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Creative energy

design wall – lap quilt in progress

Today in worship I was reminded of why I love to create so much. The communion table cloth was part of a multi-generational community art project we used as part of our learning and musing on wisdom. The original project was an installation (see here) but today the brightly-colored, quilted circle was on the communion table with a beautiful silver chalice, pitcher, and plate with rustic bread.

When projects seem to continually stall, I find myself re-energized when I remember that I can do this! Sometimes working on more straightforward projects helps me get back in the groove. The quilt above is one of these projects. Right now it is in the design phase – I mostly like it, but can’t quilt decide……… but, I’m getting back in the groove, and hopefully the creative energy will get me past the block I’m having with a mini-wisdom quilt I’m working on.

Blessings on the week.

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Fabric love

Kelsey and Taylor are having an adventure in Italy this month. As I was packing away Taylor’s fabric to make room in the studio for a few of my projects I fell in love all over again with the fabrics she has collected for a bed quilt. The fabrics we’ve been laying out for her quilt are fun, but the fabrics which aren’t finding their way into the quilt are also just happy fabrics … I particularly love the grays in the “no” pile.

currently favored for a quilt for Taylor’s bed

out of favor for Taylor’s bed quilt

out of favor for Taylor’s bed quilt

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Do art every day

Sara Groves wrote a song that I love called “Add to the beauty” (saragroves.com/lyrics/addtothebeauty/addtothebeauty). Life has been a beautiful kind of crazy with Taylor graduating from high school, I’ve been trying to catch up on gardening before the mosquitoes get too large, and I haven’t found much time for doing art. I love Sara’s song’s message wanting to “add to the beauty. Tell a better story.” We each have the opportunity to do that in every moment of our lives.

I’m hoping to turn pieces of this fabric into thank yous for the people who have walked with Taylor through the years to her high school graduation. She’s been surrounded by wonderful folk who have encouraged her to thrive and bring her own contribution of beauty to this world. If you are one of them, know that you are appreciated. (and that I am really slow at getting cards out)

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Beach anyone?

Life has been crazy with a high school senior. Not enough time to sew lately, but I’ve been designing a couple of things. Was hoping for a calm, serene beach feel to this quilt. I like it, but I’m not sure I am there with the feel – seems more wintery than springlike, and having been pulling weeds all weekend, it seems a little cold! Ah well, I can keep pondering. Taylor graduates this week, so I’ll not have much time for sewing.

PS I incorporated some of my fabric I printed .. enjoyed this part!

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Screen printing

Saturday morning I dove into screen printing with some help from my daughter Taylor. I used painting on fabric interfacing to create the screen (in “Screen Printing: Layering textiles with colour, texture & imagery” by Claire Benn & Leslie Morgan). I painted the screen using the pretty yellow sample from Taylor’s walls.

creating the screen

screen printing in progress

This kind of screen took a while to saturate with print paste, but by the end of a sample piece of fabric I had the hang of printing the design. Interestingly, I chose an interfacing from my box of scraps that had a regular circular pattern of dots rather than the unstructured diagonal fibers. This meant that with thick print paste the design has tiny specks of non-color! The colors look reasonably bold when wet, but once they dried they were rather quiet.

final results and a work in progress

The final results are even more subtle, and the design seems a little sparse. Taylor was printing with red this morning, so the designs under plastic are a few more tries at different printing patterns.

Still pondering if I want to try a little bit more this afternoon ….

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Rubbing

Decided to experiment with rubbings using dye paste over a foam grid of circular openings and a metal mesh. Tried various combinations of dry fabric/wet fabric and thinner/thicker paste. The circles were a lot of fun. My favorite is the most dramatic mauve/khaki one in the center (I love the grunge look and the thicker paste which gave crisp lines), but I will use the more subtle fabrics, love the caramel versions too. The mesh was harder — rubbing was trickier, and dye paste consistency mattered quite a bit in terms of the final look.

Next up – screen printing with dye paste and/or ink on the ~10 fat quarters I have left. (or if this doesn’t work, I have a few mono-print ideas in mind)

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A little printing

I’m about to dive back in to fabric printing, but I wanted a quick record of my first several prints. I was going for a subtle tone-on-tone effect mostly, but found them mostly too subtle.

The circles with yellow splashes was probably my favorite – the yellow splashes help keep it unstructured.
 
   … the other’s need work. Going for a little more structured printing today!

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Study break collage

A few weeks ago before Taylor’s winter break, we needed a change of pace, so I got out some fun paper, scissors, and glue and Taylor and I enjoyed some collage work. Good to work out the kinks in your brain after heavy-duty studying. Somehow creating small pieces always relaxes me. Got around to sewing them today while Taylor is in Rome. (You can see her influence in the vibrant greens and aqua paired with coral.) A little foretaste of spring.

I think these are destined to be part of greeting cards … here is the second one. The first is in the mail!

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Wisdom – font of life

  

I’ve been machine quilting the twin size quilt I am working on to donate, and pondering the design of this quilt. I like the idea, but the person-like “arms” and “legs” aren’t working for me. I have a notion of how I might be able to reverse applique aqua semi-circular arcs that run from edge to edge of the fabric instead. Hmmmmmm … a work in progress (just like me)

The machine quilting on the Sandy quilt (which may turn into the “….” quilt at my speed) is going well. The quilt looks even better with the stitching (which is always a good thing) in brick red up and down.

Blessings on your Lenten musings, whatever font of life God is leading you towards.

PS Sorry for the horrible photo – Photobooth on the mac works, but not super well!

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Sandy quilt top

I’ve been enjoying with delight a week off from my normal routine. Finally had a chance to finish this quilt top, and just need a backing fabric so I can complete it!