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Archive for February, 2012

Architectural Shift

Sunday, February 12th, 2012

Today is the reveal of the Twelve by Twelve’s 20 X 12 metamorphosis challenge. The theme was chosen by me as an homage to our changing directions, as a group. So, I felt a bit of pressure.

I floundered a bit. I thought about how my cataract surgery created a metamorphosis with my eye sight and was wondering how to show that. But, finally, as I was working on something for my online class with Elizabeth Barton, I knew I had something I could use.

In the class, we had collected photos of landscapes and buildings and objects that we wanted to turn into art quilts. I had a couple of photos of the very unique Disney Concert Hall in LA.

 

Our process was to layer paper over the photo and with a light box, sketch the scene, selecting the most important elements and leaving out the rest. Here is one of my sketches.

Another exercise was to put this on a grid, cut it up an rearrange. When I did that, I discovered this neat little piece that held some promise.

 

I moved on to working out the values for this.

And colors. This was done with silk. The layout seemed pretty boring.

I finally went with different sizes and used batiks with handdyes. The quilting is more controlled than I normally do, but I think it adds to the architectural effect. Here is a detail.

I have been in SF all week-end. I did get one 3 x 3 done so far!! Hand stitched on blue silk.

Thursday, February 9th, 2012

I had such a busy day! I took the easy way out with this 3 x 3!!

We had a great time at STASH today. I enjoyed seeing all the new decorating that Gale has done to her home. It really looks fantastic. We shared show and tell, had a guest hang out with us, planned our spring retreat and ate a fantastic lunch, prepared by Gale.

Stuffed peppers:

And a wonderful salad with gorgonzola and hazelnuts.

When I got home, I was full of vim and vigor so I changed my clothes and headed for the studio and tore off two pieces of 28 inch by 65 inch fabric – one is pfd cotton and the other is unbleached muslin. And. I grabbed some brushes, a bowl of water and several colors of Dynaflow paint. I layered the fabric and spritzed it with water and had at it.

I want an abstract background of colors of nature. I will be screenprinting some images and adding some large photos. I am looking forward to working on this when I get back from SF.

I am all packed and ready to go. Out flight is at 8 am so I have to get up at the crack of dawn, pick up Steph and Mia and off to the airport.

Here is a photo of my boy that I took this afternoon. He looks so sleek and trim with his haircut!

A Day of Running Errands and Appointments

Wednesday, February 8th, 2012

(BREAKING NEWS – The winner of the scarf is Janet Wright. Send me your snail mail and I will get it off to you. Thanks to all of you who chimed in!!)

I feel as if I spent most of the day in and out of the house. I had to get gas in my car, go to Kaiser for my quarterly blood work and deliver a quilt to a friend. Then, home to walk Scooter in the rain. He did not like the rain without his fluffy winter coat. We saw this Rhodie down in the Rhodie Garden. Wow, this is the earliest I have seen one in bloom since we moved here 5+ years ago.

I made a salad for lunch and spent too much time on the computer and then off to get my hair cut, deliver the quilt for real this time (I couldn’t reach her in the morning) and pick up some groceries at Trader Joe’s.

I finally got down to the studio and started cleaning up from the Metamorphosis art work. I had hoped to paint the background fabric for the next quilt I am going to make and it has to be big!! I didn’t make it!! But, I did get my tables clear so that the next time I have a free hour, I can get it done. I did, however, cut the batting so that I can plan the elements and sizes. It is 60 inches high and 24 inches wide.

Today’s 3 x 3 is felted. It is my go to when I am busy. I am going to take some fabrics for hand stitching while I am away. Not sure if I will get to post them until I get home.

Tomorrow is STASH at Gale’s house and then I must get organized to leave town for the week-end so the painting may have to wait until next week.

Wordless Wednesday

Wednesday, February 8th, 2012

Finished!

Tuesday, February 7th, 2012

I am so happy to have the metamorphosis piece finished and photographed. I just have to write the blog post and set it to publish on Sunday morning while I am in San Francisco. Here is what the back looks like!! That is all I can show you for now.

The blue 3 x 3 for today is a layer of painted silk organza over painted silk, fused to blue wool felt with free motion quilting.

Today Scooter got a much needed hair cut.

Tomorrow, I am getting mine. Also, tomorrow, I will do a drawing for the scarf and post it Thursday since tomorrow is Wordless Wednesday!