Design

Design

Creating the Canary

8

So I haven’t written in a while. I’ve been working on a very personal piece, a self-portrait. I’m a very private person, and I need to remind a few of you of the boundaries here. I write my blog as a teaching tool. This is not intended as a preview into my personal life. If you enjoy reading it, that’s great, but if you know me personally, I don’t intend to answer questions about anything other than process to fellow artists and/or quilters. So please, don’t ask.

My original intention was to make two companion pieces. I intended to make a whole portrait of me (a picture I took of myself with a handy remote control for my camera) and then cut it in half. One piece would be the left half of the realistic me, & the right side would be an artistic interpretation of me inside. The other piece would be the same in reverse. Each piece would focus on two different views of who I am.

But this piece took on a life of its own. It didn’t want to be cut in half, and as I worked on her, she told me what to do.

This is the first flesh value.


This is the second. It’s a full bust and shows my shoulders and a little of my arms.


This is the third value. You can begin to see the outline of my face.


The fourth value shows shadow.


The fifth value.


The sixth value.


My eyes added. Don’t know why I don’t have a pic with the mouth. I used strong colors on the mouth — very red.


I am, by the way, creating these sections on a pressing sheet. In fact, I bought the Holy Cow pressing sheet just for this project.

This is the beginning of the hair.


Second value.


Third value.


Fourth value.


At this point, I pinned the sections up on the design board to see if they were working together. I even added a black sarong around my chest (because I’m just not THAT girl).


And then rather than add a solid background, I started cutting out black and white fabrics. Not sure why. I had a lot of them in my stash, small pieces, and I cut them into strips and arranged them by value.


And then I sewed on the flesh section. It was really humbling to see myself bald. I had a friend years ago who shaved her head in solidarity with another woman who lost her hair due to cancer treatments. I had not really thought about it before, but women invest some of their identity in their hair. I don’t know that I could have done the same & shaved it. What would I look like bald? I guess now I have an idea. It’s not as bad as I expected.


At this point in the appliqué, the interfacing underneath causes some wrinkling on the top. It’s a little unsettling, but when I rip it off the back and iron it, it will be flat again.

And then I pinned this piece on the wall and asked my muse what it needed next.

I considered adding a raven on my shoulder. I like ravens, but I didn’t think it would work well with the background. So after thinking about it for a while, I settled on a little yellow canary. She adds a nice punch of color to my shoulder. Canaries are also the birds that miners used take into the mines with them to judge the air quality. As they went about their work in a dangerous place, the bird kept them safe through their life.
This was my first try. Yellow is hard to do. I decided she was too dark.


So here’s my second try — much better. I also added some white highlights in the iris of the eyes.


Then I decided that I wanted her to be wrapped with vines, so I cut 1/4 strips of a green fabric on the bias and ironed them on in waves.


After appliquéing them down, they looked too plain, so I decided to embroider thorns on the vines.


And at this point, it’s just not quite right. The left eye is too plain compared to the right eye. So I added darker fabric and some black embroidery around the left eye. It’s the light side of the face, but it has to balance the right.


Subtle, but I think it makes a difference.

Did I think of Frida Kahlo’s self-portrait with thorns when I did this? At some point, I did. But this is my interpretation. Me and my canary.

She’s basted now and ready for quilting. The deadline for the exhibit I’m entering her in is still over a month away, but I have a lot to get done between now and then. The first week of March, the Wash & Wax exhibit will be hung at Jacksonville State University, and Leisa Rich and I are making 5 more Microbubbles (small framed pieces) and one more large piece — a triptych.

The Last Supper

From Sting to Sing

2

Back in late July (I had to look this up — I can’t believe how long I’ve been working in this piece), I had an idea for a new piece. I had finished up most of the work for the Wash & Wax exhibit and wanted to get back to realism. A SAQA call for entry created a spark of imagination, and I was off and running on a large ambitious piece.

