Thursday, November 23, 2017

Free Motion Quilt Graffiti

During a break at November's meeting Sherry Sarino and I were discussing our shared interest in Free Motion Quilt Graffiti (aka doodling or zentangle).  I told her I saw an amazing tutorial online and would send it to her, but I thought "why not share with everyone"! So without further ado here are some examples and a great tutorial.  Have fun.  LOVE this.

Karlee Porter "Russian Mosque" these are two different pictures.  I couldn't separate them for some reason.  Apparently they are Siamese twins.
Karlee Porter: Russian MosqueOh, the quilting! This is my dream. One day....By Karlee Porter: Graffiti Quilting 101

So I had the video saved and darn it all... Karlee removed the video.  I think she is now selling it.  BUT here is a pretty good one:
Video where Karlee discusses how she does the graffiti quilting:
Interview Karlee Discuss Graffiti Quilting

Her website:
Karlee porter
Her tutorials and fast motion graffiti
She has links to her blog, designs,books... if you are interested.

Sherry, I sure hope this is what you were talking about!

If anyone has a good video to share or some insights, feel free to leave a comment below.  Also, if you have something you want to share on the blog, write up your thoughts, give me some links and pics and BINGO  - you can now add "quasi published writer" to your resume AND make your fellow SUFAites really really happy.


November Meeting - including Show and Tell

Good day Fiber Artists!

Thank you for your patience in waiting for this post.  A few of our fellow members and I were blissfully quilting away at our neighborhood's quilting club's retreat in Springdale.  Boy howdy was it pretty while we were there.  One member was not quilting so much as creating a little fiber art.  I suspect she will be bringing her goodies to show and tell pretty soon.

OK down to business.  First, thank you again Charlotte for the great soy milk and pigment presentation.  We all look forward to see what our ladies come up with when trying it out.  Second, don't forget your postcard and dish for potluck for Decembers meeting (Dec. 5).  direct any questions about the postcard to our fearless leader Cheryl.

Now onto the pics (click to enlarge):

I'm gonna start with Maryanne.  She is our newest member.  Welcome lady!  She offered up her flower she made in  class she took where they sort of impromptu flower designed.  No real pattern, they just created.  Nice work!

Sherry Sarino offered a crayon depiction of seashell and...I will call it the "Visine Eyeball".  Haha!  I don't think she will be offended.  I think it was a neat little experiment involving wind, salt and paint.  Looking forward to seeing what she does with it.
I'll get a pic of Sherry next time.  Opted to shoot close of art
 Next up Doris Claude and her Doxidog.  I didn't record the particulars on it because I was too busy looking at it and then trying to ensure it got passed my way.  Ahem.  I am mesmerized by dogs.  Even inanimate ones.  It was beautiful up close so be sure to click to enlarge.  I know she thread stitched and appliqued (check out the back and front leg.  Purple.  Perfect.)  She really captured a lot of personality in her dachshund.

And here is a stained glass quilt by Janey Argyle.  Hard to see in the picture, but it is shimmery.  I think she said she painted glitter on it, but it has the effect of Jacquard metallic paint.  Then she quilted it with what looks like drizzling rain in metalic thread.  She isn't done with this though. She is adding shrubbery to it. 

Here we have a splendid Spoonflower transfer of Karen Andrus' granddaughter to which she embellished with acrylics, pastels and intense pencils.

Here Rosemary Hargrove is showing "Seven Wives BnB" which is actually a sneak peak for us!  She is doing January's program for us entitled "More than Cotton" where we will get to know the different fabrics out thereand get to thinking of how we might use them.  So here she did a crazy patch she learned in a Judith Montono seminar.  The embroidery is done by hand with silk ribbon and sever other threads.

Cathie Purdy brought in a sample of some echo dying she did.  I believe it is on Cotton, but wouldn't it be something on a silk scarf?  Very interesting effect that she should consider showing us how to do.  👱


And another anonymous artist.  Just kiddin ya.  It is Nickie Heying's work "Front Porch" up close.  I wanted you to see the picture she used and how she chose to put it to cotton.  IRL the plant stand out.  I think she sulky threaded it.

And here is Barbara Nilsson.  Wish I caught this up close.  She took a whole cloth scene and changed the entire background by fussy cutting removing many background trees and inserted blue sky, plus added a fallen tree, second water fall, flowers and extra foliage. She used Inktense pencils to add shadows and high lights to entire piece. The water falls, trees, bushes, grass etc. were thread painted. In the foreground she used Noriko Endo-esque confetti for flowers and leaves.  She would probably strangle for saying this - but she should teach a class on the Noriko Endo confetti.  I am writing it.  Not SAYING it.

And last but not least we have Cindy Oxley and her Crayon and thread painted landscape.  I think this is her first real go at thread painting.  Well done lady.

Alrighty.  If I did not accurately describe your piece or God forbid - forgot someone, can you shoot me a mail or leave a comment below.  If I wrote you and you didn't get back to me yet - well get on the stick! Shoot me a mail and I will edit the post.

Sunday, November 12, 2017

Soy Painting and Watercolor Pigment


Thank you so much Charlotte for presenting to us how she uses how soy and watercolor pigment to create some of her art.  If you missed the meeting ask Charlotte for her handout.  It will be more in depth on some topics than I will cover here.

