A long busy Fall and early Winter

Well I think I owe my blog an apology for neglecting it for so long.  I'm sorry blog!!
Studio Tour was a success.  Sold lots of quilts and had lots of fun.

Then the Hill 'n Hollow Quilt Show in October.  Great fun.  I actually got several ribbons and was surprised that the judge liked my quilts as much as she did.  It is gratifying to be recognized by someone out of my normal ballpark of acquaintances.

And then I just plain stopped quilting.  Haven't touched my sewing machine since late August.  I think that I worked so hard on quilts for the museum show then the studio tour then the quilt show - that I was just worn out creatively.

So instead I have been filling my well of inspiration with on-line classes.  Classes in painting faces.  With acrylic and watercolor.  And learning a LOT about shading - things I had heard but had never really understood.

Taking classes in an area where you are a complete stranger - and a bit of a klutz - is really scary!!  Really really really scary!!!  I am used to creating in my own little backyard of skills - knowing what I am doing - not really taking serious jumps into new experiments - and was surprised at how Fear of Failure kept bubbling up.

Luckily the on-line teachers I found were marvelous and I found my way and learned new things.  The next question is will I be able to apply this new information to my quilting?  I don't really know the answer to that........

Learning Flow with Jenny Grant

 I have signed up with several groups of artists and periodically they link to free classes by different artists who create with a variety of techniques.  This project was a free class by Jenny Grant.  She is a wonderful artist and I love her work.

This project was done on an 8x10 canvas board.  It started with collage and then paint and then stamps and then drawing the face and then painting the face and then adding texture paste at the top.  WHEW!!!!

A lot of techniques in a small space.  The face is like her sample and it turned out to be pretty striking - very peaceful and meditative.  People react very positively to it.

The thing that I learned is to be BOLD with the contrast between the light and dark in the face.

I liked the free class so much that I purchased a set of her classes focusing on a variety of methods to create faces.

This is my attempt using the same basic techniques as the first one but with my own drawing.  It is OK but I liked the first one better.

This is done on watercolor paper and it is surprising how much wet stuff that paper allows.

And this is another one of the techniques.  You trace a face from a magazine and then paint it.  Boy did I run into problems with this one.  And learned a huge amount when I got stuck in some ugly places but kept working to find my way.

This one is actually more MY style and not Jenny's style.  Which is a good thing I guess.  I want to find ME - not just copy another artist that I like.  I still have one more technique of hers to try.  Maybe soon......

Abstracts with Emma Pettit

A completely different class.  The Raw of Silence with Emma Pettit on Jeanne Oliver's site.

Let me start by saying that Jeanne Oliver has the greatest collection of on-line art courses imaginable.  I have taken several and am always impressed by the quality of her teachers.  Check  it out!

So this class was a real stretch for me.  It is about painting abstract portraits.  I am NOT an abstract artist.  I don't even think in abstract ways.  I am super concrete and detailed. Wow oh Wow was this different.

But I learned HUGE amounts.  Like trusting the process.  Believing on my very own self.  Allowing creations to go thru many stages.

The first class used a large 18x24 watercolor sheet divided by tape strips.  You paint with wild abandon all over all of the sheets.  And make marks.  It felt crazy.  It is the opposite of everything that I do with fabric!

What you end up with is a cohesive group of backgrounds to paint over.  Yup.  After all that work to paint these designs that you like - you are going to cover them up.  Oh my.

 There is a photo of a lovely young lady to work from.  But you are not supposed to try to make it look like a photo of her - but instead you try to make it an abstract representation based on her photo.

This is my attempt.  Wait till you see what happens next!

On the second square you sort of let go of the initial image and just stretch to be more abstract.  The goal is to open up and capture general shapes and shadows.

So the pretty lady does not look like a lady at all.

Can you see bits of the original background painting showing around the face?  I like that part of using acrylics.

And here are the other two drawings from this set.  The one on the left is my effort to get very abstract and let go of a realistic representation and sort of go with the flow.

I actually sort of like this individual.  I wouldn't want to bump into him in a dark alley...... but he is interesting.

The one of the right was even more abstract - losing definition in the eyes.  My least favorite.

Next Abstract Challenge

Continuing with the abstract class......

This is a large painting - about 20x24".  HUGE for me.  It started with a very complex background painting.  Look at the swimsuit and you will see what the background painting looked like.  It covered the entire page.

