Some new work

My new playmate, Rosalita, and I got together a few weeks ago and she challenged me with a small quilt project. The challenge was to make a small quilt with a certain fabric and a certain technique. The fabric was browns and greens and had butterflies, flowers and bees all over it. The technique was fusing. It was amazing to see how different our quilts came out. I fused a chunk of fabric that had no butterflies or bees on it and then cut thin strips and fused them on while I  curved the fabric under the iron. The strips fused on curvy. I then cut out parts of butterfly wings and made eyes out of them. I used the bees wings to make a tiny butterfly perched atop a grass frond. I called it "Spirits of the grass"

I have been working on a journal cover for my friend Nan. I wanted to use the theme of new beginnings or journey. While doing some research on symbols I found the Chinese characters that said "A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step". I copied and pasted the symbols into a word document and printed it out. I then used Avery Note tabs to make a stencil of the words and stenciled it onto a two toned book cover I had sewn in Nan's favorite colors. The lighter fabric also had the symbol for journey in it and I also stenciled the spiral "journey" symbol onto the journal cover in two tones of gold metallic paint. I free motion quilted the dark fabric in gold metallic thread with the spiral in the center and the spokes of the sun radiating out from it. Lastly I attached some amber, gold metallic and orange beaded dangles (I couldn't help myself) to the front cover . I LOVE it and think Nan will too.

Some time this next week I will be making my second tutorial using "Avery Note Tabs" to make small stencils.

Gabby Portrait Quilt

This 8 X 11 quilt was made with fused fabric covered in black tulle then thread painted.

A new Springer girl

It's been seven years since Beryl, the doggie love of my life, died. I didn't think I would ever survive her death but the injuries she suffered after a fall down my basements steps onto the cement floor took the choice of life or death out of my hands.
I first saw her when she was 5 weeks old. I stepped into a pen of 12 roiling springer puppies. 11 were killing each other and she sat at my feet just looking up at me as though I was the lifeline to her survival. I picked her up and she nuzzled into my neck. I was a goner.
I visited her every day the pups were in their outdoor arena. The day she turned 8 weeks, I swooped her up into my arms and she stayed there, burrowing into my heart until the dark day I laid on a rug next to her while the chemicals took her away from me.
I had Aidan, my big  male Springer, but there would never be another dog like Beryl. Brian and I got into Springer rescue and we fostered dogs, pulled them terrified from shelters, found them homes and adopted 4 of them ourselves. They were all seniors who no one wanted; they found a home with us.
After our last, sweet little Jack, died I knew I couldn't bear getting another old one when we found Niamh. She was about 5 when we got her from the Waterville shelter 1 1/2 years ago. A Poodle is not a Springer and she was probably the hardest case we ever had - not housebroken, explosive diahrea for 3 month and terrified of her own shadow. She remains a fear pee-er to this day.
This past week I received an email from my Springer friend, Donna. It was a mass mailing to anyone who might be able to take a Springer girl; her dog Molly's full sister although not a litter mate. We emailed with the couple who needed to find a home for her and arranged to open our house to her.
The couple came with heavy hearts, having made one of the toughest decisions they had had to make. The minute I saw this diminutive black and white sweetheart, I hoped it would work out for us and her.
Gabby (Gabriela) has been with us only 3 days but has totally won us over. Her wiggly butt and gentle kisses have warmed our hearts and endeared her to us already. She literally bows to Aidan like he is some arcane canine God but keeps her distance from Niamh, the whirling dervish. Best of all she has become my shadow and the brightest warmest little doggie spot in my life in a long time.
No dog can take another dogs place because dogs like people are individuals. But I'm lovin' this little Springer girl.

The crow feather quilt is done and up

I have just finished the crow feather quilt I have been working on. I photographed it hanging on nails on the barn door.
I want to talk a bit about the techniques I used on each of the panels. Most of the techniques I used I learned from viewed Lyric Kinard's DVD "Surface design sampler platter"

This panel was started with a solvent transfer. The crow image in the center was first copied on a copier which used carbon based toner. .I darkened the image using a black fabric paint pen. transferred the image to a piece of plain muslin, untreated, using Citra-Solve. I then used Heat n Bond on the back of the image to fuse the image onto the black background. Then I scanned three crow feathers I had been keeping tucked in the sun visor of my car for a few years. I printed the image on a used dryer sheet that was ironed on to freezer paper. I stitched the dryer sheet on top of the crow image and used two crow stamps I hand carved (see last tutorial for directions). Then a stenciled on the spiral shape using a stencil I cut from an Avery Note tab. The paint was latex pearl white metallic ( their name for it) This process will be covered in my next tutorial being posted in a few weeks.

