Just a quick shot of what it looks like outside. Thought the birdhouse looked cute out in the snow. Finally, here you go Kara, my challenge quilt all put together. Mine is on the top that all the others hang from. Starting from the left is: Anita's, Marilyn's, top: Susan's, botttom: Lynn's and the final one on the left, Carmen's. I found copper colored circles with holes in them to hang everything from. I really like the way it came out.
Here are the quilts that we had displayed at the exhibit at the Gilford Library. I remembered to take pictures when we took it down. This first one is Anita's her theme was Ecclesiastes 3. Starting at the top and going clockwise, the quilts were made by: Susan Wei, Marilyn Mason, Lynn Elkinton, Carmen Burns and mine is in the middle. Anita wasn't able to make one for her theme. This one is Marilyn's. Her theme was sashiko. Unfortunately, you can't see the stitches in this picture. The stitching really adds a lot to these pieces. Starting at the top left and once again going clockwise: Anita Furbush, Marilyn, Susan, Lynn, Carmen and mine. I have some other pictures that show the stitching, I'll try to get them posted in the next couple of days.
This one was Lynn's. Her theme was a song that had to do with rolling down the river or something. I can't remember exactly made which one but I'll try. Once again starting in the upper left: Susan?, Anita?, me, Carmen, Marilyn?, and Lynn. These two photos are Carmen's. Her theme was also Ecclesiastes 3:1. Upper left: Anita, Upper right: Lynn, Lower left: Marilyn and Lower right Susan. I didn't take a picture of mine. If you want to see it again you can go here.
This next one is Susan's. Her theme was The Moon. Starting at the slice with the 2 people and going clockwise: Susan, me, Lynn, Marilyn and Carmen. Susan's actual piece hangs sort of like a mobile but to display it at the library, she had to display it like this. I don't have a picture of mine yet. It was too big to get a picture at the library and I need to get it hung up on the wall to get a good picture. I will get it taken tomorrow after work. Sorry Kara! I know you wanted to see it!
Here's a new piece I've been working on. It started as part of a 5 day Follow Me Blind Challenge on Fiber Art Traders. Each day we had directions to follow without knowing what we would be doing the next. Day one we picked a piece of fabric and had to do some sort of surface design. I just used a piece of my hand-painted fabric. The second day we layered it with batting and quilted a piece of synthetic sheer fabric to the top. Then we used a heat gun to melt the sheer. I have been wanting to try that for a long time but never got around to it until now.
Day 3 we cut it up, rearranged it and sewed it to a backing fabric. Day 4 we embellished. I beaded it and made little green x out of some silk embroidery thread. Today is day 5 and we are now supossed to put a new backing on to cover up the stitching and then fold and manipulate it into some type of vessel. I'm not going to do this since I'm not really into make vessels. Maybe if I had a place to display stuff but I don't so it would just get put away and forgotten. I think I will cut the piece out of the felt and then mount it somehow to an artists canvas. I don't know if I will get a canvas that is already stretched and paint it then attatch this or get stretcher bars and sew this to a piece of black fabric and then attatche the fabric to the stretcher bars. I'm also thinking of extending the beading and x's off of the quilt and onto the background.
I really like the way this has come out and want to try doing some more pieces like this. It looks much better in person.
I spent some more time playing. This piece turned out sort of balh, but at least I'm playing and trying some new things. I used 2 layers of white fabric on this quilt. The bottom layer was a heavier fabric. After stitching the design and practicing more free motion quilting, I cut out the top layer of fabric from the circles. Then I dyed the quilt by applying the colors directly to the quilt surface. Once I rinsed it out, I found I had tried to use too many colors and they didn't blend well. Decided to dye the whole piece in red dye. It helped but I still didn't really like it. I decided to cut the fabric out of the "stems" don't really know what to call them. I found it interesting that the fabric that was on the bottom, didn't take the red dye a lot. I'm thinking of experimenting with oil paint sticks to color the circles or maybe I'll try rollering color on like Linda and Laura Kemshall show in their book "The Painted Quilt".
