Home Grown

A new completed piece. It just flew right out of the studio. Literally and figuratively.

Home Grown, 16x30ish

The Frayed Edges are having a show at the Camden Library in Camden, Maine this summer. Many of our works focus on the theme "home" and I really wanted to make one new piece just for the show.

Sarah has written more details about the show on her blog and I hope you'll go see it if you're in the neighborhood. There is an opening reception on Sunday, August 11 from 1 to 4 p.m. And yes, I'm so so so sad I won't be there.

All the elements of this piece really came together quickly and I am quite pleased with the results. It got packed up and sent to Maine today.

You recognize my beloved green and purple. And my beloved house shape. And my beloved leaves and other growing images. The circles are new, though. I did those by dipping a canning jar in watered down acrylics and printing right on the fabric -- after much of the composition was already in place.
And yes, there is some handwriting. And hand embroidery. And reverse applique -- that's new too!

My mom hand-dyed several of these pieces. Two different times I purchased kits from Pro-Chem for dying 30 fat eights. Mom did the dying both times and I love using every scrap.

I'll definetely do more of this collage/layer/mixed-technique kind of work. Maybe I'll stray away from the green and the purple next time.

Domestic

I finally made window treatments for the family room from the fabric I bought way back in October. You can read about my fabric shopping trip here. I had to reread it myself, it was so long ago.

I'm thrilled with the results... the picture isn't much, but they are simple and just right for the room. They warm it up a bit and make it look more finished. I followed this video from the HGTV website. Super easy... but extremely boring. This is the kind of sewing I just despise. All that measuring, long seams, pressing. Arg. Tedious. Monotonous. And dull. In fact it's so dull, while I was sewing I tried to think of more synonyms for "dull."

I also listened to several episodes of Fair Game podcasts. Love love love that show. It's so witty and interesting.

Now that I'm done with skirts (Thanks for all your enthusiastic compliments!) and curtains for the moment, I'm working on this.

Garment Making?!

As you know, every spring I get an itch to make skirts. I usually resist. (Last fall I did craft up this skirt, but I didn't really "make" it.) This year, I gave in.

Here you can see the superfantastic green fabric I bought while shopping with my sister in LA. It's a witty, whimsical, stunning botanical border print, with --- gasp!!! --- purple selvedge edge including --- gasp!! --- a few Asian characters and other text and sweet, soft, short fringe! I couldn't resist. Even for $16 a yard which is way more than I like to spend on fabric.

You can also see the book I bought about drafting skirt patterns easy peasy, the zipper I had to buy after the first disaster, and the black and white fabric I got at Ikea for $2.99 a yard for future skirt making endeavors.

So, the disaster? First I decided to make a drawstring skirt, because I generally like the look of a simple drawstring, and because I found some ribbon that is a perfect coordinate, and because I hate to do zippers. Yeah. Not so much. This fabric is way too heavy for a drawstring. I put it all together and cinched it up and it was poochy and ugly all over. Yuck. No one likes poochy. I totally should have known this fabric was not appropriate for a draw string, but I just wasn't thinking clearly. And I am so not a garment maker.

No worries. The next day, I ripped it all apart -- just two pieces, the front and the back. And they were plenty large to accommodate a new hand drawn pattern for a fitted skirt with a zipper and I had extra fabric for the facing. The instructions in the book for the zipper were quite good -- it's not like it's that hard, but I still find the zipper daunting. I did have to resize the seams a bit after it was constructed, but that was fine also. Plus... now I have a skirt that fits that I can copy the next time.

Ta da!

Hmmm. The photographer cut off her brother's face. Sometimes she wishes she could do this in more than just a picture.

Here's a bit of a close up so you might be able to see the superfantastic selvedge hem. Superfantastistic both because it looks cool and because it meant I did not have to sew a hem. Yeah!

I've got a little less than a yard left. Tote bag?

Ribbit!

Claire likes frogs too. (Long time readers of my blog know that Benjamin is a big fan of frogs.) Here is one she found in the back yard.
You can click on the picture for an even bigger view. I am so impressed with the detail and clarity I got using the macro option. Imagine what I could do if I actually read the camera's manual.

