Art Quilt Giveaway Deadline

Tick Tock, Tick Tock!!!

One more day...the winner of the fab "Purple Posies at Play" art quilt will be chosen...tell your friends.

If you have no idea of what I'm referring to, see the post from July 20th. Okay?

Fabric Paper

I have been working with fabric and paper together, much like the technique published by Beryl Taylor - Mixed Media Artist
in the first Cloth, Paper, Scissors issue.
We have done similiar techniques in workshops at Emmanuel, but always with different papers, no fabric.
What's nice about her process is that you can stitch on the fabric paper by hand or my machine. It's very strong and I'm sure it will hold up to many other mixed media embellishments.
I've taken some photos of the steps that I've done on one of the pieces, so I thought I would share them with you.




white muslin on plastic, diluted white glue brushed on fabric ~













pieces of scrapbook and printer paper pressed into wet fabric ~














another layer of glue brushed on top ~












pieces of yellow tissue paper laid down ~














another layer of glue brushed on ~











silk paint (liquid acrylics, setacolor, etc. can be used) dripped on ~













paint brushed into the glue ~












the color is further spread by dabbing into the piece with a dry cloth ~























the finished piece after drying overnight ~



Here are some other finished fabric papers...using vintage wrapping paper, text and images from an old bible book, and gold crepe paper/magazine clippings.
















































I'm not bored yet! Went into Dick Blick yesterday with Jason and found their collection of hand made papers. Ooh-la-la. We were both drooling, me with the papers, him with the specialty spray paint.

UPDATE on quilt giveaway: Just waiting a few more days, hoping for a few more comments and numbers. Soon everyone, soon...

Back to Blogging and a Give-a-way

Well, it's been four months since I've posted to my blog. Life has been, well, interesting - the easiest way to put it. There have been a few issues, both personal and professionally. I could whine, piss and moan about not being able to go to the Spring IQA show in Chicago this year and be one of the published artists for Make It University for Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine. I've also missed deadlines of all sorts this year.

Instead, I'm trying to focus on the inspiration from good friends, both here in Rockford, and my cyber friends, all ready to give me a soft kick in the pants, or most of the time, a big hug, if needed.

I have been doing artful things, mostly for our Art at Emmanuel group. We are in the middle of our fourth exhibit in the church's gallery, and are preparing for our late summer show, which features the work of our children here at Emmanuel. Good friend, Bobbie came up with the title for the exhibit, "Primary Intention" - great, isn't it?

For my return to blog land, I will be posting some pieces that I wish to sell. They will be available through Paypal, or a check in the mail. Shipping fees will be included in the price, and the prices are very reasonable. You can e-mail me at: irenesdotter@comcast.net if you have any questions. Watch in the coming days for the postings.

To get things started, I'm offering this small art quilt as a give-a-way...It's called "Purple Posies at Play," and was made from my hand-dyed and painted cottons, lutradur, novelty fibers, beads and has been quilted, using a heavy top-stitch, with rayon and metallic threads. It is 8 1/2 by 19 inches in diameter.

Just leave a nice comment, pick a number between 1 and 100 (random # generator being used) and make sure I have a way to reach you! If you don't blog, just send me an e-mail, nice comment, random #, etc. Good luck, my friends...

UPDATE!!! I have 2 anonymous comments, one from Barbara (#60) and one from another person (#10) - I need to find out how to get in touch with you if you're the lucky one...

Christopher's Dream

A newer art quilt, inspired by Christopher Reeves' hope for stem cell research: Hand painted interfacing, acrylic pastels, satin stitching, quilted. 9 x 21
inches.

N/A

Eclipse x 3

One of my newer small art quilts: Hand dyed and discharged cotton, embroidery, beads. 8 1/2 x 20 inches. ~ 30.00

Leaves and Such

Two mixed media collages: cotton, hand carved stamp used for rubbings, embossed lutradur, beads. 6 x 6 inches each. ~ 12.00 for both.

