Green Man Quilt Initial Stages of Design

Another portrait quilt.  So here is the story...
My Red Man Quilt was at the SAQA show in Little Rock and the quilters had the opportunity to have their quilts critiqued by this wonderful artist (whose name I forget but will add to this blog once I look it up).  One of her comments about the quilt was that I should make it larger so that it would be more of  a "presence".  I agree with the comment and decided to try it with this quilt.
The Red Man face was 18 inches tall - so initially I made this drawing 1/2 again as large or 27 inches tall.  Math logic is NOT one of my best skills.  When I printed out  the face at 27 inches it was ENORMOUS.  More than I wanted to try.  So I adjusted the size to 23 inches tall.
This is a picture of the initial drawing with the values indicated.

The next step is to select the fabric.  This entire portrait is from one single yard of beautiful hand dyed fabric that my good friend Jan made. 
Each small piece of the puzzle that makes the face is selected using a process designed by Esterita Austin (thanks for the great class Teri!).  Complicated to explain but if you stay organized it is do-able.
This photo shows all of the pieces pinned to the paper pattern.  The next step will fuse the pieces to a piece of black fabric.

This is the really scary part of the process for me.  You can tell that this is a face but none of the real detail is there yet.  That is all added with paint.  I am going to try to use transparent Set-A-Color paint this time instead of opaque.  I am curious to see how it works.

When I looked at the photo above, the dark green section at the bottom of the chin looked a bit too dark to me.  I am learning that if you are needing to check the values in a piece of art, it is helpful to take a black and white photo and then look at it on the computer.
So I did just that.  And I do think the piece on the chin is too dark.  I will try a more medium tone tomorrow and see if it works better.
Watch for a photo!        barbara

Tea Bag Quilt Panel

I have a stack of tea bags of various types that I collected some time ago.  I did make one really lovely little quilt with tea bags that had little drawings on them.  But I hadn't done much with them lately.
Then I saw something on one of the emails that I get from various magazines - how to make a little panel of quilted squares.  So I made one - and enjoyed the process.
It involves stenciling a design with acrylic paint on a tea bag, then outlining the design with white paint, then attaching and quilting the tea bag to muslin and attaching it to a layered square of colored fabric and felt.
The three little squares are then attached together and dyed scrim is attached between them, stitched, and beaded.  Little beads are attached to the bottom.
                                               Here is a detail photo....

I enjoyed the process but I think I will get some better stencils with small designs.  This was the smallest stencil design that I have on hand.  I would also like to try some more abstract designs and possibly a nine square design.  But it was fun!  barbara

Ida Mae and Erma Jean

This is the photo of a journal page that I made in 2010.  The two Ghosty Girls on the left were blobs of white paint that were just sort of annoying until they turned into figures.  I liked them so much that I made them into a quilt.





When they turned into fabric they were no longer Ghosty Girls - and were a lot more colorful.  The quilt is part of the Residents of Farkleberry Road series.

 Meet Ida Mae.........and Erma Jean

And here is the finished quilt - the circles are purple on one side and turquoise on the other and can flip around - just for fun!   This particular quilt was almost finished for about 5 month but sat on my design wall..... forever...... until I finally figured out that it needed the circles.     barbara

Ida Mae and Erma Jean

Another Finished Project - I am ON A ROLL!!

Calla Lily completed - 12" x 29"

WATCH OUT all unfinished quilts in my studio!!  I am really focused on finishing up any projects that are not quite complete - maybe I am clearing the decks for new work.
This is the calla lily from the on-line class about painting.  The same class that resulted in the landscape scene.  I do think that I will try to make another quilt of a plant - maybe using some of the photos from our California trip as an inspiration.
I especially like the fabric that I found for the border for this quilt - I think it picks up all of the colors in the lily.  Now I need to find a place to hang this new quilt - hmmmm - always a pleasant challenge!  barbara

A Finished Class Project - Finally!

15" x 13"

Working on the California journal page apparently popped me out of my creative funk and into Finishing Mode.  So the border and binding are now on this quilt.  It is small and there are some things that I would do differently - but I learned a lot.  I don't know that I will ever try another landscape - but if I do, I will certainly have better tools to make it look realistic.  barbara

California Memories

Our recent trip to California to visit Anna was SO wonderful but ever since I returned I have felt creatively STUCK.  And I hate that feeling.  It feels sort of like walking in tiny little circles and getting nowhere.
So - in order to get UNstuck - I decided to make a journal page about our California trip.  Frequently if I am in a creative funk, I just need to do SOMEthing with my art supplies and it doesn't even matter what.
So here is a picture of my journal page - it is much more interesting in person of course because you can read all of the little stories. 
I am so glad that I worked on this project - because otherwise the little stories from trips get lost.  Great trip - Great Fun making this project.      barbara

Renegade Letter

I haven't had time to quilt lately because we took a wonderful trip to California to visit Anna.  I took many photos of beautiful flowers that I hope magically turn into quilts some day.
For today - our small art quilting group, the Renegades, has a banner for quilt shows (generously made by Betty!) and we are going to each take a letter and decorate it.
So I have this big banner with big letters and was stumped for an idea.  I wanted to make my letter show MY art personality.  My art personality is either faces or figures - so how the heck was I supposed to make a face around black block letters?  Well I fiddled and sketched and finally came up with an idea that I like - and this is it.  It reminds me of Angelina Jolie and her fancy leg thrust at the Oscar ceremony.... barbara