We’re Close To The End, My Friends

In June 2012 I inaugurated this blog as follows: “Another quilting blog, ugh!  Why?  Well, I’ve been trying to neaten and straighten my notes, thoughts, resources, works in progress, and my work.  So, I thought a blog might be the way to go.  It’s for me primarily.  If anyone else stumbles on it, that’s fine.  I considered using Pinterest, but decided I needed the ability to add words.  So here I am.”

I had no idea I would continue writing posts for 11 years. Yep, that’s 11 years of at least one post a week, for more than 1,000 posts. Alas, all the pictures in those posts have added up and WordPress has notified me I have reached my data storage limit. For the past five years I paid an annual fee to WordPress to gain more media storage, but when the renewal came up in September I decided to revert to the free version. I did think I had a bit of storage left, but I was wrong.

I have gone through my pages and posts and deleted items I thought weren’t worth keeping, and have done the same with the thousands of photos. It’s a time consuming and tedious process. However, I think the effort has bought me only a bit of breathing space. So, it’s highly likely this is my last original post.

The notice from WordPress is just one of many reasons I may retire my blog. As I suspect you have noticed, I have been writing more about non-fabric art in the past year or so. Hand, neck, and shoulder issues have made cutting and sewing fabric more of a pain than a pleasure. So I have turned to collage and mixed media as my art outlets. I still make quilted items, but they sometimes leave viewers scratching their heads. Maybe my earlier quilts were “better” but they were made in part to enter in shows. I’ve pretty much stopped that (with a few exceptions.) In fact, I have found myself drifting away from the quilting world. Local groups I belonged to have folded their tents, and I haven’t found any online groups that work for me.

Snarky Quilter was a labor of love and a wonderful way to make blogging friends. I have so enjoyed reading and responding to your comments. This blog should still be as accessible as it’s ever been, just without new material. I plan to post occasionally on Instagram (@snarky_quilter), so you can see any new work there.

I do have have one more piece of news for you. My quilt “Dreams of Freedom” was selected for SAQA’s virtual exhibit Imprisoned.

“Dreams of Freedom” 2021, 28.5″ by 20.5″

I’d love it if you want to drop me a line at snarkyquilter@gmail.com.

More Techniques from “Backgrounds and Textures”

Just yesterday I discovered a few videos in my Jane Dunnewold class that I had never watched, so of course I ignored a few chores to watch them. I learned about making prints with a ballpoint pen, rubbing a laser photocopy with CitraSolv to make a fabric transfer, and treating heavy paper with hair conditioner to impart a soft crinkled texture.

I had little luck with the ballpoint pen technique to emboss paper, though I hope to try it again now that my gel plate is cleaner. Mark Yeates has videos that show how he uses it. His results are better than mine, but I can see that everyone gets grungy results so it’s not just me.

Pen tracing of drawing transferred to gel plate, printed with acrylic paint

I need to make laser copies so I can try the CitraSolv technique, and I will go through my stash of hotel toiletries to find hair conditioner. I have managed to get decent prints from inkjet image transfers using glossy business paper. This involves an inkjet printing of a black and white image on a heavy glossy paper sold for brochures, time on the gel plate for the image to transfer, and then a pull with acrylic paint.

Print from Graphics Fairy website image on silk organza

Personal photo of footbridge printed on cold press watercolor paper

According to Jane, this technique doesn’t yield dark blacks so these are considered to be good results. She teaches it as a more reliable method than getting prints from magazine transfers. I tried more of that technique with no better luck. I think it’s partly that I don’t have the right kinds of magazines – glossy fashion ones. I’ve tried mail catalogs and have been warned that National Geographic is a total bust. At least I think I now understand the right amount of paint to use.

Here are other class results. While some students are already composing larger work with the techniques, I am still exploring how to get them to work.

Tracing cloth multi layer print using a mask

Plastic netting ironed to drop cloth

Stamps made with wipe off tool (not carved), then stamped off on paper

Finally, I want to note that Jane includes videos that show how she brings all the techniques together into finished and in process work. I have begun to compose on my design wall with bits I’ve made combined with stash, so I will just have to see where it goes.

I’m linking to Off The Wall Fridays.

Still Puttering (A Blast from my Past)

The Purpose of Aimless Puttering

I’d like to add this quote to the above, as it sums up my approach to art:

If I knew what the picture was going to be like, I wouldn’t make it.
― Unknown

More on Dendritic Printing

Since some of you seemed interested in this method of fabric (and paper) printing I’ll take a deeper dive. I had never heard of it before the Backgrounds and Textures class, but the technique has been around for at least a decade on YouTube, and who knows how much further back in pre-online video days.

