Thanks, Bob

The pre-Easter puttering paid off over this past weekend, giving me the boost I needed to try some new things, and put together four more pieces for the upcoming Lacombe Art Show & Sale.

Inspiration for three of them came from my friend Bob, whom I met in a prior life 😉.  I lived in Calgary then, and as an aspiring writer (long story) joined the Alexandra Writer's Society.  He was a member too, and both of us served on the organization's Board for a few years.  I was the librarian for the Society, and he...I think he was Chair or something important like that!

Now both of us write blogs -- and both make visual art: textiles for me, photography for him.

My first effort from his work was a mini, sold long ago -- so long ago that I had to dig the photo of it out of an old blog post; it wasn't in my files!

A Silvery Moon, An Orange Sky and Dhow

Friday's snowstorm found me in the studio with three of Bob's photos -- and one of my own -- in mind, digging through my books, working in my sketchbook.

This first one he took on a trip to Grenada -- and the aquas and blues seen through the skeleto of what must have been a home, once, simply captivated me.

I also knew I could get very caught up in the details of it, so I tried to break it down by printing it in black and white...

And then with an effect called "old photograph"...

In the end I took the colour photo, tracked a grid over it, and narrowed in on one section.  I did a colour study of that isolated bit, and then attempted to recreate it in a rather abstracted way. 

Grid and colour study with fabric scraps

I quilted it on a piece of white craft felt, stitching down the edges; it finished at 8" x 10", and added touches of water-colour pencil here and there as I felt called.  Then I secured it with matte gel medium to a 12" x 12" canvas that I'd painted to give it a 'tropical' feel.  I'll take it to be put in a floater frame later this week:

In light of all the hurricanes in that part of the world this past year,
I've titled it After the Storm: Grenada. 
Fabric collage, machine quilted on felt, painted;
 applied to stretched canvas. 
12" x 12" before framing

Can you tell which section I used?  Here's a hint:

I then moved on to something more "inside my box"...a pair of small canvases (5" x 7") that will be framed this week too.  Here's a photo of the prep of the backgrounds; both inspirational photos are of Alberta scenes that Bob took on drives around the countryside:

And here's one, finished and ready for framing...

I'm not sure of a title just yet...these are either old barns or grain bins near Beiseker, Alberta, taken on a wintry evening where faint pink hints of the Aurora in the starry sky added to the odd colouring of the snow on the ground.  "Beiseker Barns" just sounds too..."cute".  If anyone has an idea, just leave a comment -- with my thanks!

Inspired, I continued to play with paint, working finally on a piece of light-weight scrap canvas my framer gave me.  It had some discoloured spots, so I washed it, and in drying it, squeezed it, meaning that despite ironing (under a pressing cloth, on the side without gesso priming), it retained a bit of a 'crinkled' look.  I decided I liked that, as it gave an interesting texture to the painted surface. 

Un-stretched canvas, painted

You can see the inspirational photo at the top. I took it on my way to the studio of my long-arm quilter, Sylvia, who lives north-east of here just a wee bit.

Once it was painted, I put it under the needle, and added a bit more colour with water-colour pencils:

Then I found a mat for it -- thanks to some cast-offs recycling from my former water-colour teacher, Sharon Lynn Williams of Calgary, who went back to work in acrylics, oils and encaustic after several years of working in water-colour.

It's a good big mat (the canvas is 9" x 11") -- a double mat, in fact, and too me, it suits the piece down to the ground.  Before attaching it to the mat, I applied the piece to a slightly larger piece of mat board, again using mat gel medium.

I've decided, however, not to frame this one.  Whoever buys it can frame it the way they want to.  I just propped it in this stand for the photo:

End of the Road (C) 2018

All in all, it's been a good five or six days.  Today...taking it a bit easier, working on string blocks for that larger piece I've mentioned before, and which is still very much a work in progress.

It's snowing here (again!) today -- thick, fat flakes that melt on the pavement but pile up on the old snow and any icy patches that remain from earlier 'melts's, and there are plenty of those.

I'm seriously thinking of curling up for a nap, but before I do, I'll link this to WIP Wednesday over at The Needle and Thread Network, and leave you with this photo of the third (of three) blocks for The Quilt Show's 2018 Block of the Month, which I also finished this past weekend.  Sometimes, after original work, my brain needs a break, so I go back to piecing.  Ahhhhh....

Have a great rest of the week, everyone! 

Finally...

In some things, progress; in others -- finishes!

I have some hand work to do on the facing and label (stitch down on the back), but this collage from Pamela's "About Contrast" class -- Week 2, a two-colour study -- is essentially finished:

Big Sky Country: Autumn at the Slough Redux
(C) 2014

I'd planned to free-motion it but it turns out the fusible I used (the last bit of Steam-a-Seam I could get in a new shop in Red Deer) was too thick/gooey/gummy -- because it wasn't SAS 2 *Lite* -- and even with a metallica #90 needle the stitches skipped and refused to "play nicely".

How did I know it was the fusible causing the problem?

1. Changing the position of the thread from horizontal to vertical didn't help;
2. Changing the needle to a very sharp thin one didn't help;
3. The thread and the bobbin thread were compatible weights;
4. Free-motion worked only on a sandwich sample that didn't have the fusible in it.

