Finishes in September

Amid a lot of local travel I managed to finish three serious quilts, including hanging sleeves. I don’t count pillows, table runners and the like as serious work, though they can take more time than I expect.

In order of completion, “Wayside Weeds” and “Nebula” preceded “Redlined.” I had to laugh at how different these three pieces are from each other. So much for developing a coherent voice. I’ll show them so you can see what I mean.

“Wayside Weeds” is based on prints I made using Thermofax screens. I constructed dividers with tubes of handpainted fabric attached to other painted/dyed fabric plus the last bit of McKenna Ryan fabric I had, and sewed the dividers between the printed sections. I had fun playing with different lengths.

“Redlined” is an abstract design I made based on a photograph of a sideboard. After I added the red fabric I decided it reminded me of a real estate map that showed redlined areas, the poorer neighborhoods where mortgages are considered risky and are difficult to obtain. I also used red thread in the quilting. It’s made with commercial fabric and finished with a single fold binding.

“Nebula” is a mashup of an art quilt group UFO challenge and scraps left over from theatrical costumes. I used photos of several nebula as inspiration. Thank you NASA. The black mottled background is from the challenge. Most of the sheer and sparkly bits are from costumes. I added some black sheers from my stash. All the fabric piece edges are raw. Many of the pieces are held in place with Misty Fuse with stitching on top. I sewed on a skewed border and faced it. In the right light it twinkles.

As for those other projects, I made a table runner from old left over blocks as a hostess gift for my husband to give to his landlady in Mexico. He’s in Puebla doing an intensive Spanish course. Luckily, the recent earthquake didn’t affect him.

While I still have tops to quilt, I’ve cleared out many of my incomplete projects. I anticipate a dearth of finishes for a few months as I work on a large (for me) piece that will use many of my blue and blue/green fabrics

Around Here Week 38

For many years I assumed my neighbors had strange taste in shrub trimming. Then, last winter I learned who or what trimmed these shrubs. I don’t think aesthetics had any part in it though it did involve taste.

Yup, it’s the deer. Earlier this summer I saw a doe with three fawns. Thinking that maybe deer foster motherless fawns or babysit for each other, I looked up the likelihood of deer triplets. It seems that it happens and is the sign of a healthy deer population. Oh joy.

Holy Toledo!

Recently I got around to checking out the Toledo Museum of Art, which is about a two hour drive from where I live. I’m ashamed to say that it’s been in my backyard, so to speak, for almost 15 years and I just never visited it.

It fulfills all the requirements of a classic art museum – columned front and lots of marble steps leading up to it, generous local donors whose gifts formed the nucleus of the collection (in this case the Libbey glass family,) and at least one Rembrandt. It also has a separate glass pavilion which was undergoing rearrangement during my visit, to my disappointment. Most of the good stuff was jammed into a study room, and some of the glass could have used more breathing space. Of course I was spoiled by the Corning Glass Museum.

My personal highlights included the room of Grecian urns (and drinking cups and plates) and the huge display of netsuke. Here are the pieces I would like to display in my house (as if!)

The painting with the purple sail is by Georgia O’Keefe, a very different subject for her. You can view most of the museum’s collection on its website.

I spent a lot of time peering at the netsuke, which are mostly the size of a small plum. By accident I discovered drawers filled with inro, which are the containers for personal belongings attached to sashes with cords and secured with a netsuke. How it all worked is described in this article. Here’s an inro that features Raiden, the thunder God.

If I could have pocketed some netsuke, these are my choices:

I love that the last boat one is called How to Weigh An Elephant. The other boat is a party boat occupied by two party ladies and one gentleman. I don’t they’re interested in being weighed.

My Entry To This Year’s Blogger’s Quilt Festival

Amy Ellis of Amy’s Creative Side is returning to basics this year with her Blogger’s Quilt Festival – no voting, with prizes awarded by random number. I love the idea of sharing quilts that might not otherwise be seen, and the excitement of seeing quilts that are new to me.

I decided to enter “A Grand Day Out,” which features my girls. I know they’re eager to explore the world, so I’ll help them begin online.

I drew the girls from a photo of a crowd of young women, and decided to have them enjoy the waves, even though they’re not dressed for swimming. Of course the flotilla of hot air balloons capped their wonderful day out.

