TBT

Still working away on hand stitching projects so thought I would post a few quilts from the past.  Isn't it always fun to look back on your work and think "how did I do that!"  or "why did I do that!".

These first two are from the Michigan Quilt Artist Invitational 2010 - Theme: South of the Border.  Yes, I completed two for this exhibit...it was jut way too much fun!

DOWN MEXICO WAY WITH GENE

This quilt is 20" x 24".   I had a picture from the movie poster printed on fabric (I did get permission to print the image, after intensive research!).  You may have to click on the picture to see the hand stitching.  Yep, it is all hand stitched with a stab stitch and of course I had to add beads to make the cactus!  

IMITATING AMATE – PAINTING ON BARK 

Amate is a Mexican and Latin American art form that is painting on bark.  Amate has been passed down from one generation to the next and by the 50’s was starting to die out but rediscovered in the late sixties.  I got permission from the Mexican Folk Art web site  to use Tomas Ramirez’s painting as my inspiration. 

For this 20" x 24" piece, I painted Tyvek fabric then sandwiched and free motion quilted the Tyvek on hand dyed fabric.  To represent bark, I  burnt the edges and design using both soldering iron and a household iron.  I really do enjoy this process and I'm thinking of doing a tutorial,  per suggestion from a blog buddy!).  I'm sure there are others out there that have already played with this technique and perhaps we can all share!

This next piece is a real oldie!  Back in 2006, I was invited along with 30 other artists from the area to create a piece of art work for the Genome Project.  Our art work was going to be on display at The Whiting Auditorium in conjunction with the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange.,  where they presented the "Ferocious Beauty: Genome" dance program.  It was a pretty cool program and the art work was amazing.  Our group of seven were the only art quilters.  The rest of the artists did sculptures and lots of 'things' hung from the ceiling to represent DNA!  

We were each 'assigned' a particular section of DNA/Genome. I was given Chromatin Fiber and here's my piece. It's 20" x 24" and the circles were from fabric I had screen printed. Only problem, I ran out so I scanned in a piece of the fabric and printed it out so I could finish the piece!  What would we do without our computers/scanners/printers!

I hand dyed the cording and filled the circles with beads, which were glued down.  And yes, it is heavy!!!

Also, check out Lynn's blog post!  I have supported Bernie in the past and Lynn has a great idea!  So check it out!!!  Now back to 2015 projects!  And of course dog walking/training and donating to a good cause!  

ENCORE!

Yesterday afternoon five of us hung over 100 quilts for the ENCORE! exhibit that opens Friday (14th).   ENCORE! is actually a retrospect of the past 14 years from the Michigan Quilt Artist Invitational.

 

Each year the Michigan Quilt Artists have created art work based on one theme.  At this show, there are selected pieces from each of the past 14 years!  There are over 100 quilts on display!!

 

This is my best bud, Mary, who is also one of the co-curators of the show.   Mary has been a tireless worker on this exhibit over the past 14 years.  She organized where the quilts would be on display monthly and also had to arrange getting the quilts to and from their destination as well as getting the quilts hung at each venue!!  That's a lot of work over the years. 

This is Marty the other co-curator for the Michigan  Quilt Artist Invitational.  Marty and Mary came up with the idea of having a traveling exhibit back in 1997 and what a successful run they have had.  Marty is very active in the art community in the Flint area and as a teacher, also encourages students by providing them art related programs. 

Both of these lady's have worked their hearts out and we (MQAI artists) thank them immensely for giving us a venue and a challenge each year! 

Of course, from time to time, Mary and Marty have requested help from us 'little folk'!  Here are my other buds Carol (left) and Lois Ann who assisted in hanging the quilts yesterday.  Each of these ladies are fantastic artists and if you're in the neighborhood (downtown Flint) you'll get to see some of their work on display in this show. 

 The scarves on display were hand dyed by Mary (in her spare time!!) and are for sale. 

