Transfomation Reveal

Here is my transformation piece for the Fiberactions group. I had a picture that I took while I was in India last year of the elephant god Ganesh. You can see the original photo in the next shot. It's not a great picture and I am surprised that I did not just delete it.

I cropped a portion of the photo that I thought had an interesting look and then rotated it 90 degrees. I think I like it better in a landscape format but one of the rules of the group is that all of the pieces be in portrait orientation.










I printed out a black and white picture of the cropped section and then sketched it on cloth. I painted it using my own color pallet and Stewart Gill paints. These paints are so easy t use and love the vibrant colors. I must have used at least 15 different threads for the quilting. It really is more heavy tread painting then quilting. I love heavy tread work and feel I need to add even more.















In this next shot you can see the details of the foot. I love the red Byzantia paint with the small silver thread stippling. Click on the photos and ou can see the details more clearly. Sorry for this crazy format but I can't get blogger to behave!

I will have a small presence in Houston

Even though my art output has been low this year, I will have something at the International Quilt Festival in Houston next week. My photo titled 'Reflections of the Past' has been accepted for the Eye of the Quilter photo exhibit. I took this picture a couple of years ago when we were in China.

I will be going to IQF next Thursday and Friday with my friends Suzanne and Vickie. Does anyone else have plans to go? Would love ot meet some of you.

I will get back to art soon.....

We have been at our house in NC since last Wednesday. It is really beautiful here right now and this first picture is of the view of the river from our house. The weather has been perfect and we have spent most of the time working outside in the yard.

we planted 3 blueberry bushes, mums, a couple of rhododendrons and a tree. Still so much to do. Not to mention that we don't have furniture yet...

Today we took a day trip with some friends to Dollywood! Tickets were free and we did have fun. The trip took us through the Smokies and I took this next picture just a few hours ago on the way back.

Tomorrow we are going home and I have 2 projects that are calling me. First is my challenge quilt for Fiberactions that is due on 11/15. Next I want to create a new landscape quilt. I love landscapes and haven't really done a significant one in quite a while.

So I will be hopefully back to posting on a more regular basis with new art soon.

'Stretch' Challenge Reveal

Here is my 'stretch' quilt for my Fiberactions challenge group. Make sure and check out everyone's great quilts on the Fiberactions blog.

I must admit that these last 3 challenges have been a real 'stretch' for me. For the last 4 months we have been building a second home in NC which is about 2 hours from our home in GA. My time at home has been limited but the flooring was put down last Friday so I may be back to a somewhat normal life soon!

For this piece I started with a fabric that I created about a year ago. I loved the colors but I thought the front was too bright so I turned it over and used the back. I just started adding layers of fabric and paint.



The green leaf on the upper left actually is made up of 11 layers including the quilting. Here is a closeup. The layers are: backing fabric, 2 layers of wool/cotton blend batting, background fabric, orange fabric, red felt covered with organza with designs created by using a soddering iron, green leaf, painted misty fuse, black tulle and finally the quilting.


One of the things that always takes me forever is deciding on how I want to quilt a piece so this is really where the 'stretch' comes in on this quilt. Usually for the background quilting I do some sort of all over consistent pattern. My crutch seems to be stippling.

After starring at this pinned to my design wall for an hour or so I decided to just start some real random allover quilting with no real pattern in mind. At first I thought I would just use clear thread in case I didn't like it but at the last minute I selected a variegated that I had never used before. In this picture you can see the results.

Yes....I'm still here!

Tomorrow is carpet day at the new house!!!!! Could this really be the end and I will be able to get back to some sort of normal life and art? Now I don't want to get too excited since last Satruday was also carpet day...... however when they cut the pieces for the great room the 2 pieces, even though cut from the same role, were different colors. So back to the carpet store and select new carpet.

Truthfully I like this carpet better than the first so maybe it was not a bad thing. Wish me luck and watch this space for my resurgence in art.

It is starting to look like a house!

