Thursday, July 30, 2009

More Catching Up

I can't believe that another week has gone by already. I've been so busy!

Long Beach was fabulous! Just imagine a party with long time friends, plenty of new friends to meet and all the cool quilting goodies and eye candy you can imagine. Just too much fun!

I came home with some cool new ideas and lots of enthusiasm. Compliments on all the jackets I wore as well as on Da-Doo-Ron-Rendezvous were gratefully received and I made some wonderful new contacts in the quilt world. One of these years I hope to teach there as well.

And I when I came home there was Jake! I hadn't seen him since Christmas so it was wonderful to see him again. He's mostly settled back into his old room. Now we just need to get him to put a little more weight on. He's painfully thin (6'2" and 120 lbs) so I took him grocery shopping. I want to make sure there are plenty of good things for him to eat whenever he feels hungry. It must be working because he seems to eat ALL the time, LOL.

I did find time for my Monday Mini Quickie this week despite all the distractions. This one is all raw edged and several layers fused together, so quite stiff, but that's okay for an art quilt. The uppermost layer is one of the gelatin monoprints I made using a variety of paint colors. There are 3 layers reverse appliqued underneath and the edges further secured with free motion applique.

One further benefit of having Jake home is he brought me an early birthday present: a super new computer! I haven't loaded everything onto it yet (like my photo editing software) so you'll have to take my word for it that this mini quilt looks much better in person!

Lisa

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Monday Mini Quickie Quilt Catch Up

Sorry about no posts lately. I rarely get the chance to be on the "big" computer and have no pictures on my new laptop. Plus it has just been too darn hot to sew much.

On the homefront, my son, Jake, is moving back home. I've missed him a lot (we are a lot alike) and I'm glad he'll be around again. BUT. I had made his old room my studio and have had to move back into the tiny room I had before. Isn't it funny how we expand to fill any and all available space? Oh well, the move has been accomplished and I even found some things I was missing! About the only sewing I've been doing is my Monday mini quickie quilts. This one is from several weeks ago. I used fusible thread to stitch around the spiral stamped motifs then hit them with foil. Not enough bling so I loosely placed some fusible threads on top of the piece and foiled those. Better, but not much control.

On top of that I put a sheer embossed with metallic stars and stitched around the squares along the stamp outline. Then I cut away the sheer inside the squares. Better. Finally I added a fused curved-cut binding.
This piece was gelatin printed on a hand dyed mauve fabric with a rainbow of paints on the gelatin plate. The mauve (one of my least favorite colors) showed way too much so I put a green sheer on top and stitched around each leaf and added veins. Then I cut away the sheer outside the leaves and satin stitched the stem.
I've been wanting to try "rice stitching" by hand. It's supposed to look like grains of rice scattered on the surface. I don't think it was ideal for this piece, but it's all about learning what works and trying new things. I like the effect, but now I know it takes longer than I expected and more embroidery floss too! (I ran out and had to substitute another color.)
Finally I wanted to try fused squares on point for the binding and this piece got that treatment. Again, not ideal for this piece (I think it overpowers the quilt itself), but I'm still learning!

This week's piece was a pretty gelatin print, mostly turquoise with brush strokes of purple and pearly white. I was intrigued by some quilts that Melody Johnson did awhile back so I tried her fused matchstick technique in a MUCH simpler manner. The technique I used to get the circles was too difficult and not very successful, but I think I know a better way now so look for this again.
The circles weren't showing up well enough so I machine trapuntoed them. Then some of the matchsticks were coming loose (some of that old bad WonderUnder) so I covered it with netting and quilted it using a new-to-me quilt pattern of E's and M's. Needs more practice, LOL, but again, it's all about learning, stretching and trying new things.
No binding on this one, just a pillowcase turn followed by some really close-to-the-edge stitching.
I'm off to Long Beach tomorrow for the show so no posts until I return. If you're there look for me and my new jackets! My Bernina ensemble, Da-Doo-Ron-Rendezvous, should also be on display or at the informal modeling. I will be demoing at the Embellishment Village booth on Saturday. Hope to see you there!
Lisa

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

More From Sharpie Play Day

This heat just makes me so lazy! I don't want to do anything when it's this hot. My kitchen was 85 this afternoon. No air conditioning at my house. Maybe for the summer I should sleep days and work at night...