Is anyone besides me fascinated by what people come up with when creating?  Never would I have thought to process soybeans to use as a binder or medium for pigment to be applied to paper or fabric.  But that is what happens when you wisely ignore convention.  Let loose the imagination ladies!

Let's start with an example of Charlotte's work to whet your creative appetite for soy watercolor painting.


Beautiful example of painting with watercolors using the soy milk as the medium. So impressive in person.  It is titled 'Sunset at Falls Park'  She is pointing to a place on the ridge she had to change the fabric in order to achieve the right shading for the sun.  The tree is done with tulle. It really made it pop.  The quilting done on the water really expressed the wild flow.

So how is it done?  I am going to include some references she made in her presentation at the bottom of this post.  They are primarily linking to Fiber Artist John Marshall who is a pioneer of this method and to Subversive Stitches which covers some things John Marshall does not. If ou can find the quilting arts magazine in which they cover him and this method it is worth trying to find and purchase.  Charlotte says it is quite comprehensive.  I also included a link to a woman - a gross woman - who also uses soy and pigment in her art.  Funny and disgusting.  She is the hit of NYC.

Charlotte basically discussed the two applications for soy milk and fabric.
1)  As A whole fabric pretreat:  Briefly, apply soy milk to the fabric before you paint it, let it cure anywhere from 2 to 30 days flat or hung taughtly  (so it stretches it) on a quasi hammock.  The result is a fabric that really allows pigment to embed into the fabric and keeps it from wicking.
2)  Use soy milk instead of water to thin watercolor pigment that will then be painted onto the fabric.

She really went into #2. which is the method she uses.  She does not pretreat. She does note that if you don't use PDF (which I think means pre-dyed fabric) that you should pre-wash the fabric to get the sizing out of it before you start painting with the soy and pigment.

What she does is she uses the soy milk instead of water and applies the (watercolor) pigment/soy to the fabric.  It really makes the pigment soak into the fabric and fixes it into it.  She keeps water available only to clean the brushes.  So she keeps it out of reach so she doesn't accidentally dip into water instead of milk.

She said she has a separate pallet for the paints she uses with soy.  Why?  It can get funky.
Cindy O. noted that soy milk can turn white fabric slightly yellow.

OK onto more eye candy. I think you can click on the pic to enlarge it for detailed examination.

Soy milk watercolor and thread painting of Oregon Coast
Early work.  Oregon Coast
Horseshoe Bend.   It is totally painted, then thread painted. The bush on the front was created separately and then appliquéd with a sewing machine and clear thread.  To make the bush she used strips of batik which she knotted, bunched up and sewed to a piece of netting she had stretched in an embroidery hoop.
 Be sure to click on this pic to see the quilting.  I didn't take notes on this because I was picture taking but I think she said this is inspired by her sister.  Her sister being the menacing bird getting ready to grab a big hunk of her hair.  Oh wait - I am projecting.  Her sister - I am sure - is a lovebird.
 Another scene from the diverse and beautiful Moab.  I went up to have a look at it during the break.  Very intricate placement of fabric in the trunk on the foreground.  Raw edge appliqued with bits of little pieces of fabric to make that look so good.   Same for the background shrubs and foreground grasses.  Excuse that overly technical description...😏.  A few of us enjoyed talking about how our mountains would look if we attempted those shadows.  Well done Char.  Your work is very appreciated by our group.

Charlotte said that she draws the scene a few times on paper before she puts it down on the cloth.  She uses all sorts of fabric including simple muslin.  In the pic right above there is a piece right under the landscape - it is tulips.  It was done on muslin.  The tulips were inspired from her neighbors tulips that bloomed underneath a tree.  I think I may have been envisioning it and forgot to snap a pic.

Finally here she has sunflowers and demure bird.  Thread painting and some terrific bead work in the flowers.  She had a companion piece to this, but I didn't snap it.
Gigantic thank you Char for sharing your work and methods plus you really kept us all enthralled and had us laughing over the mold (you had to be there) and were very sporting when you gave us a live example of how to apply it to a pre painted piece (which you decided to do on the fly).  It is no small thing to get up in front of us IMO.

If you live in Hurricane Nickie Heying is offering to share some newly purchased soybeans.  She bought them at Natural Grocer off of Green Springs.  2lbs bag for 2.98.
Bob's Red Mill also sells them so you might find them right there in the regular grocery.  You can also try Dixie Nutrition if you live in STG.




Links:

John Marshall's Making & Basics of Soy Milk
Vid Applying Soymilk Sizing to Whole Cloth
Subversive Stitchers' Post on Marshall and his methods
Slightly related but wholly disgusting video. Made me laugh

Wednesday, November 8, 2017

Group Name Change

Did you miss the meeting?  Bummer.... because we voted to change the name of our group.  Thankfully the vast majority of us agreed on the new name: "Southern Utah Fiber Artists (SUFA)".  Thank you to everyone who submitted ideas.  Some of them were so clever and others really funny and apt, but we oped for a more professional name because as Barbara Nilsson stated in her last minute campaign for SUFA "When we submit our work for show or review (and win) it is best to have a more professional name".  I shouldn't have put quotes around that since I can't remember her exact words, but that was the gist.

About the blog.  If you are just reading this in your mail, consider clicking thru to the blog and reading there.  Why?  Because there are pictures there!

OK, blog post on all the other stuff we did in the meeting and all the fabulous show and tells to come later this week.

And for grins: