CROSS HATCHING

I almost hesitate to post this since it's so far from completion...however, my very busy month of Oct. is keeping me away from the studio more than I'd like.    So, squeezing in small periods of time to work is better than none.

Along the road to our closest town, there's a metal fabricator whose garage door is always open.  It's called me every time I pass.  So, recently I stopped in, hoping to find some metal pieces that could be rusted.  Unfortunately, the metal he uses is quite thick and due to its weight, won't incorporate well into fiber art.  

He explained that anything smaller than the 7" x 1.5" piece above automatically falls into the water holding area of his plasma laser cutting machine.  Too bad....I'll bet there is some good stuff there!

 He kindly gave me two of the smallest pieces he had.....and I've been pondering ever since about how I could use it.  

 My plan is to create a landscape....though I'm woefully under skilled as far as perspective etc. goes, but I'm going to try.  Using the stem stitch, various lines have been embroidered onto a heathered felted wool background.

Next, I'll attempt to use cross hatching to develop the shapes/shadows/colors.  This will be time consuming...(fine by me...I love handwork) so be patient, updates will be forthcoming as the work develops.

ANOTHER RACE WEEKEND

Frankly, I don't know why I'm bothering to blog about my weekend at Road Atlanta.......it's most likely as boring for you to read as it was for me to experience.  Well, it wasn't totally awful but Saturday's weather was awful. Even with 4 layers I was still freezing in the cold and on/off rain.  For anyone who is a car race fan, you may know why this was such a big deal.  It was the final, forever, race of the American LeMans Series which is merging with the Grand Am Series.  Okay, enuff of the back story....click delete or close now if you wish, or read on for a peek at what this world is all about.

 Luckily, we are members of a car club that has a hospitality tent, with parking...a big deal at these huge events.  They do a great job of have tech talks and personalities who share strategies and insights.  This is team Falken....who ended up coming in 1st place in their class.....Yeah!!

 Friday was a beautiful day.....nice to stroll the rows and rows of vendors and team outdoor 'garages'.

 As I mentioned, Sat. was cold with on/off rain...it didn't take long for one of the cars to spin out into the gravel right in front of where we were huddled in the hospitality tent.

 One aspect kept me amused.....I swear there was hardly a sq. foot on this huge race track facility that wasn't filled.  Creative camping, no??

 Bumper to bumper tents.....

 And this is just a tiny snippet view of how the upper crust 'camp"!

No track can come close in quality to the food at Road America in Wisconsin...but then perhaps I'm biased.....but we are now in the South and folks here love their BBQ......

 We found a nice cafe for dinner on Friday night that had this creative, almost patchwork, wine cork wall covering. The race on Sat. is 10 hours long, ending about 10:00 PM.  Ya, I know....10 hours...just think how much sewing could be done in 10 hours! The above BBQ stand provided our dinner....no nice cozy cafe for me Saturday night.

The 2013 season of attending races is over for us, but 'the husband' is already looking forward to the Rolex 24 Hour Race in January.  Yup, I did say 24 hours!!  I cringe at the thought already...but thankfully we do not stay all night....the whining on my part would be unbearable.

Thanks for reading this....and for what I know is your pity......

CHANGING OVER NIGHT??

Fall attracts a lot of tourists to our area, all trying to time their visit to view the peak leaf color.  Everyone seems to have their opinion about when that will be and why.....we've had a wet summer...so reportedly there will be less reds and more yellows.  Yadda, yadda......it's all beautiful and I get to watch the daily transformations.

My plan was to document the overnight changes to share with you.  Well....I'm too impatient and upcoming travels will not permit this ambitious idea. Here's two views off our front porch on two consecutive days....  DAH...due to light conditions (though taken at nearly the same time each day) the differences are not very apparent in the photo but in person it is.

I hope this inspires you to go out and enjoy the scenery.....wherever you live!

 Day 1

Day 2

 Day 1

Day 2

AERIAL BLUEPRINT

Okay, okay....after FAR tooooo much over thinking about the finishing treatment for this piece.....I jumped in yesterday and just did it!  The width has been narrowed a bit and facings added to finish the edges.  

The indigo dyed silk noil provides an 'otherworld' feel.....thus the title. Hand embroidery draws the eye around, while the ice dyed cotton fabric adds sparks of color, and the beadwork adds texture.....all merging together in one successful piece.   

Click here to see and read the back story....

AERIAL BLUEPRINT  12.5" X 16"

Available Here  Sorry - sold

Artist indigo-dyed silk noil, pieced, hand embroidered,

and bead embellished.

INDIO DYED SILK NOIL PROJECT

The problem child....which I blogged about here and again here has sat long enough...... indecision had overcome me.  ENUFF.....let's move it along...

 I advocate beading and embroidering in a Q-Snap frame....anyone who has ever taken a workshop from me knows I'm rigid on this subject.  Working in a frame (rectangle or square) is preferred over a round hoop since you can secure the piece into the frame 'on-grain'.  

