In All Things - Art

Azure 118

2011-09-13T05:45:00.001-07:00

Azure 118 - and still more pictures....

2011-09-13T05:36:00.001-07:00

Azure 118 - more pictures

2011-09-13T05:30:00.001-07:00

Our Boat - Azure 118 FOR SALE

2011-09-13T05:23:00.001-07:00

ACEO's 217 & 218

2011-09-13T05:21:00.000-07:00

ACEO 211, 213 & 215

2011-08-10T15:59:00.000-07:00

ACEOs 205, 206, 207

2011-07-08T13:08:00.000-07:00

ACEOs 203 & 204

2011-06-28T08:03:00.000-07:00

more ACEOs thru #199

2011-06-21T06:22:00.000-07:00

Newest ACEOs

2011-06-15T12:47:00.001-07:00

Stay down, little Bunny!

2011-05-03T08:31:00.000-07:00

Wildlife ACEOs

2011-04-22T09:06:00.000-07:00

Gotta go Gammill

2011-04-15T08:24:00.000-07:00

Recent ACEOs

2011-03-10T09:06:00.000-08:00

My Heart Leaps for Joy

2011-02-11T06:48:00.001-08:00

A small artquilt with Psalm 28:7 written on it - ....my heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to Him in song.

ACEO's

2011-02-11T06:47:00.001-08:00

Kitten and Birds

2011-01-21T07:57:00.000-08:00

ACEO's

2010-12-11T19:57:00.000-08:00

Two Cats

2010-12-04T08:01:00.001-08:00

Watercolor Cat

2010-11-22T12:26:00.000-08:00

Watercolor Rabbit

2010-11-22T05:52:00.000-08:00

Praise the Lord O my soul, Psalm 103

2010-10-04T15:03:00.001-07:00

To make this piece, I first randomly pieced scraps of green and light green prints. Then I painted the design onto the fabric - with the Tsukineko inks. Painting over the seams can be a little messy - but the final effect - especially after quilting, is nice I think. I really must break out my 'brand new' (now 4 years old, never used yet!) airbrush. It would make a much cleaner effect over the seams!

Newest ACEOs

2010-10-01T13:48:00.001-07:00

Wildlife ACEOs

2010-09-13T14:54:00.000-07:00

Skittles

2010-08-31T10:45:00.000-07:00

Tropical Depression #5 Fabric

2010-08-18T20:39:00.000-07:00

Trying to figure out how to use our fierce southwest Tennessee sun as a catalyst for some fabric dying/inking - The sun-tea has been getting very dark, very strong this summer. So maybe the moist tea on fabric in the sun would work.

Problem...I dragged my feet too long making it happen. Finally, I used the wet loose tea after making sun-tea - spread it on top of folded and scrunched fabric. I added some drops of pigment ink (burgundy and tangerine) and a double handful of ice cubes. I set it out in the sun - and about an hour later, it clouded up and rained. So I moved the fabric onto the porch - waiting for day 2.

The next day was overcast - but that's OK - ultraviolet rays still penetrate. But then the rains started again - we were in the direct path of the Tropical Depression #5 today!! We received over 6 inches of rain.

But some interesting patterns showed up anyway - I believe it is because the damp tea leaves held the dye in certain areas. Interesting enough to warrant trying it again - later - when the sun returns!!

Cats

2010-08-06T11:24:00.001-07:00

Catfish

2010-07-19T17:44:00.000-07:00

This photo is cropped in on the 8x10.

This photo shows the fullsized 11x14 canvas.

Back to Work - ACEOs again!

2010-07-17T12:49:00.000-07:00

Trophy Paintings in Acrylic

2010-05-16T19:19:00.000-07:00

Signs of Spring, ACEO 62

2010-05-16T08:19:00.000-07:00

2010-05-08T05:01:00.000-07:00

ACEO #40

2010-03-28T18:34:00.001-07:00

More ACEOs - Through the 31th

2010-03-22T15:31:00.001-07:00

God's Creation

2010-03-16T11:56:00.001-07:00

Two things really appealed to me in the reference photo for this painting. The first is - look at those eyelashes!! Brooke Shields in her current advertisement for growing longer, thicker eyelashes has nothing compared to this fawn! I had no idea their lasher were so thick and long!

The second thing that appealed to me are the fawn's ears. While living in West Virginia - I was walking in the woods behind our home when I heard a crashing noise coming down the side of Sidling Mountain. I stopped to see what was causing it when into the clearing ahead of me ran four fawns and 3 doe. The fawns started scampering and jumping and playing while two of the doe started grazing. The third doe came a little closer to me (she had not seen me yet) and was the sentry - watching out for any danger. I stayed perfectly still in the shadows but there was bright sunshine behind me so I knew she could see my silhouette. She became very suspicious of that 5'4" slightly overweight silhouette before her - but had not yet raised her tail - which means DANGER! So we stood there, staring at each other - about 20 feet apart.

She also was in light shadow with sunshine behind her - and what amazed me were her ears. They are shaped just like leaves! They are the same size and when backlit - they are the same reddish color as autumn leaves. Sorry folks - evolution didn't select those ears for deer - evolution didn't know that hunting season would be in the fall at Thanksgiving. I became convinced that warm spring day that God's amazing grace created that creature.

ACEOs #24 Brown Bear & #25 Chipmunk

2010-03-13T13:57:00.000-08:00

Chipmunks are in the genus Tamias which is greek for 'storer' which they do by collecting and storing their food in the autumn to last them thru the winter. Their burrows can be more than 10 feet long and I find interesting that where they sleep - they keep extremely clean - they have separate tunnels for pottying.

Curious about the chipmunk genus Tamias - I did a bible search on the word. Thru the website http://www.searchgodsword.org/ I found that a contraction of the greek word is used four times in the New Testament - the greek work Tameion. It has been translated into english as storage chamber, inner chamber, secret room.

In Luke 12:24, "Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap; they have no storeroom (Tameion) nor barn and yet God feeds them; how much more valuable you are than the birds."

Finishing UFOs - Morning Star

2010-03-11T12:56:00.000-08:00

Working my way thru some unfinished pieces/items - some a few years old even. The center of this piece I made while still living in WV - about 3 years ago. The background in the center is altered cloth - I spread some white fabric on our back gravel driveway, threw some things on top of it - gravel, twigs, macaroni - and oversprayed it with thinned blue acrylic paint.

I just recently finished this piece by adding the 2 outer borders and the painted small stars and bible verse in the outer border. It reads.....

I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the root and offspring of David and the bright Morning Star. Revelation 22:16

More Pen & Ink ACEOs

2010-03-05T17:49:00.001-08:00

This is an Acorn Woodpecker, native to the west coast. Trivia - Woody Woodpecker's 'laugh/call' is supposed to be based upon the call of this bird. Well, at 53, its been a long time since I watched a Woody Woodpecker cartoon - so when I read that bit of trivia it meant nothing to me. But then I found a site that plays recorded birdsongs. And at the end of a 20 second recording I heard..... hahaHAha hahaHAha hahahahahahah......and I remembered!! Here is the link if you want to walk down memory lane also... http://allaboutbirds.org/guide/acorn_woodpecker/id !

