Nothing like a deadline to help you get the job done!!! At least that is how it works for me. Last month I had to finish several quilts for….
To Dye For
at the
July 16 – October 2, 2016
Opening Reception: July 16, 5-7pm
2825 Dewey Road, Suite 100
San Diego, CA 92106
(Picture me now doing the happy dance around and around in circles!!!! I’m in a museum!)
I haven’t pieced a quilt for ages but I knew exactly what I wanted to do and thought I’d share a bit of the creation process for a couple of these quilts with you. I’m working on a series exploring the imagery of Mill Wheels. I love them. 
For this piece I first am required to make a big fat mess. Oh, wait. No. First I have to clean up a BIG fat mess so I can even come close to seeing the top of my work table. It’s a huge old Oak drafting table that I rescued from the college art department’s junk heap and restored. It has a smooth drawing surface that is covered by a giant cutting mat that is usually covered by a print cloth and is always covered by a BIG fat mess. 
Step one – dig through and find the fabric I want, dye some more, do some simple strip piecing. I could cut each pattern piece and sew things together the normal way, but that sounded very much like work. Anything where I have to be precise takes too much brain power for me. I like easy.
Step two – draft my circle on freezer paper. Layer it and cut out a billion wedges. I sketch in just enough of the lines on each piece so that I can get the direction of line mostly right. Iron the shiny plastic coated side of the freezer paper to the strips, matching the direction of line. Then I cut out each wedge – stick a pin in the corners of each piece so the freezer paper matches exactly, and sew. 
This way I don’t have to be careful about seam allowances or do anything other than follow the edge of the paper. On some of the wheels I ironed there freezer paper to the top and some of the wheels to the back of each piece. It didn’t really matter so long as I was consistent with each wheel.
Step three – once my whole wheel was complete I ironed the inside and outside edges over the edge of the freezer paper and had a nice clean edge.
Step 4 – I realized my piecing wasn’t super great, even with the freezer paper templates. My circle was just a bit wonky. That wouldn’t happen to someone who paid close attention to details but that someone isn’t me.
Step 5 – I went back and used the ruler to mark from the center to the inner and outer diameter of the circle and trimmed my wheel back into shape. There you have it. a lovely interpretation of a mill wheel.
Now isn’t that a pretty thing!?!? Keep your eyes open for a peek into the rest of the design process on this piece. I love how it turned out. Hope you love it too!
The dye sits for several hours and I swish it or pour it up over the wrap every once in a while then it’s time to rinse and unwrap. The kidlets were in the house and probably thought I was a little crazy with the way I kept jumping up and down and squealing as I opened up each piece. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE it’s like magic!!!
I suppose with great care and after years of working with the technique you can control your pattern outcome. I love to see what happens with just playing around.
Poker chips were clamped between layers of folded cloth. I love circles. Can you tell?
This is the piece that wasn’t submerged in the dye bath the whole time and it’s kind of cool how I got a gradation from grey to darker black. I might try to do that on purpose one of these days.
This bit is close to something we are more familiar with in american tie-dye. I love the spiderweb of radiating lines.
This was one of my favorite pieces out of the batch. You’ll see more of it soon. Can you just see me doing the happy happy happy shibori dance?
I find airports relaxing. It might have something to do with the fact that my children aren’t there. Nobody is saying, “mom, I need this” every three minutes. The house phone doesn’t ring, I’m off the hook for housework (Hah! Like I ever do that anyway) and dinner prep and kid schlepping. 
Get a window seat. Look out. It’s absolutely amazing. I’m continually amazed at the beauty of clouds. Anyone know how this phenomenon happens? I’ve seen the clouds line up in rows on several occasions now. 
I sketch too. Or make lists. Or write articles. All of these happen in whatever sketchbook I happen to have with me at the time. This celtic knot feels like Seuss met a Klingon.
And always, I remember how lucky I am to do what I get to do. I play with fabric. I play with paint and foil and beads and make funky pretty wonderful stuff. I play with QUILTERS! They are the nicest people I know and I get to travel around the land and spend time with them.
When I work small (under 18″ or so) I leave my back layer off as I do all of my stitching. Yes, that means top and batting only while I do my machine and hand stitching. Then I fuse a backing on to cover up all the mess and trim everything nice and straight …. if it’s the kind of piece that wants to be nice and straight.
Next up – choose your thread color – it will become an integral part of the design. I thought red would tie this little piece together without overwhelming anything. You can always pull out and double (or quadruple) up the thread and and lay it out on your quilt before actually choosing which color to use. Audition it. See what works. Take a picture of each option and look at the thumbnails all together if you can’t choose.
When you get to the corner, stop the needle on the right, leaving it down. Carefully lift the presser foot and swing the quilt-let down without moving it away from the needle.
Now slowly make the next couple of zig-zags on top of the stitching that is already there. Carry on in the same manner all the way around. You can see in the photos here that I’m already on the second layer. My first layer of zig-zag seems to just hold the edges and everything together.
On the second go-round I shorten my stitch length to satin stitch closeness – but widen out my zig-zag so that it is just wider than my first go-round.
