Art For Another Day, Oct 12, 2014

Good Afternoon Again,

Here is another catch up piece made from more discharged fabrics from last weeks retreat.  I had two light blue/violet fabrics, one with a floral discharge design which I silk screened on with one of my stencils and the other with triangles all over it discharged with a hand cut stamp.  I layered up the floral strip with a deep violet silk noil on top of a light violet silk gauze.  I laid that trio down on the triangle print which was sitting on top of a violet dye painted batting.

I simply outlined the floral print and top stitched around the edges of the fabric it was laying on.  Then I stitched around all of the triangles and stitched angled lines between them to push back the background. I like the soft, subtle tones of this piece as well as it's depth.

Till tomorrow,

Heather

 

Art Every Day, Oct 14, 2013

Good Afternoon,

Here is today's new piece.  It is made from a fabric that I discharged while on retreat last week.  I added a couple of narrow strips of black linen as well as some black batting to the discharged piece and chose a very, very simple layout so as to really show of the flower and the fancy grid printed in the fabric.

I quilted everything with matching red violet thread beginning with the black strip on the left which is stitched with an 1/8" grid.  Then I outlined the flower and added some stitching inside it following the lines in the petals.  The background is a mix of stippling and outlining and inlining the grid design.  I then couched on a narrow black strip for the flower center.

When all of the stitching was complete I added a bunch of iron on crystals to the black strip and the flower center to give them both a punch of interest.  The piece has a subtle beauty along with some funk.  I like that.

Till later,

Heather

 

Art For Oct 11, 2013,

Good Evening Yet Again,

Here is another piece made with some of the fabric that I made at the Taos retreat.  The background fabric was dispersed dyed using Decolourant Plus in a pale gray, dark red violet and yellow orange.  The gray is printed using a hand cut stamp.  The orange was done with the end of a sponge and the red violet was sprayed on with a mister.  I chose a medium gray cotton, a dark red violet cotton and a yellow orange/orange silk noil. It's all set on top of some black batting.

I'm sorry that the quilting isn't showing better, but it's great.  The dark red violet strip is stitched with circles.  The orange is stitched with straight lines moving in a swirl to the center of the shapes with the lines about 1/2" apart.  The gray is stitched heavily with a tiny stipple and the background is stitched with an all over interlaced triangular design that surrounds the orange rectangles to show them off.  

The piece has great depth due to the density of the quilting in each of the physical layers.  I love this color way with the red violet and orange along with gray.  It's a bit retro yet ultra mod at the same time.

Till tomorrow,

Heather 

 

Art For Oct 10, 2013

Good Evening Again,

Here is a piece that I disperse dyed while at my Taos retreat last week.  This statement, " ...and then we set it on fire." will be the theme of next year's Taos retreat.  I absolutely love the sentiment.  It has so many meanings.  We did set lots of stuff on fire while at the retreat; batting, fabric, sage and we melted Lutradur, felt and Peltex too. But the statement can also refer to how "hot" our students were and how wild some of the techniques are that we taught but most of all it refers to how fiery the art is that was made during the week. 

For this piece, I chose a piece of hand dyed cotton, some hand dyed Mexican Jute and some dye painted batting, all in varieties of violet.  I lit the edges of the dyed cotton to burn it then layered it up on top of the jute and batting and topped it with the bleached words. 

The words are quilted inside the letters to make them clearer and easier to read.  Then I outlined the words and heavily stitched the blue background with a small stipple.  The burned fabric is stitched in various sized swirls in matching thread and the jute is stitched with a straight cross hatch.

The piece is very simple but the quilting adds lots of texture and visual interest and the piece has great depth.

Till next time,

Heather

Art for Oct 9, 2013
Good Evening Again,
Here is a piece that I made while at the Taos retreat last week. It features a metal piece that I made in I.V. Anderson's class.  It has the words "Let it be" stamped on it along with highly textured edges.  I set it on top of a piece of Lutradur that had been dye painted a deep orange then I hit the Lutradur with a hot, hot heat gun to lace it and melt it around the edges of the metal.
I set these two on top of a piece of black Linen that I disperse dyed with bleach, a comb and a round stamp.  I quilted the black inside the discharged lines using a matching thread and glued down the metal/Lutradur bit.  I like the simplicity of this piece along with the bold metal piece and the very important words.
Till next time,
Heather

 

Art Every Day, Sunday, Oct 13, 2013,

Good Evening,

Here is today's new piece.  I spent the past 5 days teaching at my retreat and did a good deal of surface design while demonstrating to students.  This piece is hand painted  using Jacquard paints.  I thought it turned out quite vintage looking, 1950's sort of.  So, I paired it with a coordinate that i painted along with some black linen and a black batting.

