Hello Again

Sometimes bloggers don't post for awhile because they have nothing new to write.

Sometimes it is because they have too darn much new stuff to write about!

We went to our mountain place for Easter weekend.  Beautiful weather for being outside almost all the time, although it was still chilly.  The distant mountain peaks were still covered with snow.

 

On Easter Monday, my art quilt bee met at Peg's house.  I returned the last of the round-robin fabric challenge pieces, which belongs to Marion.  Hers ended up being in four distinct "layers."  In fact, if she cut it up and sewed it back together in different order, it would almost look like worms under the ground!

 

 

I did not touch the button-dot candy section.  The bottom section had been yellow swirls.  I decided to use it as a background layer for some ferny greenery.  Using both positive and negative stamps and stencils, I applied the designs with Setacolor Paints.  Since all the other sections had circle designs, I added some green dots with acrylic paint on bubble wrap.

 

 
The other layers looked like little one-celled organisms like spirochetes, so I added some Lumiere shiny paint and some Zentangle-like doodles.

 
Toni had already added some buttons to the upper sections, so I doodled around them.

 

 

Peg had already taken her piece of finished fabric,

 

and made it into two art quilts!

 
 

Even the quilt backing was made from her "artsy" fabric.

 

 

The next day, I started my new part-time job!  The commute is fairly long (45 minutes), the pay is non-existent, but there are good perks.  I get to wear shorts, bring my dog and my latest novel to work, and play with this all day!

 

 

 

I am babysitting for Baby Charlie on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  I am having such a good time with her!

 

The Whacky Ladies met on Thursday night last week.  Here are a few pictures from our meeting.

 

Carolyn is making great progress on her batik sampler Block-of-the-Month from Wish Upon a Quilt.  She is using a Sharyn Craig setting for the blocks.

 

 

Irene had a gorgeous blue and yellow Yellow Brick Road top to show.

 

 

Mary finished the batik quilt that she was concerned about the fabric in the sashing last time.  We all thought it turned out great.

 

 

Mary also had a quilt that she made for one of her grandsons.

 

 

Donna made two quilted versions of the Challenge Quilt for the Carolina Longarm Association's next show.  She quilted the first one in radiating rays.

 

 

The second one had very decorative feathers and swirls in a contrasting red thread.

 

 

Marilyn finished the Christmas table runner that she has been working on at our meetings.

 

 

I got to show off my finished quilt for Baby Charlie.  I named it Mermaid Lagoon.

 

 

I also had great-nephew Lucas's quilt, which I have named Monkey Business.  I still have to hand stitch the binding on the back.

 

 

 

Okay, I hope that is enough quilty stuff to get me caught up!  We just got back Sunday from a family weekend at the beach, and I have some beautiful pictures to show off. 

 

 

Anything Art Bee-February Meeting

We got back from a trip to visit family in Spartanburg, South Carolina yesterday in time to watch the Ravens light up the scoreboard during the first half, then watch all the lights go out completely!  Congratulations to the Baltimore Ravens for the very close Super Bowl win.

Today was my turn to host the Anything Art quilt bee.  Everyone was there in spite it being held the morning after the big Sunday night football game. 

Several of us got back our finished fabrics from the Surface Embellishment Round Robin.  Here is Roberta with hers.  Peg used a pleater on the top section for that very cool striped effect.

 

Toni got back her piece, newly embellished with sparkly rhinestones and beads.  This one still makes me happy every time I see it.

 

 

And here is mine!  Da- dah!

 

 

I was so thankful for the journal that I made and sent around with my project.  I could then tell who did what, and how they did it!

 

 

It has been dyed with taupe dye after being folded accordion-style, put through a pleating machine and colored with paint and Shiva Paint Stiks, sprayed with Adirondack color wash after being sewed up with pleating threads, and stenciled with fabric markers.

 

And I love my journal, too!

 

 

Marion showed us a very cool hassock or "tuffet" that she made by paper-piecing.

 

 

And I loved the collaged art quilt that Peg was working on.

 

 

I showed off my two newest framed paintings.

