Up To The Challenge?

     How can I incorporate the images I've been using in my latest series in a challenge about wildflowers? My art group, ArtsEtc., has an exhibit coming up in our City Hall about wildflowers and I want to use the image I've been playing around with of my niece in it.
     To try it out, I did a sketch using her image scattering seeds with simple shapes around her similar to the quilt I made of The Puppeteer seen here. I added some flowers to the bottom right. Not too bad.

practice sketch 1

     When I was in Croatia, I did several sketches that I really liked with that image. To me, the image represents a force in the Universe of some sort. I decided to try the Croatian influence on this theme. So I started a sketch with her in the top left sitting in a ruined window. Then I drew some flowers in the bottom right and developed the sketch from there using photos I took in Croatia as references.

practice sketch 2

     I think this has promise. I could see monoprinting the background fabric for the wall and ground and free motion quilting around the shapes.  The next step will be to choose a color palette and start playing with fabric. My guess is the final product will end up different than the sketch, because fabric will call upon me to make other choices. I took out some embroidery floss in colors I might choose.

possible color palette

     This week, when I meet with my sketching group, I think I'll paint a couple of versions of the sketch in those colors and later in the week maybe start getting fabrics ready. A possible title is The Seed Bearer. As I'm working with this series, I'm finding that I can adapt her image to a variety of themes which is bringing a lot of creativity out of me that I didn't know I had. It really is true that there is great value to working with a series.
     I'm linking this to Off The Wall Friday where you can find other art quilt blogs. Please make comments on their posts to let the artists know you stopped by. Thanks for visiting.

Do You Stay Creative When You Travel?

     When you travel, do find time and energy to create art? I try to create some type of art on each trip. On some trips, I pack small embroideries that I can sew. Usually those work best on family types of vacations where I'll be staying in one place for most of the time. On my most recent trip, I spent three weeks in Croatia visiting various cities. I had envisioned myself sitting by ruins sketching and painting the views. So I packed a sketchbook, a small set of watercolors, a pencil, and a gel pen.  As it worked out, I didn't feel comfortable sitting for a few hours at a scene sketching while my husband was ready to move on to something else. To get my creative itch scratched, each evening I looked at the photos I took with my iPad and chose the one the inspired me the most and began to design a sketch of it. As I began, I decided not to just do a realistic drawing. I decided to carry on with the series I began here.

The Puppeteer

     I cut out the main figure in various sizes from tissue paper and then superimposed them onto sketches and photos as I worked to help me with my designs.

tracing paper "tools"

My husband took this photo of me playing with a cat in the town of Labin in Croatia. 

in Labin, Croatia

As I started a sketch of it, I decided to put the figure of my niece on the bench instead of me to carry on with the series.

The Puppeteer of Labin

Another place we visited had the remains of a Roman arch. It's at a place called Burnum. How this sketch began was a bit unusual. On the right side of the sketchbook, I had made a pressing from watercolors a few months ago from a plant and it looked like just a spray of blue paint. I was sitting in the hotel room in Croatia wondering what to do to it and I saw that it had a vague shape of an ammonite. So I drew the shape around it with the gel pen and painted patterns in to finish it.

     Then, I decided to sketch the arch on the facing page and unify the two sketches with each other so I did the arch in the same style as the ammonite and put the figure of the girl under the arch to carry on with the series.

The Puppeteer of Burnum

I took a photo of clock against the ruins of a wall in Zagreb, the capitol of Croatia and I'm working on a sketch of her sitting near the clock.  The tracing paper pieces of her helps me to decide what scale of her to use and where to place her in each drawing. Plus I can hold the tracing paper pieces right up to the iPad photos to see how she would look before I start sketching. I've found it to be great tool. So even when I don't have time to sit and do sketches right on the scene, I find I can still be creative when I travel.  Just take photos during the daytime, review them in the evening, rethink them into something new, and draw and paint whenever there is time.

     And now for some personal news. Those of you that have followed my blog for some time are familiar with one of my cats, Opus. He is black and white and often in my studio with me. Well, another black and white cat showed up in our yard and would not go away. We tried hard to ignore him and then to find another home for him. But in the end, we had to adopt him. We named him Andy... not after anything or anyone. Just a cute name. Here are some pictures of Andy and Opus making friends for the first time. Andy is on the left and Opus is on the right.

