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Susan Brubaker Knapp workshop

Last week I went to a thread sketching workshop held at Smith Mountain Lake. So much fun thread sketching a Dragon Fly. Actually I missed the point about sketching because I thread painted the thing. Neon Green. Actually he is fairly comical to look at. Susan was an excellent teacher and spent lots of one on one with the attendees. Afterwards she gave a trunk show which was very nice. I think all enjoyed the workshop and the trunk show.

I was especially interested in her painted pieces, I guess because I am a painter. The tricky part is to paint and retain the natural hand of the fabric. Lots of paints out there and techniques employed by different fiber artists. Not sure there is a solid solution. Guess I am going to have to do alot of experimentation becaue painting is what I do and enjoy. Unfortunately I am not a traditional quilter and I do not enjoy piecing hundreds of pieces together to make a quilt. I love transforming the fabric at hand into art.

I prefer using thin fusible fleece as a stabilizer when thread sketching/painting because I have less warp. Others may prefer a heavy stabilizer but I can't control the fabic warping as well with the just stabilizer.
Here is a nearly finished thread painted piece using batik, thread, and colored pencils. I sitll have to quilt and add the stars to the eyes. "They made me say peaches!

Another example of Thread Painting is a closeup of a frog piece I am working on, actually they are mutant frogs. The detail shows the difference thread painting makes. It is lots of fun using doodlling and putting all

kinds of threads here and there

.

The next image is a finished piece turned into a pillow that I made useing primary colors for an upcoming class I am teaching on color.

Think about thread painting, it is a lot of fun!

Birthdays

Well another year has come and gone, all without too many events. When I got to 35, I liked it so I have stayed there for many years. This year I was going 36 but it just didn't feel right so 35 it still is.

Jerrod Niemann - What Do You Want

New week but the sky has turned very gray.

The sky is gray and it has turned cold again which is a sad thing but nothing as sad as the destruction and loss of lives in Japan. Blogging seems impossible with such horror going on even if it is on the other side of the world. I do not know anyone personnally involved but my heart is heavy anyway.

How about a creative thought? Do you have one? Wish I did.

Another Day, Another Day.

Lent continues and I am committed to my promise. Thread Painted and planned two small auction quilts one for SAQA and the other for QSDS. Nothing concrete, final design may come to me in the night, sometimes it does.
When I was in graduate school; most design problems were worked out while sleeping or cleaning. Sketching ideas has never been a practise for me because I prefer to visually work details in my mind long before I put pencil to paper. Maybe I can blame it on a whacked vivid imagination, or parallel thinking. A psychologist friend of mine told me that I stand on the line between the right and left brain. Not sure whether that is good or bad but I do know my brain is weird. My thoughts can be bizzare and my work habits are usually insane. I get a lot done when and only under intense pressure, otherwise I find ways to diddle and get nothing done.

I mentioned cleaning before and the place is has in my life. I am no neat freak, far from it, but I can not be creative in my mess either. Cleaning is a task I do before I am able to ease my brain into a creative mode. I really don't do well with distractions or sounds, including music. Anyone else around and I get slap happy. I really like to cook, but only if there is someone to cook for. If I lived alone, my diet would be tomato soup, cereal, fruit, and salad makings. I doubt I would even need a stove. Sometimes I would order Shrimp LoMein, but that would be it. No sweets in my cabinets because I would consume one bite after the other until gone. What a terrible diet, glad I don't live alone.

Currently, my to-do list is manageable, two quilts need to be quilted for my lovely daughter-in-law, two art quilts need threads, two small quilts need to be created,  and several unfinished quilts are waiting for me. I have a lot of quilt tops that need just one more border and then they would be ready for quilting. I don't do well once the creative mode is broken whether a quilt or painting. I really need to start and finish a project or I whine and grummble if I have to go back and finish some time later. That may explain why there are so many UFOs stacking up in neat plastic boxes. 

Lent Observance - 40 days of promise.

Vye and I have promised to give up white bread and sweets for Lent…that is 40 days of nothing holding my sandwich together or filling my sweet tooth for 40 days. The day is almost over and so far so good. Almost forgot my promise today when I went out for lunch and almost ordered Ruby Tuesday’s mini hamburgers. Yikes! The first day of Lent and already I am testing my resolve. Ordered the Tilapia instead with grilled zucchini and green beans. Didn’t let the waitress set the garlic biscuits on the table. Off to sew so tomorrow will update on my Lent struggles.

Everybody is Blogging!

Seems no one talks anymore; when was the last time someone called on the phone and you had a long conversation? Either email or check out my blog to see what I am doing is the norm now. Not sure I like it.....