So...I put on my walking foot with the metallica needle and straight-stitched the thing.  Trimmed it to finish at 15" W x 14" L with facing.  Not a party piece but I rather like it.  Might even be able to sell it.  :-)  As a reminder, the inspirational photo is this one:

Then I painted the "larger" version of "Gems on the Beach", and wrapped it around its 8" square stretched canvas:

Beach at Noyac (C) 2014
Photo credit: Jane Cochran

And then I put the "sample" of the same piece into it's black mat...all dressed up and ready to go!

Members of Fifteen by Fifteen

In addition to the "finishes", I'm nearly there on the "Sheep Virtues" piece for my friend, B...and have a knitted cowl and hat to tidy up (they've been washed) and photograph...And labels have been made and applied to the two 15 x 15 pieces I am preparing to ship to France for Quilt Expo Beaujolais (deadline: they need to have received them by March 28). (See photo at left. Aren't we a great looking group?!)

I still have to figure out what I'm doing for our current theme, "Contrast", due March 31...I can't go with the collage (above) because it's too small, but perhaps there's hope for the piece with trees...or something new altogether!

We're under a Wind Chill Warning here (down to close to -40 over night, which is pretty much the same think in Fahrenheit or Celsius) so I may be hibernating for a couple of days and will get these -- and the sheep! -- finished.

Meanwhile, because I still can, I'm linking up to Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday...and then I'm curling up with a hot cuppa and a good book.  'G'night!  :-)

Back in the Saddle

with 'shadow' applique in the C&G program.  Activities 6 and 7 of Module 7 had me sampling sheer fabrics -- first, pasting an inventory in my sketchbook, and then, creating a basted sample collage, layered with a sheer and set aside to be worked with later.  I filled 4 pages with my bits of sheer fabric; here's a sample of my swatches:

Some are stuck in with glue; others, with sticky dots I got at a scrap-booking shop. (Some of the sheers didn't stick with simple glue.)

For my collage, I used a background of hand-dyed fabric, with shapes (positive and negative) of commercial solid-coloured fabric and "printed" sheer fabric, with a slice of white cheesecloth for texture:

Then I auditioned several sheer overlays for my little collage sample:

Black sheer overlay

Gold...

Grey...

Shot blue...

It was a bit of a toss-up; which one do you think I selected for basting to the background? (Note: my tutor, Linda, was partial to the grey...)

Sitting With It

I'm back in the classroom studio with my City & Guilds work, Module 7 now.  This module focusses on applique techniques of all kinds, beginning with 'bonded' or 'fused' applique design.  We're to re-visit our sketchbooks for intriguing shapes, creating templates in different sizes, and then auditioning shapes, fabrics and lay-outs for a fabric collage.

Here are my shapes, glued to light-weight cardboard (the back of a case used for cans of 'fake beer' -- the name my late hubby gave to my favourite soft drink, non-alcoholic beer).  I have 2 sizes of each of four shapes -- a leaf, a spool, a bottle with stopper, and a semi-circle that's really half a large washer I found on a road some time last year while out walking.  I've since found some full circles too.  Wonderfully heavy for tracing and using for sun-dyeing etc. -- but I digress.  :-)

This is the first composition I sent to Linda -- nothing fused, just placed.  All fabrics except the print are my own hand-dyes.  The print is just a wee piece of a large one given me by a friend who had a friend who was 'de-cluttering'.  (I never turn down donated fabric.  I can always find a use or another home for it!)  I wasn't sure about the pale pink version of the bottle on the right; I really liked the rest though.

Linda picked up on the leaf shapes, and suggested I do more with them, so I've just sent her this version, which I like much better:

(Pardon the cutting mat in the background!)  I realized the first version was 'nice', but not particularly ambitious.  This second version, I think, has more potential. You'll see I switched out the pale pink bottle for a print version (from whence came the negative shape on the upper left).  The larger leaf shapes at the bottom, in a finished piece, would actually dangle, perhaps from a pointed edge treatment (faced).  The quilting and applique stitches would deliberately unify the whole, suggesting stems and veins on the leaves, and echoing the curves in the shapes of both the bottle and the leaf motifs.  

For now, however, I have some other things going for the weekend, including a 50th Wedding Anniversary party for my friend B and her husband N (my cribbage buddies), and some time in my step-sis' garden at her cottage, weeding.  As for the collage, I'll be sitting with the design, and come back to it Monday or Tuesday with fresh eyes.

Oh...and I finished the beading on Block 19 for both Take A Stitch on (a) Tuesday (TAST) and the Crazy Quilt Journal Project (CQJP) -- I've submitted it for my June contribution.  Here it is in all its glittery glory:

TAST/CQJP - Featuring Half Chevron Stitch

Oh, and knitting?  Yes, there's some of that too.  Having enjoyed the soothing qualities of garter stitch for the past few months (the Dr. Who Scarf project), and having been given a shopping-bag-full of delightful, light-weight tweedy Patons Venus yarn in a yummy royal blue, I cast about for a simple cardigan for m'self.  I found the perfect pattern in Knitty's Spring-Summer 2011 edition -- the Corinne Cardigan.  It's a delightful knit based on a repeating short-row sequence, knit all-of-a-piece from side to side, and I was doing well till I split off for my first (the Left) sleeve.  Suddenly I wasn't all that certain I was going in the right direction.  I've found a helpful knitter on Ravelry who ran into a similar problem, and she's walking me through this tough patch.  Once I'm on track and have enough knit to show it off, I'll post a photo.  Promise!