The central figure in this piece is a vulture. This is the vulture with the first value.

vulture1

The second value.

vulture2

The third value.

vulture3

The fourth value. The bird really starts to come alive here.

vulture4

The fifth value.

vulture5

And the sixth value — all those really dark nooks and crannies.

vulture6

But there’s a lot more to this piece than just the vulture. There’s also a stained glass window. I knew that if I had the right fabric, I could fussy cut sections to give me the stained glass effect. I scoured the local quilt shops, but they just didn’t have what I needed. I ended up finding some Paula Nadelstern prints online, however, that were perfect.

This is the beginning. The drawing is under the pressing sheet so you can see where I’m going with this.

glass1

I originally picked a print in teal, but at the last minute, I also bought it in another color way and ended up using them both. I used the teal for the swirls and the purple/green/red for the main windows.

glass2

I had a very small piece of fabric in my stash that was perfect for the outer border. I had less than a fat quarter, but I had just enough.

glass3

And then I added this black stained glass print for the leading (also a Paula Nadelstern print.)

glass4

I pinned it to my black design wall with the vulture to see how if they were working together.

glass & vulture

And then I kept going. I had a picture I had taken years ago of the brass lectionary podium in a church. I considered drafting out values and using flat cotton fabrics, but really, there’s a lot more choices in that fabric store beyond cottons. I found this metallic gold spandex nylon that has a black shadow to it. It’s stretchy, but what the heck. I figured the Wonder Under would help stabilize it.

I was still able to cut out some fairly complex shapes without it falling apart. This is a part of a screen section.

brass1

And this is part of the larger structure. I didn’t take many pictures of the lectionary as I worked on it. Suffice it to say that I had luckily cut out all of the complex parts before I broke my wrist — my right wrist.

brass2

That was on Labor Day. I was in the middle of curating a show at The Art Place and preparing for the opening of Wash & Wax. Thankfully, the only work I had left for the opening was to hand sew the binding of a 9 foot long piece. With a cast on my right arm, I would insert the needle with the right hand, and then pull it through & out with the left.

This shows the lectionary completed with a wooden railing at the top, the stained glass window, and other elements.

background without vulture

And here is the vulture in his place. I did, by the way, appliqué each piece on to the background as I went. I couldn’t risk the spandex stretching out of control on me, and it didn’t stick as well as I would have liked with the Wonder Under — but working one piece at a time, I worked through it like a large puzzle.

background with vulture

This pic is blurry (the sheen off that metallic fabric was confusing the camera in my iPhone), but it shows the addition of the Arabic symbol for Nazarene spray painted on the back wall.

background with Nazarene

And then of course I had to add the spilled wine and broken bread at the bottom — symbolizing the broken blood and body of Christ — which also symbolizes the broken body and blood of Christians being murdered in the Middle East.

background with wine & bread

And even though I was in a lot of pain, I just kept going. Entries were due October 31, and I had spent too much time on this piece to miss the deadline.

I really worried about quilting this large piece. I still had my cast on, and I knew it would be heavy. I debated renting time on a long arm at the local quilt shop, but I finally realized that that was a new skill for me, and I really didn’t want this to be a practice piece for quilting.

So I moved all of my tables in my studio. In front of my machine, I have a board (which sits on my ironing board), and I put one table on the other side of that. Then I crammed another one just to the left of my chair. (I briefly envisioned creating a sewing table built like a doughnut.)

In the end, it worked. It supported the quilt perfectly, and I was able to quilt this in a week.

In this pic, you can see how the quilting outlines the vulture’s neck and defines his feathers better.

quilted vulture

At about this time, I got my cast off, only to learn that I had lost 50% range of motion in my wrist. But I just kept going. I managed to add the facing and the sleeve to the back. And then I photographed it myself. I bought some more lights since the piece is so large (once again wishing I had a Speedlite flash), but after spending a couple of days on it (and wishing I had someone I could just take it to), I finally got some good, sharp pics for entry.

I entered it a week before the deadline. I was so proud of myself. I loved how the piece turned out, and I felt confident that it would be a great contender for inclusion in the show. You can see the full piece on its page The Last Supper.

