Stuffed Chenille

It's been a rough week . . . I'm recovering from hernia surgery. I'm beginning to feel human again, and thought I would show you a a small piece that will be hanging as part of a group exhibit about embellishment at the Cabrillo Pavillion Arts Center in May.
I still need to add a sleeve to the back. I thought I would do that while I was recovering, but I just wasn't capable of doing anything useful.

The finished size is 12" x 12". It was made by stuffing bits of fabric scraps between two solid layers of fabric and stitching lines through the entire stack. Once it was stitched, I cut the fabric between the stitching like you do for regular chenille. The difference is, this is stuffed with scraps, so you need to use small scissors and go slow. I do like it, but I don't think I'll ever do it again.

Painting with Dorland's Wax Medium

I first began oil painting when I was twelve years old and stuck with it until I went to college, then acrylic paint became my chosen medium. I still use acrylic paints, but I also use ink, watercolor, and dye quite often.
Now I've gone full circle . . . I'm playing with oil paint again. This time I'm combining it with Dorland's Wax Medium for a totally different effect. I'm layering the paint with a palette knife and scraping through the layers with  sharp tools. Basically, I'm having fun with it.

I think each of these pieces have three layer of paint/wax so far, including the initial white primer which you can see showing through is some areas.

None of these are anywhere near being finished, but it's interesting to document them in the process to see how much they change.

There are eight other pieces sitting on my table waiting for more paint. Some have fabric paper collage incorporated into them, and some have Dorland's Wax mixed with Pearl Ex. It's all a big experiment and I have no idea how they will turn out.

Exciting News!

Remember this Quilt?

Inside Out: Hormones, was selected to be part of the 2013 Fantastic Fibers exhibit at the Yeiser Art Center In Paducah, KY.

I was completely stunned when I found out that one of my pieces was chosen to hang in this special exhibit. Over 700 fiber pieces were entered from all over the world and only 54 will be part of the exhibit!

The opening reception is on April 6th from 5:00-7:00 pm and the exhibit will hang through May 4th. The AQS quilt show also takes place in Paducah between April 24 - 27. Sounds like a great time to visit!

I'm Back . . .

I know it's been a really long time since I've posted anything here. A lot has happened to me in that time. Probably the biggest news is that I have two brand new eyes!
I'll try to keep the story short. About five years ago, I was told I had a cataract in my left eye. The doctor said it would be at least 10 years before I would need surgery. Within two years, I had a cataract in my right eye too. By the time five years had passed, I was almost blind in my left eye.
Obviously, it was time for the cataract surgery. The surgery itself went well, but the variance between the two eyes was too different, and I had to have the right eye operated on the following week. So, now I have two brand new eyes. Pretty amazing! The #1 comment I've heard is, "You're too young for cataracts". Apparently, that's not true. I have several items put aside to make a cataract quilt, but so far, it hasn't risen to the top of the list. Stay tuned to see if there is a cataract quilt in my future. LOL
I've been back in the studio for a few months now and am loving the new eyes. Everything is much brighter and super sharp. Very exciting.

Here's a small piece that I just finished. The center section is painted fabric that has been quilted and embellished. It's mounted onto a painted canvas.
More to come soon.

Painting, Painting, and MORE Painting

This was an experiment. I managed to change the look of the fabric, but I don't think it was necessarily an improvement.

It started with a piece of dyed fabric that had some type of Chinese characters stamped on it. I didn't create the fabric and I didn't care for it. I wanted to improve it with some layers of paint.

I pinned the fabric to my print board, and wrapped ribbon around the pins to create a grid of sorts. I screen-printed the large circles using a Photo EZ screen, and stamped the smaller circles. The ugly background fabric continued to show through.

Once the paint was dry, I removed the ribbon to see if the ribbon resist created much of an impact. It's noticeable, but not too impressive. Oh well! Sometimes, the best lessons are learned when the experiment doesn't go as planned. Some things can't/shouldn't be saved.

Fortunately, the next painting project is an improvement. As you can see, progress was made on the patio covers. Looks nice and neat, doesn't it? Unfortunately, it didn't last very long.