Fast Fibre for the Front Door - & an ACEO

2010-03-03T14:53:00.000-08:00

Watercolors, Pigment Inks with Leroy

2010-03-02T09:37:00.001-08:00

These are pictures of watercolor being applied to fabric using a Leroy pen - which is simply a reservoir and a wire nib. I used a paintbrush to add water to the watercolor paint - then used that same paintbrush to put it into the reservoir. I am applying it to fabric without any sizing - it won't be permanent - but notice how little wicking is happening - as long as I keep the pen moving!

The first picture, the pen is in a Leroy scribe and I used the Leroy lettering templates - to make straight lines and to make numbers and letters - a great way to get words onto an artquilt! In the 2nd picture, the Leroy pen is in a handle for freehand drawing.

This technique was suggested on the quiltart digests - thank you thank you!! I have had these tools and supplies for years - never thought to use them together.

Colors of the Sky Quilt - its OK to laugh

2010-02-24T12:09:00.001-08:00

This quilt started because it was time to use some of my scraps. And I read somewhere that adding grey to a color scheme will 'tone it down'. So I built this scrap quilt sewing together horizontal strips of scraps separated by greys. As I was building it - the rainbow of colors led me to arrange them as a sunset - greens on the bottom changing to some blues then reds/yellow/oranges and back to darker blues at the top. And its name became - Colors of the Sky. But I think it is maybe better called - Joseph's Coat of Many Colors.

When I finished quilting it - the drop on our bed wasn't as long as I had hoped - so I sewed on a backing extension - mounted it back onto the gammill, positioned a piece of batting - and used the gammill to first 'piece' the two strips I was adding to the top - then quilt them. That addition is the green and purple on the left above. But now the quilt touched the floor - too long - so I cut off 6" of that extension and the quilt is now perfect!!! lol!!

And of course that 6" piece I cutoff did not go into the trash - it is now the beginning of another quilt!!!

Watercolors - some ACEOs

2010-02-16T18:20:00.001-08:00

More Snow in Southwest Tennessee

2010-02-15T12:10:00.000-08:00

We have gotton another heavy dusting of snow - as I hear, Tennessee is one of 49 states with snow on the ground today! I also had to include pictures of the strange ice cycles that grow UP from the ground here in heavy clay country. I had never seen this before - the heavy clay soil here doesn't absorb moisure - it just holds it so during a hard freeze, the ground opens up and these ice cycles grow - UP! They are 1 to 2 inches long - are 'crunchy' to walk on - and just fascinate me!

Oh, these daffodils did my heart good when I first saw almost 2 weeks ago - I thought FOR SURE spring was about to unfold! Last spring, they had bloomed before March - so I am hoping they do again this spring!!

Pen & Ink with Watercolor

2010-02-10T17:25:00.000-08:00

This isn't quilted yet - but this is the piece of fabric 16x13, sized with soy, inked with black india ink and painted with watercolors. I am very pleased with how it turned out, looking forward to adding to it, layering and quilting the piece. Below is a picture before painting with watercolor. Below that are two paintings I have done using the same technique of first 'drawing' with ink then 'painting' with watercolors but on 140lb paper.

Pen & Ink & Watercolor

2010-02-07T17:28:00.000-08:00

Got my ink set back out - goodness, this thing is OLD! Actually, it was Samu'l's set - but he gave it to me - although he may not exactly remember it that way! Anyway, it is a Leroy Lettering Ink Set by K&E. I 'googled' the set - found one selling on ebay for about $70. I think these sets sold for about $200 new 30 years ago! or more.

So I did a 5x7 watercolor/pen & ink - I really like the high contrast the darkest darks make in the piece. It is time consuming but it is a lot of fun for me - its one of those tasks I work at for awhile and think, oh, its been about an hour, time to take a break, only to find out it has been about 4 hours. THAT is when you know you are doing something you enjoy!!

So I decided to do another one of the piece of fabric I had sized with soymilk. I understand you should use it within a week of saturating it with soy - so, this is my current inspiration, a chipmunk in the grass. Kind of cute so far, I think.

ACEO's

2010-02-04T17:34:00.001-08:00

In the midst of experimenting with dyed/painted fabrics, I have discovered ACEO's and how fun they are to paint!! I am apparantly WAY BEHIND on these things - but - they are original artwork in any medium - the only rule is the size, 2-1/2 x 3-1/2 inches. They are quick and fun to do! So far, just painting them in watercolor - these two above are my 3rd and 4th ones.

Ice Dyed Daisies and Soy Experiment

2010-02-03T13:23:00.000-08:00

Ice storm last Friday and today I find daffodils up, about 6" tall - sure does my heart good. I am ready for spring as I used the fabric I dyed using the ice from last weeks storm to make this daisy top. I needed one more piece of dyed fabric after the ice was all melted - so I used crushed ice from the refrigerator - it worked great! That piece is in the lower left corner.

Experimenting with purchased soymilk to size cotton fabric, I painted on this piece with watercolors. I understand it must cure for at least 3 months before washing. All the soybeans that are grown in this county - I have been unable to find any for sale - so that is why I am trying purchased soymilk.

Ice Dying

2010-02-01T13:42:00.001-08:00

Inspired by recent posts on quiltart.com about dying fabric with snow - I had to try my own version - using chunks of ice still outside this morning.
(Picture above) This is the same piece of fabric shown below, dried, heat set with an iron and after I have handpainted a spray of daisies on it.

This piece of unbleached muslin I pressed on top of the ink covered ice. Some of the pigment laden ice chunks stuck - you can see them shining in the picture. Interesting effect tho - after the pigment had leached out of the ice and as the ice continued to melt - it created a 'bloom' with little pigment in the middle. It is still very wet in this picture.

Ice chunks laying on top of scrunched unbleached muslin - and the tsukineko inks drizzled on top - well, OK, they are more poured than drizzled - I used a bit too much pigment.

So what happend to the fabric under all this ice? It is laying out in the garage drying - more pictures needed.

Icy Tennessee

2010-01-31T09:14:00.001-08:00

This is my week #4 journal quilt - another one about the weather - I MUST be getting old.

Playing with Natural Dyes

2010-01-27T20:40:00.000-08:00

A piece of unbleached muslin dyed with yellow and red onion skins, red cabbage and acorn cups.
I don't use onions in my cooking - but I found that in the bottom of the onion bin at the grocery store there are loose dry onion skins. So I brought a few of them home for the dye bath.

I also dropped coffee grounds on top of the rolled fabric. They did nothing!!!!

Mordant - a substance used to set dyes in fabric. Reading thru the information people very graciously sent me - I found suggestions to use salts, vinegars, acids and metals. And because this for me was 'play' - I used salt and silver - two items in the cupboard closest to my stove. The silver I used are the decorative non-edible silver balls used on Christmas cookies. And I think they worked really well - as the darkest stain on the fabric is a cluster of little circular shapes.

