Exhilaration!

It's Friday night and I'm thinking about the weekend.  On Sun. afternoon I'm teaching Vibrant Quilt Collage  (from the book Vibrant Quilt Collage: A Spontaneous Approach to Fused Art Quilts, written by Bethan Ash).  Since I forgot to post a photo of my shop sample back in Feb., here it is:

"Exhilaration" wall-hanging, 18x24"

I really wanted it to be VIBRANT, so I pieced the background with black-and-white fabrics, then used fusible web to adhere the multicolored shapes to its surface. It was machine-quilted in softly-curved arcs, some of which overlapped.  It really was a fun and SPONTANEOUS way of working, and a nice change from how I normally design and construct a quilt.

In fact, I enjoyed it so much that other design ideas popped into my mind as I was working on this one.  Here's a second piece I've started, this time using one piece of black fabric as the background:

2nd "Vibrant" fabric collage, 12x17"

This second one's been on the back burner for awhile, percolating. When I return to it, I hope I'll know what it needs next. The only thing I'm sure of is that there will be a bit of black showing on all four edges. As of right now, though, I'm not even sure of the orientation!  It may be on its side when I'm finished . . .

A change in orientation?

Anything's possible, right?

New work

Over the past week, I experimented with the 12" x 12" format and found that I liked it.  Here's the piece I did:

"Tribute to the Elder"

"Tribute to the Elder" detail

The "Elder" being referenced is my dad.  The basis of this design was a small sketch of overlapping circles topped with a t-shape.  It was in my design sketchbook, on a page dated 10/15/13, which would've been my dad's 97th birthday (though he only lived to the age of 62).  The title is rather tongue-in-cheek and I think it would've amused him.

It was very satisfying to work in this small format, as it forced me to simplify the design, and that inspired me to want to work in a series.  I've been doing the exercises in  the book Visual Guide to Working in a Series by Elizabeth Barton (which is excellent, by the way!) as I try to narrow down my theme.  Stay tuned to see where this path takes me!

"Photo Safari" Challenge Results

Throughout last fall, each of us worked on our pieces for the "Photo Safari" challenge.  This was the challenge where we all went to Salem's Bush Park and took photos, then chose our best 12 shots and drew names to swap them with another member.  From the photo set each member received, we each had to design and create a quilt inspired by those photos.  The total of all four sides of the finished quilt had to equal between 84" and 144", allowing for a variety of sizes and configurations.

We held our March meeting at Deb's to take advantage of her large studio space and lighting set-up that's perfect for photographing textiles.  My daughter brought her friend, Cody Drago, a very talented photographer who's just starting a side business photographing textiles.

Here are the challenge quilts he photographed that night, beginning with Patty's.  I'm completely amazed at the way Cody's captured the luminosity and three-dimensionality of this piece!

"Autumn Leaves" by Patty Korn

Detail of  "Autumn Leaves" -- Wow! What a glow!

Then there's the lush greenery of Bush Park that Nancy recreated using tucks and folds.  (And I'm guessing that because she lives on a forested ridgetop, her surroundings also played a part in inspiring this naturalistic piece!):

"Woodland Nocturne" by Nancy Swanson

"Woodland Nocturne" detail

Lisa, ever the perfectionist, spent hours upon hours on the detailed stitching of her piece, both by machine and by hand:

Lisa's abstract depiction of roses (not yet titled)

Click on this next shot for an enlarged view of the intricate hand stitching in the centers of the two roses on the left:

detail of Lisa's roses

And beckoning us from a tropical isle is Maureen's beautiful poster-sized postcard from one of our previous challenges ("Letters"):

"Just Mail It" by Maureen Erhardt

"Just Mail It" detail

More photos from this challenge will be posted soon, so please visit again!   Comments are greatly appreciated.

3rd Annual FABRICATIONS: The Art of Quilting Show

Along with two other Fiberexplorations members (Deb and Erika), I was thrilled to learn that one of my quilts was accepted into the juried Fabrications: The Art of Quilting show in Bend, Ore.  This Friday evening, March 7, is the artists' reception  from 5-7 pm, coinciding with Bend's First Friday activities. This show is sponsored by the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show (SOQS).

Here are the quilts that are in the show:

Erika's "Industrial Nature"

"Industrial Nature," detail.

"Passion Flower" by Deb.

