A look back at the work of 2015

"Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind? Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and days of Auld Lang Syne? For Auld Lang Syne, ma dears, for Auld Lang Syne, we'll drink a cup o' kindness yet, for auld lang syne"

These words give me shivers, for they speak of the great flowing river of humanity of which I am a part. The turn of the year approaches, and a glance at the past twelve months is appropriate.

In chronological order:

A handquilted patchwork that just got finished and is a gift:

Another patchwork that is in process:

A strippy for handquilting, which is now in the hoop:

"Ladybug Invasion!" :

I revisited a decade old design:

"Golden Memories" in process:

I began 'Memories of Roses' in mid summer when the wild roses are in bloom up and down the lane. I carved stamps, bought used black styled cotton shirts, use bleach discharge and then fabric markers or paint to create each tile:

A quilt for my girl Gretchen, who had twins in October:

This is the last quilt I will finish in 2015, so I believe. It is for my beautiful grandaughter Jasmine:

I made this fabric twine yesterday:

I stumbled over this and wondered how I'd missed it so long. Perfect for long strips of fabric about an inch wide, its a 'twist-twist-twist' away from you, then wrap it over the 2nd strand, towards you. Opposing tension, its like hand plying. Three S wraps one way and a Z wrap the other way. I found it here:

http://mypoppet.com.au/makes/2014/04/scrapbusting-handmade-scrap-fabric-twine.html

Brilliant!

I'm going to hook up with Nina Maries Off the Wall Fridays:

http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/

Happy, Merry Everything to you as the new year turns and the sunlight returns once again

Love, Sue

Mid-December procrastination

So, if you are like me, you have a few gifts left to make for Christmas. I've been taking my sweet time, rolling the dice that nothing will come between me and the quilting I have to do to accomplish my holiday goals. In the meantime I haven't been idle. Here is an update on a previous piece. It is made from strips of cotton that I wove together and hand dyed, then mixed it with a gorgeous aqua blue, gold and olive African hand woven and dyed piece I'd been cherishing. Nothing else would do. It started with the search for the complementary fabric(s):

Making fabric choices, I created a landscape background, but had no focal point for so much abstraction. It needed to be something more, or else why? Boring.

So I removed the landscape background and decided on the one fabric I described above. I cut it into matching strips, alternated them, then removed one row of two alternating stripes, cut them into squares (7) and placed them about. I also had extra of my own hand dyed strips so I pared them down and made a geometric foundation and floated the squares across it, some up, some down:

It's all just fused now, hanging on the wall for scrutiny. I've used brown marker to shadow certain repeating areas, and would free motion brown in those same area to more well define the edges of the shadows. I'm satisfied.

What do you think?

Hooking up with Nina Marie and Off the Wall Friday

http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/

Have a great weekend! I'm up to 2.4 miles per walk with my husband and have lost 2 lbs. My camera program, which had mysteriously stopped functioning properly, began to function properly, so now I will be taking nature photos again. I have albums on my Facebook page that you are welcome to browse, as well as loads more fiber art pictures from over the years:

https://www.facebook.com/suzkpa

I'd love to be friends with you there as well.

Sue

For further information regarding any quilt of mine that may catch your eye, please email me at suzkpa@yahoo.com

Happy December everyone, where busy hands are warm hands. It has been a crazy 6 months, and I have lagged on blogging, but first I was sick and then sick again, then vacation, next a set of twins came into the world and then it was Thanksgiving, and birthdays. So far 2015 is the best holiday season in a decade or more. I am busy now with sewing a few gifts, but if you know me at all, you know I have 5 projects and 5 books going on so here are a few less traditional, more art informed pieces Ive been doing:

My response to the Paris attacks:

I used a hand dyed piece of sugar sacking, 15"x15", drew the Eiffel Tower with a permanent fabric marker and added the poppies with raw edge applique. I also wrote #Paris with the marker. Then black free motion for the Tower and the word and the centers of the poppies, and red for the poppies. There is no background quilting yet, but I bound it anyway with a red and black zigzag.


And this is a combo of two different pieces of fabric: a lovely piece of aqua blue, gold and olive fabric hand made in Africa, and my own hand dyed strips. I used an unusual procedure to do my hand dyeing: I wove together all eight strips, worked the weave down to 3 strips like a woven triangle, then applied dyes as though it were autumn Indian corn. It came out a wonderful jumble of colors. Ive been fusing and slicing and dicing and it is almost ready to be all fastened down to the batting:

This is my first look from above, so I will have to climb onto my step stool and make the changes that I believe are necessary.  The design will be complete when I use a brown marker to create a shadowy floating effect to increase value and perspective, after fusing, basteing and spraying the whole thing to the batting. I will free motion quilt it, without a backing, because my old Bernina has a small space for bulk on the inner side, and I'd read that quilting without the backing lessened the bulk. That offers different options for binding, facing or finishing the edges too.

