A Variety of Projects

I didn't post much in 2009. My mom came to live with us in April and things have been pretty hectic around here since. The blog just fell to the end of the list of To Do's.

But art was still at least higher on the list and, while I wasn't particularly prolific in 2009, I was pleased with the work I did.

I spent more time in my sketchbook, honing my drawing skills, and journaling ideas for fabric projects. I painted a bit and sewed a bit more. While there was lots of discussion on the QuiltArt list about art vs. craft, I have decided to not consider this issue, but to make things that I feel like making. Things don't need to be defined. They just are.

So here are a few projects from November and December, with more to follow in the next few days as I find the pictures on my computer.

Fabric Paint on Black Sweatshirt. Happy Birthday Joel!
Do you know who this is?

Wild Girl Pin.
I made a series of these to use for Teacher Gifts.
This one is holding the cash gift we gave to Sophia's gymnastics coach.

Machine Embroidered Tennis Shoes.
These came from my sketchbook from earlier in the year.
I don't know if I should call this Machine Embroidery or Thread Painting or what.
Whatever it's called, it took me days to finish.
I turned this into a 5 x 7 piece which became
a part of the Fiber Art Fusion holiday gift exchange.

I'm featured in the Winter Edition of Altered Couture

I'm thrilled to be in the Winter edition of Altered Couture.


I'm featured in an article called Jean's Queens.


Here is the article featuring a picture of the back of my jacket. I just realized that because I am big busted, I tend to focus more on the backs my jackets than on the fronts. No need to draw any more attention to the chest than necessary!

Tree Jacket Completed

There is no 5 x 7 submission for yesterday, but I might get to two this evening. I spent Saturday night and most of Sunday working on this jacket, Trees. You can see the before here.

Here is the front. And boy, Weight Watchers might have to be in my future. The jacket looks huge. It doesn't help that it's hanging on a small scale french door between my two studios. Anyway. . .


In this picture the color is more true. I put covered buttons on and hand stitched brown swirls over the entire jacket.


Here is the back. Each leaf has a stanza from Joyce Kilmer's poem Trees. And the hand stitched brown swirls which helps it tie together with the collar, which I did not want to replace.

And one leaf features a robin, well looks more like a blue bird, but in my imagination it is the bird in this stanza.

Thanks to Joyce Kilmer for the lovely words of inspiration.

New Altered Jacket Project and #10

I'm teaching a class in altered clothing in February at Fiber on a Whim. For that class I'm making a few more samples. I found some great jackets at Goodwill this week. I love working with denim, probably because I wear so much of it!

Here's the original jacket. Notice the adorable kitty cats on the pockets? Those kitties are also on the back yoke of the jacket.
I removed the pockets, cut out the kitties and inserted little quilt sandwiches with -- guess what -- leaves. I did the same on the back yoke. More leaves, some stamping and hand stitching and off it will go to Fiber on a Whim.


Today's 5 x 7 takes a look at negative space.

#10

New Altered Couture!

My artist's preview copy of the new Altered Couture arrived in the mail yesterday. It will be on the newsstands on November 1st.


I have three pieces featured on pages 105, 108 and 109.




It's very exciting to see my work in print -- almost as exciting as it was to see my darling little girls wearing it. Here is Sarah wearing her Ahoy Matey overalls. (And Sophie in the background wearing a pair of her birthday overalls, which I did not submit. Maybe next time. . .)

Possibility Number Two

Busy. Busy. Busy. So this past month goes into Possibilities Category Number Two -- not enough time to post.

On September 4th, Jan, Carmen Sharon, Heidi and I hung an exhibit of art from members of our group Fiber Art Fusion. The Exhibit Opening Reception was September 6th and about 100 people came. We had tons of food and a photographer! It was very exciting. To see your work hanging in a gallery is very rewarding. To see other people looking at your work is exhilarating. The curator told me today that there was very heavy traffic through the exhibit. Many people came specifically to see it and it was very well received.