 

 

 

We watched part of a Quilting Arts DVD called Layer By Layer, with Beryl Taylor.  She used very interesting methods to make mixed media pieces with stenciling, molding paste, free-motion embroidery, beading, and other lovely embellishments.

 

 

Some of us decided to do an "inchie" swap, possibly using some of Beryl's methods.  It will be fun to see what comes of this new exchange.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surface Design Round Robin Update

In previous posts, I have shown pictures of the plain white fabric being transformed by members of my Anything Art Bee in our surface design round robin.  At yesterday's meeting, I actually got to see my own fabric for the first time!

This is mine after the first three rounds.  Wow!  

We had no rules for this exchange, so some people just worked on a section of the cloth, and others tried to relate what they did to the previous work.  I think mine all relates, although each section is unique.

Peg's is actually finished!  She has some blank area to work on. 

Toni's keeps getting more and more luscious.  

Peg added some twin-needle stitching to make curvy stems, and then some folded fabric blooms.

Here is a new one that looks like those candy dots on paper.

It was really fun to get together with my art quilt girlfriends for lunch and a day of catching up.  I was very touched by a special gift from Tama.  She made a flower quilt block and an Artist Trading Card for me in remembrance of my father.

The front has a message in Morse code, because in my father's Army Air Corps service in WWII, he was a Morse Code translator and air traffic controller.  I have not yet translated the message!

And the back is lovely.

Toni showed us a traditional quilt that she made for her daughter, with quotations about dogs.  It was quilted with hearts by Cathy Kirk.

And Marion had an art quilt that she made for her husband using a stencil for Year of the Dragon.

We had planned for Marion to do a little group "toot" on fusing plastic bags to make quilts, based on an article by Cathleen Bradley in Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine.  (Instructions free to subscribers on their website.)

We did not get around to it since we spent so long on Show-and-Tell and just catching up.  But I brought a little piece of a plastic bag project that I did in an online workshop with amazing stitcher  Shelagh Folgate.

Isn't that cool?  I can't remember exactly how we did it, but we started with a base of a black trash bag, needle-felted strips of  heavy plastic bags, fused with an iron, covered with organza, machine-stitched like crazy, did reverse applique with gold lame, and who knows what else?

I made a clutch purse out of some of this fabric.  It sold at the "Purse-onality" auction at the 2009 North Carolina Quilt Symposium.

Okay, that's it...I have been putting off going to the gym for the first time in about a month.  Not looking forward to it!

Surface Embellishment Round Robin

Today was our first pretty day since Hurricane Sandy hovered over the east coast.  My prayers go out to those who lost their loved ones or their homes in this amazing storm.  From winds to floods to snowstorms to fires, this was one mighty wreaker of havoc.  All we got here in Central North Carolina was some rain, lots of wind, and cold.  There was enough snow in the mountains to close down Appalachian State University in Boone.

So, today I started working on a new challenge.  My Anything Art bee has started a round robin Surface Design challenge.  Each participant starts with a yard of plain white fabric, and sends it to the next person on the rotation.  She can include a journal to describe what processes and materials are used.  I suggested that each person photograph the fabric when she has done her part.  I think this will be super fun and will yield some very unique layered fabrics!

 

After the days of gray weather, I decided to get right down to it with some bright colors.  First I wet the fabric and sponged on Setacolor Transparent paint in yellows, blue, and fuchsia.  I worked on a piece of poster-sized foam board covered with a garbage bag. 

 

 

A yard is a lot of fabric to hand-paint.  I ended up doubling the fabric over itself to print some of the color on bare areas.  Then I carried the whole thing out to the driveway.  Darn!  The sun was hidden behind clouds by the time I got out there.  I went ahead and put down some stencils, leaves, and flowers to try printing. 

 

Then the wind picked up, and I started putting down rocks to hold the fabric in place.  I could already see that the objects were printing. despite the hidden sunlight.

I got out some latex gloves to wear during all this, but of course did not put them on before painting.   I am going to my quilt bee tonight, and will have to get busy removing paint from my fingernails.

 

Might do some more printing before this is finished.  I like to add more paint with a sponge brush over the objects once they are in place.  Can't wait to see how this turns out!

And it was SO much fun to do some fabric design again!