This is my world today...I hope yours is happily productive. The sun is out and we're going for a walk later, down the Rails to Trails, converted coal train beds that now are home to walkers, joggers and official races. It goes through the western Poconos, near the Lehigh Valley and is all woods. My husband had a stomach sleeve operation and has lost 70 lbs and is walking up to 3 miles a day (I said he, I usually go 2 miles). So, we go. It's been very good.

I'll be hooking up with Nina Marie and off The Wall Friday:
http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/#


Love, Sue

Playing with colors and autumn inspirations

There are 3 shades of yellow overdyed with turquoise, a couple fuschia overdyed with turquoise, for a total of 16, 15"x 15" squares:

I believe the fabric is a length of sugar sacking, a blend of linen and cotten that I purchased in abundance at auction. I mix primaries: 3 yellow, 3 blue, 1 red and 1 black, using MX dyes. I'll rinse them any time after 2 hours; this time it will be 15 hours. The longer the better, and I supersized the soda ash for instant strike value. The dry fabric was stuffed in a ziplock, 1/4 cup ash poured on it and scrunched til I was sure it was wet through, then wrung back out, given a fluff and gently layered into its bag. I then squirted a yellow all about, rubbing some to soften edges, and let them all sit in their yellows for a couple hours. Then I went back in and squirted the turquoise all over everything, again rubbing some to blur edges. In the end I had 2 left and decided to go for fuchsia first with the turquoise overlay. I added no water. I used gloves but didn't remember until I had a nice orange stripe on my finger. I can't wait to see if my idea worked. If it didn't it's because I may have rubbed too much. I'll know in a few hours.


This is the piece I dyed the other day, for another project, that gave me the inspiration for the above dyes that are in process:

It looks like the treetops when you are looking directly overhead, I hope I got the current ones right. However, the job is done, the 'dye is cast' and they are what they are, Going to start rinsing now.


 There is also one almost finished yellow quilt:

There is one patchwork about to be joined and then sandwiched. I'm having too much fun!

The pieces are now cut out and the 12" blocks will be a quick assembly.  Each block is 4 6" squares, of which one is a peacock from the original fabric. There are many weights of cotton, including decorator weight, but no synthetics. My original aversion to polyesther remains, regardless of the resurgance in popularity of synthetic quilts.

I've never been known for following the crowd.

For now we are going hiking. We are revisiting the one from yesterday that kicked my ass. Go us!
  Happy Autumn!

Love, Sue

Happy Summer! I wanted to share the finished surface design of Tiles I: Memories of Roses:

So many different ideas came together to make this tiled surface. I've enjoyed every moment. Now that the last tile is fused solidly to the black felt batting, I have it hung on the wall while I think about how to quilt it. It won't be a great deal of quilting but the ideas are still mulling so its on the wall for contemplation.

I've had to tear down my work area as we are about to list our cottage and property on the market and need to take pictures. It was timely to finish the surface work because I can leave up my sewing machine until we actually move and that means I can get the pile of unfinished quilts worked on. I've recently discovered that twin grandchildren are in my future, so there's that delightfulness. Plus other free motion work I want to do. It feels like good timing and I'm rolling right through the open door that will be bringing me home for good.

I'm hooking up with Nina Marie and Off the Wall Friday:

http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/

I wish you Hope!

Love, Sue

Surface design from a surface design

I started 'Golden Memories' some months ago. I got this far:

At this point I was a bit stuck. Fortune smiled when I attended the April SAQA PA meeting. The suggestion was made to echo the far upper rightside, purple image. (Does anyone else say left when they mean right, and vice versa, too?) It reminds me of a shadowy sense of friends sitting together, part of which inspired the title's piece. Per the suggestion to echo the images, I am working on a stencil:

The plan is to make the stencil using a razor cutter, practice a method of dabbing paint that will resemble the original, and then implement the design. I've thought of reducing the size and trying it in differing sizes and places. There really is only so much room for this treatment though, so I'd rather be editorial in advance, and see how it goes.

I'm hooking up with Nina Marie's Off The Wall Friday:

http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/

Hope you are having success in your undertakings!

Sue

Fabric tile patchwork

Making tile patches is too much fun. I have been very encouraged by reading about medieval tiles. They seem quite similar to what I am making:

https://www.google.com/search?q=medieval+tiles&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=gBtrVdSiDsK1sAT5yILoDw&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAg

 I have been stamping and discharging and painting and have made some great leaps forward. These results from SoftScrub cleanser are the best so far:

These have not been colored in with fabric markers yet, they are showing the pure discharge color. One of these shirts discharges to a rosy pink but I can't remember which one.

Maybe I shouldn't have pinned them on yet since now I have to spread everything out to add these new ones:

 I will keep moving it about until I'm satisfied anyway.

These new ones are painted with acrylic fabric paint:

They are ready to cut out and place.

Here is a new stamp I'm carving:

It's getting there. You can see a couple of tile patches with this imprint.

So thats my week! What are you doing? I'll join this post to Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday

http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/#


Happy May 31! Pray for peace.