So here is the trick that I learned.  You do the background and then you look at a photo of a person and then you draw a very simple sketchy outline - abstracted of course (in this case shifting the angles and size of the shoulders and hips) and THEN you start to paint around the outlined shape.

And, as you start to paint, the figure sort of pops out of the background.  Then of course I had to add paint to differentiate between the swimsuit and the skin.

It is really fun and almost magical the way it works out.  I want to try it again. You can see the background showing thru at the edges of the painting and the finished painting looks so much more complex than it would have if I had just painted plain paint colors.

How can I apply this to my quilting?  Do I even NEED to or WANT to?  I'm not sure.  Maybe this is another thing that I will do in  addition to quilting.  Maybe not. 

Do I Look Like That???

Next abstract class challenge -----

A self portrait.  A LARGE self portrait.  Oh my goodness.  How scary.  This is 19x24".  Which means that you need to use larger paint brushes.  Yikes.

The assignment was to take a selfie and use that as a model but not try to be photo-realistic.  So.... I tried to be very brave and this is what my self portrait looks like.

When I finished and stood back I was shocked and somewhat horrified.  The question that came to mind was "OH my.  Is that what I really look like to other people?"

I realized that when I look in the mirror I see myself as about 20 years younger (and less wrinkled and less OLD looking) than I really am.  Oy vey!  What a shock.

BUT - that said - the portrait turned out better that I thought it would.  It looks like a person.  It has shapes and contrast.  And it really does look sort of like me.

Wild Backgrounds Add Depth

Next abstract class......

Another large portrait.  Again starting with a very complicated and layered background.  You can see all the mishmosh of colors and squiggles with just the sketch peeking thru.

The challenge for this one - in addition to being a portrait - was that there is a hand in the photo.  And you are supposed to paint the darn hand.

Well.  If you thought noses were hard to paint (which they are) you need to really stretch your imagination to think about painting a hand.  Goodness.  I almost decided to paint the rest and skip the hand.

Then I thought - what the heck!  If it is horrible I can just throw it away.  Who will know?

This is how it turned out.  The hand is not good.  It looks like sausages.  BUT I am going to go back and work on it some more.  It needs knuckles and maybe a larger palm.

Do you think that I am brave for posting this photo when I am not satisfied with the end result?  It feels very brave.

I do think the face turned out pretty good.  I am getting braver about shading.

And look at how amazing that wacky background makes the finished painting look.  It really does add a lot.

Watercolor Animals

So I took a break from the abstract class and switched gears completely.  This is a watercolor class.  I know nothing nothing nothing about how to use watercolors.

The teacher is Lexi Grenzer and the class is Less Is More: Watercolor Animals.  Another good teacher from Jeanne Oliver's site.

She teaches several ways to get the background sketch for the animal on the page - and then starts to show you how to layer watercolors.

This little guy turned out sort of - but looks very flat.  I do like his ears and his nose and his eyes.  But he needs more of a neck or something.  I do think that I will try to paint him again.  

Once again I am aware that a lot of basic things that others know are simply not part of my knowledge base - and they make me struggle with simple things.  But the struggle is definitely a learning process which, when I am not feeling tortured, makes me happy.

There are several other animals in this course - a tiny baby chick, a duck and and a cow.  I'm not quite ready to try them yet - but maybe when the weather gets cold in January it will be a nice break.

Off the Beaten Path Studio Tour 2019

Well the date has finally arrived!  And everything is ready to go.

This is the 5th time that I will be on tour.  I was also part of the tour in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2017.
I am definitely less nervous than I was the first couple of times.  In part because I have more confidence in what I create. 

My favorite part of tour is watching people react to my quilts.  And talking to them about the process of coming up with ideas.  I always have a display of drawings and collages that I have created over the year and have used as design inspiration for quilts.  Sometimes seeing those things helps folks to imagine creating original designs themselves.  And that is a very good thing.

I will probably have some stories to share after the tour - so watch this spot!

Petite Portraits

This is an entirely new and different thing for me.  But it is part of my never-ending quest to
learn how to draw faces.

An online class that I took made such a difference in my entire approach.  Instead of drawing a head shape and then adding the features, you draw a vague eye shape first, then the second eye, then just the tip of the nose and the nostrils, the mouth, and THEN you draw the head shape around the features.

