Simon's Cat "Let Me In"

Peregrine Bliss

Never Gonna Let You Go

Ahhhh... Sunday

Final Round Robin Journal; Travel

The final round robin book; the theme was Travel.



Where have you been? Where would you like to go?



At first my thoughts were of the ocean. I've dunked my tootisies in a few. But that idea quickly became too unwieldy for just two small pages.





So I decided to think about where I would like to go on terra firma; and the thought struck me as funny; we spend thousands (millions globally) to travel to exotic destinations; for fun, relaxation & enlightenment. The last one I focused on. All those lenghthy (and quite expensive I assure you) pilgrimages to travel to places where money has no meaning or value. I don't know the physical costs to travel to the Himalaya's but I'd love to go if it meant seeing a Snow Leopard. Likewise; rolling around some spit of an island where what you could make was the cost of what you wanted. I read that the key to happiness was to 'give away that which you most desire';








but none of our neighborhood kids wanted my Ben&Jerry's Cherry Garcia.

2 Journal Book Entries

Theme: Little Things

One of my favorite "little things" would have to be the Praying Manits. I find these insects fascinating and so chose them for my friends journal book. (I asked her first if wanted insects in her book and she too loves the Mantis family)

I started out with a photo that my daughter took (at my request) of a young mantid in our yard. I had been watering and this creature was looking for respite from my overactive hosing technique. It's not the clearest photo she got but it was the orientation of the body that I wanted. I then placed it on the page & simply filled out with pen around the edges the ends of the plants & sticks. I then attempted to watercolor it. (I say attempted because I've no formal training in this art and really just sort of do trial & error)

Next page were just some interesting facts I discovered about the Mantid family printed on vellum laid over floral paper stitched edges down and glued the ribbon trim over the seams. My machine doesn't like sewing through paper apparently & the tension was wonky so I simply covered up the unsightly seams.

Here's the following pages showing the 'flower mantids'. These insects bodies resemble the flowers or plants which they inhabit and they are stunning!!! Check it out:

Pink Flower Mantis Devil's Flower Mantis

I mean seriously The Devil's Flower Mantis? Check out those wickedly cool antenna!


On the pink flower shots I simply printed those out on paper; sewed them to the piece of silk right through the batting and paper. The cone flowers were fused on. the decorative threads/yarn were laid underneath prior to sewing.

The Devil's Mantis is mounted on painted wonder under. Directly underneath him/her is something really funny. When I redid my sewing room I took my wheeled chair out of the room and then noticed the wheels not really rotating very well. Lo and behold, each wheel was clogged with so much thread scrap I could hardly believe it. Being the weirdo I am; after cutting the globs off each wheel, I kept them in a baggie. I thought they looked cool & could be used for all kinds of stuff I was sure. (birds nest first came to mind) Anyhow; I just took some out of the baggie & glued them down around the paper photo. The background is rubber stamped and then lightly water colored over.

I know we're supposed to do only two pages per journal book but come on with subject matter this cool; these stars really warranted four.



Next theme: "What If?"

I had such a hard time with this theme. I couldn't imagine any 'what if' that was not cliched or hadn't all ready been thought of. I even cheated & googled 'what if' and found all kinds of what I would consider 'situational' what ifs... mostly dealing with morality questions. So that didn't work for me. I even went to who I consider to be the "King of Cool" of what ifs, Neil Gaiman. Well, he was all ready using all his really cool 'what ifs' in his best selling books & graphic novels. I was hoping for a scrap left dangling somewhere on his website journal, no luck. FINE. Finally, (ironically on the subject of morality) I imagined God admitting he/she had made mistakes. Not the 'what the hell is a platypus?' kind of mistake but something more profound. I decided I couldn't get that 'deep' in two pages & I had all ready exceeded my 'page extension' on the prior book so.... I went with something funny. Well, I think it's funny. El just said I was 'so weird' & my theory 'was wrong' (my Science/Math major telling me why rainbows can't be upside down), I simply took the mature approach & after sticking my tongue out at her I sniffed my nose up in the air and harrumphed my way into my sewing room in silence. *inner dialogue: so what if water mimics the curve of the earth or whatever, the title is WHAT IF anyway, I can do whatever I want*

Here's the result: More attempts at watercolor because I knew there would be writing involved & I didn't' want the headache of what fabric to use that wouldn't bleed the ink; and would still be able to 'create the scene' and not be too obnoxious.



The saying is as follows:

What if rainbows were God's way of apologising for putting our eyeballs in upside down?
because
If our eyeballs were right side up; rainbows would be in the shape of a smile instead of a frown
then
we could slide down into the rainbow until we were awash in Indigo
would our clothes then taste like grape?

What if God admitted to making mistakes?

