Seeds of Hope One and Two

I made these two art quilts in October 2009. How I neglected to post them here I do not know.

The larger of the two is 31" X 31.5"

I enjoyed using my embellishling machine to felt the wooly bits that make up the flower heads and stems. The sky and fence are hand painted cotton fabric. A heavy textured fabric makes up the border. It is both machine sewn free motion style and hand embroidered.

Approximately 1000 beads are hand sewn on the fleece background.The Seeds of Hope I

31" X 12"

Click photos to see enlarged details

Both art quilts hung in my Solo Show in Davis, CA in November 2009
and at Mojo Flow Studio, Davis CA in December 2009

Mixed Media Quilted Wall Hanging

Click to see details and colors:

A long weekend of paper bead and wire making, followed by a day of collagraph plate creating, another day of sewing beads to paper and fabric, cutting up painted c. plate, positioning them all on a rose cotton fabric; hand embroidering around it all..machine and hand quilting... happy with the textures and colors flowing thorough ...These 2nd two photos show the truest colors...
liking the way the paint dried on the crinkled paper and fabric, candy wrappers,
and snaps...

lace and Velcro,

to make up this whole of 22.5" X 17" wall hanging

On sale in my ETSY store

(see side bar)

Mandala Challenge Met for Quilts Around The World Blog

The group Quilts Around The World is a group of women art quilters from around the globe, (Australia, The Netherlands, Europe, USA)...who take up a challenge every three months to make a small art quilt and post it on our blog. http://aroundtheworldin20quilts.blogspot.com/
Go there to see ALL the quilts as they are terrific...The most recent challenge was to make an art quilt in the theme : Mandala!

Mine is this machine felted velvet butterfly on a substrait of hand painted muslin, machine sewn free motion style and using some fancy machine stitches. Embellished with glass beads.Click on the photos to see the texture and detail close up.

Let me know if you can FEEL the velvet!
I often like the backs of my pieces as much as the fronts.

Happy New Year!

Simply Dreadful

I made this portrait art quilt for my 19 yr old grandson for Chanukah. He does wear his hair in dread locks, and leads a hippie-like life style. I took artistic licence to color them brightly. The dreadlocks are made from rolled up hand dyed repurposed dryer sheets. The face is made up of layers of cotton fabrics, the base is hand dyed cotton by Chris at Dye Candy.

The substrait fabic is brown felt, bound in cotton. I have top sewn the entire background in swirls using brown varaigated and gold metallic threads. Some of the swirls are painted with paint sticks. I love the 3-dementionality of the piece.

click on photos to enlarge

The head and hair are hand sewn to the background piece, as

is the binding.

Let me know what you think.

It's 17" X 19".

I will probably make this again, as I would love to enter it into a show.

Solo Art Show A Huge Success!

On November 13th, I had the honor and excitement of seeing my art hung for the 2nd Friday Art About at the Paint Chip in Davis, CA. We had a nice reception and a very good turn out.
Maia, the owner of the store, said I'd had by far the biggest turnout of any artist she had hosted to date.

Friends and strangers came through and spent long periods of time looking at, talking about and asking questions about each piece.

It felt so good to have other textile artists there whose work I admire and respect giving mine so much attention and affirmation.

I was invited to hang my art at another studio (Mojo Flow Studio) by one of the visitors that evening. It will go up there this Friday!

What a joy it is to see my art traveling this way and being seen by so many.

Earth, Water, Air and Fire

I recently made four art quilts using hand dyed paper towels and dryer sheets. I then stitched the small paper quilts to painted canvas. These represent the four elements of Earth, Water, Air and this one is FIRE.

Click on photos to see details.

Earth

Water

Air

These are for sale in my ETSY store, but could go on display before they sell.

How Does Your Garden Grow? Sold on ETSY Today

The woman who purchased this art quilt from my ETSY store left me this thank you:
"oh my gosh, this piece is such a BEAUTY, i can't stop holding/looking at it. it is bringing me joy!!!!thank you so much!!!!"

Well, what a joy it was for me to find this feedback. There is nothing greater than making something and having it appreciated by the reciprocate. I made this sweet quilted wall hanging using remnants of fabric from curtains, ribbon, muslin, Terry Busse's "Woolly Bits", metallic, cotton and rayon threads.

It's partly machine felted, partly top sewn machine free motion style

It's 27 and a quarter inches by 17 inches in size

It was fun to make and such a compliment to have it sell so quickly.

Thank you buyer!

"!"