New look and new beginnings!

Finally someone released the artsavvy blog and I have swallowed it up. Yeah! Will move my postings here.

Back in the game

Long time now since writing in this blog. Broken arm with 2 surgeries, back procedure and then a rotator cuff repair has kept me in the rough. Getting better now since I am 8 weeks out from rotator repair. Start strengthening in therapy next week so will be gripping plenty when I start that.

Final drawings on our house have been done. Lots going on to get ready for the new house. Drew up the layout and then it was translated into workable plans for construction.

Nothing new on the creative scene, working with others to send 128 quilts to Afghanistan for an Army unit that is located in the pit of pits. Can’t do much more than raid my stash and give moral support at this time but soon will be able to get back on the quilting machine and quilt some of the tops that have come in from all over the country.  

Vickie's Tempest at it's worse!

This silk painting done over 20 years ago with Vickie has been waiting for more. She recently brought it back wanting more. No idea on how to progress because this piece in no way is typical for me. I love primary color and this piece was done using pastels. Created in our younger days, with the help of wine and lots of laughter, Vickie instructed me to draw and which colors fit her color scheme at the moment. Not sure why I would ever paint anything to match something else is beyond me. Why I would use pastels is way beyond me. I am all about strong rich color, primaries that force one to feel energy, never pansy pastels.

I dread having to return to an unfinished piece. It is the creative process that moves me, not the finished art piece. I find it dreadful to go backwards; going backwards forces me to be analytical and seems to shut down my right brain, calling on my left-brain to be creative which is not possible. When not in my creative mindset, finding myself working out of my left-brain, it all becomes work, total dreadful work.

Vickie's Tempest

Vickie's Tempest Edited

As luck would have it, SAQA’s Sandra Sider and Lisa Chipetine were offering a critique so the image was sent for insight and ideas. It needed new eyes, although I hadn’t seen the piece in over 20 years, it was in no way fresh or offering any opportunities to me. Enough whining about “Vickie’s Tempest”, now that I have ideas passed on to me by the critique. Suggestions were to treat the piece as an underwater scene, layering organza and wavy quilting patterns. Wonderful ideas and now I am generated and the piece may be completed before another 20 years passes. Now off to create an underwater tempest, that should keep me entertained for a few days.

Naked Ladies

Late last summer, the lilies, commonly known as “Naked Ladies”, entranced me so much, that I was seeing them everywhere. A beautiful lily perched on a long green stem and not a leaf in sight. Sometimes a single plant, sometimes a bounty of lovely singing out loud and clear, “Look at me”. Surely, in all the late summers that have past me by, I must have seen these plants, which now seemed to be everywhere. By the time I realized that I must document in some form or fashion these extraordinary plants so that in the event I wanted to use them in my art, I would have more than my fading memory to draw from. Oops, not so! I had noticed a huge collection of these beauties in my cousin’s side garden; perhaps she could snap a few pictures. Not so, too late because the lovelies were old, tired and about to drop, somewhat like me on any given day. Not to be deterred, I had the Internet, so off to cyberspace for naked ladies. Lots of naked ladies images, fresh and perky ready to be freely downloaded with only a few clicks.

Not to be sidetracking here but I have an addiction to batiks (fabric). May have something to do with my painter’s eye, may have something to do with the fact that batik fabric is typically more expensive which is my usually my choice to go for the most expensive, since I have beer pockets and champagne taste. So are you wondering where this is going? I had purchased a few packages of batik strips, which I sewed together and then cut apart into triangles and then put together in a geometric patterned quilt top. I did this to avoid doing something else that I should have been doing, kind-a free-basing if you please. Some would call it procrastination but I prefer to call it free-basing, which is an entitlement if you are born an artist. My definition of free-basing is allowing the right brain to run freely here and there from one base to the other, hitting home runs.

Back to the naked ladies and my fascination. I decided that I had to play with my naked ladies and so I cut out some, painted with paint and magic markers and then I thread painted. Now I have all colors and shapes and so I decided they needed to be on a quilt, I could claim naked ladies were laying all over my bed. Actually I loved the colors too and wanted something colorful in my world when all I could see outside was the white carpet that covered VA for so long. This story continues to drag on and on doesn’t it? I could have shown you the quilt and that would have been that but you need to know one other fact about this quilt. The quilting is intertwined leaves and swirls that hide the twelve naked ladies quilted into the quilt. They are stitched in; nothing crude was drawn only shapes suggesting the beautiful form of the female body. Then there are the appliquéd naked ladies too. Shown here is a show image of the quilt.

