Little L.A.

What is Little L.A.? It's a catchy challenge title. L.A. stands for Los Alamos and it is VERY little. The challenge is to find inspiration for a quilt within twelve blocks. There are so many interesting pieces of history everywhere you turn. The inspiration could be color, shape, or texture. Anything goes.

Here are several interesting compositions I found.

A ship that has been dry docked.

A gate.

A rusty wagon wheel.

Side of a barn

If you attend PIQF in Santa Clara, there is a good chance you will get to see the results of this challenge in 2012.

The deadline for my 2011 PIQF hormones piece is looming. I've finished the design and now it's time to quilt! For me, figuring out how to quilt it is the most difficult step. I don't have much time left to think about it, and I'm pretty sure that is a good thing.

O-So Many Layers

The Fibervision challenge is finally complete. Each panel features a piece of fabric that I made using a variety of surface design techniques (screen printing, sunprinting, dyeing, stamping).

The fabric was wrapped around a square of Timtex and stitched together. Each square is then stitched onto the painted canvas to form the letter "O". Each individual square also contains the letter "O" somewhere on its surface, in some cases, all over its surface.

A plastic bracelet was repurposed by wrapping it in translucent ribbon and stitching it to the Timtex. Screen printing, stamping and embroidery are the main techniques used in the square above.

The base of this piece was sunprinted with green and yellow setacolor and the blue was printed on top using a thermofax screen. The tiddlywinks were used to sunprint and then were stitched onto the surface.

Do you know where the inspiration for your art comes from? Generally, I'm not influenced by other artists work, however, this time, I remember seeing two wonderful pieces of art that influenced the layout of my piece. Perhaps I'm kidding myself, maybe I just don't realize how easily influenced I am. Hmmm . . . something to think about.

Take a look at Michelle's colorful piece. It has 9 mixed media squares on a fabric background. She combines recycled items, text and color in a very fun way.

The other inspirational piece was hanging in a local gallery and was made by Michelle y Williams. I instantly fell in love with it but my husband didn't. Unfortunately, the price tag required that both of us had to be in love with it. It is made from metal squares that have layers of paint and texture applied. Twenty five squares were nailed to a solid base to form a grid.

Are there any truly original ideas left? Probably not many.

Progress . . . Inside and Out

It was a good weekend . . . my "To Do" list is definitely a little shorter. The long days and warm temperatures really make the flowers bloom. Here are a couple of close ups of flowers in my garden.

Nothing like a beautiful Gerber Daisy. They are easy to grow and seem to live forever.

This is an Angel Trumpet Tree. Right now, it's around 5 feet tall, however, they can grow up to 15 feet tall.

Here's a couple of finished panels for my Fibervision challenge. Will it be finished by next weekend? I'm not sure. I still have to finish two panels and attach them all to the black canvas.

The fabric and embellishments in each panel is completely different, however, each has layers of paint, dye or marker. They have been rubbed, screened, scraped, sun-printed and bleached. There is quite a bit of hand stitching, lots of beads and some re-purposed items attached.

With any luck, I'll have a photo of the finished piece ready for the next post. Stay tuned!

Artist's Muse Challenge

The chapter 4 challenge from the Artist's Muse Yahoo group is finished!
The challenge was to cut 12 fabrics into irregular shapes and place them randomly onto a base with fusible web and iron. Then stencil and/or paint on the surface as desired. I followed the guidelines up to the shapes being ironed, then I took a turn.
The piece looked nice, but it was too flat for me. I decided to add some pieces of painted dryer sheets, baby wipes, recycled thread bunches and yarn. I put a layer of Solvy on top and stitched it all down. After dissolving, I decided to stitch more layers on top.

I really LOVE it, it reminds me of the ocean. But, I still wondered if it needed something else. I cut out a palm tree and placed on top. It looked good, but I decided it was beautiful by itself and could stand on its own as a piece of art. I am going to paint a canvas blue and stitch the piece on top.

Do you think I should add beads?

Fabric Store Run

Kathy and I are the organizers of our quilt guild challenge this year. The theme is "LIGHTS! CAMERA! ACTION! The date is quickly coming up and it's time to request donations from our fabric and quilt shops. We drove south about 60 miles to visit area shops. We received gift certificates from Baron's, Quilters Studio and Quilt Ventura and have two other shops to call back. We have also received donations from Grant House and Craft Essentials. We're off to a good start! We will be heading north in a couple of weeks.

Along the way, many wonderful fabrics screamed "BUY ME" and we did. Here is a photos of my haul today. Quite a bit considering I can't use all the fabric I have in 3 lifetimes. I'm sure I don't need to make excuses to all of you. From what I've seen, I'm not the only one! LOL

Fibervision Meeting

I met with my Fibervision Group (or as my husband calls us, The Like Minded Thinkers). Although we are all quite different, there is a fair amount of truth to that statement. We are all interested in educating the public and promoting quilting as an art form. We enjoy exploring, and experimenting with new products and techniques. It's an extremely talented group of artists and I am honored to be part of this group.


Our newest challenge is titled "Regurgitation". We each put a UFO into a paper bag along with a photo of the UFO and traded bags. We can do anything we want to the UFO; cut, paint, burn, add other pieces, etc.

We will return with the finished product in October. Here are photos of a few of the UFO's. Stay tuned for the exciting finale!