The Last Supper

I was wrong. My rejection email came this morning. However, I’m still very proud of this piece, and I was pushed to develop a complex story for my subject. I wouldn’t change a thing.

So I take the sting of rejection, and I move on. I will enter it somewhere else, and it will have a life. It didn’t fit in that show, but it will fit somewhere else. I just have to figure out where next is.

2015 IQA Auction

1

Everyone is getting ready to go to Houston next week, and it makes me sad that I won’t be there. I’ve been there the last two years — but I didn’t have anything new to enter. All of the work I’ve made in the last 18 months has gone into the Wash & Wax exhibit. It was at Abernathy in Sandy Springs, GA through October 18th. Four of the pieces will hang in a private gallery in Buckhead, GA in January. The entire exhibit will show at Hammond Gallery at Jacksonville State University in Jacksonville, AL in March, and then an abbreviated version of the show will travel to TX in the summer.

Where have I been lately? In the melee of curating Formidable Fibers and finishing up Wash & Wax, I fell and broke my right wrist, which is my dominant hand, on Labor Day. I was given a removable cast and told only to take it off to shower. When the cast came off a couple of weeks ago, the wrist was 80% healed, but I had lost 50% mobility. The good news is that I’ve become fairly ambidextrous. The bad news is that typing really hurts. Even now after some physical therapy. So baby steps.

But since everyone is going to Houston next week, I wanted to share the one piece I did make and send — a piece for the IQA Auction. (I did, by the way, complete this just before breaking my wrist.)

I spent a while contemplating what to do. I was close to completing everything for Wash & Wax, but I had started an entry for a SAQA show whose deadline is October 31. I considered making a complete face, but I didn’t really have time to do it justice. However, they asked for something in our signature style, so I felt as if I should do something along the lines of a portrait. Last year I did a cardinal. Small format work is hard for me.

I finally decided that I could do a set of eyes peeking through a slot in a door — rather like the woman peeking through Amy Pond’s reality in Doctor Who. This is the first two skin values.

seen1

This is the third. Still hard to see without the irises of the eyes for reference.

seen2

Four and five give enough definition, but he still looks rather like a zombie.

seen3

The last value gives you the exaggerated curve of the questioning eyebrows.

seen4

And finally, the eyes. For inspiration, I used a picture I took of my husband soon after we were married. I even managed to match his eye color fairly well.

seen5

And here he is peeking through the door.

seen6

I changed how I did this face — subtly, but I like how it turned out. I usually don’t start any part of the eyes until the end. In this instance, I filled in the whites of the eyeballs in the beginning when I laid down the other lightest values in the face. It makes then recede a little bit more.

seen7

So if you get a chance, stop by the Auction Booth at IQA while you’re in Houston next week and make a bid on one of the fabulous pieces they’ll have. And if someone would snap a quick pic of mine on the wall with the other work and then email it to me, I’d be very grateful.

The Creative Soul

0

The creative soul is a delicate thing. I’ve been working mine tirelessly. Between freelance editing work and getting ready for the Wash & Wax exhibit with Leisa, I haven’t stopped to take a breath in a while. But today I finally had to.

I made a fabric chatelaine. I had seen the one that Pam Holland made on her blog a few months ago, and it got me thinking. It would be nice to have something to hold the tools of my trade so I wasn’t constantly losing them or leaving them on the opposite side of the room from where I needed them.

I even found several patterns online, but all of them were not what I was looking for. Pam doesn’t have a pattern that she followed, but I went back to her blog so I could look at her additions — how she attached the pin cushion, for example — and try as I might, I can’t find her blog post anymore. She didn’t call it a chatelain, and all of my searching has been fruitless.

