Purple and Gold Study

I've been working on a piece which has been on my wall for months. Everyday, I walk in my studio, look at it, study it a while and then move onto something else. I'm using all deconstructive screen printed fabric which is very busy and hard to use.  I have a few hand dyes to quiet it down but for the most part, there's a lot going on in just the fabric.

 I like using purple and gold together; they are nice by themselves and make the prettiest brown when they touch and blend.  The above piece looked hopeless until I turned it over.

 This side was so much better and almost looked a bit like trees. I don't remember what I did to get this so it's definitely one of a kind.

 This piece of fabric used a sink mat with a stones pattern on it, along with mop strings and some confetti strands.

 This next piece used the same things, different amounts of dye color - mostly gold.

 I never know what I'm going to do with my prints and usually wind up making too little of one color way. Next time I do this, I will stick with the same colors throughout so I have lots of choices to work with.

 This next piece is one of my favorites - done on silk charmeuse; this will be a border.

 And here is the wonderful magical mat that made all those great rock shapes.

 purchased at Bed, Bath and Beyond.

 I've also done some screen printing using a leaf shape.

 and some smaller leaf shapes.

And of course a tree - a very small part but works well with the rest of the fabric.

I'm still putting combinations together and we'll see what happens.

Nature Center Inspiration

I had my 8 month old granddaughter visiting this past week and one of the things we did was to visit the Nature Center in Asheville.  It's been many years since I've been there and there are many more animals and walking paths, picnic areas - it was a wonderful day.

 All of the animals are native to this part of the country making it more personal and fun.

 Audrey was fascinated with the huge snake she tried to reach out and touch, oops except for that glass in the way.

 The cougars were among my favorite. Being a lover of cats, it was fun to see the big cats doing the same thing as my 4 domestic ones.

 And there are still lots of "winter trees" which I love with all the crazy configuration of branches.

 
My most fascinating time was with the wolves....all kinds - red, grey and white, and at one point they all set to howling, each kind of wolf had a different howl -  it was amazing. One of those moments you wish for but rarely happen. And so here is my inspiration - to photograph these beautiful animals through a chain linked fence or glass. I did both but when I did the glass, the trees behind me reflected on the glass and came through on the picture of the wolf I didn't realize this until I downloaded the photos. I love the "double exposure" kind of thing and am thinking I might want to do a quilt using this picture.

Windows I Redone - DONE!

I've had some time to work with my Windows piece - see last weeks post. I was never really happy with it - one of the things being the colors so I decided to change the color palette.  

Through the use of couching threads and paintsticks, I created a very different look.

I love using paintsticks and find that I use them more and more.

Sometimes just a touch applied with a very tiny stencil brush (around 1/4" in diameter) does the trick.  A little bit of gold and aqua were added to trees to help carry the new color theme throughout.

I also brushed a little bit of Lumiere textile paint across one of the fabrics for a little sparkle.

Then I had to decide where to put the borders - black on top or bottom.

Bottom won out.

I wrote on one of the fabrics with charcoal and since it was an art quilt, sprayed it with a fixative to make it permanent. The black border was an old Damask tablecloth which was dyed with a blue-ish black and worked well with the blues in this piece.

I stitched around the trees with monofilament and also gold thread to highlight it in places

and added a little writing on one of the borders.

So from this...

to this.....DONE!

Nuno Felting

Yesterday we had our Fiber Junkies meeting.  Our meetings are worked around each one's schedule so there is no set date and we always manage to have a full house.  This months project was Nuno felting.  This type of felting involves the use of wool rovings and a very sheer fabric that the rovings can be felted to.  We used a 3.5 mm silk gauze which was dyed a pretty blue. 

We start by laying down a piece of bubble wrap, laying the silk gauze on top of that. The third layer was the rovings.  We all had our own agenda as to what we wanted our piece to be.  Kate was working on a nature scene to incorporate into a quilt: she did long strips of rovings to look like trees.  This was the start of it with more rovings to come later.

 Gen was working on a scarf with pretty pastel colored rovings just down the middle and edges.

 Val was covering her entire piece of silk gauze with rovings, curls, threads and sparkles.  Things other than rovings won,t felt to the gauze so they must be sandwiched between the rovings. You can also use a needlepunch needle or machine at the end of the process to catch any stragglers.

 Mary was doing a piece to use in her felted pictures.  She'll cut this up and make several wonderful little pieces.

 I was doing a scarf using purple rovings and a few "pop color" curls.

 Next we covered the entire piece with sheer nylon fabric similar to curtain fabric. This took 2 people so as not to disturb the rovings so carefully placed.

 We gently wet the entire surface with warm water.

 We rubbed the surface with bar soap inside a stocking (the stocking makes it easy to hold). This starts the process of felting.

 After a while, the sheer cover is removed.

 There is still a lot more felting to do.

 The pieces were rolled up in bubble wrap. I've also used bamboo blinds which also works for agitating the rovings. We rolled and rolled (good for the arm muscles) and occasionally "sipped".

 And the before and after - Presenting the "After". They are still wet and look different and more wonderful when dry - Mary's above.

 and Kates....

 and mine.

 Gen is modeling hers. She's a first time Nuno felter and did a great job!

And all of us - happy campers. We had fun catching up, trying a new technique and building up our arm muscles.

Windows I - Redone

I started this quilt several years back using photos of windows and rock walls I loved. The windows had a haunting quality to them and the rock walls were old and interesting.

BUT, hard as I tried, I never connected with this piece. I left it on my design wall for a long time with no clue what it was that bothered me, so eventually I packed it away with other UFOs. Since this was the year to rework, finish or toss, I decided to give it another try.

I really loved the windows with the peeling paint and crumbling cement which is why I held onto it.

I think what bothered me about the original piece was this big tree, and since it was silk screened on with textile paint, it was there to stay.

It just took over the whole quilt - what was I thinking.

So I took it apart, putting aside the pictures I liked and wanted to use again.

I tossed the smaller pieces (above) even though I usually save the tiniest bits of fabric and thread; I just wanted them gone.

I decided on a new color palette. Some of the digital imagery had a blue-ish cast to it, so I decided to pull in that color using thread, paintstiks and fabric.

This beautiful couching thread is from Kreinik Threads and left over from my Fairfield Fashion show designing days when the sponsors sent you tons of stuff.  It's a little thicker and stiffer than the Candlelight I always use but the color was perfect.

It does add some nice sparkle and brings out the blue in the tree, so we'll see what happens as I move along - more next time.