Off the Wall Fridays – Hibiscus

February 11, 2013February 11, 2013 Mary4 Comments

Hi Everyone,

A couple of weeks ago, I pulled out a quilt that I started in about 1975 when we were stationed in Hawaii. I loved the Hawaiian quilts I saw there and did complete one queen sized quilt in that style. A special group of Air Force wives would gather to help each other lay out and baste the quilts. It took more than one person because the designs were cut on the bias, and we had to be so careful not to stetch them out of shape. We would push together a bunch of dining tables at the Officer’s Club, spread the quilts out on them, and then crawl up and baste the design to the background. When the applique was completed in a few weeks, we would repeat the process and baste the applique and background, batting and backing.

Then I started a Hawaiian quilt for each of my kids…. they were two and three years old! What was I thinking? When we returned to the mainland, those two quilts were tucked safely away. Since I have wanted to try painting on a quilt, I gave it a try on the hibiscus design that I had hand appliqued all those many years ago. I also didn’t want to be bound by the rules of Hawaiian design – only two colors, all done by hand, and echo quilted. So I decided to follow some of the rules, but to branch out and see what happened. Here is a picture of the quilt with one of the blossoms painted. It isn’t completed…. the outer parts of the blossom need to be painted in a darker pink/peach. Once the painting is done, I plan to machine embroider / thread paint on top of the painted areas, and then echo quilt the background. We’ll see what happens in the weeks ahead. I have used setacolor transparent paints. To complete the outer sections of the blossom, I will use setacolor opaque paints because the lighter transparent color doesn’t cover the dark pink fabric adequately.

I’m just barely squeaking into Off the Wall Fridays…. hope to get out there to see what everyone else has been doing … soon.

Off The Wall Friday… Trails Felted Bag

November 9, 2012November 10, 2012 Mary3 Comments

Trails Bag — The fleece is shingled and nuno felted to create a haphazard variation of the two colors. The rug yarn is machine felted to add a design feature at the seams.

At the recent Durham Orange Quilt Show, I met the owner of Empty Pockets Alpaca Farm near Greensboro, NC. She had admired the gray felted bag I had available for sale in the boutique, but someone else had purchased it too quickly. So she handed me a couple of bags of fleece and a ball of rug yarn, asking me to try my hand with designing a bag of similar style using the alpaca fleece. She wants an outdoorsy style, with some bright colors and beading incorporated. She liked the chain style strap. So “off my wall” this Friday is the almost completed bag.

All that remains is the addition of the center third of the strap, felted for comfort over the shoulder. The side view shows the ladder stitch of variegated wool yarn used to emphasize the cording that emphasizes the edges of the gussets. Sachiko stitches add texture and help to hold the fuzziness at bay.

A colorful batik fabric lining holds one felted pocket and one fabric pocket. There is a key fob also. On deck, is a second bag of an entirely different style of the same soft alpaca for Empty Pockets Alpaca Farm. Perhaps that will make it to the wall next Friday. Meanwhile, be sure to check out Off The Wall Fridays to see what others have been working on lately!!

Protected: Sweet Success!

October 8, 2012October 31, 2012 Mary

Protected: Flat Top Manor …

May 12, 2012October 18, 2012 Mary

Elements of Art

March 30, 2012September 25, 2012 MaryLeave a comment

I mentioned a while back that I am taking a monthly class from Lyric Kinard on the Elements of Art. So far, we have covered texture and space. Between classes, I work on drawing and applying the element of the month. Last week, I worked on drawing a still life using a frame around it to help me with the spacial relationships between the pieces of the still life. Here is a picture of that process. I’m going to draw another still life today, just for practice. Hint: Lyric still has room in her Thermofax Class. Come join our Elements class in her home studio!

My proportions are not quite right, but the practice gives me confidence.

Elements of Art – Work Group

March 22, 2012September 25, 2012 Mary1 Comment

Four of us that comprise the Elements of Art Work Group have met with our teacher, Lyric Kinard for the second time. The culmination of our first month of work was to create a small piece of art work that demonstrated a variety of uses of texture. The art work could just be a sample piece of textures, but I had drawn my kitchen chicken as one of the exercises, so I wanted to create my piece with the chicken as a focal point. Notice all of the different textures: a grid of stitches for the background, beading, couched yarn, free motion stitches and more. It is called Chicken Wild Rice Soup because that is the recipe that is printed in the background and which adds more texture.