Technique of the Week #22 - Thread Painting

Project Hours: 8 hours
Design and Materials: 2 hours
Execution: 6 hours
It was soooooo good to be back in the "saddle" again.  I took this thread painting class from Elin Waterston at the Cloth Paper Scissors' art retreat called CREATE.  I had one day, so I was limited in my choices of classes to take, and when I saw this one, I thought it wasn't going to be something I was interested in, but as usual, I was wrong.  I also thought I "knew how to do that" so it wasn't going to hold my interest.  Again, wrong!
Essentially thread painting is the layering on of thread free motion style to build up a subject.  Like painting, except with thread.  So the octopus here is only made with thread.  The shading is done to give him some dimension.
The first thing Elin teaches you about thread painting is that there are no mistakes.  And that sums up how our approach was: a free and casual approach.
We were encouraged to bring designs with us, but of course, I had been thinking for two weeks of a subject with no inspiration.  When I got to class, I was going to make an octopus or a pomegranate.  I chose to stay "on theme" for this year, with this little dude.
There are things I did "wrong" that worked itself out, like some puckering that ended up "quilting out" and the shadows of his bumps on his head were done in reverse, so they look like holes.  OOPS.  Oh well, he was an experiment. 
A couple of things: this eats up thread. A LOT OF THREAD, so if you covet your expensive thread you may not want to try this.  Second, Elin teaches you to look up, get up, get away every 20 minutes or so.  This was critical, since I ended up hunched over the bed of the loaner Bernina 440 machine slaving away to cover my background.  The class hours were from 9 am to 4 pm, and we sewed for about 4 of those hours. In that time I got the octopus above done and most of the machine quilting, and he isn't finished yet, so I will post a photo of the finished work later this week! I'll be adding a section of beads and an embroidered school of fish to complete him.  Enjoy!

What i did at CREATE... or how Cheryl got her groove back.

As you may know, this summer has been extremely busy and while I am happy to have made my sister's wedding flowers, after the initial design they were a bit monotonous to make.  I felt pretty uninspired, and because my work schedule freed up, I spent Friday 8/27 at CREATE in Rosemont.
Now, I don't have pictures of the event because I was silly and didn't bring my camera, but you can see some other great recaps and pictures here, here, here and here.
Of course, I saw all of my friends there, and that alone was incredible.  The hardest working staff I've ever run across, Pokey Bolton and Lindsay Murray were there, and Pokey says I'm going to love Houston, which is getting me super jazzed up to go.  And that's just 10 minutes into the event!
My class was thread painted art quilts with Elin Waterston.  Elin is an incredible artist and it was so wonderful to learn from a teacher like her.  Patient, kind, and extremely talented.  She really demystified the process and I had a great time working on my project (which will be in another blog post for the return of Technique of the Week!) Elin is co-author of the Art Quilts at Play and the Art Quilt Workbook, some of whose techniques I have tried this year.
I got to have dinner with some new and old friends, including Belinda Spiwak. 
CREATE also had a "store" onsite that not only showcased Bernina sewing machines, but also a wide variety of Interweave titles and other books and supplies so you can take your creative juices home and continue working.
To wrap up our evening, it was time for the Artist's Faire, and it was AMAZING. Several artists had table "booths" and you could walk and browse lots of art supplies and original art.  The art was amazing!  Beautiful stuff from Kelli Perkins, Jamie Fingal, Jane Lafazio, and many many more.  Also lots of vintage collage materials from various vendors and some amazing collage artists from the pages of Cloth Paper Scissors.  Of course, it was the place to be, and I ran into my friends Melanie Testa, Judy Coates Perez (click her link for super cool recaps of the event) and my new friends from the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild! (HI Karen! HI Sue!) 
Want to see the few things I got at Create? Commence the showing and telling!

The book and TAP (Transfer Artist Paper) are both going to be used later this year for a Technique of the Week! And of course, they had all the newest magazines, so I picked up the latest QA GIFTS.  It is such a great issue.

I loved the ephemera booths. There were lots of them, and if I were a collage artist, I'd be in heaven, but as it were, I saw a couple of things I HAD to have for my creepy victorian parlor. (You know about my year round haunted parlor, right?) So this tiny (and I mean tiny, these do not even come close to fitting around my neck) set of faux pearls and the cool eyeglasses and case only cost me $6 total! 

This is a gorgeous teapot from Altered Ever After, and is featured in an issue of a magazine this month!

These lovely brass findings were super cute on the gorgeous sample artworks by Rene, and I picked up these tiny sets for a future project. 

So, that's about it, and I have to say that I came home SUPER jazzed up to start creating again, and I wish I had allotted more than one day, but the wedding was important and that's OK.  There's going to be another one, and that's great too.  I think the folks at CPS and QA have a lot to be proud of, and I am looking forward to going again next year!
    

