Something Different

I finished up another project last week --- pages for a Fat Book. Are you surprised? I was rather surprised myself.

Fat books are all the rage with the altered art and collage folks. In this case, the book is part of the Art and Soul retreat that is here in Dallas in May. I haven't registered for classes yet, but after Jeff and I work out our schedule I'm definetely looking forward to a class with

Claudine Hellmuth or...

Traci Bautista or...

Michael deMeng or...

Lesley Riley.

I am also eager to hang out with some other artist-types and maybe meet some local gals. So, when the opportunity came up to participate in this Fat Book, it seemed like another great way to connect with people in addition to challenging my creative side.

The pages had to be 4x4" on the theme La Belle Epoque (the beautiful era). Think French posters of the 1800's, Toulouse-Lautrec, art nouveau, etc. (Totally not my usual style.)

I looked at lots of images, did some sketches and thought about how I was going to approach this project. Most of the contributors will be creating their pages with photo-transfers, rubber stamps, and other paper-based media. I decided I really needed to do fabric. That's my thing, you know.

I ended up doing a tiny fused piece of a dancing girl. I added some embroidery then I scanned it, added a bit of text and printed out several copies. (Not before I replaced both the keyboard and the scanner which both died the day after Jeff went out of town. Oh, and don't even ask about the flat tire I had today.)

Then on to the embellishments. You simply can't just have a plain piece of cardstock. How passe.

Here are the pages in progress.


I had also printed out the right leg separately. I cut out all those legs and attached them to the pages with a tiny purple brad -- oh, the stuff you can find in the scrapbooking aisle. So, she can literally kick up her heels. Isn't that cute?! And interactive!

Then I added a pink feather in her hair and a strip of ripped cloth looped through the corner.


The text in the upper right corner says, "Celebrate the Creative Spirit." On the back side are a couple of circles with my name and info an another pair of purple high heel shoes.

I think they turned out pretty well. They are totally outside of my regular style and color palette. Not to mention techniques. It was a lot of work. Making 35 of anything just takes time. I'm really glad I did it and I'm so eager to take a look at the whole book and experience all the arty goodness of the retreat.

Downtown Dallas

Claire and Benjamin and I had a fun time exploring bits of downtown Dallas this weekend. We were actually letterboxing, but we didn't have our stamp pad... so we'll have to go back soon!

The largest bronze sculpture in the world is outside the Dallas Convention Center.

It's 40 life size long horn cattle, plus three cowboys on horse back. Can you imagine a project of this size?!

There was also a man selling ice cream bars. Delish... these are cartoon characters with eyes made of gumballs.


The cattle (and the kids) cross over a nice little stream.


Here you can see how huge it is. It's very Texas, don't you think?

New Art Work

When I heard about a new call for entries for Ricky Tims' Art Quilt Studio and Gallery, I was really inspired. I hadn't planned to make anything in particular during this temporary time in our apartment before our house is completed. I didn't pack my sewing machine, or any fabric. Not even a ruler. But, I was so intrigued by the theme for the Microcosmos show, I decided to go for it.

Here's the finished triptych.


Each piece is 5 x 7 inches on a specified theme. This is Tree of Life.


This is Winds of Change.


And this is Fields of Gold.


I did have embroidery floss, beads and scissors. So I only bought fabric, fusible and one pigma pen. And I did it all by hand. The design came to me pretty quickly. I've enjoyed the landscapes I've made over the past year or so and I knew I wanted to incorporate the leaf/pod/eye shape that I love so much. (As you know, Sonji loves it too!) I wanted to leaf to act differently in each piece, but still be the same shape. I also knew I wanted to include some text. In this case, it's just stream of conscious writings about the titles of each piece. It's not necessarily meant to be legible, but it sets the tone.

If I'd had more space, tools and materials and would have done some things differently, but this was a good challenge and an excellent creative outlet during this time of limbo for our family.

I will be so delighted if it's accepted for the show.

House Update

Since I suspect some of my family members skim over the quilting-technical-type-posts like I wrote yesterday, I'm going to post a bunch of pictures of the house and kids. And if you quilting technical types wish to skim past these, that's cool with me. Tune in tomorrow and I'll try to post something arty. Though, really... the house is pretty arty, don't you think?

The painted last week. This note was written right on the front door.