Just a sneak peak at some of the quilts...if you want to see the rest of them, you'll have to attend the show!  It's awesome!!  So much fun to look back on the past 14 years...as my friend, Carol, said "it's so interesting to see where we started and where we ended up in our art work".  How true!! 

So if you're in the Flint area Sept. 14th thru October 5th (Monday - Friday 9 - 5 p.m.) head over to the Greater Flint Arts Council (816 S. Saginaw) or better yet, if able, come to the opening reception tomorrow (Friday the 14th) from 6 - 9 p.m.!  It's free and open to the public...food, music and beverages provided!  Can't beat that for a night out!

MQAI Exhibit

Well, another successful opening last night at the Michigan Quilt Artist Invitational. I can't post pics for a number of reasons! First, I didn't take any pictures last night! Second, not sure of pictures I can post of the art work. I'll ask Mary (curator) and see if I can at least post the pieces made by some of my friends.
This is the last year for this exhibit which I believe is going into its 15 year in 2012. That means each and every month, Mary or Marty, have had to pick up and hang quilts! Keep in mind this exhibit travels throughout the state of Michigan! That has been a lot of work and this year (2012) is the last year. It's time for Mary and Marty to take a well deserved break.
I sent out a note to the artists who have participated in the exhibit to have them bring a thank you card to the opening (or mail to me to give Mary and Marty). The box above is what I made to hold the cards. There were a slew of thank you cards when I left the exhibit last night!! I'm so glad!!

these were the fiber cards I made. Of course, I didn't have the setting correct on my camera (no surprise there!) so they aren't as bright as actual. This was Mary's fiber post card (note to her is on back) and it was bright orange/red/yellow...Mary's favorite colors are red/oranges.
This was for Marty...I didn't know her favorite colors but thought green would work for her. Again, actual color is a lot brighter.

I printed out the Thank You then did tangles, scanned back into computer and printed onto fabric. I sewed french knots on the lettering and then did the stab stitch on the background.

Puppy is calling as is hubby! He's getting wore out from the puppy stage but we'll get through it!

Say hello to Betty!

Betty has been finished for a few weeks but I keep forgetting to post her! Today we took the photo's for the Michigan Quilt Artist Invitational exhibit that opens on Sept. 9th. There are so many cool quilts all depicting the theme 'Art of the Kitchen'. We had over 40+ quilts to photograph. It's always fun to see the art work up close and appreciate all the work folks put into their quilts.

This pic shows the hearts that I beaded. Well, yes, I had to add beads didn't I! I'm happy with 'Betty' but still need to finish my 1st Betty (the one with the yellow marker on it!). I want to cut it out in a heart shape and then hang in my kitchen.


Tomorrow I'll finish adding the photo's from today into the writeup for each quilt. Then perhaps I'll play a bit with some oil pastels. Or just bead...or just do some mono printing...or.....

Stars or planets?

Stars are planets or planets are stars! Oh well...anyway, busy day with groomers and groceries then back home to do some laundry then off again to go vote (our Village council) then Bob wanted fish for dinner so back to town we went. I wasn't hungry for fish but since I like being waited on I went along!
I just started on my orange cuff last night so I don't have anything to show with beads! But..I was going through my quilt pics to send in for a local show at the Longway Planetarium, Stars Exhibit, coming up this September. Years ago I sent in a quilt of our little dog inside a star that was shown. Guess I'll have to dig that quilt out and post on my blog.

So here are two quilts I made back in 2006 for the MQAI Out of This World exhibit. This one is called Blue Moons - wonder why! It's hard to see but there are LOTS of tiny beads sewn on individually! Plus a few of the moons are stuffed to the max! And I mean stuffed! Not sure what I was thinking but...this quilt is 20" x 24" and I used dimensional paint for some of the planet bumps! Can you tell I'm not very educated on planets or stars!
The next one is 'A Stellar Garden'. I had printed out a photo on fabric taken by Jeffrey Blye from Long Island. Jeffrey took the picture of the flower at a state park in Oyster Bay on Long Island then manipulated it in photoshop. I thought his picture was so cool so I asked if I could use it. Since then I've used 3 of Jeffrey's photo's in quilts.