Here is the reason that I have been so neglectful of my art and blog the last couple of months. Our house in NC is actually starting to look like a house! We think it should be finished in another 5 or 6 weeks and then maybe things will get back to normal.

I have actually been home this week and have been working on trying to catch up on a few projects. When I went downstairs to my studio I spent the first 2 hours cleaning up from my last rush of overdue projects. To say it was a mess is really an understatement. Not that it is really organized right now (not even close!) but I can at least see the floor and my work table. So here I am again behind the eight ball with my Fiberactions challenge quilt. The word for this round is 'Memory' and I like what I have started. My goal is to have it done before Monday since this week the house is being dry walled and we will be painting the finish coat on the walls ourselves. I hate to think of how many rooms I have painted but I actually enjoy it. I love the feeling of accomplishment and it is amazing what a little color can do for a room. I don't do pastel walls and love bold colors. I will try to do better keeping up and thanks to any followers I may have left! Enjoy the holiday weekend.

This Months Round Robin

Here is this months round robin. I actually like it and think this has potential to turn out as a decent piece. It still has 5 or 6 people to go through before it is finished so we will see what happens.


















I am still behind on my art commitments so I really feel I took the easy way out on this one. I had an Asian print fabric in my stash and just cut out this bird and fused it to the quilt...... Not exactly anything innovative or spectacular but I think it works. Maybe I will be caught up with things in a couple of weeks.

Convergence Reveal

Here is my 'convergence' quilt for my Fiberactions challenge group. Make sure and check out everyone's great quilts on the Fiberactions blog.

To say this was a challenge is an understatement. Over the last couple of months we have been in the process of designing a second home and going through the contracting phase of building it in NC which is about 2 hours from where we live in GA. My time for art has really been limited.

This was my third attempt. The first attempt was about 3 weeks ago. I saw the date looming ahead of me and in a panic cut up about 6 different fabrics into 1 1/2" squares. I thought I would make some cool converging design and have an opportunity to practice my piecing which I have said several times that I am not very good at. Look at this

really ugly pile of fabrics....what was I thinking. I hated the colors and everything about it!

Next in even more of a panic I saw Ricky Timms book on Convergence quilts on my book shelf and thought I could at least do a simple one. I picked 2 really cool fabrics and did a curved convergence design that I really liked after the first convergence. I thought of stopping there and finishing the piece that would have been about 30" x 20" (wish I would have taken a picture). Since I had not other ideas for a convergence quilt, I decided that I should try to slice it and dice in some other way so I could meet the challenge deadline.

After more cutting and sewing I then decided it was too ordinary and decided to do some extensive thread painting on the top before quilting. I used 2 layers of stabilizer which was not enough and the top became so wonky that in total despair I cut it in pieces, arranged them on a piece of black felt and went for a bike ride with my daughter and granddaughter ! This was on Tuesday of this week....

I got up early on Wednesday, now in full blown panic mode, and went down to my studio. I looked at my now ruined quilt and started to look through my fabrics for the third time. I found a stack of my hand-painted skies. I love to paint fabric and the sky is one of my favorite subjects. I selected 5 different ones and after a couple of hours of playing with the arrangement I fused them in place. I did an overall cloud pattern for the quilting and with 2 trips abound the edges with a zigzag stitch I was done. If felt like I had just lost 20 pounds (wish I could really lose 20 LBS!!). This was really a great lesson for me since I tend to over think most things and am not know for someone who does things in a hurry. The funny thing is that I really like this quilt and it was done in a day.

Paula Nadelstern

One of the benefits of belonging to a large quilt guild is quality of the speakers they are able to get. This months speaker at the East Cobb Quilt Guild was Paula Nadelstern.

