First Flowers of the Year

It was cold gathering them, and I was dodging raindrops...but the first blooms are opening in the yard and I wanted to share them with all my sister Persephones in the white winterland....
Helebore, viburnum, forsythia, daffodil, violet, and one sole vinca....how they gladden the heart!

Pat's Peace Sign...Finished

I was down in San Francisco for a few days this week, plus I am STILL canning tomatoes, so it took longer than expected to finish this project.

Originally I had planned on stretching this over foam core...I love the flat tight surface this gives. But Pat told me a few days ago that she preferred batting and a backing, so I had to do a little creative problem solving.

The green background area was too poofy for my taste.

To flatten it out, I machine quiilted it. (What a concept!)
The Wonderfil rayon thread was just great to work with.

There were a few little finishing details. The white thread I had used to sew on those yellow beads had to be fixed. I use fabric markers to "dye" threads all the time after the fact.
Some loose beads had to be tightened, a little extra stitching put on the peace sign itself...but now it is done.

This is 15" X 15". Pretty darn fun it was!

In San Francisco I was helping a friend clean out her closet. This gal is a shopper, and has the wherewithal to buy some really nice clothes. I came home with three suitcases full of them after spending a day trying stuff on and hearing the great stories behind some of the garments. ("I wore that coat in Paris one April..." "This one went to the opera in Vienna and the casino in Monte Carlo...") What I really enjoyed was the way my friend was just as excited by a cute blouse from Target as she was by a fine old Chanel velvet skirt.
So when I went grocery shopping this morning I had on Prada shoes, Ann Taylor jeans, and a Georgio Armani striped hoodie. No doubt Washougal didn't notice, but I must say it put an extra spring in my step!

One of my new hand-me-downs is a lightweigh denim hoodie that is begging to be transformmed by my embellisher. I think it's time to play...

Pat's Peace Sign...Part 8

I wish you could smell this!
Pear chutney is simmering on the stove, filling the house with pungent sweet ginger, cinnamon, jalapeno, onion, cider vinegar, sugar, red pepper, and pear. It is delectable.

These are waiting to ripen...you can see there is still more food preservation in my future.

Actually, a lot more. These are still on the tree, waiting to be harvested.
This was an amazing crop, considering that while this tree was flowering it got hailed and snowed on. Bees don't even like pear flowers that much either. But look at this yield.

And then there is the seemingly never ending supply of Super Marzano sauce tomatoes. I have a kettle full of these simmering into pasta sauce next to the chutney on the stove.

So you can see why the Pat's Peace Sign is moving kind of slowly. But I am making progress with the seam treatments. It has been fun to severely limit my parameters...no beads, no ribbon..just single or double strand floss in very traditional stitching patterns. This just seemed like the best way to show off the flowers.

This shows what I have in mind. I do think it will work, especially with that cording along the inside of the border.

Now, to switch gears....the financial panic has been so dreadful over the last weeks. If you would like a very clear explanation of what went into this happening, and how we might eventually get out of it, check out this series of YouTube videos...starting with this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKBuVU5b6eM

There are 7 in the series, each about ten minutes long. But you can skip the first one, as it is just an introduction of the speaker. Then just find the links on the sidebar for the next part in the series.
He is L. William Seidman, former head of the FDIC and also the RTC (Resolution Trust Corporation, the government entity that oversaw the savings and loan crisis of the early 1990's.) He makes this extremely complicated situation understandable. I am learning so much watching it. (And what a sinking feeling it is giving me.)
The fact that the speaker is my uncle makes me proud to recommend this. He's doing pretty darn well for 87 years old, too.

I hope you are all keeping your chins up and trying to stay positive during these trying times. Stitching has never seemed more important, somehow... ;-)

Pat's Peace Sign...Part 7

Thank you ALL for your congratulations. Your kindness just blows me away....!

I will celebrate just about anything by spending an afternoon piecing. Oh how I love a pile of fabrics, cup of coffee, and the peace to just wing it with my trusty Juki.

My goal was to get the borders pieced and onto my center peace section.

Because the overall quilt will only be 16" X 16", each border section was small. Plus, I kept myself strictly limited in fabric choices--in this case, all dark greens--and this can keep the process moving along quickly. I accomplished my goal in about three hours.

