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 SOLD

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!

"!"

UPDATE: May 2010 Changed the name to Mono Madness, entered it into the juried art show at the Vacaville Art Gallery and it not only got into the show, but also won 3rd prize!!!! 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