Art Every Day, Wednesday, August,  7, 2013

Good Evening,

Here is today's new piece and I'm in love.  I began with the left over pieces of the the yellow green and white striped fabric that I had pieced for a free style quilt I made last year.  I added the deep violet and bright orange along with the hand painted swirly fabric and layered it all up on some violet dye painted batting.  

After I was pleased with the placement of all of the fabrics I started quilting.  I stitched the hell out of both the violet and orange with alternating straight and wavy lines that are about 1/8th inch apart.  Then I stitched the yellow green/white with a light yellow thread around the perimeter then in the lower and upper pieced sections I stitched close set vertical lines in the white segments and in the middle section I stitched close set vertical lines in the yellow green.

The swirly fabric was stitched around the swirls using the same light yellow thread then I stitched the big swirl in orange thread.  I love what the stitching in the alternate segments of the striped fabric does.  When stitched, the white recedes behind the yellow green and when the  yellow green is stitched it recedes behind the white. But either way, the pieced strips are both physically and visually in front of all the other fabrics. Because I stitched part of the orange swirl on top of the pieced yellow green/white section, it comes forward the most.  If I had stitched it only in the violet I have a feeling it would be sitting back with the strip of orange fabric.

Anyway, it was a blast to work with the stitched swirl again.  It's been a long while.  I really enjoy working with so much energy too!

Till tomorrow,

Heather

 

Art Every Day, Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Good Evening,

Here is today's new piece and it was a joy to make.... both times around.  I made the swirl fabric quite some time ago.  It is a batik made using Elmer's gel glue as a resist and  Dyenaflow paints.  I love swirls and circles both.  The movement of the swirl, the fullness of a circle.  They're both so female. 

Anyway, I chose a pink and orange hand dyed for the background and set it on orange dye painted batting.  I ironed some Misty Fuse to the back of the swirly Batik then cut out the large and small sections.  After playing with the positing for a bit I ironed everything in place.

The quilting is rather straight forward; white thread in the white portions of the swirls and a 1/4" grid in the negative space.  I chose to stitch the grid with straight lines rather than wavy, which would have been easier, so that I could practice straight line free motion quilting.  It ain't perfect, but it's not too bad. 

I like the depth that the swirls have.  In addition to the variation of sizes, this happened because of the way that I painted them.  They're sort of wonky with narrower sides and closer/farther apart lines and most of them are oblong rather than actual circles so that make them look as though they are bending.  I also like how the white pulls them to the forefront.  Because they are basically the same colors as the background, they could have easily gotten lost.  This was a good, creative day.  Wait till you see the project that I just finished.  Look for it in tomorrow's email and on Facebook.

Till then,

Heather

 

Art Every Day, Monday, August 5, 2013

Here is today's new piece.  Monday is my day off from the gallery/studio.  I spent most of today working on a new piece of art work at the studio, one that I saw in a dream.  It was great to be creative all day long and alone in my gallery/studio space, but it left very little umph for my daily piece.  Plus, I did this at home where I have very, very few supplies (must get my little home studio organized and stocked!). So, I had to throw this together with what ever was the least hairy (Levon, my old man cat, likes to sleep in my basket of fabric).  Sounds like I'm making excuses...... and I am.

Anyway, I began by layering a piece of hand dye with stitched circles on it on top of dye painted batting.  Then I ripped a rectangle of light violet linen and laid it in the upper left hand corner.  Then I ripped some strips (nothing new here) from a selection of cool colors of fabric.  

I went in and quilted over the stitched circles and stitched down the light violet rectangle.  Then, I twisted up the strips of fabric and couched them down in an overlapping grid - that's right, no circles! I couldn't think of anything to do with what I had on hand but I couldn't make one more twisted circle either! I do like the way I wove these strips in and out of each other and I like the play of the grid against the circles in the fabric.  It's just not that interesting (yet again).  I think I'm just in a funk as far as these daily's go.  Hopefully I'll get re-excited soon,

Till then,

Heather

 

Art Every Day, Sunday, August 4, 2013

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Good Evening,

Here is today's new piece.  In the fabulous book Art & Fear there is the statement that there is nothing we do that is more honest than the art that we make; when we hold back, it holds back, when we're lazy it shows, when we commit it comes on like gangbusters [paraphrased]. As you can see, I was feeling a bit lazy this morning.  Didn't feel the commitment.  Didn't have it in me to try anything really new or explore and it shows.