I'm really trying to let go and experiment with different techniques and not worry about if they will turn out or not. I need to learn to let go and try new things or practice things I don't do well, like free motion stitching.
I've just been playing the last couple of days. No finished projects. In the top piece, I practiced free motion quilting. Need lots of practice with that!!! I decided to use a drawing from my sketchbook that I'd like to turn into a hanging. I used white fabric and with inspiration from "Stitching to Dye in Quilt Art" by C June Barnes, I dyed the piece after doing all the free motion stitching. Even though this isn't a great work of art, I decided to add the beads to start getting an idea of where I want to go with it. On the right hand side, I used some spacer beads from a bead shop that was in town that is now out of business and now I used the last of these. I tried to find some on-line but haven't had any luck. These ones were gun metal gray. I also picked up some in bronze and one other metal color. I love using these in small projects and wish I had some more. I did find some that are similar in gold and silver but nothing like what I have here.
This piece, I was just playing with my hand felter. I really would like an embellisher but I will make due with felting by hand at this point. I used wool roving, sheer fabrics and yarns. I wanted to just practice blending them together to see what I could do other than just making rows like I did in these hangings. One of the things I like about felting with different materials is all the different textures you can get into a piece.
I don't have any new work to show but I ran across this book, "Stitching to Dye", by C June Barnes. I don't know if it has been reviewed anywhere and I just missed it but this book is great!!! She creates quilts with different white fabrics, stitches it, manipulates it and creates texture in the fabric then dyes it. The pieces she shows in the book are wonderful. So much color and texture. So many possibilities to play with!! I love her use of zippers in her work. If you haven't seen her work go here to her website.
I felted these 2 pieces back in May but never decided how to finish them. Here's where I posted about them. I made them after watching a couple segments on Quilting Arts TV about needle felting. On the show, they used an embellisher machine but I did these with a hand felter. I was playing with felting different fabrics and yarns to painted cotton batting. These were really fun to make. Just playing no thinking. They've been sitting around since then because I just couldn't decide how to finish them. I finally decided to sew them onto a piece of black felt. I started out with a rectangular piece of felt but it just didn't look right. So, I cut the black felt about 1/2" beyond the felted piece. Looks much better. This gives it a much more finished look.
I'm a wife and mother of 2. I love to make art quilts and am trying to figure out how to work in more quilting time between family and my job in a bakery.
Finally, here you go Kara, my challenge quilt all put together. Mine is on the top that all the others hang from. Starting from the left is: Anita's, Marilyn's, top: Susan's, botttom: Lynn's and the final one on the left, Carmen's. I found copper colored circles with holes in them to hang everything from. I really like the way it came out.
This one was Lynn's. Her theme was a song that had to do with rolling down the river or something. I can't remember exactly made which one but I'll try. Once again starting in the upper left: Susan?, Anita?, me, Carmen, Marilyn?, and Lynn.
These two photos are Carmen's. Her theme was also Ecclesiastes 3:1. Upper left: Anita, Upper right: Lynn, Lower left: Marilyn and Lower right Susan. I didn't take a picture of mine. If you want to see it again you can go here.
I don't have a picture of mine yet. It was too big to get a picture at the library and I need to get it hung up on the wall to get a good picture. I will get it taken tomorrow after work. Sorry Kara! I know you wanted to see it!
This piece, I was just playing with my hand felter. I really would like an embellisher but I will make due with felting by hand at this point. I used wool roving, sheer fabrics and yarns. I wanted to just practice blending them together to see what I could do other than just making rows like I did in these hangings. One of the things I like about felting with different materials is all the different textures you can get into a piece.
These were really fun to make. Just playing no thinking. They've been sitting around since then because I just couldn't decide how to finish them. I finally decided to sew them onto a piece of black felt. I started out with a rectangular piece of felt but it just didn't look right. So, I cut the black felt about 1/2" beyond the felted piece. Looks much better. This gives it a much more finished look.