As this isn't too philosophical; I used the title "God" instead of the more politically correct 'creator' or 'insert Deity of your choice'. Please make no judgement about the authors spiritual orientation based on this, it was simply a matter of generality.

Long Beach Quilt Festival!

Lionfish




Journal Quilt 2007








Journal Quilt 2005 (it was nice to see it again!)



Here's some shots of my work at festival. It was so amazing to see it all hanging so beautifully!



Last but not least; The Carousel. The quilt measures 5' x 5'. Each animal is 3 feet tall & 12 inches wide.





Group project from left to right: Artists are Cindy Cooksey(Rabbit) ; Julie Schlueter (Zebra); Me (Horse); Vickie Valdez-Green(Lion); Terry Waldron (Giraffe).

Here's the full story:

When our Cutloose group was presented with the idea of doing one or more group quilts for the Long Beach Exhibit; I had kicked around many designs. I knew I wanted to do something that would represent the famous Long Beach Pier and in particular the Cyclone racer! I worked hard on several designs for that and in the end, threw in a last minute ‘dark horse’ with a pop-art rendition of the Charles Looff carousel. At our next meeting; all designs were placed on the table & before it was even made ‘official’ about which quilt we would do or which artists would be participating in which design; 4 had all ready had their favorite ‘animal’ and were bantering around color schemes and embellishments.

I took the design home and created full size renditions of each animal on freezer paper to give to each artist along with the background fabric we had chosen that would unify the quilt. We completed our respective animals using only the top fabric & batting. We had decided not to back the quilt until all the pieces had been assembled. We would meet as a group once a month to see progress; check color schemes and animal orientation. Once the animals were completed; they were all returned to me to assemble & once that was done we finalized a top design and fabric choice for it. This top section was the longest process and the most challenging. Finally; finishing touches were added via the ribbons for each animal; the novelty trim; & shading with tulle. The binding is a continuous double fold bias.

Wardrobe/Embellishments:

Cindy Cooksey’s rabbit sports a lovely red velvet vest adorned with colorful buttons and exceptional cross hatching embroidery. He is outlined with silk that was hand dyed by Cindy to match his gorgeous ‘skin’ fabric. He is both playful & charming.

Julie Schlueter’s Zebra prefers the more ‘au natural’ approach. The head is hand beaded as well as the eye. Julie’s fabric choice for the stripes gives a bold contrast that still plays well with the other animals. Her signature machine quilting incorporates such a fun, graphic element to the overall design.

Stacy Hurt’s horse prefers an almost counter-culture approach. His loose, long mane flies with wild abandon. The feathers appear to be tattooed up his neck; front legs & forehead. His bridle was pieced and fused on and the medallion was an original design created and hand beaded just for him by Stacy.

Vicki Valdez-Green’s lion is a show stopper. He is formal and ferocious without being the least bit frightening. The wonderful coloring for his mane compliments his dusky appearance. His eye and mouth were hand painted by Vickie who then signed her name in the iris of his eye! His beautiful fleur-de-leis tail design gives him such a regal touch.

Terry Waldron’s giraffe sports stuffed, felted horns as well as some innovative hand embroidery details around the face & neck. His mane was machine stitched and the material gives a nice fuzzy appearance. He sports a very dashing sash that is actually 3 sections of novelty trim sewn together. They enhance his lovely spots perfectly!

Origami day at the Koi Garden

The koi themselves were a riot! The were like great big sea cows! There was one tiny dispenser of what could only be referred to as 'koi kibble' or possibly 'koi chow' and let me tell you; those fish never moved from the one bank where all the folks lined up at least 10 people deep to feed them. El & I had gotten there early enough that we didn't have to wait. I walked right down where they were all swarming the banks and petted some, letting them all maul my fingers looking for their kibble. It was hysterical. There was one; count him: one single duck and you had to toss some chow way away so he'd go chase it so you could feed the mouths that were constantly open & groping the bank. When I went over to the little outcropping and stood on the little wooden platform gradually some fish would come over. ANYTIME they see a human standing near the water simply gazing down they will come right to you in anticipation of food. I started dropping one or two little pellets (I mean really, a handful is only .25 cents so what the heck!) in the smallest koi would come up *you can see from the photos the water is so green you can't see through it* and gobble as fast as they could knowing those big giant cows would come soon & chase them all off. (not really chase them but with; let's say, 20 fish roughly 2feet long and really round the tiny ones could only skim over top of the large bodies & slide right off) The duck was relentless! That duck was so ornrey to those fish it's a wonder they let him stay there. He would peck them mercilessly and the big cows would flick their substantial tails at him and he'd simply walk right across the backs of those gathered and peck their giant heads till they went under & he was free to snarf up all the kibble. The fact that fish have a .01 second brain memory makes it even more funny to think of the dialogue in your head. The fish would be the ultimate ADD subjects with the duck's memory only marginally longer. I amused myself for quite sometime at their expense just imagining the koi saying things like "HEEEY!" and the duck: "MINE>>MINE" and the fish... "Dang! I hate that guy! Oh look, kibble!........HEY? what the???" and then the duck... "Stupid fish... MINE!..MINE!"

