13 posts tagged “art quilts”
Well, here we are a month from my last post. I have felt like the greenhouse job has sucked me away from everything else. There are now plants in 3 greenhouses- all types of annuals and perennials, and even a few veggie plants (many more arriving this week). Quilt wise, I have not done too much, even after a quilt retreat. The first week of planting our new babies in the greenhouses really took it's toll on my body and brain. I had been feeling really lucky as far as the fibro goes, but that ended with a major crash last week. After spending 4 more hours than planned at the greenhouses the Monday after my retreat, I spent most of Tuesday in bed. I kind of felt like our cats- pretty lazy- here is a photo of my Baby Cat sleeping on a pillow on the couch. I thought she was going to fall off. The rest of the week was spent in the greenhouses.
I should have taken photos by now, but have not used my camera down there, yet. I do have to take it with me so I can get some shots of some of the blooming plants. There are beautiful Aquilegia (Columbine) flowers in blue, pink and white that are calling to be photographed. The photo below is of a Bog Lily in my indoor pond that bloomed a week ago. The flowers look like huge, white spiders (missing a couple legs).
The greenhouse startup is so different from when we owned the business. We used to start most of our own seeds, and divide and take cuttings of many other plants. This season, things are being started from basically nothing- no equipment, plants, seeds, or enough time. We are starting from rooted cuttings, pre-started plants, and seedlings in plugs. It's like Christmas, opening all the boxes- some with tiny baby plants tumbled out of their trays (I really think FedEx and UPS bowl with the boxes). Some babies come in blooming. One tray of violas were 1" tall with full sized blooms- I love pansies and Violas!! Some of the plants we purchased were half grown to use in hanging baskets, and planters to be ready for Mother's day in less than a month. The other big worry is how many people will come, since the business was closed for over a year. Lots of stress!!
Back to quilts..... I did accomplish a little at my retreat, I did a piece for the FFFC Recycled challenge, and did some samples for a class I will be teaching late this month. I also got an idea for a larger piece on the last full day, and had to be sure I took photos and scribbled ideas in my notebook for when I can get back to it.
Well, back to things greenhouse- opening day is May 1, with grand opening with all the splash is May 10. Wow, time is really flying and I am really having to tell myself not to over do, and to delegate. I just need a few more bodies to delegate to, though.
Until next time...... hopefully with greenhouse photos.
Here is the latest post of my latest batch of sunprint mini art quilts.
The pieces in this post are all the same size, as in the previous
posts. Each of these are appx. 5"x12" in size with a narrow ribbon loop
stitched to the top for hanging, or they can be framed. I found that
they will fit into a frame designed to hold two 3 1/2"x5" photos.
This first group of little quilts above, are constructed by satin stitch seaming fused quilt sandwiches together. Fused crazy patch areas are used around the sunprints. Most of these have a white or ivory yarn couched to the edges. Crazy Flowers has an interesting yarn as it's binding- a black yarn with fuzzy fibers in a rainbow of colors. The photo cuts off some of the longer "fuzzies". The lower left piece has an example of a fabric dying "failure" that ended up finding a place to be used. The brown fabric was meant to be a dusty rose, but ended up a mottled rusty brown- definitely not a color I use very often. I have now used up most of that fabric with sunprints in the colors of the above Nicotiana flowers, and some of my fall oranges with rusty purple undertones.
Maples, Maples, and more Maples- I love Maple trees and leaves. Here above, are four different pieces using sunprints of Maple leaves. This group shows that the bottom edges were cut off in the process of scanning them- the bottom edges are finished like the other edges. The quilting detail shows the best for me, when I use the scanner instead of the camera. Each of these pieces feature center sections with the Maple sunprints with sections of commercial or my fabrics on top and bottom. The two left ones have prints done on pastel colored fabrics. The two right ones use prints from the same panel that combines blue and green, resulting in seafoam looking colors. The two bottom pieces are listed in my Etsy Store .
These two pieces showcase flower sunprints. Left has a print of more Nicotiana flowers, and the right is from one of the panels I printed while making my Echinacea quilts. The long Nicotiana print was set off by two side strips of a tone on tone white fabric, free motion quilted with variegated thread, using my "usual" vine design. The Echinacea sunprint is done on a fabric painted with rose, yellow, and purple blended to give the rusty, rosy mottled look. it has been overpainted with Super Sparkle for added sheen. The upper and lower panels are from another fabric painted with the same colors, a bit lighter, and scrunched before drying to give the patterning. this piece is also listed at my Etsy Store.
The last two in this group have sunprints of grape leaves with confetti arranged for the grapes over rosy purple colors, and one with a single fern on green and blue. The grape sunprint is highlighted with a medium laender commercial fabric, while the fern has panels of a mottled navy blue commercial fabric. Both pieces have the same vine quilting in the colored panels.