This is my latest art creation and for now I am calling it: "!"

This is two three day weekends of mono print painting, cutting, sandwiching, sewing around each piece, top sewing each piece, then painstakingly sewing each to the other to get this wall hanging. I'd guess I put in approximately 65 hours into this baby.
In person it is full of texture, bright color and sparkle!

Size: 26" height X 34" width

To see a video I made about the mono print making
go to http://lynn-nonameblog.blogspot.com/
and scroll down to August 5, 2009 post or

click on "short movie" in the next line.

The mono printing shown in this short movie was done following my reading an article in Quilting Arts magazine (pages 14-17) by Frances Holliday Alford called 'flight of fantasy' a gelatin monoprint process. I took up the challenge and taught myself to do this.The printing process with gelatin plate and paints took two days to complete.
Above photos show the end result of this work.

Click to enlarge and see details.

3-D stuffed Fish Quilted Wall Hanging

This fish has been "caught" by Sylvain in my recent blog Give Away on Lynn-Getting My Feet Wet Blog.
I had great fun yesterday constructing this 18" stuffed fish! I used cotton fabrics left over from my Gold Mountain Wall Hanging Quilt seen below(some hand dyed) and ribbons with lots of frayed edges and sewed them on thick felt with a felt backing.

Here it is in it's "Look what I caught!" position!Here it looks like it is swimming in a stream (sort of, use your imagination)!

Ribbons swim behind him.

Layers of ribbons made his eye and nostril. Do fish have nostrils? LOL

And look closely it is smiling!

(click on photos to see more detail)
I love that one piece of fabric in this and my Gold Mountain Quilt below

is from my very first ever quilting class sampler. (circa 2007).

Wait till you see what I am working on now!

Gold Mountain Art Quilt FOR SALE IN ETSY SHOP

This colorful art quilt wall hanging is made from hand dyed fabrics, some other cotton fabrics, and hand dyed ribbons which I bought from another artists ETSY store! It is embellished with Chinese coins from the era when gold was discovered in California. This group of coins includes one with the Ying Yang symbol.

click on photos to enlarge to see more detail

colors are somewhat brighter in person

This quilt measures approximately 17 1/2" X 18" in an uneven square.

The layout of ribbons and fabrics gives a sense of depth

as if you are looking through windows, perhaps into the window of your soul.

The various ribbons have different textures adding yet another dimension to the work.

This piece is both machine quilted and hand quilted using metallic threads in gold and red and some rayon threads.

It is for sale in my ETSY store which can been found on the left sidebar of this blog.

Sun Flower Art Quilt Finished and SOLD!!!

I will be entering this art quilt in the NAMI-Yolo Seeds of Hope Sunflower Art Show & Competition this Friday in Davis, CA. Nami-Yolo is a chapter of the National Alliance for Mental Illness. As a mental health counselor (MFT) I have a special place in my heart for this organization.

The name of the quilt is: Sun . Flower . Life . Energy

This first photo shows some detail in stitching. I cut the stamp of the sunflower that borders the quilt on Styrofoam. And the buttons that add texture represent seeds. The leaves of the sunflower are repurposed hand dyed with acrylic paint dryer sheets.



The central flower is made of pieces of craft felt, cotton fabric and wool roving machine felted then machine top stitched free motion style.


The light green frame around the central flower is tissue paper. Click to enlarge for details. There is thread painting done around the sunflower and top sewing free motion around each stamped sunflower on the border.


The cotton orange fabric was all torn by hand and edges purposefully left frayed.
My hope is that the whole piece looks like a seed packet.


Size: 24" X 27"

Juried Art Show 2009

Last night was my night to shine! Three of my pieces had been selected by judges for the 32nd annual juried art show in our local art gallery. And all three brought home awards: Best of Show, First and Second! Needless to say, I feel very overwhelmed, proud and very very humble. You've seen the pieces before as I made them, but here they are one more time being honored! Thanks for coming to "my show" here. ;~)











My best friend from childhood, Patty, came to see the work the day before and my brother came the night of the show to support me. It felt so good to have both at my side. Thanks Patty and Richard.

To learn more about each piece scroll down to earlier posts. They are in order of recognition: Hard Times, Desert Cactus and Snake, and Living Green.

Hard Times Art Quilt: Fabric Paper Collage and Fabric Portrait

Currently hanging at the Vacaville Art Gallery Annual Juried Art Show April 25-May 20 2009

I belong to a group called Art Quilts Around The World (formerly Around The World In 20 Quilts) The theme for the latest challenge quilt there was Brave New World.