This is what it looks like today. A mess! These 2" x 2" pieces of wood need a layer of primer, then 2 layers of red paint. There are 4 tables full of these wood pieces, that's over 120 pieces that need 3 coats of paint! Sheesh, we spent all weekend painting and still need to spend one more day to finish the painting. By the time we finish, we'll have two nice shady areas on the patio. We definitely need somewhere to escape from the CA sun.

Current Distractions

Here we go again . . . more backyard fun, and work. I'm not sure what to call this pile of wood. Pagoda sounds much too elaborate. I'm not sure if we can call it a trellis because it won't be supporting vines. And a patio cover sounds pretty boring. Whatever you want to call it, we're building two of them. It'll be great to have some shade in the back yard. I'll be able to set up tables and paint for hours, instead of minutes.

It seems like I find great line and texture everywhere I look. I couldn't resist capturing the cross grain of this stack of wood. Here's a peak at some pieces I recently added to my design wall. I bought an Epson printer, and am having fun manipulating photos, and printing my own fabric. Not quite sure where it's going yet, but it's evolving. Stay tuned.

Hormones Revisited

Looking back through my blog posts, I realized that I never showed you the finished "Inside Out: Hormones" quilt. I wanted to wait until the special exhibit at PIQF opened. Unfortunately, many deadlines hit at the same time that required many hours of work. I made all the deadlines, but stopped blogging for a while. So now I'm going to backtrack and show you some of the work I finished during the time I was MIA.

Here they are, hormones in their hot flash mode! A fair amount of tulle was used throughout to force color changes. The whole section through the middle has a layer of tulle, and the circles are also cut from tulle. Some of the tulle is blue, some maroon. Some areas have very dense stitching and that created an uneven surface. It was a challenge to get it to lie flat, but I did it with careful stitching in strategic areas, and lots of steam! LOLHere's a detail shot where you can see the cheesecloth that I used to create the diagonal lines. I love the texture of cheesecloth, and it's so easy to mold into any shape you want. You should give it a try it next time you need a special texture.

I've made a lot of colorful work over the years, but this hormone piece may be the most intense colors I've ever used. I guess it was time for a change, time to work in calmer, cooler colors.

This piece is called Afterglow. The leaves and small circles are made from hand-painted silk. The large circle and the second leaf from the left is made entirely from salvaged thread clippings. I'm always pleased when I find some cool way to use materials that are generally thrown away.

The inspiration for this piece came from an aerial photo of Salt Lake City in the winter. The photo was very graphic, very black (roads) and white (snow). After 15 minutes of using the photo as a reference, I put it away and abstracted the design even more, then I added color. There was no plan, I let it evolve, and this is what happened.

These last two pieces (plus 60 others) are currently on exhibit at the Cabrillo Pavilion Arts Center in Santa Barbara through the end of January. It's a great facility that is used for many weddings and conventions.

With a view like this, it's easy to see why this facility is so popular. Stop by if you get a chance, you won't be disappointed.

Dryer Sheets and Tangled Threads

Everything is starting to get back to normal after the holidays. We've almost recovered from the nasty cold going around. All the kids have gone back to their respective homes across the country. The house has been cleaned, and my studio is calling my name.

I'm been having some fun combining tangled threads, bits of fabric, and dryer sheets. This piece was photographed before it was stitched and I forgot to take a photo afterwards. I turned it into a pencil bag that contained Inktense pencils and ATC canvas paper. It was a gift for my boss, the woman that owns almost everything. Every year, I come up with something handmade for her. She likes to draw and loved the pencils, so we'll see if she gets hooked on making ATC's.

Here's a postcard made with dryer sheets, and tangled threads. These are so much fun to make. I'm warning you though, they are addictive!

This is a postcard sized piece made entirely from tangled threads.

This piece has tangled threads, dryer sheets, and bits of fabric. Before it's stitched, it is really thick and difficult to get under the presser foot, but once you stitch it into submission, it is much thinner, probably the thickness of Timtex, and just as stiff.

