Island Girl

Another 6" x 8" piece completed.  I put this on the bed of my scanner rather than taking a photo.  Maybe better for small pieces.  This girl is modest-the vine covers her private parts.  I love this image-the only female petroglyph found on Kodiak Island.

New Beads!!

many colors of Size 6 seed beeds, a few size 11 seed beads, and size 2 and 3 bugle beads.

Lots of different sizes and shapes of leaves.

Lots of flowers!

SAQA auction quilt complete!

My SAQA auction quilt is complete and in the mail.  It is called Homeward Bound and is 12" x 12".  The auction is held online in September and supports a wonderful organization.

The fabric was dyed wrapped, tied and scrunched around a piece of rope.  Then I printed with a wine cork stamp and textile paint.  The fish were printed using Daniel Smith relief printing inks.  Next I quilted, then added bias strip and bead embellishments.  Below you can see a closeup.

New Stuff!

Last weekend my quilt guild had a fabric sale.  A beloved member left her stass to the guild when she died last year.  I knew there would be quilt backing sized fabric so I strenuously encoucouraged my Daughter-in-law to go, but I figured it would be alot of older fabric and stuff for more traditional quilts than I make.  She called from there I said i had to go, so I got ready and went to look at what they had to offer.  After all, it was only $2 a yard.  The picture above shows what I got for $60.  Like I suspected, I bought some favorite fabrics from the past.

 Yesterday I went in search of fusibles.  I went to three shops and bought 4 different types of fusibles-wonder under, transweb, misty fuse and one other.  Of course, I purchased a few yards of fabric-have to bolster the local economy.

Yesterday, I also received orders from Dick Blick and Prochemical.  A variety of transparent paints, thiox, an Indigo dye kit, molding mats and stamps, tjantings and brushes and a sponge.  Fun stuff.  I seriously have to stop, though!  I have an order from Hancocks and one from Interweave on the way as well.

These are some of my bird stamps.  i spoke earlier about how I didn't think the style of my Mamma bird was similar to the baby bird so i carved a new one.  Better, I think.  Another picture follows.

I love my Kingfisher!!  I haven't had time to print him yet. 

My new carving of a Golden Crowned Sparrow.

Progress

It is amazing what progress I can make in a short amount of time when the first thing that happens in the morning is receiving a phone call from my husband, Nick, not so delicately reminding me that I have invoices to get out! Anyway, this is what I did today.

quilted piece



Closeup of quilting

Perhaps something like this is where I go next.

And I did get the invoicing done!

More Current Work

Two more small quilts that I have completed recently.  I usually don't put words on my quilts, but, as I was carving the fish stamps, I was thinking about why all the great things are considered male. So, I was driven to carve some words from erasers.  I have some other prints that I used different combinations of the words, but have gotten no further than that.  The second picture is a recuction print I made in a workshop with a local printmaker, Lix Mitchell.  Unfortunately, we used Speedball ink, which is not at all permanent.  I was the only participant working on fabric.  I had textile medium with me, which is the really stupid part.  This print skipped the first stage of the reduction print because I liked the look of the hand dyed fabric.  Also, three layers of ink was too much.  I have yet to try to stitch through one of those.  Also, after the first of these pieces, I sprayed the rest of the prints with something to make them permanent-can't recall what the product was, at the moment.

You can see what I worked on today here:

http://sallysartquilts.blogspot.com/2011/06/progress.html.

More printing and small quilts

As I said in my last post, I have been making some small quilts from the prints I made but had not had time to photograph them.  Here they are.  I really like these terns that I added to the mountain print.  This piece has potential.

 The two versions of terns that I have carved.  As you can see, the style is quite different and the scale is too similar.  Try again!

 I just started cutting and adding strips to this salmon print.  I like it so far, but we will see where it goes from here.  Below are some of the small quilts that I have completed-all done except for titles and labels.

 I thought this was a great idea, but now I am not so sure.  The small piece is just pinned at this point.  I am thinking.

 This is the piece I did after the Vicki Pignatelli class.  It still needs edging.  I didn't like what I did in the class at all.  When I got home and put it on my design wall, I could see the glaring errors and didn't like the piece enough to take it apart and fix it.  So I went on and made this.  The technique has potential.

I guess I tend to go totally overboard when I get out the inks to print.  Then I have all these little pieces that I feel compelled to carry on with.  I learn something new with each piece and my quilting is ever improving if I just keep at it.  These little print pieces are great for practice and to keep me working when time is a premium and I can't be working on something more ambitious.  Two more quilts that need to be quilted.

I spent the morning printing today. The first two phots show my King Salmon stamp. First I printed with fabric paint and some wine cork stamps that I made, then printed the fish with Daniel Smith ink.

 

 I was so excited to finally have these three bird stamp done and ready to use together-last summer my husband put a piece of plywood covered with bird seed on our deck and these three birds were regular visitors.  I carved the blocks over the course of several months and, as you can clearly see, my style of carving changed dramatically.  So much so that the three stamps won't work together.  Perhaps the chickadee and baby bird, but not the large sparrow.  I guess I carve another one!

 These last two still have the background on them-as with the others, the ultimate goal is the single image, but my printmaker friends have encouraged me to do an edition with the background.  My backgrounds are getting better!  I have a really hard time not carving them away!  I cut much too deeply.  Anyway, I can see a vbast improvement in my carving with these last blocks.

I have been making little quilts out of the prints I made a few months ago, but have not photographed any of them yet.

Fun with Callista and Truckie

Callista's jellyfish

A few nights ago, my 9 year old grandkids, Truxton and Callista spent the night.  This is what we did.  They drew pictures on fabric with Fabric pastels, which were then heat set.  I will quilt the pictures for them, then they will add beads, buttons, whatever.


Truckie's shark



This is what I worked on this week.  I have been working with my prints, trying to think of new ways to finish them and have been feeling in a rut.  I dyed this fabric last summer.  It was two pieces.  I just started cutting pieces and laying it out on the wall.  It was a fun exercise and I like what I have so far.