I insisted she could not keep the frog in the bug box over night. What would he eat? But, we were able to find him again the following day in pretty much the same spot. Unfortunately, Lincoln also found him. This made for some interesting viewing of frog intestines poking through a hole made my Lincoln's teeth and the frog's subsequent demise. Ah, the cycle of life.

Brief Blog Thoughts:
I've poked around a bit trying to figure out why so many of your thoughtful comments come through with "noreply" address. Before we were forced to switch to the new Blogger, this was a far less frequent occurrence. I think it might help if you make sure that you have an email listed in your Blogger profile and that you check the "show my email" box in the Privacy section of your profile. I think this might make a difference both for people who actually blog with Blogger and those who just have a Blogger profile so they can comment freely on Blogger blogs. Try it and then leave me a comment. If your address comes through, I promise I'll reply!

Success!

I am thrilled to say that I've been juried into a couple of shows. This is Patina of Radiance. It's about 10x15."It will be in the Visual Arts Society of Texas 125-Mile exhibit from August 21 to September 28 at Texas Women's University. (Artists who live in a 125 mile radius of Denton, TX are eligible.) I am thrilled that it was accepted along with other visual arts and eager to see how my small fiber piece looks hanging with oils, watercolors and photography. The opening reception is August 21 from 4:30 to 6:30, of course... if you're in the area...

And here is For the Beauty of Each Hour. It's about 20x25."
It will be in the show called "New Frontiers: an exhibition of contemporary fiber art" from September 7 to September 29 at Art House in McAllen, TX.

And a little detail. All my favorite things: handwriting, seed stitch, square sequins, unexpected materials -- like the hem of an old pair of jeans.
Mary Ruth Smith will also have two pieces in the show. She's in the current Quilt National show. Wow. What an honor... oh and as a bonus: I just happen to be taking a class from her on Saturday!

This and That

I completed the New York Times crossword puzzle yesterday. The first time I've finished a Wednesday puzzle. Yeah!

Claire and Benjamin and I went to the Madi Museum on Tuesday. (Is anyone familiar with the Madi art movement?!) We went specifically to see Susan Lumsden's quilts. You can read Susan's blog entry about the opening here. Her quilts were a perfect fit for the modern, geometrically focused gallery. I enjoyed looking at the quilting with Claire, particularly studying the pieces in which she incorporated both machine and hand stitching. We also had fun trying to match up the quadrants of the different circle pieces. Claire was intrigued by the glass pieces that were exhibited with the quilts. Benjamin, on the other hand... let's just say, I would have loved to read more of Susan's witty and information descriptions of her quilts rather than play 5-year-old patrol.

I am loving So You Think You Can Dance! Sabra and Dominic are officially my favorites. (Lacey and Kameron could sneak in, though.) And I really hope Danny finds some personality because he's clearly an amazing dancer -- but that's not enough.

Not totally loving Top Chef, but I'll keep watching. Also hoping to go to Abacus, where Tre cooks, in October.

Rented Catch and Release last week. Blah.

Ordered books that will arrive today.

We've all got our ears open to hear the UPS truck since there is good stuff for everyone (except Jeff) in the box. He plans to buy the Harry Potter book as soon as it comes out. I offered to order it, but he didn't want to risk missing a day in the mail.

Vacation #3

Lots of pictures. Not too many words.

A delightful flight -- just the three of us -- with lots of snacks. We met Jeff in California.
Visiting Aunt Joanna and Uncle Matt. Benjamin learned how to make music with the master and got lots of souvenir picks.Joanna loved sorting through Aunt Joanna's artwork.Benjamin loved wearing every single piece of Aunt Joanna's jewelry. (That's beloved Emma who you may have read about here.)Long Beach Aquarium -- very impressive and totally fun!Ah, lorakeets.My new favorite color inspiration -- brown, sage, blue, and pink.Breakfast in the hotel room while watching cartoons!As soon as we stepped off the boardwalk in Santa Monica and into the sand, Claire began playing. Claire made it all the way across this super-sized track of rings. Amazing.Can you see Benjamin pointing to the pier... he could hardly wait!And here he's got lots to say about how great it was. (Except for the Dragon ride, that was a big thumbs down.)In to the surf. So fun.Digging for little creatures.Joanna and I took a side trip to the LA fabric district. Wow. Tons. Of. Fabric. (Yes, I bought some.)Then an evening in Coronado (where we used to live.) Here we are with the Hotel Del behind us.Here we are with the sunset behind us.LegoLand. Big hit. (The kids are in their suits because they had just spent an hour playing in the mini-water park.)Monster-size sea gull spotted in Sydney Harbor.This is the Kid Power Tower at Legoland. You pull yourself up with that rope and then drop down. Super fun.Again with the lorakeets. These are at the San Diego Wild Animal Park.

