Fabulous Quilt Exhbit

Unfortunately, I didn't get to any quilting this weekend, as I was helping one of my sons move, but I did get to do a virtual visit to a fabulous showing of art quilts.  From November 2nd through January 4th there was a show at the  Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center in Auburn, New York.  Here is a link so you can visit too:  http://www.schweinfurthartcenter.org/exhibits/QAQ.html

Be sure to check out their virtual tour of the show. 

I've never heard of this artist before, who had a beautiful piece there entitled, "Will-o'the wisp".  His work is very amazing, very painterly.  His name is Randall Cook.  This quilt of his was in the show along with many other unique art quilts.  Here's a link to his website to check out more randallcookstudios.com

Hope you enjoy his work and the others as much as I did.

Ice Dyed Fabric Quilt

Happy New Year to everyone!  Been laying low, still fighting this cold with three more days of antibiotics to take.  Hopefully by then it will be over. Had a busy weekend, helping one of our sons move out.

Found some time and energy to cut out and fuse my ice dyed fabrics, that I pieced together in November, to a black background.  Was a new way of working for me with making the cuts this way. I used clear film over the fabric to draw out exactly where I wanted the 'fractures'.  Next I  put tracing paper over the clear film to create the four pattern pieces.  Hadn't done any fusing in awhile and I find that stuff rather tricky to use, but pleased that it came out how I envisioned it.  Started to do a little stitching on it last night.  Back to work tomorrow and next weekend will be helping my other son move, so not sure when I"ll get back to it.

Leaves, Leaves, and More Leaves

Christmas is over and the kids are gone.  I've been sick with a cold since the Friday before Christmas.  Must be from all those students sneezing and coughing, you think? Since it wasn't going away I  went to the doc in the box the Friday after Christmas to get something for my cough so I can al least get some sleep at night.  So I've been taking it easy, drinking lots of tea.

I love leaves.  I have been picking up all kinds of leaves for years.  When I can, I take them home and press them between book pages weighting them down until they are nice and flat.  And the ones I can't take home I photograph.

Here's a gorgeous coleus we saw on the way home after dropping off one of my sons at the airport yesterday.

The colors are so amazing as are the values and their repetition.

Here's one I may have shown before followed by a photo-shopped version of it as well.  It is a photo of one of my sunflowers about ready to bloom.

I think this one would make a great block print.

I will 'leave' you with that and wish you a Happy, healthy New Year!

Ethnic Ceramic Masks

How exciting to find out my blog has received over 10,000 views!! It's been challenging to keep it going week to week, even with posting weekly.  At the same time it keeps me creating and is my journal in many ways.  Thank you to all of you who have visited.  I hope you will continue to keep checking it out.  I'll try to keep it interesting.

Been busy with all things Christmas this last week, so today am going to show you some of the great ethnic ceramic masks my students have created over the last month.

Over Dyeing Ice Dyed Fabrics and Scarf

I had some time earlier in the week to add a little black to two pieces of ice dyed fabric and one scarf.  Here is fabric number 1 prior to dyeing.

Next I accordion folded the fabric, rolled it up, put it in a container and drizzled dye on top of the folded edges.

Below is the finished fabric.

I couldn't find a picture of this fabric prior to last week's overdyeing, but it was similar to the one above.  Below is a picture of how I swirled and crunched up the fabric into a plastic box. Then I drizzled dye on top and very strategically.

Here is the finished piece.

And last, but not least, a silk scarf that needed a little more black.

Sunday Sunrise Snapshot

School and life in general has been keeping me way too busy lately.  Haven't had a chance to work on my art fabric very much.  Been crocheting gift scarves, shopping, baking, grading papers, blah, blah, blah.  This last week we've had such beautiful views of the sunrise from our home.  The colors change so quickly, that I need to grab my camera and run out in my jammies to capture the beauty.  So this week I'll leave you with a picture of one to enjoy.

Monoprinting

On andthenwesetitonfire blog here ,Beth has been showing a monoprinting technique based on a video by Laura Kemshall.  I gave it a try and here's a couple of mine. It was a lot of fun.  I got too much 'noise' on mine, especially on the first one, which I did on one of those white acrylic cutting boards but I still like how they turned out.  I did both of them on multi colored fabrics.

This one has the tracing paper on top which shows the design I used for the one below.