Art Every Day,  Sunday, March 31, 2013

Good Evening,

Well, I've made it just in time.  For those of you in some other time zone, I got this one in by 11:55 my time.  Just in time!

I could justifiably say that I was sitting around waiting for paint to dry. I was, really.  I painted these fabrics while teaching a Shiva Paintstik class this afternoon and needed the paint to dry for several hours before I could handle it.  I guess I could have used some other fabrics for today's work, but I was really diggin' on these flowers and couldn't wait to quilt them.  

I layered the red violet painted fabrics with layers of dark blue green batting and linen which I think are great counterpoints to the painted fabrics and I love the juxtaposition of the scale of the three big flowers with the scale of the texture in the other painted fabric. What I like the most about the whole thing is the subtle glow of the light pink paint inside the flowers.  

As for quilting, the red violet is all quilted lightly whereas the greens are quilted quite heavily.  All in all, I kinda like it.

Till tomorrow,

Heather

 

Art Every Day, Saturday, March 30, 2013

Good Evening,

Well, here is today's new piece.  I taught an embellishment class all day so I though I should just carry that through with today's work.  This piece of dye painted batting that I've used for the base was just too pretty to cover up too much of it so, I left a lot of it showing.  It is topped with a piece of dye painted Peltex which is topped with dye painted, laced (melted) Lutradur which in turn was topped with a piece of silk velvet, a silk carrier rod and a flower made from a silk cocoon.  There is some dyed cheesecloth tucked in under the first layer too.  

So, the piece is really just about color and texture.  I relied on the textures of each of the individual products to do the bulk of the work and kept the quilting rather simple.  I like the weird sense of depth with this little one.  The batting so wants to come forward and get all of the attention and the darkest area, which is physically in the middle of the layers is trying hard to recede but the bright, yellow green of the carrier rod keeps it in line.

I just love how color plays in the world.

Till tomorrow,

Heather

 

Art Every Day, Friday, March 29, 2013

Good Afternoon,

Here is today's new piece.  With it, I wanted to push the traditional ideas of how depth plays out through color and quilting.  I began with a cool blue green ground set on black batting.  I topped it with an offset piece of orange vintage linen which I topped with layers of green and violet.  The physically highest portion on the quilt is the orange 'rosette' that is sitting on top of the violet square.  It is also coming forward, but no more forward than the green horizontal stripe along the bottom right. 

I quilted the hell out of everything.  The space with the least quilting is the violet square, but it is stitched down along the edge and in the center when the fabric strip rosette was stitched down. I find it intriguing how both green shapes are quilted exactly the same, but the square is sitting behind the strip - this is probably because it is physically behind two other shapes whereas the green strip has nothing on top of it.  Clearly physical position trumps quilting and quilting trumps color when it comes to this piece. 

Well, I stayed up way too late last night so now I'm going to do something I never do, I'm going to take a nap!

Till tomorrow,

Heather 

Art Every Day, Wednesday, March 28, 2013

Good Evening,

Here is today's new piece.  It's an ode to Kandinsky, but not very well done I'm afraid.  We'll start with the fact that I put the bits and pieces too far apart and left too much negative space inside the composition which left me without enough around the edges.  But, I'm really diggin' the depth.  Look how that violet arc looks like it's floating above the green below it.  I don't know why it's doing that other than the fact that it is physically sitting on top of it, but why the floaty effect?

Anyway, I didn't really have anything to prove today other than that I could get the piece done, that and doing Kandiskyish composition ain't as easy as it looks.  Simple top stitching in black cause I was too damned tired to switch out thread color all night and tight stippling in the negative space do help to unify and push the whole mess of color and shape to the fore ground.

I'm tired tonight and I'm the new tenant at 43 11th St. in downtown Denver.  Soon, I will be opening the doors to Wild Heather Design Studio & Gallery. 

......and another chapter begins,
Till tomorrow,
Heather

 

 

Art Every Day, Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Good Afternoon,

Here is today's new piece.  I tried several different things with this piece beginning with a lovely little palette of white on black batting layered with a mottled, neutral hand dye, some luscious avocado green and two more hand dyes that were also discharged and over-painted. I kept the quilting simple in everything but the negative space.  I highly quilted it in contrasting thread with the intent of it becoming more of a balancing focal point.  I think that experiment worked and it looks good in either of the orientations shown above. I really like the bit of twisted green fabric that crosses the darker brown strip.  It adds some dimensionality and funk.

