State of Flux

Meet State of Flux, completed in April. Inspired (among other things) by discoveries of ambiguous creatures whose life cycles may metamorphose into something that could consume every leaf off of the tender plants I have so carefully planted and nurtured, or...be the awkward beginning of something beneficial and beautiful. Inherent or instinctive behaviors can be very hard to identify by outward appearances.

Making something 3-dimensional was challenging and inspiring. I look forward to working on something like this again and applying what I learned this time around.

State of Flux is currently at the Indianapolis Art Center as part of the Curio Cabinet Exhibition until August 5. I found the theme behind Curio Cabinet so inspiring -  "examining the role of art in inspiring curiosity, mystery, intrigue and wonder".

little Bur oak whorl tablequilt

This one's done, washed and dried, crinkle and all. I learned a lot. This was a kind of test for a few construction issues before working towards something much bigger.

The biggest leaf is just barely attached to the whole.

We can also always use another surface-saving welcome spot for handmade ceramics. If Eva finds it unoccupied we can just start calling it a cat mat.

10/100 blue paint blocks

I have been painting one 7" block each day since April 6 with an end goal of 100 total blocks. (Read more about the 100 Day Project here.) I am using Pebeo Setacolor transparent fabric paint and sometimes a Pitt pen here and there. The first block is painted in Pebeo "indigo" colored paint (which I almost immediately realized I didn't have as much of as I thought and could no longer order) and all other blocks are painted with "cobalt". Oh well, I like the cobalt color more anyway. These are my first ten blocks. The first 25 will make one big 5 x 5 block and so on until I have four big blocks to sew together at the end. I like the idea of keeping them in quadrants of time - to really see what if anything might have changed along the way. 

Simply painting and drawing on each block has made it easy to keep up even if I don't have much time left in the day to do it. 

They have settled into a negative then positive space rhythm that I enjoy working out along with whatever has come to mind to paint. 

I have found myself looking forward to sitting down to work on these each day, even at the very end of the day. The very quiet and centered blocks are my favorites so far.

I will post a new block each day over at my Instagram page if you care to follow along over there. No pressure though, because I have plenty more to talk about at this place too. 

As always thanks to all who visit. I have had a bit of a lull in posting as I try to catch up with Spring, but will be back to stitching soon. I find all my time spent with hands too busy to stitch leads to more daydreams of all the things I will stitch when I can.

number one

The week was wobbly. Very cold with school delays and one day off. No glimpse of any sort of getting back to a routine yet. Maybe next week.

Sketchbook time needs to be scheduled I guess. I hold it up as such a special activity and I sort of wait for the perfect time to do it and so I don't. Maybe make it the first thing instead of the last thing. There's my start to the "new for the year" list.

a sketchy new year

I thrive on the optimism of a brand new year and I usually have quite the detailed list made out for what I hope to do. I am a little late to the party this year due to some crazy cold/flu thing that knocked me out for a week right after Christmas, but I am catching up. I did manage to stitch up a few oak leaves, which has stirred up a lot of leafy ideas again.

I am going to draw for a few weeks to get some ideas onto paper - more likely to make it onto a cloth if I can work a few things out in the book first. There are a lot of things swirling around and I hope to pin them down before they get away from me. I will also work on a bit of a list for a brand new year as I go.

Cheers! to 2015.

hibernation

My seasonal hibernation time is here. I am spending the moments between everything else stitching but I am all out of words for the how and why. My boys are running circles around me as we all try to move indoors for the winter season. Life is good and days are full.

I will be away from this blog for awhile - maybe until the new year begins. Please pardon my absence here as I settle into winter and holiday with my family. Thanks so much to all who take time to visit here. I am grateful.

If you would care to follow along one little photo at time you may find me over at Instagram every once in awhile. I have grown fond of the clean and quiet format over there and this change of season seems like a good time to try it out. fiberartandcraft (link in the sidebar)

painting vs dyeing

This piece was made with painted cloth. Some of the variation in color resembles dyed cloth but it is painted. I used a small amount of paint to apply washes as needed to create the colors I wanted with the fabrics I already had. Most of the fabrics I used were solid colors to begin with - I used the paint to add some variation. I also used the paint to emphasize edges - darkening with washes inside or outside of a stitched line. 

I used Pebeo Setacolor transparent fabric paints. The big bottles I have had for quite awhile. The small bottles are part of a wonderful starter set available through Dharma Trading Co.

I also used sun printed fabric (sun printed with the same transparent fabric paint) I had made awhile back and just cut choice pieces out of it. 

However, we did dye some fabrics in the gold and amber range with smashed apples this weekend, which yielded some similar colors. I think I have mentioned this on here before but we just made cider this weekend and so here it is again.

My people (and pup) - Brett holding the apples that have been pureed through a garbage disposal system he has built for cider making (not shown). The cider colored bag is full of the pulp before it has been pressed. That bag has been used for several years and retains a beautiful rich cider color.

The one used for years shown on the right. Two new bags shown left and middle - of those two only the middle one was used this time. This is after being washed. Pretty amazing I think - just apples.

The lighting on some of my inside photos are all over the place today. We have crossed over into winter temperatures in the last few hours and it feels like it has been getting dark since about noon today. So -  hot cider tonight. Stay warm.

lines and shaped edges

Celebrating some fall color with those pieced stars. I think in layers as I start to work out the color and then the line of a cloth. The line work eventually rising above the blocks of color and the various depths of line suggested with the color of thread. I haven't made it back to stitching leaves yet, but there are so many similarities in an insect wing.

