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.