New Work, May 2012

This is a post about what I have completed since the first of the year.  I usually have several pieces going at any moment, and I tend to wait until I have a few pieces to quilt before I switch the machine over.  Even if I practice before I start on a quilt, I find that my stitching gets better if I do several in succession. My intent was to enter them in the Crab Festival Art Show, but here I sit with no way to deliver them, or pick them up on Sunday, so they will wait for another day to be shown in public, but I will show them here. I broke my ankle a month ago, and although I expected to be on the mend by now, that is not the case, and I am still not able to drive.

Crab
14" x 12 1/2"

This quilt actually came after the one that follows.  I ended up with more of the border squares after I had tried out some different layouts, and I had one more of the crab prints from a print session last Fall.  The quilting on this one is very simple, but I like it.

The King
20" x 15"

This is the first of these King Crab quilts that I started.  I tried a few different settings for the border squares before I finally settled on this.  I wanted to have room for quilting on the border.  You can see the quilting in the close-up picture that follows.

Three Kings
34 1/2" x 19 1/2"

I wish that I had used a heavier thread.  This was done with trilobal polyester variegated thread, which I love.  I am trying to be more bold with my machine quilting.  This light weight thread is great for texture, but I would have liked to have seen a bolder line here. I just ordered a set of Sulky Blendables-30 wt.  It was spendy, but now I know I have all the colors.  I have a problem remembering what I have when I order thread!

Three Kings closeup

There are two red quilts in this batch of work.  I was just having too much fun with the rich reds, and I probably overcut as I often do when i am working on a strip piece.  The idea was to put cross strips in as I built the strip pieced fabric.

Reeds
23 3/4" x 16 1/2"

Reeds-fish closeup

Reeds-border closeup

I am still stuck in the red zone with this next piece but it is the accent fabric.  On this piece the goal  was to build the stripped fabric around the prints-very improvisationally.  There were a few times that the plan shifted-to get it all sewn together.

The River
24 1/2 x 34"

This last quilt is probably my favorite in this grouping.  This piece started with two fairly large pieces of stripped fabric.  I then cut panels from each, offsetting the strips in opposite directions to get the zigzag effect in the background.  This piece hung on my wall, with freezer paper depicting the circles for a long time.  The fish were not tightly packed enough on the original piece of fabric, so I added some fish. You can see before and after in this post: http://sallysartquilts.blogspot.com/2012_03_01_archive.html.

Streamside
34 3/4 x 13 1/2

It took me a long time to get the color of the ink correct that day.  For some reason, I thought that I had used more blue ink, so I had to do alot of printing to use up all the ink I had out!  I was pleased with the addition of more fish.  

Streamside closeup

I faced both of the red quilts, rather than applying borders as I normally do.  It is a good option that I have never before utilized.  Sometimes you want that extra bit of color that the binding can provide, but as these pieces show, sometimes you don't. 

Streamside back

All of these quilts started with prints that I did from my own handcarved stamps on fabric that I dyed.  I love handdyed fabric, but I also love the combinations you can achieve from commercial prints-texture, texture, texture!

Repurposed tablecloths

I had these three tablecloths that were destined to be disposed of when we start packing up our house sometime soon.  I had dye left in the refrigerator from dying the fabric for Kristin's wedding flags, so I decided to dye these tableclothes and see if there was anything worth keeping.  This one I really like alot, and the light colored areas were a surprise although I did suspect that part wasn't cotton. 

Closeup

napkins

 This one turned out wild and crazy but I like it.  If I decide it is too much for the table I have some ideas for cutting it up and using it in quilts.

 I was going for a gradation on this one-dark in the center to light on the edges, but it wasn't working so I did some rubber band binding and overdyed in Cerulean blue.  It is still green in the center, but the edges blend better than they did after the first dye bath.

I did the quilting on this piece today.  I used heavier thread than I normally quilt with and am happy with the results.  You can see a closeup of the stitching below.  The water was stitched with Signature variegated quilting thread-40 wt, I believe. The red section was stitched with Sulky Blendables, 30 wt. Unfortunately, I don't have many spools of heavier thread, but I have lots of trilobal polyester!  Oh joy, another thing I need to collect!

   

So, now I am down to one more piece that needs quilting.  Although it has not been a joyride fracturing my ankle, I would never have gotten these 6 pieces quilted.  Bindings, labels and sleeves and they are done.  Oh yeah-naming the, too. I don't enjoy naming my quilts!

Truckies Prayer Flags for Darlene

When I got off the plane last night, my grandson Truckie, met me at the airport with his bag packed to come spend the night at my house.  We got up this morning and he printed his flags for his Grandma Darlene.  Unfortunately, the phone started to ring and I was not as attentive as I would have liked, but he did a pretty good job on his own-aside from the upside down HOME.  We decided to go with it-it will give Darlene a laugh!  My friend, Ron, had a stroke a couple of days ago, so while we had the stuff out, I printed a set of flags for him, as well.  Truckie used fabric paints, so they are dry.  I used oil based ink, so mine need to dry for a couple of days.  Then I will post a picture.

Prayer Flag for Darlene

My daughter-in-laws Mother has been ill since last Christmas.  In fact, she has been away from home, on Kodiak Island, in Seattle for treatment since then.  She has been on my mind alot lately.  Although Alexandria is working on a project that I am going to take part in(don't want to give it away if it is a secret), I wanted to do something.  I read about The Prayer Flag Project on jane LaFazio's blog.  Last night when I came home from work at 10 pm, I grabbed a beer and headed for the studio, if that is what you want to call my closet down in the dungeon(but that is a story for another day).  A prayer flag was not my intent but that is where I eventually ended up.  Obviously, I did not read any instructions, since my flag is much larger than it should be, but it is what it is.  I think that this first flag of mine is about 12" x 18".  Smaller will be much less consuming, but this is the size the elements I wanted to use required.  My prayer is for Darlene to return home soon.  Her family is here.  We live on an island in the North Pacific where salmon is a huge part of the culture.  Salmon return home to spawn, so i wanted them as an element in my flag.  I had some wooden letters that I glued to a piece of mat board and covered it with matte medium before I left for work so when I got home tonight it was dry and ready to print.  I am not totally satisfied with the print job-it is a bit splochy, but adequate for this project.  I enjoyed the hand embroidery alot.  I worked on it on the down times at work today.  I mostly sew beads by hand-thread is nice.  You don't have to pick up a bead with every stitch. 

Anyway, back to my point.  I think it would be awesome if, upon awakening after her surgery next month, if there was a string of prayer flags to greet Darlene.  Then she can hang them outside her house in Seattle, and all the good will and love in the creation of these flags will bring her peace, love and home to her family. 

 You can look at Jane Lafazio's blog and see her wonderful flags here: http://janeville.blogspot.com/2011/07/prayer-flags-5-6.html. 

Here is a tutorial:

http://theprayerflagproject.blogspot.com/p/tutorial.html

And here is the main page of the Prayer Flag Project:

http://theprayerflagproject.blogspot.com/

Like I said, I got a bit out of had with this first flag of mine.  The size is 5" x 8", and they are to be completed in an hour.  Anyone interested?

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.

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 King Salmon

 I worked some more with my salmon today.  I had a few more pieces of fabric to print, and then I added words.  I am really excited about the very long piece.  Above you can see them all on my design wall, drying.  I am using an oil based ink, so it takes a long time to dry.