Deb's "The Voice"

"Blue Note" by Joanna

"Blue Note" detail

There will be complimentary wine and refreshments at the reception, so please stop by if you're able.  Otherwise, you can catch the show through the end of March.  The venue is Franklin Crossing, on the corner of Bond & Franklin in downtown Bend.

5th Annual Holiday Potluck

We had the Fiberexplorations' 5th annual holiday potluck & fabric postcard exchange this past weekend. This year, Nancy hosted us at Passages, her ridgetop home in the Cascades.  I can't tell you how beautiful everything was!  It was a bright, cold, and sparkling Saturday afternoon, but we were warm and cozy inside, as Nancy's husband, Gary, told us the history of Passages and how it came to be named.

More than one of us proclaimed that if we lived there, we'd probably never leave.  It felt like we were nestled inside someone's dream vision of the ultimate tree house.  Here's a view from their music room, high in the Douglas firs:

Nancy's view

Gary took photos of us as a group, but it's my fault that they aren't included here.  My camera is persnickety, and all the shots were blurred.  We'll try again next year!

On the other hand, our fabric postcard exchange was a big hit again. There was no theme this year, as you can see, and they were all unique:

There were several long tables set out in Nancy's spacious studio-in-the-treetops, and that's where we ate our linner (combo lunch-dinner).   Every potluck dish was incredible, and all the major food groups were included, which can be rare at a potluck.  One offering deserves special mention, as it seemed to generate the most taste-approving sounds, and that was the rum cake that Lisa brought.  (But credit goes to her husband, Laine, for making the cake!)

As the sun dropped lower in the western sky, we realized that we did, indeed, need to return to the valley. We said our goodbyes, while Nancy and Gary insisted that we each take one of their special wineglasses as a keepsake.  The glasses were printed with the word Passages, which will always be a reminder of this holiday afternoon in the mountains,  celebrating with great food & drink, laughter, stories, and creative friends.

Thanks, Nancy & Gary!

Progress on the Photo Safari Challenge

I've been working on my piece for our Photo Safari Challenge and I'm 85% serious about trying to finish by my personal deadline of Nov. 11.   Hmmm . . . as usual, I change my mind every hour about the direction I'm heading.  In the past couple months, I made lots of initial sketches as I abstracted shapes from the park photos.  I'd play with an idea for awhile, then discard it, until I chose a loose design idea as my starting point.

I also set myself a goal of working with colors I've never worked with before -- neutrals. 

Soft grays, ivory, light blues, lavenders, and greens.

I was envisioning soft colors that imparted a calm and soothing mood, but it was too calm for me, even with the tiny inserts of the mosaic print that I've been waiting to use.   It was time to add a few strips of  darker values to the strata I'd already stitched.

Two sections stitched, contrast added, and still "blah."

That added some much-needed contrast, but it still wasn't talking to me yet.  So I went with the Portlandia cliche and put a bird (or two) on it.  And with that addition, a personal theme emerged . . .

and I knew it was time to turn away from my sketched idea and work from intuition.  Next step:  cut up the large sections I'd stitched together and reuse smaller bits of them in more interesting ways.

Sneak peek at revised design idea.

Note for tomorrow:  Have fun, lighten up, breathe, and think about why the birds are included in this quilt and why I'm humming snatches of Neil Young's Expecting to Fly.

About this party I went to . . .

I spent part of Saturday getting ready for a Sunday evening party.  The event couldn't have been better timed for chasing off the blues that threaten every fall when we change back to standard time.  Though it's just a minor detail, I should mention that this was a solo party, where I was both host and guest, and the division of both roles dissolved in all the fun I had!
It was MAGICAL and COLORFUL, with some wonderfully SURPRISING results!

What is it?

Marbling fabric!

Three of my marbled fabrics.

On Saturday, I pretreated my fabrics with an alum soak, which acts as a mordant to bind the the paints to the cloth.
I love the magic of adding paints, one drop at a time, to the methocel solution (the "sizing") and watching  as the paints rapidly expand to fill the surface area.  When the next color is added, it's almost as if there was a race to see which droplets can fill the most space!

Black just added.

In the photo above, the blue was added first, then yellow, then black.  [Sorry for the striped illusion -- that's the plastic tablecloth underneath.]
After the black expanded, I added drops of another blue to the center of the black areas, which expanded, pushing back the black into an outline shape (below).

A 2nd blue expanding inside the black.

