Penguin Cheer, My Granddaughter, and A Fairy Garden

This weekend I have been busy working on a couple of my blocks of the month. I did finish my new Penguin Cheer block.

It is nice to take a little time from "serious work" to do something fun.

I got a little behind on my Country Threads block of the month blocks. This weekend, I worked on last month's blocks and this month's blocks. I haven't gotten them all finished yet. I'll take a picture of them when they are done.

I have also had company and have done some traveling. The first week in July, I had company and went from home (in southern Indiana) to drop my friend off at the airport in Nashville, Tennessee. From there, I went to my sister's house in Memphis. We both traveled to my son's house in FAR western Arkansas. We had such fun visiting my little granddaughter.

She turns one on July 23rd. I just can't get enough of her! Then it was back to Memphis for us. After a couple of days, I went back home to Indiana. It was wonderful to visit with my friend of over 36 years (Irene) and to spend time with my sister. While at my sister's, she made a terrarium (a little fairy garden) for me.

I just love it. I know you can't see everything from the picture, but there is a little "Home Sweet Home" rock beside the door of the house, a little teeter totter with a frog and turtle on it, a couple of birds, a turtle, a mushroom, some teeny tiny terra cotta pots, and lots of moss and plants. I'm just hoping I can keep the plants alive.

Needless to say, I haven't gotten as much work in the studio done as I would like. I am diligently working on my "extreme embroidery" piece and have even made a few hexagons for my hexagon quilt. I must say, though, that my right hand has enjoyed the time off from hand stitching. I have been having some pain and purchased a brace for my hand (which I wore while I did all that driving). Between the brace and the time off, my hand has felt pretty good; and stitching hasn't seemed to bother it the last few days!!! Yeah!!!

 

 

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SAQA (Indiana) Meeting

I had the opportunity to attend a meeting with several members of the Indiana division of SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates). Cathy Franks was kind enough to host the meeting at her beautiful home. A big plus to that was that we also got a tour of her studio.

The program consisted of several members presenting surface design products and tools with which they are familar. We saw presentations on Versatex screenprinting inks, extenders, and Thermofax screens by Judy Ireland. Mary Jane Keys showed us some of her batiks and discussed batik waxes, dyes, and tools. Kate Lenkowsky discussed block printing inks, Blick's Golden Cut "linoleum" for relief printing, cutting tools, and Golden varnishes with ultra violet light stabilizers. Cathy Franks showed us how she uses breakdown printing with Procion dyes and Jacquard's pearl powdered pigments.

I didn't even think about taking pictures until I saw someone else doing it. (Duh!) When I finally "got on the bandwagon," I took pictures of a couple of the presentations and of Cathy's studio.

Barbara Triscari showed us how she uses Tsukineko and printer cartridge inks and iron powder.

Mary Ann Vansoest showed several ways to finish fiber art work including the use of stretcher bars and gallery wrapped canvases rather than a binding or facing.

At the end of the meeting, we got a tour of Cathy's studio. She has LOTS of thread--stored vertically...

and horizontally.

These two pictures show just a SMALL portion of her thread stash! (Cathy does long-arm quilting and a lot of thread painting.)

She also has a really nice fabric stash and big cutting station. She uses old chest of drawers for her cutting table base. She stores thread in the drawers. She covers her fabric with the white curtains to protect it from the light.

Here is another view of her studio. As you can see, Cathy has won numerous awards. (That's Cathy in the blue shirt.)

It was SO nice to spend time with these talented artists. I really enjoyed the day and wish to thank Kate for organizing the meeting and Cathy for hosting.

 

 

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New Penguin Cheer Block

If you read my blog, you know that I got myself into a block of the month with some friends awhile back. I finished this month's block yesterday (just in time for our deadline). This one is a big one, but it was an easy one because of the size of the pieces.

If you want to follow along and try your hand at this block of the month, the patterns are here.