Hello

Uh oh

The first touch

So now I have three cats. They all are getting along just fine. Opus and Andy play a lot with each other. They are going to be best buddies. Rosie is just starting to play with Andy. I'm linking this to Off The Friday where you can find other art quilt blogs. Please make comments on their posts to let them know you stopped by. Thanks for visiting.

The Sum Of Many Parts

     Once again, I was fortunate enough to attend another marvelous fiber exhibit. This one was called The Sum of Many Parts and was exhibited in two separate galleries in Winter Park, Florida about a 10 minute drive from each other. The reception at the second one included a wonderful live jazz band. This show had traveled through China and is now touring through the USA. The quilts that were exhibited were quite varied in styles. For the show in Winter Park, the gallery added some local artists, too. I wanted to take more photos, but due to lighting problems and crowds in the way, here are some of the quilts that were in the show. I've put watermarks on the photos with the artists websites to give some protection to the images. And, of course, I got permission from the artists to post the photos of their quilts here. I'm linking this post to Off The Wall Friday  where you can find other art quilt blogs.

Caring

Caring is part of  Ellen Lindner's Body Language series, which I think is so very creative and touching.

Fledgling

Fledgling, Time to Fly Little Girl, is one of Bobbi Baugh's intriguing storytelling quilts.

Blues in the Night

I love how alive this quilt is that  Carole Harris made and it really fit with the music that was playing during the reception.

Like Jamie and the Nature Spirits

Lauren Austin quilts always have such a free spirited nature to them and yet still have a great composition.

     When I read from other bloggers about quilt shows that they go to in New York and New England and California and see the photos I wish I could go, too. Those areas get some big name artists that I really admire and would love to see their works in person. But I must admit that the local shows I've been to recently have had some very, very impressive pieces of art and I'm surprised at some of the artists whose work show up at them, too. I hope and I bet that your local shows do, too. Let's give a big hooray for all the fiber artists out there sharing their work and inspiring us.

How Would You Finish Off A Crazy UFO?

     Do you have any wild UFO's laying around? Most of do. I never know what to do with the really crazy ones. Usually I cut them up into smaller pieces and rework those. Awhile back I threw an art party at home and posted about it here. Each of my friends took home a "finished" piece. Mine is still laying in the UFO pile. One of the participants, Mary McBride, was given one by another so she took home two. She actually added on to them and created finished artworks from them. Go Mary!
Here's the starting piece of one of them.

starting piece 1

She went with the cat theme and went to town.

Finished!

starting piece 2

after rotating it, Finished!

She made this one for a friend who loves art with Madonnas. Mary is a fantastic collage artist. (This last photo isn't great because I took it in a cafe and the lighting was terrible and I had to take it with my iPad from above it as it sat on the table.) I guess I'll have to take another look at mine and see if I come up with any collage ideas based on what's on the background or a possible recipient. Maybe I'll just have to go really crazy for once.

Are You Going To Festival In Houston?

     Are you one of the lucky ones going to The International Quilt Festival in Houston this year? I hope you get to go. I got to go for the first time in 2012 and went with an elementary school friend. We spent the first two days in the vendor area and I was amazed how large it was and the variety of things sold there. I was expecting only the usual quilting fabrics and notions. When I left, I had purchased sari silk yarns, gorgeous glass beads from the Czech Republic, hand-dyed silk fragments,  I watched many demos, and I traded about 30 ATC's with other artists. Then the next two days we spent in the gallery area viewing the quilts. I even had a quilt on display that year in the SAQA exhibit Sense of Scale.
     I haven't been since, and I don't get to go this year. But I do have a quilt in the SAQA exhibit Balancing Act.

Inner Balance 2

   
I wrote a post of how I created her here. This was one of those creations that just flowed. The exhibit will also travel to the festival in Chicago in April. I may get to see it there.
So if you are going to Festival this year in Houston, enjoy all the many things to see and do and try to visit the SAQA exhibit, too. Thanks for visiting.

Do You Make Your Own Christmas or Holiday Cards?