Mr. Putti-Tat Bojangles

2010-01-20T09:53:00.000-08:00

When I was a kid - I joined the local 4H club. As a project thru 4H, I adopted an adult male cat from a local shelter - a cat that was scheduled to be euthanized. He was a beautiful American Shorthair Tabby = I named him Mr. Putti-Tat Bojangles. So, I liked Tweety bird and the song!!

We called him Putt (pronounced poot).

As part of the project I had to go to a breeder's home, help her care for her cats and dogs - she bred Russian Wolfhounds - and learn about caring for cats, cat breeds, etc. Oh, and I remember I had to assist her at a local cat show.

On one of the trips to this lady's home, my mother came in to meet her and sat on her very low-to-the-floor couch. One of the wolfhounds came into the room, a very tall skinny dog - walked over to my mom, turned around and 'sat' on her lap - the dog's legs never left the floor. My mom leaned back with an 'oh my - what is this thing!' look on her face. I still laugh about this memory.

So out of this 4h project, I think I received a ribbon - but I also received a beautiful, loving cat. Putt was a great cat. But he developed a urinary tract blockage to which male cats are susceptible. And, unfortunately, I did not understand what was happening when he broke training and began urinating on the floor. So he died. It is important for all owners of cats to know that if your cat breaks training - something is wrong - take them to a vet immediately!!

2010 Journal Quilt Challenge - Week 1 Happy Birthday!

2010-01-02T14:45:00.000-08:00

Well, for 2010 I have joined a weekly journal quilt challenge on facebook - just wanted to share my first one - My husband was born on 1 January - so I painted his baby blue eyes at age 74 and also painted his mom holding him using the photo from the newspaper in '36 that told of him being the 2nd one born that year - there was a Baby Gray born 12:02! My darlin' husband was born 36 minutes after midnight. But it was his picture in the paper!

Black Bear Watercolor & Seals

2009-12-31T07:36:00.001-08:00

Wanted to share my latest watercolor - Black Bear. This is the 2nd attempt with this picture - the first time I used colored pencils. This one has turned out much better! Mixing pigments to make the darks can deliver wonderful surprises! I used burnt umber and prussian blue to make the darks in this black bear - and now his fur ranges from reddish browns, thru some dark grey/greens to dark blues - fascinating!!!

Japanese Dolls made by Mom

2009-12-30T13:41:00.001-08:00

Just had to share!!

Recent Watercolor

2009-12-30T13:24:00.001-08:00

Haven't done much sewing lately - enjoying practicing my art of watercolor - here is my latest.

Two Quick Gifts - Angel & Tea Cozy

2009-12-20T10:50:00.001-08:00

Sunday before Christmas, making a few quick gifts. One is a painted angel wallhanging (small) for our neighbor. I used a pattern from an old issue of Decorative Painting - it worked great. The other is a tea cozy for my dad - made from crossword puzzle material. I assembled the cozy using the ragquilt technique of leaving seam allowances on the outside, clipping and fuzzing them.

Experiment with paper

2009-12-07T07:04:00.000-08:00

Using scraps of 140lb watercolor paper, I curled and crunched and painted the pieces while wet then sewed them onto this small piece. The heavy paper, when dry, keeps its curled and crunched shape. But because it is paper - please don't get any water near this piece.

Rather than going thru the mess of 'coating' the paper to make it waterproof - I think I will experiment with plastic - maybe cut-up (& recycle) plastic bottle that already have the curved shape - but thin enough to sew thru....hmmmmm......

This is another in my Word series also - didn't meet my challenge of one each week - this is about #30. 1 John 4:12
'No man has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwells in us and His love is perfected in us.'

A Cat in a Quilt

2009-12-04T14:30:00.001-08:00

Quilts from Shirts

2009-12-01T15:11:00.000-08:00

A wallhanging (with 9 pockets) and a small quilted throw from my uncle's workshirts.

Newest Word Piece & Fast-Track Machine Quilting

2009-11-24T12:08:00.000-08:00

I am offering machine quilting service on etsy now - and, just to see if there are any takers - offering a 5 day fast track - Here is a detail of feathers I can do with my gammill now - thank goodness for the tip about a bag of rice!!!

Christmas Cards in Colored Pencil & 2Raccoons

2009-11-22T14:37:00.001-08:00

Two new watercolors

2009-11-19T13:44:00.000-08:00

Part of my ebay auctions. Thanks for looking!!

Finally Finish Weekend

2009-11-08T16:39:00.000-08:00

Spent the weekend trying to finish as many UFOs as possible. Finished a mystery quilt started in 2006 and a Whacky Red Scrappy thing started in 2008. Well - by 'finished' I mean the quilt tops are finished - still to be quilted and bound though.....sigh....!

JRT - For Fun

2009-11-01T11:46:00.001-08:00

This is my male JRT - my challenge on this piece was to keep the FUN in his eyes. This is another watercolor - check this out on ebay - link to the right!! Thanks!!!

Racoon - Puppy in Pastels

2009-10-31T10:21:00.000-07:00

Still painting - this is a small watercolor. The challenge here was to use a green and a red only - to make the greys and blacks. This one is posted on ebay also. (Link on the right > )

Puppy in Pastels - don't like the way this one worked - back to the drawing board...ie...cut/chop and try again.

Painting Dogs

2009-10-28T11:44:00.001-07:00

Painting again! and some of my favorite subjects - puppy dogs!! Two in watercolor. The challenge on the JRT was to use only 2 pigments and only one brush. The challenge for the golden retriever was to use the primaries - blue,red,yellow.

4 Sister quilt 2008

2009-10-26T12:16:00.000-07:00

What fun!! this quilt top went together in 3 days - and it has been so much fun working on it!! Is it perfect - bite your tongue!! It was fun to make - and with apologies to all you perfectionists - making perfect seams and fun are mutually exclusive in my house! My 3 sisters and I have been block swapping for 3 years now. Starting on Friday I finally used 8 of the blocks from 2008 in a quilt. I have been wanting to try the strip piecing method for a lone star - so I finally had the fabrics needed and just went for it! Then outside the 8 blocks I didn't want to just set in solid fabric to square it out - so I used the french braid pattern - and did it ever work well as it is already on a 45 degree angle - it fit right in.

Ah, but then I had to make some curves - after starting it, I kindof wished I hadn't - but I like the final effect alot.

After putting the quilt top on the clothesline I went for a walk with my dogs. Returned to the house behind the quilttop - with the sun shining on the front - I was amazed at one block in particular - made by sister Joyce - that was absolutely shining - no, make that radiating with light! My artist eye says - contrast, Johnni - strong contrast - use it to paint light!

Flannel Shirts & Christmas

2009-10-24T14:01:00.000-07:00

Lately I have been working with flannel and woven cotten workshirts that belonged to my favorite Uncle Jasper - making items from them for the family. So far, two lap quilts and a small wallhanging. Many more to go.

I have had opportunity to paint again lately - YaY!! so with Christmas fast approaching - I should do some Christmas pieces. Here is one I painted last year for good friend Deb in a block swap.

