Yesterday I started a little "practice" piece based on a technique that Larkin Van Horn talks about in this interview with Bonnie McCaffery.

I painted setacolors mixed with water onto a sheet of silk organza, then laid it over a piece of hand-dyed fabric. I added cotton batting and a piece of muslin for backing, then free-motion stitched like crazy. Unfortunately, I started with orange cotton thread and, 1/4 of the way through, ran out (doh!). I switched to variegated pink rayon thread, and actually liked that much better.

Once Larkin stitches a piece, she then beads it. I think I'll bead this, but first I may try adding a bit more color--maybe even a complimentary color for accent--with paints.

This was a GREAT exercise for practicing free-motion stitching. I'm not sure I needed to use my hand-dyed fabric for the base, since it doesn't really show that much; I think the color is the most important factor.

Common Ground

A paper quilt is a strange but interesting thing: a coming together of fabric, paper, and stitching.

For this piece, I painted the bluish/purple fabric paper with Adirondack color washes, used bleach to "paint" lighter designs into it, then acrylics to stamp onto the paper and highlight the designs. I rubbed some Shiva Paintstiks into the designs, as well.

Then I cut up the paper fabric and stitched it to the reddish-brown background with metallic threads.

Journal Quilting

I'm taking an online class (Art Journal Quilting) at Quilt University, and this journal quilt is for Lesson 1.

Typically, I work intuitively and just put pieces together, without much thought as to the meaning of a piece or why I'm creating it. Then I wonder why my work doesn't feel meaningful to me. This class is great, though, because it starts out with exercises designed to make you think about the "why" of a piece as you design it.

Here's the description I included on the back of this journal quilt:

"This journal quilt represents an explosive and traumatic illness in 2008 that left me shattered physically, emotionally, and spiritually. The stitching in the quilt ties the fragments together and represents a hope that creating art can be therapeutic and bring the pieces of myself back together again."

This little (8-1/2" x 11") includes commercial and hand-dyed fabrics, reverse appliqué, acrylic paints, machine free-motion stitching with rayon & metallic threads, and Shiva Paintstiks

As I was surfing, I ran across the "Fairy Name Generator." Since I can't resist these things, I put my name in and this came back:

Your fairy is called Columbine Icedancer

She is a bone chilling bringer of justice for the vulnerable.

She lives in mushroom fields and quiet meadows.

She is only seen when the bees swarm and the crickets chirrup.

She wears lilac and purple like columbine flowers. She has icy blue butterfly wings.

Get your free fairy name here!

Darn it. Now I'm going to have to make a small quilt or something commemorating "Columbine Icedancer." And I don't even like fairies that much.

Something Finished!

Last week I felt pretty awful and thought I might have to take a trip to the ER, but this week, miraculously it seems, I'm feeling much better.

I've started a new art journal--so far, I'm just gluing pages, painting backgrounds, that sort of thing. I'm also working occasionally in an art journal I started a while back tracing the "illness journey," but I can only stand to re-live the experience for so long, then I have to move on to happier things. Denial has always been my coping mechanism of choice :-)

And, every once in a while, I actually do some sewing! I get tired very easily so I work for a few minutes, take a long break, work for a few minutes, rinse and repeat. I'm grateful that I'm able to do that much.

Speaking of which, did anyone hear what Oprah had to say about her body, extra weight and all? Something to the effect of, "I'm grateful for this body, because it's done what I needed it to do, even after the way I've treated it." So, with that in mind, I just have to say that, illness and all, I'm still grateful for my body--it's here, it's limping along the best it can, despite how hard I've been on it all these years.

A while back, I mentioned a quilt I had finished; here it is! The background is a convergence quilt (from Ricky Tims' book) that I made a year or so ago. It seemed unfinished, somehow, which is the biggest problem I have with convergence quilts (at least as I've made them); they seem to lack any interest or focal point.

Recently, I cut out the floral appliqués (one black for the "shadow" effect, then the floral pieces from hand-dyes and commercial fabric), fused them to the base, and sewed them on. I then quilted the whole piece and added the binding and sleeve.

It feels good to have a finished piece!

Life in the Slow Lane

Things are ok--and considering the past 8 months, that's saying something pretty good. I'm feeling pretty sick today, but I'm too bored to hang out in bed for long stretches at a time.

I had a little more energy this last week, and I've actually started working on projects, even if only for a few minutes here and a few there. I drug out an old convergence quilt background that I made a year or so ago and appliqued a flower onto it, machine free-motion quilted it, and bound it. As soon as I get the sleeve sewn on and get the piece hung, I'll take a picture and post it here.

I can't imagine how I used to do all this--work full-time, work like crazy on projects, take pictures of everything, and keep up with the blog. I must have been exhausted half (all?) of the time!