Violets #1

A year ago my wild flower series was begun with five pieces featuring trillium. This spring I'm continuing it with violets. The first was completed today ...

"Wild Flower Series - Violets #1 (21"x 17")

Last years series featured a micro view of the flowers on a woodland floor. I began this new series with a long view of the woods in the distance ...

How the light filters through the stands of trees in the spring intrigues me. I love  the sprinkle of new leaves ... so many of which are yellow and orange and of course, bright yellow green. Here in Tennessee there are Dogwoods blooming in the understory of trees, so they're there, too.

A bright green tulle was quilted over that stand of trees and undergrowth in the upper half of the piece while a camouflage printed tulle hold all the bits and pieces of my composition on the bottom half. The log is a piece of actual Birch bark.

Leave shapes and violet petals were cut from disassembled silk flowers. I glued pieces together to form the blossoms. They and the leaves are just laid on the surface in this picture to test  the composition. I wanted to present the perspective of leaning down to admire ... and pluck ... a small cluster of these delightful blooms.

Here I've captured the leaves with quilting under green tulle. The excess netting was trimmed away close to the stitching. The leaves were then shaded with pastels and defined with paint.

I cannot tell you why I changed the arrangement of the flowers from how you see them in the previous photo ... extending their stems above the clump. I suspect it's how they're suspended from the curve at the top of their stems that swayed me. I'll revisit that first arrangement for the next piece in this series. It was at this point I started to think about the possibility of a border and where the edges of the composition could be.

From the beginning it was in the back of my mind to mount this piece on a stretched canvas frame.

That involves another layer of quilting to hold the finished art to a separate piece of fabric that wraps around and is stapled to the wood frame. I cover those staples and raw edges with Duck tape.

I made this piece specifically for the charity auction, "Art in the Garden" on June 16th to raise funds for Random Acts of Flowers here in Knoxville.

Random Acts of Flowers (RAF) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) charity improving mental health through the power of giving flowers. RAF volunteers collect donated flowers from weddings, memorial services, florists, special events, grocery stores and churches – to recycle and repurpose them into beautiful bouquets for delivery to patients in area hospitals, nursing homes and hospice care centers. As a recycling “green” charity run almost entirely by volunteers, Random Acts of Flowers is committed to nourishing the health of the environment, individuals, and the community.

What could be better than for me to create an art piece for them with recycled flowers and leaves plus bits of fabric from other people's quilted projects.

Go here to see blog posts about the trillium series.

Wonky Log Cabin Blocks

I've been busy digging through bags of scraps to make blocks for the "Sandy Quilt Block Drive"...

The pattern is most fitting since the resulting quilts will be going to those who have suffered the destruction left behind by the storm resulting from Hurricane Sandy.

I like the way this project is set up. There's an opportunity to just make blocks (as many as you like) OR to make quilts from already made blocks. Quilts from this block drive event will be donated to the Bumble Beans Basics group that Victoria Findlay Wolfe organizes. These folks are in New York and able to get the quilts delivered immediately.

Fourteen was as many as I could muster the strength to make. That's an odd number so I played with a couple of arrangements on my design wall. Here's the other ...

The intent is for the quilts to be bed-size, so whomever gets my set of blocks will be adding more to achieve that. I'll be mailing them tomorrow to the quilter in Wisconsin that I was matched to by Michelle at the Quilting Gallery. Click on the link in the first sentence of this post if you, too, would like to contribute either blocks or to construct quilts.

Breast Pockets

These are my contributions to Melanie Testa's "Breast Pocket Project"

Melanie's goal is to collect 1000 pockets for this project to raise awareness for those of us who decide against reconstructing our bodies. This all began with a challenge from a reporter, "If you can get 1000 pockets, contact me, we will try to do a story."

My pockets are made from fabric that was trimmed from a garment I reconstructed to wear for my debut "as just me" when I was a featured artist for Gallery Stroll weekend at Good Good's Gallery in Saugatuck, Michigan recently. There were several compliments about what I was wearing. I doubt my lack of breasts was noticed ... even my husband didn't take, nor make note, of it.

Standing next to two of the Orange/Gray series pieces

"After the Storm"

"At the Break of Day"

The patchwork of that fabric which I cut off-grain represents the skewed journey through the experience of having and being treated for cancer. I made this one fastened with an old brass button with "1" imprinted on it especially for Melanie ...

Each of these has the name of my friends as well as my mother, sister, and myself written on the back. I've also slipped a note inside the pocket ... a message of hope and well being sent out into the universe for each of us.

Melanie wrote an interesting article about "living as a flat chested woman after breast cancer." The link is here.

My cyber friend, Gail, has honored me by making 2 pockets with my name on them. Go to her blog, Expression Studio, to see them and read her wonderful post. The pocket I made for her is the one in the lower left corner of the photo above of all the pockets.

Happy Easter

The pretty pattern on the egg is the design I had made on this donation quilt a number of years ago.  All the fabrics are cotton plisse, except for the diagonal sashings.  They were remnants leftover from garment making.