I used some white/gray (probably from socks!) dryer lint for those 'bumps' on the planet. Some thread painting and of course my beads, which are kinda free form. Both of these were fun to make and that year I actually made 3 for the exhibit! I didn't know we aren't suppose to make more than one!! I found that out last year. Guess whenever they discussed the number an artist could make I was always in Florida and missed the discussion! Well, I learned my lesson and this year I only made one...ok, two (Betty/Twins) but I'm only putting one of the Betty's in the show. The other one I'm keeping for our house!

So tomorrow I go to see kids..not sure what we'll do and then I'll start some cooking on Thursday and Friday and anticipate my sister's visit!!!!! I CAN'T WAIT!!! I'm so excited! Bob said today "you'd think the king was coming"...well, my sister is royalty to me!!!

Meet the twins!

So before you get to meet the 'Twins'! Wanted to show the progress on my cuff I'm beading on the loom! Yes, I just love saying "beading on the loom"!, it has such a nice ring to it!!

I'm at the half way mark and really love beading on the loom. Yes, I've had to rip some rows out now and then but heck that's all part of the process. There are two mistakes I made on it but you know what...it's for me and only I will know it! Hmmmm Wait!! Now that I put that to print everyone will know it!! But that's ok..no one is perfect and I'm sure far from it...now to introduce the twins speaking of not being perfect!

Here are the Twins! I starting working on my quilt for the Michigan Quilt Artist Invitational traveling exhibit a few weeks ago. The theme is Art of the Kitchen so I decided to do a Betty Boop. I posted on how I wasn't happy with some of the weaving and the fact my yellow pencil marks were not coming out of the piece.

So I redid Betty and this is the newest one here to the right.
I couldn't see throwing the first Betty out since I had so much of it finished, so I figured i would just finish it and keep for myself. If I hang it far enough away no one can see the yellow marks, it should be fine!

Both of these pieces are larger than I need for the 20" x 24" finished size.

I quilted on the woven edges using red thread (hard to see unless you click on pic) yesterday and finished that part on both. Next I need to quilt around Betty and on the piece in other areas.

I'm happy with Betty and think it's a fun piece, which is what I was after.

If you would like to take a peak at another quilt Mary received for the exhibit, check out our SAQA Michigan blog . The quilt is by Laurie Ceesay who does fantastic portrait pieces and her Art of the Kitchen is wonderful!!

So off to work on my cardinal and watch the Tigers! Although, they are out in California and don't start until 10 p.m.!! I'm sure there's some other dumb shows on so I can still bead. Wed. is day with grand kids and I might get to ride a bike! More on that later!!

The Re Do Queen's at it again

Before I talk about my playtime with creating collagraph designs and prints..have to say CONGRATS to my son (& his buddies)! They were in a 6 Hour Adventure Race this past weekend and the email recap of the race is great! It's one I'll print out and keep..as far as results, here's what Darrin wrote: "Our Team JEEP took the Top Spot to finish 1st Place Over All and only 5 Teams cleared the entire course out of the 56 Teams. We fought hard all day long and work together like we have for the past 11-Years “As a TEAM” and finish together “As a TEAM.”

I'm always proud of our kids and the effort they put into whatever they do. Congrats, Darrin!!!! Great job as always! Now take care of your poison ivy and most likely lost toenails!
Now, on to my collagraph design above. This is a technique by Laura Kemshall that I tried about a week or so ago and posted on it here. I wanted to try it again using Etching Inks this time. I drew an apple shape (never said I could draw!) then proceeded to fill in areas with either masking tape or clear packing tape. Then rubbed the Etching Inks onto the entire piece, scraping off excess.


Here are some of my printed efforts.














