Busy weekend?

Mine was full of different things and good accomplishments.  I am glad to say that I am slowly getting back on track and finishing pieces, continuing others and starting new ones.  It is always so exciting when ideas are swirling around in your head and you find the time to actually do something about them.  I do my best thinking around 2:00 a.m. when I wake up … and then I have to make a conscious effort to remember in the morning.  Sometimes I make notes to myself in the middle of the night, but I find that if I do that … cannot get back to sleep afterwards.  It is as if my brain jumpstarts!

So, yesterday, drill in one hand, screwdriver in the other, I finished the mixed media piece that is going to Houston for the Silent Auction.  So if you are going to be there … bid on!  I would love to hear from the person who gets the piece.  It is always interesting to know what people think of it.

It is called “Through the Gates of Hope”.  It is 12″ x 12″, hand dyed fabric, hand dyed cheesecloth.  Stencilled with paintstiks, stamped with acrylic paint.  Fused fabric and a transfer photo for the gate.  Then it is hand embroidered and beaded.

The detail is in the plexiglass pane held by screws.  It is mounted on a painted birch board and ready to hang.  Hope you find it intriguing …

And a detail:

At the Edge, one of the art quilt groups I belong to, has put a challenge out and for this year it is working on a series.  So, with that in mind, I took my hand-dyed fabrics and started working with this mixed media idea of using plexiglass and screws to highlight some detail of the work.  We have to make 6 pieces, largest at 36″ x 36″, and from then:  12″ x 36″, 12″ x 12″, 24″ x 24″, etc.  We can drop one size and make two of one … Now, we have an extension on the original deadline, as the floods and life got in the way of the creative work.  So February 2014 is the new deadline.  I have been making pieces in odd sizes (not the “legal” ones), and here are some of the results.

This first one is called “Some Day the Rains will Fall”, and it uses my hand-dyed fabrics, simple piecing, tight quilting every 1/8″ or so, plus hand dyed threads, and a photo transfer of a crow  from a picture I took in Halifax.  The gate is also a photo transfer.  So here it is …

What you see behind the plexiglass are torn pieces of an old book that I bought in Buenos Aires at the flea market.  The yellowest grimiest book I could find!  It has, on top, a Golden product called “Self-levelling Gel Medium”, which is lovely, because you can apply it thick and it dries clear and gives you a very glossy finish.  You can also see some copper paint that I used to color in between some of the quilting lines.

The next one is still unnamed:  6″ x 20″ and my daughter has claimed it already!

And a detail:

When I am working on new ideas, I make small pieces of work to try new things; for instance, in this case, the self levelling gel medium. Because I don’t know how it is going to react on fabric, or paper, or whether it is going to look good or not, I try it out first, on something that I can use and repurpose later. In this case, I made a 4″ x 6″ postcard using similar techniques than the original piece; i.e.: tight quilting, fused fabric and on top, small pieces of paper glued with acrylic gel medium. Once that was dry, I applied the self levelling gel medium and let it dry. I loved the results, so I knew I could do it on the actual piece. Below a photo of the card that I made to try the photo transfer and some other techniques before trying them on the original piece:

I love this little card!  All these smaller pieces of work will form part of the “sketchbook” and story book where we are supposed to keep track of our ideas, thought processes, fabric choices, thread choices, etc.  I have all these pieces I need to put together now to start working on getting the book done!  We are using 12″ x 12″ scrapbooks for them, so they will all hopefully look alike.  I can’t wait to see everybody’s work!.

Well, that is it for now. I am feeling very accomplished as I have blogged more this past week than in the past few months.  I am very excited that the technical issues are over, so hopefully, you can expect more from me soon.

In the meantime, enjoy the nice weather and remember to keep quilting.

Ana