If you are unfamiliar with her work you can check out her website here. She is famous for her incredible kaleidoscope quilts. Paula gave her lecture called 'The Kaleidoscope as Design Inspiration'. I must say that she was one of the best speakers I have heard in a long time. We have had some 'famous names' in the past that may be great quilters but not so great speakers. Paula lives in the Bronx in the same block where she has lived her whole life. She showed slides of her apartment and the small space she works in. This really made me appreciate all of the space I have. She was also funny and engaging and gave real insight on how she creates her award winning quilts. If you ever have an opportunity to hear Paula don't miss it. I only wish I could have taken one of the 4 classes that she taught. I was lucky enough to win the box of note cards pictured on the left featuring 4 of Paula's quilts.

Round Robin...What I did

Here is what I finally did to last months round robin piece. I lifted the thread-work on the left and then added hair using 2 different black fabrics. I did some heavy thread painting and then added highlights with a silver Shiva paintstick. Finally I stitched the thread-work back in place.

How's this for a baby?

Love this picture I captured of a 1 week old colt with her Mama. I saw her a couple of hours after she was born but didn't have my camera. Can you believe those long legs...ohhhhh I am so jealous! We have a place on a river in NC and there is a farm right down the road. I grew up in a city so I really appreciate seeing the animals. I also have a new favorite pastime....... trout fishing. Hope you are enjoying the spring.

Morning In The Garden II

Here is a 5" x 7" piece I just completed for an art swap with Lorna. I love trading art with other artist so if you are interested in trading just let me know. I can only do about 1 of these every couple of months but it is a great way to build you art collection for the cost of your material, time and postage.

This piece was pretty involved. I was digging through my scraps and found a piece of fabric that had the poppies painted on it. I didn't like the background so I cut out the 3 flowers I liked the best and fused them to a piece of peltex that I had painted with different colors of green. Then I did heavy thread painting on the flowers and leaves. I didn't like how this came out so I cut away some of the background and placed it on a piece of one of my hand-painted sky's. Finally did the quilting using one of my favorite variegated threads on the sky and added some beads in the center of each flower. Hope she likes it.

Round Robin Idea - What do you think?

I have been looking at the picture below of the round robin piece and just came up with this idea. I could add some sort of hair to the head and have it pulled to the left through the thread work. Then the thread work would look like it was wrapped around the hair......

This months round robin...HELP

Here is the round robin piece I received for this month. I think I am the 5th person to work on it. The last person added the yarn work on the left which is really throwing me off. Right now I think the piece is really disjointed and I am at a loss as to what to do to bring this together. I am really not sure how much I like this round robin thing. It's really hard to imagine what someone is thinking when they add something to a piece. I did not participate in this last year but I do remember that most of the pieces were unusual to say the least after having 12 people work on them. Have any of you been in a round robin like this before?

Remember that I can only add one thing to the piece. Any suggestions would really be appreciated.

4 Down - 8 to go

I managed to quilt a few more blocks on my Kandinsky inspired quilt. I have been too busy for art over the last couple of weeks so not making much progress. It was a beautiful day in the Atlanta area today and I played 18 holes of golf with my daughter. It was short course (only a par 60) but challenging enough since I haven't played in about 7 or 8 years. I was really happy with my 83 and got lots of fresh air and sunshine not to mention the time I spent with my daughter. Hope you all had a great day.

And the winner is.........

Thanks for all of the great name suggestions for my 'communications' quilt. It was a difficult decision to pick a name and I have finally decided on 'Togethernet' submitted by Artymess (Lorna). I really appreciate your input and thanks to all for following my blog.

Communications Piece Reveal & Win an ATC

Here it is! My second piece created for the Fiberactions group challenge. The challenge word was ‘communication’ and I really don't have a name for this quilt! The size is 16' x 20'. Here is what I was thinking about when I designed this piece: What does the Internet 'look' like? How has it made the world 'smaller'? What has it done to/for communication?

I painted the earth with Stewart Gill paints. The communication bands where made by 'scribble' writing on top of 3 layers of clear plastic with a black Sharpie. I then covered it with 3 more layers and fused them together. I then did more writing on top, covered it with 2 more layers and fused again. The plastic sheet was then painted with a light glaze of Alchemy paint and cut into strips to attach to the quilt.

