Yup, the fourth completed project this year. This is a record for me! Stop laughing. This one has been hanging on the wall for the past year for two reasons: it needed something and I didn’t know what that was and the dear lady kept bubbling up. It gave her a bad complexion and a bumpy kimono, so not flattering. But with a little sashiko stitch inspiration for the finishing and matte medium for the bubbling lady, I got past my creative blocks with this piece in a day. I also realized this idea would work great for the art journal exchange I’m involved with.
This is called Lost in Another World.
So I finished up the 3 Creative Studios Quilt Challenge today. It’s about 12″ x16″, deconstructed rubbing on black fabric, lots of hand stitching with hand-dyed threads. I found that the stitching worked well with the print texture of the puzzle pieces. The whole process was largely about experimentation. With the theme of puzzle I decided to just go literal and pull out some actual puzzle pieces. I just figured out what to do as I went along. It is a departure from other work I’ve done and for that I like this.
Our seven year old turned eight this week. So I’ve busy all week with birthday planning and celebrating. Then throw in buying a new dishwasher, delivery and install with the other usual weekly activities and it doesn’t leave much extra room for art or blogs.
But I have been working some art things a little bit. I joined a quilt challenge on the 3 Creative Studios site. I joined a little while ago and had neglected the blog aspect of it. I had to think on it first. The theme right now is ‘Puzzle’ and I’ve been working my current piece around that idea. I’m working off the first definition they posted: “problem, or other contrivance designed to amuse by presenting difficulties to be solved by ingenuity or patient effort.” The problem is how do I get these random objects I placed together and made a print out of to work together and form cohesive piece. There was no rhyme or reason when I put these things together, just curiosity.
I did some markers and pens on the piece a few days ago. Last night I stitched.
I’m pleased so far. We’ll see what happens next.
As part of my goal to use what I have, I pulled out my roving stash last night. This is just two of several lovely fiber bunches I’ve been holding onto for the last 3 or 4 years. Time to bring them out of the darkness.
I was not sure what direction I was going with the project, so I just started playing around with the stuff. Ended up pulling out this soft black fibers from the first mix and creating lines to play off the lines of the print. I’m far from done with this but I think it came out as good second layer. Adding some color the images is next. Stay tuned!
A present for a family member who got married last summer. We missed the wedding and felt pretty bad about it. But a trip to South Dakota wasn’t in the financial cards for us. Also, my brain had been sucked into the MSU Project Vortex and I couldn’t get it back. I started this project months ago, but with creative juice being gone I could not get it finished. It was sadly becoming a UFO. So with the new year I decided to finish it up and I can count it as a finished project. I call it “A Belated Wedding Present”.
Mostly commercial fabrics, stamped, hand stitched, machine stitched and felted. Also some colored pencils and markers in there too. I incorporated wood dowels from some old cloth calendars for the hanging method. Now I just need to get it to South Dakota.
Last screenprint for a little while. I need to deep clean the screen and actually make something out of the stuff I’ve made so far. I keep finding new surfaces to experiment with and curiosity gets the best of me.
I’ve been working on my Breaking Traditions entry trying to finish it off. Now that the family wedding is over and done I have been able to regain brain power and refocus on my projects. I really want to finish this one off. No, I won’t show it to you until it is done. Although I did show Lynn yesterday over coffee. I was in need of some feedback.
After coffee, on my way back home, I stopped in at my favorite and only local bead shop. I needed some baby type bead things to add to my piece. I found just what I needed and was surprised how perfect these little items will work.
I will tell you that my piece is about MOPS, my MOPS group. I have been apart of this group for several years now and I have watched it grow from about 8 members to over 40 with a waiting list. They really support each other and have helped me through tough times. I have made some really awesome friends over the years. It is only fitting that I finally do something honoring them.
But that is all I will tell you about this year’s entry! You will just have to wait until I am done to see the whole thing.
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