out of my old studio located in the master bedroom of our house to the living room/dining room to make way for an upcoming remodel of the back half of our house.  The back half of the house is original to the year it was built - 1954, and, yes, I have a pink bathroom and a green bathroom.  The new studio is the largest work space I have ever had.  I hope I can create some larger work to go with it.

View 1:  From Entry across Living Room to Dining Room
View 2:  From Living Room Window to Fireplace
View 3:  From Fireplace to Window
View 4:  Dining Room close up

                                                                    View 1

 

 

 

                                                                  View 2

 

 

 

                                                                  View 3

 

 

 

                                                                   View 4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One Coming Home

My quilt, A Fine Pastry, is coming home after traveling with International Quilt Festival since 2011.  It made its debut appearance in Special Exhibits, Text on Textile.  It's working title was Clearly Speaking which, clearly, it doesn't.  It was really about the fall-out and mess created when one person in a two-person exchange does not speak clearly, leaving both of them stunned, hurt, and trying to find solid, common ground again.  "Hai fatto un proprio pasticcio", my former Italian neighbor told me once - "You have made a fine pastry", meaning, I had made a big mess.  It was so true. 

                               A Fine Pastry     48" x 48"

 

 

 

 

On the Wall at Beach House

 

 

 

 

One-In Revealed

Zoo Inspirations:  Fencework made its debut appearance in the judged show at Houston's International Quilt Festival in October, 2012.  It is the second in a series of three quilts to be completed by FiberVoices members, Susan Fletcher King, Linda Teddlie Minton, Nancy B. Dickey, Mary Ann Littlejohn and myself.  It was inspired by the fencing I observed at the Houston Zoo.  Each exotic animal seemed to have its own unique fencing designed specifically for its own environment.  I found it fascinating.  Besides the safety issue, each added to the mystery that is the Zoo.  I used Thread Trash to create a camouflage net (inspired by camo-netting used to disguise tanks on the open fields during WWII) thereby adding to the mystery of my own exotic plant.

          Zoo Inspirations: Fencework      18" x 44" 

 

 

 

 

                     Zoo Inspirations: Fencework - Detail    

 

Veggie Prints

One day FiberVoices decided to play with vegetable printing.  This was so much fun.  I created several postcards and three small wallhangings.  My friend, Mary Ann, contributed this fabric from Provence for the outer border.  The background is dot-printed with a pencil eraser, rather time-consuming but fun.

Beets on Parade  17" x 24"

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Heart Healthy was created grouping scraps in a fun way.       

 

 

 

                              Heart Healthy         14" x 16"

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Aunt and Uncle were married 62 years. My Aunt died first and Uncle Lou followed her soon after. I created a memorial quilt to honor their life together which I summed up in two sentences. The two sentences were based on childhood experience and occured at every single meal I ever sat down to eat at their house. My mother, who was Uncle Lou's twin sister, did not share my memory. I had to verify it with my cousin who said my uncle not only did not eat salad, he ate no vegetables at all. It was all Rabbit Food to him. Once again, I was able to group square-cut, mis-matched scraps.

 

            

 

 

                                         Rabbit Food    20" x 27"

 

 

 

 

Sow's Ears or Silk Purses?

I took a short morning class with Lyric Kinard at IQA in Houston this year.  Each person at a table of 7 or 8 dumped their bag of scraps onto the table.  We were given a postcard-size piece of peltex and told to add two pieces of fabric.  Then move to a different table to add more "stuff" to someone elses postcard.  And so on two more times, finally keeping the last one.  We did get to begin one of our own, start to finish, the last one below, though I did rob ric-rac off of "Dreams & Wishes" to finish it at home.  We all created 5 postcards in three hours (I usually can spend all day on just one)!   I came home thinking they were all Sow's Ears.  With a few tweaks, however, I was able to get them to an acceptable "I-can-live-with-it" stage.  Silk Purses?  Probably not but they were such fun, I would do it all again in a heartbeat.
 