Alzheimer's Auction & Sale

The April Slow & Silent
Quilt Auction To Fight Alzheimer's
Starts April 1st

All profits fund Alzheimer's research!
 

My quilt, "Memories", was selected from hundreds of quilts donated to the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative to be auctioned during the month of April. These are online auctions to raise money to fight Alzheimer's.


Now is your chance to own one of my quilts. Please bid in the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative online auction. Even if you don't make the winning bid, your support would make a big difference to me and to the AAQI, a nonprofit national charity that I support.  Click here to bid.

There are also a lot of quilts that are priced to sell at any time.  The "Falling Leaves" postcard that I donated has already sold.  The larger piece pictured here is still up for sale.

Go the "Quilts for Sale" page to see it and the others that can be purchased at all times.

"Fading Memories II"
(10"x 8")  $175

Scrappy Postcards

There was enough of the sewn together strips that I played with yesterday for the foundations of two postcards.

Actually, I made this one before I made the larger piece, "Fading Memories II", to see how the paper napkin leaves would work.  This is the first time I've incorporated paper in any quilt.  It definitely won't be the last.  The acrylic medium coating makes the paper strong, pliable and resistant to moisture.

It's difficult to tell that the background for this one is cut from the same hunk as the leaf pieces.  Part of it is the overcast hue from the color of the tulle that's layered on top.  This one is a bright pink while the other postcard is gold and the bigger piece is a dark brown.  Silk flowers and green squiggly yarn decorate this one.  The centers of the flowers have hand and machine embroidered centers.

Both of these postcards are destined to the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative sale, too.

Playing With Scraps

All the trimmed off edges from my "ortwork" pieces get saved.  Today I decided to get out the bag they're stored in to play with those cut-offs.  There are some from the prairie flower installation piece,  my self-portrait, this month's "Interpret This" project,  the Rockie Mountain lake piece plus others that I've forgotten what they're trimmed from.

The strips got laid out and moved around until the arrangement looked good.

This is the layout that pleased me.  I liked the flow of the lines as well as the distribution of colors and patterns.  The already quilted pieces were butted together and zig-zag stitched by machine with mono filament thread.

I decided to couch yarns in a vertical pattern to bring even more cohesiveness to the overall design ... and had begun doing that before remembering that I wanted to document my process with photos.  I took a picture before more than two rows of yarn got stitched on.

I thought back to the piece, "Fading Memories", that I had recently completed and was inspired to use brown and beige yarns to go for the effect of tree trunks.  The colors were beginning to look like shafts of light, sky, and "stuff" in the background.

Then I remembered that I had been saving this paper napkin with the gold printed leaves.  They would be interesting leaves for this pieces.

I mixed a bit of fine gold Perle Ex Pigment with acrylic medium and brushed it on the surface.  This strengthened the tissue and will make it impervious to moisture, as well as give it a bit more shine.

After cutting out the paper leaves I recalled that I had a stash of leaf skeletons tucked away in a basket on a top shelf.





Here the paper napkin and skeleton leaves are arranged on the surface.

Some decorative yarns are snipped into little pieces for additional interest.  Then a layer of brown tulle was placed on top to hold everything in place.  I quilted the background with a dark mono filament thread in a bark-like pattern.  The paper leaves are quilted with a variegated gold thread.  The last thing was to square it up and finish the outside edge with couched yarns.

"Fading Memories II" (10"x 8")

Well, finishing the edges was almost the last thing.  LuminArte paint was added to the leaves to give them a bit more shading and shimmer as well as to make the leaf skeletons more prominent.  I can see now that I need to go back to add some of that gold shimmer to the white spots.

This piece will be my first donation to the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative.

"Home Is Where the Heart Is" House Block

I spent Sunday making seven of these blocks in response to Beena's call for help.

Making them also served for me to honor a friend who died several years ago. Her husband recently gave me a small stash of fabrics that she had collected to make valentines. You may recognize all those, except for the sky, as being from the late 70's or early 80's. They are perfect for this block and my friend would've loved them. All the while they were being sewn, "Home is where the heart is" kept running through my head.

I used the house block design that Beena made up. She has written out instructions on her page.

However, the strip that contains the roof line is full of tricky angles that I prefer to accomplish with paper piecing.

Several years ago I discovered a trick for easily getting the fabric pieces in the correct position for this technique. This discovery allowed me to see exactly where each fabric needed to be placed PLUS directional prints and the grainlines could be controlled.

Here the seamline falls along an edge of the diamond pattern in the roof fabric. Also, the outside edges of the sky triangle are on the straight of the grain.

It's necessary to have a way to see through the two layers of fabric and paper. A light box is best*, but a well lit window or bright lamp will work.

Fold the paper to the back along the pattern line between the piece that's already there (roof) and the one to be added (sky) to the back.

Over the light box position the seamline fold on the paper where it needs to be on the roof fabric.

Next position the sky fabric under the paper triangle pattern. The grain lines of the fabric and seam allowance can easily be seen. Hold all the layers together in this position until time to sew.

Flip open the paper foundation piece. Stitch along the pattern line.