Eaglets / Elvis / Chenille

2009-08-19T17:12:00.000-07:00

Working up a design for a friend - I call it a first draft but I am actually approaching it as a 'study' for the final piece. I am 'painting' it with pigment inks, colored pencils and fused cloth on cloth.

Here it is ready to be quilted.

Still incomplete in this picture - more quilting to be done and it is only pinned to the stretched canvas - but complete enough to analyze. This picture was taken with the flash and doesn't look as dark overall as the piece actually seems. I overinked I think - I must take care on the final piece. Also, trying to make the eagle and eaglets 'pop', I used wool batting under them on top of the cotton batting. Mistake = as I am doing such heavy quilting, it is just more for my needle to stitch through and flatten. I would truly appreciate comments!!

We visited the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in Tuscumbia, AL last week - very interesting museum. Just had to take a picture of this picture of an impromptu 'jam session' with Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins. Wouldn't you have loved to be the proverbial 'fly on the wall' for that 4-some!!

A chenille bedspread - very, very lightweight (I started calling it cheesecloth - it was so lightweight) but now layered with batting, a backing then quilted. It worked up beautifully I think AND the bedspread now has a wonderful soft thick weight to it.

Word #1 #26 #22 #20 #19

2009-07-07T08:51:00.001-07:00

This is Word #1. It is a painted wholecloth with some piecing added to the right side. I shared a detail of it in an earlier post. It measures 14x16. I am displaying it pinned to a scrumptously beautiful scarf that my sister knit for me, thrown over my sewing room door. This door is never closed - so the scarf is safely on display also this way! as it is definitely NOT being used in our 100+ degree weather here in southwest Tennessee!

This is Word #26. Only 26 more to go for 2009. Actually, thats not quite true as I have missed a few weeks - so I am playing catchup. This one is made using cutoffs from a block I made for my sister in our May 4sister blockswap, inspired by Joen Wolfram work - I arranged my blues in order by value. For this piece, I had to add a beautiful dark purple and an almost orange batik to the turquoise blues. This piece measures 8-1/2x9.

This is Word #22. The pears are painted with inks - then I played some with the quilting. It measures 15x11 and has become my placemat.

This is Word # 20. It measures 7x10. The verse A merry heart does good like a medicine. Proverbs 17:22 had two weeks of pondering to it - so it was used on #19 below also.

This is Word #19 - size 7x13. The little yellow 'things' attached to the orange strip are the plastic centers from the white silk flowers used in Word #26 above.

Backyard Wildlife

2009-06-29T14:08:00.000-07:00

Mama spiders with their brood on their back. And - these are two different spiders! Found one floating in the pool - took some pictures, then removed her from the pool. Thirty minutes later, there was another one in the water. We think they are wolf spiders - but not sure. Fascinating and gruesome at the same time. One more picture below with a floating cricket next to the spiders - to share with you how BIG these mama spiders are!! Ugh!

Now for some cute wildlife!!!

Two tiny frogs on our pool deck this week. From a distance, they looked like pea-gravel - til they hopped. Two more pictures below with my thumbnail in the shot - for scale.

Time Out for a Swim

2009-06-06T17:57:00.000-07:00

The Rock, a Logcabin Plus a little more

2009-05-22T10:23:00.000-07:00

This is a small artquilt The Rock. I used techniques in it inspired from 3 different quilt artists. It was my 3rd attempt to make the rock of Jesus' tomb in fabric. The hand is a miniquilt - with batting and quilted separate then appliqued onto the piece. I debated how to duplicate the drape of the fabric on the angel's arm in fabric - DUH!! = till I thought - just use a single piece of fabric and fold and drape it!!!

One more piece to mystory behind this piece: Growing up - school pictures would often get stuck into the corner of other photos already hanging on the wall. I always thought if it was important enough to hang on the wall - then it was important enough to have its own frame. So - adding God's word to this piece - I wanted to create a strong contrast between the ultimate importance of His word and the unimportant way it was added. Not having a frame I could stick it in - I added it with a piece of torn masking tape. BTW, the tape and the 'paper' with the bible verses on it are all fabric.

I have just finished taking a class at Quilt University with Carol Miller. I made enough blocks from the class to make this quilt top. There are 5 different logcabin blocks in it - so it is my logcabin sampler. I will add plain borders to finish it as a kingsized quilt. I learned some great tips in the class and highly recommend it!!

A painted slate from several years ago. I was so pleased to discover a technique to 'paint' the shadows of quilting.

Picture take from our front porch in West Virgina. I learned to LOOK UP while living there - watching the sky and storms moving across the valley. That low cloud was boiling up from or reaching down to the Potomac and Cacapon Rivers.

Just a funny picture of our 3 jack russells. Our 'unfaithful dog Muttli' (remember the cartoon Penelope Pittstop?) - is in the middle - My Dad has commented when seeing her lay like this - that her back end looks like a turkey needing to be trussed.

Gotta Go Gammill

2009-04-24T09:46:00.001-07:00

Quilting for a friend. Just wanted to share some details of some of the quilting, above and below. I really enjoyed working on the pink quilt above - I have some pink in my stash - I have got to get it out and make a pink quilt now, too!!

More Work from Word Series

2009-04-07T08:22:00.000-07:00

This piece started on a sketch pad - which doesn't happen very often in my sewing room - and the verse....If ye abide in me and my words abide in you ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you....John 15:7. I chose a two color pallette - the complements yellow and purple.
I have been trying to lose weight - dieting for two months I have lost 4 pounds....whooppeee - so I am throwing in 3 mile power walks. While on a power walk last week with my jr Feerless we walked thru a cemetary. At one end is a small wire fence with older silk flowers piled inside. I chose to recycle 2 purple sprigs. My husband now teases me about stealing flowers from the graves. Some of those flowers along with glass beads embellish this piece.

This is Word #12. A very good friend has a birthday this month and I have made this piece for her. But I haven't sent it to her yet - so taking a chance that she won't see it here first! It is stitched with beads and weird things stuck in under the binding that I hope will make her laugh and the verse .... A friend loves at all times.....Proverbs 17:17

This is Word #11...Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee. Isa 26:3

I started thinking what am I going to do with 52 'coasters' my table tops will be covered 3 deep by the end of the year. After a visit to my father in Texas and seeing the cute appliance covers he had made for his kitchen - I added additional fabric to the back of this one to make it long enough to drape over that ugly toaster oven in the corner. This piece is not quilted yet - but it already cheers me in the morning.

This is Word #2 made the 2nd week this year - but just now being posted. It is a wholecloth, measures about 14x24 and to make the words I AM the background is filled in using a pigment pen writing many of Jesus' words that told who HE is.... I AM the way the truth and the life - no man comes to the Father but by me. John 14:6

In the old testament, God told Moses...I AM THAT I AM; and He said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM had sent me unto you. Exodus 3:14. Throughout the bible, God reveals his character by further stating......I AM...

