coming soon studio tour

Pet Quilts

I don’t know when I started doing this, but I make a small sample quilt whenever I get ready to quilt a bed size quilt. I use fabric scraps and put it together randomly just so I have most of the fabrics I have used. I make a quilt sandwich it just like the big one using the same batting and backing. I then use this sample quilt to try out quilting motifs and thread colors. I also use it to check thread tension and quilt on it for a minute or two after I have oiled my machine so I don’t get oil on my large quilt. It is never a masterpiece, just a practice piece. After I have quilted it, I serge the edges. Then it is ready to give to the recipient for their pet. If they don’t have a pet, I give it to my daughter who works at a cat shelter.

Don’t tell the bride, this is a the pet quilt for the quilt I have been working on since last January. The couple married in April. I hope I’ll have it completed by cold weather.

Iraqi Bundles of Love

I found out about this program just as I was going through the last of my mother’s sewing notions. When I added some fabric of my own that was just taking up space on the shelf, I put together two boxes for Iraqi women to use in sewing projects. The people at the Sew, Mama, Sew website put together 161 boxes. I think my mother would be pleased.

Laughter amidst the grief

Many of you know that my mother became ill in July and died five weeks later. My sister and I have begun the task of cleaning out her apartment. The work is not physically hard, but every item we touch has an emotional impact. While looking through a box labeled "papers" I found this note I wrote when I was eight years old. It made me laugh in ways that I so needed.

I remember the event that prompted the note. I had misbehaved and had been sent to bed without dinner. I can remember being hungry and angry. Can't you just see the fingers gripping the pencil to write the note?

My starvation became part of family lore, but I had no idea that the actual note existed. What a treasure!

Calligrafun

My mother has been ill and I’ve been spending a lot of time in hospitals, nursing homes and now hospice, but one thing has kept me going throughout the process, Martha Lever's online Calligrafun class. I’ve just been able to watch two of the five videos, and have not had a lot of time to practice, but I decided to make a project. Since my Mother has always gone by her middle name instead of her first name, I made a name plate for her door. Now everyone calls her Carter instead of her medical chart name. This doodling is so much fun!

Art Camp in Progress

we are still having lots of fun, and the books are beginning to take shape.

 

Their creativity is apparent as they try new techniques

Sunprints

Tooling and coloring metal foil

 

Arranging images

 

Most of the wet work is done, and we will begin lettering and embellishing next week.

Our first transplanted bloom

Three years ago we a home in Indiana and moved to Florida. We had a collection of exotic daylilies which we dug up before listing the house and transplanted to Tom’s sister’s yard in Kentucky. Having made a place for them in our Florida landscape, we divided them on a recent trip to Kentucky and brought them home with us. Here is our first bloom. Since we cut them back so much to transplant them we didn’t expect any blooms this year.

sewing camp day 3

The final day BJ worked mostly on her own. We spent part of the morning making fleece chicks

then she cut out and assembled another pair of shorts (this time with a much better fit)

After lunch we took a beach break. We swam to the sandbar and gathered shells. We had a great time and left just before the rain.

During any down time, BJ worked on making more fish placemats, and by 9pm, the sewing room was picked up, the machine cleaned, and the graduate posed with her creations.

She’s leaving tomorrow at 5:30 am, but not before giving me a gift of this fantastic bead and button bracelet.

Many thanks to Tom who fixed many of meals and washed all the dishes.

sewing camp day 2

Today we started the day with a trip to the fabric store to take advantage of their super Fourth of July Sale. BJ saved over 60% on notions today!

We came home and started cutting out her shorts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The project hit a few snags, but she’s becoming adept with the seam ripper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here they are ready to finalize fit and hem.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ta Da! Another completed project. We cut out fleece chicks this afternoon, and will work on those after our break.

Biking this morning, and swimming this afternoon. Maybe more sewing tonight, maybe a movie. Maybe both!

sewing camp

BJ arrived today, to learn to sew. She had never touched a machine before, but has been  very willing student. As soon as she figured out where the presser foot and the foot pedal were, she started sewing. We’ll get to all the technical things later. 

 

 

 

 

Right here she’s working on a flip and sew placemat

 

Oops…every sewer needs to learn how to use a seam ripper..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Almost finished

 

A little paint to give her fish placemat a personality. Isn’t it great?

 

Tonight we went to the fabric store and purchased fabric for tomorrow's project.

sewing with my sister

Last week my sister asked me to come over and help her get started on a sewing project. She is making loungewear for herself, me and our other sister. The kimona fabric is a beautiful Japanese themed print that our mother purchased for us several years ago. Like many sewing projects, after the initial excitement of the purchase of pattern and fabric, it has to lie dormant for a long time. But last week we got started. We had a great day reminising about previous adventures in sewing, marveled at the sound that scissors make when cutting out fabric on a table, and just enjoyed each other's company.

Visit to Lake Woodruff

We were planning to go to Merritt Island national wildlife refuge on Thursday, but its main drive is closed for paving until mid-July, so we went to Lake Woodruff wild life refuge instead. Tom's shoulder is now healed enough to carry his new camera. I expected it to be hot, muggy and mosquitoey, but it was beautiful. There was a constant breeze eliminating the mosquitoes and providing relief from the heat. We've had lots of rain, so the trail was muddy.

