Truly enjoyed collaging, painting, stamping, stenciling, and sewing this week. Realized yet again that if something doesn’t seem quite right, attempting to fix it is usually a good thing to do!
Here are the results from 2015.
Sending love
More valentines
My blogging has been a little slim – my favorite camera was with my daughter for a documentary photography class for a semester! Camera back, I’m trying to catch up with documenting projects and blog regularly.
For fun, I decided to try more valentines in the mode of last year. I’m enjoying the process. Not worrying too much about the final result. Here is the work in progress.
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| step 1: collage |
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| step 2: add paint, stencil, stamps |
More subtle celtic crosses?
I still love to work small! I needed more cards that were “quieter” so I started with all creamy colors, but quickly graduated to this warm palette. Just love the turquoise with the golds and grays.
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| collage circles and falling leaves |
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| … collage circles with sewing accents |
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| collage circles done so far… |
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| and a couple of cards |
Snippets around the world
Kelsey at Lovely and Enough tagged me last week in an around the world blog hop. Several years ago we challenged each other to blog. She prints her own fabric and creates lovely contemporary art quilts incorporating traditional patterns with layers of screen printing and fresh color palettes. I’m a computer engineer by profession but my blog has become a spot to journal my fiber art. I’m going to be a final leaf on this blog tour (between a conference and busy several months I’ve not been keeping up with my favorite bloggers enough to be able to branch out).
What am I working on?
I enjoy creating art quilts with fabrics I have dyed and printed. I also enjoy creating modern functional quilts and smaller collaged art. In the works? a quilt top for my daughter ready to be quilted, a stash-busting quilt to donate, and collaging.
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| 21 plus quilt with backing ready to sandwich |
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| stash-busting strippy quilt |
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| collages for cards in process |
How does my work differ from others of its genre?
My style is a work in progress, but I love to work with rich colors, reflecting the dichotomy of the rich beauty life against the fragility and brokenness so close to the surface.
Why do I create?
Debugging computer code is a fun puzzle to unwrap, but I also revel in the chance to take bits of brightly colored fabric and create a tactile piece of art that both reflects my musings and challenges me. Art to me represents hope in a world too filled with despair.
How does my creative process work?
Scribbled pen sketches help transfer musings to paper, and then in my light-filled studio, I enjoy collaging fabric to represent my designs. I’m an inveterate doodler, so machine stitch painting lets me bring additional texture and color to my collages and art quilts.
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| stitch-painting on collaged paper |
If you are interested in enjoying other creative quilters on this blog hop, you can trace branches back through Lovely and Enough. Blessings on the journey.
memories of summer
The studio is clean, and I’ve been enjoying creative warm ups with small projects. These are the cards I finished. I can almost hear the swish of Lake Michigan and seagulls squawking “mine, mine” “mine, mine.” Unfortunately the only water in Ann Arbor this weekend was the snow, then sleet, then rain, then flooded roads, then slush…
I’m making progress on Kelsey’s 21st birthday quilt – I’m aiming for the top done in time for her half-birthday. The good news is I didn’t ruin any of the fabric she brought back from Italy and all the plus blocks are done!
Because we didn’t have quite enough fabric, I was able to include one plus of Kelsey’s hydrangea print from her summer printing class. The big question is “Where to put the hydrangea plus?” What do you think?
Serenity
Serenity. Elusive when aiming outside of your comfort zone.
An artist friend suggested just getting into the studio and doing something. Sew something. Sift through raw materials. Feel your fabric.
I’m trying to work BIGGER. And yet, the rhythm of larger scale is elusive.
So, for myself, just for now, I’m creating SMALLER. For fun. Just to use my hands, cut paper, maybe fabric, a word here, or there. Or entire dictionary pages.
And, its delightful. Had to share it simply because I have such a big smile on my face. And, tomorrow is soon enough to pick myself back up, and aim for BIG again.
Tangible moments
As I’ve been cleaning the studio, I’ve been enjoying unearthing scattered remnants of creative projects: dresses, duvet covers, pillow covers, altered skirts, vintage recycled throws, and more. Tangible, visible, colorful, all bring joy to my heart.
While I love fabric, sometimes paper with the words and memories is fun too. In the midst of cleaning, I’ve been collaging and sewing paper for cards.
I find the process of cutting, pasting, cutting some more, and then combining a relaxing process. I’m always tickled when you get lively results and then sometimes the serendipitous flow of mood you weren’t quite expecting. Its hovering near zero degrees and yet my design board looks like summer on the water!
Circles
I’m busy writing a paper, and it feels like my mind is going in circles (my paper editing certainly is!). For a short break I took out my collection of found papers to create a set of circles for making into celtic crosses for tags or cards. Was hoping for a casual sort of joyful – maybe nearly there, but definitely a bit scattered in terms of color theme!
However, the break was excellent.
Graffiti into thankfulness
As I created cards from graffiti cloth this week, I remembered people who have encouraged me and Taylor this year, a blessing of good memories and time to be thankful.
Joy is contagious II
Cards 3 & 4. Joy is contagious. I want to be more joyful, and these cards make me smile! Hopefully one day they will make someone else smile.