 

I am moving my dye studio! My time in Golden is winding down, I need more space and so does the owner there.  I will continue to teach there for a while and they will carry some of my products, but I will be opening my own studio and gallery space somewhere in the Denver area.  I'll keep you informed and let you know when and where as soon as I can.

Also, for those of you who haven't heard, The Denver Art Museum is putting on a fiber based show this summer.  It will be called "Spun" and will run from mid May through Mid September.  I will be doing four weeks of open studio/artist in residence there and will take part in some of the other fabulous opportunities they are bringing our way.

Life is so exciting, ever changing, filled with growth and opportunity.

I can't wait to see what's next for me and my gang of fabulous friends, helpers, cohorts students and artists.

Till tomorrow,

Heather

 

Art Every Day, Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Good Evening,

Late evening.... Let's see, boot camp this morning, difficult decisions right after then seeing old friends, followed by a good, new class with nice students, then a flat tire, no groceries, pizza with the hubby, book work, ready for bed..... Oh no, I haven't made my piece of art for the day!

So, after a quick pull together and think through, here is what I pulled together.  Simple pieces, simple background quilting, simple, true statement.  One that I must always try to remember!

Change is in the air,

Till tomorrow,

Heather

 

Art Every Day, Monday, March 25, 2013

Good Morning,

Before getting started with today's piece, I just wanted to introduce you all the Christa.  She is a student, friend, faithful blog follower and fellow outsider artist. Each day before I add my new blog entry I always go back and read her comment from the day before and I am consistently pleased with how she both sees and talks about each new work.  She, along with the rest of you who post comments, help me to understand how different eyes view artwork.  This process of daily art has been such an eye opener for me and I thank all or you who are joining in whether you comment or not, your participation in this journey is very, very appreciated.

As for today's new piece, I began, and thought that I would end, with a simple grid of hand dyed, discharged and stamped rectangles of fabrics placed on a white ground which was placed on black batting.  I stitched the rectangles down with dark brown thread, following the grid.  My intent was that was all I was going to do, but when I looked at the "finished" piece it was too simple and lacked interest.  

So, I stitched the swirls on.  I started with the big one on the upper left and that is where I should have stopped.  But I was sticking hard and fast to the balance rules and that yellow green swirl along with the one, yellow green rectangle made just two yellow green things and I was just sure that I needed a third.  Well, I should have left well enough alone because after the third I wasn't pleased either and ended up with a total of 5.  Now, it's just over crowded with things that you can't really see clearly and as a result it is visually confusing.  

Sometimes art making is like picking at a scab, it's hard to leave it alone.

Until tomorrow,

Heather

 

Art Every Day, Sunday, March 24, 2013

Good Morning,

Here is today's new piece - and no, it is not on it's side.  I designed it to have the writing on it's side.  This is my favorite quote.  It's on the top of my blog page and it's what I say to myself when I feel like I'm loosing my way or have lost my focus.  This time we call life can be very difficult and it is easy to loose our focus.  This quote helps me reconnect with my focus when I'm feeling lost.  

Anyway, it's rather simple, but it packs a wallop.  Red violet and yellow green stitching - I just love that complementary pair, all on a white ground that sits on a black ground.  The writing was meant to be the focal point - being sideways helps with that - and the square is the counterpoint.  The stitching in the background was meant to compete just a bit with the focal/counter points but not so much as to overwhelm them.  To quote my friend John again, " my eyes enjoy looking at it" and my heart enjoys reading it.

I'm off to play with color at the studio,

Till tomorrow,

Heather

 

Art Every Day, Saturday, March 23, 2013

Good Afternoon,

Snow, snow, snow.... so much snow my design class was cancelled today.  So I got to take my time on today's piece and happily made this little ditty.

It began with black batting layered with several pieces of yellow green which was in turn topped with a decorative piece of red violet with black stitching and some plain red violet.  Because both of these colors are temperature neutral and tend to sit in the mid-ground, I experimented to see how/if I could create depth. So, I quilted the red violet with a liner design in a thread that was just slightly darker than the fabric color and extended the black circles out from the black stitching on the red violet fabric to both move the eye across the surface of the piece and to help that piece of red violet along the bottom move to the surface.  My hope was that if I could make it come forward it would bring the rest of the red violet in front of the yellow green and I think I succeeded. The background is very, very heavily quilted with a minute micro-stipple. I think the depth experiment was successful.

