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!