Since I have some time the other night to make a long post, I thought I would show you what happened at our last West Michigan Art Quilter's Group meeting. As usual, the girls did not disppoint!
Holly started us off with a piece she made for a friend who is going through a divorce. Our challenge for January was to make something that symbolizes "New Beginnings." Holly thought that would be fitting for her friend who is going through the divorce.
Here is her piece. Pretty neat! It is a mixture of fabric, paper, paint, stitching. She said the three eggs symbolize her friend and her two children. The eggs are leaning on each other to hold each other up and support each other.
Here is a close up of the paper. Holly said she put gel medium on the fabric, then painted, sprayed it with water, wiped paint off, etc. in layers.
Part of the art (I think this egg part was one such part), she actually drew on her iPad using a drawing application and then printed it out. Holly might be able to comment on this post to give more detail. I got a little lost on her process, because I was trying to listen, take photos, take notes, deal with Sweet Pea, etc.
I just loved all the layers of color, texture, etc. on this piece. I know Holly felt a real sense of accomplishment with this piece. And well she should!
She said the inspriation for this piece came out of March 2012 issue of Quilting Arts
This was the specific article that inspired her and gave her instruction on how to do the skills. Way to go, Holly! I usually see stuff in magazines and say, "I want to do that someday!" But I rarely actually do it. I'm so impressed with how you did this and that you came up with something so meaningful!
Next up was Mary. She showed this piece she had made with little triangles left over from the ornaments she showed at our December meeting. She called this a Prayer Stick.
She wrote out prayer words and sewed them onto the triangles. You can also see she made some fabric beads. She interspersed glass beads with her fabric beads.
Yes, I liked this quite a bit and really enjoyed looking at it. Sweet Pea was very intrigued by all the beads.
Next, she started showing us some scarves she had played with painting. Again, you might remember her gorgeous green scarf she had made and showed at our November meeting. I believe she said she was experimenting with Gutta Resist using a starter kit from Dharma Trading Company.
Mary is trying to go for deep, rich color in these scarves. I think she said this was getting to be what she had hoped for, but that she wanted to get even more intense color than this.
She also brought a couple of books to show us. "The ARTIST'S RULE" was a new one, I believe. I think she said she hadn't read it yet. But, it looked interesting. (Click on the book to go to the Amazon page about it.)
She said "The Artist's Way" was a very good book. I think I really need/want to read this one. Mary said it was really inspiring. (Click on the book to go to the Amazon page about it.)
Next was June. She made this piece, which is actually a triptych of four pieces. I think it's actually supposed to go vertical, with the part on the left in this photo being the top. I'm sorry June, that it might be going the wrong way. I think she said she made a sketch of this first and then created it. She glued the fabric onto foam core board.
I think it's neat how she couched these threads on there. And I love that batik fabric that serves as the background.
I also like her use of the shiny fabrics on here.
Sweet Pea leaned over and asked if we could take this one home! LOL!
Next up was Jackie. You know how we all tend to write New Year's Resolutions? The things we want to do this year? (Still working on my goals....) Well, Jackie wrote the things she DOESN'T have to do any more. I really loved this. She said it has really freed her already! I am feeling so overwhelmed at home, in my sewing room, and at work lately. I think when the academic year is over, I am going to sit down and write my Freedom List (that's what I'm going to call it). It's too late for me this spring...already committed. I will be doing some soul searching this spring to prepare a list of all the things I'm going to say NO to in the coming months. I could use some freeing! Thank you, Jackie!
One thing Jackie played with was a really cool turtle stencil and some discharging solutions. Wow. Very cool. But Jackie said it just wasn't her style (to have something so...constrained, I guess would be the word), so she didn't know what she'd do with it.
Incidentally, during the meeting, Sweet Pea was getting bored. So, she started taking notes in my notebook. She was writing notes to everyone about what she liked about what they showed. How sweet is that? After the meeting, she was passing out her notes to everyone. She gave one to Jackie, telling her how much she liked this turtle fabric she had made. So, Jackie gave the turtle fabric to her! Wow! Sweet Pea just lit up like a Christmas tree. On the way home, we talked about how we could layer it with some batting and she could use her new sewing machine to quilt on/draw on the turtle fabric. Sweet Pea also said she'd like to add some beads or bling to it. I just haven't had time to sit down with her to let her do that yet... I'll show it to you when she does. Jackie, thank you!
Here are some more of her discharging experiments. These are more her style, I think.