On the Design Wall

2009-03-14T16:21:00.001-07:00

Discussion on QuiltArt right now about what is on the design wall. This is a piece I started on a whim where I have taken some commercial fuschia fabric and made an 8point star from the design of the fabric. I am playing with options to 'hide' the lack of points on my star.

To celebrate the arrival of hummingbirds - which should happen very soon now - I painted a few onto the wallhanging. After this current (and I hope final) cold snap leaves Savannah - I am going to hang a hummingbird feeder outside. If I can see a hummingbird in the panhandle of WV by the end of March - I fully expect to see one in southwest Tennessee by the middle of March!!

Word #10 and #9

2009-03-14T15:26:00.000-07:00

#10 in my Word series. More than one article in Artist's Magazine has given the advice to 'paint what you love'. In looking at quilt art, I find myself drawn to those pieces that are 'collages' if you will, of bright color, contrast and shapes. So I have been attempting to make these types of pieces - and failing.

So I feel I should go back to my first love, painting nature. Word #8 included a painted rabbit. This piece I used pictures taken at our home in WV of a Swallow-tail butterfly on azaleas. The butterfly and azaleas are painted with the Tsukineko inks and markers. I let the painting lead me to the color scheme of strong primaries - with a little green thrown in. I also broke the rule of design - put like items in odd numbered groups, 3 or 5. I used 2 groups of 4, just to see if it was irritating - like I used to sprinkle salt in the sugar bowl just before my sister 'sweetened' her cereal. That WAS irritating - but groups of 4 are just fine.

Again on this piece I used a paper printed with the verse captured in angelina fibers. I am really enjoying the shine that the angelina fibers add - and by photographing in natural light - you can see that shine in both of these pieces.

Thou art my hiding place and my shield; I hope in thy word. Psalm 119:114

This is my piece for week 9 of 2009 - Word #9. About 2 years ago I did a selfstudy of color theory. I found many of the 'rules' of color theory to reflect God's glory. For this piece, my attempt was to show how black enhances, strengthens those hues next to and surrounded by it. Much as going thru tough, dark times in life , suddenly the small everyday items in our life are made sweeter and more meaningful. (I feel this attempt fell well short of the mark.)

Imagine how dark and tough it was for Mary and Martha to lose their brother Lazarus - knowing the Son of God, knowing their brother was loved and a friend to Jesus. Many people know the shortest verse in the bible - Jesus wept. But please know, He wasn't weeping because Lazarus had died. Why shed those tears when He was going to raise him from the dead? Jesus wept - in sympathy for Mary and Martha - knowing their tears. And He said to them, Said I not unto you that if you would believe, you should see the glory of God? John 11:40

That is a verse of high contrast - the tears and sadness of laying their brother in the grave - and the high worshipful glory of seeing their brother walk out of that grave.

Word #8 & Happy 50th Barbie

2009-03-08T17:01:00.000-07:00

Just discovered that Barbie is 50 this year! EGADS! one of my favorite toys as a kid has been around for half of a century! And after this last move to Tennessee, I can't seem to find mine!!
Jamie Lee Curtis allowed herself to be photographed at 50 in the buff for AARP and in clingy lycra for all to see her all. I figured it was time for Barbie to show all too. And, please, Mattel - she is now 50! She has a problem with chocolate - so she is no longer long and thin. Her thighs actually touch now.

At 40, she had to come down off her toes! So sorry, no matter how 'sexy' they may be, 3" heels hurt!! And of course, in her 40s she had to do the Jennifer Aniston hairdo - didn't we all? As you can tell by now - this piece was done purely for fun! Not quilted yet, though. Still thinking about adding an aging Ken!

Not quilted yet - but this is the 8th in the Word series. The rabbit is hand painted with my favorite inks - in red and yellow, an attempt to 'stretch myself' whatever that may mean. I like the effect alot. The verse is Psalm 4:8 and one I use when sleep eludes.....'I will both lay me down in peace and sleep for Thou Lord only makest me dwell in safety'.

Word #7 - Hummingbird

2009-02-23T12:16:00.000-08:00

More logcabin blocks from scraps. I no longer use threadsavers - I keep strippy scraps by the sewing machine - and build these small scappy logcabins while working on REAL projects. Sewing a round to one of these blocks acts as a threadsaver.

After 3 were built - I saw the flower in them - so had to add a hummingbird. March is almost here - almost time to set out the feeders again - yippeee!!

Word #6

2009-02-15T10:45:00.000-08:00

Continuing my God's Word series, this is for week #6. The verse is from Jeremiah 33:3...Call to ME and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things which you don't know.

This piece is leftovers from making 2 blocks for my 4sister 2009 block swap. These are pieces from the fabrics and colors selected by my sis in PA - so I am sending it to her along with her blocks this month, our first swap this year.

I used the facing technique again for finishing it - I really like this technique!! So far, all but one piece for this series has been small, measuring no larger than 20"x14" - finished with a fused facing, they seem to stiffen slightly - as such, they make great pieces to lay on a table - and I set my drink on them.

Word #5 - Scream - Potomac

2009-02-04T17:19:00.000-08:00

Used scraps of blue and orange to make several logcabin blocks - added some fused applique, God's word and made #5 in this series for 2009. '...blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it.' Luke 11:28

This is my quilt "Scream" on display in the Pennsylvania National Quilt show, 2007. It is a quilt that is all about and only about the process of building it and my inability to stay focused. My first attempt at a kingsized quilt - I started with 8 inch blocks. Do you have any idea how many 8 inch blocks it takes to make a kingsized quilt? Well I quickly became bored! So I started combining the 8 inch blocks, adding material in and around them to make 20 inch blocks. Add a border here, another one there - lay it out on my bed - still too small - add another border here - another one there. Finally - it is large enough. But I no longer have any idea what the design even looks like! So I take it outside, pin it to my clothesline, step away, turn, look - and SCREAM - in delight!

Ah, but now, how do I quilt this monster on my Viking? Solution - I cut it up into 4 pieces - quilt each piece, then stitch the 4 pieces together. BUT - it would be BORing to put them back in the same place - so I stagger them - and create 4 outside and 4 inside corners. The picture below shows Scream on a bed - the staggered border works really well on a bed.

The Potomac River in West Virginia - this is a sunset behind one of the many railroad bridges over the Potomac. The squirrel is painted then hand appliqued. Its tail is finished with heavy machine stitching - to more accurately capture the whispy long hairs on a squirrel's tail. This quilt finished out at as a YSQ - yard square quilt - and sold at auction for charity.

Facings to Finish an Edge

2009-01-28T11:28:00.000-08:00

Well, I finally tried the facing technique to finish the edge of a small piece - WHAT A GREAT TECHNIQUE!! Thinking about it before doing it - I had thought there was NOWAY that you could roll the edge of batting under after turning the facing - without it being bulky/ugly - but it works!! Thru quiltart.com, Melody Johnson of Palmer, Tennesse (gee - wonder how close that is to Savannah?) gave a link to her blog - showing instructions to her technique of an Escape-Hatch Finish published in QNM. THANK YOU MELODY! (Here is the link also..... http://fibermania.blogspot.com/2006/09/i-had-it-just-minute-ago.html )

This is a small piece made from scraps - just trying to deplete my collection of scraps. The batting is Warm & Natural cotton - and it rolled over beautifully! Melody's instructions include fusing the piece - I have onhand a piece of fusible stabilizer - essentially a light weight muslin with fusing on one side - so that is what I used for the backing. It worked great!