These are fun to make, even if I can't draw! My thought is to 'press' some note cards. Oh, one addition to the process, it helps if you have a pasta machine to press the prints through. I don't and usea a rolling pin instead! It does work and you get exercise in your upper arms, which is a good to help that 'bat wings' we ladies get after a certain age!
Now on to my continuing reign as the ReDo Queen! I've been working on my Art of the Kitchen piece and had fused the entire piece but....I noticed after my weaving some of the fabric was fraying from all the handling (I used WU instead of Misty Fuse!). Also, the yellow chalk lines, which are needed to line up the weaves, won't come off! My white chalk lines come off and usually the yellow is removed easily as well...but not this time!
Also, if you look closely under the words, Kiss, you can see the the lines between the black and white fabric.

So, to make a long story/post shorter, I'm redoing the entire piece. I did start on it a few days ago and hope to get it ready to quilt by this weekend. I'm going to keep the 1st one and finish it just to hang in our house. Heck, I'll hang it far enough away that hopefully no one will notice it and if they do, they shouldn't get that close!

Weather beautiful again with slight breeze and windows able to be open at night! Bob's Dr.'s appointment is today so we'll see if we're going to just shoot him and what!

Happy Birthday Ian!

Today is Ian's Birthday! 15!! Yikes! So hard to believe. I don't have a picture of him alone from this year so had to crop from a picture when we met the kids in Florida this winter.

Ian had his last track meet on the 20th of this month and had his personal best run!! Congrats, Ian on another great year in Track and Happy Birthday! Kids are traveling back from Grand Rapids as I type this. They had to attend a graduation and ended up celebrating Ian's BD too.

check out the next picture and you'll see how tall Ian is!! He's on the left and his dad is on the right! Must be all the running he does!

I have been busy working on three different projects and of course playing!
Laura Kemshall showed how to make collagraph print designs and prints so I had to try it!

I didn't have any etching inks (but I have ordered some!) so I used my Trapsuutjies paints instead.
They actually worked out nicely which is a good way to use up these paints. My friend, Mary, and I ordered them two or more years ago and we did play with them. They really are nice to use in screen printing and general painting but I often forget to use them. Mary gave me some of hers since she wasn't using them so this was a good project to try them out on.

I uploaded my pictures backwards so.....this is my collagraph design printed on watercolor paper. It's suppose to be a Hosta leaf. Just pretend it looks like a Hosta leaf! I just printed it using my rolling pin since I didn't have a pasta machine! It still worked!
This is my collagraph plate design on cardboard made with masking tape and packing tape. I didn't take a picture before I put the paint on it otherwise you might see the tape(s) better. When I get my Etching inks I'll take pictures in progress which will be much better I'm sure. This was a very quick design and I didn't use small pieces of tape like Laura did but I will with my next design.
and I'm almost finished making a beaded bracelet for myself. I made one for a friend and wanted one for myself. I've been working on this while watching the Tigers on TV...I'm also working on my Cardinal and I'll show pics of it tomorrow.
And this is a sneak peak at my MQAI - Art of the Kitchen quilt. The exhibit is in Sept. and the quilts are due in July. I want to get this piece finished as it will be my last target date piece I have to do for 2011! Yippee!! Then I play and create when and what I want! I'll show the rest of the piece and the process once it's finished.
We're watching the weather (man) right now as storms are severe and even some hail is being predicted. It was in the high 80's today and yesterday and we actually had one day with no rain! We've even had the air on for the past two days! We'd prefer to have the windows open but it was so humid and hot you couldn't stand it. Feel like we're in Miami, Florida! Now I know why i don't go to Florida in the summer! I'm not a fan of the high temps at all. Fall is my favorite time of the year! Well, off to watch the Tigers if the cable doesn't go out!

Just a busy Tuesday

Yep, just a busy day of 'dyeing' but not fabric! My roots! Gotta keep that gray covered up! Since I have no current art work to show, thought I'd post some old work from our previous MQAI exhibit. These two pieces are from the 'Art of Music' theme/exhibit from 2007.
The quilt above is from a photograph by Jeff Blye that I traced onto fabric; dye painted with thicken fiber reactive dyes, free motion quilted and of course! added beads for the guitar strings. I happened upon Jeff's photo's a few years ago and he was kind enough to allow me to use them in my quilts. I think this is my 2nd or 3rd piece I've made from one of his photo's. This quilt is 20" x 24" (as are all of the MQAI quilts).