Check out this fun Boa Scarf that I'm knitting. Isn't it a riot? Very organic, sort of like seaweed or octopus tentacles.

WACOM Tablet

If you haven't tried drawing with one of these tablets before, you should. It's a lot of fun! I've been drawing with a mouse using Illustrator for many years, so it wasn't a stretch for me to switch over. I actually found it much less intimidating to draw on the pad than trying to figure out Illustrator.

For my first attempt, I used a paintbrush in Photoshop and got fairly good results. The thickness of the line depends on the angle of the pen. I don't really like the way the line almost disappeared in some places. Because Photoshop is a pixel based program, it's not the ideal way to draw, but in a pinch, it works just fine.

My next drawing was created in Illustrator using a pencil tool. The pencil makes for a more precise drawing, but it looses the whimsical sketch feeling. The good thing about a vector based drawing program is that I can enlarge or shrink the drawing to any size I want, and not lose any quality at all. If you are interested in designing quilt patterns or creating fabric designs, this is the program to use (IMHO).

I can see myself playing with this a lot more in the future. There are so many possibilities.

If you use a tablet, I would love to hear what you are doing with it. Drop me a note.

Reflections

It's been a tough year for many people, and we've had a few bumps along the way too, however, I am very fortunate because my life is full of the things that are most important. I have a great family, lots of love and support, live in a beautiful location, and enjoy a peaceful, creative life.

I generally try to keep personal details out of my blog, but I'm going to make an exception because I'm so proud of my kids. Rachel is teaching high school in Boston and just completed her grad school applications, Sean lives in AZ and just graduated with his M.A. degree, and Jason lives in LA and was just promoted to VP of Music Licensing. Aren't they amazing?

The weather in Santa Barbara has been gorgeous, and I've been out taking lots of photos.

I love to watch these birds race back and forth as they try to avoid the waves.

Here's a simple structure that makes a big impact.

A pet cemetery, perhaps?

A fence with lots of character.

A view of the Santa Ynez valley from 2,000 feet.

A view of Lake Cachuma from 2,000 feet.

A view of the ocean from 2,000 feet.

The recent lunar eclipse.

I hope all of you have a happy and healthy new year!

A Piece of Paradise!

Here's my private piece of paradise . . . our mostly completed back yard. The plants, trees and grass are very happy, and so are we. I want to have a hidden garden in the area by the wheel barrel, but still have some work to finish that off.

We also need to build two patio covers over the living room and bedroom doors and need to finish some paths along both side yards. We have definitely made a lot progress though.

Do you remember this photo of our front yard taken in 2008?

Look at it now! The plants have really filled in, haven't they?
Our front and back yards both look beautiful now. Hard work does pay off! I've also been having a little fun with fabric postcards. A photo of hand-painted fabric was combined with other high contrast photos and printed on fabric. The purplish photos are the skylights in the convention center where the PIQF quilt show is held. They have been manipulated a bit and printed on fabric. Has anyone else ever looked up at these?

Long Blogging Break

I had many deadlines looming and was feeling a bit overwhelmed. I needed to FOCUS and that meant staying away from the computer. I hope I still have some followers after the long break.

Here are some fabrics that I've been trying to improve with a another layer of paint.

You might remember this one from a previous post. I used a banana slicer to do rubbings. They looked a little obscene, so I decided to disguise them with the purple squares. I think it needs another layer . . . maybe circles.
This piece turned muddy and dull and needed some spark. I added the grid stamp on top in a silverish blue. I think it still needs another layer . . . maybe circles! LOL
This fabric was really grey and ugly and was not usable for anything. I added the spokes and dots. The upper corner needs another layer but I haven't decided what yet.
This was a blue screen print on white denim. I filled the negative (white) spaces with dye-na-flow and it instantly became very colorful. I think this will make a nice bag.
This was a very pretty (pastel) background with very regular patterns printed on it. It was one of my first attempts at fabric painting. It was too pretty and too regular and needed some chaos. It's getting better, but needs something else. Maybe circles!!??

I would love to hear your ideas on what the next layer should be.