Self Portrait Reveal

Today is the big reveal over at Art Quilts Around the World.

Here is the back of mine for those who are interested.

You'll have to click here to see the front.

Together at Last

Here are the hibiscus series quilts hanging together in the Madison Contemporary Fiber Artists' "Wild Things" exhibit at Olbrich Gardens in Madison, Wisconsin.  

I think this is large enough to read if you click on the photo.

This show will end with an artists' reception on April 7, 2013.

Pieceful Tigers Earns a Ribbon!

Apparently I forgot to put up a blog post announcing that two (2!) of my quilts were juried into the Road to California quilt show.  And "Pieceful Tigers" won first place in traditional wall quilts!

Above are photos of my friend Joanne and her beautiful daughter Monica posing with my quilt as it hangs in the show.  Joanne was kind enough to take these photos and allow me permission to post them here.  Thank you Joanne!

And yes, I know that's not how peaceful is spelled -- it's in tribute to the name of Lori Smith's "Pieceful Nights" pattern which I nominally followed to make this.

The pelican didn't win anything; but it looks pretty good hanging there.

Art Quilt Challenge -- Hints and Ruminations

I was invited to join the gang of artists at Art Quilts Around the World and the first challenge is a self-portrait.  I am incredibly honored to be part of this group.  So while I focused on finishing the Hibiscus Series in time for the show, I pondered my self-portrait.

My first impulse was to do a literal interpretation using the colors in the quilt Rosie is modeling above.



And then do something using this photo of me that I manipulated in PhotoShop a while ago.



Maybe a little wonky piecing... some thread-painting....


But nope -- now that just seems too, well, expected.  And maybe a bit too pedestrian.

So I got out my sketchbook and played around with this little guy.  Hmmm... cute, but not quite what I was going for (although, to be perfectly truthful, I am pretty cute...).   So I"m back to the drawing board -- or sketchbook, as it were.  Stay tuned...

Hibiscus 4

The fourth and final in the series (so far).  This one was painted with thickened dyes over a flour resist -- click here to read that post.

I used wool batting and cotton threads.

The beetle is black Misty-fuse under a bit of foil for sparkle -- because you can't get sparkle with dyes.  I used 50 weight cotton Auriful thread for the legs and around its body.

And the back...for Beth and Lynne.




The four quilts will be hung together on Monday at Olbrich Gardens in a show featuring work by Madison Contemporary Fiber Artists.  The show will run through April.  I will go next weekend and photograph the show and then share some of the photos here.

Hibiscus 3

The third in this series is painted with acrylic fabric paints (Setacolors) on cotton fabric.  I used wool batting and several different types of cotton threads.


I used wool batting and cotton threads.  I really like the colors in this one --  this one has the brightest colors and I find that most appealing.

The beetle was painted with metallic Setacolors -- I think I used copper and a bit of silver on the basic black beetle.  

The backside features my specially-dyed thread-boo-boo-camouflage fabric.


I am linking up with Nina-Marie and Off-the-Wall-Fridays... check it out here.

Hibiscus 2

This is the second in the series.  I painted the image with thickened dyes on cotton fabric.  There is a more informative (read: loquacious)  post about the dye-painting here.

I used a wool batt and cotton threads for the quilting. 

The beetle was pretty blah -- you can't get sparkle with dyes -- so I used a bit of black Misty-fuse and some foil to give it that shine.

And the backside.  I mentioned in a previous post (here) that I purchased some inexpensive cotton that's a bit heavier than the stuff I use for most of my dyeing and piecing (and other evil experiments...).   I dyed it especially for hiding stuff on backsides.  Pretty slick, huh?   Bwahahahaha....!

Hibiscus 1 is Finished

Over the next few days I will share photos of the finished Hibiscus series.  They will hang together in a show at Olbrich Gardens, "Wild Thing," beginning next week and through April.

Hibiscus 1 is 16" by 21" and features acrylic inks painted on cotton fabric.  I used cotton threads -- 50w and 40w for quilting.  I used cotton batting and cotton on the back.  The binding is a commercial batik -- a very dark green and black leafy kind of thing.

The Japanese beetle was painted with metallic acrylic inks and accented with black 50w thread.

And for Beth: the backside.  I left the hanger in the photo -- it's an aluminum stick -- about an inch wide and less than 1/4 inch thick so it can be screwed into the wall where it's hung.  Using white fabric on the back was a mistake -- you can see all the little thread nasties.   I debated hitting it with a roller full of paint, but I'm not sure that's such a good idea.  Still thinking about it...