Monday, November 29, 2010

Vest, Quilt

First, thanks to everyone who commented on my scrap quilt. It was fun to do and good for times that I didn't want to think. I'll be doing another.
Here is a vest I did years ago from a silk remnant I bought in Berkeley. There were Ultrasuede spirals left, so they went into a quilt.


This is a detail of the hand stitching and beading.
The background is pieced from a batik and a hand dye. It feels right to be using the stuff that has been around too long.

Friday, November 26, 2010

Quilt

A friend showed us a scrap quilt she had made where you cut strips of several sizes and many fabrics, then put them in a sack and take them out randomly to sew 7 strips. You start with the 6 lightest sets and after using 3, add 3 more sets. It was fun, and I like the effect I got when I reversed every other strip before sewing it all together. I used 57 fabrics and am thinking of doing another one.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Art, Take a Stitch Tuesday

Look at the wonderful piece of artwork that I hve from Sue http://suebleiweiss.com/blog  It just glows in person. I'm very lucky and put it in the dining room where I bead and can see it.


 

This week's stitch from Sharonb http://www.pintangle.com/ is the Buttonhole Picot in 2 versions. The blue has a Bullion Stitch decorating it; the green chain stitches.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Class

I've been taking the Electric Quilt class by Lyric Kinard called Artist's Toolbox. I haven't done as many of the exercises as I wanted, but it got me going on some pieces that have been on my mind, so that is good. The exercises are there to spur me on in the future.
One idea is to extend the picture from a photo or a magazine. It really makes you look. I have a notebook that I've put black and white photos in, because they intrigue me-so graphic.

Leaves are always something I work with, so this picture was perfect to extend. The white dots are stitching.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Vest, Quilt

A friend had given me the fabric with the silver/gold flowers, because she couldn't figure out what to do with it. It was hard to find something to use with it. Black made it die, most grays weren't right, but I finally found one that worked. I machined the flowers and attached them to create a border around the vest. I have worn it to business dinners.

I wanted to use more of the fabric and cut out three putting interfacing behind them for extra body. The gold leaf trim I had gotten one time shopping with a friend. It was just too cute not to buy. The center panel is raw silk. The outside fabric was in my clothing fabric stash. I used the raw silk again for the binding. It's machine quilted.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Take a Stitch Tuesday, Quilt

This week Sharonb at http://www.pintangle.com/ gave us the Picot Chain Stitch to try. I don't know how she comes up with so many new to me stitches. Worked close, it makes a braid. It also moves in any direction like the regular chain stitch.

In between projects, I've been joining scraps of the violet, green, blue, bluegreen colors. Eventally, I joined the blocks formed and now have a lap quilt. http://www.threecreativestudio.com/ has using scraps as the technique of the month just as I finished this-good timing. I will make something else too-like using scraps.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Fiberactions

This time the theme has been Transformation, So I took one of those lovely napkins and used it for the appliques. The greens in the top are silks scraps my German Sister-in-law gave me. The background are my hand dyes.

This detail is mounted on Timtex, so it stands above the surface. I used a gold pen to ink the white edges then had to add some details with it on the front when the pen decided to jump and color part of it while I was doing the edge. Part of creating is trying to cover those errors.

Friday, November 12, 2010

Bead Journal Project

Blogger did it to me again. It didn't post my entry-try again.Here is November for http://www.beadjournalproject.com/  The background is needlefelted on the embellisher then machine quilted with metallic thread. The focal piece given to me by a friend looks like Friendly Plastic in the shape of a belt buckle.

I've signed up to do the Bead Journal Project next year-the 4th. It's been fun.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Take a Stitch Tuesday, Rubber Stamps

http://www.pintangle.com/ is Sharonb's site where she posts a new stitch each Tuesday for us to try. This is Kiko's Flower Stitch. It combines a chain, buttonhole, and bullion.

I carved some stamps on erasers and stamped them on paper to test the designs. I continued the design around the sides of the spiral one. The left side seems more successful than the right.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Stitchery

The motif that I have been playing with in pieced quilts worked well for a stitched and beaded piece. I did straighten it up to meet as this seemed to need to be formally balanced.

I do these pieces when the mood comes over me and save them to go into something at a later date. Now I'm not sure how to use this, what to make with it.  Any suggestions?

Friday, November 5, 2010

Book

This is another book I made in Albie Smith's class at Art and Soul.

It's a small one-postcard size more or less and folds out when open. The stitched binding forms cross stitches and is easy to do for that decorative effect.

The pages have a watercolor wash. For the first time I managed to actually do a wash rather than add too much color and paint. The end papers are paste papers that I stenciled over. I like making books. It's also an excuse to paint paper.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Quilt, Take a Stitch Tuesday

Blogger put this sideways, but I think I like it that way. A friend had a quilt she was working on that she had started with a group at a retreat. It used lots of fabrics which I like to do. I decided to use some of my African stash-thought it would use up more than it did. I think stashes grow at night when we are not there.

The stitch from Sharonb at http://www.pintangle.com/ for this week is the Turkman stitch. One or more Rows worked together make a nice braid. It also was easy to work freely.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Altered Book

The guild I'm in  http://www.columbiafiberartsguild.org/  is having a show at the Contemporary Crafts Gallery http://cal.pnca.edu/events/range/today/plus30  in Portland, Oregon and my altered book was juried in! Text is the theme of the show which is something I don't use often. Also the space is small, so the pieces had to be small.
I had a good time doing the book just a little at a time.

I found that working on it was very freeing, because it showed only two pages at a time, so each set was an opportunity to try something different.

I call it Envision-not sure were that came from, but it seems to fit.


The cover has molding paste used through a stencil to get the dimensional flowers. The spine is Ultrasuede.