Song Sung Blue Finished!

In the 2 weeks since my last post, I've finished SSB - it's for a challenge that is to be unveiled at my guild meeting this Wednesday, so finished with time to spare.  Rather than borders or binding, it is finished with an artist;s facing.  I didn't have any leftover of the hand-dyed fabric I started with, and the pieces I auditioned for binding didn't enhance the piece, so just finishing off the edges seemed the best bet.  I haven't taken any pictures of the back - sounds like a good idea for tomorrow.

I'm happy with the way it turned out. 

Printed Leaves & Stems

In the last post I showed a thermofax screen I made for printing stems.  It's actually text - the first 2 lines of Song Sung Blue:
Song song blue, everybody knows one
Song sung blue, every garden grows one.

 I think the use of text adds an interesting element and also ties the piece in with the song.

 Above are some of the stamps I used for leaves and stems on the smaller flowers.  The 2 pink ones are carved from Speedy Carve and the other is made from a foam sheet with adhesive on one side; it is mounted on a piece of Styrofoam meat tray.

Here's an unobstructed view. More additions to come.

Building Up Layers (2)

Let's try this again.  Here are the next 2 photos in the process.

 Above, I added more detail to the flowers.  You can see that the dark blue flowers had a second screen that outlined the petals and filled in the center.  I thought the yellow would work for this but hmm....a little too much yellow?  Well, I decided to let it go for the time being and continue adding.

I had carved a flower stamp, but wasn't sure if I wanted to use it.  I made some modifications to it and added 3 prints.  I thought it was a positive addition. More tomorrow on what comes next.

Song Sung Blue - Next Steps

Yesterday I showed the start of this project.  After looking at the printed flowers on the design wall, I thought there were too many light flowers, so I overpainted some of the lighter ones with a navy blue. Better.

Then I started on the flower centers, using a combination of stencils and screens to add more detail. Looking OK so far. 

Brand New Year, Brand New Start

2013 - Brand new year - wow, I remember thinking about 10 years ago how far away that date seemed, it being the year I reach full retirement age with the state.  And now its here.  Happy, YES! But also more aware of how quickly time passes.  9 more months (till retirement) but it will fly by. 

I've also been contemplating what to focus on creatively for this coming year.  Not sure I've come to a conclusion, but have a few things I would like to pursue.  Sketching is one.  I've tried rather unsuccessfully to keep a sketchbook, but I think this is the year to try harder.  I've gotten some inspiration from a few sources - books and blogs - and would love to say I'll make a daily sketch, but realistically, once a week may be more doable.

I just read Lynn Krawczyk's post on her blog about an idea from the JustB blog - a month's worth of creative prompts.  Think I'll have to check that out.  Maybe ideas for sketching prompts.  Hmm....  And posting to this blog more regularly...starting today.

Finishing projects is always on the list.  Thought I'd share the process for one I'm working on now.  It's a quilt guild challenge based on top songs from 40 years ago to celebrate the guild's 40th anniversary this year.  All the participants chose a song from the billboard top 100 of 1974 - I chose "Song Sung Blue" by Neil Diamond.  One of my favorite singer/songwriters.  The piece was originally going to be all block printed, but after doing the background, I decided to combine screen printing, stenciling and block printing, similar to a piece of fabric I created last summer. (Truth be told, it was going to take longer to carve stamps than I had time for!)

Here's the first step, with the sky and grass block printed for the background.  There is actually  more layered printing of the grass than shows in this picture; it looks like I didn't take a picture with that additional printing, but you can see it in the image below.

My vision is a garden of blue flowers, hence the blue flowers printed above.  "Song sung blue, everybody knows one.  Song sung blue, every garden grows one."  These are all thermofax screens made from photos of flowers.  More on the process tomorrow!

How Do You View Time?