This N That #15

The wedding is over, and life is returning back to normal. The flowers were great, we received many compliments on how they looked, and her photographer even wondered if I did this as a business! (uh, no!)  When I get some pictures of us in our finery, I'll post them, but being an attendant in the wedding means I couldn't take any photos. 
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My sister had the most adorable cake topper at her wedding made by Sophia's Workshop, which we both picked out from Etsy separately, which means it just had to be.
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I am taking classes at CREATE this week, and I will report back here and on the QA forums with all the cool stuff and fun we had.
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I got my IQA Houston Quilt Show registration back and I super excited to go and have fun.  It will be my first Houston show! Now I have to make loud pants for the Loud Pants Luncheon, which should be a hoot.
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In just 2 more weeks, the Techniques will start back up again!  I know you are all excited, and there's some summer dyeing I am hoping to squeeze in before the weather gets too cool. 

This N That #14

How fast has this summer blown by?  I can't even tell you...
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So these are the bouquets of flowers made for my sister's wedding.  They are all finished except for a couple of things left to fiddle with.  I think they turned out just like the picture of them in my head, so that makes me happy, and ultimately all of the hard work worth it.  There are also about 20 boutonnieres as well as the bridesmaids and bride's bouquets. The blue/teal one is the bride's, the larger of the other two is for the maid/matron of honor, and the smaller one is for the rest of the attendants.
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The lecture our Fiber DIVAS group gave for the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild went really well.  I was a bit concerned how to show my small quilts when I thought of mounting them temporarily to foam core boards.  I used examples from each year as representative of my work and filled 3 black foam core boards.  We had a good time, and I hear they enjoyed our talk, so that made it even better.  I've been toying with the idea of developing a whole lecture on small weekly journal quilts and the trunk show of my quilts to go with it, so this was a nice exercise to see if that could work out.
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I am hoping I get a chance to get outside and try some dyeing techniques for when the "Technique of the Week" resumes.  I would hate to have been so busy that I missed all the good hot dyeing weather.
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If you will be a the CREATE event on Friday Aug 27th, I will be there taking a class and attending the Artist Vendor Faire.  I hope if you will be there too you can stop by the Quilting Arts online forum and let me know so we can meet up!

Technique of the Week #21 - Slow Cloth/Torn fabrics

Project hours: 7 hours
Design and materials: 1 hours
Execution: 6 hours

Before you get all excited that the Techniques are back, this is one that I have been working on this summer while it's been all crazy.  I have about 3 more weeks before the summer of crazy is over, at which time, the Technique of the Week will resume! (yay!)
The Slow Cloth movement is one that I am trying hard to embrace, because the tenets of it speak to me as a quilt artist.  It started out as a "joy in the process" thing, and moved to have about 10 basic principles.  
At the same time I was reading about this movement, I also was inspired by an artist who had made works entirely of torn cloth.  There's another artist with a similar style in the August/September issue of Quilting Arts (the current issue).
This was made with torn squares of gorgeous Cherrywood Dyes, and made most of it while I was on vacation in Europe this May.    I focused on the process while making it, and enjoyed that each square would be uniquely stitched and hand fringed. This is a great thing for relaxation on vacation, and a way to get some handwork in. 

Come see me as part of a lecture - Chicago Modern Quilt Guild

I'm part of a lecture program for the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild.  They are having our fiber art group, the Divas, as part of their August 15th meeting.  I'll have a few minutes to show my work and talk a little about my weekly quilt project.  (This is separate from their show and tell, our group is the feature presentation for the evening).  If you are near their meeting, stop by and see us!

Zansho Omimai moushi agemasu!

So, How are you in this lingering heat? This phrase comes from a Japanese tradition of sending a little postcard in summer that inquires how your friends and family are doing in the heat of summer.  I particularly love Japanese traditions like this.  They make me feel happy. So please consider this my little postcard to you!
When I was a kid I loved "Little Twin Stars" by Sanrio so much that I bypassed all of the Hello Kitty stuff just to buy this stuff instead.  I remember someone in my family had a small collection on a dresser that was only up to my nose in height, and I stood in front of that dresser for hours staring at the Little Twin Star things that she had collected.  Now when I see cute things from Japan I snap them up quick! 

Partial Studio Closet makeover

 

This is just one peek at the closet makeover.  I tore out (literally) the wire shelves that were put in by the builder in this small walk in closet.  I got two bookcases from WalMart for $25 each that now house my books and (when better organized) small containers of bead, buttons, and other notions. 

On the wall just inside the closet, I hung my "pin quilt", which is just a black piece of cotton that I quilted and bound that I stick all of the pins I collect at comic book or quilt shows into.  I get all these lovely things and never know what to do with them, so here they are.

As you can see, the left side of the bookshelves needs to be organized still. I've got a few plastic tubs and a light fixture to buy before this little closet makeover is done, but it will be much more organized and useful to me once it's done.  Then I can go out into the main room and do some minor changes that will get the rest of the studio in shape!