Pink Fish with Friends Completed

This piece started out as one of the trapped fabric pieces I made during QSDS.  I had been intending to turn it into part of a larger piece, but changed my mind and finished it as a 6"x6" study instead.  This is primarily because I'm having second thoughts about how I want to compositionally organize my newer works, but I'll get into that some other time.

It didn't really need much.  I cut out and elaborated on another fish from the same brocade, then sewed it onto the square.  There still wasn't quite enough texture so I added the small fish beads and just a few simple lines of running stitch in thick thread.

I think it looks a little better in person.  You can't see the blue mesh holding down the fabric bits, but I think it's interfering with the camera just a bit.  Using various shiny fabric didn't really help in that regards either, although it adds to the effect when you're looking at the actual piece. 

Background and Plan for Sashiko Footstep

After flipping through the sashiko patterns I picked a few I enjoyed and decided to develop works around the names of the patterns along with the patterns themselves.  The one I showed last week is called segmented-tortoiseshell.  So I combined that idea with the swap materials that I had and came up with the idea of a line of movement referring to turtles in which I would echo the basic hexagon a number of times.

I used a portion of the redder fabric to cover five peltex hexagons, which will be embroidered further and eventually attached to the canvas, after the sashiko stitching is complete.  I'm not sure yet whether I'll keep them abstract or give them little heads and feet to be more representational.

This was the first time that I was trying to work on a background that started out only as one piece of fabric.  I figured I would glue it down with liquid medium to an ungessoed canvas, as there was no reason for that extra stiffness if I wasn't going to paint or collage on it.  Well, that didn't work as well as I'd hoped because it didn't adhere evenly.  I think the canvas soaked up some of the medium.  I was tempted to rip it off, iron it flat, and fuse it down, but I liked the waves and wrinkles and didn't want to lose them.  Instead I took three wavy lines of machine stitching across the piece, although you can't really see them at this point.

Next I applied watercolor crayons.  I'm still on my learning curve with those.  I achieved more control than some other times I had done this, but not as much as I'd hoped for.  I had been looking for the level I saw with the bubbles, but between the scribbling the color on and using a 1" brush to apply the liquid medium I didn't get there.  I do like the result.  The warmer spot in the upper right is positioned to be under one of the inner hexagons of the stitched pattern.

I'm not sure if I'm done with the background yet.  I'm contemplating collaging on a bit of paper and un-altered fabric.  I'll think on it a bit.

Little Squares of Randomness

I'm not quite sure why I started these.  I found a tiny stack of 2" charm squares in variations of brown that I'd purchased for a reason that I can't remember anymore.  They sat around for about a week and then connected in my mind to some scraps of Peltex I had.  So I started making little almost squares about an inch on a side.  I wasn't consciously influenced by the collage and other inch squared bits that have been around the blog and mail art community recently, but reading about those might have had something to do with it.

Originally I was envisioning just going over the fabric with one layer of translucent paint, evening out the colors, and then adding stitching.  I tried that, but it washed out much of the interest of the variation in the pieces.  The color was too uniform and not as I imagined.  So I added more dibs and dabs of this and that.  The difference in the underlying fabric is still significant , creating more interest than if I'd used all the same one, but it is more obscured than my first intent.

I want to add some simple stitching to each, likely in some sort of x or square, with a bead in the center.  I went through my stash last night and didn't find anything like what I'd been imagining.  Now I need to decide whether I should go bead shopping or take side-trip determined by availability.  I'm still not quite sure what I'll do with them, but the process is entertaining me.

Grab Bag Challenge

During the January meeting of the Fiber Alliance we exchanged materials for a grab bag challenge.  Each of us had placed some fabrics and such into a gallon-sized food storage bag.  Our challenge is to make a piece of art from the materials and two thirds of its surface should be from the bag.  Most people will be making quilts.  I will be making a footstep.  The picture shows the contents of the bag that I received.

I am in love with the large piece of fabric.  The color gradation goes from one selvedge to the other and also has some variations across the length of the yard.  I'm also tempted by the Solvy, as water soluble stabilizers are not anything I've ever tried before.  I would have to go rev up my sewing machine to play with that material though.  I need to complete at least one more piece for exhibit and sale before I tackle the challenge, as those goals are more important to me, but I have time as this piece will not be due to its new owner until June 3. 

Two Years Gone - Fall Crazy Quilt Block

This was my entry into the Novice category of CQ Mag Online's 2004 challenge.  I loved working on it and I was so proud of it.  I used fabric from my first trip to a quilt show and beads and bits from various squishie swaps.  I painted a piece of lace for the first time and created a beaded metal leaf.  I laid out the fabric pieces at one of the stitch-ins that I went to, carefully planning where all the bits were going to go.  It was my first completely original crazy quilt piece, although I had participated in round robins.  Looking at it now I can see examples of both poor and good technique and some major design flaws.  I can see how I might have done it differently in so many ways.  But I am still proud of it.

Beginning New Canvas Pieces

 These fabric-coverd timtex shapes will eventually be the focal points of four 10"x10" stretched canvas mixed media pieces, one for each of the four elements.  I had originally done some research into what symbols were used for them, in alchemy and religion and so forth, but wasn't satisfied, so I used the basic shapes that most spoke to me.  They are a square for the solidity of earth, a circle for droplets plopping into water, a wavy piece for the movement of air, and a triangle for the flickering flames of fire.

Each piece will have these shapes painted on them in various layers, a couple pieces of glued fabric, then sewn down fabric, probably with some embroidery, then the focal piece, which will be more embellished, sewn down near one corner.  I want them to be able to stand apart or together.  I'm hoping to move pretty quickly.  If I can make the end of the month deadline, I'd like to enter them into an exhibit for small quilts.  Because I'll be sewing the layers together, I believe they will qualify, since the prospectus specifically mentions that innovative forms and stretching of the definition is encouraged.  If I don't make it, that's fine too, as these are part of my answer to the elements challenge that we're doing at The Fiber Alliance this year.