So I gave up today and took out my priest’s stole pattern — Simplicity 7950. (By the way, I remember having to go to some trouble to locate this pattern many years ago when I made a stole for a friend. I’m fairly certain it’s been discontinued but can sometimes be found on eBay.) I shortened it so it would fall a little below my waist. (In all honestly, there was a fold in the pattern about where I wanted it to be and I went with that.) Then I pulled black and white remnants and cut it out. I used a scroll pattern for the top, a black with a subtle bubble texture on the back. I cut out four pockets from scraps, making sure the bottom pockets were tall enough to hold Sharpies (I may stitch lines to separate them and make them stand up later) and the top pockets were tall enough to hold my cell phone. There’s still a lot of space at the top. Later, I’ll add a ring to hold my new TJ Lane thimble (I still have to make the beaded holder), a ring for an extendable wire to hold light scissors, and then maybe a small pin cushion. I consider it a work in progress.

Chatelain

And then for dinner, I bought whole canned tomatoes, a basil plant, and fresh zucchini and squash and have made the best sauce for dinner. Between generous amounts of olive oil, garlic, red pepper flakes, fresh basil, tomatoes, and roasted zucchini and squash, my whole house smells delicious. (I did add ground turkey for my husband so he wouldn’t think I had gone completely granola on him and start raiding the fridge a half hour after dinner.)

Leisa and I met a week or so ago with Lauren Bernazza, our curator, to look over what we have so far. The piece that’s going to cover the big wall is massive, but we decided that we needed some large solid pieces to pull everything together, so I’ve made about 20 more of those — and these are all very large. I just have to quilt them. They’re sitting on the floor in my studio. They’ll have to wait for now.

I also received #7 back from Leisa. This was the one that I had intended to cut up into mini framed pieces — but once it was done, I knew that it wouldn’t work, so it’s become an extra piece in our exhibit. We have room. I spray basted it yesterday, and it’s all ready for quilting, too.

I also spent a week or so ago cutting up 8 mini’s from the fabrics I used in #7. I used all the same background fabrics and then freehand cut shapes in blue, red, and yellow. Leisa has already transformed them, and we’ve bought frames for them.

#8 is a piece that we’ve been talking about for a long time. It is the only piece not appliquéd — it is a photo transferred directly on to fabric. I used Spoonflower, and although the print is a little dark, it will work fine. Our original intention was to hang it lengthwise so that it would be taller than the wall and spill out onto the gallery floor towards the viewer, but once we had the fabric in hand, we preferred it lengthwise. Leisa has it now. She’s been adding sparkly fabric and embroidery. I’m not sure when I’ll get it back. She’s much more possessive with this one — but I’m really okay with that. I have my hands full finishing #7 and those 20 more free form pieces.

I sat down last night and updated the website for the series. Although I’ve shown a lot of in process pics on my website, we’ve decided not to share the final pics on the website until the opening of the exhibition. I have updated all of the pages with the exhibit name “Wash & Wax” — I should have done that ages ago — and I added an announcement with a closeup pic of one of the pieces and details on the opening and our workshop on every page.

As of this month, pieces #1 through #6 are completed. #7 and #8 are still in progress, as is the large wall installation piece. Leisa is also planning an interactive piece using actual car wash strips and has framed her inspiration photographs. It’s going to be a fantastic show, and we’re all ready starting to plan other venues for it to travel to.

Update: And the reason I didn’t find the chatelaine on Pam Holland’s website is because what I was looking for was on Jenny Bowker’s website. It’s here — much more colorful than mine. I’ll definitely be adding a pin cushion like hers.

The Best of Intentions

0

One of the last pieces that Leisa and I planned for our collaboration was a piece that we planned to cut into 12 smaller pieces that we would then frame and sell individually. I planned it to be a size that would split easily into 12 pieces and would fit in the size frame we chose with some extra to pull around to the back.

The best of intentions. So in my notes, I’ve been referring to this piece as Abstract-Mini’s.

I started with the red. I shared this on my Facebook to give a taste of what the new piece would be like.

abstract7_1

And here is all the red laid out. I put on the grays only if they fell within the color areas I was working on.

abstract7_2

Then I added yellow. Should have really done it first. Tucked it under the red.

abstract7_3

And here are the blues — with a little bit of orange up in the right-hand corner.

abstract7_4

Then I had to go back to the store because I didn’t have nearly enough gray. I had promised Leisa the appliqué of this last week, and so I was really pressed for time. When I came home to wash it (because I always wash my fabric before I use it), I realized my washing machine had died. It was full of soaking wet towels. The engine still worked, but a belt had broken so the tub couldn’t spin out all the water.

