Work-in-Progress: Looks Like Ashe County

I was going through some bins in the sewing room last week, and came across a project from a Pamela Allen online class some years ago.  Pamela is always trying to stretch her students and impart some instruction on different types of art, and art history.  This particular piece began as an attempt to do an "abstract" piece.   I think it was from the Four Quilts class, where we interpreted our theme four different ways.

My theme was "Mountains."

Looks Like Ashe County, Jeanne McBrayer, 2014

As I recall, this did not win the teacher's approval as a good example of an abstract composition.  However, I liked the fabrics and colors, and the symbolic representation of the mountains, Christmas trees, rivers, fields, and trails.  It reminds me very much of Laurel Springs in Ashe County, North Carolina, where we have a cabin.  The fabrics include hand-dyes, hand-painted, sun printed, stamped, and commercial fabrics.

Typically, the pieces from Pamela's classes are cut freehand with scissors, applied with glue stick to a fabric backing, and then embroidered around the edge to secure the pieces to both background and a piece of batting.

This project had been in the bin with pins and glue-stick holding the appliques together.  In the interest of getting it done,  I used a zigzag stitch and a turquoise poly thread to get all the parts sewn on.

Now, I need to decide what to do.  I am thinking of making this into a tote bag, in which case it will not need additional quilting, or have a traditional binding.  If it becomes a wall-hanging, I will add a backing fabric and do some more machine quilting.

Now to some other photos of our Anything Art bee meeting last week.  The day's topic was hand-stitching.  We called on our member Peg Henderson of Raleigh to show some of her work and demo a few stitches that she likes.

Here is an undersea piece with hand-dyed fabric, cheesecloth, and various embellishments.

This unusual piece features some of Peg's unique fiber stitching.

She did some samples for us, showing how you can change the appearance of stitches like French knots, lazy daisy, and Y-stitch for different effects.

Here is another sample with running stitch used to make a basket-like effect.

Since we are featuring hand stitching, here is another piece of mine that I have never shown on the blog since it was finished.

It is a small piece mounted on black gallery-mounted canvas.  The photo is crooked but the quilt is not.

I started the background in a class with Larkin Van Horn at the Capital Quilters Guild in Raleigh.  She provided the words printed on Extravorganza, a sheer fabric you can run through your printer.

I decided mine looked like an undersea scene, so after quilting, I added some fiber seaweed, beads, and some real shells from my collection.  I think I also did some painting on the background with Lumiere paints, which gives it a little bit of a gleam.

And to wrap up today's post, here is a beautiful dish of treasures from Roberta's house.

She has made bangles, hearts, and hand-painted buttons.  That heart with the royal blue center now belongs to me!  A nice gift to remember a special day.

Ready for the Fourth of July

I decided to attend the monthly meeting of my art quilt bee on Monday.  So glad that I did.  We met at Kathy's house.  During show-and-tell, we got to see the beautiful jacket Roberta made for the Hoffman Challenge.  It is silk  patchwork with appliques of the floral fabric.

Roberta is renowned for her original garments, which have been in many national shows and exhibits.  I, on the other hand, am not very good about finishing patchwork jackets.  I unearthed three jacket UFO's while organizing my sewing room/studio last week.  Yes, I finally uncovered the one that was at the bottom of the heap on my cutting table.

It is curvy patchwork that I started in a Capital Quilters' Guild workshop with Karen Eckmeier.  It is supposed to be stitched to a sweatshirt to form the jacket.  I almost have enough pieces made to finish it.

I also have the unfinished mermaid jacket from a Quilt University class with Linda Schmidt.

I have already painted mermaids to applique to the yokes.  This one will get finished some day.

I also found some patchwork from a long-ago CQG workshop with Linda M. Fiedler.  It was so long ago that I do not have a digital photo!  I had forgotten all about this project.

Kathy took us downstairs to her sewing room to see her new longarm, "George,"  which is a sit-down model from APQS. 

 While we were down there, she showed us all of her UFO's.  I left feeling much better about my own!  Kathy has dozens that are ready to be quilted.  George is going to be very busy!

Yesterday we packed the truck to leave for the mountains.  It was 101 degrees in our driveway when we left, and 72 degrees a few hours later when we arrived in Laurel Springs. 

Upper Mountain Research Station, where we turn off on our road to the cabin

We are looking forward to a weekend with family and friends.  All our kids and grandkids and my sister's kids and grandkids will be here.  Can't wait!  Meanwhile, we will celebrate the Fourth by sitting at the creek and cooling off with some icy adult beverages.

