Spots Dots Speckles & Freckles

I've had pedal to the metal this week trying to get this finished in time for the catalog of the MADI Museum. This is a companion piece to Yikes Stripes!

As I mentioned in my last post- all the color choices were by simply good fortune- or perhaps previous good judgement. Every fabric except the black were already in my stash. I simply made a block with every spotted, dotted, speckled or freckled fabric I had.

Because the fabrics were terribly busy when placed next to each other, I used black sashing. To quilt, I picked a point to have everything eminate from. The illusion is created that all the background is behind the spotted blocks. I used metallics and went from a very dark purple to a royal purple to a lavendar to a metallic clear ( greenish) and then a metallic charcoal. It kinda looks like there is an explosion going on behind the scenes.

Here's a detail showing the explosion point.

This is the back. Guess how I painted it! I flung paint off my brush to create spots, dots, speckles and freckles! The grid you see is the varigated thread where I quilted. There currently is no quilting on the spotted, dotted, speckled or freckled fabrics.

I am off to the Best of Missouri Hands Art Smart Conference in Jefferson City this weekend. On the way home I'll be visiting a gallery near Lake of the Ozarks that called me for a possible solo exhibition.

I really like getting calls like that! Bring them on!

Yeehaw! award and new work

Big deal award! Niche Award!

Niche Award! Yep! It happened! I won the award for the Pieced/ Quilted Category! I told you EVERYONE would know! I'm still not real sure what this award gains me other than another national award on my resume'- I am not complaining!!!!! I just know it is a big deal and I got it! This quilt is A Matter of Perspective and that is the quilt that garnered the award. Now on to my next excitement......

This quilt has grabbed me by the short hairs and won't let go. All the fabrics except the solid blacks are "Spots, Dots, Speckles and Freckles"- it's name! There is such energy and the colors are totally by accident. They were the fabrics in my stash that had spots, dots, speckles or freckles. As it turns out the colors are happy, optimistic and so retro! But with the blocks directly against each other there is just TOOO much energy. So I am taming them down JUST a tinch by adding black sashing between the blocks like this....
Aaah. Isn't this better? So far the blocks are connected into rows but they are just pinned to the design wall. I have fairly elaborate plans for both the back and the quilting. The challenge is that I have SOOO much I need to be doing like selecting the 10 images for the MADI Museum catalog, and sending 2 dozen scarves to the Arkansas History Museum and finishing that gorgeous liturgical stole and being interviewed for a magazine article. But this piece is just haunting me and won't let go. So I may miss out on some sleep here for a few days. I really want this to be in the MADI catalog- as a finished piece.

But I haven't quit dancing the happy dance! Quick! Once around the cutting table -Yeehaw!

Peach Mango Salsa

Okay. This stash won't qualify me for neatest studio.

What you are seeing here is approx 1/3 of my working stash.

These are a collection of mostly silks-- hand-dyed and not, metallics, cotton prints and stripes.

I have an entire 8 x 10 room with my undyed fabrics plus older cottons etc. Those are mostly in stacks and boxes so I'm skipping sharing those with you.
This is the other side of that mess--my golds, yellows, pinks, reds & oranges.
I didn't dye any new fabrics for the front of this piece.

Theses are the fabrics I chose to represent the mangoes, peaches, garlic, red onion, jalapeno, cilantro, chile powder & lemon

This is round 1 with the initial blocks and circles before any stitching.
This is round 2. The newest layer of circles came from the underside- the bottom layer.

We're robbing Peter to pay Paul. Gee- sounds like my life!

This is round 3. This layer came from the bottom again but it was the original circles that are used. As you can see, I scramble each time so the same fabrics don't repeat on a single block.

After building the blocks I then cut them into quarters. I call them quadrants.

The challenge here is to replicate randomity. It isn't as random as it looks.

This is the fabric for the back. I have gathered for shibori. The effect came out more subtle than I expected so I'll not give it a big ta-dah!
Okay. now I am excited. I made these stamps from craft foam. It is 2 layers of craft foam adhered to plexiglas. I paint the stamps with a brush and then lay it down onto the fabric and apply pressure.

Here's the overall effect. Keep in mind--this is the back.

Here I have layered the top, cotton batting and the back. You can still see the tracing paper that I used as patterns for the images I stitched into it.

Ta--dah!!!!! Here's the completed quilt.

Peach Mango Salsa

Size is 35" x 35"

I FINALLY remembered to photograph the completed back.

The thread for the back was a varigated peach to cream.

Here's a detail shot of the front showing the variety of stitching. The small boxes are chopped up mangoes, there are peaches, cilantro and lemon in this shot. There are also red onion and garlic. In between the ingredients I did a jagged roughly triangular pattern. Most of the ingredients are stitched in various metallic threads.

Yikes Stripes finished!

Here I am pinning the three layers together before quilting. I use large safety pins .

Here's the full of Yikes Stripes fully quilted and the edges finished

Here's the detail shot showing some of the quilting. I mostly used metallics for the insides of my balls and an invisible smoke thread for the spaces in between the balls. The balls had mostly stippling and the spaces had mostly jagged box shapes.

Finally I remembered to photograph the back of this one. I almost always forget to get a shot of the back. The thread in my bobbin- which is what you see here- is a variegated black to white. That's why the stitching seems to come and go. All in all I am very tickled with this piece.

I wonder what I'm going to do next. As I was lying awake last night, after too many cups of coffee, I kept getting partial images of a concept. One of my first circle quilts was called "Holy Guacamole." I used various fabrics to represent the various ingredients in guacamole. I'm thinking of a similar idea but with different foods. I'm thinking "Pico de Gallo", "Orange Marmelade" and "Peach-Mango Salsa." Are you hungry yet? It seems to me that if I added the fabrics in somewhat similar percentages to what they are in the actual foods then the look should be about right. Guess we'll just have to see. I think I'll wait until tomorrow to dig through my fabric stash.

During the period while my kids were growing up my creative efforts were pretty restricted to cooking- which I love! Hah! I even got a 4 forks review for the food I provided for the Visual Arts Alliance of Nashville's Art Show. That was well before I had figured out my medium. I was keeping those creative juices alive until I could focus later.

Pico de Gallo

tomatoes- ripe and lots of them

onions- red and white

garlic- yum!

cilantro

jalapeno

lemon juice

salt and pepper

Peach/ Mango Salsa

peaches- with that darker red toward the center

mangoes- oranges to green

onion- plum colored red onion

Cilantro

garlic- of course!

Lemon juice

jalapeno

That ought to get things started. Tomorrow I'll show you my existing fabric stash. Together we'll decide whether I need to dye more fabrics or perhaps paint some yardage for those peaches and mangoes.

Or maybe between now and then I'll get another bright idea and go off on it!

Yikes Stripes Back

Here I am at my most scenic glory using freezer paper stencils to paint the circles on the back of Yikes Stripes!
I decided less is more and opted to end off adding more elements to the back. All of the painting here is done with either freezer paper stencils or a stamp made from craft foam mounted on a piece of lathe. The paints were interference and metallic acrylic paints.

Tomorrow I'll pin the three layers together in preparation for quilting. Still don't know how I'll quilt it. Perhaps I'll start out by sewing from underside first using the outline of the circles to freemotion the shapes and fill in from there.

Yikes Stripes pieced

Well I had threatened to cheat when I pieced the top. I was afraid that trying to get all those cornerstones to line up nicely would be really hard. As it turned out it pieced exceptionally well. My fallback plan had been to use solid black for the horizontal pieces and then fuse the corners in place. Well I didn't need to. Whew!