We went in the late afternoon hoping to see lots of wading birds, but none were close enough to photograph. We actually saw more wading birds in the puddles at the service station before we got on the interstate.

But we did see some wildlife, alligators, rabbits, red wing blackbirds, many small birds protecting nests, lots of beautiful and varied dragonflies, and a huge colony of vultures. The sounds of the birds and frogs was delightful. We'll go back another day in the winter and look for the whooping cranes that nest here in the winter.

The vistas were so beautiful, marshlands, hardwood hammocks, and palm trees.

Tom cleaned our shoes

when we arrived home.

God Rested

How do you picture "God rested"? It's an abstract thought, and everything else in the book except the cover was very straight forward. The book has a whimsical feel to it, so I found a public clipart image and used it as a pattern with a piece of hand dyed fabric. For the background. I painted it nickel azo gold, let it dry, then added green swirls with a rubber stamp and Tsukineko markers. If I were doing it over, I would use a lighter or more transparent paint for the swirls. Then I attached the chair using gel medium. After it dried, I added the text. Then I put another layer of gel medium and while it was still wet, used a swirly rubber stamp sheet to give it texture. I love how this texture adds a subtle layer of interest. Paper for the chair would be easier to handle than the fabric with the gel medium.

To view another canvas book check out Judy Coates Perez Website

fish and birds

This page took a lot of time because I just couldn't find the right images to use. I was thinking about using Sophie Nicholson's peacock image, on transfer art paper, but my printer ran out of ink in the middle of the job, spoiling the paper. So I found some wrapping paper with stylized fish and drew some birds freehand to mimic the style of the wrapping paper. I used Tsukineko fabric markers to color the birds and my favorite drawing pen, the Pitt artist fine point pen. The background was painted with Jacquard Lumiere citrine paint and a textured tissue paper was applied. After it was dry, I used white glue to attach the pictures. I added the text with the Pitt artist pen, then covered the whole project in gel medium and while it was still wet used rubber stamp sheets to give it texture.

Sun and moon

I purchased a metal tooling kit from Walnut Hill at the quilt show in Chicago and was looking for a way to try it.

I drew the sun and moon freehand with the tools included in the kit. To color it I used alcohol inks, but when I teach the class, I think I will use colored Sharpies. They are much easier to control. I used white glue to adhere them to the canvas which had been painted with Lumiere pearl blue. I added the text with a white signo pen.

Next time I'll experiment with a different method of adhering the foil to the fabric. For now it is holding, but I'd like more definition on the edges.

Red on the Porch

I'm not the only one who has been painting. When we originally decorated our lanai, we found a big fiberglass urn at a garden store. Over the years it had faded and become dull. We tried using car wax on it, but that was a mistake. Last week, our old porch umbrella finally died, and we replaced it with a red one. Tom painted the urn, and we are getting used to its bright color. I'm thinking of ways to tackify it with acrylic paints, but something tells me to leave well enough alone.

humans and animals

This is still a work in progress. I knew I wanted to use a freezer paper mask to create the paper dolls, so I painted the background in nickel azo gold (Golden fluid acrylic) and then ironed the freezer paper on the canvas after it dried. Then I sponged green paint on, did some rubber stamping with a darker green and added red dots. What else?

let there be plants and trees

I think this was my favorite part of the book. Since I was using Liquitex modeling paste, I did a sample on a separate piece of canvas. I painted the canvas with Golden nickel azo gold fluid acrylic (my favorite acrylics). After that was dry, I mixed the same color fluid acrylic with the modeling paste and spread it on the canvas. Using a stylus (actually I used a porcupine quill) I drew the tree shape. While it was still wet, I added burnt sienna fluid acrylic to give the drawn lines color. It took about 15 hours to dry. After it dried, I sponged various shades of green on for the leaves. I liked the sample so much, I decided to use it. Since it was not attached to the book, I sewed it in using embroidery floss. You can faintly see the back of the stitching on the seas and skies page. I added a tag with a scripture from Isaiah "and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands".

Dividing the sea and sky

For this one, I mixed Lumiere pearl blue with gloss heavy gel meduim and painted the seas. While it was still wet, I crumpled up a piece of plastic wrap and dabbed it on the wet paint to give dimension to the waters. To the leftover dark blue paint, I added pearl white and painted the skies. After this was dry, I used gesso to further define the separation between the two elements and give a spot for writing the text. I dry brushed the water with pearl white. When the sky was dry, I applied xpandaprint paint and puffed it up with a heat gun. The xpandaprint was expensive, and I had to order it. I tested it against Tulip puffy paint, and found no difference when they were applied wet and immediately heated with a heat gun.

Let there be light

When I painted the front cover black, it bled through to the next page, so I used white gesso to block it. Then I used some Thesaurus text about light, and torn tissue paper, adhering it with white glue. After it dried, I covered in gel medium and then I used a chunky Sharpie to write the bold text. I added a tag with a scripture from the first chapter of John about the nature of the light.

Creation Book

In July I'll be teaching a mixed media adult art camp at my church on three Wednesdays. I've had so much fun putting together a canvas book for the class sample.

The first image is the cover page. I used a freezer paper mask in a spiral shape and sponged on paint then dotted on colors with the end of a paintbrush. After it was dry, I removed the freezer paper and used a white signo pen from uniball to add the text in the area that had been masked. love that pen!

The string on the left side of the image is a tag from the next page.