"Elliptical" Robin

What started as a round robin on the Complex Cloth list should probably now be retitled an "elliptical robin," since it took me forever to add my surface designs; instead of moving smoothly around the circle, the fabric got to me and waited . . .and waited . . . (so imagine my "point" on a sketch of the process being stretched WAY out). I received two of the pieces of cloth last year while I was in the hospital, and I'm just now getting to them.

The truth is, I can't blame all of the delay on my illness. I could have worked on these pieces starting a few weeks ago, when I felt well enough to take up art again for short periods at a time. But this is my first fabric round robin, and I've been terrified with each piece that I would ruin it. With my own fabric, it's no big loss (though a big disappointment) if I completely screw it up. With someone else's, though, there's a lot of pressure (I put on myself, of course) NOT to screw it up.

Ironically, once I finish adding something to a piece, there's a sense of accomplishment and joy above what I usually feel with my own pieces, since I know I've given something to someone else.

Now to the good stuff: the pics!

I knew I wanted to add some kind of stamped design to Margo's piece to give it some focus. I started by making a stamp out of some foam kid's beads I picked up at Michael's. I glued them to a little wooden plaque (probably not the smartest idea, because I didn't seal the wood and so I can't really wash the stamp now). I really liked this stamp until I used it on a test piece of fabric. Turns out there's too much space between the shapes for my liking. I'm going to play with the design more, or maybe I'll use it to stamp on fabric with a lot of color or texture or something.

I pulled out a sort of stamp/printing plate I made a long time ago out of cardboard, double-stick tape, and twine. I liked the test stamp I did with this one, but I discovered I couldn't really "stamp" with it very well, since some of the impression didn't show up.

I got out the Lumiere Halo Blue and Metallic Bronze paints and applied them to the plate, then laid the fabric on top of it and rubbed along the twine lines.

Because there were a few "character" blobs of paint on the fabric and I wanted to continue with the rubbings, I didn't want to wait too long for them to dry.

I laid a "serendipity" cloth I had on top of the rubbing and rubbed again to remove (or at least spread out) the little blobs. Then I moved right on to the next area to be printed.

I really like the way this turned out. I upped the contrast on the photos of the finished piece to show the paints better. The piece isn't really as dark as it looks in the photo.

As soon as I heat-set the paint and mail it off to the next participant, I'll start on the other one. I hope I won't be as intimidated this time :-)

Got Scraps?

I'm a hopeless packrat when it comes to fabric, paper, and anything art-related. I save the tiniest scraps of fabric, pieces of thread, and trimmings. I love it when I run across an article like the one in an old issue of Quilting Arts that uses scraps, because it creates the illusion that all that STUFF I've saved will actually get used someday! If you're interested, here are the basics:

Iron fabric scraps onto a lightweight fusible interfacing

Stamp onto fabric; I used Lumiere white and halo pink gold. Use a brush to fill in areas light on paint.

Cover fabric with one or two layers of sheers (organza? chiffon? I never know what this stuff is; I just buy what looks pretty, but in this case I did notice it was polyester, which is good for burning). I used two: a medium blue and a light lavender on top of that. Note: I mistyfused the sheers down, but this made it harder to remove them when areas were burned out. I probably won't do that again.

Stitch all over. I used metallic thread and invisible thread in the bobbin. It’s very hard to see the stitching in the photo; I free-motioned around the heart & wing shapes, then meandered between the hearts.

Burn away the sheers over the hearts and wings; I used a woodburning tool. I had to scrape off the sheers because I had mistyfused them. At first, I was thinking, "oh no! All that work for nothing!" because it looked a little strange and smudgy from the woodburner. After a few minutes, though, I decided I really loved the colors and textures. Now, I'm just completely enchanted and can't wait to do more of this.

And, I had one of those "in the art moment" revelations: unearthing these hearts by burning off the sheer layers covering them could be a decent metaphor for the way we sometimes protect our hearts by burying or hiding them away. How perfect that these hearts have wings!!!

Paper Play

I don't usually use paper when making journal covers, but I'm taking Sue Bleiweiss's More Journal Making class, and this week's lesson suggests paper. I covered illustration board with beautiful scrapbooking paper that was collecting dust in the craft room (I buy it because I love it!). The signatures are bound with a coptic stitch.

Musings on a Perfect Day and a WIP

Saturday was my birthday. On Friday, I had the perfect day: it was beautiful and sunshiny, and the temperature was perfect. I went to Michael's for beads, then to Barnes & Noble for a magazine. I sat outside and ate a cinnamon scone and drank coffee with cream (a rarity these days; I used to be a coffee fiend, but since getting sick I mostly stick to tea). I came home and created an art journal page with watercolors and inks (still outside in the beautiful weather, of course). My sweetie took me to Truluck's for dinner and it was wonderful. The kids brought me a cake this weekend and we celebrated more. I had a wonderful birthday weekend, but it really wore me out and I'm still recovering.

Here's a WIP I've been working on for days that's both easier and harder than I thought it would be. Easier because once I figured out what the heck I was doing, it came together pretty easily. Harder because . . . well, I couldn't figure out what the heck I was doing.

This is from a pattern and project instructions in the Viewpoints class at Quilt University. I'm really enjoying the class, because I'm finally understanding how to create scenes in one-point perspective.

Anyway, here's the process to this point:

Pick out a landscape fabric. I could have used a small landscape quilt I had already made, but I didn't want to mess one up. I thought about copying a premade landscape piece onto fabric and using that, but then I saw this interesting fabric at JoAnn's and, well, it gave me an excuse to buy it!







Add a "sky" to the landscape fabric. I cut along the top edge of the landscape motif and fused it to a background sky of hand-dyed fabric.










Copy the column and arch patterns onto fusible-backed fabric and cut out. Attach to landscape piece and fuse in place.

Select "wall" fabric (the premise is that this piece looks out from a room onto a landscape). Find the perfect fabric, then realize I don't have enough of it. Dye more fabric.

Attach walls & landscape unit to a background of plain muslin.


Wait for next week's lesson to learn how to do the floor . . . patience is NOT my strong suit!

I Heart Elizabeth Gilbert

One of my all-time favorite books is Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia written by Elizabeth Gilbert. Here's a talk Elizabeth gives called "A New Way to Think About Creativity," and I think it should be required viewing for all artists, writers, performers, and anyone else involved in a creative endeavor. It's a little long--about 19 minutes--but worth every second.

Is it Spring Yet?

Even though the weather is beautiful here (or maybe because it is?) everything I do lately seems to look forward to spring; this could have something to do with my state of my mind, too, which is more optimistic these days.

I painted the pears in this piece about a year ago; they are actually stamped with a cut pear and fabric paint. I also had this wonderful fabric that I had dyed a year or so ago, and the two had been hanging on my design wall for a while, so on a whim I threw them together.

This piece makes me happy!