"Best Of Show"

Belonging to the "12 By The Dozen" group has changed my life! Four years ago, I wanted my quilting to take a different turn and direction and to express myself using the medium that I am the most comfortable with: fabric and fiber. Being a member of this amazing group of like minded fiber artists from around the globe, has helped to inspire, encourage, and explore this new world for me. The quarterly challenges have not been easy but definitely  has enabled me to grow in my art that I never expected.

Last night, I was awarded "Best of Show" at our annual Houston Area Fiber Artists (HAFA) "Focus on Fiber" show exhibited at 18 Hands Gallery in Houston. The process started in August with meeting the "call" (deadline) and then waiting to hear if any of my three pieces that I entered were accepted...all three were accepted!  We were fortunate to have a very well respected local artist to jury and judge our pieces. As you can see, my winning entry was  "A View From a Venetian Gondola".  Even though it was small in size compared to other entries, the judge liked the variety of techniques that went into making this piece and the overall impact. I am still pinching myself to make sure that this isn't a dream!

I want to thank each and everyone one of you for your artistry, your generous sharing, comments and positive influence in my life and my art!

Dyeing Workshop

Well, as I have to wait for the Jubilation piece to dry I am using the time to catch up and post the promised photos from the wonderful recent workshop with Jan Myers-Newbury.  It was a 5 day workshop - 4 days dyeing and 1 day design, held in the fabulous Potters Barn which is Claire Benn's pride and joy and quite rightly so as she thought about every detail and has produced the perfect work space.

View of the end wall of the barn.

The workshop area.

There were ten of us and I knew one fellow CQer and knew of one of the other students.  Jan is a calm, extremely knowledgeable, encouraging and generous teacher.  The workshop ran smoothly because it was carefully planned and managed.  We all produced a substantial amount of dyed fabric which will be more than enough to keep us busy designing for quite a while.  I learnt a lot about the value of underpainting with dye - no soda in the dye or fabric - letting the fabric dry and then working with it (clamping, stitching, wrapping, etc) and dipping it into a dye bath with soda.  In fact I learnt a lot about the value of working on a piece of fabric through more than one or two stages.

Underpainted with 3 green stripes, then pole wrapped and dipped in brick red.

We clamped: wooden kebab sticks, coffee stirrers and tongue depressants (from dentist/doctor), empty celotape rolls, wooden coving and  kid's plastic train tracks - were some of the strange but very effective resist items used.

Kebab sticks between folded layers, carved erasers clamped

We pole wrapped:  first without using any string, but folding and wrapping different ways and angles.  The fabric was held in place top and bottom with elastic bands.  Then we used string, thick, thin, hairy - you name it.  I did one piece where the string went on very haphazardly and the results were brilliant.

Rope, poles and kebab sticks tied and ready to dye - most for the second time

Poles wrapped without string ready to dye

 We wrapped around very thick rope.

The wonderful effects of thick rope wrapping

Two of my best pieces were first stitched into tubes on a machine, one with darts in and the other with folds made as I wrapped it around the pole.

Tucks sewn in then wrapped

Folds added during wrapping

Here's my pin board with a couple of day's work, mostly with just one dyeing process, though the one with circles was underpainted as was the top left hand corner piece.

Part of 2 days worth of dyeing

The two dark pieces in the lower right corner were first clamped and dyed, then stitched in various ways and dyed in midnight blue.  Here they are ready to go in the dye bucket.

After 4 days of dyeing, we then had plenty to work with thinking about how we could use them.

First attempt - needs lost more work...

Piece by Jan using my fabric. 

Marks were made by the elastic bands holding the wrapped fabric on the pole top and bottom.

 And as a treat some photos of the washing lines to end with...            Hilary

Those wonderful marks made by plastic construction toy pieces.

Jubilation - or rather a lack of jubilation

I haven't forgotten my contribution to the last theme but it has been one of those occasions where Plan A  wasn't meant to be.  Having cleared my desk after the Festival of Quilts I was longing to start on the idea I have had almost from the beginning.

I took advice from Heather and Michele on how to transfer images to paper or fabric using acetone.  From the beginning I knew I couldn't use my inkjet printer so dashed into the nearest town to the print shop - only to find it isn't open on a Saturday.  Drat!

Monday morning I dashed down and although they don't have a laser copier it is one that uses toner - should be OK.  I then discover that nail polish remover is acetone but has additives and doesn't work.  Dash out and discover that the local hardware shop doesn't sell pure acetone and I need to go back to the chemist where I have just been.  See what I mean about Plan A being doomed?