I still have no idea how I am going to quilt this puppy. This afternoon I'll work on the back. So far I"m thinking I'll use a solid black homespun (same fabric I used for the sashing) then I'll paint it using various fiber paints. I chose homespun because it matched the texture of many of the striped fabics. I'll incorporate circles of all sizes- both positive and negative ( done with freezer paper stencils). I'll also use some checkerboard stamps and maybe a few stripes. I'll use opaque and metallic paints so the colors will show up well.

Here's a closeup of the top.

Back to the studio for round 2- the back

Listening for the Silence

One cold rainy day a couple of weeks ago I went out with my dad to a local state park in search of trees to photograph in order to create a quilt. I was fascinated with the perspective of looking up at tall trees from the ground. You only occasionally see this perspective in photographs or art. Perhaps the "artworld" shuns this view. But to me it captivates me and changes my dimensions. As you can see from the blurry spots it was actually raining at the time and about 40 degrees F. Brrr.
Here's my quilt created from that photo. Except for the metallics it is all hand-dyed silks. I used my usual method of creating the bulls-eye blocks: robbing peter to pay paul. If you want detailed info- just ask. To make the trees, I dyed a large piece of silk in the dark brown. It wasn't dark enough for my use so I painted a thin wash of charcoal over the top with a wide brush. Then I applied fusible web to the back side and peeled off the paper.

To get the detail of the trees I printed the photo with my inkjet printer onto plain white paper. Then I traced the key branches onto acetate. I blew it up with an overhead projector and inked in the elements onto tracing paper.

Then I laid out the quilt top, layered it with the brown fabric then the tracing paper and pinned it all down. Then stitching through the paper I freemotion outlined all the trunks and branches.

Then I tore off the paper and cut away all that wasn't tree- kinda like Leonardo DeVinci when he said that to make his masterpiece sculptures he just kept chiseling away anything that wasn't the sculpture within.... so much for comparing myself to ole Leonardo! Hah!

After all the extraneous fabric was cut away I then activated the fusing by ironing the brown fabric down.

Then I layered the quilt top, cotton batting, and the back (Yes I painted the heck out of it and when the piece comes back from Milwaukee I'll try to remember to photograph the back) Then I again outlined all the trees and branches with freemotion stitching using a varigated rayon thread.

For the background quilting I used metallics threads- the center panel thread is a holographic white, the middle panel is hologrphic silver and the outer panel is a holographic charcoal.

All in all I am very pleased with the results. The title is "Listening for the Silence." It is inspired by the quiet that comes in extreme cold or waiting for the snow. Since my parents have moved in I find I miss those utterly quiet moments that come with being completely alone.

Here's a detail shot. I think you can see the metallics better in this shot. BTW if you click on a photo you'll get a larger version to view. I finished this last Thursday.

I plan to finish piecing "Yikes Stripes! " this weekend and I get to finsh signing the 1,000+ posters for the Missouri Art Commission Arts Awards. Perhaps since I have been pacing myself, I haven't had as sore a wrist as I expected from having to autograph that many posters. Ah-- the lessons learned along the road to fame and fortune.

This time of year is fraught with periods of uncertainty coupled with periods of supreme exhilaration. Before you think I've gone bi-polar, let me explain. This is the time of year when I have to send out applications for upcoming shows. There is always a certain anxiety of wondering if I'll get into the shows of my choice. Even though I have created work of the caliber I believe should allow me to join the ranks of the "chosen," that choice is not up to me. I create the work, photograph it to the best of my ability and let it go. For weeks I await a decision.

During this same period I am at my most intense period of creativity. I am between show seasons and this is when I can focus on new work. I consider this a period of conversations with the universe. I am almost always surprised at what gets created during this period. I enter the period with a vague idea of what I'd like to address. More like an opening conversation. Since I no longer feel I am alone when I am creating (the universe usually has something to say), I am often quite tickled to see where the universe and I wind up.

At this point I have no idea of how I'll do the back of "Yikes Stripes" nor how I'll quilt it. That'll be the adventure that awaits.