I was amazed how well this worked.  Maybe I was able to be brave enough to try this new approach because I have taken SO many classes on line about the subject.  Or maybe it just works better with my particular brain.  Anyway - the faces look so much better than any I had drawn before.

So here are the different stages of these particular little face drawings.....  the first one looks sort of spooky!

The first stage uses a water soluble Stabilo pencil.  Then a paintbrush with water to make the initial shadows that serve as a base.

Eyeballs are certainly important aren't they?  As evidenced by the lack of eyeballs......

Still no eyeballs at this stage - but shading with watercolor paint.  I learned a lot about the flexibility of watercolor paint when it is used on watercolor paper that has a layer of gel medium on it.  Did you know that you can use the paintbrush to sort of erase the paint?  Really fun.

By the way - these are all painted on 4" x 6" paper.

Whew!  Now they have eyeballs.  MUCH better.  They don't look like robot zombies any more.

Details have been added with a regular pencil.  Also shading to emphasize the shadows of the face.

But they still don't look real.  Well OK if you follow my work - my faces are rarely totally realistic looking.  Especially the green and blue ones.  But you know what I mean......



Now they look better.  The last step was to add collage paper for "hair" around the faces and for the clothing.  And it really adds personality.

Here is the sort of strange part of this project.  I basically drew the same basic face for each one of these little people - but they develop distinct personalities by the time they are finished.

I have 30 of these little drawings that I am putting up for sale at Off the Beaten Path Studio Tour next weekend.  I am VERY curious to see how people react and what they think.

Inspired by Brian

 This past summer we went back to the suburbs of Chicago to celebrate my husband Bob's 80th birthday.  It was great fun and one of the hightlights was getting a chance to visit with my nephew Brian.  I hadn't had a talk with him in many years.

We talked a lot about some of the connections between Art and Music.  Brian is a musician and also composes wonderful music for his band.  We had a great time and it was nice to find a fellow artist in the family.

I told him about my blog (this one!) and he let me know that he really liked this collage that I had posted last year.  So I found it again and decided to make a couple of art quilts inspired by three of the characters.  Once you scroll down to see the quilts, see if you can find which collage characters inspired each one.

This is the first one.  I call it Smile.  I followed my usual path and used a black background in order to make the colors pop. 

But after this, the adventures began.....















 This is how the second quilt started out.  It was pretty far along - ready to attach the batting and backing and add quilting.  But then - a DISASTER.  Seriously.  LOTS of bad words in my studio that day.  Check out the red stripes on the right side of the quilt.  They are burned.

Here is a close up of the melted vinyl.  I used this great shiny vinyl fusible fabric because it looked soooo nice.  I had used the sparkly fusible fabric before and ironed it so I assumed the red vinyl would not mind the heat.

I was very very wrong.  The vinyl melted - on my iron - and at first I thought that the quilt was ruined and would have to be tossed out.
But I really liked the character.  So - how could I save the quilt?  I do like a challenge.

Check it out.  I cut all around the character and left a border of black so that I could attach it to a different background.  Then started the search for the perfect fabric.

And this is how the little gal looks once she was attached to a pretty yellow background.

So my disaster led me in a new direction - a non-black background!  And I love it!

And the character has a whole new personality - with rings around her pointy head.  I actually really like this little quilt.  She is very peaceful.

She is called "Find Your Light and Let It Shine"

And this is the third quilt from the collage at the top of this post.

His name is Mortimer.  I think he is charming.  The purple bits are sparkly - and yes they do not melt!  Whew!

But Mortimer started out the same way - on a black background.  You can tell from the black border surrounding him.  But he needed more space to breathe.

So Brian!  Thanks for the inspiration!  It led me in a new direction.  Great fun.

Ethereal Series

 There are times when I am just sort of floating around my studio wondering what new challenge I can find.  What can I dare myself to try that I have never been able to figure out before?

I looked at a painting I had done for a class that focused on vague figures with words all over their bodies.  I really liked the painting and had been wondering how to replicate the feeling in fabric.  So I dug around in my many drawers of supplies and found printed tissue paper.

Hmmmm.  It could have the right "look" but how could I use something as fragile as tissue on a quilt.  Last year I made a quilt of a face using paper napkins - so maybe the same technique would work.

And - it did!  Here is the first one of the series ------Ethereal:  Butterflies

I cut the tissue into scraps and collaged them into the person shape, fused that shape onto the background - and used water color paint to add enough color so they blended.  Then careful sewing to add the features.