So I triaged all the towels across my deck. Unlike in other countries, hanging laundry in the yard is largely frowned upon here. It is certainly against my HOA rules, but I didn’t have a lot of choices.

And for my new fabrics, I set them to boil in my extra large ceramic pot on the stove. Boiling is actually better for getting out excess dye, and while I had it going, I rewashed all my new reds, too. (One of them had crocked onto some of the gray fabric all ready.)

By early Sunday, it was all cut out. I pinned it on my design wall and took a pic.

abstract7_5

It’s much calmer than the other pieces. There isn’t as much darkness, and the grays give a lighter feeling of the soapiness in the car wash. I liked it, but I started to see that it wasn’t going to cut up well at all.

I did tell Leisa about my concern and told her that I’d leave her with the final decision. We set a meeting for today.

This morning, I had some time and decided that the dots in the pattern of the gray fabrics didn’t add enough texture, so I started randomly cutting out bubbles and adding them. I think it looks better. (The color is also better overall since it’s daylight in my studio at the time I took the pic versus nighttime in the pic above.)

abstract7_6

We met at Starbuck’s, and she agreed — this wouldn’t cut up well into 12 pieces. Each of the 12 pieces needs to have a lot of detail. The scale of this is wrong for that. This will, however, still be a wonderful piece in its entirety. I have changed its temporary name to abstract #7.

And now Leisa has it to work her embroidery magic on. I also gave her #5. It’s done except for a sleeve on the back. She wants to spend a couple of weeks hand-stitching on that one.

The planned abstract #7 will now become #8. It will be digitally printed onto fabric, and I will share more on that piece at a later time. We both agreed that we love that inspirational piece too much to not include it in the show.

I still have to do 12 mini’s, though. I am planning to cut them more organically using the fabrics that I used in #7.

So I’m behind — and yet ahead.

My new washing machine comes tomorrow. When I picked it out, I told the salesman, it has to be a top loader, it has to accept high sudsing detergent (which any quilter that uses synthrapol knows — and which means no High Efficiency), and the basket has to be big because I do a lot of laundry. There were two choices. I went with the Whirlpool. I suspect that the next time I have to buy a washing machine, I won’t have a choice but to buy an HE. Let’s hope they’ve worked out the problems with them by then.

I’m also working on an article about the collaboration for the SAQA Journal. Leisa and I talked about the draft today, and this afternoon, I spent a couple of hours rephotographing three of the pieces in my studio on a white background. It took me a couple of hours to get the pics where I felt like they would be good enough. I understand why people pay a professional photographer. One shot can take a really long time.

Home Stretch

0

I haven’t been very motivated to write much recently, but I have been getting a lot of studio time in. I think I’m just growing weary. Preparing for a big two-person show like this has been interesting — and a lot of work. At this point, everything is fairly planned, & it’s the execution that remains.

I finished quilting #5 — the really big one. So glad I bought a big cone of red thread for this. I love the trapunto I put in all the yellow areas, but now I’m debating how to finish off the edges. I had planned on facing it, but I’m not sure how that would work with so many layers of batting along the top edge. I might use a red and blue binding, although that would mean yet another trip to the fabric store since my last 2 pieces took all my good red & blue fabric pieces & reduced them to scraps. For now, I’ve put it aside. Leisa wants to add some handwork, so I’ll pass it back to her.

I picked up #6 yesterday & started quilting it. I had to take off all the strips Leisa had pinned on there. I numbered them & took pics — I even made some marks with my erasable white pen (though it’s almost empty & I can’t see most of the marks now).  Not sure if I can get them in exactly the same place, but I’ll do my best. Figured they could wait until after its quilted — maybe even bound (or faced).

And then I’ve started planning out one that I’ll cut into a smaller pieces to be framed. It’s still in draft mode, but it’s been started.