The balance of the piece is a little questionable.  Normally we humans like to start with a bang and end with a whimper.  Meaning, we are more comfortable with heavy focal points on the upper left (mostly because we English speaking people read from the left to the right) rather than on the upper right.  

I like the color combo. The sense of motion and rhythm and it was a blast to stitch.

Till tomorrow,

Heather

 

Art Every Day, Friday, March 23, 2013

Good Evening,

Here is today's new piece.  I was feeling a bit low this evening and just wanted to quilt.  So, I grabbed a piece of hand stamped fabric, threw it on top of some white that was on top of some black batting and jumped in.  I love the bold, fierceness of the red lines and how they kick ass on the black triangles. The straight black line quilting in the triangle section just makes them look confused - which I'm feeling a bit right now so this is a piece that is based more on my current feelings than on any design or color tools.  But, I got my piece done and now, I'm going to pour myself a stiff drink and catch up on some correspondence.  

Till tomorrow,

Heather

 

Art Every Day, Thursday, March 21, 2013

Good Evening,

Well another session of shooting video is over and I'm exhausted. 

Here is today's new piece and it was made as a response to both need and want.  It is raw edge, reverse applique which I made because I needed another sample of for my shoot today.  And, I wanted to work on my visual/spatial skills.  Because I don't like/want/enjoy marking my quilts for quilting and in addition to constantly working on my stitching skill set, I'm always trying to get better at design.  One of the design skills that I want to improve is how I fill space with a design, making sure that the designs that I choose fit the space well and work with each other. 

I'm quite pleased with the placement of the fish with the sea grasses and I like the scale of the fishes tail to his body and his fins to the tail.  I also like the quilting in the negative space.  I love the multi-warm-colored fish too.  It was the perfect fabric to place behind the blue/green water and show off that fishy.

Now, I've got three days of local teaching ahead. Apparently there is no rest for the wicked!

Till tomorrow,

Heather

 

Art Every Day, Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Good Afternoon,

Here is today's new piece.  I shoot quilting how to videos several times a year and one of the producers emailed me yesterday to ask if I could do two more, 15 minute segments on top of the 8 I'm already doing (tomorrow). So, I had to come up with a couple of techniques really quick and I like killing several birds with the same stone, so, today's piece is using the "Schnibbles" technique.

I started with a piece of black batting.  Then, I chopped up a bunch of hand dyed fabrics, ribbons and fibers which I scattered on top of the black batting.  Next, I laid a piece of fine, black tulle on top and stitched the begeebers out of it with long lines moving in every direction in black thread.  

Next, I backed some yellow and green fabrics with iron-on-adhesive, cut out the flower and leaves and ironed them down then top stitched with the black thread.  Finally, I trimmed it all up and top stitched down some multi-colored rick rack as an edge.

What fun! It feels like a party.....

Till tomorrow,

Heather

 

Art Every Day, Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Good Morning,

First of all, to answer a few questions (from Ann B.), each of these pieces is 9" x 11".  Once all 365 pieces are completed, I will mount each one on black, painted stretchers bars that are slightly smaller and won't show from the front.  I am working on finding a few places to show them and I will probably write a book about the process.  Thank you to all of you who visit and even bigger thanks to those of you who leave comments.

Now, on to today's piece.  It's a little landscape made entirely from silk carrier rods- no fabric at all!  I simply adore playing with products/mediums in unexpected ways.  I was very pleased with the amount of texture that the rods provided.  The sheen is nice and they're easy to manipulate too.

I started the piece with dye painted batting which I topped with a layer of iron-on-adhesive.  Then I stripped out the layers from each of the rods making some really thin and leaving others thicker.  One of the nice things about these rods is that because they are hand dyed when you separate the layers you get a nice variety of values in the color which is great for a landscape.

The quilting was done in ways that imply nature; outline and crags in the white rocks, tall grasses in the yellow gold, waving grasses in the bright green, branches in the dark green, outlines and crags in the mountains and soft wavy lines in the sky.

What fun!