This was my first print. You get two impressions from each press.

Here I used glass plates and printed on old monoprints and newspaper.

Textile paint circles on linen, printed separately.

I found that several factors can affect the thickness of the branches and the patterns:

The material of the plates used. Glass panes (I used old picture frames) seemed to create thicker branches than loose leaf binder plastic divider sheets. In one of the videos below the demonstrator uses acrylic blocks used for stamping.

The thickness of the paint and its application. I used Liquitex acrylic paint (the first image above,) Jacquard textile paint (the third image on linen,) and Blick fluid acrylic paint (the middle image in blue.) Obviously, the thinner the paint the more it spreads on the plate.

The amount of pressure used when pulling a print. A light touch is vital, otherwise the patterns get pushed down. Really, one gentle stroke seems to do the trick.

I hope to experiment more with fabrics and ways to change the patterns, maybe go for multi-color effects. This technique is fast, and offers almost instant gratification. After waiting overnight for some of my prints on fabric to dry so I could pull them, I am so ready for fast.

More videos:

Atomic Shrimp https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eerBW37SLxM

Catherine Rains

Joggles

I’m linking to Off The Wall Friday.

Changes

This past week I decided I had had it with the arrangement of my studio, so I changed it. Since I last did this I am doing more mixed media work, and am using my table more than my sewing machine.

My studio seen from the door.

My resource center, aka messy bookcase. Yes, my music player is very old school (no touch screen,) but I can still play my cassette tapes.

Design wall with my new motto, Fear Less.

So far the new arrangement is working much better, partly because I am now using the space between the design wall and table. My fabric is still stored in the closet and a small chest, which aren’t shown in the above photos. My only regret is that I didn’t do this sooner.

I have begun quilting the piece on the design wall, and have lots of thread colors yet to add.

And then there’s work for the Jane Dunnewold class on backgrounds and textures I’m taking, but the output so far is pretty boring, so I’ll spare you. If you haven’t check it out yet, I suggest taking a peek at dendritic printing.

A Purrfect Museum

This week I’ll take you on a trip to the Alliance, Ohio, Feline Historical Foundation, better known to my friends as the cat museum. No quilts were harmed in the course of our trip, but I was reminded yet again of the lengths of collecting mania some people go to.

According to the organization’s website, the CFA Foundation’s mission is to “acquire and conserve the history of cats and show the development of the cat fancy through the acquisition of fine art, artifacts, and literature.” The museum has lots of cat show memorabilia and cat stud books (really!) but we went to see the paintings, sculptures, painted rocks, jewelry, teapots, liquor containers, purses, dolls, and other surfaces decorated with cat images.

Here is a glimpse of the collection.

The celestial cat that greets visitors

A few of the many cat teapots

Apparently cats sell liquor

And here’s a container that features a cat girl who presumably can hold her liquor in two senses.

Cat jewelry is always popular

And cats can rule the world

The Japanese use cats to help their businesses and their luck.

You can customize your maneki neko

There’s no escape from felines. Here’s the view from the museum’s toilet.

The one cat I wanted to take home, made of chicken wire.

Don’t worry, normal programming will resume shortly. I’m linking to Off The Wall Fridays.

Summer’s Empire Is Falling Down

Sometimes revisiting my scrap hoard sparks an idea for a new quilt. While shuffling through fabric I had Spoonflower print from a photo I came across large leaves that I hadn’t used in an earlier quilt. Here’s that quilt.

“Sycamore”

For my new quilt I pulled all sorts of autumnal colored scraps – cottons, silks, synthetics – and grouped them around the leaf panels I had left. I spent some time moving parts around and began construction in chunks.

I had another reason for making this quilt, a regional SAQA exhibit (Indiana, Michigan, Ohio) that’s to feature a bit of the color known as poison green or Scheel’s green. Here’s how the prospectus describes it:

In 1775 the color, Scheel’s Green, was discovered and later in 1814, the much
improved Paris Green was developed. Both pigments were created by chemists and
produced a remarkable shade of emerald green by combining chemicals that produced
arsenic poison. This vibrant green was extremely popular among the privileged because
it symbolized royalty and wealth. Despite the deadly drawbacks, fashions, wallpaper,
soaps, paints, and toys were produced in abundance. Factory workers who produced
these commodities as well as consumers suffered severe side effects including death.
By the end of the 19th century the deadly greens were replaced with less toxic pigments
and dyes.
The art quilts produced for “A Drop of Emerald Green” will have just a touch of today’s
safe emerald green as a reminder of the tragic history of the color green.