               "Too Much Fun"   4x6

 

 

 

                    "Untitled"         4x6

 

 

 

 

                         "Dreams & Wishes"        4x6

 

 

 

 

                        "On Parade"                           4x6

 

 

 

 

                           "Sticks & Stones"          4x6

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

   

Stitch and Paint

I began doing a paint wash over already quilted (warm-up) samples of free-motion doodles.  I sometimes added further embellishments, and cut them down to 4"x6" postcards for friends.  They were fast and easily convertible to other designs.  At some point, I began using my own drawings beginning with simple-shapes, designed as an example to those who had never drawn anything before (fig. 1), to free-motion doodles (fig. 1, 2), to more elaborate drawings (fig. 3, 4).

 

(fig.1)          Abby's Block Garden            16"x20"

 

 

 

 

 

 

(fig.2)            Elizabeth's Garden               9"x12"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(fig.3)     Abby Picking Wildflowers     11"x11"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(fig.4)   Flowers for "E"  4"x6"

 

 

 

Adding Creative Input to Abandoned Work

One of the design exercises in art quilt group, Out of Bounds, was to listen to music and create a piece of work based on what you were hearing.  I didn't produce much out of my own creation but I was able to play with the abandoned work of fellow Out of Bounds member, Susan King.  She had created her work to the music Miseralu from the film Pulp Fiction, hated the result and was going to trash it.  I took it from fat-quarter size to postcard to trading-card size, ultimately adding my own creative input to her original effort.  I never did go back and revisit my own music-to-fabric exercise but I did create another one a year or so later out of black gesso and silk strips on cotton as part of an artist's challenge for The Copper Shade Tree Gallery in Round Top, Tx., shown below.

      "Miseralu", 18x22 cropped

 Susan Fletcher King

 

 

 

                                     "Miseralu Redux", 18x22

 

 

 

 

"Miseralu III", Each 4x6

 

 

 

 

                          "Miseralu IV", Each 2 1/2 x 3

 

 

 

 

 

                                             "Intermezzo", 11x14

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reading-In a Design in Fabric

For years I have been "reading-in" a design in fabric.  I never really thought much about it...until I received a birthday postcard from my friend and fellow quilt artist, Liz Broussard.  I love it!  She took a piece of marbelized fabric she created on a play day at my beach cabin, read-in a design, bound it with her signature painted coffee filters and sent it to me.

"Flower Pops" 4" x 6"
Elizabeth Ann Broussard

I did much the same thing when I created what I thought to be an unsuccessful monoprint with weak stamp impressions.  When I finished it, it became this year's donation to Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative, representing the slow erosion and fading away of the mind that is the face of this terrible disease.

                                          "Shades of Gray" 8 1/2" x 9"

  


Staying Connected

"Staying Connected" began in 2008,  when I created an abstract painting on linen.  It was also the year my dad was battling stage 4 lung cancer (he never smoked a day in his life so go figure...).  I felt very depressed when I looked at the painted linen.  Dad would soon move on.  With this painting, it was also clear I was leaving piecing behind.  Actually, I had been consistently leaving piecing behind in my work for some time but it suddenly weighed heavy on my mind.  I missed it and my piecing friends.  On went the rectangular bits, a reference to piecing.  Thread trash went on to reflect the fluidity of our lives.  The addition of painted misty fuse and leaves composed of both painted dryer sheets and commercial painted fabric completed the composition.  In the end, it represented the life cycle and the fact that "we all leave behind, we all get left behind and in between we just try to stay connected".  It was indeed an honor when it was selected to appear in Lone Stars III:  A Legacy of Texas Quilts 1986-2011, by Karoline Patterson Bresenhan and Nancy O'Bryant Puentes.



                                                                   "Staying Connected"  18"x41"

The book was published and made its debut at International Quilt Festival, Houston, Tx., in October, 2011.