I used 2 layers of batting and love the extra dimension that this adds. Somehow this actually made the quilting easier and I had a lot less difficulty with tension even when I quilted the black and 'Internet' with metallic thread. Be sure to click on the photo for a larger view.

So here is your chance to win an ATC. Just leave a comment with you name suggestion for this quilt. If your name is the one I choose I will send you an ATC. Please HELP!!! I will announce the winner on 3/21.

Check out the Fibreractions blog to see the other 12 artist quilts on this theme and more details on this quilt. Our next challenge will be announced later today and I can't wait to see what I will be working on next.

One down, eleven to go......

Today I managed to get one of the blocks quilted in my Kandinsky inspired quilt. I actually did 1 1/2 blocks and stopped when I did some quilting that I did not like and decided to take it out wnich of course set me back about 45 min.

I had envisioned starting this early today and having almost the whole thing finished by the end of the day but of course I got sidetracked and didn't actually start until after lunch. I tend to be a real analyzer and will put a piece up on my design wall and study what I want to do for quite a while (I really hate this about myself). By the time I finished this block, I decided that I really needed to go for a walk since it was such a nice day.

When I returned I started in on the second block and then gave up for the day when I had to take out the quilting I didn't like. Now I won't get back to this until next week......so much for getting something done in a hurry. I do like the way the block turned out though.........

Round Robin For The Month

I mentioned a couple of months ago that I am participating in a round robin with my fiber art group. Here is the round robin piece I received to work on this month. My initial thoughts were 'wow, someone worked really hard to make this cool doll' and 'what in the world am I going to do with this'.

This piece started with the pink background, next someone added the doll, then the enhanced chest was added by the next person. Next came the earrings and finally the netting from a wine bottle. I let this sit around for a couple of weeks where I could see it in passing. I finally came up with 3 different ideas and I wish I could have done all of them.

First I thought I would add a 3d vine and leaves woven through the mesh background. My next though was to add a caption bubble to the right of the dolls head and come up with some sort of funny phrase that the doll could be saying.

My final idea was to couch the yarn to the edges. It was hard to let go of my initial ideas but I though the yarn was a perfect fit and I remember from last year that none of the edges on the pieces were finished. It will be interesting to see this one when it is finished. It still has 7 people to go through. Wonder what is happening to my piece?

A Little Kandinsky

I have always loved Kandinsky's painting 'Farbstudie Quadrate' so I thought I'd try my own color study using squares.

This last weekend I was really suffering with of all things, a bad case of pink eye. I was so bored and decided that I could at least still paint. I cut 12 12" squares of PFD fabric and used Stewart Gill paints to paint each one. I tried to keep the painting loose and tried to experiment with different color combinations. With the pink eye slowing me down, it took 3 days to paint all of the squares.

Tuesday with the pink eye feeling better but still running a fever, I found out I had an ear infection. I was scheduled to go to Singapore today but had to cancel because of my ear...why do I feel like I should be in grade school??? I am finally feeling better and did manage to piece the squares together. This piece still needs work. Tomorrow I may adjust some of the colors and I am thinking of trying some metalics and/or Alchemy which is an interference shimmer glaze paint.

I have also though a bit about the quilting. I plan on using lots of different colors of Isacord thread and I was also thinking of doing some hand stitching with embroidery thread. I am not thrilled with this right now but I think the quilting will add a lot so stay tuned.

'Communications' piece finished!

I finished my 'communications' piece yesterday. This is a major miracle for me to be done over a month before the 3/15 deadline. I am such a last minute person that it is almost painful. I have several projects in mind and am ready to start something new. Here is a little peek at the finished piece. You will have to stop back on 3/15 for the reveal.

Any Roller Skaters Out There?

My granddaughter had her 7th birthday party today at 'Sparkles', the local roller skating rink. I actually skated.....first time in 25-30 years. After 3 hours I came home and fell asleep in a chair for about an hour. Hopefully I will be able to walk tomorrow and at least I didn't fall down!

