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Archive for the ‘Finishing touches’ Category

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Monday, November 1st, 2010

I finished both of my projects due today. The Rusty Square Dance was posted this morning. Today, I finished my self portrait to enter Mirror Mirror at Trinity Cathedral.

I made the deconstructed rainbow fiber sketch as an antidote to the work I have been doing which required lots of time at the sewing machine and much angst and unsewing.

We are happy in our house because the Giants just won the World Series. Having spent much of our lives together in the Bay Area, we have been big Giant fans.

Tomorrow is a big day for our country. I fear that the elections will usher in a a few years of  unbearable political wrangling. But, hope springs eternal. At least the terrible TV commercials will be gone.

Here is the self portrait after I quilted it.

Here is a detail to show the stitching. Don’t  you love the highlights in my hair?

I mounted it with the other portrait on stretcher bars. I have titled it Then and Now. I decided to take artistic license and not add glasses.

Posted in Finishing touches, Juried Shows, self portraits, Sketchbook Project | 3 Comments »

Rusty Square Dance

Monday, November 1st, 2010

This is my offering for the Twelve X Twelve rusty colorplay theme. I was inspired by the postage stamp quilts created by Kathleen Loomis. She does huge installations! In my quest to try new techniques and ideas for the Twelve X Twelve colorplay challenges, I thought I would try a small version.

I had a criteria that Kathleen does not have, mine had to end up at a specific size. I started by grabbing some quilted scraps and cutting them into 1 & 1/2 inch squares.

I tried lining them up on a 12 inch ruler, but I could not get them to fit. I then tried  1 & 3/4 inches which worked perfectly with 6 across and 6 down.

I sandwiched and quilted the silk fabrics that I had rusted and discharged.

I cut the squares and worked on an arrangement. I wanted them to be random, but with only two fabrics, I couldn’t get a layout that  I liked.

So, I eventually went with the alternating squares. I thought I could just grab a row of squares and start stitching. Noooo! Remember, I needed these to fit into a 12 inch square. My solution was to use a strip of painter’s tape which I laid across the 12 inch ruler. I then lined up the squares and took them to the machine and stitched down each side.

My next problem was how to hang this. I decided that I wanted to have a copper rod with a verdigris patina. I found 12 inch rods at the hardware store. I googled how to add a patina to copper and put one in Miracle Grow and one in ammonia glass cleaner. The one I used was in the ammonia. The Miracle Grow was very nice, but in my haste, I did not remove enough of the lacquer so the patina was not even over the rod. Here is the one that I used.

Here is a detail:

I decided to leave dangling threads. I also tried zig zagging the edges, but that added too much distraction.

Now, I must finish my self portrait which needs to be submitted today. If you haven’t seen the other rusty pieces, go on over to Twelve X Twelve.

Posted in 12X12 challenge, Finishing touches, My creations | 5 Comments »

Art Every Day

Sunday, November 1st, 2009

joie

I joined the group Art Every Day for a Month. It is something that I have wanted to do anyway -— being in a group makes it more fun and forces me to be more mindful. I just whipped up this post card from some fused silk scraps that I have in abundance. I am going to make several incarnations of this for a special event.

I also did some work on the Rainbow Fish School. The fish were disappearing into the water too much. It needed  some value change to show them off a bit more. I started by stitching with some sparkly thread, but that didn’t work. Tonight, I got out the color pencils and did some highlighting. I think it improves the composition.

rainbowfishredux

Here is the before:

Rainbowschool

I can’t believe a month has gone by, but tomorrow morning I have Columbia Fiberarts Guild board meeting. So off to bed so that I can rise bright and early and spruce up the abode for visitors.

Posted in Art Every Day, FFFC, Finishing touches, Postcards | 2 Comments »

A Very Busy Day

Tuesday, October 20th, 2009

celestialblackhole

This morning, I got myself down to the studio so that I could finish this, now named Celestial Black Hole. Last night at my theology class, I unquilted the black areas. It really was a mess and the wrong thread — a metallic silver and black — which kept shredding in the needle. I sometimes like pulling out quilting threads. I don’t know why. Maybe it is because I am fixing something and that is satisfying.

