Unseasonably Warm

     I haven't been posting lately because I've been stuck and unable to show what's been on my design wall. I was working on a call for entry and got to a point where the work just got ugly and I didn't know what to do with it. I had a vision for it, but couldn't get it to come out. Meanwhile, at my sketching sessions with my friends, I was sketching a couple of designs for quilts that quickly came out of nowhere and are just what I want, but don't fit any calls for entry. Go figure. (I can't wait to make those quilts, but those will have to wait.)
     So I took the ugly work off the design wall. And I put up a new one for a different call for entry called Florida in Fabric. It's due in January. Since I live in Florida, I've been meaning to enter this one and have just been putting it off until I got the other one done. This new one has been flowing nicely. I had the fabrics already created. I monoprinted them awhile ago when the call came out. I created patterns on the gelatin plate that reminded me of sand, ocean, sky, tides, etc. and used colors that reminded me of walks along a beach.
     Then I assembled the panels of the fabrics collage-style on batting, added image transfers of photos I took, added stitching, appliqué, and other surface techniques (it's still in process). Here are some close-ups of it so far.

bird panel

shell panel

beach grass panel

That's all I can show you so far. But I'm very happy with it.
     As I've been working on it, I'm getting a feel for what went wrong with my other call for entry and am ready to try again. It's not due until February. What I'm learning is to do work that comes from my heart and and if I have to work too hard to make it come out, then it isn't meant to be. This piece about Florida came together very quickly and easily because Florida is a part of me and I could smell and feel the beach as I assembled this quilt. It has been a joy to make.
     If I can immerse myself back into the location where I experienced the other call for entry (it was in Panama where I took the photo that I'm trying to interpret into cloth), then it also will come from the heart and will just flow and be a joy to make. And now that I've stepped away for a bit of time, I think I can start over and do it right. And this time, I think it will just be easy. And if it isn't, then I'll pass on the other call for entry, do the one for Florida, and get busy making the quilts whose designs appear to me out of nowhere. They are the ones that are meant to be for me.
I'm linking this to Off The Wall Friday where you can visit other art quilt blogs. Please make comments on their posts to let them know you stopped by.

The Real Florida

I've been hard at work on my quilt for the Color Wheel of Emotions exhibit. I photographed the ornament on which it is based and altered it in Photoshop. Then I made a sketch with pencil to check out the values and changed places that I thought needed to be darker or lighter. Then I got out my Inktense pencil set and did a few color sketches/paintings and with each one altered the colors to get them the way I want them. My next step will be to create it with fabric. I think I will paint the fabric base various colors and then add fabrics by fusing the appropriate colors and shapes to the base. I think that this piece will require a lot of stitching to get the effects I want.
     Since I can't show you any pictures of it now, I'll share some photos I took yesterday when I was on a bike ride. My husband and I rode our bicycles down to Blue Springs State Park and then walked the trails there to see the sights. We saw about 10 manatees including a mother with her calf, two bald eagles, a gator, and a corn snake. The weather was in the low 70's/ high 60's (Fahrenheit) and the sky was a crisp blue. I feel so lucky to live in a place that is, for many, a vacation destination, but far enough away from the crowds.

Manatee mother with calf

Blue Springs walkway

Blue Springs Run at the mouth of
the St. John's River

My bike with a friend