After that, other than the pieces for the big wall installation — & another big installation piece that Leisa’s planning for the middle — there’s one left. I’ll call it #7. (I promise to give them better names eventually.) I think that I’ll have it printed from a manipulated digital image directly on to the fabric rather than another appliqué piece. Maybe 3 panels. Different from the others. 

Home stretch.

Abstract #6 Cut 

0

You may not realize it, but I work on deadlines — by the ones laid out by exhibitions and shows and the ones I set for myself. I have a calendar that I mark with all important dates for shows I’m interested in entering. If I’m not diligent in keeping track, I would be guilty of promising a piece of work at more than one place at the same time, and because I’m a professional, I work hard to make sure that doesn’t happen.

However, at least twice in the past year, I’ve had shows that I’ve entered change their dates mid-stream. I’ve entered the show knowing that I’ll have until X date to be notified as to whether it will be included or not in the show, and after that date, if it isn’t accepted, I can enter it somewhere else.

Friday, I spent the afternoon looking at my inbox. Finally, at 5 o’clock, I went to the website for the show and found that they had changed their notification date. Today (4 days later), I received an email with an apology and announcement of the new notification date. <sigh> <shakes head> This show was a long shot for me, and quite frankly, I had another show I was going to enter it into, but now I can’t do that. I suppose if I win the lottery and get in, I won’t mind a bit, but chances are good that notification day will be a bit more bitter than if they had just given notification on time. <grumble grumble>

I have been cruising through #6 in the abstract series.  This collaboration with Leisa Rich is called Wash & Wax and will premiere at The Abernathy Arts Center in Sandy Springs this coming September.

We met a couple of weeks ago and planned on it having the appliqué in one section and embellishment after quilting from Leisa in another section that would overlap mine.

The majority of the appliqué is red. I started with a new fabric for the first value, something peachy pink, a little hard to find in my local quilt shop. (It’s hard to find a pink that will work as a first value for red without screaming PINK.)

I then used up the secondary red color from #5 as my secondary value here as well. I planned out all of the pieces on my remaining fabric, and after it was all fused down, I found two pieces that didn’t make it to the ironing board, and I didn’t have enough of the building print to accommodate them. Rather than panic, I found a solid hand-dyed fabric that I had made several years ago. It isn’t textured, but it makes a decent substitution. Once all of the other fabrics are on there, I don’t think it’ll be noticeable at all.

The third value is also from #5, and I used up almost all of it. I only have a few very small scraps left.

I changed my fourth value for this one. I didn’t think that there was enough contrast between the red pinecones and the 5th value in #5, so this time, I found a red print of wings in my stash that’s been there at least 10 years. I like the movement it adds here.

And my fifth value is the same as what I used in #5, but it shows up better with the wing fabric.

I hope it’s obvious by now that this piece is less about color interpreted through water and more about the machinery that washes the car with strips of fabric. I have done all of the red in appliqué. The majority of the blue will be embellishment attached to the top after it’s quilted.

There’s a little yellow in the corner to show where the light is coming from.

And then this is a blotch of blue where all of the blue embellishment will go. I just wanted to put a dark fabric here that would be a background for the strips put on top, a better choice than the white.

I’m meeting with Leisa again later this week. She’s done embroidering #5 so I can start quilting it, and I’ll give her #6 to start on. If you remember, #5 is very large — 60″ x 48″ — so I suspect quilting it will be a bear. I had to order more batting for it.

Right now I’m quilting some of the smaller pieces for the wall installation piece. So much to do — so little time.

Construction of Free Floating Abstract Pieces

1

I haven’t written much about the free floating piece that will cover one long wall of the gallery in our two-person show, partly because it has been an exercise in experimentation to see what would work. I think I’ve gotten better as I’ve gone along and thought that I would share some of my wisdom.

In these examples, Leisa has constructed the main pieces — the fronts. She has used either the skeleton or the brown polka dot fabric as a stabilizer (since she has all ready embroidered them at this point). The pink fabric will be the actual backing of each piece.

