Personal Paint Library

I’ve been taking an online class with Julie Prichard and Chris Cozen, Color Beyond the Basics. Our first assignment was to create a personal color library mixing all our existing paint colors in a prescribed method using black, white, buff, irridescents and primary colors. It has been tedious work, but so rewarding. From 32 acrylic colors, I have created a big color library. Here are some of my swatches.

The class has an open start time, and you can do the assignments at your own pace. That’s good, because I am behind. Lesson 2 has already been posted.

Haiti by Hand Auction

Rebecca Sower is doing a remarkable job of collecting items from artists and selling them in an auction site. She has relationships with several artists in Haiti and was visiting with them the week before the earthquake. All proceeds from the auction go to helping these women get back on their feet. You can read about some of the women here.

I was talking with my friend Mary last night, and she had had a conversation with a pastor who had arrived in Haiti to work with his denomination’s orphanages on the Monday before earthquake. He stayed to help until just a few days ago. He says there is so much we don’t see on our news, primarily the resiliency of the people. With just a little help to individuals, we can make a huge difference in their lives.

I have a quilt in the auction, Hope of Spring, but there are many other beautiful things for sale. The auction begins at noon CST on Friday, January 29 and runs through noon CST on February 12. Please consider bidding on the auction items or make a direct purchase through the Haiti by Hand Etsy shop.

photo blog of Israel and Jordan

If you haven't already done so, check out Tom's wonderful photo blog of our recent trip to Israel and Jordan.

Haiti by Hand

I’ve been busy helping Rebecca Sower with her mission for helping the artists of Haiti who have been profoundly affected by the recent earthquake. I have submitted several items for sale in the Haiti by Hand Etsy Gift Shop. Many artists are helping, so please visit and support this worthwhile effort. Here are the items I have listed with the shop. The Etsy shop has all the details on sizes and price and more photos of each listed item.

String of Good Fortune Birds

Sock Monkey Baby Quilt--SOLD

Hope of Spring Art Quilt (this one will be in the art auction TBA)

Two sets of Japanese fabric coasters

Change of Pace

I did say that this would be the year I would tackle my unfinished projects, and today I finished another piece. Five years ago shortly after I began quilting I had a vision for a quilt for our king size bed. I started collecting fabric and working on the skills to pull it off. I finished it during the summer of 09. It has painted gingko leaves on it and is densely quilted. With the quilt finished, I now needed a different bed skirt. Today I altered a ready made one and it is now on the bed. (photo does not have new bedskirt) On to the pillows! I may try painting the old pillows.

Clean up crew

It was cold for so long, that we had a fish kill in the lake behind our house. At first we noticed a few vultures, then there were hundreds. They lined the shoreline and lurked on the roofs. They waded in the water like egrets, dragged their feast to the shore and then spent the rest of the day fighting with each other over carcasses. Once you get over the creepiness, and realize the other option is a lake of stinky dead fish, they are just part the eco-system. They are mostly gone now and the egrets and herons are back. But I’m still looking for the swans to return.

related post: unusual visitors

And the winner is…

Brenda! who wrote on the blog…

I'm in the group (Mixed Media Art Friends) --but only got my papers made and then the holidays hit and …..

Brenda, if you will let me know your address, I’ll get those birdies flying to you early next week. You can contact me at defling1948 at yahoo dot com. (Just put the symbols in for the at and the dot.) If I don’t hear from you by Monday noon EST, I’ll draw another name.

Thanks to everyone who made comments. I am very grateful!

50th post

Leave a comment on my blog, and one of these stitch paper bird garlands could be yours. I’ve finished the ones to swap, saved one for myself, and now I have one to give away. On Friday, I’ll draw a name and announce the winner. But you can’t win unless you leave a comment. If you do post anonymously, just make sure you sign with some kind of name so I can identify you in the winner's post. When I post the winner, I''ll put in my email, then you contact me and we can communicate outside blogland.

Unusual visitors

My sewing was interrupted this morning when Tom called me out to the porch. Two swans were swimming on the lake behind our house. They entertained us for quite awhile, eating the stale bread we tossed to them and posing for pictures. They spent the day on the lake, but when I went out at sunset, they were gone.

