Guided Tours Part Deux

I'm still in the middle of the Elements class from Quilt U, and I'm supposed to be creating an "air" piece. Unfortunately, I've been in training this week and haven't had time to work on anything. I did manage to get the base fabric for the piece painted early this morning before work, but it's been a foggy and overcast day, so it will take a while for the fabric to dry.

As if I didn't have enough to do, I remembered yesterday that I had also signed up for an online class at joggles. com. It was good timing to remember, because the class started yesterday. Apparently my yahoo email account has been digesting the emails from joggles.com with no trace, so I couldn't log in to the class. I think I've worked the problem out with joggles, so I should be bemoaning the fact that I have no time to work on yet another class any day now.

This class, btw, is on wet felting. I recently ordered some osnaburg from JoAnn fabrics because I had a 50%-off deal and free shipping, so a bolt of it was too good a deal to pass up. At the same time, I ordered some felting supplies. I have no idea why. Felting and its supplies are not something I need, not something I need to get into, and not something I have time for.

Sigh. The shopper part of myself must get a kick out of torturing the crafter part.

Guided Tours

The new Quilt U class I'm taking, Elements in Fabric, is kicking my butt. We're creating "element" pieces--so far, water & fire--using fabric and things like angelina fibers, tintzl, cellophane, and sheers. After sweating blood and throwing my scissors across the room (several times) I managed to finish both pieces, but they're both too ugly to post. This is a real exercise in patience for me, since I rarely try to work from a pre-conceived idea, sketches, AND photographs all at the same time and get something that looks both good and realistic without looking cheesy (it's a fine line with all that tintzl and angelina). I'm going to stick with it, though; it's a good learning exercise.

I took a little breather from the class work and painted more fabric. Several issues ago, Quilt Art had an article on using bleeding tissue paper over painted fabric. I tried regular tissue paper but it didn't work. I happened to see some bleeding tissue at Michael's a couple of weeks ago, and picked some up. The results aren't quite what I expected; some of the tissue colors (red & blue) bleed much better into the fabric than others. Some pieces simply acted as a sunblock on the sun prints. Here are the results. The first piece started with a blue background (I used Setacolor transparents mixed 50-50 with water on damp pfd fabric); as you can see, I got a little color from the blues, greens, and yellows, but the red is the most prominent.

















The second piece started with a yellow, buttercup, and red background. I like the playfulness of that one.














The piece on the left started out with a blue and red background. The colors didn't bleed as well onto the red as they did onto the blue.












This one is my favorite; I intended for it to look like translucent wildflowers, but I see trees instead. I think I'll use this for a small wholecloth quilt.

Back on the Path

Things have calmed down a little and I'm starting to get back into my routine. At the very least, I'm able to spend about an hour each morning "playing" before I start my job-work (as opposed to my fun-work :-)).

The "Painted Landscapes" class at Quilt University is over, and I was able to paint a couple of landscapes. I did want to get one quilted, though, before I moved on to the class I'm currently taking, "Elements in Fabric." I was able to finish it tonight.

This is not my design; it's taken directly from an example the instructor, Michele Scott, used in the class. She's great, by the way--her lessons were very clear and easy to follow, and she responded very quickly to questions and comments on the class discussion board. At any rate, I painted the fabric, then repainted it because I didn't like the way it turned out, then repainted it once more, adding a little more orange and purple. The border is also hand-painted fabric. Then I free-motion quilted it, and decided to add more paint in the ocean area. I also added some angelina fibers to the lightening flash and a few beads in the sun area for sparkle.

I think it turned out well, and I'm proud of it, even if it wasn't my original design. I've started on a piece of my own design for the Elements class, which is much more complicated and will require a lot of time and thought. It's nice to be immersed in projects again, though, and to feel myself flowing into that routine I've missed.