This is my 4th piece for 2009 with a Bible verse on it. I have challenged myself to do one each week - I think on and dwell on God's word while making the piece - and I find recall of the verses much easier. If you are a quilter and would like to combine it with your Bible study, I would recommend you try this also.

My mom was a scrap quilter. From a collection of wool and wool blend scraps, she made a few quilts. She gave me one many years ago - and my Dad recently found another one she had made - but just a quilt top. My 3 sisters and I each made a small piece, which I have sewn together for the backing to this quilt. We are finishing it as a surprise for my Dad. And I am feeling seriously 'whupped' by this project. It was extremely difficult to quilt - and I have been dragging my feet about binding it.

So to play a bit - and try to conquer this project - I made the small bag above from some of the scrap pieces. The straps are made by rolling some batting inside 3 sewn squares, then hand stitching it closed. I also used the technique of a facing to line the bag.

The picture below shows the quilt top for my Dad on the left and the quilt given to me on the right.

My daughter is 30 now - just sent off to her a box of 'stuff', clothes, schoolwork, artwork, etc. from her kinder years - almost 20lbs of stuff. I have been thru 2 major moves in the last 5 years - thought it was time to send some of her stuff on to her.....notice I write 'some' of her stuff - yes, I still have more. Oh, bringing them out and sending them off to her brought back such sweet, warm and some funny memories. I hope they do the same for her. The picture above was published in her school calendar - a published artist by the 8th grade!!

Faces Quilted

2009-01-13T15:07:00.001-08:00

Recently there has been a discussion on Quiltart about using faces - and over the past few days I have used two faces in quilts. This one - a deer face. I had planned on adding few quilting stitches to the deer. The quilt is a YSQ (Yard Square Quilt) to be sold in the spring for charity. The batting is Warm & Natural cotton - but under the deer face, I added a piece of wool batting - to help 'fill' it out. But as I worked on it - one thing lead to another - and I heavily quilted the deer. Except for the muzzle - and it poofs out in a delightfully 3d way. The deer was painted with Tsukineko inks - only 3 colors - but in quilting, I used 6 different threads.

This is a detail of a small quilt I made last week called Cast. In it, the face is in profile and dark - with few details. So I stabilized it with Stitch Witchery to the batting - and used very little quilting on it. It is holding well - but I think there must be a better way.

Iris In Inks

2009-01-03T09:53:00.000-08:00

This is a fairly short video on using the Tsukineko inks. No stencil - almost freehand. I say 'almost' because there is a pattern under the fabric. The pattern is made from my photo of one of my irises, enlarged and the outside edges of petals, stem and leaves darkened with a pencil.

The fabric is offwhite with a pattern - the white-on-white pattern acts as a resist - so this pretty pattern of flowers shows thru the ink.

My pallette is two inks, Peony purple (a rich, dark pigment) and Spring green. I am using the Fantastix brush tip applicators. The two applicators I am using have been used many times so that they are no longer stiff, the tips are very much brushlike. The only downside to a used applicator is that it loses its point - so finer details become difficult to make.

A close picture of the finished iris is shown also.

These inks work great with stencils - but they are also great used freehand. The flowers and hummingbird shown in the banner for my blog are all painted freehand using these inks.

Painted Applique

2008-12-23T19:10:00.000-08:00

Here is a queen sized quilt I recently finished and sent off for my sister and her husband. It started with a 5" charm pack of Moda fabrics that she gave to me. I set them on point, added solid blocks, surrounded all that with red, added a pieced strip on 2 sides to set it all off center, added an outer border with 2 different widths, painted an applique (inspired by Helen Stubbing and her book Faux Applique) added pieced blocks in one corner for variety. For quilting, I used an allover flower/leaf and a quilt technique from Helen Stubbing's book in the border. Quilting detail and the quilt on a bed are pictured below. And all this in a week!!!

Pieced Window - plus Another Portrait

2008-12-16T15:19:00.000-08:00

My sister and her husband own a beautiful home in Colorado - on one wall are two wide, short windows. Rather than plain glass, they are pieced - I don't call them stained glass as there is no color in the glass. For their Christmas gift, I have made a version of one of the windows in cloth. (Detail above, full piece shown below.) It is machine pieced and heavily machine quilted. The final piece measures 18" by 36" - I hope they will use it for a tablerunner on their dining room table, below the windows.

I chose to reproduce the window without 'color' = I used 4 grey fabrics. One of those has some subtle yellow in it - emphasized by using a pale yellow thread to quilt it. This is my first 'larger' piece using wool batting - what wonderful batting!!!

Trying to understand the differences between artquilts and traditional quilts - as I was working on this piece, I thought to reproduce the window in a painting would be boring. But to reproduce the window as a sculpture would/could be truly beautiful. And I think reproducing it as a quilted piece works really well. So, is the art of quilting more like sculpting?

This is a portrait of my daughter, painted in acrylic - from an Easter picture when she was about 8 years old - she will turn 30 in January. My painting shows her sitting on the bank of the Cacapon River - a scene from my imagination only.

An Independant Life

2008-11-24T07:47:00.000-08:00

Meet Kristen, she is 11 now and she has Down Syndrome. Her parents (my niece and her husband) are trying to make sure that as an adult she can live a strong, independant life. So they have to setup a trust fund for her - and just getting the help of an attorney to do this is an expensive venture.

To help, I now have an etsy shop, http://www.inallthingsart.etsy.com/. (Link is on this blog.) 30% of all sales will go to help Kristen. And I have a basic machine quilting service (ie...3 allover designs offered). From that service now thru Feb 09, 30% will also go to Kristen's trust. (Leave a comment with request for information/pricing if you are interested...thanks.)

This is what my niece shared with me.....

"We are having to set up a special needs trust for her when she turns 18, b/c the way the laws are set up, she can not have any more then $2K to her name otherwise she loses all of her disability benefits. So we spoke with a special needs planner that got us in touch with a special trust lawyer that will set it up for us- but its not cheap. So we are hoping to at least get enough $ going to pay for the lawyer to set up the trust. There are so many things that we were not aware of that really could have negatively impacted Kristen's ability to take care of herself as she gets older. A lot of slightly disabled people like Kristen like to get jobs and be self-sufficient to some extent, but it seems the gov't puts road blocks in their path to make it that much more difficult. I was talking to a woman here at work that I walk with- her brother was born with an oxygen deficiency, so he is mildly retarded, and when they went to get benefits for him, they said he made too much $ to qualify even for Medicare- b/c he worked a minimum wage job- she was completely unaware of the special trust that they could set up for him- b/c no-one tells anyone anything. They just deny claims- and don't give alternative options to people. So her brother refused to quit his job, and is w/o any insurance coverage. She said that she is going to look into the trust option. We were lucky that we were introduced to this special needs planner- otherwise I feel we would have been facing the same problem when Kristen aged out of our insurance coverage."