I laid the flower print down on the batting, topped it with the wide strip of black linen then topped that with the striped fabric.  The flower print is heavily stippled around the flowers and tiny gold dots.  The black linen has two designs, circles and lines, stitched in pink thread for a high contrast.  The wavy lined fabric is stitched with more wavy lines.

I really like this piece.  The flowers were fun to paint and quilt around and I love the high contrast of the black and hot pink! The quilting makes the flowers look as though they have been stuffed and the wavy lines provide great movement.

Till next time,

Heather

Art for Yesterday, Tuesday, Oct 8, 2013
Good Morning,
Here is yesterday's piece.  When I finally made time to add it last night I couldn't find my camera.  I'm in Taos teaching at my yearly retreat and made this yesterday morning in the Deconstructed Lutradur class that I was teaching.  The smaller photo shows it before the Lutradur was melted and the larger photo shows the finished piece.
It's an easy process with a layer of collaged fabrics in warm colors set down on the green batting.  The fabric layer is then covered with a layer of painted Lutradur and it's all pinned in place.  Then I stitched it all with designs that yielded stitch that is about 1/2" apart.  Then I couched on some fiber swirls and hit the whole thing with a heat gun to lace up the Lutradur and reveal the warm colored fabrics below. 
I like the piece well enough, especially the lovely warm/cool play of colors, but I wish that I had not added the fiber swirls until after I had heated the Lutradur.  Then I would have done them in a color that would have contrasted more.
Hopefully I'll find time between classes to do today's piece.  If so, I'll talk to you later tonight.
Till then,
Heather

 

Art Every Day, Sunday, Oct 6, 2013

Good Morning,

Here is today's new piece.  It began with this fabulous vintage postcard that I had built this wonderful little assemblage with.  It was quite a bit larger, but I cut it down to fit the size of my daily pieces.  I love the direct complement of red oranges and just slightly green, blue green. 

I stitched the postcard around the circle and the leaves.  Then I stitched a wavy line up the copper tape and did some top stitching in the rest of the red orange fabrics.  The batting is stitched with a simple stipple. 

I really like the subtlety of the layering and how the circles in the printed fabric play off of all of the other fabrics and how the darkest blue fabric bits draw the eye up and away from the postcard then back to it. I like it much better now that it is smaller.  In it's full size there was far too much batting showing and it overwhelmed the postcard.  Now the postcard is getting all of the attention that it deserves.  I love doing collages.  They provide so much artistic freedom.

Till tomorrow,

Heather

 

Art Every Day, Saturday, Oct 5, 2013
Good Evening Again,
Here is today's piece.  It began with the small assemblage you see in the lower left hand corner.  I had made it sometime last year as a sample for something. It has a base of painted Peltex topped with several different papers, some Angelina fibers, a stream of glitter, some silk fibers, a silk cocoon and some other stuff. I threw it on top of some yellow silk noil which I then placed on the rest of a hand dye painted fabric filled with bold orange some yellow and some dull violet.  All of it went down on a base of black batting.
I stitched down the assemblage as minimally as possible then heavily stitched the yellow noil with close set straight lines. The orange background is done with a small stipple. 
I like the piece well enough, but my experiment of placing the focal point low in the corner isn't working for my eye.  I wish I had kept the yellow rectangle where it is but had placed the assemblage in the middle of it rather than down in the corner. Otherwise, I think the colors are warm and yummy and perfect for this cool weather.
Till tomorrow,
Heather

