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Archive for the ‘12X12 challenge’ Category

Architectural Shift

Sunday, February 12th, 2012

Today is the reveal of the Twelve by Twelve’s 20 X 12 metamorphosis challenge. The theme was chosen by me as an homage to our changing directions, as a group. So, I felt a bit of pressure.

I floundered a bit. I thought about how my cataract surgery created a metamorphosis with my eye sight and was wondering how to show that. But, finally, as I was working on something for my online class with Elizabeth Barton, I knew I had something I could use.

In the class, we had collected photos of landscapes and buildings and objects that we wanted to turn into art quilts. I had a couple of photos of the very unique Disney Concert Hall in LA.

 

Our process was to layer paper over the photo and with a light box, sketch the scene, selecting the most important elements and leaving out the rest. Here is one of my sketches.

Another exercise was to put this on a grid, cut it up an rearrange. When I did that, I discovered this neat little piece that held some promise.

 

I moved on to working out the values for this.

And colors. This was done with silk. The layout seemed pretty boring.

I finally went with different sizes and used batiks with handdyes. The quilting is more controlled than I normally do, but I think it adds to the architectural effect. Here is a detail.

I have been in SF all week-end. I did get one 3 x 3 done so far!! Hand stitched on blue silk.

A Day of Running Errands and Appointments

Wednesday, February 8th, 2012

(BREAKING NEWS – The winner of the scarf is Janet Wright. Send me your snail mail and I will get it off to you. Thanks to all of you who chimed in!!)

I feel as if I spent most of the day in and out of the house. I had to get gas in my car, go to Kaiser for my quarterly blood work and deliver a quilt to a friend. Then, home to walk Scooter in the rain. He did not like the rain without his fluffy winter coat. We saw this Rhodie down in the Rhodie Garden. Wow, this is the earliest I have seen one in bloom since we moved here 5+ years ago.

I made a salad for lunch and spent too much time on the computer and then off to get my hair cut, deliver the quilt for real this time (I couldn’t reach her in the morning) and pick up some groceries at Trader Joe’s.

I finally got down to the studio and started cleaning up from the Metamorphosis art work. I had hoped to paint the background fabric for the next quilt I am going to make and it has to be big!! I didn’t make it!! But, I did get my tables clear so that the next time I have a free hour, I can get it done. I did, however, cut the batting so that I can plan the elements and sizes. It is 60 inches high and 24 inches wide.

Today’s 3 x 3 is felted. It is my go to when I am busy. I am going to take some fabrics for hand stitching while I am away. Not sure if I will get to post them until I get home.

Tomorrow is STASH at Gale’s house and then I must get organized to leave town for the week-end so the painting may have to wait until next week.

Finished!

Tuesday, February 7th, 2012

I am so happy to have the metamorphosis piece finished and photographed. I just have to write the blog post and set it to publish on Sunday morning while I am in San Francisco. Here is what the back looks like!! That is all I can show you for now.

The blue 3 x 3 for today is a layer of painted silk organza over painted silk, fused to blue wool felt with free motion quilting.

Today Scooter got a much needed hair cut.

Tomorrow, I am getting mine. Also, tomorrow, I will do a drawing for the scarf and post it Thursday since tomorrow is Wordless Wednesday!

 

Commit, Fuse and Stitch

Monday, February 6th, 2012

I am running out of time to get the Metamorphosis piece done. I am leaving on Friday morning to fly to San Francisco with Steph and Mia for a baby shower for Mark and Jayme. The reveal is on Sunday, so there will be no last minute work for me.

Today, I had to stop rearranging fabric and fuse the piece and start stitching. Whew! It felt good to get moving on it. Here is a detail of the stitching. I am doing more precise stitching than I normally do. I am happy this small. I think it will go quickly. It has bating fuzz that I need to remove.

I messed around making today’s 3 x 3. I had to reject the first 2. I ended up with a simple square in a square. Works for today.

Don’t forget to leave a comment on yesterday’s blog for a chance to receive a pretty hot pink scarf . I will do the random drawing on Wednesday morning, PST.

We continue to have sunny days, but they are tempered by the cold west wind blowing out of the gorge. Wreaks havoc on my sinuses, but all in all, I am feeling great.

Happy, Happy!

Sunday, February 5th, 2012

I almost missed my 7th Blogiversary which was the 3rd of February. Seven years is a lot of blabbing and creating and making new friends. To celebrate, I have a gift for one of you. Just leave me a comment. I will do a random drawing and someone will receive this hand dyed silk scarf with a subtle shibori design.

It was a busy week-end. On Friday night, we went to the opening of Lisa’s show with her friend Trish Grantham — Wild at Heart. She sold a piece – always a good thing. On Saturday, she hunkered down and did many  more illustrations for the cookbook. On Saturday night, she, Steph and I put on a delicious meal for vegans and omnivores. Trish, who is a vegan, joined us. It was a fund evening.

Lisa left this morning and after church, I worked on my desktop Mac which had a disk problem  — I couldn’t open any files in Word or Photoshop – eek! I was able to repair it and everything is working again. So, I didn’t get much else done today.

Up above is yesterday’s 3 X 3 from silk scraps. Today’s is one of the stencil prints that I did with white paint on hand-dyed cotton.

The Twelves hatched a plan to gift Del Thomas with a 12 X 12 quilt from each of us with nature as the theme. We have kept them under wraps until now. Del was honored to have a gallery in the Visions Art Museum named after her. For the unveiling, they are displaying 40 of the 12 X 12 quilts that she has acquired. Some of ours are amongst those on display. I have previously posted my quilt, but did not say what it was for. Here it is, again, California Poppies. I am thrilled to have it on display.

Don’t forget to leave a comment if you would like to have a chance to receive the scarf!