Snow and Ice Dyeing

I have been given permission to share this article which appeared in the American Quilt back in January by the author, Lisa White Reber.  Thank you Lisa.

Here it is:  http://www.dippydyes.com/SnowDyeArticle.pdf

Sadly Phil, Patricia and Venetta probably will never the chance to try it out and Lindas B and F and my chances are fairly limited but I know that Dianne has taken the rest of you on this adventure already. Winter is on it's way - we gave in and put the crentral heating on yesterday - so get ready to play again!

Hilary

Collography trials

Nearly there.  Both plates are from Hilary and my lesson.  The one on the right, with very little definition, I sealed with Artists Varnish, as we had had problems earlier going straight in with the non-etching paint. This has probably removed some of the definition particularly the indents and is not so successful. The left plate I left as is and went in straight with the paint.  I mixed acrylic paint with and extender and a bit of gel medium and painted lightly the plate, removing excess with a dabbing movement and paper towel; I painted the area of the fabric with gel medium and then placed the fabric over the plate which I had placed on a soft pin board; a length of felt was placed over the fabric and then I ran a brayer with as much force as I could over the plate area. The left hand sample is a lot better and will perservere with new plates and more bumps and dents.

Square Unsquare Challenge

This is the piece that I finished for the unsquare challenge for tomorrow night's Out of the Box meeting in Ottawa, It is composed of cheesecloth and other sheer fabrics embellished together onto batting and felt then stitched onto wire mesh. For display it is attached to a small canvas at the sides and a wire added for hanging . Some stitching through the center helps to hold the desired curve .The talisman hanging from the top is made in honour of my friends first grandson who after a premature birth is recovering from a small surgery but is doing very well in hospital. They look forward to his homecoming. This measures 10 " x 9 "

Square / Unsquare

Michele and I belong to a group in Ottawa called Out of the Box Fibre Artists. We have been given the challenge of producing a piece no bigger than 12" in any dimension for a show in an Ottawa-area library. The theme of the show is "Unsquare".

I made this piece as something of a follow-up to my Fresh challenge. It also relates to the large "It's All That..." piece I produced last May for the local medical centre. I tried to make the outer edge interesting, and to make the brighter fabrics luminous by setting them next to duller colours. I have always loved Janet Kurjan's piece, "Underwater Reflection", which you can see at www.thefiberconnection.com/janet.html.

The pieced cotton top was bonded to a Timtex stiffener, which was in turn bonded to black felt. The whole thing was stitched in the ditch. and then the edge was satin-stitched. It has been mounted on an 8" x 8" canvas, painted with black gesso, which will not be seen, but will serve to project it out from the wall about an inch. Wanted to avoid that "potholder look". It will be fun to see the other entries when we meet tomorrow evening.

Photo Collage for Fall Show

These are recently completed collages that will be entries for two local fall art shows .They are both mounted on 24x24 gallery canvas . The first will be in a few days with our local Hudson Artists Association that both Heather are participating in for the second time. I hope my location will be near the lovely Tuscan series that you see in the last posting. The second to be determined by the jury for the Stewart Hall Gallery is due in November .! Wish me luck! Thanks to Heather for all her encouragement during the completion of both of these pieces.

Tuscany series continued

I think one of the best outcomes of our themes is if I can learn from my challenge piece and go on to produce more in the series. I have made another four 12 x 12's and a larger 24 x 20, not counting the three 5 x 7's I made for the WildCard fundraiser, and not counting the two finished pieces that ended up in the garbage. One of the works was rejected because I misspelled Siena!


These pieces are mounted on stretched canvases, painted with black gesso. I have left a little margin of canvas showing around the edges. The pieces themselves are stitched to black felt and the edges are finished with a short zigzag stitch.

The image transfers were done using photocopies, acetone and tissue paper, which was applied to the painted cloth with matte medium. More painting, stamping and stenciling followed, then a coat of matte medium over all, then stitching, then more paint was applied, sometimes rubbed off with a rag or rubbed into the stitching line to emphasize it.


These will go into the fall show of our local art group, the Hudson Artists, to be held October 14 - 16. (Michele is also showing some of her recent pieces.) The larger piece is going to be my entry to Synthesis 2, a juried SAQA show for the Eastern Canada division.


I have been struggling to achieve a kind of obscurity, mystery, ambiguity, even unease, while still offering the viewer enough contrast to discern the images. A fine line. While they cannot be appreciated from a distance, I hope they will draw the viewer in for a closer look.

Congratulations, Helena!

Yesterday, Helena's donation to the SAQA auction sold for $350 to a buyer from Tennessee. Of the 100 or so 12-inch-square quilts in her group, only a few had sold at that point. We had a deal that if unsold, I was going to bid on her piece, and she was going to bid on mine, just to save face. Someone beat me to it!

If you'd like to follow the auction action, go to www.saqa.com, click on the auction, and scroll down page 2b to see Helena's beautiful piece, Spontaneous Combustion 2.

Congratulations Venetta

Congratulations to Venetta for her winning quilt in the Cherrywood Challenge Quilts for ovarian cancer.I enjoyed seeing all the quilts online which were a very impressive collection. Will this quilt go on display somewhere now Venetta?

And mine

Many of us live near the water and Linda's use of the marbled fabric that we made was perfect.  Here's where I live and the scarf I now proudly possess.  Thanks Linda.  

Leaving, Part 2

Here's a photo taken at our dinner on Sunday, to mark Linda's moving back to the U.K. Aren't we all a jolly bunch? With Linda front and centre, we six are wearing the curly scarves she made for each of us. We are also holding the mini-quilts she gave us. Here is a picture of mine.



At first, we all admired them as little abstract compositions, remarking that she had used fabric painted, stamped, dyed or marbled in our monthly get-togethers, and finished them with an amazing variety and density of machine quilting. We noted the titles, "Heading Home".

Finally, the penny dropped. We saw that Linda had used Google maps to produce six different aerial images of our homes and neighbourhoods complete with roads and railroads, with a little square to represent our actual houses. What a perfect melding of Linda's talent as an art quilter with the Forey background in aeronautics!

Linda, we will miss you more than words can say. Thank you for sharing your warmth and talent with us, and making our little group so lively and so inspirational.

Leaving

My time in Canada is fast coming to an end - I have less than 2 weeks left. Last night I was honoured to be entertained to dinner by the other members of our Text'Art group, and given the small quiltlets you can see here. Each is just 4 inches square, and they are an exquisite set of jewels! I'm not sure the photo does them justice.

I've also just finished my last pieces of work here in Canada - 2 small 5 x 7 inch pieces for the

Wildcard challenge. They will be sold to help raise money for Le Nichor Wild Bird Rehabilitation Centre.

Time to cast your vote...

Just a reminder to cast your vote for your favorite or favorites Cherrywood Challenge Quilts for the MD Anderson Ovarian Cancer Quilt Project. You can "like"on Facebook the quilts you vote for. Of the 20 quilts in the competition, there are two from our group...Hilary and myself amongst an outstanding group of talented art quilters! To vote, go to Ovarian Cancer Quilt Project Facebook and then to the Cherrywood Challenge Quilts and vote/"like" away. There will be top three winners recognized and all for awareness and education for Ovarian and Uterine Cancers. The top winners will also be featured in the MD Anderson booth at International Quilt Festival in November! They are all spectacular and we hope you enjoy seeing them all.