When you have gone all the way around a second time, end with a couple of very short straight stitches and back stitch just one or two stitches. I cut my thread then flip over the piece and give a good hard yank on the back thread to pop the front thread through just a bit. I trim the thread right there at the fabric and it leaves no fuzzy little tail on the front.
I was introduced to a guild last week and my hostess said, “you can tell she is very organized and gets a lot done.” I always have to use every once of self control I have not to burst out in raucous guffaws – or at least refrain from rolling my eyes. I am busy past my eyeballs – up to the very top tip of my spiky hair busy. ALL. THE. TIME. So every time I get one things done, three more things fall by the wayside. Undone. Ignored. Behind schedule.
The collection of designs derived from this knot is available as a downloadable set of coloring pages
This Variation on a Theme collection begins with another lovingly hand drafted celtic knot. The knot is then digitized and manipulated into exquisitely beautiful kaleidoscopic mandalas and tiled patterns for you to print and color. You should see my kids and I geeking out as I cut and chop and digitally stitch together these mandalas for you. 
Here is a peek at the designs you will receive in the PDF file. I’m thinking of trying out some watercolor paper just to play around and see what happens!
We are “snowed in” here in North Carolina. I have to laugh because there has been barely a coating of ice and snow – nothing compared to the feet and feet of snow that are north of us. Still, the lack of snow tires and clearing equipment, not to mention the inexperience of many southern drivers with icy roads, it’s better to stay home and enjoy it.
Thank heaven that we kept power. A little explanation of that can be found at the bottom of the post. I spent some lovely days and late into the night playing with the celtic knots I’ve been drafting.
What do you think? Got a hankering for coloring? I’ve created four PDF downloads, each with ten kaleidoscopes and tiled patterns made from one celtic knot. Heart Nouveau is ready to go but the other three are desperate for a clever name. Anyone got ideas?
A little explanation about the southern landscape and ice and power: even with so little snow and ice thousands of people in our area lost power. A large part of the beautiful green that is the south is made up of Southern White Pine. It grows 6′ per year – very soft wood. It looses all it’s lower branches as it grows so it is very top heavy. Bad combination with ice as these 80′ trees tend to fall on everything – especially power lines.
original
Snapseed
Paper Camera 1
Paper Camera 2
Maku Hanga
Waterlogue
If you missed the tutorial on how to fold these sweet little origami hearts, just scroll down. The post should be right next to this one.
I have a collection of sheet music that I use for collage and origami projects. These pages were painted red on one side and white on the back.
You can purchase the purple origami crane earrings here for $20 (includes domestic shipping)
Begin with 5 rectangles (half a square)
Fold one rectangle in half the long way
Unfold and fold two corners in to meet the line
Fold one corner in on the other side
Fold your point in to meet that corner
flip the paper over and unfold that one corner
fold the two corners in to meet the center line again
repeat, folding in the two corners again
flip the paper over again so you can see the pointed flap
fold the flat edge up under the flap
repeat, folding the edge up again
repeat again, creasing the fold tightly
make five more of these units
take two units, and notice the pocket here
slide one unit’s strip into that pocket
flip the units over
tuck the second strip into the back/point pocket
repeat with the rest of the units until all five are tucked into each other.
This star works perfectly with paper money.
For this project I used 8 pages. Four were painted red, four white. The back of all 8 were painted gold.
After the paint dried I ironed each sheet nice and flat then cut them perfectly square.
There were several steps along the way with this star where I was completely smitten…
… in love with the geometry and beauty of this feat of simple yet complex engineering.
I have a thing for frogs.
To my delight, so do the First Nations of Victoria, B.C.
The legislature building – feels very old school european
I challenge you to give it a try! If we are Facebook friends (we really should be if we aren’t already) post your results and tag me. Share the link!
I have a million pictures I can share – and hope to find time to do so. But first I have to show you my pieces in the exhibits. It was SUCH an honor to have quilts included in this venue. The best of the best are here. Above you can see my piece in Affinity. The quality of this exhibit is truly breathtaking. More later.
These are my two entries in the “painted surface” category. The portrait was originally entered in the “people” category but the show moved it. Who knows why? I suppose it IS painted.
The exhibition that this book catalogs
at the 
Most students stayed in the lodge, rather than this place up the hill. It turned out to be perfect as they were just down the hall from their classrooms.
Because of the rain we opted for indoor activities such as this blind contour drawing exercise. Snug and warm in comfy chairs instead of hiking out in the wet.
Last week I was in southern California with several guilds and enjoyed their heat wave and humidity – which to me felt lovely and dry.
The Valley Quiltmakers and I worked with a reverse appliqué technique I call Apli-Punto.
Beautiful and complex designs – made easy.
Even students who really weren’t sure appliqué was a technique they wanted to explore came away with something wonderful.
And what fun – playing with beautiful colors and shapes!
I just bought a second copy of it so that I could cut out some of the illustrated quotes and tape them to their walls. You can find his posters 
. I’ve already pre-ordered my two copies. 
And this might be your view?