I also finished an art piece yesterday but didn't get a picture taken of it. I'll take the picture before too long and post it.

 

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New Cap

I know it has been awhile, but I have been on the road most of the spring and summer. Traveling with my husband, going to quilt shows (Paducah and Chicago), a family vacation with my kids and ALL my grandchildren, babysitting with my grandson, and traveling to Arkansas to visit my son and his family have made trips to my studio far too infrequent. I AM working on some pieces--another "extreme" embroidery piece, a quilt to hand quilt for my granddaughter, a quilt for my daughter, and a quilt for a friend who had a fire at her home. All of these are in various stages of completion.

Today, I worked on my new baseball cap. It was plain white when I bought it, and (of course) I can't have that! I decorated it with some of my Zentangles, and I sure like it better.

Drawing my "doodles" is really relaxing. Give it a try.

 

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I Think It Was a Hit!

Tomorrow is my granddaughter's ninth birthday. We got to be in Arkansas for the celebration held earlier this evening. I gave her a fleece panda bear rag quilt. I think she liked it! Happy Birthday Bianca!

(The quilt isn't standing on its own...my husband is holding it up!)

All of the grandkids have gotten quilts now, but when the other girls saw this one, I got requests for a cat quilt and a monkey quilt!

 

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Extreme Embroidery (Metamorphosis) Series

I finally finished the stitching on the first piece in my series of "extreme embroidery" pieces. This piece took a really long time, but it was great from the standpoint of being VERY portable. Since my husband has retired (and we have a 9 month old granddaughter ten hours away from us), we have done a lot of traveling. I NEED a portable art project.

The pieces in this series were originally little pencil drawings by a Taiwanese exchange student of mine. Chun-San (Sandie) Yi was in my high school classes MANY years ago. I thought the drawings were charming and asked her if I could have her permission to do something fiber art related with them at some later date. She graciously gave me permission.

Sandie (as I knew her) is a VERY special person and a wonderful artist. Sandie says: “I grew up with being labeled as ‘disabled,’ and would often hide my hands when I was younger. Now I don't see my body is disabled/impaired at all. My hands and feet are my assets, my special traits. Art is a way for me to understand the beauty of the challenges in my life, and also as a way to adorn myself. I wish to be identified as ‘born with two fingers and two toes on each limb." When I first knew Sandie, she was a VERY shy teenager who always hid her hands and feet. She didn't want anyone to see (what she had been told was) her disability. After two years, she had started to "come out of her shell" but really transformed when she was in art school in Chicago. She went from hiding her "disability" to using it in/as her art. As her former teacher, I am SO proud of her. You can read about her and her remarkable metamorphosis here. From reading Sandie's story, I'm hoping you will understand the pieces (and just how much they mean to me) a bit better.

I enlarged the little drawings and added to/took away from them to make them better suited for my stitching. This first piece measures approximately 17 inches tall by 13 inches at it widest point. It isn't named yet as I'm TERRIBLE at naming my pieces. After reading Sandie's story (and, hopefully, looking at her art), I'd be happy for any naming suggestions you might have.

Some close up pics (before the black outline stitching)...

Close up pic (after black outline stitching)...

 

I still have some decisions to make about the piece. I have to figure out a way to hang it--should it be hung as is or should it be mounted to fabric covered stretcher bars/painted canvas. I also will need to finish the edges in some way--should the white outline fabric (I'm afraid to cut it any closer to the stitching.) be colored black (or some other color) or left as is. I used Misty Fuse to attach Eco felt to the back of the stitchery. Will I need to do some kind of stitching around the outside edge? The piece is pretty thick, so trying to do that worries me a bit. Should I attach it to a quilted background of some sort? Maybe I should make a convertible attaching device (maybe use Velco), so I can display it multiple ways. Hmmmm, lots to consider.

I already have my second piece in this series started. I expect there will be a lot more traveling to come--have portable art piece; will travel!

 

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