What I did do, was to layer a piece of hand dyed silk noil that I had discharged with this sort of Japanese chrysanthemum design on top of a hand painted blue green cotton.  I quilted the noil to show off the flower design, but the thread matches so well that you can't really see the stitching.  So then I stitched the hell out of the blue green background, about every 1/16- 1/8 inch.  Then I ripped a strip of pineapple silk in the red violet/orange family and a strip of what  I thought was a different blue green.  I manipulated those and tacked them down.  

I wasn't too impressed so I tried adding a variety of embellishments, but none of them agreed with the piece so I just gave up and here it is.  It's not ugly.  It's not unbalanced.  It just lacks anything of great interest.  It's hasn't got anything going for it that makes you want to stay with it for longer than 5 seconds.  It just can't stand up to the five second rule!

Oh well, tomorrow is another day,

Until then,

Heather

Art Every Day, Saturday, Aug 3, 2013

Good Evening,

Here is today's new piece.  It began with a piece of blue, dye painted fabric that I had stamped the previous day while showing some fabric stamping basics to a couple of new students in an embellishment class (you rock Donna & Francine!) 

I layered the square of stamped fabric (which I had stamped with the bottom of a beaker my friend Linda Gray gave me from her Aunt Alice) on top of a square of hand dyed pineapple silk and a long strip of dyed silk noil in blue green/violet.  These went on top of some dyed cotton velveteen which was on top of some violet dye painted batting.

I really had a blast quilting this little baby.  I began by outlining the three shapes in the middle. I didn't add any more quilting inside the shapes, but heavily quilted the blue in the background around them by stitching between the stamped lines.  Then, I heavily (about every 1/8")  quilted the long, narrow triangles of pineapple silk that are surrounding the blue center.  I added heavy stitching in the blue green/violet silk too then stitched with a contrasting thread with "flourishes" in the velveteen background.  As my new friend Ketty would say, "I love it".

The piece has great movement and wonderful contrasts in line and graphic style which keeps the simple, cool colorway from being too peaceful.

Well, that's all till tomorrow,

Heather

 

 

 

Art Almost Every Day, Friday, Aug 2, 2013 (Entered on Aug 3)

 So, yesterday got away from me.  Today I did two pieces to make up for yesterday.  Here is the first.  I've got a new computer which I'm using for the first time today and I'm amazed at how difficult it is getting used to the much smaller key board!

I started this piece with a piece of blue, dye painted fabric that had a fine lined, offset, violet grid painted on it.  I laid it on top of a piece of violet dye painted batting and added a strip of dark violet jute to the top.  Then, not having a clue of what I was going to do next, I grabbed some dyed trims and ripped a few strips of fabric from some pineapple silk and silk noil.

I began the quilting by stitching down a vertical and horizontal strip of rick rack.  Then I added some thin Rattail then I added a few strips of twisted fabric.  The I repeated the process again all the while trying to place the trims and fabric strips along the sides of the printed lines rather than on top of them.  Next, I stitched on top of the printed lines then I changed thread color to match the blue background and stitched a concentric geometric shaped swirl in every other or so background section.  

I like the pieces hard lines and edges and architectural feel. The cool color way softens the effect somewhat which I think makes it more enjoyable to look at.

Well, I need to get today's uploaded so, 

See ya in a minute,

Heather

 

Art Every Day, Thursday, August 1, 2013

Good Afternoon,

Here is today's new piece.  It began with a piece of fabric that I hand painted.  The fabric started out white then I dipped it into Dyenaflow, wrung it out and laid it wrinkled to dry.  Ironed it then printed it with Lumiere's Citron color using a colograph printing plate I made from plexiglass and rubber bands then I painted a second layer using a stamp carved with three circles using Halo Violet Gold Lumiere.

The painted fabric is sitting on top of an intensely bright yellow green hand dye which is sitting atop some blue batting.  

I then ripped some 1/2" wide strips of violet pineapple silk and twisted them up and couched them on to five of the circles through out the middle section.  Then I quilted the rest of the circles with outlines and inlines and that is all of the quilting that I did other than top stitching the outer edge of the dark blue and adding the wavy line inside of the yellow green.

I like the simplicity of the piece and that I managed to use the very attractive fabric without having to cut it up too small.  The couched circles are just enough to raise the surface and add some visual interest. Well, now I'm off to the Springs to teach a series class.

Till tomorrow,

Heather