I requilted it with a wavy line using an understated black, copper and gold. I then added some celestial glitz with some gold mica chips in gel medium. I am not all that thrilled with this piece. I am hoping that I can do a better job of finishing the other piece. I have this problem of not wanting to do work that is too perfect (probably because I can’t!), but really, even if I could, I like a more organic look to my work, but this piece is a little more sloppy than I like to show.

Here is a detail:

celestialblackholedetail

I took the photos using my new lighting system that arrived today. There are two of these lights with fancy carrying cases. Not sure  where I would take them. Anyway, I got my piece uploaded to the Fast Friday Fabric Challenge (not fast for me) Yahoo site and Blog.

newphotolights

Yesterday, I received a sweet little package from Kirsty in Australia who is part of the 12 X 12 group. She just opened a shop called PomPom Rouge. She had these gorgeous hand-dyed embroidery threads that I loved. She sent some to me. Can’t wait to use these.

kirstyembroiderythread

Tonight, I got to have 15 minutes of fame at High Fiber Diet meeting. So I packed up a selection of my quilts. It was fun to show some of my early work.

I had leftover lamb from the week-end, and I made the best lamb and lentil soup which we had with feta cheese garnish and pita bread. We had to eat early so that I could rush off to my 6:30 meeting.

During the meeting, we made Momigami paper. This is a way of treating paper so that if looks and behaves like fabric. I used some magazine pages. You start crumpling the paper.

crumpledpage

It is a great way tor relieve stress. You just keep kneading it in your hand and then add a drop of oil to your hand and continue then add another drop of oil and keep this up until you have added 5 – 7 drops of oil. Then, you iron the paper between paper towels or brown paper. Here are my two sheets,

momigami1

momigami2

These can be cut up and used in collages. Depending upon what you start with, you can get very different results.

So that was my very busy day. I wish I had had time for some Expressive Drawing. I am feeling so much better and have a lot more energy. I was afraid that I was going to start acting my age!! Not yet.

Posted in Cooking and Recipes, Finishing touches, Good mail, High Fiber Diet, Machine Quilting, My creations, Quilting Friends, Uncategorized | 8 Comments »

One Down and One to Go

Monday, September 28th, 2009

greenflashfinal

I am not sure how I am feeling about this piece. I love the colors. I think it evokes a gorgeous sunset. I had some trouble with my green flash, using just the mica chips, so I ended up embellishing with some glass beads in gel medium. It looks better in person than it photographs.

Here is a detail:

greenflashdetail

I don’t have time to dwell on this. I learned a bit about adding mica chips. I have to move on.

Next on my agenda is the final 12 X 12 piece in the current round. Terry selected twelve as our theme. I have known what I want to do, but not exactly how. Last night it hit me!! I have already started working on the images as it required quite a bit of computer work. Now I have to decide whether I want to print the images from  my computer to fabric or to make thermofax screens and print them. I am leaning towards the thermofax screens. I am very excited about my plan. I better be because it has to be done by Thursday morning.

I am bordering on exhaustion. Mr C is not able to do much so I am doing all the dog walking and training, and the work around the house that he usually does – which is quite a bit. I almost had a melt down at the puppy training class yesterday. The exuberant Scooter, who loves all other dogs and any person he encounters, was almost beyond controlling. He weighs well over 50 pounds and just about did me in trying to play with the other dogs and jump up and hug the humans.

Tomorrow morning, I have to take time away from creating to take Mr C back to the Dr’s office to have the catheter removed. I think he will feel much better after that. I am waiting for things to return to normal. I may have forgotten what normal is!! LOL!

Posted in 12X12 challenge, Construction series, Finishing touches, Scooter | 9 Comments »

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