Monday, May 29, 2006

New quilt started

Well, I didn't know how old that dye was...but I thought it was worth a try! A little of this, a little of that, and lots of white areas left on white cotton. Hmmm...time to add some color with D'uva chromacoal sticks and some Camellia oil pastels.

It's working title is "Confetti Garden" and I've marked out 13 sections (love that Clover chalk marker with it's fine line) to quilt. Free-motion in 3 styles for added interest to be done yet.

With my first outdoor art fair coming up, I am thankful for the creative frenzies that I am giving into right now. If I'm ignoring or avoiding some other things, then so be it...I am still working with the children at church, keeping up with my son and all his activities, and being the loving, adorable wife to my darling hubby.

Oh, great!!! Son telling me right now he needs posterboard for a project due tomorrow on Andrew Jackson - ah, geez, school is out this week - did the teacher forget 'till now about this important assignment? Gimme a break!

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Thank you, Teri



I feel so honored...Teri Springer http://fiberandthread.blogspot.com
purchased one of my "Museum Chicks" postcards a while back, and look how beautifully she matted and framed it!!! Great job, Teri...and it is surely inspiration for me on how to display the postcards.






On another note, my first outdoor art fair of the season is about 2 weeks away...come see me!

Monday, May 22, 2006

Tree no.1

"Tree, gather up my thoughts
like the clouds in your branches
draw up my soul like the waters
of your root."

This is one section of a poem titled
"Breath" by J. Daniel Beaudry ~

I have three more poems to put on the three other pieces in this series. They are still evolving - that really means that this time, I'm not sure of where I'm going with these. The leaves, by the way, are cut from some fabric envelopes that I have been making: bottom fabric, fusible, stiff interfacing, fusible, top fabric - all ironed together in one step...

Maybe I'll have an easier time when it comes to the next four with suns on them!

Friday, May 19, 2006

Ready for bundles!

This has been a wonderful process. I discovered design elements on printed fabrics that I had not noticed before. Many prints can be jazzed up a little. I know I described some of the cutting of the fabrics as fussy, but now I'm using the word carefully.

I know the cat is out of the bag, sort of, now that I've included a photo of each element! Shhh-don't tell, okay? For anyone who receives a bundle, under each layer is supposed to be a surprise, a mystery - bringing back that feeling of wonder that a child has. Joyful anticipation...beauty...color...design... All things that we, as artists who work in this incredible medium get to experience.

So, what's in the bundles? There's rice paper that has been backed with interfacing~monoprinted leaves from hand-carved stamps~printed cotton with fusible on the back~cotton batik accented with Lumiere, and then cut into oak leaf shapes~hand dyed silk with free-form leaf shapes drawn with pastels~rubbings with stamps and Shiva oil paintsticks on cotton~hand made paper~embossed copper strips~tied together with dyed cotton floss, with a leaf bead added.

UPDATE: They are available on my "Julaine's Art for Purchase" blog - 12.00 - how's that sound?

Julaine's Art


Thursday, May 18, 2006

Leaves

Painting leaves, stamping leaves, mono-printing leaves, fussy cutting, and doing the "Shiva She-Bop" (whatever the hell that is)...

Where is this leading? Into bundles, I hope. After receiving one of Virginia Spiegel's beautiful bundles, and after reading Sonji Hunt's thoughts on her bundles, I now get it! It's taking something that makes you happy, something that you're passionate about, gathering pieces of it and "bundling" it together. Making it ready for someone else. Sharing a part of you (we know what that is, right?)

I plan to have about 10 of these ready for "Art on the Lawn" - our local, fabulous art fair on June 11th at the University of Illinois School of Medicine. If you're looking for somewhere to go that day, come and see me...

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Update on: What happened to my sidebar?

"What's up??? The sidebars of my blog and some others are WAY down on the bottom -I didn't do anything, honest ~"

Thank you Carol and Debra! It seems that it was an Internet Explorer problem-Grrrrrrrrrr...
I've downloaded Firefox, and VOILA!, my sidebar was back in it's rightful place...

The Memory of Trees


"The Druids believed that trees held on to the memories of people that passed by them"

I think I read this somewhere in connection with my Enya CD titled "The Memory of Trees" - either on the jacket, or the songbook.

This is the beginning of small format, 5 x 7 inch pieces that I'm finally getting around to working on. I wanted the background fabric to have some texture of it's own, so I used a multi-blue woven rayon/linen blend suiting (sorry, the pic's a bit greenish). And then what to use for the tree trunks and branches?- well, I had this UGLY silk/poly tie that was perfect (it's copper, after all). Each tree had to be a little different, so I played around with shapes, fussy-cutting all the way...my favorite so far is the one in the bottom right hand corner!

I discovered this great, firm interfacing: Ultra Firm, made by HTCW...the "trees" are backed with this, with a layer of Stitch Witchery in between - boy does it make the stitching easy!!!
Plans are to probably mount them, and frame them...check back as they evolve ~

Thursday, May 11, 2006

Watercolors~Ebb and Flow




Yesterday's PAQA meeting was great! Many water challenge quilts were showcased, along with some other incredible art ~ everytime I've gone in for a meeting has been such inspiration, and there are always new people coming. It's been 5 years since my introduction to this group, and I have never regretted it.

This was my offering for the challenge - I took these photos Tuesday night, and properly said goodbye when it went into Frieda's box! On to Duluth, the Fine Line Creative Center, and other venues unknown-maybe 2 years before I see it again, unless it sells...

The Shiva'd Lutradur worked out great, although it didn't want to fuse easily...a little fabric glue helped! The quilt is about 15x17~

Saturday, May 06, 2006

Shiva'd Lutradur












The Professional Art Quilters Alliance(PAQA) have organized a "Water" quilt challenge - entries are due this coming Wednesday at the meeting. I felt I needed just one more element to add: my first attempt at rubbing Shiva paintsticks on Lutradur! I used 3 of the iridescent colors - blue, turquoise, green. It didn't look so great after the first color went on, but then as I added the others, and used a stiff brush (okay, it was a foam brush that I hadn't cleaned, so it was hard as a rock) to do some blending, it started coming to life! Now it's good...and some of the fibers are hairy, but I like that too! Patience, Julaine...you'll have to wait for it to dry now.

Thanks to Frieda Anderson from PAQA for setting this up!!! The "Water" quilts will go to Quilting on the Waterfront in Duluth, and I believe other venues are being arranged...

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

The Earth Day Quilt is finished!


Actually, it was finished about 2 weeks ago, but my computer decided to go crazy, so...

I named it "A Celtic Blessing" because the inspiration had come from a poem from John O'Donohue (see detail of poem in earlier post). I can still hear his soft, lilting voice reciting this when he was in town a few years ago, speaking at Rockford College. Interesting, full-circle thoughts: the Earth Day event that I created this for was also at the college. Lots of compliments - that always feels good...

Side note - I sold two smaller pieces at the celebration: "Pinned"~a small goddess quilt, and "Breaking Forth with Color"~a piece representing native grasses...they both went to good homes!