Posts Tagged ‘new work’

Tucker

Monday, April 24th, 2017

A couple of weeks ago I started this little 12 x 12″ piece of a friend’s dog. The first step, after making the pattern, is to pull all the fabric that even looks like it might work.

Then it’s time to choose which ones to actually use. I will audition different fabrics and sometimes a piece needs to be cut from several different fabrics before the right one surfaces.  After a couple of days the first half was finished, and looking pretty good!

When the second half was done and sewn together, I was not real happy with how dark the shadow was on the left side, even though it really was that dark on the photo that was my reference.  I decided to just live with it a few days and see if I could like it. But it still bothered me, so on Saturday I removed the offending fabric and replaced it with something lighter.

I believe it is better, so I went ahead and layered it for quilting and by Sunday evening it was quilted, had whiskers and eye sparkles and a signature.  Ready to trim to size and block for the binding.

Today I finished the binding – it is DONE!!

 

Grandpa’s Barn

Saturday, April 22nd, 2017

A small local art quilt group that I belong to recently issued a challenge to make a 12 x 12″ barn quilt in the style that we like to use. So of course mine had to be machine pieced and machine quilted using commercial prints in my signature style.

It was indeed a lucky find – that piece with the hound dog on it in compatible colors and scale!

More New Work

Friday, April 21st, 2017

It’s been so long since I was here that my blog doesn’t seem to even recognize me – or maybe it is that I didn’t remember how to get in!

Anyway. I have completed a few projects in the meantime. Here is the little 12 x 12″ of the emu made for the bird challenge that I alluded to in the last post way back in Jan. She had run away from home and traveled cross country to show up on our property where I photographed her for possible future inspiration. This is “Emu, I See You!”

Then with the deadline looming, I made “Beneficial Burn ll” for the upcoming SAQA Regional show “Changing Landscapes” and it was accepted to show at the Leedy Volkous Gallery in Kansas city in June and July. This one is 36 x 36″.

Also accepted to show at the Sabatini Gallery in Topeka with the EDGE exhibit is my “Layers Of The Flint Hills”, 59.5 x 30″.  That will open August 11 and runs through to Oct 22.

The annual judged Spring Show at the Topeka Art Guild Gallery is now up til the end of May and my entry “Tranquil Dawn”, 40 x 52.5″ has won First Place!! It’s always nice when judges recognize art in what I do when it is not primarily a quilt show!

Tomorrow I hope to show you a couple more!

New work

Friday, January 20th, 2017

In spite of good intentions, there continues to be too much time between postings.  That’s not to say things don’t happen, but perhaps not so much happens that you would be interested in!

Like, do you care that I finally got the sales tax filed?  I didn’t think so, but still, it took a lot of time to get the info together and sent.

I completed two small pieces, one a 12 x 12″ bird challenge piece for my local art group that I won’t reveal until after our next meeting on Thursday, and a 6 x 8″ for the auction at the SAQA Convention in the spring.

 

These little pieces will be matted so the edges are only zigzagged.

I started a new fire piece since I needed a new landscape and all of these fabrics were still out on the cutting table from the last ones.

This is after the first working day and so far, I’m liking it.  I intend to post progress shots as I go, we’ll see how that goes!

It’s Been A Long Time

Thursday, January 5th, 2017

Much has happened since last I posted here. Our daughter Karen died on Oct 26, very unexpectedly. Plans to go to Houston were cancelled. Our other daughter arrived from AZ for the funeral and to stay through her father’s scheduled surgery three days later. That went well, but a few days after she left to go home, he developed a bad reaction to the pain medication and I had a couple of scary days until the effects wore of and he regained normalcy.

In the meantime we were sorting through Karen’s things, donating most of it to various agencies. This is a very sad and time consuming process and I can’t express enough, the need for everyone to get a jump start and sort your own things while you can. Thank you, Cindy, for all your help! After the furniture, books, clothing and other personal stuff there are still boxes of papers that haven’t been gone through yet.

I had no desire to create, but somewhere along the line, I forced myself to get into the studio one Saturday morning and make two little 6 x 6” pieces for a local gallery’s annual Christmas Mini show and sale. It was something that I had been wanting to do, but was unsure if they would be accepted, since they were textile pieces. Everything gets uniformly framed in a wide black frame with a gold accent, very classy. They were accepted and they sold quickly! I was asked to make more, so I did two more and those also quickly sold. At that point the owner asked if I would make a large prairie fire piece for him to show and sell in the gallery. This finally gave me a focus and got me back into design and create mode. It has been fun to have a goal again and yesterday I delivered the finished piece which is 56.5 x 27” to the SouthWind Gallery here in Topeka in time for this month’s First Friday opening.