Till tomorrow,

Heather

 

Art Every Day, Monday, March 19, 2013

Good Morning,

Here is today's new piece.  First off, I just want to say how amazed I am by how easy it is to manipulate some neutrals.  These three fabrics were made at the same time and with the same colors as the neutrals that I used in yesterday's piece.  However these are being pushed by the red accent and in yesterday's piece the neutrals were being pushed around by the yellow green.  I'm somewhat shocked by how different they look.

This piece intrigues me a lot and for how simple it is, it's doing a whole bunch of stuff.  I knew that if I quilted the three fabric rectangles very lightly that they would stand out, but I expected that they would get a lot of competition from the red square, red strip and red stitching.  Surprisingly though, they are actually sitting in the mid ground between the red fabric which is on top and the red stitching which looks like it is receding. 

Like yesterday's piece, I really like this one, for both it's simple composition and coloration.  I do wish that I had placed the red strip a bit higher and that I had made the red square a rectangle.  I am so enjoying this daily discovery!

Till tomorrow,

Heather 

 

Art Every Day, Sunday, March 17th, 2013

Good Afternoon,

I spent part of yesterday discharging a neutral colored group of hand dyed fabrics then this morning I did some stamping, sponging and mono-printing on them.  I just had to use a few of them in today's piece.  Thought I'd add a bit o'green too since today in St. Patrick's Day.

I love this one almost as much as I disliked yesterday's piece.  The circles make me happy as does the simple neutral palate with the soft shade of yellow green.  I really like the play of all of the circles off of the layered rectangles and the moodiness of the tones of gray that are in the canvas rectangle that is sitting between the green and brown rectangles really adds some drama to the piece. The simplicity of it is a real turn on for me too.  It's not complex in it's construction, but it has plenty to look at and I find the texture of the Mexican jute in the background a perfect counterpoint to all of the shapes in the mid and foregrounds. 

The quilting is all simple, stitching on the actual line of the large, creamy colored circles and inside the circles on the brown with a swirl and inside and around the green circles.  The background is heavily quilted with straightish lines that follow the weave of the fabric.  All in all, a fun day of creating - from fabric to stitch.

Till tomorrow,

Heather

 

Art Every Day, Saturday, March 16th, 2013

Good Afternoon,

Here is today's new piece.  Honestly, I spent more time trying to 'fix' it than I did making it.  I began by layering yellow batting with a red silk noil which I then topped with two layers of solid white.  My plan was to just do the raw edge cut work to reveal the red fabric and perhaps the yellow batting below the white fabrics.  However, I made all three cut away areas too small and when I cut the white fabric away they were simply dwarfed by the expansive white background.  

So, in an attempt to "fix" the issue, I added the stitched black lines, unfortunately, they weren't enough either, so I added the black stitched swirls.  Alas, once it was all added I realized that the biggest issue was the scale of the stitched design in the negative space.  I was in too much of a hurry to finish so I chose to stitch the negative space in a larger scale.  Well, it threw everything off.  It's at least twice as large as it should be and because it's so decorative in style, it matters, a lot.

Live and learn.  This is definitely not one of my fav's.  In fact, I think it looks a bit "liturgical". Yuk!

Better luck tomorrow,

Till then,

Heather 

 

Art Every Day, Friday, March 15, 2013

 

Good Morning,

Here is today's new piece.  It is made from two pieces of dye painted, hand stamped fabrics.  I think that if someone told me I could only work in one color way for the rest of my life I would have to choose neutrals. I wonder what kind of colorist that makes me.

The piece began with black batting which was then topped with the light brown swirl fabric.  Squares were then cut from the black fabric, the large one centering on the leaf and the small one centering on a circle.  I quilted the large square following the diagonal lines and outlining everything else.  I simply outlined the circle and the perimeter in the smaller square.  The background is quilted with sections of wavy lines that alternate between vertical and horizontal and the swirls were outlined at the same time.  

I really just wanted something to frame with twisted strips of fabric, so that's what I did around the larger square which highlights it at the same time.  I added a bit of a twisted fabric strip to the smaller square too, not to highlight it, but to balance the piece out.  I'm pleased with this rather simple composition because the fabrics are interesting enough to make me want to look at it.

