Saturday, December 29, 2007

Summer Symposium information

We are having a Surface Design Symposium next summer here in Flagstaff! Here is the information link: http://www.melanietesta.com/SL.htm
Melanie was my instructor last summer, and she has worked hard to put this event together for us. I already have at least 2 classes I hope to attend... maybe 3! Check it out...

Monday, December 24, 2007

'Fern' quilt experiment

Awhile back, I posted a picture of an Art Cloth I was thinking about quilting. Well, my curiosity got the better of me today, and I had to give it a try, just to see if the design would be helped or hurt by quilting. It's a long way from completion, but I'm posting a progress report to put it out there and see if anyone has an opinion to offer. The jury is still out from where I stand. Here is a detail of the stitched area:



One thing I do think is that the stitching has highlighted the ferns, which didn't come out as bright as I wanted.


Here is a shot of the whole piece on the left, and below it is the piece before it was quilted:


Sunday, December 23, 2007

New 'Fern' Art Cloth

My friend Linda and I got together today for a playdate. She helped me get started watercoloring, I helped her to learn my method of Low Water Immersion dyeing. We both had lots of fun, and ended up with some neat looking cloth, as well as some good water color attempts as well. She is very experienced as a water color artist, and I am a brand new one. Here is the cloth I dyed, which is one of a series of 'Fern' cloths:



I really like the colors and the interesting markings that I got with this piece. Here is a detail of the piece:


This was hand-stitched, then dyed with Turquoise, Periwinkle Blue and Dark Green, but as you can see, I got a lot of interesting shading and highlights, which mostly come from the Periwinkle. The Turquoise gives nice highlights when I can trap it in the stitching.
Great day, lots of creative energy! Now I have tons of new projects to keep me busy!




Leaves on the Lake

I have been working on a new piece for about a month now, and thought I would post a progress report. This is based on a picture I took when we were visiting our Son and his family at Fort Lewis, Wa. We stayed in a cabin on a lake right on the Army base, and I took a picture of leaves floating on the lake. I used wonder under to fuse the leaves onto the background, and I'm about half-way through with machine stitching the details on the leaves.



Here is a closeup of the detail work:

Some of the fabrics are hand dyed, the rest came from my stash. I am using variegated cotton thread for the details.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Whole cloth quilt or wall hanging?

I recently dyed a piece of fabric with a 'fern' design stitched in, and had hoped to use it for a whole cloth quilt. But after washing it out and looking at it, I can't decide if quilting will add anything to the design. Maybe I should just mount it or bind it with other fabric and leave it as is... what do you think?