There are some wonderful people in our world!

Today I received a phone call from a woman I had contacted regarding a donation to our Patriot Quilters group, last November. I thought maybe she had forgottern us but the phone rang and there she was ready to give. Our group makes quilts to be donated to wounded service people. Gloria in NC is sending our group fabric for the quilts. The best part of her gift is that she is doing it with a true heart, praying for our stitches and work. God creates the most beautiful people!

We have tops ready to quilt and we launch our cause in March at our guild's (Patches and Piecework) quilt show. While our primary goal and rathers would be to design, piece, and quilt, someone has to raise some money to support our casue. So from this moment on we need money for batting. We do have a bank account *Patriot Quilters* with a balance of $25.00, and that will grow.

2010 & Still Breathing!

December came and went and nothing wonderful happening around here. Before Christmas we got 18” of snow, which made for some slipping and sliding and anxious moments for many. I didn’t go out because of the cold. The weather and cold has wreaked havoc on my asthma this winter, which is partially the reason there has been no blogging or anything for that matter.


I had a Christmas dinner for my family about 30 people and we did it in Charlie’s shop. Set up tables and fed everyone out there. Went well. No spectacular presents given or received, actually a rather boring Christmas. With help from the Piccadilly elves we did manage to produce 8 quilts and 7 checkerboards for presents. Too busy to photograph anything so out the door they went. Actually all were very nice and should have been photographed but here again I forgot.

We went to GA for a visit with my son and his family. Always enjoy spending time with them. My two granddaughters, Josie Gayle and Carly Grace are my heart. It was a cold in GA as it was here, in the 20’s. Mitzi, the girls and I went to a fabulous quilt shop somewhere in or near Emory GA while we were there. The shop had only modern fabrics, which is right up my alley. Bought a backing for a quilt I am working on now. Josie got her first quilting book…so cute at 6; you just want to hold them tight.

Lots in the works, but first thing first. I need a new sewing apron the one I have been using for the last year hangs weird and has a hole in it. Seam ripper fell through and dived into the floor. It could have been my foot. So first things first a new apron with designated pockets for tools. Quilted for strength, sharp points and body. Designed for the needle maniac. I will post instructions for it here when finished.

I can’t even begin to work without an apron on, puts me in the work mode I suppose. Vye has one here as well. I have different aprons for different tasks. I have an old apron that is covered in paint smears that I wear when painting, somehow it keeps me focused or leashed to my work. I never know when one of the smears is fresh and can ruin furniture or other garments so if that apron is on I steer clear of anything I could ruin with paint. Heck, you can’t even eat with it on so no snacking because it is nasty looking. If the apron is on then you are reminded when you sit down or sprawl out in the recliner that you are supposed to be upright working. The stuff in you pockets bunches in your lap and constantly reminds you to get up if you want it out of your lap.

Take the kitchen apron, designed to keep food stains off clothes, right? Not so, I believe it is a professional badge, a stop sign, glittering armor, that identifies the one who is really in control of her/his domain. Others entering the area are immediately at a disadvantage. They take direction from the one wearing the apron. Usually they fire lots of questions, and one may be the one that most cooks don’t need to hear. What can I do to help? That is a stupid question that doesn’t even have to be vocalized in my world. If you step over the line into my world I am going to give you a job. My world is built on the premise that all men and women are created alike to share in the joys and tasks of our wonderful existence.

So my question to the world at large is what happened to the lowly apron, why did it go out of fashion and use? There may be a doctoral paper here for a socialogist. Why did the apron disappear from kitchens? Why do most artists and craftspersons soil their clothes and then wear them over and over again becasue they are all ready soiled. "That is my painting shirt!" My question is when was the last time it was washed? Fortnately aprons are so designed that they rarely are exposed to body odors. Washing is optional except for aprons used in food preparation.

Time for Merry Doings

December is here and the new year will be here before I know it. Been busy doing lots of gifts for the holidays. Not exactly the kind of quilts that I would be doing but if I did the kind I want to do then no one would be able to cuddle up and know how much I love them. Actually they most likely would be quite surprised to open a package and have it reveal a wall hanging with some abstract convoluted insane message that probably only means something to me.

Remember the challenge that Vye and I have been doing. We did not place this time either, I know it is rigged and I know never will I read or have anything to do with that website...allpeoplequilt.com. We submitted 4 quilts beautifully done and nothing.....RIGGED!

The pinwheel one was done by me and the snowball by Vye. The pinwheel is My daughter-in-law's Christmas present. I will have to post the rest of the quilts after they have been distributed by Santa.