Studio Kit

Finished!

Although BSP said this piece was like champagne, to me it seemed like the way an aria would look if you could see it as it came out of someone's mouth - so I called it Un Petite Chanson (A Little Song). However, I should have called it "Rorshack Test", given the comments this week as I was making it! :)

BSP seemed quite confused by this piece, feeling that it was quite a lot outside my usual oeuvre - but to me it seems very much like Flotsam Meets Japan - only in a more monochromatic palette.

One of the things I love about this piece is that it can be hung either way, depending on how it will fit in your decor!

So pretty - even if I do say so myself!

Have a great weekend and I'll see you on Monday with more new beginnings!

Linking up with the Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday, hosted this week by Amy at Craft Shenangians (what a great name!) and Off The Wall Fridays - a new link party for fabric artists.

So, on Monday I showed you a piece of rust-dyed fabric and some hand-dyed fabric that I was making into a little pretty. I started quilting it, as you can see ...

These are some of the fun shapes that I'm working with!

I'm joining in on the fun at WIP Wednesday with The Needle and Thread Network. Come and see what other Canadian fiber bloggers are up to!

Do you remember when I made Ontology of a Rabbit? The background fabric in it was a piece of rust-dyed fabric. I knew immediately what I wanted to do with the rest of it so I decided that it was time to put that idea to the test!

I also had a piece of hand-dyed fabric from Vicki Welsh that was a lovely complementary colourway - and combined it with the rust-dyed piece to make something cool.

I fused them both and began cutting them out, ironing them on, and now comes the labourious process of stitching them all down with invisible thread.

See you Wednesday!

Ta dah!!! lol Okay, maybe I shouldn't toot my own horn, but I LOVE this piece - and I love even more that it's made from fricken paper towel that should have been tossed out! (Or I guess, should never have been tossed out. )

I quilted it to a piece of red wool serge (the stuff the Royal Canadian Mounted Police's uniforms are made out of - for no good reason except that I had an appropriately sized piece on hand)

and then cut out bits from my Japanese papers and stitched them.

With addition of some wooden beads, I called it "done" except that (having planned ahead) I had purchased some ready-made canvases to fuse the whole thing to, as I didn't know how well binding a paper towel would go!

I used my gold leaf marker to "paint" the edges of the canvas, and then I really *was* done.

Yay!

P.S. joining in the fun at Mama Love Quilts through Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday go check out the fun!

I actually got this idea from Deborah O'Hare over at Quilt Routes (exhibiting at Booth O14 at Festival of Quilts, this week). Some time ago, she talked on her blog about saving her paper towels for future use in her art. (What she does HERE.) http://quiltroutes.blogspot.ca/2011/09/scrappy-journal-part-1.html I thought it was a cool idea, even though I didn't think I had any intention of working with paper - but decided nevertheless that I would dry out every paper towel I used when I was painting, and save the pretty ones.

I've got a pretty good stack of them now, but when I saw THIS one, I was all... hoooolllyyyyy mackeral. That thing is GORGEOUS. So I had to make something out of it!

There was a big hole in the middle of it from my rubbing during clean up, so I trimmed it out and seamed it up. ( I guess I should add here that it has to be really good quality paper towel to hold up to quilting and stitching.)

I also made a little trip to the The Paper Place and picked up a bundle of some lovelies - including this 6 x 6 sheet of gold with lettering above (If anyone knows what that says, let me know!)

And this stunning sheet of pretty.

Come back on Friday for the finished piece!

P.S. - Linking up with WIP Wednesdays over at The Needle and Thread Network. Come see what other Canadian fiber artists are up to!

This may look somewhat familiar. :) I posted it in its original form slightly over a year ago - and the reason you're seeing it again in this updated version is because the curator of the Mermaid show (that "Little Karoo At Night is going to be in) contacted me last week and asked if she could have this one too.

"Yes," I said, "But I need to bring it up to speed!"

Because THIS was the original. Can you believe she even wanted it? lol)

(By the way - check out the difference between my my old Sony point-and-click [which is a pretty great camera for what it is] and my brand-new-last-week-Nikon!)

Before the curator even asked me for it, the fact is, I had already said to myself that it needed more "stuff" in it and could use some improving, so I'm glad I had a reason to do it!

So I got out my new favourite (lutradur), and painted some up! First, I made a fanciful little octopus, and then I made a conch that I'm pretty happy with (!)...

I bumped up the foliage by adding more sea grass and darkening it all up...

Adding some more details to the little sea bushes (I have no idea what those things are called)...

Adding a starfish and some squid....

And hey, do you notice a problem up there in the top right hand corner? Yeah, me too.

After I blocked it again (I had to put on a new backing and sleeve - I had no idea what I was doing when I made the first one!), the purple fish bled. ARGH!

So I applied a little bleach to take up the bleed, which of course turned the quilt into that area into a white island...

So I mixed up some paint and painted over it. Much better even if the green is slightly off.

I completely started over with the mermaid skin/body (the old one didn't even have a face!) and since I had made a young mermaid for Little Karoo, I decided to make this mermaid more mature.