Love, Sue

Thrift shopping and discharge bleaching

We were in Detroit for the week and shopped at the DAV thrift store in Westland. They have great selections there! I found these to add to my collection of cellulose men's black shirts:

Washed and dryed and ready to be deconstructed. I love that word, deconstructed: " to adapt or separate the elements of for use in an ironic or radically new way; uses his masterly tailoring skills to deconstruct the classic." 

I like cutting up the fabric in the most efficient way possible, saving long seam allowances for weaving. By the time we finally get moved and my loom is restored I will have the collection I want to weave a rag rug. And then I'm off with that too. I can't wait for that. As for now I will use the small pieces for experimentation, determining how well each fabric responds to the bleach. The biggest whole pieces of each shirt are awaiting final decisions, and that pile is growing. 

I don't know why the type is now itallic. I want it to stop. It doesn't.

Here is some of what I am doing with discharge, using a number of different fabrics. I'm coloring on the discharged areas with fabric markers:

Memories of Wild Roses is being assembled using my hand carved stamps, hand dyed fabrics and a couple of manufactured pieces of yardage that I spray painted or colored with fabric markers. Here is a sampling of what I recently discharged:  

Here are my hand carved wood stamps, holding up well to both bleach and paint:

I did add another layer of depth to both stamps, and the next round of discharge will feature hopefully an even cleaner image.

I am loving this work.

The flowers are a lovely Mother's Day bouquet from my son, Ian Russell. The best son ever. The cactus behind it started at 8" and was a gift from a friend. It is now is almost 3 feet. Once we get past the frost date it will go out for the summer and get a new pot with some yummy dirt. 

More discharge using rubber stamps I have:

Next I want to press leaves, print, paint and hammer them onto some great sugar sack fabrics that will stand up to it. Outdoors though. I'll post again when I get the next batch of deconstructed shirts discharged. I put a newer edge on my wild rose stamps I'm thinking of getting a black batting. This piece will be raw edge and the batting may show through and become an issue. There are so many shades of black going on that it would be smart, I think. So thats decided. 

I haven't touched my sewing machine for weeks but now I have a great reason: twins are on the way for my beloved girl, Gretchen, and her husband Robert. They are 2 darling people whose lives' work is about service. They are beautiful people. It took a while but they are ready and are being blessed with a small army! So, baby quilts. It's gonna be a motivated summer!

Wishing you joy,

Sue


  

 

 

Deconstructing clothes, bleach discharge and wood carving

Well, joining SAQA has certainly made an impact in my life already. The unexpected invitation from Paula Swett....dinner with the PA SAQA members and the gallery exhibition's opening night...the meeting with the PA SAQA rep, Meredith Armstrong at her home in Danville last Sunday. All day Monday I reflected on the rapid changes overtaking my life. I realized that it was time to move to the next level of original creativity.

I started out the week with bleach discharge on my mind. A large piece of commercial fabric my mom gave me winked at me, and that always means something is coming. It immediately made me think of bleach discharge. Here is a picture of it:

I decided to carve a stamp resembling one of the flowers of the fabric:

I dug up a couple of existing retail stamps I had and used them plus the carved one to do this:

Using deconstructed cotton shirts from Salvation Army, I tried my new stamp and a couple of others on the smaller yoke pieces. Some is from the collar pieces that were just wide enough to accomodate the smaller stamp. I'm saving the bigger shirt piecs for less experimental work.

I started with Clorox cleanup, but of course it was too runny:

I ditched that, and because my Clorox gel pen was dried up I got some brand new Soft Scrub for the rest. The one above I re-discharged with the Soft Scrub, slightly offset to the original watery prints. It will be useful so I feel as though I saved a bad first job. Yay!

In each case, to stop the bleaching action I used Anti-chlor, or Bleach Stop, 2 TBSP to the gallon of water. Rinse the piece first to get all the bleach residue off, then plunge into the gallon of bleach stop and stir it around on and off for a while. From start to finish it was probably 4 days. I didn't think I had gotten as good results as even these, so when they came out of the laundy and each piece came through I was heartily encouraged.

Not sure which technique interfered to make this interesting blend, probably batik remains that are resisting, giving a cool smoky violet gray pairing with the pale sanguine color left behind after the bleach had its way. This is why I do it, this cool unexpected thing that might happen just makes my day.

The next few are from my hand carved stamp:

Tina Rey gave me the next store-bought stamp:

I took this piece and colored it in with fabric markers:

I trimmed it and we'll see what happens next! Is it whole in itself, or part of a larger whole? That is the question.


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Here is a couple shots of my Pennsylvania Dutch lap quilt that I'm handquilting.

 I got all the center rings done! Now just the borders to do. I hope a certain someone in my life will love it when its done. I'm going to be finishing up a lot of my patchwork in the hopes of branching into a different fiber art direction. I am feeling more encouraged than I've been in years.

I'm hooking up with Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Fridays...if you haven't visited her weekend blog, please do! Lots of people sharing there:

Nina Marie's Off The Wall Friday

Wishing you warm days and cool nights. And love.

Sue