Looks Great!

Here's the shot of this piece in my friends home. It looks beautiful there! Thanks for sending the picture Karen!

Home to roost

As new works come back from shows & are put back into the 'stable' as it were, it gives me the opportuntiy to share them on my blog.

'Afternoon Sun' will not be travelling further. It is currently being 'auditioned' however, at a friends house to see if she wants to keep it.

I liked making this piece and my favorite part was the narrow 'bookmark' insert actually. It is hand beaded and embellished on fusible tyvek. (can you say bloody fingers?) This piece I think represents my first major move from what I was doing into the more elegant Asian aesthetic. (not that I have arrived there by any means) It's very hard sometimes to keep the dicipline of 'less is more' and just place the single element without trying to 'express' each nuance in the work and over doing it.

The tree is commerical batik fabric fused on; overstitched with rayon; metallic & cotton threads. It was lots of fun adding drama with that bright copper metallic thread into the tree bark. There are fancy yarns couched into the background parts of the tree. The sun rays were created with narrow strips of pale yellow tulle; they are held in place by tiny clear fully cupped sequins.

The coolest picture ever

Here's the orginal that Ellen took of herself with our cat Stella. Don't ask me how she managed to hold that cat still long enough to get this shot. If you look into Stella's iris; you can see the reflection of Ellen's camera. Then she altered it with her voodoo skills & came up with the bottom image. This needs to be a quilt. if only...

Journal book "Shape/Color"

Here is the latest installment to the round robin journal books. This person's theme was 'shapes & colors' . I had these old silk neckties (many more than just these two believe me!) and wanted to do something graphic. I like the shapes & colors. I didn't stay with just one shape or color but I think she'll like them. It was fun doing the handwork. The blue/black & white one was easier that the rust one because I found my fuseable interfacing to stablize the silk! These were fun & easy; not too much beading; or embroidery; just wanted the colors & shapes to do the 'talking'.

Quilted

Glad to have gotten this done & out in time! Hopefully I'll have some images of the baby with his quilt soon! *hint hint-grandpa*

Nash's Quilt

I've laid it on a black towel to show detail. This is prior to quilting; but with sashing & prairie points. You can see the bottom where I will turn it under and finish it. You know; I never even measured the sashing to make sure it would come out even; it just worked. The printed panel is actually lopsided but I did my best to even it up. I didn't lop off one of my points! Should have it done tomorrow night so I can ship it out to Nash who lives in Memphis!

Pillow Case binding?

Ok; I'll admit it... I'm not a good traditional quilter. I would like to be. I know many women who are and I should take better notes. But here's the deal; why piece and get all fancy when you can fuse??? (smirk~chortle)

But every now and again I like to try my hand at the more traditional quilts to hone my skills. I do love all the seams and finished edges. They always look so clean.

The proposal: A dear friend's son & daughter in law just had a new baby boy. His name is Nash (how cool is that!) My friend the grandpa, asked me to make something. He even pays me! Whoot!

The contract: So; I'm making this adorable baby quilt out of an Alexander Henry's "peacable kingdom" panel, a series now discontinued so no room for screw-ups.

The preparation: After thinking about it and planning to put a pieced sashing around the panel to set it off, I figure I'll do a pillow case binding rather than a traditional one so the edges would be softer.

The work: I used my 'triangles on a roll' to create the sashing of gold & red that create 'points' of color. I love using those & simply forgot that you don't need much of the basting spray to hold the paper down on the fabric. Something I should have remembered because later in sewing the right angles together the fabric that had the spray on it would stick like crazy to the bottom of my presser foot giving me fits. It wasn't till I was nearly finished (and had tried many tricks to stop this sticking with no luck) that I tried the 'sewers aid' on the presser foot, and that worked like a dream. But i digress... I sewed the lines perfectly; cut them all apart & spent an evening watching 'Narnia' with Ellen while I peeled off all the paper.

After I sewed enough together for the sashing, I realize I had made way more than I would ever need! *remember; not a traditional quilter; math skills of an over caffinated monkey... not perfect* After pondering on this surplus for a minute or two it dawns on me---I'd always wanted to do prairie points on a quilt. I decide to put them around the top right and lower left corners of the blanket!

Sounds so cute doesn't it??? I put them on pinning carefully. I then stitch the layers together leaving one end open to turn the thing right side out. *fingers crossed* Ta~da! I am astounded that they came out absolutely perfect and adorable! Now I wish I had done them all the way around!!! There's just one teensy, eensie, weensie, problem... I've sewn the batting to the wrong side. I now have to take the entire thing apart & redo it.