I love how embellishments jump out from dark valued fabrics. Black is the traditional choice for this, but in this case the flower colored stitching will stand out from the dark green background.
The stitching will be kept relatively "flat" so as not to compete with the 3 D flowers in the center. No doubt some rayon cording will go along the edge of the central square. I always end up adding that!

So I am good to go for some traditional CQ seam treatments...just in time for the Post Season playoffs.
Go Dodgers!!!!

Pat's Peace Sign...Part 6....

...And a Week-End Trip to Seattle.

I drove up to see my son Max's new apartment that he shares with his girlfriend, Esther. They live in a neat neighborhood near the U District called Wallingford...have a nice 2 bedroom apartment with a view of the top of the Space Needle! It's a close bus commute to Max's job at Amazon in downtown Seattle...all in all, a sweet scene and I enjoyed being their guest a lot.

Now all they need is furniture.

Esther is content with a crochet hook and yarn....I love that! And all Max requires is his laptop.

Who needs a dining room table?
Well, actually....I think they are finally going to get some basics at Ikea next week-end. I hope so! My shabby old bones could use a chair when I visit...the food was great, though, vegan enchilladas by Esther.

I got plenty of work done on my peace sign while we were all hanging out.

Esther and I walked to Fusion Beads, where I picked up those nice yellow five-petaled flowers and the purple lucite flowers, too.
I'm just about done with this central section, and I must say I am happy with it. Now for the crazy quilted frame....

Pat's Peace Sign...Part 5

This is almost hitting critical mass...not much more to go on but little details like buttonholing the edges of the fused fabrics, and filling in the actual peace symbol just a bit more.

Two of today's additions were inspired by fellow bloggers. I got the idea for the buttonhole wheels over wool from Conni over at The Scoop, Score, and Deal's September 10th post.
The maroon ribbon flowers are a (somewhat feeble) attempt at Marie Alton's loop flowers.

I am liking where the colors are going with this...and also how the 3 D flowers have integrated well with the printed ones.
So far, so good!
Don't you love it when that happens?

Pat's Peace Sign...Part 4

Today brought back happy memories of working on the Spring CQ, as I recreated some of the flowers I used on that quilt.

First there were the little angelina flowers.
But this time, after I fused my sheet of angelina and found it too thin, I didn't try to fuse more angelina on top. I've learned that this just doesn't work, because the layers come apart.
So with wonder under I fused my thinnish sheet of angelina onto some magenta silk. That did the trick.

I love the fuzzy texture I get from felting, so I laid down a small section of green wool and silk fibers on top of this hand dyed silk dupioni, (the same dupioni already on the peace sign as the little fused leaves. This is to help the different leaves blend.)

Using the same technique as for the "Dove Rose" on the Spring CQ, I made a single rose for the bottom of the peace sign wreath.
That bunch of pre-fab paper roses cost $1.oo at a local craft discount warehouse. I gave one of them a quick bath in the Dye-Na-Flow and got my yellow center. It's just to the left of the jar in the picture.

In her comment on the last post, Susan Elliot wrote that the background print gives a jumping off point and framework for creating the composition. Bingo, Susan! I don't know how much of it will even show by the end--except for the daffodils, which Pat loves--but it has given me a great beginning to work from.
I'm already imagining the little CQ frame that will go around this block, too....

Pat's Peace Sign...Part 3

The tomatoes are keeping me fully involved.

This shows a portion of the Great Tomato Plantation of 2008.
Right now I have a tray of these Super Marzano plum tomatoes roasting in the oven with onion and rosemary....just for a quick little sauce for dinner tonight. I go out there and pick a sackful of them and don't make a dent!

So I'm not working in the sewing room as long each day as usual, but I did get a bit done this morning on the peace sign.

The fun part of starting with a neutral background is that adding contrasting colors gives such a pleasant jolt.
Hopefully I'll have more on here for my next post.....

Pat's Peace Sign...Part 2

It's been busy around here!

First I spent a couple of hours with Pat's Peace Sign this morning...

Getting the actual peace symbol on there early on seemed important...I want the rest of the block to support it, not overwhelm it.