This was the topic of the latest postcard exchange, and above is a finished card. I started with a piece of rusted fabric cut into 3 8 1/2" x 11" sheets that I ironed onto freezer paper so that I could print text on them.  I created a page of sayings about time in various fonts, and then in order to get  3 cards out of each sheet with the printing reading horizontally on each, I turned the text into an image that I could shrink and copy with the opposite orientation on one end of the page, as shown in the pictures below.

The next step was to stencil with a clock stencil that contained several different clock images. Then I cut the large sheets into 3, 4 x 6 " pieces.  The focal point for the cards is an image from a book of African designs, one that I felt was representative of infinitiy, having no real beginning or end.  That image was screen printed in the center of each piece.  After fusing each piece to timtex, I machine stitched the central image.

  A card stock backing was fused to the back of the cards and they were finished off with a machine satin stitch on the edges.  Then mailed off to the rest of the swap group!

Quilt Camp 4

Greetings from New Hampshire!  My friend Elizabeth and I are in the midst of "quilt camp 4" at her summer house on the lake.  We've had limited internet access so this is the first post.  Weather has been beautiful, we escaped Northern Virginia just before the big storm hit that knocked out power for days.  We have been creating and relaxing, enjoying nature...except for the bear that visited this morning!  Here are a few pictures from the first week and a half.

 This fellow decided to take one of the bird feeders as soon as Elizabeth put it out this morning.

 First round of ice dyeing, a t-shirt and 2 half-yards of fabric.

 This was my big project for week 1; screen printed, stamped and stenciled on duck cloth, 1/2 yard.

 Ice dyeing, round 2. T-shirt & 2 scarves this time.  

 A carved rubber stamp to represent grass for another project.

 Sun printing.

 A beautiful sunset on the lake.

 A walk in the woods at Castle in the Clouds.

 A visit with friends at their camp on nearby Squam Lake.

 We paddled the canoe into the nearby creek in search of dragonflies and other pond life to photograph.

First attempt at breakdown screen printing.  Results of 2nd round are better, photos later!

Myth Postcard

I sent out my postcards to my swap group last week, only a month late; thank goodness they are an understanding group!  The theme for this swap was "Myth".  My interpretation centers on Athena.  You can read her story on the back of the card in the third photo.

The background fabric is hand dyed cotton.  The image of the Parthenon is printed on Extravorganza and fused to the background.  The olive branch is stenciled, and the owl is screen printed with a thermofax screen created from a photo by Elizabeth Gibson.

I am very pleased with how these turned out.

VCQ Visitors & Screen Printing

The VCQ newsletter listing classes for the March 10 meeting in Annandale has been posted at http://www.vcq.org/newsletter/01-2012-newsletter.pdf. Elizabeth (http://blogaboutwithelizabeth.wordpress.com/) and I are teaching Class C, Screen Printing for Quilts, and both of us have samples posted on our blogs.  In addition to this post, additional pictures were posted Jan. 22, Jan. 8, and Jan.3.

I had a print of a pine branch I wanted to use. First I added some texture printing to the background in blue almost the same as the fabric.  Then I added more texture by using sequin waste as a stencil to give the effect of snow.

I printed the bird on purple, fused it to wonder under, and cut it out.

The final step was fusing the bird onto the pine branch. Next, borders? Then quilting and embellishment.

Stink Bugs!

I see it's been over a month since I added to the blog - my intention was at least once a week!  I'll try to do better!

These are my "Bloomin' Stink Bugs!", postcards that I did for a Virginia Consortium of Quilters postcard swap.  I used the shield shape of the stink bug's body in 2 sizes to create a flower-like design and screen-printed it on a hand-dyed fabric that has a first layer of gelatin plate printing.  Paints are Jacquard Lumiere textile paint.  Machine stitching enhances the flower design.

African Suns

This is a recently finished piece - different from anything I've done before and original (except for stencils & thermofax screens used).  It began as an experiment with discharge and those pieces became the foundation for additional layers of surface design that include stenciling, paint sticks, screen printing, sun printing, decorative machine stitching and ricing.  It is machine quilted and backed with burlap which also becomes the "frame".   It was fun to see this piece evolve.