It's a temporary door, so I guess it makes a good message board. Translation: walls: wheat sheaf; ceilings: delicate white. We actually had to pay extra to have the ceilings painted a different color than the walls. Who knew?

Check out this arty picture of the base wood being clamped into shape for the stairway.

Don't those orange braces look cool all lined up on that curve?

I've got more pictures coming... if blogger cooperates. It seems my kids have been better at following directions lately than blogger. And that's saying A LOT!

More pictures

Wanna come visit? I'd love to have you over for dinner. That's our green dining room, where we'll be eating. Unless, of course, we just order pizza in which case we'll probably be...


... standing at the counter here in our green kitchen. It's a couple of shades lighter than the dining room.


Yesterday they did tile including this back splash. I love it. (I'm a bit worried it's rather dark. I think the light-ish wall color and the light cabinets balance it out, though.)


Here's the entry way and little Benjamin. You'll notice he is wearing a jacket! It's been in the 30s in the mornings. Wassupwidat?


And since we're on the green theme, here's a picture from St. Patrick's Day.

Bad Wonder Under

Since Melody blogged about this yesterday, I had to chime in.

Seriously, that bad Wonder Under can drive a girl bananas. I have lots of it. In fact, I wrote Pellon and complained about the five bad yards I had just purchased at Walmart and they sent me five replacement yards. That would be great... except it's bad too.

I tried waiting to peel the paper until the next day. I tried peeling the paper while hot. I tried peeling the paper while cold -- even straight out of the freezer. It's just all around bad.

Then as I was cruising the aisles at our local Super Target (which I adore!), I saw this...

The parchment paper, not the glue or the messy nest of floss.

I had heard about such a beast, but usually only in the context of chocolate chip cookies. Vaguely the rememberance of using it with fusible creeped into my brain. I think the roll cost about $2.34.

When I got it home I tried peeling the fusible off the bad Wonder Under release paper, carefully laying it over the fabric, then laying a piece of the parchment over the top. It was so slick. I mean literally slick. It fused the webbing so flat and smooth and tight, I nearly did a back flip in relief and celebration. I immediately through the original release paper from the WU away lest it get confused with the parchment.

I also put a piece of parchment over all the wrinkly, bad, spotty WU that was fused on other fabric and it improved the surface significantly.

Of course this is all old hat to you. You have a couple of rolls of parchment in your studio right next to the freezer paper, right?

I'm not sure why Mel is so excited about the Telflon cooking sheets though I'm sure they work great. Maybe there is some downside to my new best friend, Parchment. Mel, will you enlighten me?

I also bought some Misty Fuse at the local quilt store when I was cursing the WU. But I haven't had a chance to use it with the parchment yet. I bet it will be brilliant.

Oh and what have I been making with all this freshly fused fabric? Tune in later.

Edited to Add:
Now that Mel has written about the obvious advantages of the Telflon sheets, I must add that I'm in a temporary apartment until our home is done. (I decided not to bring too many art supplies. I even packed up the sewing machine. It only took me about two days to regret that decision.) So, when I decided to do a small project, I wanted to buy just what I absolutely needed and not spend too much. Plus, I needed it now now now. I am nothing if not cheap and impatient. I'm not proud of it. But it's true. Parchment was easily available and cheap.

Dalls Quilt Show Update

I am so lucky that I went on Friday. On Saturday and Sunday it rained like crazy here in Dallas. Sunday there were several terrible flash floods. This is a picture of the parking lot at the quilt show location.

This was taken by Debbie Lautenslager who works at Quilt Country -- a delightful local quilt shop. I haven't heard details about whether there were any losses at the show, though I did hear about one woman who had her car valet parked and then it flooded and floated away. It was completely totaled and when she was riding the bus home, it also got flooded and stranded. She had to be rescued by firefighters. There's a quilt idea in that I'm sure. Can you imagine? Even Six Flags was closed on Sunday -- but the quilters stuck it out!

This was also the weekend that there was supposed to be a 15 foot tall floral Eiffle Tower at the Dallas Arboretum. Presumably that didn't happen. How disappointing.

Must See TV

My sister, Joanna, is going to be on Crafters Coast to Coast on HGTV on Wednesday morning at 7:30 am E/P (that's 6:30am here in Texas). This segment was taped about three years ago. It's run several times, but if you haven't seen my crafty, cool, funny sister you should tune in.

