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!

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!

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!

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

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...

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 ~

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~

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...

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!

Creepy Condiment

While making a healthy chicken salad for dinner last night, I sensed that someone was looking at me...

I wasn't being paranoid, it was the lid from the light mayo jar! On either side of the nose were small droplets of moisture - his freckles, I guess...

Creepy, huh??? 

Update on "Earth Day" quilt

I wasn't sure if this was going in the right direction, but now that I have the other two sections fused on, it's starting to work for me.
The top 2 sections have been quilted, and I'm waiting for a little inspiration to quilt the bottom 2...

For the text of the poem, I printed it on T-shirt transfer paper, and ironed it on the wrong side of some blue cotton. I knew that I couldn't fuse it on the black, so I used a glue called "Unique Stitch" (great product) to adhere it down, and then started stitching - first around the edges, then some short straight lines throughout, so it wouldn't pop up too much. Kinda cool, isn't it? Gee, I can hear the people now, "Is it naugahyde, or is it leather?" (does appear to be vinyl like) - I like it!!!

Thanks to Caity for her nice comments - she likes it, too...
Okay, enough blogging for now - back to quilting ~

The Earth Day celebration is this Sunday, so it's time to stop blogging, and start quilting...

The Scene of the Accident!

I was merrily working on my new quilt (see post below), when I leaned back to grab a piece of fabric, and over I went...it felt as if I was going in slow motion, because I was trying to stop myself (ha-ha, with this body?). Managed to mangle a plastic waste container, and todayI have some interesting colors appearing on my upper arm, and feeling a bit sore...but I'm good to go!!!

See what allowing a pile of fabrics on your studio floor can do for you??? I'm walking and talking proof that being a bit messy (okay, a lot messy) from time to time can be good for your health. Since the floor underneath the carpet is cement, I could have caused some real damage to my bones, and other assorted body parts. I picked myself up, and went right back to my quilt...

New quilt started!

I was asked if I wanted to provide some artwork for an exhibit at an "Earth Day Celebration" at Rockford College coming up on April 23rd. Well, I couldn't start it before the Chicago festival, so...

Here's a shot of my humble start! These are 2 sections - bottom representing earth, and top representing sun. The remaining sections will be water, and 'loved ones.' The size will be about 20x22" - The inspiration for this quilt came from a John O'Donohue poem - "May the nourishment of the earth be yours, May the clarity of light be yours, May the fluency of the ocean be yours, May the protection of the ancestors be yours."

It's taking a while to cut and fuse, and I do have more little fused pieces - so I'm considering making a few other quilts, based on the same theme. I am becoming attached to working on a black background, and going back to my love for geometric shapes...

I'll post more pictures as it evolves, and is quilted, of course!

Fiberart Festival in Rockford yesterday!!!

It was one day - good thing! But...there were a lot less vendors/booths/exhibitors there...we found out that this will be the last year for this festival ~

And...my favorite silk roving person, Connie, wasn't there either (boo-hoo). I am completely out of her gorgeous silver roving, and now I'll have to order some...

This is a photo of my latest easy to do garments! It is a shoulder wrap, 26x80 inches, and is made from my dyed and overdyed rayon. What a glorious fabric to dye for...I have added borders to these with printed rayons, and I was very happy with the way they turned out!!!

I made 3 of these, and they are listed on my other blog of small works that are available for purchase. Check them out~they are beautiful!

Here's the link: http://julainesart.blogspot.com