These little rudbeckia flowers will form the "scaffolding", which will be filled in by smaller, more detailed flowers and leaves.
I still need to get that wreath more even in width, but the flowers going on will help me do that.

Most of my time yesterday was spent in the kitchen, making of all things, ketchup. I just had to try it, with all those tomatoes we have. Very labor intensive stuff, is ketchup! Cooking it down and down and down....we finally finished it up quite late.

We're going to try out the extra on some home grown roasted potatoes tonight...we'll have fresh from the garden fava beans and corn as well...and how about some just harvested carrots in a carrot raisin salad?

I'm still working with the flowers, too.
I tried and tried to get a better Star of David but those angles and straight lines just defeated me. So I made a mandala inspired by the six pointed star......

Best wishes for Rosh Hashanah!

Pat's Peace Sign...Part 1

This is the t-shirt Pat was wearing that inspired her to suggest the Floral Peace Sign project. She thought it would look good in 3 D flowers, and that was all I needed to hear to get my motor running.....
So I just had to get to work on Pat's block today. Inspiration has struck and the iron is hot!

As a backdrop I am using a print from last spring's March Take It Further project, fused to some green silk that Pat herself dyed and gave to me a few years ago.
The block is 12" square, asymmetrical at first glance.

After a few hours of work, there is a little more balance.
Of course, this is all just "background" for the 3 D flowers Pat wants.
Progress will be posted!

Floral Symbols

After creating the peace sign out of flowers, I got to thinking about what other symbols could be depicted with this approach. I do want to enjoy those blooms during their last weeks, and creating images from them is a way to "preserve" them for the winter.

This Star of David is not quite straight and true, and I think I will redo it. But I like the idea of the frame being formed...the center could be filled with a portrait of a loved one...especially a Jewish loved one! ;-)

India and her spiritual traditions have a very special place in my heart, so I had to make an "Om" symbol. I would love to try adding 3 D flowers over the base of this after it's been printed onto silk.

There is other preserving to do these days besides the flowers, though. The pears are coming ripe and Robert's tomatoes are yielding a truly bumper crop. So it is back to the canning kettle for me and Barbie....

Peace

My dear friend Pat Garner and I are going to do a swap this year at Point Bonita....she is going to make me a new quilt for my bed, and I am going to do an embellished flower picture for her.
This is the design she wants, so I did a warm-up.....

This is going to be so much fun!..... ;-)

Playing With Roses

At last!!!!
My roses are bursting forth in the late arriving but most welcome sunshine. I wanted to capture them in their first flush of bloom...

...and I also want to thank you all, the readers of this blog who bring such happiness to my life with your wonderful comments and emails...you are from all over the world and that thrills me no end!

So I offer these images for you to use as you will...print them on fabric or paper and just have fun with them. I intend to use the frame in my Block of the Issue for next month's CQMagOnline....

I plan on printing this on cotton sateen and then doing some waste canvas lettering in the center. "A + R", of course... ;-) What would you do with this?

Or maybe you'd rather have a full heart, so to speak. This could be fun as the base for some threadpainting.

Then there is the idea of just printing an overall and random arrangement to use like any other printed fabric: cut it up and piece it into quilt blocks! Or trim the cuffs of a jacket with it, or.....

I'm going to be taking a break from blogging til the end of the month, because I have a bunch of homework to do for CQMagOnline. Plus there is a major girl party in San Diego next week-end with my Seester...I'll still be keeping up with everyone's blogs and tuning in to Stitchin' Fingers, too...but I have to get cracking to meet my deadlines, so farewell until July!

Embellisher Experiment #7, Felted Background...and Take it Further, March

This is also going to count as my Take it Further challenge for March. Noticing the little things...

I love to make fresh flower collages and then photograph them...old time blog readers remember this from last year I am sure. Well, yesterday marked the beginning of the flower season for 2008!
I thought it would be fun to use the Embellisher to help create the background fabric that I would lay my flowers out on. The printed fabric image from the resultant photograph will in turn become the center of a small crazy quilt. (I can't stay away from CQing for very long.)

The TIF concept came into play yesterday as I hunted the yard for blooms, and noticed the tiniest signs of growth everywhere. From the delicate fronding on the moss to some wee spider egg cocoons at the base of a forsythia flower...there were tiny miracles everywhere that gave me big thrills!

