Sanctuary 12 x 12

My art critique group unveiled their sanctuary pieces on Friday and I took pictures. Sadly Blogger has decided that some of them look better sideways and try as I might, I cannot convince it otherwise....so you will have to tilt your head. GRRRRRRRRRR....

This first piece is by Tina Somerset who did a wonderful job with machine embroidery. Outside of her sanctuary door are all the things that pull on her...and inside is her sanctuary....a wonderful bathtub waiting for her to relax in.

Rona Barnes finds her sanctuary in the Sabbath and she created a piece that shows the Sabbath candles. She isn't quite finished since her puppy decided to chew on her sewing machine cord but she is almost there.

I photographed the duck pond at Lithia Park and transfered the picture onto silk. Then I needle felted the tree on the left and used silk ribbon and silk thread for the leaves on the trees. There are a lot of French knots in those trees.

Elaine Turcke created a wonderful tree with machine thread work and bead embellishment. I love the way her small piece fits perfectly onto her larger background.

It was a good challenge and hopefully I will have more to show you as people finish them.

Citra-solv collage and sneak peak

The latest Cloth, Paper, Scissors Magazine had an article about using Citra-Solv Concentrate on the pages of a National Geographic to get an other worldly affect. I tried it one day and was thrilled with the results. Of course, my kitchen smelled overwhelmingly like an orange orchard and I had pages everywhere...but oh, the fun every time I pulled a new page from the magazine. I finally tried my hand at collage with some of the pages yesterday. I fused a layer of Wonder Under to a canvas and then I fused the National Geographic pages on top. I came back in with some markers to highlight a few areas but the pages were pretty phenomenal without my help.

Quilting wise....I have been working on a large wall hanging to submit to SAQA's Creative Force Show. I have been listening to great books on tape like Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell so I know that I have 16 hours of quilting in the piece and another 13 hours of embellishment. I don't even know how many hours I spent creating the top in the first place.

I can't show you the quilt until it has been juried in or out but here is a sneak preview of the quilting and the beading. I used Angelina Fiber to add some glitz.
I am working on the binding right now.

Dunderhogan #8 - Attack of the Butterflies

In my art critique group we challenged ourselves to use a panel and create a quilt from it. We all started with batik panels that I had purchased in Bali over 10 years ago. My panel looked something like the picture on the right.

I wanted to do another Dunderhogan since I seem to be on a roll so I put Wonder Under behind the whole panel and cut out the butterflies and the leaves. I backed each piece with a second fabric so that they would be more sturdy when I sewed them to the quilt.

I wove the background again and stuffed the Dunderhogan a little once he was on the quilt top.

Then I sewed the leaves and butterflies down - only partially so that their wings flap. Ilan decided that I should call it attack of the butterflies and I think the Dunderhogan would agree.

Now I am trying to finish a quilt for an SAQA call for entries. I have 16 hours of quilting in it and the embellishment is about to begin. Sadly I can't post it for awhile. Check back later!

This week I also began an Etsy store where I have begun to post some of my patterns. I was surprised at how many I have! You can check them out at www.easy2sewpatterns.etsy.com.

12 connected : Sanctuary

I am in a new challenge group called 12 connected. Since my last name was the earliest in the alphabet, I got to pick the first theme for the group. My word was Sanctuary and the results from the group are wonderful. You can see them all at www.12connected.blogspot.com. Be sure to look at older posts because they aren't all visible on the first post.

I chose to use a photo that I took in Lithia Park while walking with my mother. We came across a fearless young deer (aren't they all fearless around here?) who let me take his photo.

I transfered it to fabric and created a collage around him using dyed cotton and silk. Then I quilted around him so that he would stand out against the background and I continued the lines of the branches behind him into my background.

All the quilts are supposed to be 11 x 17 which is not a size that I normally work in so that was the real challenge for me. Our next challenge word is "Color" and the challenges will be revealed at the beginning of April. Stay tuned.