Fold the paper back again to trim the seam if necessary.

I added the peak of the house next...the red part. Pretend the blue part that's the sky is not yet sewn to the strip.

The paper pattern is folded back along the seam line where the peak will be joined to the roof. The shape and orientation of the fabric for the peak is positioned under that folded back triangle.

I leave the paper folded back until I'm right at the machine to sew the seam through all the layers.

I cannot tell you how many times I've second guessed myself and sewed along the wrong line when that paper has been flipped opened before it was ready to go under the needle. After each seam is stitched, trim any excess from the seamline. Also, press the seam flat.

The whole block was constructed with the paper foundation piecing technique. As you can see, I used newsprint from the Sunday paper. I had stapled 7 layers together and drawn the pattern on the top one. Machine stitching along the lines with no thread in the needle marked the pattern lines in all the paper blocks. It's necessary to indicate either "front" or "back" on those blocks. I do that before taking each one from the pack. I also mark the outside edge of the block so I know where the straight of grain should lie. Those are the arrows you see in the photos above.

Until I discovered this sequence of folding and stitching the foundation piecing method was sooooo frustrating. There were many ripped seams and discarded fabric pieces that I had wrongly thought were the right size or shape. Also, if there were a pattern in the fabric that I wanted to showcase, getting it in the right position was a matter of luck. I was also happy to be able to control the grain line on the outside edges of the block. There are many sources that state the grain line is of no consequence for this method of piecing, but I disagree.

*There is no extra space in either of my studios for a light-box. The solution that works for me is a lamp placed under the acrylic extension for my sewing machine.

A big PLUS for this arrangement is that there are only inches between all that figuring out, folding, and unfolding and sewing the seam.

In Rememberance of September 11th

The Smoky Mountain Quilt Guild members made this quilt in 2004. It honors the victims of that infamous day, September 11th of 2001, as well as the new found spirit of courage and unity of the American people that resulted from this tragedy.
It was created in conjunction with an exhibition of September 11th quilts at the Knoxville Art Museum (those quilts were part of the collection that was gathered immediately after 9/ll and exhibited at the Houston show by Karey Bresenhan and can be viewed in this book).

The individual blocks for this quilt were made and donated by guild members. The quilt was designed and hand-quilted in the museum gallery over several Sundays during the exhibition by SMQ members. When members were not quilting at the big frame, they were docents for the exhibition.

Following are close-up photos.
The writing around the center block reads, "The legacy of September 11, 2001 is one of strength, compassion, determination, resolve, and a new spirit. We honor the victims in NYC, Pennsylvania, and Washington DC."

The upper left corner blocks...
the top center blocks ...
the upper right corner blocks ...
the blocks on the right side ...
the lower right corner blocks ...
the bottom center blocks ...
the lower left corner blocks ...
the blocks on the left side ...

The center block is my contribution. To read how the lettering was stitched go here. To view the 9/11 quilt, "Out of the Rubble" I created go here.

Collage Mania 2009 Results

Collage Mania was a marvelous three-day art extravaganza. Thousands of people viewed the 39 pages of art on the Collage Mania site and hundreds donated to the American Cancer Society to acquire a piece of original artwork, including my donation.
Over $18,000 was raised in three days with ALL of it going to the AMC. That is pretty impressive for our fiber art online community. Kudos to all who donated art and to all who purchased it.

Collage Mania 2009

There are 39 pages of wonderful small art pieces that opened for viewing today. Go here for a visual feast. My contribution is a small version of the Smoky Mountain series and can be found on page 2. It was created with the same "ortwork" collage process described in my previous post.

You have the opportunity to own one of those 384 original art pieces by bidding at the online auction that begins May 5th. All proceeds from sales go to the American Cancer Society.

Smoky Mountain Quilts

This small quilt of the Smoky Mountains is my contribution to Collage Mania 2009 auction. It will be one of 383 quilts donated to this years Fiber Arts For A Cause to raise money for the American Cancer Society. Pre-auction viewing of all the quilts begins April 29th.
It is donated in memory of a friend who loved these mountains.

Tomorrow this quilt along with the large one I made of this same view, "Our Biosphere Reserve", will be displayed at the Cliff Dweller's Gallery in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. I will be there throughout the afternoon demonstrating the collage technique I developed using scraps of fabric.

Artful Undergarments

I'm tickled!!! and just have to share a couple of links about making artful things out of bras. The first one is for a good cause.

The Girls Measure Up by Jackie Price

"Members of Quilters of South Carolina have created one-of-a-kind bras for Breast Cancer Awareness. The exhibit consists of forty-nine original works of art which are unique, entertaining, humorous, and beautiful to make the public aware of breast cancer, to memorialize those lost to the disease, and to honor survivors. " Go here to see all those artful bras (2 pages) and read exhibition information.

The second is a hoot ... along the lines of making those slippers from a personal hygiene product.

Bra Bag by Carol Taylor in Wales

My friends who were gifted those slippers just may get pretty bags next year. Go here to see more photos and read about Carol's making the bag pictured above. Go here to see those slippers and get instructions for making them.