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.


*******************************************************************************

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

Contemporary Fiber: Breaking Traditions

I had the privilege of seeing some cutting edge art quilts at the Lore Degenstein Gallery down in Selinsgrove, PA last evening. The opening reception, Contemporary Fiber: Breaking Traditions, was delightful! The gallery was filled almost to overflowing. Kate Themel spoke about 'Breaking Traditions', which is both the title of the exhibit, and the raison d'etre behind art quilts. They are made to hang on the wall and be experienced, lived with and loved. I didn't take my camera in because it seemed bad form, but I saw a few shots being taken with phones, so I guess maybe there is no fighting that former breach of etiquette. I'm going to search out photos that might be online of what I saw: breathtaking color, line, texture and composition from all the artists. They are: Paula Swett - Textile Paintings, Kate Themel, Mary Pals, Katie Pasquini-Masopust, Meredith Re' Grimsley, Linda Colsh, Valerie Goodwin, Beth Carney, and Susan Shie:

Beth Carney: http://bethcarneystudio.com/chasms9.htm?hc_location=ufi

Susan Shie: http://www.turtlemoon.com/gallery14/2014gallery.htm

Valerie Goodwin: http://www.quiltsbyvalerie.com/

 Paula Swett: http://magpienet.biz/commissioned-art/

 Linda Colsh: http://www.lindacolsh.com/

 Meredith Re' Grimsley: http://contemporarycraft.tumblr.com/post/73447580393/featured-artist-meredith-grimsley

Katie Pasquini-Masopust: http://www.katiepm.com/gallery.html

Mary Pals: http://marypaldesigns.com/

Kate Themel: http://www.katethemel.com/ 

I was asked to comment on the dinner I attended before the opening. The food was wonderful, I had lentil-walnut burger with a cranberry cashew balsamic salad. Meredith, the PA SAQA coordinator, sat me next to her and made me feel quite comfortable. She and I split spanokopita, which I can spell better than I can pronounce! Anyway, delicious! There were other SAQA members at dinner as well, though none of the artists that showed in the exhibit were with us. 

Later at the gallery it was Kate Themel that gave the talk about where quilts have come from and where they are going. The place was mobbed, and the opening of the exhibit a huge success! I am very glad I went and may get a second chance to go back this week while there are fewer people in attendance for further study.  

 
  
 

I am very excited to be attending Studio Art Quilter's Association's new exhibit, Contemporary Fiber: Breaking Tradition. It is opening tomorrow (Sat) evening. Somehow I was fortunate to be invited by one of the artists to join them all for dinner before the opening. Today is the first day I could wrap my head around it. Most of the artists are quite familiar to me, although I haven't met any of them personally. But I will be. And they will discuss their work. It is a heavenly anticipation for an extra special experience. Less than 24 hours to dinner. Butterflies.

We had a wonderful Easter, we had dinner at the rib joint with the family and most of our beloved. Good food and love and laughter! I came home refreshed and ready to continue quilting Cloister Garden:

Only the stained glass is quilted so far. Next up is to even out the black edges of the stained glass, then switch to jade green for the center quilting. I have decided on lines radiating from the center for the green.

 I found this watercolor hiding on the side porch and rescued it from certain death. I painted this about 1999, while I was still in MI.

 After my husband died, I first took an acrylic painting class, then moved to PA and taught myself a little watercolor and color theory. It was in 2000 that I realized painting wasn't satisfying me and I stumbled on the idea of miniature quilts. Bought a magazine, made a quilt for my Grammy all in purples ( I immediately colored out of the lines when I began, it was a traditional 2 color 9 patch and I bought 10 different purples to vary it). Then I started to learn about traditional quilts...and contemporary quilts...and art quilts....now 'modern' quilts. After 15 years I still can't get enough.

Here are some things I'm studying on the living room walls, etc, right now.

Fractured Iris, 2012. Hand pieced and machine quilted:

The small striped hexi centers (pupils) are from a thrift store shirt that was $3. The background is from a yard piece hand dyed by Katy Widger. Her hand dye method was one of the first I learned from, along with Ann Johnston and Paula Burch. The border and all triangle shapes are from Katy's fabric. I hoped to add a sense of the hexagons hovering by using it as bckgd/border fabric, purposefully using low contrast. All the other colors I used were chosen from that length of Katy's fabric. The fractured iris are all from my stash.


This is a doll bed quilt that I made in 2001:

I made a couple of pink and brown quilts. After that time I made quite a few quilts utilizing 'patience' blocks, or a simple log cabin block with set in seams. It is also my first free motion quilting, in the large border. The rest is stitch in the ditch.

This last one on the living room coffee table is factory made and has a larger companion that I hang on the porch. It was in the sweet little cottage that came when we bought the adjoining property along with a similar factory made 2 pc quilted schoolhouse block set. Lots of good stuff in that cottage! There is real linoleum from the bauhaus movement! Don't get me started because we are on the way out of here and I won't see how the cottage fares. It is loaded with vintage goodies, and stuff. I know someone will come here and love these things, and this place.

I'm thankful Spring has sprung:

I planted snowdrops in a few places but this was the first flower spotted by John last week.



These crocus were washed into the yard 3 years ago with the the flash flood accompanying the Leo-Irene hurricane combo of 2011. Now they have given us a lovely display for the 2nd spring in a row! There are more but one or two straggled about and I can't find them. Here they are before the deer ate them for Easter dinner:

Looks like a memorial with the brick I used to keep from squashing them as we walked about. I got right down on the ground with my back to the late afternoon sun to get this shadow effect. R.I.P.

I was struck by the notion that if there had been a nuclear blast, those shadows would be permanently emblazoned on the face of the rock.


Sue

I'm hooking up with Nina-Marie and  Off The Wall Friday
Thanks, Nina-Marie!