Technical details:

-the girls were constructed like paper dolls using fusible interfacing

-the waves are hand dyed and painted cheesecloth

-the balloons are made of fused cotton and silk fabric

-the background was constructed and quilted before I added the applique

-details were highlighted with Fabrico markers

-size is 24 by 36 inches.

My favorite part: the girls’ hats.

Around Here Week 37

We’re into September now and leaves will be dropping from trees soon. Here’s one that got a head start, though it looks like the bugs played a role in its demise. Possibly good for a stencil or some big stitch embroidery.

This Year’s SAQA Auction

Recently I’ve received many emails and Instagram posts about the upcoming SAQA small quilts auction, scheduled for September 15 through October 8. Messages remind me of the number of lovely quilts and how helpful the funds raised are to SAQA. A fun aspect is the themed groups of quilts selected by SAQA members.

The 2017 SAQA Benefit Auction will take place from September 15 through October 8. This is your chance to own beautiful and unique art quilts made by SAQA members around the world – 368 pieces are available for bidding! For details, visit saqa.com/auction.

Once again I didn’t make a quilt to contribute. As I’ve said before, I have a hard time producing anything meaningful at 12 by 12 inches. Some contributors manage to pack a lot into that space.

As I did last year, I categorized the themes used. This year landscapes were most common theme by a long shot, being featured in 37 quilts, followed by botanicals in 27 quilts. The ever popular birds came in with 20 (not so many crows this year,) followed closely by people in 18 quilts. Animals were featured in 14 quilts, and bugs were the main attraction in 5. The themes used in the rest of this year’s crop were either abstract or one-offs. Of course, others will most likely come up with different ways to sort the quilts.

You can peruse all this year’s entries here. My favorites based on one review of the contributions are:

I realize each of my choices tell a story in 12 by 12 inches, even the one by Linda Colsh. If you look closely at “Crossing Paths” you’ll see a figure laden with packages. If I figure out a way to pack a story into 144 square inches I’ll make an entry for a future auction.

 

 

Around Here Week 36

Sometimes simple is the best. Morning shadows on my deck wowed me. I did use color filters on two of my photos, just for variety.

Tracing Cloth Play

A chance discovery of Pellon 830, called Easy Pattern, led me to experiment with ways to use it. Pellon calls it an interfacing-tracing cloth. I bought a bolt of it to make a sample pattern for my silk vest (Why a bolt? It was a 60% off sale and the usual price was $2.48/yard. You do the math.) That went well as 830 sews nicely, but then I began to wonder about other uses.

Out came the paints, the watercolor pencils, the crayons, the stamps, and the brushes. First, I soaked pieces of 830 in containers filled with diluted fabric paint, which resulted in soft pastels. Then I began to stencil and stamp it.

I fused some of the colored 830 to Wonder Under, cut it up and ironed it to fabric. Then I quilted it. I found that it doesn’t fray and even three layers are quite thin.

On other experimental fronts, I traced stencils with markers and found the result to be crisper than on fabric.

Then, I traced a flower from a quilt photo (the 830 is translucent), colored it with watercolor pencils, and outlined it with a fine tip black marker. I think traced designs could be cut out and fused to fabric.

About the time I began my tracing cloth play, I found out that Betty Busby uses this stuff in her quilts. A friend took a class with her where students used this and Evolon. Busby has her students use a Silhouette Cameo machine to cut out original designs from these materials. Here are pieces Busby made that incorporate nonwovens.

“Buffalo Gourd’s” leaves are made of nonwoven material, and sewn onto hand painted silk.

Busby developed “Toupee The Turtle” to teach students how to use nonwoven material. It looks like the background is hand painted fabric.

There are numerous advantages of this material. It cuts easily, is washable, doesn’t fray, is fusible, can be sewn on, takes paint and marking tools well, and is translucent enough to trace designs onto it. You don’t get the drag of fabric when you use pencils or markers on it. Oh, did I mention it’s cheap?

I encountered a few disadvantages. The fabric paints I used didn’t dry to exceptionally intense colors but were more pastel. However, I diluted my paint, so full strength paint may give more color. I haven’t tried acrylic paint or dyes so I can’t speak to how well they do. Also, unless you can get opaque coverage from paint, any fabric used underneath 830 will show through a bit.

Busby’s work shows me I have lots more experimenting to do with this material. Lucky for me I have most of a bolt left.

Around Here Week 35

This bold spiky beauty is an ornamental onion, called Globemaster. The blue color is startling, not usual in flowers. It’s a blue that makes my retinas tingle, in a good way.