First stitch paper project

I meet once a month with a bunch of wonderful fiber and mixed media artists, and we are challenged each month to make a project based on a theme. October's theme is "Fright Night". I started to think about what a "Fright Night" is for me and how to use the stitch paper techniques I have been playing with for the last three weeks.

Long ago, I had a lapse in my formal education. My family moved when I started the third grade and I went to the school in our new neighborhood. We had a teacher for about the first six weeks, then she left, and we never had another regular teacher again. My mother says there was a long string of substitutes including the school custodian and parents willing to come in and help out. Consequently, I didn't learn much that year. My parents then sent me to a private school for fourth, fifth and part of sixth grade. I loved this school. There were only about 50 students in the whole school, first grade through twelfth. So there was a lot of mingling. I must have had some regular classes with my grade, but I remember sitting in on a lot of high school English and History classes. I was behind in math, having missed out on multiplication and division the previous year, so I just didn't go to math class. For some reason, no one seemed to mind.

In the middle of sixth grade my parents realized that my sister and I were not getting the education they were paying for. We transferred to a school in our old neighborhood, and I was happy because I was around all my old friends again. However, I was woefully behind in math. I had multiplication and division tables to learn, the concept of the decimal point, fractions, long division, story problems. I developed a bad case of math anxiety. Eventually I caught up, but I never got over the fear of math tests. My interpretation of Fright Night; it's the night before the trig test. The ghost is made of stitch paper using pages from a trigonometry textbook.

addicted to making stitch paper

This may show up on a family valentine next year.

For this piece of stitch paper, I added color as I glued the papers to the fabric. I ran out of glue today, but I'll be back in business tomorrow. I need a bunch of sheets completed by the time we start week 2 of the book study. I'll do more to this piece as I am inspired.

more stitch paper

This one was made with a world map, security envelopes and assorted tissue papers

This one was made with raffia, pattern tissue and tea bag papers. Can't wait to see how this looks when paint is added.

stitch paper

Today I cleaned my studio enough to play with fabric, papers and glue. I’ve joined mixed media art friends on Yahoo, and we are doing a book study of Kelli Nina Perkins book, Stitch Alchemy.

I made four sheets of the basic paper, and put them out on the porch to dry. Next week we will paint them. Can’t wait. I may have to make some more between now and then so I’ll have plenty to play with. These sheets are about 15”x20”.

For this one I used security envelopes, pattern tissue, church bulletin, origami paper and a French dictionary.

This was the lining from a greeting card envelope, tissue paper and some dictionary text and pattern tissue

Wedding quilt

It’s done. The bride and groom married in April, just as warm weather arrived in Florida, so I had the summer to finish their queen sized quilt. A cold front is moving in this week, so maybe it will get cool enough to bundle up.

The couple has two poodles, so I couldn’t resist putting a poodle in each of the corners.

here’s another detail

and a motif from the church

Studio Tour

I use a spare bedroom for my studio, but the space often has to serve other purposes such as a guest room, staging room for parties, and most recently storage of items from my mother’s apartment.

The sewing area has my machine and cabinet, plastic drawers for threads and notions and my design wall. It is thick styrofoam insulation that my husband bolted to the wall. I covered it with a piece of cotton batting. The project on the wall is now a set of placemats. My sister found a vintage Mexican tablecloth that was in bad shape, but many of the images could be salvaged.



Behind my machine is one of my storage areas. The red tool chest came from a hardware store. It stores many of my small paint jars and drawing tools. My parents' vintage leather luggage is on top. I keep my button and bead collections in them.


Next to the bookcases is my work table. I use it for everything, just changing the cover as needed. I use it as an ironing board, a cutting table, and a surface for painting and design. Although not pictured, I have four plastic drawer units below the table that I can roll around as needed.

I took out the closet hardware and installed shelving. Normally the curtains are open so I can see what’s in there, but when I want to neaten things up, I close the curtains.

Last year two friends came and stayed with with me for a week. I was able to set up two extra sewing stations. The room was tight, but we had a lot of fun.

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