If interested in purchasing any of these, or other little quilts shown in my blog, please email me.
For all of those celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow, Have a wonderful day.
Now I need to begin making evergreen wreaths for our second order of the season, along with baking a few pies. The last batch of 90+ wreaths and swags were done in 4 looong days, I don't want to do that again!! Talk about throbbing hands.... I have just over a week to do the next order of 100+ pieces. It still seems like Christmas is coming way too soon this year!
Well, as I wrote yesterday, I have more little quilts to show. The little art quilts in this post are 5"x7" in size.
The flower in the bottom photo of the left quilt and the flower in the lower quilt has a bee and butterfly visiting it.
The right piece is another green one with a sunprint of ferns and viola flowers with a butterfly. The side panel in this piece is a "scrunched" and salted fabric in seafoam green with pale blue. The vine quilting can also be seen in the white and blue-green sections.
And now for the snow. Last winter, we did not have any measurable snow until way into the new year. Last night we had our first measurable snow for this season. I had to take a few photos, and here they are:
This was the view out the front door this morning. The photos all came out quite blue. The snow stuck to all the trees. We were lucky that we did not loose power, especially since many trees still have leaves on them.
This was the view from the deck. The mountains and Towanda are hidden in the snow still falling. The branches of the Walnut tree make a neat frame for this photo.
The best thing about the snow will be that our well should now be getting some more water back. We have had a couple of rains, but the snow melting should soak into the ground very well.
More quilts will be posted in a day or two. I am also adding to my Etsy Store, so keep checking back there.
Now that the weather is feeling more fall-like, I have been staying
indoors, and trying to get something accomplished. I finally have had a
few days in a row where I have felt able to do more than surf the web.
I have been collecting used dryer sheets for a while, and finally decided to paint a few. This photo shows a few of them on a paint board. (I think I need to do some board cleaning- they are getting a bit of a pant build-up on them) The upper left piece is a shimmery organza painted blue. I used metallic and Super Sparkle paints on the dryer sheets, and tryed to do an assortment of colors.
Here is a group of dryer sheets that have been heat set, and pressed flat. Wonder Under release paper or parchment paper is needed on both sides while using the iron to be sure they don't melt. You can see how sheer they are. I really like how they turned out. I have been thinking of using the orange ones for fall leaves. Now more ideas can start forming in my cluttered my brain.
These quilts will be auctioned off, with the proceeds going to Alzheimer's research.
At first I had no idea what I was going to do, but then I began to think how I have been feeling lately, and some ideas began to form. I have been dealing with some bad fibro flares lately, and some days I can't remember friend's names, or find the words I want to say. It feels like my brain has chunks missing. That gave me the idea of making quilts with pieces missing to represent the memory loss from Alzheimers that so many people have to deal with. I feel lucky that my memory losses are temporary, and can't imagine knowing it would never get better.
Missing Pieces and Butterflies is made of pieces of my painted fabrics, a couple partial sunprints, and commercial fabrics. It is satin stitch seamed with some of the pieces missing, leaving holes. The Echinacea flowers are photos printed onto cotton fabric, cut out and appliqued, with a couple petals missing from one flower. The butterflies were added to show there is hope. I backed the holes of this quilt with a painted dryer sheet in blues and greens.
I will be sending these two out this week, and in a month or so, they should be put up for auction or sold some other way with the full profit going to Alzheimer's research.
This is the first quilt that I made using the leaves from above. I made this for this past Fast Friday Fabric Challenge. Each month we are given guidelines for a quilt to be made in a week. This month, we were to make a quilt using something as embellishment, to show movement. Now that fall is really here, the first thing I thought of was the Oak leaves I had, and the fall winds that blow the leaves around outdoors. I began with a piece of fabric sunprinted with oak leaves, cut apart and arranged, using a metallic gold-flecked ivory fabric as a background.
I couched a yarn with the colors in the fabric over the edges of the sunprinted fabric pieces. I used a variegated thread in fall colors for the free motion quilting around the sunprint leaves and to add the veins. There are also wobbly curved lines quilted in with clear thread. The quilt edges are bound with the yarn used around the sunprints. I then added the "silk" Oak leaves over the top, as if they were swirling in the wind. I only stitched the veins in the leaves, and let some of them drift off the edges. The photos show the quilt on a pre-stretched artist canvas. The quilt is 11"x14" in size, on a 16"x20" canvas. I am trying to decide just how to mount it. I don't know if I will leave the canvas white, or cover it with a colored fabric.
If anyone has any ideas, feel free to add a comment.
Now off to work, getting ready for my next show.
