More fun with mixed media

I finished my first 3 wall hangings, using the same general pattern, but varying colors and combinations of embellishments.  The first 2 are framed and hanging at the Arts Connection Gallery at Flagstaff Mall:

This was the first one, using hand dyed fabric for the background, dyed twigs, torn art paper and painted corrugated cardboard I made last year, fabric beads, dyed cheese cloth (aka scrim), gold braid, ladder yarn, a pipe cleaner wrapped with eyelash yarn, and embroidery floss.  It's 6" by 13", and is framed in a shadow box.

This one had pretty much the same combination of materials, plus I added some washers.  So happy to be using some of the art papers at last!

Yesterday, I finished this one - 9" x 20".  It was a little more difficult, due to the larger size.  Plus, I finally figured out that it would be easier if I would wait until all the hand stitching was done before I added the twigs!

Oh, and I added a "bundle" as a focal point - a piece of dried black walnut, wrapped with scrim, yarn and a couple of beads, plus a couple of dried Coreopsis blooms.

Now that I have found my comfort zone with these, I am going to spend some time creating more embellishments  and see if I can find other ways to use these techniques for future projects.  I would also like to try and incorporate some machine stitching into my pieces, ala Isobel Moore, whose work I really admire.  Sadly, she has nothing published about her techniques, so I will just have to play and see if I can use her work as inspiration.  So the journey continues with no end in sight!  Stay tuned...

Slowly...

I haven't had much time this week to work on my slow cloth project, but did get some work done yesterday on one of the comets:

Earlier in the week, I began outlining the points with 2 shades of floss, then decided to turn under the raw edges to finish the edges. I am about half-way done with the applique, and I'm getting some idea of what I will do to enhance the comet itself. This is a piece of rust-dyed fabric I did over a year ago, using rebar and wire to create the rust design on a loose weave fabric. Don't remember where the fabric came from... either something I bought long ago, or fabric from my Step-mom's stash that I brought home in '97 after she passed. Either way, I like the feel, and love the pattern. This was one of the best rust-dyed pieces I did, and I'm glad to be finally putting it to use.
Before I started the area with the comet, I did quite a bit of embellishment on the Milky Way section:

I originally did a lot of quilting here, but added beads, metallic thread, and some sequins to highlight the 'stars'. I like this project because it is indeed 'slow cloth', and I have no deadline or concern about when I will finish... don't even have a clear idea of how I will know when it IS finished! It's just something I can pick up and work on when I have a need to slow down.

Final version of my 'Celebrating Home' quilt

Awhile back, I entered Quilting Arts' Calendar quilt contest, and today I found I was not one of the finalists. While that was momentarily disappointing, I am still very pleased that I endeavored to create something to their specifications, completed it and followed through with my submission. I spent many hours designing and creating the piece, and even though it was not one of those selected, I am satisfied with how it turned out. I have previously posted 'snapshots' of it, but here is the completed piece:

I used hand dyed and commercial fabrics, Bubble jet transfer for the cat picture, metallic threads for the fireplace highlights and tools, embroidery for the flowers and leaf highlights and beads for the doorknobs. This was based on photographs taken at my residence in South Pasadena, Ca. It is a 1923 California Bungalo, and I was at home there from the first time I went in.

The struggle continues...

Since my last post I decided to remove the hand stitching and go with free-motion embroidery. I have to say that I am finding the process to be very tedious on this piece, as I am attempting to add shadows and highlights with the stitching. Here is my update:



Below is a detail of some of the stitching I have added:

So far, the highlights are working better than the shadows. I am thinking of adding a darker thread to 'cross-hatch' some of the darker shadow areas in the hopes that will make the shadows more realistic...

Embellishing the rocks

I have completed preliminary stitching on the rocks... I chose to use a satin stitch to outline the shapes, then began handwork using embroidery floss to create highlights and shadows. After working on the center rock, I have decided to study the piece a little before I continue. I'm not sure the additional detail is going to improve the piece, and I may remove what I have done and just use free-motion stitching to add visual interest to the rocks. Here's where I stopped:



Below is a detail of the center rock where I used the embroidery:


On another note, I got tired of putting thumb tack holes in my wall, so I created a design board of sorts using a scrap piece of baseboard molding and some flannel, so now I can clip my work to the flannel or pin it for distance viewing... woo-hoo!

Woo-hoo!

Well, as you can tell from the last couple of posts, I couldn't decide which end was up on my Scrap-heap quilt, but I finally got it together and it is DONE! Yaaay! I went out to the garage yesterday to rummage in my boxes of craft supplies for a couple of things. While I was there, I found a nice piece of bark in the wood pile that I glued down with craft glue, added some embroidery floss and beads, removed the gray triangle and rectangles from the upper right corner, and declared the embellishments completed. Then it was just a matter of trimming, adding the backing and sleeve and TA-DAH! Only thing left is to create and attach the label on the back.





I had enough time after I finished this one that I decided to finish one of the art cloths I created using defective DVD's awhile back:

All I did with this was add pellum and backing, then I did a simple running stitch to divide the squares. It's hard to see in such a small picture, but I think the design is fine without further enhancements, so we'll see. I am submitting both pieces for our Recycled Art Exhibition. Even though the second one was made using new fabric, the dyes I used for the first layer were left over from another project, and the DVD's were saved from the landfill!

Embellishing has begun

Okay, so I started embellishing my scrap heap quilt today. It's very slow going... why? Well, just because the design is so linear, and I don't want to over-clutter it with embelishments just for the sake of embellishments! I also don't plan to do any machine quilting on it for the same reason. At any rate, here is what I have done so far:

I still have a ways to go, but it's taking some time to decide what I want to do, soooo.... time to take a few steps back, turn it in every direction, walk away, come back and look some more. I woke up this morning with an idea for the area where I ended up couching yarn in a swirl... not the idea I started out with, but the chenille yarn just leant itself to the design I ended up with. Some of the buttons ended up on the piece, but not too many so far. I may put this aside for a day or two to see what else comes to mind.....

The next phase

Well, I've finished the hand-stitching on my 'scrap heap' quilt, and now it's time to start thinking about embellishments. I bought a bunch of buttons at Michael's this week, so I have lots to work with, but I think they will be better used sparingly on this design. I'm looking at 'suede' yarn, leather thong and beads as well, but haven't finalized things in my mind yet. One thing I like about what I've done so far is that I used wonder under to create a 3-dimensional feature on one of the 'arrows'. Here is the piece as it is now:

Well, I've got the weekend to play with this, so hopefully I will have another progress report soon!