 

This panel was done using a solvent transfer like in the first panel. I then stamped crow images I hand carved using ordinary latex craft paint. I double hand-stitched around the image suggesting air currents which ravens glide on. The thread was a heavy turquoise metallic.

This photo was taken before the quilt was assembled but looks better than the outdoor shot. For this panel I used a light table to trace the images of two of the feathers onto untreated muslin. I used a permanent fine point Micron pen. Then I free motion stitched over the ink lines and did some free motion details inside the feather with turquoise tinsel thread from Coats and Clark called Glitz. It was a dream to sew with. I then used ink to stamp a commercial stamp with feathers on it in the lower right corner and ink stamped one of my crow stamps on the upper left. Probably won't do that again.

For the top boarder of the quilt, I laid out a strip of black fabric after attaching the three panels with 3" strips. I eye balled where the centers of the panels would fall on the top boarder and stamped my feather stamp using light silver metallic latex craft paint. I later hand beaded the shafts of the three feathers with a unique black bead that is black and coated with clear glass giving it that unique metallic look.

I stitched the panels and boarders together with batting (warm n natural) and black backing and hand beaded all the boarders. On the upright boarders I used glossy black bugle beads in the "Chicken Scratch" pattern. and the upper and lower boarders were done with random gloss black and the black crystal beads I used on the feathers.

 

This is the quilt hanging in very poor light in my foyer. I decided to use black fabric tabs to suspend the quilt from a tree branch. I think the crows and ravens would approve.

How to make a stamp from a photo

--> -->

1. Scan your object and bring up the jpeg on your photo manager or copy and paste it into a text program and adjust the size of the image to the size stamp you want to make.

2. Print the image. 

3. Using a very soft artist pencil, I used a 4B, draw the outline and details of the image simply tracing around the printed image.

  Make sure you get a good amount of graphite from the pencil onto the image.

 

-->

1. 
   
   Place the image face (graphite) side down on the carving medium. I used Speedy Carve. Rub the back of the paper firmly with the back of a spoon while holding the paper in place.

  

  

 

 5. 

-->Go over the graphite lines with a permanent fine point ink pen.

 

  

 6. I start with the thinnest blade in my carving set. I have a very inexpensive 5 blade set. I do the fine details first then increase the blade size and cut more and more of the background away leaving the image behind. I call this a positive image because when I stamp this the stamped image will be of the image on the jpeg. You could also cut away the image leaving the background. I call this a negative because when you stamp the image, the background will have color and the jpeg image will be a void.

 

-->

 

-->

 

--> 7. When I have cut away all of the background leaving the image, I test stamp it on paper with ink. I can touch up the stamp image if I need to at this time. 

8. If I am happy with the stamp, I trim away all but a 1/2-5/8” boarder around the image. I stamp the image with ink onto a piece of wood then using GOOP attach the stamp to the other side of the wood. I usually do this for images I am planning to keep and reuse many times. Some stamps I carve for a one time use like my friends dog picture. I will probably not use this stamp again. Most of my stamps I reuse over and over. The wooden mounting gives the Speedy Carve material a firm support making goopy mistakes less probable.

 9. Here is the feather and its image in pearl acrylic paint on black fabric.

 

-->

 

--> I learned these techniques from Lyric Kinards "Surface Design Sampler Platter" DVD. I bought my Speedy Carve and carving tool from Dick Blick

 

-->

 

-->

 

-->

 

-->

 

-->

 

-->

 

quilt-a-rama

I have just uploaded all the journal quilts I have been working on over the past two weeks. If you click on Flickr photostream and do a slide show you can select full screen and really see them in detail. The felted one was done on my friend Rosalita's new needle felting machine, the cute kid one was a solvent transfer embellished with paint, floss, free motion quilting and markers. The seascape postcard was done in a class I took from Pamela Allen, a famous Canadian fiber artist. I have 5 more quilts I did while in her class. I am machine quilting the largest of them and hope to have it on Flickr soon. It was done almost exclusively with thrift store clothing. The one in purple "rugs" was an exercise in thread painting and it's called, "You're the one" I did have a ball making it.
I am working on a blog entry about a documentary. It was overwhelming for me to watch. I watched it a second time and took notes and will try to write about my feeling surrounding this documentary and the concepts presented.

Getting smarter about time spent

I am finding myself less and less willing to waste (in my opinion)time dealing with whiners. I have done my share of whining in my life and occasionally I'll catch myself whining still. I am losing patience when I whine too.

As each year goes by, it seems to do so at a faster and faster pace. Maybe the closer you get to the end of the chute, the higher the speed. At any rate, I think I've finished spending much of my remaining time on earth listening to or participating in whining.

I want to play more and love more and try to enhance to some degree the time others have here. I want to take responsibility for what I do and get on with it. Times a wastin'.