It's Snowing in Florida!

It's snowing in Port Orange, Florida! This is the last straw, I've had enough winter. I'm ready for temps in the 60's instead of the 30's. Here's a photo of snow on my neighbor's lanai. look closely and you'll see the red monkey in the wire palm tree shivering. Me too.

Sidetracked

After sewing on the green binding on the ginkgo quilt, I put it up on my design wall to just make sure this was the look I wanted before doing the hand sewing involved.

What do you think? Keep the green binding or go with a black satin stitched binding? I’m leaning toward the black satin stitched binding because I think the matte quality of the present binding competes with the luminescence of the body of the quilt.

In the mean time, I have been working on birds for the swap project I’m doing online. I needed 40 birds to complete four sets. Three sets to swap, and one to keep for myself. I am also doing a bookmark swap with the same group. I’ll cut the bookmarks from the scraps of stitch paper I put together a couple of nights ago.

Creative Process part 3

I spent a long time yesterday painting the tissue paper. The color I posted yesterday was too yellow. I wanted a lot of layers, but I also wanted it to be compatible with the colors in the mono-print. Today it pleased me.

I cut out the leaf shape and fused it to black fabric, then fused it to the quilt body. I added some paint dots to the quilt body to soften the solid black lines. I found the perfect fabric for backing and binding the quilt, a beautiful hand dyed fabric from Wendy Richardson.

I chose wool batting, and quilted it with a green silk thread. Whenever possible, I outlined the ginkgo shapes from the original quilt. The tissue paper leaf was very easy to quilt, but I had to get out my magnifier to see the stitching on the rest of the quilt.

Tomorrow I’ll get the binding on and post the finished product. I also have a challenge for my blog readers. I’ll be giving away a couple of prizes when I post my 50th blog. (this one is post #43) You will need to post a comment on my blog the day I announce the prizes. So consider this a head’s up, start learning how you can register and make a comment.

Creative process part 2

I took one of the mono prints applied fusible web to the back and cut it into twelve 3 inch squares. I then shuffled the squares and affixed them to black fabric

The quilt on the left is the original one, now painted with metallic paints, and the one on the right is the new piece. Since the original quilt had ginkgo leaves on it, (and no focal point) I think I’m going to appliqué a ginko leaf to it. I don’t have any fabric the color I want, so for now I have cut a paper piece as a guide. I am painting some tissue paper and some stitch paper, one of which I will appliqué to the quilt.

And I almost always paint my journal pages with left over paint.

My creative process, part one

The challenge for my fiber arts group this month is “Organized Chaos”. I had a 9x12 journal quilt I had made last year but not quite finished. The quilt was made from painted tissue paper, fused to felt and then densely quilted. The colors were pleasing, the quilting was good, but it had no focal point, so I decided to work with it. My idea was to paint it, then cut it up and reconstruct it.

The quilt had no binding, so I used a chunky thread and did a double blanket stitch on my machine.

Next I painted one side of it, and flipped it over to paint the other side.

I flipped it again in order to blend the colors, and one of those serendipitous moments occurred. The pattern made by the side I painted first was a beautiful mono print.

I quickly grabbed some black fabric and made two prints.

Part two tomorrow…

Finished!

Before we went to Israel, I cleaned out my studio and set aside some projects to finish or discard after our return. Today is the first concentrated time I have had since our return, and I got a lot done. One of my accomplishments was finishing the binding on this paper stitch project I made many years ago. The daylily parts were from a Phil Beaver workshop I took in French Lick, Indiana about six years ago. We learned how to paint the fabric and I cut out the petals and shaded them. For three years I just had the parts of the daylily. Three years later when my fiber arts group issued a monthly challenge for quilt in a complementary color scheme, I made the stitch paper background and fused the petals to the background. I quilted it, but never bound it. Today, I finished it! It is ready to hang.

Happy New Year

The New York Public Library has thousands of digital images, including these charming Happy New Year cards.

The images from the NYPL are a mixed bag of copyrights. You may use them for personal use, but not commercial. That said, there are some images that you need permission even to display on your website or in non-commercial art.