Tallis and bag and wedding collage

This piece was created as a wedding gift for Rebecca and Danny. I used parts of their invitation in a collage format.
It was great to work with paper for a change.

I was commissioned to create this tallis and matching bag with my friend, Maxine. She created the corner pieces and I put it all together. We enjoy collaberating on these projects and people definitely get one-of-a-kind tallit. For those who don't know - a tallis is a prayer shawl that is worn during Jewish services. When you put it over your head, you create your own sacred space within the congregation. A tallis is often given on a Bar or Bat Mitzvah when the child is considered an adult and can lead services as a full participant in the community.

Art pins

It has been playtime at my house this week and I have had the best time making unique pins out of Tyvek...yes, the stuff you see wrapped around houses when they are under construction. I paint it, melt it, add glitter and beads and a pin on the back and voila! I have a one-of-a-kind piece of wearable art.

I am selling them at the Artisan's Gallery in downtown Ashland and at Quiltz if you want a closer look. They are $10 a piece or two for $18.00. I have been wearing one on a vest for over a year and they hold up well. Once the plastic is melted, it is not going anywhere.

Here are a few examples. No two are alike and I could never repeat a shape even if I wanted to.

I think they are really fun!

Slick

Slick was created in pieces as a collage. I began with a batik that I purchased in Bali years ago. I cut it into pieces, layered it with batting and backing and quilted the pieces individually. I zig-zaged the edges to complete each piece. Then I carried them around with me and spent a lot of time adding stitching, beads and a wonderful fiber that I bought at the fly fishing store.
I quilted two other fabrics and played with the arrangement of them all. I still needed a lighter fabric to link the larger pieces so I created a new fabric using soy silk fiber. This fabric was cut into narrow strips and sewn between some of the other pieces.
I allowed pieces to overlap each other as the collage grew and took shape. It reminds me of an oil slick and the colors that we see reflected in oil thus the name.

I also used large sequins in places to cover circles that I didn't like in the batik!

The finished piece is pretty large and would cover a wall nicely. I loved the process and plan to do it again. It is the perfect way to feature unique fabrics.

Beach art

My art group spent a few days camping at the beach and we challenged ourselves to create art from found objects. We did use glue and wire to hold things together but almost everything else came from nature.
Wendy created this wonderful 3D piece using lots of driftwood, seaweed and a feather. I particularly like the circular shell that hangs off the end in the upper right hand corner.

Patty made two creations...one using crab shells and a feather and the other using dried seaweed and shells. She mounted everything on a board.

Maya created a self-portrait using colored pencils, shells and wire. Do you see the resemblance?

Karen made two projects - one using

driftwood and shells.

The other was inspired by Wendy's 3D piece. It uses seaweed and lots of shells.

Here is a close up.





Denise painted her background and used shells, feathers, seaweed and driftwood. The two pieces on the left side dangle from her work.

We all had a wonderful time - stretching ourselves in the process.

In Stitches

In Stitches is a show that the Rogue Art Quilters created for Middleford Yarn Store in Medford. We all used a piece of an off-white fabric, "Seduce" yarn by Berocco in any color we wanted and lots of stitching! The results are wonderful.

Carol Palmer worked on her piece up til the very last minute.
It has a definite Asian feel.


Denise DeMarie was our organizer for this one and she came through with a heavily hand embroidered piece despite the fact that she moved to a new city in the process!

Elaine Turcke knit the red version of the yarn into long strips and wove them with her fabric

to create this alphabet quilt.

Karen Bates decided to do a lot of freehand quilting. She knit the yarn and sewed it to the upper lefthand corner. The odd piece on her quilt is some sort of dried mushroom.

More quilts from the show are in the next post.

Rogue Art Quilters - In Stitches

Patty Duggan created this nature quilt after observing trees on her daily walks in the forest. She used the yarn very effectively on the leaves of her trees.



Rona Barnes used the yarn in the circles of her clocks. They are battery operated and keep time perfectly.

Shirley Snowden used her yarn around the bottom edge of her quilt. She did a lot of experimenting with fabric dyes to get that beautiful background fabric.

Suzanne McBride took a class at Websters to learn weaving. Her border is woven with the yarn.

Terry Stone created this dragon by knitting the yarn for his body. The needlework on this piece is amazing.

All of the quilts can be viewed at Middleford Yarn during the month of November. We are looking for more venues after that. This show is not to be missed!