So, there’s a drop of emerald green on my quilt in a spot where there might well be a bit of vivid green left on a leaf.

“Summer’s Empire Is Falling Down” top

The entry deadline is November, so I have plenty of time for fine tuning and quilting. I am considering doing wavy edges as they aren’t straight now, and I have deliberately avoided straight seam lines. And I do have a title, the heading of this entry, which comes from a Joni Mitchell song.

I am linking to Off The Wall Fridays.

No Place Like Home

I never thought I would work in series, but sometimes they happen, if you can call two a series. Maybe I should call the pieces fraternal twins. A few months ago I made a kindergarten style house mask and painted around it on old music sheets and a watercolor. Back in the paper stack they went until I was searching for diversion from a quilting problem.

When I shuffled through my collage papers and found them I decided to develop home themes without any idea other than the classic inverted V roof outline. I had a grand time painting sort of solid colors on Bristol boards. While they dried I sifted through my collage bits and pulled out elements I thought might work, with an emphasis on color.

The yellow ochre one features roof lines, and gel plate transfer prints on tissue paper. I added birds’ nests as a secondary feature, but was mostly concerned with color and composition.

“Getting the Point”

The blue one took a hard swerve into fantasy land with carpets of flowers, balloons, and the American Gothic couple. The balloons are from color copies I printed of the circle/oval quilt I wrote about last week. As in “Getting The Point,” I got into windows again. I must have cut out every photo of a window I came across.

“Digging It”

In case you wonder, these are mixed media pieces as they involve paint, pens, and crayons.

I’m linking to Off The Wall Fridays.

Closing The Circle

In the early days of the pandemic I spent a lot of mental energy on a project to make circles and ovals out of silk fabrics I had painted, dyed, and printed. I ended up separating the shapes into groups of cool and warm colors, and hand sewing them together into lattices. The warm color piece was finished in 2021, while the cool colors chilled out in my black trunk. A few months ago I was struck by an urge to clear out unfinished projects, so the cool color circles came out of storage.

“Roundabout” 2021

I decided not to use wire again as sewing that to the fabric was a pain, but I still wanted some bling. I tried small log cabin shapes made of silk, but my product testers nixed that idea. Then I remembered embroidered sheer scraps from the costume shop that I had painted. They added lots of bling. Finally, I dug out thin glittery ribbon I obtained from a quilter who was giving away all her stuff. It was flexible enough to curve around all the connected shapes, and could be machine sewn.

No name yet. 2023

I plan to hang it to stand slightly away from a wall, using a 1 inch deep piece of wood. The wood will have D rings to hang on nails, while the quilt will be attached to the wood with cup holders or some other type of hook. I think I can sew plastic rings to the back of the piece that will hang on the hooks. Then I will need some sort of modesty skirt to hide the bit of wood that might show. Please let me know if you have other ways to work this. I am not a carpenter. I have painted and sanded the wood, but have gotten no further.

I also have made no progress on naming this piece. I think it’s shaped like a map of South America, but don’t want any reference to that continent. Maybe something related to a pond might work. Any ideas?

I’m linking to Off The Wall Fridays.

A Drawer of Postcards

Despite many moves over the years I have held onto a three inch pile of postcards from art museums around the world. Some I bought and some were sent to me by an early art mentor. Finally, after rediscovering the collection for the umpteenth time, I decided to use them.

Given that the subjects ranged from Byzantine icons to modern art, I decided to detach figures from their settings and recombine them with other papers to create unexpected narratives. I pasted them all in a children’s board book, where I look at them more often now.

Front and back covers

Jesus presents Peter with the keys to the kingdom while the other apostles and an indifferent dog look on. The dog is there because of what it spells backwards.

A court of Byzantine lovelies pose by classical ruins.

Renaissance heiress, Annunciation angel, and blase Cupid waiting for their ship to come in.

Anything can happen in Paris.

Mary seems to have missed the train that’s heading into a Turner landscape.

Mystical Tahitian night with a bit of temptation

The Lacemaker is indifferent to animal antics, while an angel tempts Gauguin’s mistress with keys to a car. She wants to drive away from John Marin’s lake.

Who let the dogs (and unicorn) out?

A multicultural quartet.

I have still more cut up postcards, but the board book is full, so I’m at a decision point – another board book or separate scenarios. Whichever I decide they should be fun to make.

I’m linking to Off The Wall Fridays.