Extra Class Work

Today Carla assigned me an extra assignment. No, not for being bad, just needing to be more challenged. She wanted me to take some of my doodles from the first assignment & try to use them, stretch my brain a bit more.
I started with my trash basket from my studio.

Below is the sketch it inspired.
 
Below is another doodle I did, combining different styles of feathers.

This is the result. I did stretch in ways I seldom go. I did a little bit of marking for the straight lines, & I did a cross hatch marking in the background to have points to cross when I was doing the free-motion lines.
The perfectionist in me isn’t happy with the irregularities in the design, yet the artist in me says it’s OK. When I teach students, especially in my Threadplay classes, I encourage them to not get “too perfect”. I think when we make designs too perfect, they become somewhat sterile, & looks digitized. I prefer to have some irregularities, it makes the art work more human.
 

Sketches & Quilting

I woke up early this morning & started sketching for the on line class I’m doing. I did 10 pages, before my hand cramped up & decided I should move on to other tasks I needed to do. The feather sketch below is similar to the feathers I quilted on the “Chicken Delight” quilt that won an Honorable Mention at APNQ IN 2004.

I’m thinking about doing this leaf design on the  quilt that I just loaded on to Lily.

Below I test quilted it on black velvet using 12 wgt. Aurafill  cotton thread.

This little seascape is another design I did on the same fabric with the same thread.
 
I made a background quilt to hold my threadplay samples, for the Basic samples.

The Advanced Threadplay I mounted on black card stock.

I agonized over the quilt that I’m going to be quilting on Lily. It has a back as beautiful as the front, & the quilting is going to be more visible on the back. I thought long & hard about possibly putting the back on top to do the quilting, but ultimately decided against doing it that way because of so many bias edges on the top.
I stitched Wash-away stabilizer to all of the top’s edges, then cut all but a 1 inch strip along the edge, to help stabilize & keep it square. I also used wash-away thread, so it will all go away with just a little water, when I’m done quilting.

Below are the front,

and back of the quilt.

Threadplay Samples

The tree above was the very first threadplay item I ever made. I broke 14 needles making this tree, teaching myself the technique. I seldom break needles now, but when I first tried that’s what happened. I had given the tree to my friend Kathy, but she never used it fro anything, but a little wall decoration. She was kind enough to give it back when I started teaching Threadplay as a class, so I can share this firs piece with my students. I finally used it in a quilt, at least 14 years after the tree was made.
I also used a piece of my Shibori dyed fabric. I made this in a Joan Morris class 8 years ago. I dyed all of the fabric in this piece (except binding & back), in Joan’s class. Click on the images to get a closer look.
 
This is another tree I made, using metallic thread.
 
The trees, & this flower are samples for my “Advanced Threadplay” class. They will be going to Dina’s Cozy Cabin in Eagle River this week.

Below are all “Basic Threadplay” samples, that will also be going out to Dina’s.

In my Basic class, I teach students how to “color” on fabric with thread. In the advanced class they learn how to make things without the fabric, creating out of thread alone.

One of the things I love about this little rooster is it’s dimension. The threadplay makes it pop out, & becomes 3-D. There are ways to stop that effect if you don’t want it, but on this piece I did it intentionally.

Technorati Tags: Threadplay,thread painting,Shibori,quilt,quilting

Friends & Initiative

 

This post is a mix. Wednesday evening we went out to Orso’s restaurant with our usual Wed. evening crowd, for a Beer & Wine tasting dinner. The beers & wines were both good & not so good. The food was unusual. If this had been my first Orso experience, it may well have been my last too. I do love this restaurant though & will go back, but will order off the menu, not  just get the chef’s surprise, because there were some surprises. Have you ever eaten Pork Belly? That’s what that pretty thing in the picture above is. Now, my DH & I don’t eat beef, or pork either one on a normal day. Occasionally we eat very crisply cooked bacon. This was a gelatinous mass of fat, with thin layers of meat. The flavor was nice, & the kale it rested upon was great, but I just couldn’t take that fat. Ugh.