I should have known;

it's me

and it's a traditional piece

and I can hear the math gods laughing hysterically

I'll post photos when it's done. oy-vey!

Sunday morning with Ellen

I started the background & put the fibers on; Ellen came in and tossed her primary colored buttons on it along with a dark purple thread strand then I spotted the plastic flamingoes i've had forever; here's the result before sewing:

We've titled it "The Flamingo Walk"

Round Robin Journals

First theme was "Keys to an Artful Life?" My the page on the left has a piece of paper that I used my flat edged calligrahpic nib to enscribe the single word "Leap" as in: taking a leap of faith in your art. Just go for it and trust it will happen the way it should. The page on the right is about "Giving birth to yourself" so I used my silk cocoons & painted them & then added beads & various materials & sequins for glitz.


This theme explored the "Gypsy theory" So I created a page on the right to depict the Gypsy in your soul using a musical motif. The script on the left page was done on vellum with a simple round point calligrahpic pen. I'm not fond of that nib but it worked well here. The flowers were from my garden years ago that I had pressed & long forgot in some waxed paper. The beauty of these little books is rediscovering all the little 'treasures' you've found or kept along the way of your journey. Giving them new meaning and a new life by giving them to someone else.


These theme was about 'play' or finding your inner child. The first phrase that came to my mind was "Say Say oh playmate" . The pictures are of me as a child. I don't have many of those and these are quite fun. The page on the right is me singing the rhyme with my dress spread out calling for my friends to come play with me. I like the image reversal of the dress shape to the butterfly shape. The button flowers were fun to do. The page at left is about riding fast to catch your dreams. The dream catcher was a found item that needed a little tlc of glue but worked beautifully with the colors. The little 'medicine bag' I made out of the end of a silk tie from Italy. I left the tag that say's 'hand made' and added the saying I made up and wrote on the vellum sheet. The washer on the bottom of the bag say's 'dream'.


****************************************************************************
I'll post more shots as the months go on. There are eight of us participating. I have had the pleasure of seeing my own journal as each of my friends create something in it using my theme and it's simply gorgeous! What a treasure itself will be that I shall keep always and forever!

Taking Flight!

My quilt entitled "Flights of Fancy" will be travelling with the Noble Elements collection. Here are the dates & places! Gentlepersons, start your engines!

February 15 – 17
PCM Expo – The Original Creative Festival
San Mateo County Event Center, San Mateo, CA
www.pcmexpo.com

February 28 – March 2
The Quilt Fest of New Jersey
Garden State Exhibit Center, Somerset, NJ
www.quiltfest.com

March 26 – 30
Dawson, AL

April 17 – 19
PCM Expo – The Original Creative Festival
Tucson Convention Center, Tucson, AZ
www.pcmexpo.com

May 1 – 4
Denver National Quilt Festival
451 E. 58th Ave, Denver, CO
www.quiltfest.com

May 29 – 31
PCM Expo – The Original Creative Festival
Mid-America Center, Council Bluffs, IA
www.pcmexpo.com

June 26 – 28
PCM Expo – The Original Creative Festival
Sharonville Convention Center, Cincinnati, OH
www.pcmexpo.com

July 10 – 12
PCM Expo – The Original Creative Festival
Saratoga City Center, Saratoga Springs, NY
www.pcmexpo.com

August 14 – 16
PCM Expo – The Original Creative Festival
Grand Sierra Resort, Reno, NV
www.pcmexpo.com

September 12 – 14
PCM Expo – The Original Creative Expo
San Mateo County Event Center, San Mateo, CA
www.pcmexpo.com

October 16 - 19
Pacific International Quilt Festival
Santa Clara Convention Center, Santa Clara, CA
www.quiltfest.com

November 15 – January 1, 2009
Soft Expressions
1230 North Jefferson St., Suite M, Anaheim, CA
www.softexpressions.com

The Guardian

This piece is finally finished and can be seen at the Glendale quilt show this Friday thru Sunday. Dimensions are 43"H x 27 1/2" W.

Journal Inside & back cover

El took this outside today; it's all overcast & rainy. The raven looked right at home.



Inside cover & title page. Poem "Second Coming" by Yeats. I like how the vellum covers the falcon and you only get the 'watermark' look behind it. I'm not happy with my calligraphy but it's my own fault for not practicing the way I should. I did have to do it 4 times as I'd get nearly finished & then mess it up: that doesn't count as practice though :) For real calligraphy see this site http://www.quillskill.com/ His work is amazing and makes mine look like a kindergarteners, LOL!



The inside back cover. No, this isn't a raven feather; but it's still cool!