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. 

More Collage Drawings

Am I now addicted to drawing little faces and critters on folded paper?  Maybe!

 I woke up this morning and wanted to try something as different as possible from the previous fun project as I could - and this is how it turned out.  I'm not certain what will go on the back of this little group.

I do think that my creative self is flexing her muscles as I get ready to try something different with fabric.  I wonder what it will look like.......

Collage Faces - A Different Approach

The previous post shows where how this latest little adventure started - a blank page and then some scraps of an Italian grammar book pasted down.  Here is a small copy of that almost blank page so you can compare it to the finished product and see how the shapes influenced the designs.

The direction the scraps of paper pointed me is especially evident in the lady with the hat.  Who would have thought of a hat? 

So this project was really fun and I enjoyed the various layers.  I painted over the pages with gesso to make the printing less evident.  Then painted the faces and surrounding area with Inktense Blocks.  Then drew in their facial features.  Then went "Yuck.  Boring".

I had not added any of the clothes at this point so I got out a box of old scraps of deli paper that I had gel printed years ago.  Can you tell that I keep everything?  I was really glad that I had these papers because they are so thin that they are easy to tear and glue down.

Once the clothes were in place I decided to keep going because I was having so much fun.   Here are some larger photos so you can see the details.

I added papers to the hat to add depth and interest, the hat lady's hair, the red hair, and the purple hair.

So there I was with this little foldy thing with faces on one side.  And nothing on the other.  What to do?  I didn't want to make four more faces but I didn't want it to be blank either.  Hmmm.  I had really enjoyed playing with the deli paper and I wanted to have some reference to faces to make it seem related to the other side...... and this is what happened.  The faces are sort of ghostly and floating but I like them.  So - project finished.  I wonder what will pop into my head next?

Collage Faces - In a Different Way

This is my second try at a series of collage or drawn faces.  Once again I started with an 11" x 15" sheet of watercolor paper and folded it and tore it in half lengthwise.  Then folded those pieces too.

The top photo shows how WHITE it looked.  Once again even to my brave eyes it looked a bit overwhelming.  So I tried a technique that I learned years ago - tear some pieces of magazine or book pages into random shapes and just glue them down.  No particular pattern. 

These pages are from an Italian grammar book.  I haunt the library free book events to get weird old books that I don't feel guilty tearing into.

The next step is to put a layer of gesso over the entire sheet.  This softens the paper shapes so they provide a vague guide but are not terribly specific.  And the gesso makes the surface toothy so it can easily be drawn and painted.  Who knows? This may or may not work - but it will be fun to try.