~ SOLD

Bubbles and Brackets

This is one of the pieces I created for possible inclusion in my article from Cloth, Paper, Scissors, May/June 2007. Silk and cotton, painted and embossed hardware, beads, yarns, fl0ss, trims; quilted. 11 1/2 x 13 inches. ~ 50.00

Mixed Media Beads

"More than Words" - An assortment of 10 mixed media beads: vintage and other papers, words, embossing. ~ 6.00

mixed media beads

10 beads $6.00 20 beads $12.00 30 beads $18.00

Bursting with News

This was fun to create! Hand painted and rusted cottons, silks, hand carved stamp used for rubbings, novelty trims, quilted.
20 x 20 inches. ~ 60.00

~ SOLD ~ thanks, Bobbie and Lenny!

Spring!

Art Cloth: First Process

I'm working on a few pieces for Rockford's Spring Artscene that is coming up mid-April. Emmanuel's Celebration Gallery is once again hosting an exhibit. According to the Rockford Area Arts Council, there will be 41 galleries participating this year! The theme of our exhibit is "Sacred Seeds: Emergence" and we'll have about 15 artists represented. Along with the art, we always have the best food, live music and this year, artists will be demoing.

This is a piece of art cloth that started out as black cotton sateen. I've just finished discharging it in 3 steps. I wanted to see what I could bring to the piece by first scrunching the cloth and painting on Soft Scrub with a brush. 2nd step - masking off areas to represent a bit of nature shooting out of the ground. 3rd step - using a very fine tip from a plastic bottle, I squirted curvy lines to represent growth; finished with lots of tiny droplets. I'm keeping an eye on it, hoping what I've done with the 3rd step will discharge to an off-white before I rinse and de-chlor.

My plans at this point are to add some color with oil pastels, then we'll see how it looks. I want to hang this piece as art cloth, but am unsure of how to hang it properly so it lays nicely. Any thoughts?

Update: the wise ones from Quiltart have given me lots of wonderful ideas - thanks everyone!

Flowers of Yo

Clover has these neat yo-yo makers - easy, yes...but don't get too freaked by their printed instructions. I purchased the small flower one at the store last week and realized that today would be a good day to try them out. Side note: it has been raining for two days and I needed some signs of spring, even if those signs were fabric flowers...my first two are in this photo. Small print cottons, batiks are pretty.

















Here's the package it comes in, with the two parts, disk and plate.
















You start with a circle approximately 4 1/2 inches around. Place the wrong side of the fabric on top of the plate, then snap the disk into place on top of the fabric. As you can see from the photo, there are little notches and what looks like curvy cut-out sections. Knot one end of a piece of strong thread and as you fold the fabric down, you make stitches through the disk and the plate (next photo-back side). Go all the way around, finishing where you started, having your thread next to your knot.












Take another shorter piece of thread, knotted, and stitch through the center, starting from the back side. Finish as above.
















Pop the disk out, then gather the center stitches and secure with a tight knot. Grab the ends of the outer stitches and pull tight, adjusting your gathers as you go around. Pull out the petals when you're done, and again after securing your stitches. It will be small...the finished size is about 2 inches around.













Sorry about the color on this photo, but it gives you an idea of what it looks like. The yo-yo is much prettier, especially with a pearl in the center.

For Krissy's Eyes Only

Since she finally asked how to find my blog when we were at work last night...well, Miss Krissy, this one's for you!

A little greeting from Elsa the tabby!

What is it?

If you can guess what this is, I'll send you a little goodie!

I'll be heading down to the basement late tonight with Jason when he returns home from seeing "Coraline" with friend Ashley. Jeff and I stayed home and watched "Religulous" (liked it, although we thought it dragged a bit after the visit to "Holy Land Adventure."

Midnight class in Dyeing 101...maybe we'll be dunking what's in the photo.

Go ahead, give it a try -

WE HAVE A WINNER!!! Gabriela of Threadheadsanonymous guessed right...it is waffle muslin that we carry at Jo-Ann's (you can find it with the other muslins). I purchased a yard of this to see how it would take procion dyes. After I pre-washed it, all the little waffles disappeared as the weave tightened up. As soon as I put some color into it, I'll post the results...I'm very curious.

Gabriela...send me your address ~

Shisha 4

The evolution of play. A larger mirror. Two colors of perle cotton around the mirror. Other stitches and some french knots. Reddish shell coins. Tropical floral cotton in the hoop.

Starting this coming Sunday, we will be displaying samplers for the upcoming art workshops at Emmanuel. This will be one of mine...it will be attached to something. Maybe a purse?