Here are the last of the Sharpie experiments on Play Day last week.

I especially like the sense of direction she got with this piece. I believe she used a spray bottle of rubbing alcohol and did it on a fence.

These came out very intense. I can't wait to see what she does with them!

Another one showing just how much color movement you can get.

A beautifully soft flower

My next big chore is to take apart my studio and make it into a bedroom again. Jake is coming home for awhile. I'll miss the extra room, but it will be worth it to have him back. I missed him!

Lisa

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Playtime with Sharpies

A group of women meet at Bits and Pieces in Escondido on Wednesday afternoons for a free class. This summer we've been taking turns doing demos, but there's also sharing and you're welcome to bring projects to work on, too.

Last week I did a hands on demo about Sharpies and rubbing alcohol. Here are some of the results. (Sorry, but I didn't write down who the artists are.)



I'm sorry not to have blogged for awhile. My husband took command at his new job with all the requisite pomp, ceremony and company and I've just been too swamped! I'm hoping life will get back to normal now, whatever that is!
Lisa

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Duckie Bathroom Complete

It is so good to have a man around the house again! Pierre put up these shelves for the duckies and mounted the quilts on the wall as well :-)


Sorry about the wonkiness of this picture. Needless to say the quilts and shelves are straight, but I was back as far as I could go (practically standing IN the wall!) and it wasn't far enough.

It's a happy bathroom :-)

Lisa

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Playtime with Angelina

I've been having a blast playing with Angelina fibers and film. It was all the rage a few years ago and naturally I had to buy some, but I didn't really have time to sit down and experiment with them until recently. This is my Angelina fiber jacket. I call it "Peacock" because I stenciled peacock feathers in the lining.
A side view

And a closeup showing one of the quilting patterns on the Angelina.

To begin with I made sheets of Angelina and quilted them onto a matching background fabric for strength and stability. After all, clothing gets a lot of wear! I did a different quilting pattern on each color of Angelina. Unfortunately Angelina is one of the most difficult substances to photograph! Suffice it to say it looks better in person :-)

Here is a postcard I made using Angelina fibers, film, some trapped odds and ends and some beads.

And finally an upside down :-) picture of a greeting card inset made from a variety of Angelina techniques. I'm really jazzed about all the things you can do with these fibers and plan many more explorations.
I will be teaching a class (All That Glitters #418) on Thursday night at Road to California in January 2010 on Angelina as well as glitter and foiling. I just love bling! Sign ups started today and the class is filling quickly (only 8 seats left as of this morning) so hurry on over if you're interested. http://www.road2ca.com/classINFO.html
Lisa

Sunday, July 05, 2009

Free Motion Applique Baby Quilt

I finished the quilt version of my free motion applique class. Now it's all ready for my website update. Lisa

Saturday, July 04, 2009

Happy 4th of Juny

Today is a day to just kick back and relax, where ever you are...

This is Cushman who found the perfect bed on top of my daughter's tuba. Doesn't he make it look comfortable?

Enjoy your day!
Lisa

Friday, July 03, 2009

Another Free Motion Applique Totebag

I wasn't happy with the photographs of my previous free motion applique totebag so I made another one. In this totebag I used black for all the free motion stitching so that it would show up in photographs.


And the closeup. Same exact applique, same free motion designs, but now you can see them! Next, the free motion applique quilt.
Lisa

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Mini Monday Quickie Quilt

I made another mini quilt on Monday. As usual I was working from a piece of fabric that I gelatin printed a la Rayna Gillman. This one had a rather urban/street/gritty feel. I wanted to put a gold with it, but none of them really worked. I ended up using a muted green with leaf skeletons on it. The symbolism appealed to me. Unfortunately you can't tell what they are so that is a lesson learned.

I'm not happy with this one at all. Not enough value difference and I don't like the over all feel of it. I tried to compensate by adding a streamer of beads, but finally gave up. If you have any suggestions on where else I went wrong, other than the value, please let me know.

The point of these exercises is to try new techniques and use the gelatin printed pieces that were languishing in a pile. I enjoyed figuring out a new design to weave the fabrics, practiced couching over raw edges and did a little foiling. I don't feel like I MUST make every piece a success. The important thing is to be free, experimental and QUICK, not to bang my head against the wall!
Pierre is home! Yay! It is such a relief to know there is someone around that I can turn to, no matter what.
Lisa