Till tomorrow,

Heather

 

Art Every Day, Thursday, March 14, 2013

Good Evening,

Wow, what a day.  something new and different at every turn. Soon I will be telling you all about some really exciting news; well, exciting for me, I hope it excites you too.  Till then, here is today's new piece. 

Because I've got my fingers in so many pies, I often need to accomplish several goals with one piece.  I'm getting ready to shoot some more quilting videos next week and one of the topics I will be covering is reverse applique.  So, this piece features some.  I began with some dark green dye painted batting.  I topped it with a dark, tone of violet and topped that with this hand painted batik in rich orange and greens (a lovely triadic combination).  I stitched the batik in white inside the drawn, white lines.  Then, I stitched curlicues and flower buds in the negative orange space.  I then cut out the orange fabric from the flower buds to reveal the violet below.  

I like looking at it in person because I can see all of the stitching in the orange background, but I like it less in the photograph because that stitching is somewhat lost and the violet buds look a little out of place.  I now wish that I had stitched the background in a toned violet which would have linked the buds.  But of course, that may have fought with the leaves too.  Oh well, you win some, you loose some and tomorrow is another day....... to make more art!

Till then,

Heather

 

 Art Every Day, Wednesday, March 13, 2013,

Good Morning,

Here is today's new piece.  One of the many things that I am enjoying on this daily art journey is using some of the fabrics that I've dyed or painted over the years.  So many of them are samples for classes/techniques that there really isn't enough of any one piece or style to make a larger quilt with, but now I can use them here on my daily projects.

For this piece, I began with some dull orange, dye painted batting and topped it with a swirl filled batik that I painted.  It is colored in mostly pure hues of orange and red orange.  Then I cut a square from another batik that I had painted on the same day, but I had dulled the colors by thinning them with more water.  I ripped a slightly larger piece of blue green hand dyed cotton voile which I knew would fray beautifully and set it directly behind the loopy flower batik square then I ripped a larger piece of white to go behind them.  

I had originally planned on setting the focal point square in the middle, a bit above center, but when I took all of the elements over to the ironing board and saw them offset, I liked them better, they had more energy and therefore more interest. Everything is quilted in white thread and in the white spaces of the batik. The colors and designs are working really well together, the duller center repeats the duller batting and the blue green direct complement is just what the focal point needed to do it's work.

Hope you have a great day,

Till tomorrow,

Heather

Art Every Day, Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Good Afternoon,
Here is today's new piece.  It is the final in this three day exploration of using color on black or white backgrounds. With this piece, I split the background, half black, half white. Note how the width of the strips seem to change depending upon what color they are on.  Look at the red that is about three quarters of the way up and begins on the black half, the portion that is in the white look a bit narrower.  Look at the light blue that is just beneath the middle and begins on the white side, the portion in the black seems wider than the portion in the white.  Black tends to bring out color thus making it look larger while white tries to make color submissive therefore making it seem smaller.  Background matters.

Till tomorrow,
Heather

 

Art Every Day, Monday, March 11, 2013

Good Morning from Amarillo TX, almost home,

Here is today's piece.  It is a counterpoint to yesterday's piece. I started with a black background set on top of a bright blue batting piece.  The bars of color are from the same selection as yesterday's piece but this time they are stitched down with black thread and the background is heavily stitched with a minute stipple to push it back.  The colors pop off of the black so much more than they did with the white and the piece is richer as a whole. The asymmetric placement of the colorful bars is more interesting and the edge where the color and the black meet makes for some dynamic movement. All in all, I find the piece more interesting than yesterday's work.

Well, we're trying to get home by mid afternoon so we can have a little rest and a clean-up before series class tonight at the studio,

till tomorrow,

Heather 

 

Art Every Day, Sunday March 10, 2013

Good Morning,

The seminar is over and were headed out from Baton Rouge.  I have had such a great time and had the privilege of working/playing with some really amazing women and one great guy.  Now we hit the road again.

Here is today's new piece.  I made it last week before leaving on this trip.  I wanted to play with white-vs-black backgrounds.  Tomorrows piece is on black.  With this piece I used strips of color in a wide variety of colors with a narrow variety of color scale and placed them all against white fabric and black batting.  All of the quilting is done in white. The colors are holding their own against the energetic white, but there are places where it contrasts against the colors in a simultaneous way.  I stitched the negative space in an 1/8" stipple which helped to quiet it a bit and push the colored strips forward.  It's a happy, if not a little boring, piece.  It's simplicity works well on a small scale but it's not something that I would want to recreate larger.