Atlanta Finds

Ok, I didn't really find these so much as listen to other people's advice. At any rate, I was in a conference in Atlanta over the last few days, and I was hoping to have a few minutes to slip away for "fun stuff."

That didn't exactly happen, but I did have a little extra time before heading back to the airport, so I went by Fiber on a Whim. What a great place! Jan was very nice and I wish I had visited before I ordered all the supplies for my upcoming class, Elements in Fabric at Quilt University. I bought some Golden quinacridone paints, which I've only read about and never actually SEEN in person, some ExtravOrganza that I've been wanting to play with, and a really great book about painting on fabric, Skydyes by Mickey Lawler. The book has a lot of information about fabric paints, how to mix and use them, and how to create beautiful painted skyscapes on fabric.

Afterwards, I headed over to Nicholas Kniel. Now, when people said I should visit a "ribbon" shop, it wasn't high on my priority list, but since it was next door to Beadazzles, I popped in. I was amazed. The shop itself is a work of art, and the ribbon, velvet birds and leaves, feathers, and glass glitter are stunning. Nicholas was fun to talk to, and is incredibly passionate about ribbons and embellishments. I bought some beautiful feathers and some German glass glitter.

Next door was Beadazzles. I don't buy a lot of beads, since I have tons and don't use them that often. I was, however, wondering what the best thread and needles were for sewing beads to quilts, so I asked. The shop owner or clerk (not sure which), asked a group of women who were working on beautiful beaded jewelry pieces what they advised. One very nice woman gave me her suggestions for both beading thread and needles; she seemed apologetic, as if she were being bossy, but I was thrilled to have her advice.

Where Did My Rut Go?

Some people hate getting into a rut. I actually like it. I prefer to think of it as a routine that keeps me grounded and centered. Alas, my rut seems to have smoothed out into an ice slick, and I'm skittering all over the place.

I did finish my fabric postcards for the swap. When I mail them today, I'll have fulfilled all my swap obligations and be ready to get back to my own work--specifically, the landscape quilting class I'm taking at Quilting University. It's a relatively short class--3 sessions over 4 weeks. We've covered lessons 1 & 2, which were about painting fabric, and then painting landscapes on fabric. Here are the landscapes I've had time to create:

Lesson 3 will be about quilting and embellishing the pieces, so I'm looking forward to that. I have another Quilting U class starting in a couple of weeks, so I've been busy ordering supplies for that.

This has been a month for travel, too. We were back in Galveston last weekend for our grandson's 8th birthday. We had been promising we would take him to the beach all summer, and finally fulfilled that promise. He had never been to the beach, and the look on his face when a wave washed over his feet and shifted the sand under them was priceless. He had a great time and has decided he wants to move to the beach. Our little dog Max loved the beach, too; now she's seen snow & surf, and it's hard to tell which she loved better; we had her on the leash but she SO wanted to chase the seagulls. She usually completely ignores birds, so there must be something about the beach that brings out the runner and chaser in her. We all (with the exception of Max) enjoyed Moody Gardens and the aquarium and rainforest, too. And of course, I was able to get more pictures.

I'm traveling to Atlanta on Sunday for a conference. I'm hoping to find a few minutes to sneak away to a fabric shop, or a gallery, or something soul-nourishing.

And once I get back home, I'm going to start working on carving that rut back into my path. It will take some time and involve quite a bit of coffee, journaling, and deep breathing, but I believe it can be done.

Socializing

I love that textile & mixed media artists are really into swaps.

As I mentioned before, I'm participating in a fabric postcard swap.

I posted a pic of one of my postcards a few days ago, but these are better. I've finished 1/2 of mine--12 of 24. Only 12 more to go!

I'm also participating in a 3x3 collage swap in one of my Yahoo groups. I finished those yesterday and got them ready for mailing today. I've discovered that I'm not very good at collage, and I really don't like it that much. I like painting, though, so I guess it's not surprising that my mini-collages look more like little paintings than collages.

At any rate, they're done!