My “Brave New World” idea struck me as we entered into a decline in our economy hitting an all time LOW. (Our home value dropped over $200,000, stocks took a nose dive, and at age 68 retirement is nowhere on the horizon). As we watched our assets plummeting and this recession leans fearfully toward a possible depression it lent to the name: “Hard Times” and the suggestion of the challenge to use recycled pieces.
It was also suggested to do something you'd not done before, learn something new. I took on the challenge of learning to make fabric paper and fabric portraits.

I learned to make fabric paper from glue, water, paper and muslin. Words and phrases cut from newspaper and magazines tell the story in collage form; fabric portrait, using multi-layers of fabrics in 3 shades with cutouts showing the various layers below gives the emotion to the piece and sets the tone. It is then top free motion sewn with various threads and designs.
Making the portrait was a labor intensive experience, and a challenge in itself, but satisfying in the end.

I also used stencils, paint, Paint Stiks, thread painting, recycled newspaper, tissue paper, embroidery floss, hand embroidery, muslin, cotton, Punchinello ribbon and old beads, all things I had on hand. Many of which were found at thrift stores and/or garage sales second hand.

My main foundation piece measures 11 ½ X 10” approximately (it’s an odd cut shape) with a few extra inches for the green Punchinello pieces I laid under it for a little added dramatic flair.

I framed the small art quilt in a black shadow box to show at our local Art Gallery show in February.

The portrait made from a photo I took of myself is approximately 4” X 5 1/2” at its largest sides (also odd shaped).

I learned how to make the fabric portrait by reading Maria Elkins contribution called "Making Portraits" in The Quilting Arts Book by Patricia Bolton on page 122-125. And I learned the “Making Fabric from Paper” from the contribution of Beryl Taylor on page 84-85 in the same book.

African Tree

I have no idea if there is a tree growing in Africa that looks like mine, but when I added the zebra I decided that is where it had to be. Artists' creative license! The top of the tree is the result of sitting at my felting machine and adding bits of dyed-green dryer sheet, threads and strings including some gold metallic, and dryer lint to a piece of green felt. The beads are from a recent garage sale find necklace sewn on orange felt on top of brown felt and trimmed with upholstery trim from the fabric store. Zebra came off a large garage sale find of cotton fabric with an African animal design, which I also used as the backing. I enjoyed the hand sewing and embroidery work after top sewing free motion on my sewing machine. The whole piece is 13" X 13" square. Click on photo to see closer up.

Cactus ATCs and Cactus Quiltlet

These cactus ATCs and Quiltlet were inspired by another bloggers art: Studio Lolo, who gifted me with a drawing of a cactus on an ATC. We also "celebrate" Cactus Monday on the other blogs and so I have been in a cactus mode of late, both drawing and quilting them. Then I was asked by Nadia in The Netherlands if I would trade ATCs with her. So I made these two for her.

And here you see the Quiltlet in the middle that I made for Lolo.

Cactus Quiltlet is 5" X 9" in size

I used a hand dyed green dryer sheet over the yellow felt, and used a shiny green metallic

material over green cotton for the cactus, brown cotton for the dirt, and purple and blue dotted cotton for the curtain on top. A wonderful sparkly purple fabric is the pot.

I then top sewed it to follow the lines of Lolo's drawing, and put French Knots in the holes of the

green fabric on the cactus and dirt.

Living Green Art Quilt

Hanging at the Vacaville Art League and Gallery
32nd Annual Juried Art Show April 25-May 20, 2009

Now in the P. Atana Collection This piece came from a desire to weave fabrics together and use recycled materials. As the woven central piece evolved a city of buildings grew. A wind blew in green leaves made from hand dyed re-purposed dryer sheets.*
The leaves were embellished with thread painting and beads sewn on by hand.
Thread painting continued to embellish the outline of the tall building skyline and down the sides and across the bottom.
Birds and beads landed on leaves and buildings re-purposed from an old found necklace.
A mixture of cotton and metallic threads were used by machine and hand alike.
And fabrics both found and new were woven together to form a unifying art quilt.
This piece measures 45” long by 27” tall.
The back is covered in a dark green satin fabric with matching hanging sleeve.


