Federal Marbles

Another piece that had been hanging unfinished on the wall for quite some time. Kitty Chrysalis and I were experimenting with marbling about 4 years ago. We came up with enough small pieces to make the 6" circles for this piece. In a time when it seems that all sorts of distortion of the facts are happening in the federal debate over healthcare reform.. perhaps it should be "Federal Lost-its Marbles". The quilting originates on the back where I had printed some large stars and strips of marks that resemble stripes... could have named it stars and stripes, also... but boring and cliche'. I'm just pleased to finally have this piece done as it has been hanging on the design wall for over a year awaiting quilting and finishing.

This piece is mostly silk.

And now for something REALLY different...

This small piece is a playful approach to texture. All the silks are hand dyed. some I used potato dextrin to create and under-texture. Some parts I used copper leaf scraps sprinkled over the base with tuille on top to hold in place. The silver fish were created using my fish stamp made with a glue gun outline then silver leaf was attached using matte medium. Then lots of stitching. The "flies" are beads made from metallic painted tyvek rolled and wrapped using mettalic threads and blasted with a heat gun. I attached them using silver embroidery floss.

Next to color as my favorite aspect of creating art is texture. This is a fun way to capture and create it. I think I'll be playing with this some more. What do you think? Should I spend time on exploring this?

It may seem I am cranking out the work lickety split these days. Well yes and no. This piece hung on the wall for a few weeks while I figured out what to do to complete it. I have a deadline of October 3rd for a high volume art festival where I'll need lots of smaller works. Crank crank crank.

Neon Cha Cha

This is another piece in my series I've decided to call my Serendipity Series. Each piece in the series is made up, primarily, of pieces leftover from previous quilt projects. This time I gathered up all the really bright colored scraps from cutting my 8" blocks and interspered them with solid black homespun. It hung on the wall for several weeks while I tried to figure out the quilting. Once that was decided the piece flew together.

This detail shot shows the variety of stitches as well as the neon colors used in the stitching. Once again I forgot to photograph the back- argh! It has a wonderful floral design printed using stamps that have been repurposed to make flowers. I love the way the bright colors come forward and the cool colors recede.

Severe Clear

I vividly remember hearing a meteorologist in Austin explain about the intense blue sky we were experiencing following a big storm. It is an indication of low humidity and seldom seen in mid summer in the Ozarks. But THIS July has sported several days like that with temps that invite one outside. Another feature of July are Surprise Lillies that seem to pop up from nowhere following a drenching rain, in almost no time at all. The leaves came up with the daffodils and are long gone. Now, too, I see the Rubekias--Black-eyed Susans and the roadside chickory-- that like the specimens here, almost disappear into the landscape.

This happy little piece is another in my Serendipity series to use up scraps from other projects. I couched down a blue yarn onto each piece before assembling the background. The flowers are all hand-dyed silk.

The approximate dimensions are 28" x 40".