This next piece was also made for the 'Art of Music' exhibit. I call this one 'Listen To Their Song'. I love all Native American art work and I happened upon a web site with paintings by Brigitte Peters Lopez. I was taken by several of her paintings and emailed asking for permission to use them in my piece, which she granted. You can see Brigitte's art work on her web site here.
I had this hand dyed piece of fabric in orange and blues (haven't a clue how I got it that way!) so I ended up painting some old Tyvek envelopes with fabric paint in a metallic blue; I burnt areas to create open spaces on the painted Tyvek then laid pictures I had printed out (some of Brigitte's) and some Native American songs/music under the burnt out areas; I couched down twisted threads and hand stitched large arrows throughout. Just a different take, I thought, on the Art of Music theme.

I love playing with Tyvek and adding it in my art work (you can see one of my most recent pieces here). This was a fun piece to do and I certainly learned a lot about the music Native American Indians created. For example, the 'War Dance' wasn't done to entice them to go to war but to protect them during war and protect those who remained on their reservation.

So tomorrow we go for Bob's checkup on his hip. We're hoping to learn more on what he should or shouldn't do...since we (OK, I!) think he's overdoing certain routines. We need to get him totally healed for his winter golf! Speaking of which, we leave in 27 days!! Yikes! Double Yikes!! Hard to believe..especially since our weather has still been decent! Low 20's in the a.m. but it was 50 degrees yesterday! I'll really be ready for Florida when that 1st snowfall hits!

So much to do...

Yep, there's a lot to do before Bob's surgery next week for his hip replacement! Today we had pre-admission testing and drawing of his blood for blood typing. They also asked lots of questions and we all laughed through most of the process. Funny story, Bob had to give a urine sample, which he proceeded to go into the room and do so...when he came back the tech said she need to draw his blood and started to look at his arms for a vein. She said "you have a big one"..of course, Bob and I just looked at one another and then she said "I bet others have told you that too". I asked if they had two way mirrors in the bathroom and of course we all laughed so hard the poor tech almost couldn't draw his blood. We had lots of laughs before that but that was the most we laughed. She did say as we were leaving "you two are funny". So after that we picked up Bob's walker and some other items he'll need upon arriving home after surgery. Next up was our flu shots and Bob was lucky enough to get two! He had to have a pneumonia shot as well.

I had a phone call last week regarding one of my SOTB quilts in the MQAI show. Seems somehow it got some type of candy or something on it from another event they had at the gallery..this is a before pic.....
and these are some pics I took when I picked it up today....these are just two of the 14 pictures I took..that's at least 14 spots that I found. Front and back.

You know...these things happen and when you put your artwork on exhibit you lose all control over what can happen to your art work. I'm not upset...I just don't like to 'repair' things...it's like hemming pants! I hate to do any mending at all..maybe I'll just make another one!! OK, so I won't..the stitching alone took me forever on this piece (you have to click on the original picture to see all the hand stitching). So no big deal...I'll get it done but there are other things I want to play with...for example....
This is a small section of my Sept. BJP
And another small section of the beading...
And this little guy is on it as well! Guess you can figure out it's an underwater theme, right! Geezzz I hope so!! It's coming along and I hope to be finished before Bob goes in on Tues. for surgery.
I have made a beaded needle case and started on another one and I'll be working on my October BJP as soon as I firm up my design. Figure I'll be in my sewing room lots when Bob gets home and while he's in the hospital, I'll need some hand work (beaded needle cases are perfect hand work!). I get all my wooden needle cases and beading patterns from Beth at UntilWeBeadAgain. Beth does some beautiful beading as well as making Raku beads. Make sure to check out her work!

After all our running around today, Bob hooked up the receiver to the TV and DVD player. This is a pic of Mandy who was very bored watching us. She barely fits on my chair! But she sure does love sitting in it. And yes, we still pick her up and put her down as she still isn't doing the jumping or stairs yet.
Bob plans on golfing tomorrow and I'll be picking up kids from school. That's all for today..whew..glad it's almost over.