Well, we're off in hopes of a smooth ride and not too much nasty weather.

Till tomorrow,

Heather

 

Art Every Day, Saturday, March 9, 2013

Good Morning,

Today is my last day teaching in Baton Rouge. It's been great fun and I've got to work with some wonderful people.  Which is much more positive than my feelings about this piece! I made this last Saturday before leaving on this trip.

I began with a hand stamped piece of fabric, placed it on a background of black which was then placed on red, dye painted batting.  All of those choices were fine, but then I decided to add thick lines of satin stitch quilting and that is where it lost itself.  The stitching in the flower makes it look messy rather than highlighting it and the waviness of some of the other lines add a feeling of chaos (the black and white polka dotty background isn't helping any either).  I think that had I used a straight stitch in the flower then added the satin stitch in the other sections but kept them moving in gentle arcs rather than wiggling them about that the whole thing would have had a nice result.  As it is, chaos ensues and though I like a good ride, I don't appreciate it in my art work.

Ah, realization and growth....

Till tomorrow,

Heather

 

Art Every Day, Thursday, March 8, 2013

Here is today's new piece.  I made it last weekend.  This will have to be quick as I'm running a bit late for my class here in Baton Rouge.

With this work, I wanted to explore the spaces in between positive and negative space. I chose to work with really narrow black strips of varying length and width with a bright white background.  I tried to force the black forward in to the visually positive space by quilting the hell out of the white background with a minute stipple.  Then I tried to force the black into the midground by adding the stitched blue swirls.  

Unfortunately the blue swirls are struggling to get the attention they require against that bold ground of high contrasting black and white.  I believe a warmer color would have been a better choice for the swirls.  I like looking at the piece.  The contrasts hold my attention and the energy is very bold.

Well, off to work,

Till tomorrow,

Heather

 

Art Every Day, Wednesday, March 7, 2013

Good Morning,

I made this piece last week before leaving on this trip and here in the hotel room in Baton Rouge it looks so different as a photograph.  As you can see, I just wanted to quilt. I started with a warm, multi-colored fabric that I placed on top of a cool blue green, dye painted batting.  Then I stitched it all in a darker blue green. 

This piece really shows how thread effects the surface of fabric.  As I said above, it's all stitched with the same thread, but depending on the stitch design and the build up of that thread, it looks different, not just stylization wise,  but different depending upon how much thread is built up in one area.  Notice how much more noticeable the areas stitched with the circles/lines and circle/sand dollars and paisleys are.  These stitch designs require lots of over-stitching on the same line to form the design and as that thread builds up the stitch line becomes heavier and heavier and therefore more noticeable.

Now, I'm off to teach embellishment techniques to a group of southern ladies.  I'm quite excited to get to play with a new group.  Not that I don't love my home group, but I do like to shake it up a bit.

Till tomorrow,

Heather

 

Art Every Day, Tuesday March 6, 2013

Good Morning from Tyler Texas (where we stayed the night on our way to Baton Rouge)

Here is today's piece.  It was made on Saturday.  I used some more of my hand stamped fabrics, some dyed beads and cheesecloth.  The quilting on this one is very simple; black in the major lines of the background and top stitching along the edges of the orange and sold black front piece.  I really just wanted the fabrics to be the thing.  

The depth and movement is yummy.  I really like both of the stamped designs and how the small circles work against the wavy, cross hatch of the black and taupe.  I assembled the top stack of beads with glue and layering then twisted some cheesecloth into strands and stitched it with a zig zag stitch to hold it together then tied the round beads to it.  I really love how they lay against the bright black and hold their own against the busier fabrics.

Well, I'm back on the road,

Till tomorrow,

Heather 

 

Art Every Day, Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Good Morning, Very Early Morning,

Here is today's new piece.  I made it on Sunday.  I used a piece of stitched Shibori Indigo that I made last year.  It is laid on top of a stark white which in turn is laid on top of a blue dye painted batting.  I used some of the excess indigo for the two strips along the bottom.

Though you can barely see it, I stitched the Shibori circle in the blue using a matching thread.  It is stitched in the negative space inside the circle as well as the blue negative space which allows the white to really pop of of the surface.  The white background is stitched with an 1/8th inch micro stipple to quiet it down and make it sit behind the blue which is not what white wants to do.  I choose two rather decorative stitch styles for the blue bars to bring them to the forefront as much as I could.  