     Should I make my Christmas cards this year or should I just buy a set and send them out? That's the question I pose each year. If I make them, I like to do it in the summer when I'm less busy and then they are ready to go. But I forgot to do it this summer. And I'm not one of those artists that can just slap a collage together. I take a long time to make design decisions. I'm getting quicker about it than I used to be. This week, I decided that I would give myself two days to put together a design and finish a small art quilt for a card cover. If I didn't accomplish that, then I would purchase cards.
     I began by choosing a previously monoprinted fabric for a background. I thought I wanted it to be zen-like. So I chose another previously monoprinted fabric in a complimentary color and cut out a sun shape and hand embroidered it onto the background which I had placed onto batting.

in progress

     Then I got the idea to put a bird and a saying on it. For inspiration, I browsed through my book Inspired to Quilt by Melanie Testa, which has helped me often. And I reviewed my notes from a class called Spirit Cloth 101 which I took from Jude Hill. That class not only showed me many marvelous techniques in hand stitching, but it also passed on the art of story telling in cloth. And the great news is that the class is now open to all for free. Here is a link to it.
     So I finished it up by thread stitching a bird with my sewing machine onto commercial fabric, cutting it out close to the stitching, and hand sewing it onto the background. Then I embroidered branches using two colors of embroidery floss (3 strands) in a wrapped back stitch. I printed out text onto white cotton muslin, cut them out and hand stitched them on. Next, I cut out a piece of commercial fabric an hand sewed it on with embroidery floss. To finish it up, I added a piece of fabric on the back, and then I used two colors of embroidery floss and whip stitched around the edges (6 strands of the dark teal and 3 strands of the rust).

Joy and Peace

     I plan to scan the image in the computer and add a frame. I'll use that for the cover of the card. I'll put some text for inside the card and take it to a printing company and have them print the cards for me. That's the plan, anyway. We'll see how it looks as a printed card. Of course, the watermark won't be on it.  If it doesn't look good, then this year will be about store-bought cards. At least I tried and I ended up with a small art quilt. I'm linking this to Off The Wall Friday where you can find other art quilt blogs. Please make comments on their posts to let them know you stopped by. Thanks for visiting.

     

Do You Like To Work With The Seasons?

          This week not only did I tie up another loose end, but I tied it in with the autumn season as well. Way back in a blog post here,  I wrote about how I had some artwork that was going nowhere and I decided to rework it. I started it off and it was going well, but then I lost my verve for it and it sat waiting after I had added the top section and bottom section. Part of the reason was because I didn't have the right green fabric for the sides and I hate shopping. I went to the closest quilt shop and they didn't have the right hue. Finally I drove to the next nearest quilt shop and found exactly what I needed and I was off sewing on it again. I'm sure there was an easier way, but to finish it these are the steps I followed:
1.) Hand sew batting onto the sides.
2.) It wasn't nearly straight so I had to add extra fabric to the sides in places.
3.) Sew magenta fabric strips onto the sides.
4.) Sew green fabric onto the magenta fabric.
5.) Quilt onto the green fabric with a rayon rust colored thread (no backing fabric).
6.) Sew tabs with green fabric.
7.) Pin tabs to backing fabric and make a pillowcase backing.
8.) Quilt in the ditch down two sides lengthwise.
After all the handling the leaves were starting to show some wear so I dabbed them with matt medium to keep them together. (After all, they are from 2007.)
     It was nice to know that I was able to rework the art to a form that I like much better.
I bought the hanger at Ten Thousand Villages a fair trade store. It was amazingly inexpensive and they come in many sizes. We have one about 40 minutes away, but you can get them on-line, too.

Autumn Leaf Scroll

Scroll Detail 1

Scroll Detail 2

     So now the problem is what to do with it. I can't find anywhere in the house to hang it (Unless I take another one of my husband's things down and put it in its place instead.) No, I think I've done that enough times already. Working on this now did help me get in the mood for autumn even if it is still pretty hot here in Florida. Our first real cold front may come through next week. Maybe I'll get to wear a sweater soon. Exciting!
     I'm linking this to Off The Wall Friday where you can find other art quilt blogs. Please make comments on their posts so that they know you stopped by. Thanks for visiting.