Trying New Technique in Hand Stitching

I'm working on a new technique. This came to me the other night, you know, one of those things that comes to your creative mind when you are trying to get to sleep, the kind that keeps you awake until 2am or 3am. I've been doing a bit of hand work lately, getting ready for a workshop and various art pieces. And it struck me...or should I say "stuck me" (like with a needle), make a hand stitched circle and use a medicine bottle lid as the stabilizer. Hmmmm, so I have practiced this afternoon and this was my best attempt. Still needs some fine tuning, I mean stitching, but hey, I just started this technique today.

Small Projects

This past Saturday I participated in a workshop put on by the Dallas Area Fiber Artists group. Lisa Renner was the guest instructor and boy did we have fun! It was a great way to let loose and experiment with inks, dyes, spray paints, rubber cement, gesso, stencils and rubber stamps. We learned a lot about layering color and had a great time encouraging each other. This is a great group, I'm so glad I finally decided to make the drive to Dallas once a month to join this group. It is well worth the drive!
Here are some pictures of my "Painterly Book" that I made. After I got home and embellished it some more, it just looked too flat. I added the fibers to the front, back and topped off my pen. I also added fabric to the pockets and the front and back. I just have to add fabric!

I couldn't resist making a little Art Quilt out of the scraps from my workshop with Frieda Anderson and Quilting Adventures. I just wanted a small quilt to explode with color with a few hidden items. A few of the men my husband works with proudly graduated from Texas A&M, and my brother and his kids proudly attended and attend The Univ. of Texas. Being the great sister that I am, I hid a longhorn in the quilt, and loving my garden the way I do, I also planted a flower in one of the corners. This little quilt will be in my ArtFire Studio if you are interested in it!

Mexican Sunflower in Batik

Finished! This is the first quilt in my Sunflower Series. The pattern was made from a photograph I took of one of the Mexican Sunflowers in my garden. I decided to create this quilt in batiks, the next one will be in hand painted fabrics. My goal with these two quilts is to show the difference between using the batik and hand painted fabrics and to use a new technique on each quilt.
The next two pictures show the detail of thread painting (my favorite way to quilt) in the leaves and petals. I used the thread to create the detail and movement of the leaves and petals. I really like to extend the movement outside the lines and into the background. Somehow it helps create the flow of the flower into the background.
I did minimal quilting in the background of the quilt. I wanted the sunflower to keep the focus, so I used the horizontal lines of the fabric and quilted with matching thread.
My new technique on this quilt was the use of hand painted cheesecloth in the center and then beading the seeds into and on the center of the quilt. This was a fun process. I hadn't used cheesecloth before. I first selected a brown batik looking fabric (my brown batiks are limited, so I had to punt). Next I hand painted some cheesecloth with different browns, bronze, and copper paints. While the cheesecloth was drying I created free motion embroidered circles on the center piece of fabric. I didn't put circles all over the fabric; I wanted to leave room for more circles after I laid the cheesecloth down. After the cheesecloth was dry I manipulated it by stretching and scrunching the cloth to make vacant and dense areas. Then it was time to free motion embroider around it and hand stitch the beads under the dense areas. Taking my time, I let my eye and follow the lights and dark areas of the fabric create the areas that were beaded.

One Project Complete

I was able to finish my Image to Fabric Sheet Transfer project...then I went shopping for more art supplies! I'm fairly pleased with the way this turned out, I just wished I had ramped up the color little more so it didn't look so cloudy, but for the end project, this may be just perfect. I've added the sketch that will be the main part of an art quilt I am going to create later this year. I want to take my classes at the Houston Quilt Show first and use some of the techniques I'm going to learn. Anyway, here it is. The saying at the top says "Keys, Keys, Everywhere Keys...Marie Held a lot of Keys...But Who Really Held the Key to Marie?"...If you knew Marie, you would understand...

It's Still HOT Outside and I'm Thinking Up Some HOT Ideas!

It's still Hot in Texas and I know there are going to be a lot more days of triple digits. But no matter what the weather is like, I wake up almost every morning saying, "Okay, what can I play with today in my studio?" Mornings are my best creative time, I wake up and the house is quiet and nothing has interfered with my clear head. The last several days I've been making notes and sketches for a series of quilts that I want to create...I'm not giving any details yet....but they will be very different from what I have done in the past and I'm really going to push myself out of my "comfort zone" to try some new techniques and materials.
This week we have company, so I won't be able to get into my studio until later in the week, so until then...

Fabric Beads - I'm Having Too Much Fun!

I'm making bookmarks to put out in my ArtFire Studio. I'm also going through some of the techniques in "Fabric Art Workshop" by Susan Stein. One of the techniques is making Fabric Beads. So much fun! And a great way to use up some of the scraps in my Scrap Bin. I hate throwing away fabric and thread when I'm working on a project and this gives me a great way to "Be Green"! The first picture shows some netting that is leftover from a project with varigated threads laid on it. The next pictures are of the beads after I have heat set them. I'm going to dust them with a light spray of polyurethane to seal them and give them a little bit of shine. After I get that done, my bookmarks will be complete and those pictures will be in my next blog post.
Until next time, have a Fabtastic Day!