April Art Group

The Muse is so capricious. One moment she's leaning over my shoulder urging me on, giving advice and keeping me on track, the next she's taken off to who knows where and left me on my own. Thankfully, just as I realized she was off on holiday stranding me with confused and muddle thoughts, I was relieved to know the gals in my art group would step in to fill the gap. This is the first conundrum I presented them, as we sat outside on our first truly warm day of spring. Quilting up the sample of various thread colors for the garnet stitching of the latest leaf cluster did not give me a clear answer after all. I was leaning toward two of them which were not the ones the others were suggesting. They made their case and it forced me to dig deep and make my own. Other colors or values were suggested and I added a couple more test patches when I got home. It all boils down to the overall affect I'm going for, and after all that, I've settled on the original thread that I used on that other leaf cluster with the garnet quilting. In the end, what I really want on this one is pure texture and if any hint of color gets added, I want it to pick up the green in the fabric. I'm not feeling that the time spent stitching up the other colors was wasted energy though. I'm sure it will make a great reference in the future.

I had better luck on my zigzag piece. Seen out in the sun, it was pretty clear that the green fabric instantly pulled up the green in the top (maybe not so evident in this photo). The other works if a more subtle edge is wanted but with so much texture in that piece, I think more of the light areas than the dark ones would end up showing, confusing the eye. As for the leaves, they thought they would be a good addition, and they did look ok in this lighting.

I can't show what Terrie brought as they need to stay under wraps at the moment, but Meg had lots to share. Working at a recent weekend retreat, she got more birds cut out and stitched. These are fused to Peltex for individual display on walls and still need their legs.

And now there are hedgehogs! This group is at various stages as she experiments with the most efficient way to do the steps. The black around the ones on the right is the Peltex that will eventually be trimmed away.

Ok, I was a little too taken with these perhaps, but they are beyond cute in my book! She's been posting some of her small offerings on her instagram page where she is picking up some sales, and where you can contact her if you are interested.

I believe this is a commission, a smaller version of her girl with balloons.

On a personal level, she's started stitching on a boro to make a scarf for a relative, having been inspired by one of our other members who tried boro last year (scroll down this post to see it).

And she also took some time to try out the various decorative stitches on her somewhat new machine. Like most of us, she doesn't often need stitches like this, but had to admit there were some she really liked. This sampler will actually be made into a little mat or rug for the footrests on her daughter's wheelchair. Lucky daughter!

Finally, I had to share these that I received from my friend Alice who is taking part in the slice quilt project. She just amazes me with how much she produces and how effortless she makes it look. The photo is of her 19th selvage quilt which will be in next year's AQS engagement calendar. She makes these selvage quilts in all sizes and all kinds of traditional block patterns and has won quite a few awards with them. But as if that were not enough, she also makes pincushions out of selvages to give as gifts to friends like me! And because apparently she has too much time on her hands, she also made a small version of our bridge photo, cut it into 4 sections and finished it off as fabric postcards, one for each of us participating in the collaboration. Such beautiful work! speaking of the bridge slice, I've been given a sneak peak and it looks great, with an unplanned but perfect left to right progression of morning to night.

As always, click on any picture for a larger version. And if you are looking for a great deal on thread, my friend Mary has just listed a group of Mettler Threads for your consideration.

March Art Group

Sheila's collaborative project - yes, Virginia, that's actual size!

Amazing how time flies and how quickly these monthly meetings of my art group come up, pushing all of us, I think, to get a little work done to show and possibly get feedback on. I've been working in collaboration with a representative from my diocese to design and execute a liturgical stole for our new (and first ever) female bishop. I'd done some research for possible edits on the first design draft sent me, and without the meeting, might still be dragging my feet about printing out the things I'd found at approximate size for the stole. As always, the gals had insights and ideas that helped so much.

Just a few of Meg's snow dyes.

In truth, we moved the meeting from the 3rd Monday to the 4th Monday for member Rebecca who had a conflict on our regular day. Irony of ironies, she broke her wrist the previous weekend, required surgery and was not up to attending the meeting. However, our sharing of our snow dyes last month apparently started something. Two other members tried their hand at this using our information and the stacks of snow that have been slow to melt and just look at the results! Believe it or not, except for that gorgeous raspberry piece, Meg was going for skin tones with the different brown dyes she tried.

Terrie's folding results plus fabric in the bottom and a single layer scrunch

Terrie experimented with scrunching and laying mostly flat

Terrie too tried the snow dyeing, both the parfait method (some folded) and the single layer scrunched method. In one case she wanted to leave the fabric mostly flat and did not have a rack large enough. Instead, she placed branches in her big bin and rested the fabric on that. The darker parts along the ends are where the fabric draped down into the melted snow/dye.

Terrie's silk tie find

Detail of some of the tie fabric

Terrie also brought this silk tie piece she found, I believe in a second hand shop. Even though it has some "issues" she knew she had to purchase it and bring it home. The detail shot is of a couple of tie fabrics I particularly liked - very textured as if embroidered.

Bark cloth backing to the silk tie piece.

The backing is a piece of bark cloth - so popular in 1950's home decorating. Its design certainly has nothing to do with the front! There is no batting.

Vickie's latest project

Vickie is busy on another piece where she is trying out lots of things, including stenciling and stamping with blue Elmer's glue resist and flour paste for a crackle effect, all being painted over before being removed.

Vickie combines surface design techniques with machine and hand quilting.

The orange through the middle is dyed cheesecloth with netting over it to make the free-motion machine quilting easier. She has also added her signature big stitch hand quilting and has just started adding beads.

Robin's boro

Finally, Robin, who went on that fabulous textile tour in Japan back in January, shared a boro she is working on. I think she learned about this traditional Japanese mending technique on her trip and told us more about its history. I just love the look of this, the colors and fabrics that look so Japanese (some are traditional Japanese indigos) and the way she arranged the rectangular, square and round patches.

Look closely - the patches are not pieced nor are the edges turned under. Everything is overlapped and held in place with those rows of big stitches. In this one she has used a cotton batting but is finding it makes the hand quilting difficult. Next time she may forgo batting altogether. For now she's working on getting her stitches more even.

Robin's hexagon quilt - all hand sewn.

More handwork from Robin - this is a piece she started a long time ago, and like most of us, she's looking at her aging UFO's and pulling some out with an eye to finishing them. She has many many hexagons already cut and basted over forms. Now it is just a matter of continuing the whip-stitching of them together - an in-front-of-the-TV evening project - and considering how to finish it out (border?). We all sighed with her at the work before her but agreed that it is quite beautiful and has a Japanese feel to it. Well, it should because it includes a lot of traditional kimono fabrics!

 

We met at the bank where the POAC 100 Artist Exhibit is displayed so that following the meeting we could peruse the art and practice our critiquing skills. I'll share some of that art in the next post. In the meantime, hope you enjoyed seeing what we are working on. And once again, we all left quite energized.