Two week old baby giraffe and mother as seen from the wonderful "safari" ride.

I can't believe I didn't take any pictures of our three meals here.

Vacation #2

This is has been a wonderful summer so far... I've been really lucky to travel quite a bit -- and more travel coming! Which is good, because when I briefly considered "resolutions" back in January, I really thought to myself, "I should travel more."

Vacation #1 was my trip to Maine. And I probably have more pictures from that journey that I could post in the next few weeks. And then we all went to St. Louis and southern Illinois to visit Jeff's parents.

We always stop at Ted Drewes. And we always take a picture. I swear, I could fill a whole album with this pose from various times over the past nearly 20 years!

I see I'm not the only one who has a collection of Ted Drewes photos. There are 294 over on Flickr. They have amazing frozen custard. It's actually a historical landmark along Route 66. I always order the "all shook up," but make it chocolate, please. That's vanilla custard, chocolate sauce, peanut butter cups and a banana. Years ago it used to include peanut butter cookies in place of the peanut butter cups, which I preferred, but I still manage to suck it down.

We also visited the St. Louis zoo, which we think is one of the best zoos in the country!

With one of the most beautiful carousels I've ever seen, populated entirely by endangered species!

We also returned to our other favorite attraction: The City Museum.

And had big fun just being with the family!

Frayed Edges Grid

Sarah has been blogging about our Frayed Edges group project for our show at the Camden, Maine library in August. It's been a challenging, inspiring and fun project.

As a group, we chose a photo from each of the five Frayed Edges. Then we each created a piece of art inspired by each of the five photos. Sarah created the concept for hanging the works so they will form a large grid on the wall with each row representing one of the photos and each column representing one of the artists. Because the wall space is limited, some of the photos are horizontal (just 7x10) and some are vertical (5x7).

I decided I wanted all five of my pieces to look cohesive and use the same techniques and materials. I printed each photo on Extravorganza and then layered several elements including some handwriting, beading, cut-outs and a small bit of machine quilting. Some of the photos worked well with the materials and techniques I chose -- others, not so much. But as a whole, I think they work.

These pictures are all scans, so some of them looked a bit smooshed, but I think they show nice detail.
5 Views: Pool This is my photo -- actually taken by my husband in El Salvador. I kept wanting to add more to this piece, but I just couldn't figure out the right set of elements. It's fine as it is, I suppose. There is a line of red seed beads in the red columns and the same line repeated in a more blueish red seed bead in the reflection.

5 Views: Museum This is Sarah's photo. I was pleased with the results of the layering in this piece. I wanted to mix some commercial fabrics into the pieces, but it was really hard to find just the right pattern. Something that didn't compete with the photo but still dynamic enough to have a reason to be there.

5 Views: Garden This is my favorite. It's Hannah's picture. It's the first one I did and the one I least expected to be a success. You never know! Those flower shaped sequins are from the sequin soup Hannah brough from China. I love the assymmetry and abstractness of the piece -- and yet still obviously floral.

5 Views: Cathedral This is Kate's picture from Kiev. The background is kind of smooshy on this one. Maybe I should have quilted it more. It's really all about the gold domes... so I used gold seed and bugle beads and that yellow fabric. The small cut out windows are pretty subtle. I tried to add more to this one also, but nothing seemed right.

5 Views: Beach This is Kathy's picture. The ultimate study in complimentary colors, right? In the photo you can actually see people walking along the beach at the horizon. I turned them into beads. I was pleased with the quilting lines on this one -- it really enhanced the shape of the umbrella. You can see Kate's cheeky interpretation of Kathy's photo on Sarah's blog. (It's on the bottom.)

Now that these pieces and the Lark submissions are done, I've got nothing at all on the design wall. It feels inspiring.