Here is the second one ---- Ethereal:  Conversation

LOTS of embroidery and beading on all of these.

The third one is a little different ------ Ethereal:  Emerging

Three dimensional flowers growing out of the swampy watery background along with the creature.  I especially like his mask.

Not sure if I will continue on this path - but I may be able to use the technique with some others that I want to experiment with.

I did learn an important lesson with this series.  My previous quilts always have a background of a single fabric.  So it is all the same color - no lights and darks.  The first two quilts have definite dark and light areas - and that adds a LOT to the quilt.  So I need to find ways to include that in the future.

Bright and Colorful New Characters

This is Blossom.  She was inspired by a journal page that I made a while ago.  I am most comfortable working in a monochromatic color scheme so this was quite a stretch for me. 

I like getting outside of my comfort zone.  It leads me in such interesting new directions.

Meet Agatha.  She was a sample for a class at the museum.  I love the lips!

Hermione.  Another class sample.  A good example of a clever way to cut portions out of a conversational fabric and use them to decorate a face.  I once had a teacher whose nickname was Banana Nose.  Ohhhh kids are Mean!  Her name was NOT Hermione.

Sophie.  A rather sophisticated lady I think.  Another class sample.  The eyelashes are quite exotic - with french knots at the top of each eyelash.  And sparkly circles on her hat.  Lovely lady.

What Is Going On?

Wow it really HAS been a long time since I posted on this blog.  Six months.  Does that mean that I have been doing nothing interesting?  Nope.  Not by a long shot. 

I think I'll just give you a quickie overview of the last six months then post a bunch of photos of pieces recently finished - and then try to keep posting as more new projects get completed.

Calico Rock Museum - Six week quilt show in April and May!  And I was honored to take the lead in organizing three separate sections of the show - each featuring a different focus of quilting.  The name of the show was Quilting - An Evolving Fabric Art.  The first two weeks focused on the History of Traditional Quilting, the second weeks on New Tools of the 20th and 21st Centuries and the third weeks on Art Quilting and Modern Quilting.  Cathy Bennett and Marlene Gwaltney were the leaders for the first weeks.

Off the Beaten Path Studio Tour - coming up in 10 days.  This took most of my time and effort since January.  I did a lot of new creative and fun things and will post some photos.

Hill 'n Hollow Quilt Show - coming up in October.  I am entering nine quilts .... if they don't sell at the Studio Tour.  We will see.

Anyway - LOTS of thinking and planning and taking classes to learn new things.  Fun!

Another Group of Four

 Here is another little group of four collage faces.  No drawing to speak of - just paper cut to fit the idea.  I think this format appeals to me because each little space is so restricted and I have to squeeze my ideas into the space.

Two of them are now little 6" x 10" quilts.  It is not hard to work in that size but it is also not especially easy.  The print of the fabric must be small enough to "read" as a solid. 

And have you noticed that I have stopped working with a black background?  A BIG jump in a new direction for me.  I actually had to go buy some plain fabrics for the backgrounds of the little quilts.

Here they are:  





First a little guy.  Not a precise replica of course because he is made from fabric not paper.  But I like the strange color combination.
















And I think the one is a girl.   Her eyelashes are two colors of Sassy Thread hand stitched together.  Very exotic.

And yes, I know, my little creations aren't exactly "people" but they do have a lot of personality.  Do they remind you of anyone you know?

All of these small size quilts are finished with a very precise facing and when they are hung on the wall they look sort of like little paintings.  I really like that look - and hope that it will appeal to folks at Studio Tour.

I just finished another group of four collage set.  Maybe some of those will also turn into little quilts.

A Lady with a Purple Hat and a Feather

Here is another small quilt inspired by one of the little drawings that I posted earlier.  I especially like the actual feathers and the beads that attach them.

I think this lady may be from France.  What do you think?

Collages Turn Into Quilts

I can't believe this month has slipped by so quickly.  But I have been working on an entirely new idea for quilts.

They are tiny - at least for me.  I have made four so far and they are about 6" x 10".  Very different in size from my normal quilts.

Why you may ask are you making such small quilts?  Well to be honest it is because I started thinking about selling my quilts (which I will be doing at Off the Beaten Path Studio Tour in September) and I realized that my quilts are just too big for some folks to fit into their spaces. 

So - this is the new idea - the new approach.

I like this little one but I think the other faces are even better.