Or this?
Or this?
I didn’t have any particular parameters in mind when I began our peripatetic perusal, but after this powerful woman on a plinth caught my eye. I decided to see how many paintings I could find with powerful women as the main subject. 
Not Madonna’s – although I think of them as very strong. There were just too many of them. And clothed would be nice. Have you ever stopped to consider the ratio of naked women to men in art museums? Hmmmm.
Most all of the paintings with women as the main subject were allegorical in the galleries we visited. No idea what collections we visited. I also don’t remember seeing a lot of “women as sexual objects”. Either I missed those ones or they came later in the art world. I hopped over to the 
Still, most of what I saw was woman as saint or goddess, or symbol or something otherworldly. I would have loved to see a few Vermeers. Have you seen the film 
Interesting that the only portrait of a real (non-allegorical) woman I saw was painted by a female artist. Elizabeth Lebrun was born in Paris to a portraitist father and by the time she was 16 was painting portraits professionally herself. 
I quickly forgot that this place used to be the palace for the French Royalty. Until I was reminded by a room like this….
Hubby and I were talking the other night and I was telling him a little more about the trip. I kind of feel like, “Paris – Check! Greece – honey you’ve GOT to see this!”
That idea takes Paris right back into the “when can we go!” category. Sigh. The answer to that question is most likely – after the kids are grown. We have a ways to go there.
And without the crowds maybe you could laugh out loud when you see these guys contemplating…..
Although by the end of the day all you want to do is snap a quick picture to prove you were there and then find somewhere to sit down. It’s all good – a day well spent.
would there be crowds like this there?
So technically I DID see the Mona Lisa. But no, I didn’t think it was worth it to fight the crowd.
Statues from ancient Greece and Rome..
A mosaic on the floor that most people rush by on their way to see that one painting…
This was Avia’s second time in the Louvre but I think she had mostly spent her time in the Islamic wing. She humored me for a quick trip through where I was inexplicably drawn past exquisite mosaics and tapestries and entranced by stone after stone.
I think it was something of a lightening of spirit to be able to just go and enjoy the beauty of the artifacts.
Have you ever seen a more beautiful script?
If I can find translations somewhere (anyone able to help me search them out?) these might end up as thermofax screens. I wouldn’t want to be disrespectful if they are religious texts. 
I’m hoping for grocery lists or epitaphs. What do you think they are? The pictures are quite heavily digitally edited so that I can see the scripts more clearly. Here is an original for comparison.
It’s a BIG place. All the exterior pictures I’ve ever seen of the Louvre picture I.M. Pei’s pyramid in the courtyard. I think we might have come in through the back entrance of what was once the Royal Palace. Do you ever wonder what today’s American equivalent of royalty is? We certainly don’t revere our politicians. TV and Movie stars perhaps. Perhaps professional athletes (mostly in Football and Basketball.) I don’t watch TV or sports (no time) so I wouldn’t really know but I get the feeling those people are as spoiled and behave as badly as did the French Royalty. I can imagine what the palace must have been like as one giant stage for the nobles to be seen upon. And don’t ask me how I ended up with a chinese map – is it chinese?
I think we must have come in the back door. The big empty dirt yard was a little underwhelming. But the building itself went on forever.
In through the first arcade… It was interesting to see all the details, wondering when the lamps were added then thinking, what did they use before lamps and what did that look like?
Old and new always butt up against each other. Did they even bother to repair or scrub the buildings before they had cranes? I was thinking that we were in great luck and that the tourists had all decided to stay home that day. Honestly – this place is huge. You can just glimpse I. M. Pei’s glass pyramid through the next arcade. We definitely came in the back door. Every picture I’ve seen of the place showed the pyramid from the other side.
I’m not sure if the ugly red box is semi-permanent or not. It might house ticketing booths. I know the other side of that glass holds enormous lines of people from all over the world. Which could be really annoying.
Or, if you have the right shoes and the right attitude it could be really fun. The people were honestly as interesting as the art.
Just listening and trying to identify how many languages you can hear at a place like this is an adventure worth taking.
With the Paris Museum Pass you can skip the ticket line, but not the security lines. Fortunately those go pretty quickly. 
And really, it’s worth the wait. Stay tuned for the ART!
I’m not sure if we walked all the way to the Louvre or if we took the Metro. Avia had a pass and we decided that for the time I was there a bundle of 10 tickets was the least expensive option. It was much nicer to just be able to decide on the spur of the moment to hop a train rather than needing to stop and purchase tickets for each part of our last minute journey.
And this…. I don’t even know what it is or what it says but don’t you wish they made details on buildings like this these days? And finally – we arrive at the Louvre – but are completely distracted by what is across the street. We both love exploring cathedrals. There seems to be one every few blocks in Paris, an embarrassment of architectural riches to be sure. We chose to hit these on our way back – although I don’t remember if we actually ever did.
How many years does it take for a patina to be created then worn away?
This building was somewhere on the way to the Musee’ du Orsay.
New and old mix everywhere in Paris.
I tried opening it, but my parseltongue is a bit rusty.