I’m Back!

Saturday, July 16th, 2016

It’s been too long since I have posted here!  I’ve worked through  – or accepted that my computer is different now.  It seems to be doing most of what I need for it to do.

Also my camera issues.  I really don’t understand cameras so I paid for an hour of one on one instruction to help me to get the sharp photo that I needed for an upcoming book.  It did not help. After struggling with f-stops and other buttons and dials, my contact person at the book told me to use the focus ring and that certainly helped.  Why did my paid instructor not tell me that??? Maybe it is just so basic everyone else already knows?  Anyway the resulting pictures were not perfect but so much better, they were acceptable. I am thinking that when Fall Semester starts up, I may take a basic photography class. It can’t hurt!

I have finished the machine quilting on the Kansas Flint Hills landscape and I am quite pleased with how it came out.  I have had it on the design wall for a few days now,  and I have decided that I will finish it with a faced edge, because I want to emphasize the vast openess of the scene and not have it confined by a binding.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

I have received word that “After The Storm” has been accepted to IQF in Houston this fall, so  that is exciting!!

AfterTheStorm

Catching Up

Monday, April 25th, 2016

Last week, I finished the watercolor of the Giant Swallowtail on the Zinnias.  It’s hard to know when to stop.  Perhaps I should have stopped sooner, but at least I did finally stop!  My favorite watercolors are those that look fresh and spontaneous, and not overworked. This was beginning to go there!GiantSwallowtail

I started a new one, of my late Komondor, Griffin.  I used mask to define the edges of some of his cords and let the background wash flow down into that area to give depth and shadow. After lifting some of the color and softening the edges of the masked area, I am ready to attempt the definition of the cords. My instructor, Ye, said “Oh, another complicated one!” I think he does not quite know what to do with me!griffWatercolor1

I also finally made my offering for this year’s SAQA  12 x 12″ Benefit Auction.  The deadline is coming up so I decided this year to forego my usual pieced format and go with a whole cloth hand dyed piece.  When I first saw this piece of fabric, I saw within it, a woodland scene. It reminded me of looking ahead through the trees to what might be a clearing up ahead, so I free motion machine quilted the trees and the foreground foliage.  I think I might call it “Through The Trees”.  12x12-2016450

“Layers Of The FlintHills” Top Finished!

Sunday, April 3rd, 2016

The latest top is DONE!! I sewed the last seam yesterday morning, removed all of the freezer paper and gave it a good pressing. Now it is hanging on the design wall and if I don’t notice something that needs changing I hope to get it layered and ready to start the quilting next week. It’s been a long process, working an hour here and a day there between other obligations, sewing and un sewing, making changes and additions.  It went from this the last time I posted about it

KSlandscape2to this.  I tweaked the greens, added more flowers in the foreground and a distant hill,

Landscape progress

then to this.  Changed the distant hill to a darker shade from the hand dyed sky fabric. It felt like that side was too low, so I added a second distant hill from the different lighter hand dye that was rejected in the previous shot.  Added a pond to the right side as it seemed to need to have the blue repeated.

LayersTopI do believe it is now finished and I know the quilting will add another dimension. Can’t wait to get started!

Flint Hills Landscape

Thursday, February 11th, 2016

Reviewing my last post, I see I was in the euphoric beginning stages of a new work! The fabric was pulled, (way too much!)

FHFabric450

The process of creating was in full force and I was having a great time making the vision in my head come to life. It’s going to be a Flint Hills landscape with an exposed ridge of rock ledge the focal point. So far, so good.

FHills-1-450

The problem is, the fabrics that look so nice up close, are, from a distance turning to mud and it is all blending way too much. All of a sudden all that “Too much” fabric is not enough as I am not finding the contrast that I need.

FlintH-3-450

Sunday, I placed an order for more fabric and I am now waiting to see if there is anything there that will help.

In the meantime, I’ll work on book keeping.

Keeping Busy

Saturday, February 6th, 2016

Yesterday was First Friday and I worked at the Topeka Art Guild Gallery where we have a new show up. It’s a good one! My entries this time around are “Fur Family Portrait”

FurFam

and “Poppy!”

Poppy Workshop Samp

If you are in the area, definitely come see!!

I’m two days into my new Flint Hills landscape and having a great time sewing and creating again. It’s going to be a fall scene. Maybe after today, I will have enough done to post the progress……we’ll see!

Good news, “Splash” was accepted and will be showing at the MidAtlantic Quilt Festival in Hampton, VA, Feb 25-28 .

Splash_40x40_full