Sometimes the frame isn't as wide (or long as you need)....if so, simply make a muslin sleeve, with a 2" extender flap. (Think a tiny mini skirt with an elastic waist band w/o the elastic). Run one of the PVC pipe pieces through the opening and reassemble the frame.

Now you can pin the edge of your piece onto to the muslin extension...providing  the extra width/length required to secure it into the frame.

 It's especially important to stabilize limp/thin fabrics for handwork.  This indigo dyed silk noil is not tightly woven, so there's very little body to it. Distortion is guaranteed to happen during the embroidery or beading process if it weren't properly stabilized. 

Here are a few more details of the hand work I've added.....

Size  14.5 x 16.5 (yet to me, it appears more square than what it measures) 

So....here's been my dilemma......what finishing method would best suit this design?  I've considered facing it or mounting it on a canvas covered frame.  The later is where I'm leaning....and of course if I owned such a thing, I'd probably have done it already.  But, living in the boonies will require nearly a 2 hour round trip to get to an AC Moore store and I'm not sure I can even find a ready made one in the appropriate size. The other negative about mounting it is the added difficulity of storing/hanging in some exhibit spaces/and bringing it along when I teach....not to mention the extra cost of shipping if it's sold through my blog shop.

(I'm talking out loud to myself here, aren't I??)

I like the piece...in fact I like it a lot but there's something a little off balance about it...which is another reason for my stalling.

So today.....I loaded the photo into my photo program and did some cropping......and decided I liked this much better.  It's a simple remedy really....requiring about 1.5 inches trimmed from the right side.  The bigger issue will be making sure all the embroidery threads are super secured before I wack that side off.  

So....whatcha think???  Love the original size or the trimmed version???

DASHES - A PATCHWORK WALL QUILT

Really....I AM working....however I've stalled out on two recent projects (a linen indigo dyed piece and a sun printed wool one).  Finishing decisions on both elude me, so in the meantime, out came the never ending box of black and white fabrics gifted to me by a friend.  

 Along with the b/w fabrics....batiks will add colorful accents.  If my count is correct, this will be the 10th quilt that has been created from Helen's generosity.

 Again, taking inspiration from those 'fresh/modern' designs....I've chosen to piece narrow strips between black and white rectangles.  Simple blocks with snappy eye appeal.

This was such a great project, allowing me to utilize an hour here and there to piece and arrange as time permitted.  Once the top was assembled, straight line quilting was added.  It was finished with a pieced colorful binding.  

Our open floor layout home leaves me with very few walls to display work, so this piece will be heading to my online gallery in the hopes that someone else has the appropriate space to enjoy it.....

DASHES  33" X 35"

AVAILABLE HERE

Cotton/batik fabrics, machine quilted

GO PACKERS!!!!!!

Clay Matthews...the heart of the defense......is out for 4 weeks......say it isn't so!!!!   But like Packer fans everywhere who are looking for a win against Baltimore.......we have faith the team will step up.  So on this fall NFL Sunday...hear me loud......     GO PACKERS GO!!!!!

FELTED ACORNS

Off and on, during snippets of time I've been dipping my hands in hot, soapy water...and with elbow grease....creating felted acorns.

 During our daily 'forced march' last fall, I gathered quite a bunch of acorn tops.

 I had an urge to do something with them....esp. since I was in need of a gift for a creative person I admire.  So, out came dyed wool roving in as many fall colors as I had.

 Then, with the DVR tuned to my archive of "Housewives" shows....a bowl of hot water and some soap.....

 I squeezed, rolled, patted, and otherwise manipulated some shapes to fit into the acorn lids.

And....here are the results.....

OUR VIEW

There has been little time in the studio lately.....so without any projects to share at the moment, perhaps you'd be interested in seeing the view we have from our home.

We live in a mountain valley at 3,200 feet elevation and have an unobstructed year round view of mountains to our south.  The locals tell us that for every day of fog in the fall, there will be one day of snow in the winter.  That's definitely not a good sign as it's been foggy nearly every morning.

However today the fog stayed further down in the valley.  So what you see is not a lake....it's cloud cover, almost blocking the normally visible mountains.  The crisp fall morning air has arrived but so far there is only a sprinkling of color in the higher elevations.

"INSPIRED BY" EXHIBIT

Robbie led the way with her request to see more of the quilts in our groups' "Inspired By" Exhibit.  If you didn't catch my recent post which provided the background....please visit here so you can get a better understanding of our challenge and appreciate what a fabulous job each artist did.  

There were 13 quilts in the exhibit, unfortunately I don't have photos and signage for everyone, but for those that I have, the artists generously gave permission for me to post them. Please respect their copyright and ask for permission to repost...thank you!  The photos are clickable to provide a larger image to enjoy.

Each is for sale, so I you are interested, don't hesitate to contact me and I'll put you in touch with the owner.  I can assure you, we all agree that this was the most successful and fun challenge our group has ever undertaken. 

 This piece was sold during the recent Asheville Quilt Guild show and now belongs to Moda Fabrics Collection.

AVAILABLE HERE