I also gave a shaped edge a try - a star as fringe.

and Eva has fully claimed the fabric scrap corner in the top of the very big basket next to my sewing machine. The pets stay close as the days get colder.

Have a great weekend.

starry light

Sorry for the delay, all is very well - and this is where I spent my extra hour this morning.

greens in the nighttime

I went ahead with the cutting out and appliqué to have that luna glow in the nighttime. The white threads woven into the black shirt fabric caught just enough of the mostly yellow paint wash to suggest the green of the leaves in the dark.

unpredictable

Fabric paint wash on wet cotton. I let it wander where it wanted because I had planned to cut out near the outside line and fold under for appliqué, but oh that "glow" of color. Outside the lines.

paint and a little predictability

I have been working with my fabric paints towards more predictable results. I am not completely against surprises but there's no going back with this once it's on there. I have been diluting the paints and applying much like watercolors with layer over layer of color. I have given up the iron and just let the paint do it's thing and air dry. I am starting to feel pretty confident in predicting how far the paint might wander and working around or with that. This is just my little test cloth but I kind of like it.

I am stitching on some of the paintings. I didn't stitch much at all over the summer and it feels good to get back to the rhythm of it. It's very calming - my meditation.

My boys are back to school. One on to middle school with different school and different schedule. We are still getting used to all the changes but all in all things are going smoothly. A look and listen outside at all the life buzzing around day and night it's easy to see and hear that summer really isn't over.

My goal is a once a week post here - until I have all the rhythm of our days worked out. Thanks to all who are still listening.

bit if a square

On Friday I did a bit of sun printing with squares - in between some computer work and last day of school festivities and ceremony.



I am really liking an idea of pixelated color. How that translates really well into quilting and traditional quilt block patterns but is also directly related to all of these digital images we share, send, print and lay eyes on outside of our own act of vision. I have been piecing lots of squares but wanted a few different ways of using that idea without always having to do the piecing.

Those tulip leaves I loved, stitched and painted in April never bloomed. I am working on a cloth that sort of grows out of those leaves and so I am making my own imagined bloom out of squares. I have even added bit of appliqué.

bur oak :: love of leaves

I took this photo of the emerging leaves on our young bur oak tree about a month ago.

This photo taken today. The crazy little tree is setting acorns. My husband planted this tree from an acorn. A big bur oak acorn that looks like it's wearing a knit cap. The acorn came from a favorite tree located in a favorite park in our town. The parent tree is very big and very old. So anyway, he lives on. I think our tree is about 4 years old - 5 at the most. This year this little tree of ours is about 6ft tall and growing fast. So his leaves are my next ones for this leaf project. I haven't forgotten about it!

We had sewing circle again yesterday afternoon and mostly we painted with leaves. I learned a lot from my ceramicist, writer, biologist friends about fabric painting. So glad to have creative company.

I especially loved the blurry oak leaf. (beautiful idea, Soyong)

So I painted/printed two bur oak leaves from our little tree this afternoon.

Two different leaves from one tree. The leaves nearer the bottom of the tree have the connected top segment. Pretty cool.

So happy to be back in green.

let there be green

I need more green fabric to finish the last two blocks for the color journal quilt. I painted some beige fabric that I already had with moss green Pebeo Setacolor Transparent fabric paint. I have been using this paint since the boys were very little. It is non-toxic and that was important as they were always close by. I still love to use this paint. I add some of the paint to a jar of water and then can keep what I don't use for later. A wide foam brush works well to apply to damp cotton fabric.

The paint will migrate to high points and edges - so interesting things can be done there. Folding will also create lovely effects.

Iron both sides of dry fabric on cotton setting to heat set.

warmth

Bits of warm in the cold. A little something for the winter holidays - in progress.

72 blocks :: Three

I think I would have been happier with this one without the addition of the leaf, but hey - I still have 69 blocks to go - I will just try this block again. I am enjoying getting each wisp and glimmer of an idea out of my head and into stitch. I can fill a book full of sketches but it's hard to know what things will really look like in stitch unless you just make it.

72 blocks :: One & Two

These both have the same base fabric - a beige cotton flat sheet. I spent a few summer days (maybe six years ago!?) sun printing large positive and negative circles onto it to make a whole cloth quilt that never happened. I worked on it in the sunny front yard of our house. In the back yard of that same house was a big beautiful cottonwood tree whose leaves would cast the most beautiful flickering shade. My oldest says he still remembers that other house.

I recently dipped a lot of this painted beige fabric into a pot of walnuts and I like the way it softened the blue and green paint.

I stitched the single line leaf first and thought the next one would be better with an additional dark line but I much prefer the first one. Simple.

These blocks are part of "72 blocks" and began here.

a few hexagons

Pale blue grandma's flower garden hexagons on the mostly white panel. They add a little organization to the mix. I am thinking there may be a few sunflower ones soon, maybe even begin a second panel to eventually live alongside this first one.

My boys are back in school and I am still getting my footing. I have been busy with freelance, which has been nice. Working on a rhythm of it all to allow for all that I want and need to get done.

situation :: part 2

I went back the next evening to have a look at the mayapple and at first thought he had made some progress in breaking free. But then I realized it was a different leaf. I looked around a bit more and saw at least six leaves in the same situation. So... I decided to just set the first one free - knowing there would be others to watch as they tried to work it all out.

I think I may darken my painted and stitched leaf - to make that pale ring glow just a little more. I really like the way these mayapple leaves resemble huge green flowers.

This was a completely different leaf - looking a lot like a bloom.