Here, I have placed the actual piece face down on the pink backing fabric (right sides together) — and I have taped down the backing fabric to keep it flat. I have merely rough cut it so that it is big enough for each particular piece. I pinned them together, checked the back to make sure it was smooth (making adjustments as needed), and then sewed them together at the 1/4″ mark with a basting stitch — leaving, of course, an unstitched area about 6″ long through which I can turn (or pillowcase) this later. Remember, I’ve sewn right sides together, so at this point, I have wrong sides facing out.  I will later turn them right sides out. (Backstitch a few times at the beginning and ending — there’s a lot of tugging on these to turn them right sides out.)

abstract_wall_1

When I first started doing these, I did not do this basting step. I merely layered the batting (2 layers of fluffy polyester), the backing, and the front. I didn’t worry too much because of the thickness of the batting. It was my goal to lightly quilt them so that each piece would be more sculptural than a flat quilt.

The economics finally won out, however, and at some point, we realized that there were so many of these, we would have to be content with one layer of batting. Well, that changes the game. At that point, I have to worry about puckering on the back.

After basting, I cut the pink backing even with the front.

abstract_wall_2

Then I rough cut out a piece of batting, placing it underneath the backing, and pin all of those layers together.

abstract_wall_3

I sewed a smaller stitch length on top of the previous one. In this example, the basting is white thread, the tighter stitch is black thread. Again, I leave the opening for turning.

abstract_wall_4

Afterward, cut the batting (only) as close to the stitched line as possible. Also cut the batting from the section where there is no stitching, guess-timating where the stitching would be.

abstract_wall_5

 

Before turning these right side out, you need to clip corners. (And yes, I forgot a few times and had to turn them back to clip them.) Clip the inside corners as close to the stitching as possible without clipping the stitching line. No worries if you do — just re-sew the line where you cut it before continuing.

abstract_wall_6

On the outside corners, trim all of the layers close to the the stitches. You want to minimize the bulk in the corners so they will lay as flat as possible after turning.

abstract_wall_7

At this point, you turn the piece right sides out. On one of these, since I have three layers, I turned it right sides with batting on the outside. I was on the phone and not thinking about what I was doing. Turn it so the backing and the front are facing right sides out.

And then, another step I added after several problems, the end result is much better if you take the time to steam the edges flat. Although the long edges are fairly tame swooping curves, I have some sharper shapes on the ends, and ironing them flat (from the back since I have some plastic pieces on the front) ensured that the back behaved.

Also iron down the unsewn edge through which you pulled the piece right sides out, folding along the seam allowance — being very careful to make sure that the end result pulls taut from the opposite corner on the back. If you don’t check, you will invariably end up with a little extra on the back. Pin that section to keep it in place (pin on the front).

abstract_wall_8

Then flip back to the front side and sew a topstitch 1/4″ from the edge all the way around. This will also close the opening that we used for turning.

abstract_wall_8.5

Then quilt. Although I generally quilt my pieces to death, these are meant to be more sculptural. That’s partly why we chose to use the polyester instead of the flatter cotton batting. I quilted them in sections so that some areas rise up.

This is one of the turned pieces.

abstract_wall_9

The intention is to hang them on the wall independently, meaning that its presentation will be specific to the individual exhibition.

I toyed with the idea of using this same technique on abstract #4 — which is sitting on my design wall, ready to be quilted — since we’ve discussed making its edges irregular as well. The abstract wall pieces are small and I could get away without pin basting them. However, turning abstract #4 would require basting — and I can’t pin baste many of these because of the added plastics. I also know that intense quilting stretches the fabric, and not having a place for it to go could be problematic.

After research, I’ve decided that I will spray baste it, as I’ve done several of the others, and then after quilting, I’ll add large strips to the front which I’ll use as facing and turn to the back. Of course, I will then have to hand sew the facing down on the back, and we know I don’t love hand sewing — but I think it’s the best solution. I’ll add a sleeve after the facing is done.

Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

Abstract #5 Comes Together

0

All of my studio time nowadays is dedicated to completing the projects for the two-person show I’m collaborating on with Leisa Rich to be debuted in October. Last week, while she was working on #4, I drafted #5 and started cutting it out.

Leisa asked me to go big on this one — so that is what I did. I went to the limits of what I could currently handle in my studio for this kind of project — 48″ x 60″. I had to have a surface large enough to fuse the shapes onto my canvas. Since my table wasn’t large enough, I ended up laying one of my design walls flat on the floor — it was exactly 48″ wide.

And for the pattern, for the first time in years, I used the services of a blueprint company and a vector program. My copy of CorelDraw was woefully out of date, and I don’t have a PC anymore, so I ended up purchasing iDraw which worked perfectly for my purposes. (Even after 15 or so years, my Wacom Graphire 4 tablet continues to be a workhorse for me.) I created the pattern and emailed it to the local shop. I did spend some time talking to them about what I wanted though because a print of this size can cost upwards of $80. I had it printed out on inexpensive paper on their 36″ wide printer and then taped the two pieces together (the final cost was under $10).

I also had to buy some rather large pieces of red fabric for this. I didn’t have anything in my stash nearly large enough.

Here you see it with all the yellows, blues, and dark purples.

abstract5_1

 

And here you see the beginnings of the red.

abstract5_2

Lots and lots of red. For this particular value, I had to buy 2 yards, and the largest piece still had to be spliced in one place because it was wider than 42″ (the width of the fabric).

abstract5_3

And this is the final piece. I don’t know that my iPhone did the best job in the world, but it’s fine for an in-process shot. I think that this one is the most evocative of the car wash theme that we’ve done so far.

abstract5_4

To be honest, I was surprised at the huge leap between value 4 and 5 — and that 6 didn’t stand out very well against value 5– but after cutting out almost 2 yards of value 5, I wasn’t willing to start over. It still accomplishes what I wanted it to. There is a lot of room for Leisa to go wild on the embroidery — can’t wait to see what she does with this one.

The last time we met, she gave me some more pieces to work on for the large wall piece, and I still have #4 to quilt. Lots to do.

Art, Work, & Life

0

I didn’t post on my blog last week. There was a tide of work and life that consumed me and overtook my time. I stole some hours here and there, but I didn’t meet my weekly art goals.

I think everyone struggles with balance. I have work that helps pay the bills, I have a family to take care of, and I have my art that I need — just for me. All three constantly pulling.

I had recently finished cutting out and fusing the 4th abstract piece in the series I’m collaborating on with Leisa Rich. This is what it looked like when I gave it to her.

abstract4_6

And she spent a couple of weeks on it. There is a tremendous amount of embroidery stitching on it now — and these very cool things cut from canvas that she printed images on through her printer (have to make a note to try that) as well as vinyl (some in blue!). There is also this cool fabric that’s blue and orange that adds the hot colors more along the bottom.

abstract4_7LR

I love it!

Leisa suggested that I finish this as an irregular shape — not a rectangle. The technical person in me started immediately thinking about how I could do that. We’re also doing some free-form shapes and I pillowcase them — which means I sew the backing onto the front (right sides together) with an opening on the side — and then turn it right side out and topstitch the sides down. That would work here — but I wouldn’t want the edge topstitched on such a large piece. I would just need to hold down that seam while I quilt it — so I’m thinking maybe a water soluble thread. However, if I do this, I can’t quilt it heavily — there would be no place for any stretching to go.

I’ll think on that for a while. For now, I’m still cutting and fusing #5. I should have been done by now, but life keeps getting in the way. Hopefully, I can make a lot more progress this week.

I forgot to take pics of the free floating pieces. These are smaller pieces that Leisa is constructing — and then I’m quilting them and doing the finishing work (or rather in this case, I’m pillowcasing and topstitching the edges of them, which is the finishing, and then quilting them.) Each of these will hang independently on a very large wall and can be moved around depending on the exhibit space. They are less like quilts and are more sculptural in design.

We’re making great progress. I have at least 3 more pieces to plan, but we have until October when the show opens here in Atlanta.

Go to Top