A Long Post with Not Too Many Pictures

I went to the Dalls Quilt Show yesterday.

First of all, I have the most wonderful husband ever and we have been so lucky in the past several weeks for many things to come together just as they were meant to be. Specifically, he left yesterday to go on a trip. I thought this might mean I would not be able to go to the show (at least not without the kids), but it turns out his plane did not leave until Friday afternoon and he generously and so enthusiastically wanted to go to the show in the morning. Which I did -- kid-free. Not that it wouldn't have been fine to take the kids, just different. You know what I mean.

It was a great show. I bought an advance ticket and arrived shortly before the show opened with several other quilter-types dressed in green (It was St. Patrick's Day.) and other predictable quilt show attire. Quilted vests. "My stash is legal" buttons. Red Hat Society gear. Hand made totebags.

When the doors opened, I headed straight for the special exhibits. I got to savor the Third International Miniature Textiles Invitational curated by Joanie San Chirico all by myself. So wonderful. Inspirational. Stunning. Wonderful in its size and depth of artistry. I was struck by how different the works look in person. I'd browsed the galleries on Joanie's site and there is just no comparision. The web pictures are wonderfully photographed and beautifully presented, just not the real thing.

No need to take pictures of the individual works since you can see them all at the link above, but here's a picture of how the show was hung.



I'm not sure the exhibit was fully appreciated by other attendees. I overheard a conversation between two women who didn't seem to get the whole concept of why they were there or where they came from. The idea of a "special exhibit" is a bit complicated, apparently. They were also set aside in another room from the main show. I also think that because the works are small, it's easy to zoom through the exhibit and not appreciate the art. This is something I should think about since I've been working super small lately. (Gabrielle might be right.) I hope the exhibit made some attendees think about fiber art in new ways.

It was amazing to see the variety of materials incorporated in these pieces. Lots of image transfer of many kinds. Duct tape. Paper. Skeleton leaves. Text.

Specifically, I'll say Lisa Call's piece was wonderful. I adore her dense seed stitch. It's so different from most of her work. It was wonderful to see Rayna's work in person. I adore her blog and am fascinated by the interesting tools and shapes she uses. Claire Fenton's work was great too -- so much more texture in real life. Those swampy reeds are beautifully painted thick foamy pieces. It's been great to see the development of Catherine Kleeman's series including this piece. I was so happy to be able to study Melanie Testa's beading and embroidery. Beautiful. I think my favorite was Valerie Goodwin's Vestages. I'm currently drawn to architectural imagery.

I will say there were a couple of pieces I really didn't like. Where do you draw the line between innovative construction choices and sloppy? When is image transfer a crutch for creating your own image? Don't get me wrong, I'm not being critical, I'm just suggesting that for me these questions rise to the surface. That's art, right?

Then I went to see the Men of Biblical Proportions exhibit. No photography allowed. It was great. I haven't seen the Women of Biblical Proportions exhibit, but I'd love to. Is it wrong to say that I suspect there are more truly gifted women quilt artists than men quilt artists? Only a few pieces really caught my eye including John Flynn's spectacular interpretation of Jesus walking on the water over the stormy sea. Half the quilt is the traditional storm at sea block with quilted splashy wild foot prints and the other is a serene wavy strip pieced section with calm quilted footprints. It gave me goosebumps.

Then I walked through the quilts in the actual show. They were wonderfully displayed with so much room to move around and view the quilts. Only just over 300 quilts in the show. That surprised me a bit since both the Jacksonville Quiltfest (where I used to live) and MaineQuilts (where I used to live) had way more entrants. I wonder if they limit entrants? I'm not sure. That's ok. I love to see whatever there is!

The best of show was beautiful and pretty innovative. It was a whole cloth quilt beautifully machine quilted with feathers and florals and all kinds of motifs. Then -- yes, after the quilting -- the artist added color to the quilt with colored pencils. Great pictures here.

The show program specifically says not to publish pictures on the internet, so no tour for you.

Lots of traditional quilts. And something I haven't seen much of before but is apparently popular in Texas: sparkles. Many quilts were bedazzled with all kinds of materials. There were even vendors who only sold sparkly stuff.

Speaking of vendors.

The publisher of Art/Quilt magazine was there. Her booth was packed. Draw your own conclusions.


She did have an amazing selection of books. I should have written down some titles. There was lots of inspiration there.