Above is Ellis ( he works with Warren in RT), & Maria, a traveler RN, who came here from South Africa.

Below are Lisa & her neighbor Cecil, who shared our table. I found out that Lisa is engaged to a CRNA, Carl, who I know from the Recovery Room. Tina is the girl in green next to Ellis. She is a traveler RT from Oklahoma City.

We had a good time visiting. Below are Maria, Will (Warren’s partner at work), & Warren himself.

Desert was pretty, but the chef spoiled a good brownie by adding banana to it. It made it way too rich, on top of a fat filled meal. It wasn’t a good move. The Madera wine with this course was lovely. Rich, full bodied, like raisins in the sun.

Thursday was Calendar Girls at Jackie Carley’s house. Jackies new dog Cammy was being very protective.

Mary Lee shared her new project. It was such a happy warm & sunny piece.

Today is the reveal for the “Initiative Challenge”. This was mine, but the others are wonderful. Go check them out. I’ve written the description of what I did there.

Lastly, I am taking an online quilting course from Carla Barret , & here are a couple of exercises I did today. I used dry erase marker on clear vinyl, to demonstrate how I might quilt these 2 quilt tops. The first is a top my big sister Vicki made, that I will eventually put another border on, then quilt for her.

This Grandmother’s Flower garden is an old top that I felt sorry for & bought off of Ebay. I don’t think I will ever actually quilt it, as it has some real “technical” problems, but I have used it for a table cloth under the vinyl, & it’s great for that.

The Winner is….

Quiltmom Anna!  Thanks for all of your comments everyone. It was a task to write down each commenter & cut & fold little strips to have my DH draw a name from the bag. I remember a long time ago getting an e-mail from Anna. She wasn’t blogging yet back then, just reading & leaving comments. This time it paid off for her. Congrats Anna. I’ll get busy & make your prize & send it out to you ASAP!

Today I dabbled in another type of art. Encaustic Painting. The teacher was Sheary Clough Suiter  .

My friends Mindy & Hope & Lindsey took the class too. This was their second time around. I’ll have to get pictures of their pieces to share here.
 
This was how my first piece started out.

This was where I took it.
 
This is how I finished it off.

My second piece isn’t finished yet, but I ran out of time, so I’ll have to sign up for another session some day!

Happy New Year + Post #500

 

 

I finally found a spot of sunshine to expose my UV thread-flower to, to see it turn color. This is the same white flower from the previous post. Below I laid it on the snow, & waited just a minute . Wouldn’t that be fun on a summer daytime indoor wedding dress? I heard about a gal who used it like that. She made butterflies to float all over the dress, & when the bride stepped out of the church & into the sun, her white dress BLOOMED into color! It would be great for a hat or lapel pin, or on a purse. Indoors it’s just white.

 

After the holidays, I started cleaning & rearranging. I spent 12 hours one day moving shelves & reorganizing my kitchen. It’s still all very temporary, we’re doing little bits at a time, & the kitchen is low on my priority list right now. We have the cupboards (the golden piece in the center), but nothing is actually installed yet.

 

In the after picture below, I want to build a pantry closet where the shelves set on the right. On the left I have an old dresser, that I painted & it will remain there until I’ve decided how I want to balance out this wall. I really need the drawer storage, so maybe when we get to the actual remodel, I’ll get something to go with the pantry. The cupboards we bought are no longer available, so we’re going to have to get creative.

Below is the latest customer quilt I finished. I would have liked to treat each block as an individual & done a really spectacular design on them, bur she just wanted a utility design, so I went with leaves similar to the print in the outer border. She called it a lap quilt, but it took a twin batt. I used Green Batting again. I really like how it quilts, & it’s thin, but warm, & good for the environment.

 

I hope she is happy with what I did.

The guys came today to install the wood stove downstairs.

Here it is in Warren’s bar. Now we can start working on the floor!

Well this is my 500th blog. If you comment on any of the last 5 posts before I post again, I’ll put your name in the drawing for some of my Threadplay! Thanks to ALL YOU KIND COMMENTERS!