I started with some plain muslin, painting it with Tsukineko inks.

Then I started laying down some silk and merino fibers with the embellisher.

After all the fibers were swirled on there (also a few shreds of sheer silk), I laid out the lace I wanted to include. I just pinned that in place, though, as I will want to reuse it elsewhere.

Then I went out into the cool gray morning and found riches in the tiniest details!

So here we have hellebore, primula, forsythia, miniature and large sized daffodils, violets, grape hyacinth, some tiny pink flowers I don't know the name of, and the humble vinca...with two kinds of moss tucked in the corners. The spider egg cocoons are the three little white dots you see along the left edge, right in the center.
There is going to be lettering applied in the central blue space...

This was printed on cotton sateen from Dharma....and is for Easter, of course.... ;-)

Now to get piecing!

Flowers for JoWynn

I just returned from a 26 hour flying visit to San Diego to help young niece Qwen celebrate her sixth birthday. These jet-setting jaunts take a little more recovery time than they used to...especially because I stayed up half the night solving the world's problems with my highly informed and passionate brother Matt. Truly, it didn't matter that we are on opposite sides of the political spectrum.

I came home to find a really nice email from JoWynn, whose blog, Parkview 616 is a must read for me because of its deep thoughtfulness, spiritual emphasis, beautiful needlework, and truly accomplished writing. In a private email I had sent her one of my recent floral mandalas, in response to her blog entry on the subject. She asked if I would post the picture so others could see it....so JoWynn, for you.....

...with love.

Yellow Floral Mandala Quilts...finished!

What an interesting exercise this turned out to be.
The same set of photographs produced two very different quilts. The silk satin and the silk broadcloth gave me such varied prints. The former had sharper edges and more saturated colors than the later.
But because the broadcloth print was so indistinct, I decided to play with it awhile (try and salvage it, to be honest). This led to some pleasant discoveries.
I was primed to experiment after reading Sharon B's post of May 13th about how she builds up her imagery in layers, no matter what medium she is working in. I figured this indistinct and rather washed out version of the yellow mandala quilt needed some development, one "layer" at a time.
It ended up with several:
--the photo and print
--the pastel "enhancement" of the print on fabric
--the close machine quilting
--hand embroidery with hand-dyed silk floss and silk ribbon, lace, and a few (just a few) beads
--Prismacolor pencil work directly on the fabric to bring out the colors a little more, and even to make some of the embroidery stand out a bit more.

I have never put a lot of handwork on a quilted surface. I don't see it done that often in a way that appeals to me...but beyond that, I was hung up on not "messing up the back" of the quilt with all those extra knots and threads that come from embroidery. This was a result of entering too many quilts in too many "sane" quilt shows.
Finally I just said "the heck with it" and messed up my back anyway. I wasn't going to bury all those knots and threads, that's for sure.

Really, this felt good. Eventually I just used the "envelope" method to finish this quilt, so now nothing shows on the back at all.

Heavily quilted, close-weave cotton--referring to the backing here--isn't that much fun to stitch through, but in spite of myself I like the look of this.

Here's a little detail. If you look closely you can see the green pencil marks I made between the light green fly stitches...just to give more contrast. A neat new little trick....

Here is the silk satin mandala, just quilted in the ditch, which took all of ten minutes. The photographs of the flowers do all the work, and pretty nicely too, in this one, but the other one gave me more to think about.....

Floral Mandala Quilt

This was inevitable.
I just had to see how these floral arrangements would look printed up, sewn into a little quilt, and embellished. Nothing elaborate or time-consuming...I tried one of these a year and a half ago and enjoyed it...quilted that one. This time I just wanted to see what I could whip up pretty quickly.
There was a host of new technical challenges that awaited me, so that was fun. Everything from how to lay out the flowers to get the values in the right places (just starting to figure that out), how to get the fabric through my printer easily (ditto), which fabric to use (still experimenting). How can I lay out my flowers to get patterns within patterns in my simple nine patch arrangement? Another question to pursue...

So here is my first crack at this idea....

This measures about 15" X 15".

There is a nifty article by Diana Ricks in the new CQMagOnline about how to make these velvet roses. Mine don't look as articulate as hers do, but it doesn't really matter than much. They are fun!