A Quilt-centric Summer.....

Sometimes all deadlines seem to collide into one small window, right?   Usually, it seems to happen near the holidays but, for me, it happened in June.  Many deadlines came to a head, and a few unanticipated opportunities that I simply could not pass up.  So, what I am trying to say is that, at times, I am my own worst enemy.  It seems that a good deadline is often needed to propel me across the finish line with some of my art projects.
I will write a separate post about traveling to Cleveland to tape two segments for "Fresh Quilting", but I wanted to write about the studio activity surrounding that and other projects.

First, I wanted to show you our little "quilt-turning" while the San Antonio Modern guild 

had its retreat in Kerrville at the Creations retreat center.  Have you heard about it?

Creations is an amazing quilt shop:  so well-curated!  They purchased the house across their shop parking lot and renovated it into a fabulous retreat center.  We love driving up there twice a year!

The "camp counselors" organized this quilt turning and each attendee brought a quilt to discuss.  We toured each others' rooms to see the quilts.  Fun!

I was surprised and thrilled to see Urban Artifacts was being carried in the shop!

I reside on the same shelf as Marcia Derse, and that gives me a lot of joy...

I knew Marcia's fabric would play well with mine, and vice versa.

 Okay, so I probably didn't really have time to go on that retreat but I MADE time to go because I love my sister guild-members and I didn't want to miss out on the fun.  Our guild is the best, people.
There is such generosity of spirit, acceptance, and mutual support with very little "drama".  I am a happy member.

Hi from the studio!  I'm standing in front of part of my very-full design wall.

These UFO's are haunting me...

Now, here is what I worked on back in my home studio:

"Hedgehog Social" is a digitally-printed piece that is based on a quilt I constructed

last year.  I took the photo of the quilt and altered the colors in PicMonkey, 

then printed FQs on the Spoonflower site.

The beautiful graffiti quilting is done by Joanna Marsh.

The theme of the month was:  facing the quilts!!!

Joanna Marsh, of Kustom Kwilts and Designs did the marvelous quilting

that I denoted for this piece, as well as the beautiful graffiti-style work on the Hedgehog quilt

and all the obsessive matchstick quilting that I requested on the others below.

Her work is just amazing and I am grateful to be able to collaborate with her.

This is another digital piece, part of a series that has begun this summer.

It is called "Summer of Love: Psychedelic Produce" (I know... it is a bit crazy)

This is an altered image of a cross-cut Napa cabbage.

I improv-cut and re-pieced the central portions of all four cabbages.

If you look closely you will notice that there are two tones of pink and two tones of yellow, a "glowing" one and a "flat" one (hello Nancy Crow-language).

I love the way this little subtlety makes the quilt sparkle.

Isn't the quilting amazing?!

Here is the back, a custom-printed Tula Pink fabric.  Gorgeous!

I love to put facings on most quilts as I love the clean edge they create. 

My facing has a curved corner.

This piece was created with solids sent to me by the sponsor of my segment on Improv Piecing

for "Fresh Quilting" series 200.  The quilt was ruler-free cut with a rotary cutter and machine-pieced.

Joanna quilted it with narrow matchstick lines that are slightly organic.

By the way, my new and perfect batting combo for pieces that will go to shows is this:

Quilter's Dream Orient (a silk/cotton blend) as the base, topped with Quilter's Dream Wool.

This combo is lightweight, will quilt to a very low-loft, and the wool prevents creasing during shipping.  It is just what I have been searching for.  Most double-bats get so weighty! 

This is just great.

This quilt is another digitally printed image, altered in PicMonkey and printed FQs from Spoonflower.  The image was taken under the pier at Wrightsville Beach NC when I traveled there

to stay with a friend after Quiltcon Savannah.  I created the negative space borders to reference

the architectural details seen in the pier.  I love this quilt!

Same batting:  Quilter's Dream Orient topped with QD Wool.

Organically matchstick quilted by Joanna Marsh.

This quilt, called "Interchange I", is a ruler-free improv quilt I constructed 

as part of a Nancy Crow workshop called "Sets & Variables".  This had a specific 

set of parameters that I had to adhere to:  size and two blocks were high contrast value, 

the two others were to have colors that were of the same value.  It was

quite challenging!  The quilt was longarm quilted by the wonderful Gina Pina from Austin.

This quilt has a single wool batting and the quilting echoes the basic shapes of the 

composition in 1/2" lines.  

I need to get a full image shot of this quilt, another from the Improvisational exercises workshop,

an advanced workshop with Nancy Crow.  This may be one of my very favorite quilts ever made.

I love this quilt so much.  It is very special to me, and I am just teasing you with this "quilt pile"

on my sewing table.  I was frantically putting the facing on it before I went to tape the 

"Fresh Quilting" episodes.  You will see it hanging in that blog post....

Next up: a detail from  "Resist Tyranny", a curator-piece I constructed to be part of 

an exhibition called Threads of Resistance.  

and here I am in Lowell at the New England Quilt Museum, standing in front of the quilt.

At the reception held at the home of my friend Sue Bleiweiss, on the right.

L-R:  Judy Coates Perez, Michele Muska, myself, and Sue.