I also saw this product.

Apparently it's a fusible webbing that is only recently available in the US. Anyone tried it? Actually, I had an enormous breakthrough with fusing this morning. More on that later. It deserves it's own post.

Then I had lunch -- a warm California crepe... smoked turkey, avocado, sprouts and delish pesto dressing! How's that for quilt show food?

I love quilt shows. It was a delight. The Dallas Quilt Guild puts of a wonderful show. The location, the set up, the quilts, the attention to detail, the welcoming and happy attitude were all very impressive. I feel so happy to be here. Of course, I'll be sending in my guild membership this week.

I hope if there are any local Texas area gals reading my blog that you'll introduce yourself to me. I'd love to meet you. And I hope that you aren't offended by anything I've written. Sometimes I worry that my humor or constructive criticism might be hurtful. Please know it's certainly not meant to do so!

Feeling Bold?

Kate turned me on to these wonderful new Starbucks logos. She said this one reminded her of my Blue Leaves Reaching series.


I love it. Leaves, blooms, lines, asymetry, unusual colors... my pulse is racing!

Looking for something a bit edgier? How about this?


Not quite so edgy? How about a cooler color scheme?


And doesn't this just make you want to dance? Plus... that great name! "Lightnote!"


Need I even mention the cool perforated border? When I was at Starbucks studying all these inspiring designs, I noticed that they had rolls and rolls of these sticker logos behind the counter. Oh. My. The. Possibilities. I asked if I could have a few and when the "barista" rolled her eyes and asked "Why," I figured I could just download them.

Of course, you've noticed the enormous popularity of bird images. So did the Starbucks designers.

I'm also in love with the translucency and appearance of layers on this design.

And you can't go wrong with architectural imagery.


Ok, go about your business. Have a cuppa for me!

More progress.

Here's where I'll be baking brownies!


And here's where I'll be making art quilts.


And here's another little peek of my current project which is almost done...

Another Birthday Boy

Can you tell who is having more fun here?

Friday was Jeff's birthday. Benjamin insisted on getting him a "life saver." Benjamin specifically picked out the light saber that changes from blue to red, so you can be the good guy or the bad guy.

I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted. I've been thinking about what I might write about the birthday boy and I simply can not find words to adequately celebrate him. We've known each other for 21 years. We've grown up together in many many ways. He's the best of everything and I love him.

We've since been to the toy store to buy an additional light saber so we can have proper battles. The new one has a "jedi training mode" and Yoda says things like, "Fought well you have."

Progress

Lots going on around here. Take a look at this sneak peak of a new project I'm working on.


That was really a tease, wasn't it? I'll share more next week. I will say that I had to go out and buy some embroidery floss today. How is it that I've got a whole box full, but not the exact right color? (I was looking for a mustard color... which I now I have.)

And progress on the house too.

Isn't that brick arch beautiful? The kids and I enjoyed watching the masons put up a big wooden arch over which they laid the bricks and then removed it when everything was set. There will be also be green rustic shutters.

I don't have Bravo in the apartment, so I didn't get to see the Runway finale... grumble. It's not available for download from iTunes yet. I keep checking. I downloaded last weeks episode. Only $1.99 and very easy. How great is that? But, of course, I've seen that Chloe won. I'm not happy about it. I guess I'll have to wait to see the show to really judge.

More Birthday Pictures

"I'm four!"

Inside the boxes: a frog/puppet/book creature, Gnip Gnop, and a water rocket car. The book is cute and a welcome addition to the frog collection. The Gnip Gnop ball game is obnoxious, but the kids like it. And the Double Shotz car from Hot Wheels was a complete bust. It did not work at all like we expected. I called Hot Wheels and they sent me a voucher... we'll buy a plain old car and it will be way more fun!

The biggest hit was the stuffed bowling toy we got at Chuck E. Cheese.

Aren't those cute pjs?

Can you get any more all American than Chuck E Cheese? It was a fun celebration.



Then we had green ice cream cake back at "home." Long time readers of my blog know how much Benjamin loves green!

I love how you can see the smoke curling around in this picture too.

Quick Collage

I've enjoyed reading Claudine Hellmuth's blog lately... and, of course, being inspired by her books. I'm definetely not a paper-type artist. I think I'll always go back to fabric, but her recent challenge for readers to participate in her upcoming podcast was too much to resist. Plus, I needed some creative time after the whole moving experience.