Weekend Over

In between my busy weekend, I did a doodle. I'm playing with doodling on a hard canvas board which is only 5" x 7". I have larger sizes that I want to do a lot of doodling on so now I have a feel for which pen(s) work best.

These are some pictures from the MQAI exhibit - South of the Border which opened on Friday. The director of the art council said there were at least 750 people who attened the opening!! You can see more pics from the show on our SAQA Michigan blog. I'll be posting again later today with more pics on that site.

Mary, Marty and her marbling fabrics, Scrap Happy (Mary Bajcz and Cindy Geist) and Masquerade hand crafted artwear by Lynn Hartley did some vending! Yep, I did pick up a few items!
These are Mary's beautiful scarves on the wall and her daughter (face hidden!) who helped vend since Mary and Marty are curators of the show.

Of course there was lots of food!! But four of us, including LoisAnn, who surprised us by flying in from Italy, ate at a local restaurant before the opening! We were so shocked to see LA so she got us again! We'll just start planning on her coming back for each opening!! LA does beautiful work!!!

So now to get ready for a busy week as I'd like to finish up my BJP from August!! Bugs me to be behind and I'm anticipating being more behind after Bob's surgery..but I'm only letting myself down so it's not as bad as not meeting target dates for someone else.

Doodles and what not

My friends Mary and Carol T. were in Charlevoix, Michigan last week to pick up the quilts from the MQAI Italy exhibit that has been traveling for the past two years. In between, drinking, eating and being tourist, they played with making watercolor postcards which they sent to me. The one on the right is from Mary and the one below was made by Carol. Aren't they cool!











I'm going to keep them with my fiber art postcards and ATC's. I think they both did a great job!









Not sure if I've shown on my blog the quilts I made for the Italy exhibit in 2008. I made a thread drawing of Leonardo DaVinci. Kinda tricky as I wove part of the background fabric after I had traced his face onto the fabric. Cutting just up to the edge of his face and hair! At the time, my daughter had traveled to Italy twice so I made a quilt for her which we just showed at the opening. I took her pictures, newspapers from Italy and postcards and transferred them onto fabric. I edged most of them with a hot glue gun allowing the glue to melt onto the edges. Yes, hot glue gun! Look, I won't be here 100 years from now so do I care if this quilt holds up! No one will even know who 'mum' or 'Robbie' was so who cares. Dawn has this quilt hanging in her kitchen/dining area. It looks pretty cool hung up.

My friend who now lives in Italy had her quilt for our South of the Border exhibit in the Flint Journal so I mailed her the newspaper. Thought she'd enjoy reading some English rather than Italian in a newspaper as well! So to 're purpose' an envelope I had...I just stenciled on one side and..

Just adding some doodling on the back side. Keeps our local post office amused.

These are the two quilts that were featured in the Flint Journal this week advertising our show. The Tango (left) is by Carol Wineman from Ann Arbor and the The Village is by my friend, Lois Ann Fulton, who now resides in Italy with her hubby (she's the lady I decorated the envelope for above). Pretty cool art quilts aren't they!

We hung the 60 quilts for the MQAI - South of the Border exhibit yesterday. It was so interesting to see how cohesive this show is! Some years you have to put your thinking cap on as to which piece is hung next to which piece. This year Mary and Marty didn't seem to have any problems as the pieces just went next to one another! I'm the nail pounder! I have my sturdy hammer, nails (in my wrist magnet hubby bought Mary and I!), my ruler and off I go.

Tonight we're meeting our friends Carol P. and Tony for dinner. They now have an apartment in Michigan for the six months then back to Ocala for the other six. Tony has golfed with Bob once since they've been here and Bob's hoping he'll get to golf with him again before his surgery! Tomorrow is the opening reception for our South of the Border exhibit so I'll be eating dinner out again! Oh, the life of a retiree is so strenuous sometimes...but someone has to do it so guess I'll tough it out!