Then I spent six days at the East Cobb Quilt Guild Show. Three of those days were on the judging team. We took the quilts which had been dropped off by their owners, sorted them by category, labeled them with a pre-assigned number, stacked them with the same corner lined up (for ease of judging) and in general watched over these precious babies until the judging started. The judges arrived and worked their tails off to judge the nearly-400 quilts in two and a half days. The head of the judging team did a spectacular job of organizing and holding it all together. It's fascinating to be behind the scenes.

I especially like hearing the comments about the work being judged. First, lest you think I remember anything about your quilt, I don't. It all blurs together by the end. I can't even tell you what they said about mine! But in general there is a consistent base of comments. And in the one area most of us rush through -- finishing. That means bindings. For goodness sake, make nice bindings. Practice if you are not good at it. And one other comment of interest is on the pillowcase method of finishing. If you are entering a traditional show, then you need to quilt your piece so the quilting lines can be seen from the back. And don't forget to trim loose threads and pick all the animal hair off your quilt. These are basic things which many overlook.

Oops, back to the East Cobb Quilt Guild Show. . . then I spent the next two and a half days demo-ing at Fiber on a Whim's booth. I love to do product demos, especially when it is a product that I like to play with. I think I'm pretty good at it since Kristin kept giving me big smiles!
Okay, so she was giving those big smiles because she won a ribbon for this awesome piece! Way to go Kristin!

Fiber Art Fusion members won lots of ribbons at the East Cobb Quilt Guild show. It was thrilling. I won third prize for my What's Up Tiger Lily? coat.
It started out as scraps for the trash can. Then was resurrected and made into this coat. I have a matching pair of Donald Pliner Zebra shoes -- similar ones which can be seen here on Manolo's Shoe Blog. One day I'll be brazen enough to wear the ensemble in public!

For the past few weeks, Sharon and I laughed every time we got together because we had not yet finished our Journal Quilts for Houston. Lunch, coffee, shopping. We are good are helping each other procrastinate. But in the end we both finished and shipped in time for the deadline. I only finished because Sharon came over and helped me whipstitch the binding in place.

Why do I always wait until the last minute? I knew about this Journal Quilt for months and months, yet I kept putting it off. I guess other things come up and fill the time. I do budget time for things like this, but not until the week or two before it's due. And although I budgeted two weeks for my Journal Quilt the first week was eaten up by school volunteer activities and cleaning the house from my absence, and the second week, my in-laws came to visit. We took the girls to the Georgia Aquarium. An incredible site to see.
So I worked in the little spare time I had. On the eve of my shipping deadline the water main in front of our house broke. Remember back a year ago? Well another section of main blew out and millions and millions of gallons of water poured out through this break. The water gushed all night -- and here we are in the middle of an all out watering ban. The crew who first came just turned the pressure down and decided to let the morning crew fix it. But by midnight the break had worsened and we could hear the water roaring from inside the house. The fix-it crew came in the morning.
They had to cut down a tree, pull out bushes and dig a hole big enough for a swimming pool.

Meanwhile, inside my studio, I was quilting and doing my best not to totally freak out. The name of my Journal Quilt is "Peace" so it is someone ironic that this was all happening. In the end I finished. But the stress of possibly not finishing was overwhelming. Stress is not a good way to get your aerobic workout!

Today, Jan and I took down the Hope Exhibit. It was sad to see the empty gallery space. But joyfully, the curator invited us back for next year. Transformations will be the theme. And since it is an election year I'm delighted by that theme and have ideas swimming around in my head.

And now, back to the studio.

Summer Shoes

Sarah needed new tennis shoes. And, with only 4 weeks left until school starts I didn't want to buy school shoes yet. The shoes I was looking for would be used for jumping in puddles, playing in the park and wading through streams. Play shoes.

Surely shoes like this could be found at Target or Kmart (I do not shop Walmart). Surprise surprise. The only shoes we found were camoflauge print. So, with the help of a little fabric paint and some rubber stamps we transformed them into peace and love shoes.