Claudine has a few podcasts on her blog. Her husband gives her a theme and 20 minutes to create a collage. They record the whole thing and edit it into a short podcast where you can hear her thought process and then you can go to her archives to see the art that results. She was originally inspired by the challenges and time restraints on Project Runway.

For her current installment, the theme was "hurt." Grumble. I'm so not interesting in exploring the broken heart, isolated, lonely, wounded theme at the moment, but I let it simmer for several days. And then I gathered what materials I had...

I didn't bring too many supplies for our temporary time in this apartment. But, I was inspired by the jeans that Benjamin had just outgrown (and worn out). This brought to mind skinned knees and patched up clothes... maybe patched up hearts... or broken promises. I had band aids in our little medicine box and I thought that might be interesting. So I took the above picture at 8:58 pm as you can see. I actually started creating at 8:59 pm... which would leave me until 9:19 pm if I were to stick to the 20 minute limit.

Here's where I was at 9:19 pm...

Most of the idea was formed, but not completed.

I took ten more minutes to finish my stitching -- gotta go with the fiber! You can see I rejected the "broken heart" in the upper left. I thought about using the stapler, but I couldn't shove enough of the piece into the little stapler to do anything interesting.


And here is a scan of my final piece titled, "can it be patched."


The 20 minute limit made me feel both energized and a bit wacky. I can see how taking 20 minutes to "warm up" at the start of some studio time could be really helpful. It can definetely draw out some ideas or themes or even just colors and shapes that might not have been originally explored.

You can see all the collages that were submitted to Claudine's challenge here. You'll see fellow Frayed Edge and blogger, Kathy and another Frayed Edge Kate.

Rocks

Look what's sitting in our front yard. Aren't they beautiful in a graphic, grid, lines and squares kind of way? On our new home they is actually a lot more color in these bricks, because from this angle you don't actually see the side of the brick that faces out when put on the house.



Another pile... stone!


And when the talented masons put it up on the house, it looks like this...

I'm just in love with that patchwork stone pattern.

We also went to visit the granite yard to confirm our counter choice.

It's called Wild West Green and comes from Brazil. Can you believe something like this comes right out of the earth? Miraculous.

Here's a close up.


Whew... I'm so glad it's the weekend. We've had a crazy few weeks.

Good Mail

We had a pile of mail waiting for us when we arrived here in Texas. (I see that I need to change my profile... it still says I live in Maine. Sigh.) There were several issues of Newsweek magazine, a funny "welcome" card from a thoughtful friend and a package!

In this charming little box, I found...



...this unique, beautiful pin made by Kristin. It's posing on my favorite demin jacket. What a thoughtful generous gift.

It's felted and beaded... part of Kristin's whole line of felted jewelry. Thank you so much, Kristin.

Birthday Boy

Today is Benjamin's 4th Birthday!

Look what fun we had celebrating when we visited family on the way to Dallas.

Auntie Kris made a delicious GREEN cake that Benjamin adored. He especially loved putting on the sprinkles. Isn't his face so funny? Those eyebrows tell a big story!

I'll have more pictures of our other celebrations later in the week. (I know the grammas and grampas will look forward to that!)

A few things I remember about March 2, 2002.

• We probably should have left for the hospital a bit sooner.
• While we were on the way to drop Claire off at a friends home before we went to the hospital, she chatted on and on about how one of her classmates was eatting playdough.
• The nurse at the labor and delivery check-in insisted I put my shoes back on before I walked from the waiting room to the triage room.
• Jeff was (and is) an amazing support... zipping about lowering the lights and plugging in my self-hypnosis music as we were shuttled from room to room.
• I was thrilled that my mother was there for Benjamin's first moments so he would know that he has a big family of folks who love him.
• He was a warm, tiny, sweet miracle.
  

And now he is...

• the best joke-teller in the family. "Knock Knock? Who's there? Cargo. Cargo who? Car go, 'beep beep!'"
• a great dancer, he's got some wicked moves including the "surfing Santa."
• curious, impatient, whiney, energetic and stubborn
• very friendly and thoughtful and always wants to save a treat for when Claire gets home from school
• a creative game-player, he loves to make up how you get points, how many "lifes" you get and how to battle the bad guys
• a great cuddler!