Right, now I have toner copies and 100% acetone.  Will it work?  NO!  I have no idea why not.  I am using Tissutex (Abaca paper) - whether that is the problem I don't know and I will not find out because I have given up on this method.  Michele, you pieces are exquisite but I have no idea how you do it.

Project scraps

So, here I am doing Plan B which was something I really hoped I wouldn't have to resort to - using gel medium.  And it is working!  Because I have a slightly complicated, layered collage in mind it is taking longer to do because of having to wait in between the layers for everything to dry twice - once for the medium to dry and then for the damp fabric after I've rubbed off the paper.

Fingers crossed it is going to plan - so far.  I am cautiously optimistic.  Watch this space...

Hilary

Jump for Joy

What can be more jubilant than a youngster jumping off a rock into a lake at the cottage on a hot summer's day.  I've used hand dyed, shibori, rust on silk, stamped, glued....  By the way, this is the view of my neighbour's shoreline and her granddaughter seen whilst standing on my dock.  

Demo of Michele at work

Those of you who are intrigued by the techniques Michele uses to produce her beautiful layered pieces may want to have a look at my blog. Today I posted a few photos and some text to explain her processes.

Here's the promised photo of the UK branch

Linda B, Linda F and Hilary

Next theme

Hi everyone,

I have so much to pass on after the dyeing workshop with Jan Myers-Newbury and will get around to posting .  Suffice to say, it was magic!

Meantime, I am bowled over by all your beautiful interpretations of Jubilation.  I will get around to making mine asap - the design has been in my head for a while.  I will also find time over the next few days to comments on the last submissions.

So, the theme is.....................THREADS.

Have fun,

Hilary

Jubilation

Along the Fields
This summer has been a difficult one for our family losing our 13 year old Portuguese Water Dog Maggie, during the visit of my 3 grandchildren so needless to say I have not been at my most jubilant. There was a piece that I had made in hounour of all the wonderful lessons learned from Maggie in our family and ended up gluing a picture of her to it instead. This is one of the pieces that I have recently finished while getting ready for the Hudson Studio Tour in September with Heather. I have been trying out a phototransfer technique onto cloth with gel medium using photocopies of my image first and a second image slightly offset to create that vibrating feel. Maybe that Van Gogh exhibition is still bouncing around in my head. I have added some additional colour as we have had the most beautiful summer and all the asters are blooming early. I especially like walking along the fields in the fall  to relax and take photographs. This is mounted on a 12X12 canvas that has been painted with acrylic.

Jubilation

I have to be honest - even after the celebrations we've had in the UK this summer I couldn't really get into this challenge. Perhaps it's a personality thing, I'm much more of your quiet inward glow kind of person than a cheering and whooping type. So I decided to use two images of 2012 - our Union Flag and the ubiquitous bunting and play with an insertion technique and some quilting:

mea culpa

I am not ready.  And am in the Arctic at the moment.  As usual Jubilation was left a little late but I did manage to assemble it and was waiting until I got home from the cottage to quilt it and finish it up - I gave myself 5 days - was that not enough!

Well, I managed to do a little damage to my ankle during our Text'Art retreat - slipped on a slippery rock.  More than just a sprain and so a round of appointments ensued.  As well as other delayed activities such as buying boots and wet gear for the trip.  So I ran out of time.  I will do it first thing when I get home and will post then.  And will hopefully get to enjoy yours when I am back in civilization!

A tribute to Rayna and Kaffe!

Jubilation!  Kaffe Fassett's knitting patterns, interiors, quilts, books and for the last many years his absolutely gorgeous fabrics as well as using Rayna Gillman's technique after admiring her style for many years, and then doing workshops with her and building a warm relationship with her were an obvious combination when it came to making something in this challenge. 
Other than the black and white fabrics and the solid yellow hand dyed fabric, all fabrics in this piece are designed by Kaffe.  The technique used in this block is Rayna's 'therapy sewing' - free form strip quilt piecing.
Had huge fun making this - quite addictive and difficult to stop.  Certainly a technique I love using fabrics I adore.

Ju-jubilation

I really thought I would move on from this idea and interpret a topic more personally jubilant but for some reason the little ju-jubes stuck with me. The binding fabric was included in a mail order by mistake, I think it works perfectly.