Finally I am joining in on the fun of showing my 2007 Journal Quilt to the public not able to attend Quilt Festival in Houston.
These were to be kept under wraps until they were unveiled in the
exhibition in Houston. Here it is, all 17" x 22" of it. Since we only
needed to make one quilt this year, it seemed like it would be SO
easy...... NOT! We were to use 3 techniques used in quilts
published in the book, "Creative Quilting- The Journal Quilt Project".
The techniques from the book I used were:
Pg. 76- Photo manipulation- I took photos of flowers and changed them
to look like "coloring book" like flowers. Photos I used to start are
here- Scilla & Snow Glories, Echinacea "dead heads"- (scroll down to see original photos in each post).
Pg. 65- Photos printed onto silk fabric- The top right and left photos
are Scilla and Grape Hyacinths printed onto silk charmeuse, along with
the yellow water Iris in the center.
Pg. 212- Fused fabric scraps- Well, I've been doing this a while
anyway, but for this piece, I used more than just the neutral ivory and
white shades with only hints of color, and added a bit more color here.
This ended up being a compilation of photos taken from early spring through late summer. A Sneak Peek shows the crazy patch "fabric" ready for use. Random fabric scraps fused to Wonder Under backing paper, overlapping pieces for "seams". The photos and crazy patch fabric were fused to the batting, and the photos were stitched around the edges using a machine blanket stitch. Free motion quilting on the photo prints is done using clear thread to highlight the flowers, and the rest is quilted using a variegated thread. The "binding" is an ivory yarn with gold metallic through it, couched on with the variegated thread.
Other quilts that are showing in Houston right now are: Iris Vases, and Summer Rainbow- In Full Bloom; Stained Glass and Ferns- A World of beauty; September 2004 Journal Quilt- Fractured Fern- Creative Quilting Exhibit; Also, Delphinium Door has a slight chance of being there with the "Quilting Arts Magazine" booth.
I had meant to post this photo earlier. It is of a group of my sunprint
Bookmarks. They are made of pieces of sunprinted cotton fabric, mounted
to cardstock, then heat laminated. Each one is an original, because I
can never get the paint to dry the same way twice, and don't usually
slop on the paint the same either. They were a fun way to use some
narrow pieces of fabric, and are a great way to play with smaller
leaves and flowers.
I now need to chain myself in my studio- One week from today I'll be in
the Adirondacks for a show. It is in the gymnasium of the Adirondack
Community College on Bay Road, in Queensbury, NY. It is being put on by
the Lower Adirondack Regional Arts Council, and runs from 10AM-5PM Sat.
and 10AM-4PM Sun. If you are in the area, Stop by and say HI!
I have been trying to photograph most of my pieces as I make them, but when in "manufacture mode" I don't always do a good job. The worst problem from producing items for sale.
My latest romp with photography is to get a couple photos for the gift guide in the "Star Gazette" newspaper out of Elmira, NY. I am thrilled to be asked, but now have to come up with 2 photos to best represent me and my gift items.
In case anyone is wondering, check My Etsy Store later today. The wine bottle bag is about to be listed. Now to figure out how to let people get the idea of the size...... Maybe another wine bottle beside it. I'm afraid my favorite cobalt blue ones may take away from the bag.
While up to my armpits in quilts, etc. another hair-brained idea hit me (or actually hit me again... when that happes, I guess I should go for it), so stay in touch, especially if you are decorating your home or looking for gifts.
I will be presenting my "Fall Collection" of Quilts from 13x17" and smaller, Art Quilt Jewelry, Wine Bottle Bags, Bookmarks, etc. All available for purchase, at least to the first person who wants a particular item.
Well I finally finished my Flower Power Challenge, and ended up with 2
quilts. In my previous post, I showed a couple photos of flowers and
what I had done with them so far. Labor Day Monday, I got into the
quilting groove and stayed there for a few days, and ended up finishing
both quilts. The first one used the layout of flower photos from the
previous post. I had originally wanted to use my sunprints with the
photos, but they didn't look right together, so I ended up doing one
quilt with the photos, and one quilt with sunprints. I decided to use
fused crazy patch in both, so I started the day by making new fabric
from scraps and bits from past year's projects.
Here in the left photo I was laying the possible border fabric against the fused center. I was also trying to see if I liked the idea of black yarn for accents. Since I can't get too far from my design wall, I have been using my camera to help me figure out what looks right. If something doesn't work, it shows up in the photos. The right photo shows the border strips pinned around for a final check to see if it looked right. The border fabric is a piece I painted last summer. It was a great match to the center peachy-lavender-orange flower.
The center detail shot shows the quilting done in the crazy patch areas, using a variegated thread in pastel colors that are found in the photos. The flowers in the photos are outline quilted with clear thread.