Pet and Animal Portraits - in Acrylic

2008-11-19T08:53:00.000-08:00

Here are some pet and animal portraits I have painted....just wanted to share. When living in WV, we lived close to the Cacapon River - a wonderfully dynamic river - fast and furious with the spring thaws, slow and dribbling in late summer. So it was a wonderful place to find river rocks. Many clients enjoyed having their pets painted on these rocks.

A Finished Piece!! Wildflowers at Midnight

2008-11-17T10:01:00.000-08:00

This top was shown in an earlier post, unfinished. It is now finished!!! Yay!!! It has become 'Wildflowers at Midnight'. This piece started merely because I had leftover bits of pieces in blacks and darks from another project. (The details of that project escape me right now - oh, if I only had a brain!)

After the top was 'pieced', it desperately needed something.....so I went a little bonkers with the quilting - using many colors, many textures. Then drew in more wildflowers with the quilting stitches. These became subtle, seen but not quite seen, images and textures.....and this piece had an identity - a walk at midnight! Have you noticed at night, when you want to look at something, you have to look beside it to see it. If you look directly at it in the dark, it disappears. That is the effect I discovered from the quilting on this top.

But the bottom right corner still needed something - and so I added a wildflower when the light from a bright moon stikes it - it shines and glistens with color and light. So I recycled the reflective plastic from Folgers' Select coffee bags, cutout leaves and petals and machine appliqued the plastic plant on the quilt top and it became Wildflowers at Midnight.

Gifts, etc.

2008-11-13T08:56:00.000-08:00

This is a twin sized quilt I made several years ago - with holes in it to display teddy bears. I plan on making a few small wallhangings using this same technique - with holes for heads and arms - to give to children on my Christmas list this year. Just a fun way to display teddy bears.

I am having lots of fun making these mini framed quilts - so they are on my list of gifts this year for family and friends. They work up quickly - and I have found some cute frames that have the words 'FRIEND' , 'FAMILY' , 'LOVE' printed on the frames - the start of a great gift I think!

Quilted tissue box cover - on this one, I did some pen & ink raccoons, then fused on wood and leaves. These covers are easy to make and just the quilting adds enough body to the cover that it stays on well - doesn't need to be hooked under the box in any way.

For these placemats, I started with an oriental fabric - picked out by someone else and I thought it was UGLY! Which made it a wonderful exercise for me....try starting with a fabric you hate and work it into something you like. It actually became addictive, finding how many fabrics I could add to turn this ugly oriental into pretty placemats. Seven are shown here with my Imari plate on top.

Christmas stockings are an easy project. This one, I painted the Santa face with acrylics on fabric with a curly-cue print which became his beard. Quilted the top of the stocking, added a single piece of material for the back, binding all around, add a top cuff and finished.

Just wanted to share one more painting on cloth using the Tsukineko inks....can you tell I am a big fan? All painted using their Fantastix applicators - great to use for the texture of hair/fur. My male Jack Russell, Feerless, gave me the ultimate compliment on this painting - he started barking when he first saw it - it is life-sized.

Miniature Quilts - Framed

2008-11-09T12:21:00.000-08:00

Time to recycle some old picture frames. Throw in some small scraps of fabric, inks, colored pencils, wool batting......and what have you got? Miniature quilts in a frame.

What fun these are!!

Painting this small with these inks is not really difficult. The Tsuniko inks (in the jars) are very thin, watery. But I recently bought the Fabrico ink refills. (Same pigment inks.) They are much thicker so I can apply them with a paintbrush, size 00!

I squeezed some in the cut bottom of a plastic bottle - about a month ago. The ink is thicker now - but still not dried out. Just great to work with.

And this wool batting is wonderful. Quilting this small, it still holds its loft, so soft and smooth!

Portrait

2008-11-06T06:06:00.001-08:00

'My Favorite Dress'.....painted with inks on fabric, size 23"x18". This was my submission for the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2009 at the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian.

Received word this week it was not accepted but wished me well in my portrait career. Hmmmm.... a career in portraits......goodness, way too much stress! In '06 and '07 I painted commissioned portraits - about 30 or so - and so stressful. But this was fun submitting a piece to such a prestigious competition and I am grateful for the opportunity to play/work at my art.

Inspiration - Teachers, Placemats and Catalogs

2008-10-30T12:23:00.000-07:00

Browsing thru an old Coldwater Creek magazine this week - I was inspired! The colors and fabrics they use in their clothing are just beautiful. And they were selling some beautiful prints by artist Cheri Blum. (Saddened to learn from visiting her website that she passed away a few years ago.) I gathered some leaves, got out burgundy and orange fabric inks and got to work. Painted 7 blocks, then pulled out a piece of oriental fabric and a dark red velvet - started piecing it all together. It lacked something....thru in a few small pieces of teal blue.....and this wallhanging makes my heart sing! Plan to quilt the snot out of it....and hang it up high in our living room.

After making the black placemat purse (shown at bottom) I had some scraps leftover - added some other scraps along with 2 blocks of painted wildflowers and 2 hours later I have this small wallhanging top. I like how it came out - but it really needs some sublte and some not so subtle, funky quilting to really set it off.

These scraps of mostly orange with purple was a sample for embellishing in a class with Paula Reid. It has couched threads, cords, beads and baubles sewn on. I had also couched a wire across it - which I did not like, luckily I was able to pull the wire out. When I crumpled it to throw it away, the shape of the wire now looked pretty good. So I added some beads and baubles to the wire and sewed it on also - you can see it in the upper right. This is now my purse, complete with a picture of my two children on it.

A Placemat Purse - started life as a Walmart clearance placemat - add an inside pocket and handles.

Melted Elvis on Plastic

2008-10-16T09:46:00.000-07:00

This bag is a late birthday gift for my sister. We will be visiting Graceland in a few days - so I made this bag for her.

It is made from red velvet, quilted, decorated with glass beads and with tacky plastic handles. The Elvis panel is a piece of a shopping bag from a previous trip to Graceland. From a technique I learned on quiltart.com - I layered 3 white plastic shopping bags with the grey Elvis bag on top, put all between parchment paper and ironed. The 'lightning bolts' are strips from a bag of coffee - shiny copper colored plastic.

I like the way it turned out but I wonder if she will use it!

Hummingbirds and New Quilt Projects

2008-10-09T14:46:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of September we had at least 50 hummingbirds at our feeders. I was making a gallon of nectar each day. Now, one week into October, we still have 5 hummingbirds. This male rubythroat was in the grass one morning early, covered with dew and unable to fly. My husband held it till it began to dry, then it flew away.

This is a full-sized quilt that my dear husband is holding for the picture. It started as a backing that a friend sent to me to use with a small quilt top. But it was the most beautiful fabrics of red/yellow/orange. I could not bring myself to relegate it to the back of a quilt. So I chopped and slashed, added wide and thinner strips of offwhite, pieced in different sized and different colored circles, quilted it with concentric circles and horizontal meander to produce this quilt named 'Orange Back on Top'. Fun - Fun - Fun!!!