So.  That was a LOT of quilt finishing inside the month of June.  Plus, I went to Los Angeles for a concert at the Hollywood Bowl, flew to Cleveland for the taping of Fresh Quilting, and squeezed a quilt retreat into the mix.  Hey, it keeps me out of mischief.

Colorful Fabric Collage! Come play inside Sue Bleiweiss' new book!

When Sue Bleiweiss invited me to be a contributing artist in her new book I jumped at the opportunity to participate.  First, I like and respect Sue as an artist and author.  Second, I love to use fusible, and when I say fusible I am ONLY referring to Mistyfuse because it is the only kind I use!  It works beautifully on a wide variety of quilt and mixed media projects.  I love using Mistyfuse on both cloth and paper!  I work with silk organza a great deal.  Nothing, and I mean NOTHING will allow your sheers to look like they are supposed to:  transparent and with a lovely non-stiff hand, like Mistyfuse.

For my project in the book, a small piece called "Labels", I opted to use silk organza, a wool-blend felt for the substrate, and a wide variety of clothing labels.  I wanted to show how much fun it can be to work with silk organza (in this case, a piece of my hand-dyed) as the layering possibilities are endless.  I discovered how cool it is to cut two different shapes from (as it turns out) two different die cutting systems and create an entirely new look.

"Labels"

First, I pressed the felt, organza, and the clothing labels so they were as crease-free as possible.  

I applied Mistyfuse to the surface of the felt and the "wrong side" of the organza by placing a Goddess Sheet under and over the surfaces of each.  

Note:  This is one of the two places I use rechargeable electric scissors:

Cutting Mistyfuse off the roll is a breeze with these, especially when working with organza.

Organza tends to have a great deal of static electricity.

Once the felt piece was cool, I cut a second piece of Mistyfuse and overlaid it on the surface of the felt but did not fuse it.  With certain items I have discovered that a second piece fused to the first will often assist in containing things that are errant and loose, such as these wonky clothing labels.  The labels do NOT want to play nice, so the second layer of the Mistyfuse makes it mind better!

I took the organza and cut the Ricky Tims shape from my Accuquilt Go! cutter, the layered it onto the remaining uncut piece of organza.  This double layer of fused organza was then cut with the dress shape on the Big Shot cutter.  Magical!

Note:  I prefer laying the organza over the cutter so that the fusible side is facing up but it isn't 

necessary.  The main thing to remember if you are cutting more than one fused layer is to "stack" your pieces so the fusible sides are always separated.  They can get stuck together a bit and it will cause you a bit more work!

This die-cut piece is then overlaid onto the remaining piece of organza and fused.

The double-layered piece is then positioned over the dress die 

and run through the Sizzix cutter.

Yay!

I carefully placed the labels in some sort of closely organized mosaic over the surface of the felt (remember I have a loose layer of Mistyfuse there).  Once I have it the way I want it I fused it to the surface.  

Then I placed the dress in position and fused it.  One of the best parts about the organza is the layered transparency.  I love being able to see the clothing labels through the dress.  So much fun!

The original piece was very closely quilted in rows using my dual-feed on the Bernina 750QE.  

The book is available on amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1620336928/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3BRRCQ3CEFRP7&coliid=I1G6SU3YD7AFOR

and here's the interweave website link:

http://www.interweavestore.com/colorful-fabric-collage-grouped

Please be sure to stop by all the other blogs on this hop and leave a comment to be eligible for the giveaway!

May 4: Sue Bleiweiss: http://www.suebleiweiss.com/blog/

May 4: Jamie Fingal :http://www.jamiefingaldesigns.com/
May 5: Leslie Tucker Jenison: http://leslietuckerjenison.blogspot.com/
May 6: Terri Stegmiller : http://stegart.blogspot.com/
May 7: Deborah Boschert : http://deborahsjournal.blogspot.com/
May 8: Desiree Habicht : http://myclothesline.blogspot.com/
May 9: Kathy Sperino : http://finishinglinesbyksperino.blogspot.com/
May 10: Barb Forrister : http://www.barbforrister.com/blog/
May 11 Kathy York : http://www.aquamoonartquilts.blogspot.com/
May 12: Lyric Kinard : http://lyrickinard.com/lyric-kinard-blog/

  

Sue Bleiweiss' amazing new studio! Take the YouTube tour!

 I can't remember who first told me about Sue Bleiweiss.  I was looking for some unique hand-made journals, and a friend from the quiltart list sent me her way.  I believe it was Karen Stiehl Osborn, now that I think about it.  I was interested in purchasing several journals for my daughters as holiday gifts, plus one for myself.  I believe I have given several friends these lovely works of art.  They are so beautiful, inside and out.  Sort of like Sue.  Please stop by Sue's Etsy shop and take a peek at her beautiful art journals, and more.

You may recognize Sue's name from a variety of sources.  She has been featured in a multi-part article on studio construction in Studios magazine, published by Interweave.  She is also the facilitator of The Sketchbook Challenge, an online collaboration of mixed media, textile, and paper artists.   Recently, she posted a YouTube video tour of her new space.  It is absolutely "drool-worthy".