Look What I Did Last Week!

If you are familiar with Stewart Gill paints and products you may recognize Rebecca Gill on the left. I spent last week in rainy California taking the Stewart Gill Rainbow Consultant class.

This was really an intense workshop focused on learning all about the paints and different ways to use them. We worked about 9 hours a day and I learned so much. I have never treated myself to an experience like this before and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

If you love painting fabric you need to give these paints a try. The colors are intense and when you use them straight from the jar they don't bleed so you can create some great detail. They do need to be heat set but the effort is well worth it.


Here is just some of the work I did. Most of these are samples of techniques or product tests. This was great for me since I am not the kind of person to do experiments first. I am looking forward to doing a whole cloth painted quilt using these products and some new techniques. Have any of you tried these paints?

Initiative Challenge Reveal

Here it is! My first piece created for the Fiberactions group challenge. The challenge word was ‘initiative’ and the name of my quilt is ‘Living a Creative Life’. I initially had a tough time coming up with an idea on how I would interpret this theme. In coming up with ideas for my work, I usually disregard the first few that come to mind. I do this because I think that in a challenge situation people’s first thoughts may be the obvious interpretation of the theme and I want my interpretation to be unique.

I hope this piece evokes a sense of fun and energy. Be sure to click on the image to see all of the details since I spent hours adding different embellishments.

Check out the Fibreractions blog to see the other 12 artist quilts on this theme and more details on this quilt. Our next challenge will be announced later today and I can't wait to see what I will be working on next.

Monet's Garden II and a Tease

Yesterday I quilted this painted landscape I did last fall. I wasn't sure if it deserved the time required to do this but I always need to practice my free motion quilting so I went for it. I like to use these pieces to experiment with different threads and fill patterns. I seem to be stuck on doing too much stippling. Overall I like this but I could have done better on the path thread colors. Also the path edges seem too regular. I used Isacord, Superior King Tut and Rainbow threads for the quilting. I think my favorite is the King Tut. Do you have a favorite thread? Click on the image to get a closer look at the quilting.

Here is how it looks with the border which is not quilted yet so it looks a little wonky. The border fabric is also my own. I am trying to decide if it needs the border or if I should cut it off. What do you think....border or no border?



Tomorrow is the big reveal day for my first Fiberactions piece so be sure and stop back. Here is a little tease.

My Online Class on joggles.com

My class 'Creating Realistic Landscape Quilts' will be running again on joggles.com starting on January 20th. Here is the link to joggles to see the complete description if you want to check it out.

Joggles not only offers online classes but also is a great source for textile and mixed media supplies.

Current state of the living-room.....

Probably one of the least favorite things I like to do is take down Christmas decorations! Here is what my living-room (that room that never gets used.....) looks like right now. Please tell me I am not the last person working on this.

What in the world have I been up to???????

I know it seems like I have fallen off the edge of the earth since it has been over a month since I last posted. I think I have just been taking a mental break. Haven't really gotten any new work done even though I have been working on my 'Initiative' piece for the Fiberactions group. Be sure to check out the reveals on 1/15. My quilt is very bright and a little different than what I usually do.

I have been contemplating what kind of goals I want to work on this year. Looking back on the goals I set for 2009, they seem kind of shallow and not really focused enough. One thing I know is that I want to create more art. Last year I spent way to much time writing 2 online classes for Joggles.com. Looking back I am glad that I did this since I will have one class running each quarter and that helps support my art. Another thing would to be more organized. I will have to give this more thought and come up some things that are more specific and meaningful.




Here is a picture of a background that I created for a round robin challenge that I joined. There are 12 of us in this group and each month we will each add something to the piece that has been passed to us. This will continue until all of us has worked on each piece. It will be interesting to see what my piece looks like when I finally get it back. This piece is 9" x 12 (challenge requirement), painted with Golden Acrylics and attached to timtex.

Hope all of you enjoyed the holidays and have a happy new year.