I waited a few moments for the paints to finish expanding and contracting, to see what it would look like.  [The center white dot is a reflection, not paint.]
The party was getting pretty noisy by then, with all my squeals of delight and exclamations of "Wow, just look at that!"

Before I swirled the surface paints around.

Instead of a rake, I used a skewer and moved the surface paints into twirling designs. Then I blew through a straw and directed the paints using puffs of air.  Magic! 
The final step was to place the pre-treated fabric on top of the floating paints, lift the fabric onto a tray, and carry it to the sink to rinse off.  I'm always amazed that the paint stays put!  All that's rinsed away is the methocel solution. The fabric is then hung until til dry, then ironed on the reverse side to set the color.  Here's the result:

The marbled fabric.

Some of the fabrics I marbled during this session:

I suppose you could say I was again exploring my love of blues and greens.

And at the end, something strangely beautiful.  Remember the first photo I posted above?  Here it is again:

What is it?

After I poured off the leftover methocel solution, all the paints had sunk to the bottom of the tray, making a gorgeous mess.  Too pretty to destroy . . . so I went through the marbling process again, placing a piece of fabric onto these paints, and "printed" the results:

I may call this "Sunken Treasure."

My party died down around 9:00 pm, and I was left with a big clean-up job.  It was well worth it, though, and next time I may even invite some guests.

A new way to monoprint!

Are you familiar with the textile work of the English mother-daughter duo, Linda and Laura Kemshall?   I recently viewed one of their free sample videos from DesignMatters TV (DMTV),  Exploring Monoprint.

This method of monoprinting was entirely new to me and I couldn't wait to try it out last night.  All I needed was fabric paint (I used black, and later, added a little green and blue), a Plexiglas print plate, a brayer (or soft, sponge-type roller), plain paper,  fabric to print on, and a ball-point pen.*  Oh, two more items:  tape and a temporary adhesive spray.  (All I had was temporary fabric basting spray, and it worked fine.) 

*Actually, Laura called it a "biro," but it looked like a simple ball-point pen to me.  Can anyone tell me if they're the same?

Assembled supplies for monoprinting, Laura Kemshall-style.

I looked through my design sketchbooks to get ideas for lines and marks to use.  On my first try, I drew the lines on paper first, then copied over them during the monoprint to get this result:

My first print on fabric.

 For the other prints, I didn't draw designs on the paper until it was layered over the fabric and inked plate.

My 2nd print on fabric.

and here's the paper those lines were drawn on:

Before re-inking the plate again, I looked at it held up to a light, and the small amounts of blue and green paints I'd added to the black were apparent:

The plate after printing.

For this to make sense, you may want to see Laura's instructions on the free video.

Here are the other two monoprints I made on fabric.  As it was late in the evening, you can see that my design ideas weren't flowing too freely.

This one features fake backwards writing at the top.

Monopoly houses?  Time to quit!

My next experiment will be to follow Linda Kemshall's instructions from another of their free DMTV shows (further down that page) on Waxing Papers.

Feelin' Lucky!

Quiltopia weekend is here in Salem, Oregon!  Last week, The Oregonian (Portland's daily newspaper) published an article about the event, which included photos of some of the quilts made by my coworkers at Greenbaum's Quilted Forest, the event's sponsor.  I was excited to learn that my quilt Hello Mr. Sun was included in the article -- twice!  (One photo was a full view; the second was a detail shot.)

You may remember this quilt from my post last November.  It was made as a sample for a class I've been teaching, Serendipity Quilts, from the same-titled book by Susan Carlson.  Here are the photos from The Oregonian:

"Hello Mr. Sun" (Photo by Josef Brugger)

The caption read:  Joanna Price, a frequent teacher at Greenbaum's Quilted Forest in Salem, sewed this sun artwork as a class model from a book titled "Serendipity Quilts." An array of fabric art will be on display at the 2013 Quiltopia festival in Salem. 

Here's the detail shot:

Detail, "Hello Mr. Sun" (Photo by Josef Brugger)

Quiltopia is a 3-day festival that includes a quilt show with vendors, plus the Salem Fiberarts Guild's Annual Handweaver's Sale and Demos, both at Mission Mill Museum.  The Quilted Cottage Tour on Sunday is a self-guided tour of two houses filled with quilts.  Other activities involving quilts are also part of the festival.  For more info, click on this link.

I'm pretty thrilled about my quilt being included in the article, along with the many "congrats" I received from my friends.  That little bit of attention and acknowledgment's left me feeling happy, lucky, and thankful!