Have a safe and happy Fourth of July!

Playing With Silk

Yesterday was the first Monday of the month, which means it was Anything Art day.  My art quilt bee met at Roberta Morgan's house, carrying bags of old silk neckties.  I encouraged my husband to rummage through his tie rack and give me his unloved, unworn, or worn-out silk ties.  Roberta pre-purchased some silk scarves from Dharma Trading, and I also brought a large remnant of silk that I scavenged at Mary Jo's Cloth Store.

The object of the game was to transfer the designs and colors from the silk ties on to silk scarves.  This project was in Quilting Arts Magazine, October/November 2010.

You don't need to wash or cut apart the ties, but we removed the tags from the back and cut off the triangular points at each end.

Roberta is a wiz at shopping the Goodwill thrift shops for great bargains.  She bought a sheet that we cut apart to use for muslin to wrap our projects in.  Her cat decided that SHE wanted the muslin sheet.  She's in there somewhere!

                                          

Cut the muslin into strips slightly longer and wider than your silk scarves.  Lay down the muslin and put the scarf on top.  Start cutting the neckties into lengths slightly wider than the width of the scarf and lay them down as desired over half the length of the scarf.  Double the scarf to cover the ties.  Begin to wrap the muslin and scarf from the open, unfolded end.  Wrap with twine or ribbon about every inch.  We used the curly gift-wrap ribbon.  (When doing this as a group project, use a different color ribbon to identify your bundle, or write your name with a permanent pen on the muslin cover.  It is sometimes difficult to identify your finished scarf!)

Put the bundles in an aluminum pot that you will not use again for cooking.  Cover with water and add three tablespoons of vinegar.  Bring to a rolling boil, and then simmer for twenty minutes. ( Please refer to the Quilting Arts article for precise instructions...I was not paying close attention to this part.)

While we were waiting for our bundled ties to process, Roberta showed us some of her silk scarves made with Sharpie markers and alcohol.  She also used some alcohol-based inks.

Then, we all got some of my silk piece or another silk scarf, and decorated with Sharpie markers.  Roberta had distilled alcohol in a fine mister, which we used to spray after coloring/doodling our silk.

Toni did a rather open design with lots of white background.

I used a piece of silk and did some very loose floral, leafy, and swirly designs. 

This is my piece of silk after a little bit of alcohol spray.

I kept adding a little more marker and respraying, folding it on itself to blend.  Here is how it turned out.  I love it!

A side benefit of using the muslin sheet as a "drop cloth" is a cool piece of colorful fabric.

I had time for one more small piece of Sharpie-colored silk before the tie-printed scarves were done.  I was starting to think of Valentine fabric postcards. 

Finally it was time to reveal our printed scarves.  We started unwrapping the fabric bundles.

Look what happened!  Here is Ruth-Ellen's scarf.

This one is Kathy's.

Mine came out much more light in value.  I may add some additional color with alcohol inks or silk paint.  The white areas are from a white tie with tiny black polka dots.  The dots did not print very well.

You never know what the colors will look like on the finished product.  Some of the ties came out with vibrant maroons and greens.  Tama did a little design work when laying out her ties, and had a great result.

You can actually re-use the same silk ties for another go.  Here are the ones we used, laid out to dry.

You can also use the triangular tips that you cut off to make I-Pod covers or other fabric creations.

For show-and-tell, we got to see many of Roberta's Zentangled creations.  She is doing a workshop for the local branch of the American Sewing Guild, and has been Zentangling everything that doesn't move.  She found these white canvas open-backed sneakers at the Goodwill, and got the snazzy shoelaces from a friend that didn't want them.

She Zentangled  an Ikea mirror from the Goodwill, picture frames, and much much more.

Here is a beaded, Zentangled art quilt.

Here is a detail which shows the beading.

After the meeting, many of us went to the newly re-located Whistle Stop Quilt Shop in Cary, NC.  I will blog about that in a later post.

Roberta's home is only a mile from my son's, so I took Roo home yesterday.  His parents were returning from Florida that afternoon.  We will miss him!  He is a ball of energy and a friendly little dog.

My dog, Kasey, did not like it one bit when I left her home and took off in the car with Roo.  When I got home, she was frantic.  She looked all over for Roo, sniffed the car, and couldn't figure out where he went. 

She is back to being an "only child."