We are having our final 2008 4Sister block exchange this month. The only rule for this one is that it be based on leaves. This is the block design I have made - the fabric in the lower right has been painted first with pigment inks then overrubbed with oil paint.

Two weeks ago, my husband and I celebrated 26 years together. I made this small top to commemorate those 26 years. There are 26 flowers lining the path of marriage (looking more like a river), but rocks also are strewn alongside. Some of the flowers, although bright and beautiful seem to want to reach out and drag you off the intended path.

I attended an embellishment class with teacher Paula Reid this week - so there are now threads and fibers couched on this piece. It is still a Work in Process....

Wet & Wild Jr's

2008-10-08T08:29:00.001-07:00

Nighttime temps here in Tennessee are down in the 50s so the pool was covered last week - just not comfortable swimming in 70deg water. But 2 of our JR's really enjoyed our pool this summer. Muttli is almost 14 years old - swimming has been the best thing for her!!! Feerless is 8 - he is the one leaping in. Enjoy!

Round Robin and 4 Sister Swap

2008-08-28T15:56:00.000-07:00

During cleanup in my sewing room, these pieces that did not work when trying to make a fire quilt (see earlier post) got piled together. Very interesting - I think they need to become one! But now a question - where do I find yardage of the loopy material? What you see here is a $5 car wash mit. Notice some of the loops are turning orange? they take pigment ink too!

Here are 2 pictures of a long distance Round Robin. The first picture shows how the quilt top looked when I received it. Next how it looks after of day of playing. There are no rules. And I am the last one in the loop. Since anything goes, I think I may add more - get it to a nice twin sized quilt for charity.

The blocks for my 4 sister swap for August are finished! Our only rule for this swap was to use some of each fat quarter provided by each sister. I added a peach tshirt material and made four sisters.
Two of my sisters were early sending theirs - so have added a picture showing 3 of the 4 blocks.

After finishing my last 4 sister block, I had a pile of small scraps of green and black - just couldn't bring myself to throw them away....so I played! I added 3 pieces of a pale green fairy frost material - mainly to create a strong contrast of a very formal material with a very informal hodge-podge. It makes me think of the edge of a forest - so I may paint in details on the fairy frost. However it finishes, it is destined to be my new laundry room curtain.

2008-08-02T05:22:00.000-07:00

In 1969 when I was in the 6th grade, the mill burned down. It was about 500 feet from my home. Inspired by the Journal Quilt competition with the theme of Elements, Earth, Air, Water, Fire, I tried making a submission about this fire. It became very tedious - it just would not work. I surprised myself that I worked on it so long, reworking it 4 times to this point. For me, the process has to be fun - and beyond painting, this one was definitely not fun! But I was pleased with my painted fire.....I used inks, colored pencils and pastels. Oh, the smear effect with the pastels works really well. And I discovered when used ontop of the still damp ink, the pastels are permanent! Where this piece will go from her I do not know. A good friend Deb often talks of tossing pieces into her burn barrel. This one may get closer to fire than just the pictures on it. Bur I certainly do not regret the time spent - I did learn!

This Cardinal on Dogwood is a work in progress, not yet quilted. It is handpainted with the Tsuniko inks. Working with them is very similiar to painting with watercolors. As a resist (a way to preserve the white areas) I used freezer paper. I cutout the dogwood blooms, ironed them to the fabric and inked away.

In the beginning of the year, I took an online quilt class thru Quilt University with teacher Patti Anderson - to make a feathered star, in my pursuit for precise piecing. Patti's techniques and tips work really well, they are quick and even more important to me, they are fun! I actually made two feathered stars! This one grew to a queen sized quilt using Patti's border designs from the class, with some modifications as I was running out of focus fabric. This quilt is a birthday gift for a very dear friend who loves the ocean.

In July '07, my family had a get-together in Colorado. One day we went to Lookout Mountain which overlooks Golden, Colorado. I painted this picture, Two Boys (acrylic) from pictures taken on Lookout Mountain.

My pallette are the secondary colors, orange, green and purple. I really enjoy working with this color scheme in paint and fabric.

Going to quilt shows, I find I am attracted to quilts with lots of grey in them. So I have been attempting to work with grey also. But it has been a chore. I can't seem to find that spark to make it work. Part of the problem may well be that during construction, I am working with and closeup to a micro shot of color combinations. Example, put a small piece of teal blue on top of a small piece of honeydew green, stitch a seam, iron them open and my heart sings. Put that same teal blue on top of a small piece of grey, stitch and iron and blah......so silly!

Here is a painted wholecloth in grey. It is the second in a series about wildlife in contact with man that started with the redfox in a previous post. It is painted with Tsuniko inks, colored pencils and acrylic paints, then heavily quilted. I added 2 feathers to the quilting, top and bottom. Why feathers? because I like doing feathers, they are a tradition for quilting and because they have nothing whatsoever to do with water, sea otters or tires!

Recent work

2008-07-19T09:18:00.000-07:00

This small quilt started as just a quick excercise painting animal fur with the inks. I decided to tuck this fox behind a brick wall - and a series is started. It is now the 1st in a series of wildlife in contact with man.

My sisters and I are swapping blocks this year. The rules are we each make 4 identicle blocks, keep one and send one to each sister. For our 3rd swap we also exchanged fat quarters. So my block design is to make 4 sisters - and of course they needed feet and shoes. Legs and feet are made from rolled tshirt material and the shoes are a product called Vetrap - intended to be used on horse's legs and tails. It comes in the most beautiful colors - this jade green works perfect! What a HOOT!

This scene of a goldfinch landing on a purple iris I saw outside of my bedroom window - with no camera at hand. So I reproduced it in a quilt - painted with Tsuniko inks - then heavily quilted.

Scaling the 9Patch. This is a small quilt 11x14 made to portray the help experienced quilters give the beginner. There is a treacherous roller-coaster path one can follow - or just grab the rope and help offered by a quilter already near the top.

This twin sized quilt uses a fabric that fascinated me - solid color honeydew. I have truly begun to believe that it complements - goez with - all fabrics! This quilt started with just grey and the honeydew surrounding many colored squares. It was falling flat! So I added turquoise to it....and it came alive again.

Paintings - Portraits

2008-07-19T08:57:00.000-07:00

I had the opportunity to do many commissioned paintings in 2006 and 2007. The boy with his dog is a watercolor - one of my first.

Many clients in West Virginia asked for paintings on river rocks - I used acrylics then would add a spray sealer. The 3d of the rocks added another design element to the painting - fascinating sometimes, disappointing at times, too. This painting of a very lovely older lady worked really well - with the contrast of how classy she is painted on a river rock.

These 2 are also acrylic on river rocks. My one limit was that I had to be able to lift the rock. The beach scene was almost too heavy to carry.

The 2 babies were combined from 2 photos, one baby picture of the father added to the baby picture of his son.