* I learned the dye process from Natalya at http://artbynatalya.blogspot.com/2009/02/how-to-make-leaf.html

This photo is not showing its true colors well. The outside binding is a bright shiny gold fabric that sings, but my camera (with and without flash/indoors and out) refused to show it off to it's full glory. You will just have to take my word for it.

click to enlarge photos to see details if you want to

Dancing Buttons Bangles and Beads

Click on photos to enlarge them. My friends from near and far came up with many possible names for this piece, all wonderful suggestions, so I took a few words from some and combined them with my own ideas for the title "Dancing Buttons, Bangles, and Beads".

It's free motion top sewn felt pieces over burlap, both from thrift store...cotton fat quarters,

thrift store ribbon...cotton threads...

Metal pieces thanks to Judy at Red Velvet...a gift...

Angelina fibers and wool roving from Susan Stein's Minnesota quilt shop.

Hand embroidered over stitching, wooden beads garage sale gleaned,

big buttons from a quilt show visit last year, knew I'd use them sometime on something!

;-)

A designed Grandmother's Bag for a new Grandie

My friend, Soulbrush
became a Grandmother this past month. Many of you now know her as Grandie now. Being a happy Grandma myself I got caught up in the waiting for her "Baby Bean" to be born...she had a count down on her blog marking off the days.

I appointed myself as grand-mothering tutor/mentor to SB. I told her she definitely would need a 'grandma's bag' or in her case a 'grandie's bag'. So to surprise her while I was waiting for baby to be born I designed a combination grandma's bag and baby mat for HER to use. I take a bag filled with little toys each and every time I visit my four-year- old grand children (twins) and they delight in opening the bag and finding old things that have been there from when they were little babies and new things I toss in (usually finds from the thrift store or craft store or my own crafting stash) little toys, puppets, books, and now always at least one craft project to do with them. And so the idea was born.

I remembered back to when they were babies and while I was constructing the initial bag out of a half yard of beautiful brightly colored Laural Burch fabric I decided to make this outer quilt a mat for baby to play on (pre-crawling stage). The backing became the calmer blue side for quieting baby. I added little satin ribbons for baby to grab on to, again remembering our little guys liking tags left on toys to hold.

I then added a bag with a shoulder strap and used large utility snaps to hold it inside the bag...this to hold the toys and books...It can be unsnapped to allow use of the quilted mat, which I top sewed around the pictures of cat families and some added personal photos of SB herself now and as a baby, and her dog Snuffles. I imagined baby learning to identify "grandie, baby, and doggie!" before long.

This first photo is the mat spread out for sitting or laying on.

This is the opposite side the blue calming side.

Here you see the bag for toys snapped into place.


This is the top folded over forming a carrying bag.

and here you see it again with the shoulder strap handle from the inner bag sticking out.

I wish you many years of joy and fun

with your little grand baby!

I had fun waiting, creating, and sending you this project!

May it get lots of wear at Grandie's house and when you go to visit!

Fabrics: Outer layer is half yard of Laural Burch designed cotton I got in MN at Colorful Quilts (Susan Stein's store, which closed this January, unfortunately); Inner blue lining is 100% cotton, I found at the thrift store; The bright orange inner bag is left over 100% fabric from my very first ever quilt made in a class at Quilted Heart in Vacaville, CA, very good quilting cotton; Orange binding is cotton from the thrift store. cotton threads. Snaps. Fusible web lines the strap. Ribbons from the thrift store.

Quiltlet for Suki

Sukipoet is a blogland friend for whom I made this quiltlet after her mother died. It's a tribute to Suki's love for her mom, made from fabrics that had belonged to her mother who was a seamstress. Suki had a give away and I was fortunate enough to win these fabrics.

I had wanted to weave some fabrics and took this opportunity to do so as the plain pink made a wonderful frame to weave the patterned floral fabric through. I then top stitched hearts and flowers and ribbons etc. to hold the weave in place. I made a small doll to represent her mother using a photo of mothers face taken at the very last days of her life and transferred it to cloth. I even left a bit of batting sticking out around her head to match her lovely white hair. I stitched the doll to the mat and gave her a red heart necklace that matched the one Suki had given her mother.
I added green grass for her to stand in as if she is standing in a garden. The white fabric for the backing and binding was part of the giveaway too.

I received wonderful kudos of appreciation from Suki and other blog friends who saw this quilt on her blog today.

In Honor of Suki's Mom

Curly Haired Girl

Little Curly Haired Girl

Colors her world

Creatively

This is #4 in a series of fabric portraits.

(Maria Elkin's directions showed me the way!)

Fabrics are from 2 fat quarters; and wavey scraps from a found stash somewhere
(yard sale probably)
Threads are all 100% cottons in red, yellow, green, light and dark blues