I think she said she used Rit Color Remove on this. She said you springle the powder on the fabric and pour boiling hot water on it. Wow. I am so impressed that she is so adventurous. I think the original purple fabric is some of her hand dyed fabric...and then she discharges it! I don't think I could bring myself to do that! LOL. But I like the effect! I think Jackie said she still isn't so sure about it.
Okay. I wonder if this will blow your mind like it did mine. Here is some fabric that Jackie hand dyed and then hand stamped with a pomegranate . Now, check this out...
Her inspiration photo....
She made several sketches and then made a final tracing of the one she liked best. I sure wish I could draw like this!
She then colored it with Inktense pencils. Holy pomegranates! Look at her skill in shading!
Now, here is what really blew my mind. She made her fabric stamp out of...get this...a styrofoam plate! She traced her pomegranate onto a styrofoam plate and cut it out. She used her pen to draw lines and make indentations where she didn't want the paint to go. You have GOT to be kidding me! I could never make anything this beautiful out of a styrofoam plate! haha!
And here is her "new beginning." It's a piece she has started, using some of her scraps of hand dyed fabric and her pomegranate stamp. She's doing some stitching, etc. She doesn't have a clear plan for it, and she doesn't know if she'll finish it. She'd just doing it for the act of creating. Bravo, Jackie!
Kathy brought some neat books. I liked this "Instinctive Quilt Art" a lot. (Click on the book to go to the Amazon page about it.) It's on my wish list. You should feel the cover of this book. It feels like velvet! I wanted it for that alone. But seriously, it had a lot of neat stuff in it. (This group is bad for my book habit.)
Jenny brought this cute little snowman ornament she had made. I know there was more to it than that, but Jenny, I'm sorry, I didn't write it down and now I have forgotten. I have never tried an intricate paper piecing pattern like this. I found one today in Fat Quarterly's new issue (Issue 8) that I want to do, however. It's an ice skate. You can check it out on Amy Friend's (During Quiet Time) blog.
Jane said she cleaned out her sewing closet and found some UFOs lurking in there. (I don't have ANY of those, as you know.) Her "new beginning" was to take one of those out and do something with it.
She said this one was from the April 2010 meeting, the theme of which was "Circles."
Sweet Pea and I both admired the subtle bling in this quilt, with the shiny threads and slightly shiny fabrics in some of the circles. I am too scared to think about my UFOs right now. I feel overwhelmed enough with life as it is.
This was a piece that Carolyn brought. It was a reverse applique she had done. You can't really tell in my photo, but the red fabric piece is mounted on a canvas that has been painted black.
I turned off my flash for this photo so you could get more of a sense of the depth of the piece. When the flash was on, it just sort of washed things out. But, Carolyn layered something like 7 different red fabrics on top of each other, sewed her poinsettia design, and then used her scissors to cut away different layers of the fabrics to reveal the different fabrics underneath. All 7 layers were left where the stitching was. I really thought this was a very neat technique. Might have to give that a try sometime soon!
Here is Faye's "new beginnings." I love the bright colors and strong graphic design of this quilt.
I think the grid quilting suits this quilt well, too.
Here was Evey's "new beginnings." She said it's a quilt that represents how we get our ideas for quilts. Sometimes we need a little luck (the wishbone).
There are cute little charms all over this quilt.
She could say what each charm stood for. I got distracted and didn't hear them all. But Sweet Pea loved this piece, too. Especially the bells!
Well, that's our January meeting! Pretty amazing. I think our theme for Febuary is "a bag." We passed a list around and everyone had to contribute an idea for a theme. On its way back around, there was one blank left, and Sweet Pea asked if she could fill one in. I told her okay, since everyone else had had their turn. She contributed "a bag." She already made one that she wants to show and tell. I hope we can make the February meeting. I'll be flying back into town that day, so it will be tight for me.
All these gals just fill me with inspiration. I am in awe of their creativity. Again, I had no contribution to the meeting, except to take photos and blog it. I know exactly what I want to create, but I have not had any quiet time to sit down and do it. As I told the gals, I've made the quilt in my head about 5 times already. That's bad--because when I do go to make it, it probably isn't going to turn out like I'm envisioning it, and I'll be frustrated. That's how it works for me. I am better off to go in with a general idea and just create. It's going to be a while before I have time to do that, however. So, the idea is going to have to percolate longer!
Hope you enjoyed all the great inspiration! Now, go create!
Until next time,
Mama Pea