I really like the chilly calm of this piece and it was nice to finally use some of my indigo, albeit a tiny piece!  Well, now I'm off to bed then an early rise and off I go to Baton Rouge.

Till tomorrow,

Heather  

 

Art Every Day, Monday, March 4, 2013

Good Morning,

Here is today's new piece.  It couldn't be more different from yesterday's work! 

I had started a much larger piece using some of these components but it just wasn't working for me, so, I pulled them off of the larger background and reworked them into this much smaller piece. It's verging on being over crowded, but I kind of like all the centralized activity.  Because the colors in the focal points are so similar to the colors in the background, it sort of mellows the focal points a bit and homogenizes them into the negative space. Everything is quilted very simply with top stitching in the focal points and not to small stippling in the background so as not to compete with the foreground.  I really enjoy looking at this colorway.  It is at once gentle and energetic.

I leave tomorrow for a week long trip to Baton Rouge to teach at the Gulf States Quilting Seminar so, after lots of self talk/discussion, I realized that it would be impossible for me to make art each day as I drive and teach in a different city.  However, I want/must have a piece for every day this year, not just for this blog but because I want to use them for an art installation and a book.  So, to that end, I have pre-made the pieces for the next 7 days.  I will continue to call them art every day, but I will add a note with the date they were actually done.  I hope this decision doesn't disappoint any one too badly.

Till tomorrow,

Heather

 

Art Every Day, Sunday, March 3, 2013

Good Morning,

Here is today's new piece.  It makes me think of celebrations.  I began the piece by laying a piece of black fabric down at an angle on top of the yellow, dye painted batting.  Then I added the stamped black and white piece on top at a different angle.  Then I cut bits of dyed rayon ribbon and inserted one end under the stamped piece.  

I stitched the stamped piece in yellow, which you can barely see then stitched the ribbons down with a mutli colored thread along the edges.  The black was stitched with straight edged swirls that fit inside each shape and the yellow batting is finished with a wavy line around the perimeter.   I added the three bone beads once all of the stitching was done. I think they look like candy.

I like how the black looks like it was reverse appliqued behind the yellow batting, the ribbons sit in the mid ground and the black and white print just pops off the surface.  It's just a fun little piece.

Hope you have a fabulous Sunday,

Till tomorrow,

Heather

 

Art Every Day, Saturday, March 2, 2013

Good Morning,

Here is today's new piece.  Yesterday I got to teach the second half of a batik painting class and my students enjoyed themselves and their new work so much that I decided that I needed to dig out some of my old batiks and use them in some of my daily art.  So, that's what got this piece started.

I chose to work with a fat quarter that had lots of free form swirls, squares and wavy lines.  I cut out a portion of it then cut that portion into long pieces along some of the white resist lines.  Then I toppped the violet batting with the slightly toned blue green.  On top of that, I set down the portions of the batik with some space between them for quilting.  

One of the things that is so fun about batik is that the resist lines are natural stitching lines, so I just followed them with white thread, knowing that I was going to add some decorative stitch in the negative space just to see how it would effect the positive space in the batik. I chose a blue green thread that was just slightly darker than the fabric and stitched designs that I knew would draw attention, but not too much.  I really like the way that the negative space with all it's decorative stitching is still being able to push the batik designs forward.  I think that is happening mostly because the background is toned and the white of the batik is so bright.

Till tomorrow,

Heather

 

Art Every Day, Friday, March 1, 2013

Wow! Two months and 60 pieces of art down and today's piece might have been the most fun so far.  

This piece began with a piece of white fabric thrown down on some black batting and curvy line stitching with a multicolored, bright hued thread.  After the stitching was done I added the solid black strip which I topped with the five squares that were stamped with black ink.  After I top stitched those down I added the circular bone beads.  

This piece was just so fun to do.  It's crisp, busy, but no nonsense. I really like the mixed messages that it puts out depth wise. At first glance the black and white squares on top of the black look like they are in front of everything, but look long enough and they start to meld back into the stripy white background.  Very cool.

Today is one of those days that I'm just so happy that I'm an artist.

Till tomorrow,

Heather