Art For Yesterday, Friday, Oct 4, 2013,
Good Evening,
Here is yesterday's piece. I had such a hectic day that I didn't get it loaded before I finally collapsed into bed at around midnight.  We had 1st Friday last night at the studio plus I'm hustling to get ready to leave for my retreat in Taos on Monday. Anyway......
This one began with some fabrics that I had layered together for some other reason, who knows, and I thought it was about time to use them. It's a rather busy, complex piece and their are areas where the layers of fabric are six deep! I like the violet/orange/green triadic color way and I really like all of the different visual and tactile textures.  The base is dye painted batting.  It's topped with a jacquard cotton with is topped with a light weight painted canvas which is topped with some yellow green canvas and some crinkled up yellow green paper with violet cheesecloth adhered to it.  There are strips of orange velvet in one of the top most layers along with some short strips of yellow green tucked under the ends of the velvet to give it greater contrast with the base fabric.  The three swirls are made from ripped strips of the base fabric.
The quilting is pretty straight forward, curvy lines in the cheese cloth area, just enough to hold it down, straight diagonal lines in the plain yellow green, top stitching in the strips, a large stipple in the violet and a wavy crosshatch in the orange.
Though there are things I like about the piece, it's a bit over the top for my taste.
Another one is coming right up,
Till then,
Heather

P.S.  Thank you Darcy for the comment from the other day.  I've been feeling a bit lonely here again.

 

Art Every Day, Thursday, Oct 3, 2013

Good Morning,

Here is today's newest piece.  It began with the multicolored fabric with the circles on it. I love the combo of warm oranges and reds with cool blue violet and I wanted to use the circular bone beads. 

Again, it is very simply organized, this time, so that both the printed fabric and the bone beads could shine.  I quilted the printed fabric with vertical, wavy lines that move between the dark blue violet circles and stitched outside of those circles with no stitch inside so that they would pouf. The twisted yellow gold fabric is top stitched down and the blue violet Mexican jute has long, horizontal lines stitched in it. 

I've done several pieces in this series with a similar composition.  It's easy to work with, has just enough interest and is restful.

Till tomorrow,

Heather

 

 Art Every Day, Wednesday, Oct 2, 2013

Good Afternoon,

Here is today's new piece.  Like the work from the past few days it is centered around a dye painted fabric.  I used it for the background and pulled in the orange and the blue with additional fabrics.

It's a rather straight forward piece.  I kept it very simple so that the printed fabric could shine.  I love it's big blue circles and bold warm colors on the crisp, white ground.  It is quilted lightly, just inside and outside the blue circles.  The orange fabric is quilted heavily with and 1/8" wavy grid and the black is top stitched along the edge with blue thread.  I chose a brighter blue for the circle in hopes that it would bring out the blue in the print and it did. 

All in all, it's a nice way to let the funky fabric do its thang.

Till tomorrow,

Heather

 

Art For Another Day, Sept 21, 2013,

Good Evening Again,

Here is another 'make-up' piece for last week when I was sick.  It was made from one of the uglier hand painted pieces that I made while demonstrating at the museum a few weekends ago.  The multicolored print included a clear green on white with stripes of dark red violet and bits of a dark violet gray.  Not a great color combo, but done at the end of the day with exhausted dyes. 

I laid the print down on some green dye painted batting and chose some dark black/gray silk gauze and some deep red violet cotton to add to the game.

I scrunched up the gauze and off set it to one side and twisted up strips of the red violet to mimic the stripes in the print.  There is very little quilting, just enough to hold stuff down.  I added the large green, bone "bead" at the last minute in an attempt to join the two disparate sides together. My studio pal, I.V. doesn't like this one - which she very seldom claims - but I like it's weirdness.  It's very different, but it's well balances, has good visual and tactile texture and nice interest.  It's just not a color way that we're used to seeing.  Imagine it in violets, blues and greens and it "feels" more normal.

Till tomorrow,

Heather

 

Art Every Day, Tuesday, Oct 1, 2013,

Good Evening,

Here is today's new piece.  It is like the past few days, based a a piece of dye painted fabric.  The  multicolored print came first then the reddish dye painted batting followed by the mottled orange and the mottled yellow.  

I ripped and laid all of the fabrics into position then quilted the hell out of the orange in an attempt to make it recede which I think it has.  Then I added some some circle quilting to the narrow yellow strip to echo the circles in the print.  Finally, I quilted around each of the large reddish circles in the print.

I liked it at that point, but I had ripped some strips of red fabric to use so I twisted those up and braided them loosely, something new, and tacked the braid down at the ends and a few areas in between. Now, I really like it.  It's bold yet simple, bright but not overwhelmingly so and the color way makes me happy.

I'm makin' up for some missed ones, so I'll see you back in a bit,

Till then,

Heather