Another one done

I finished another 16x20 collage today. The colors in the one above look different from the one below because I took the photos in different light.

Here's where I was playing with arrangements of painted fabric around my desert photograph.

Then I pulled out embroidery floss possibilities

The fun part was when I started making big cross stitches. That's the meditative part.

While I was stitching and watching the news last night, a dove perched on the chair outside my window and seemed transfixed with the TV for almost an entire hour! Or maybe she was as shocked as I was about the latest national news and just couldn't move.

Have a colorful day

Desert door art piece

 

As Tucson heats up (96 yesterday), I'm enjoying working with some cool colors like green and blue.

I finished my first 16"x20" piece and stapled it around a stretched canvas frame today! I printed my photograph of a door on fabric and then fused it to some fabric that I painted. This is a style that's evolved over the last year or so as I switched to skipping the quilting and stretching my pieces around a frame so they present more like paintings. I started with 8x10 pieces then upped it to 11x14, and now I'm starting on 16x20 frames.

I'm using this photo that I took at Catalina State Park for my next piece. I printed it on silk twill, then painted more blue and green fabric.

I like the way the fabric paint moves around in response to wrinkles and air bubbles. It makes for a more interesting result.

I was impatient for it to dry, so about halfway through I draped the fabric over some succulents and it dried in five minutes in our 5% humidity desert heat.

Now I'm playing around with different arrangements ...

... the possibilities are endless!

The one thing I have to do is straighten the saguaros before I fuse them down. When I applied the Mistyfuse to the back of the photograph I guess the iron pulled them a little out of shape. If I can't get them to fuse down straight, I'll cover the curves with some collaged fabric and hope for the best.

Have a colorful day

Spiral and sunset

 

I'm spiraling this week. (But aren't we all?)

I beaded a spiral at the top of my latest piece. In one of my first beading classes, the instructor introduced us to the term "bead soup," which is a mixture of different beads that you dip into when you want variety. So that's my bead soup in the little bead tray. And you might wonder why the tray is shaped in a triangle? Because when you want to return the beads to their storage tube, you can easily put one corner of the tray into the tube and funnel the beads in with no mess!

We've also been having spectacular sunsets! This is the view across the street from my house and also standing in the street looking at the reflection in my sewing room window. I'll never get tired of watching these.

Have a colorful day

Desert door, moon and snow

I'm making progress on my desert door piece. I printed my photograph of the door on silk then painted the background piece. I used the same colors to paint a piece of silk organza and used that to frame the photograph, but since it's transparent it's a softer frame.

I fused the door and organza down and now I'm making stitching marks with two strands of embroidery floss. I want the stitching to look a little imperfect and rough to go along with the old door.

A few days ago I walked to the edge of my neighborhood and took pictures as the moon rose over Pusch Ridge while the setting soon made the rocks glow. Those are the same colors that are in my door art!

I took pictures for awhile as the moon rose higher, sun sank lower and the rocks turned different colors. I was using my iPhone, but another photographer had set up a big camera and long lens on a tripod in the middle of the street to capture the moon, so I'm sure his photos were spectacular. 

A few days later there was snow on the mountain!

And here's my little munchkin trundling along in her pink snow suit. I can't wait to visit her next month!

Have a colorful day

Tohono Chul in Bloom

 

The Tohono Chul gardens and gallery were in bloom with plants and Mexican folk art this weekend! I strolled around the grounds yesterday, soaking in the cheerful colors.

There was a sale and demonstrations of Mexican folk art, including these intricately painted whimsical carved animals called alebrijes. This artist was working on a piece using a teeny tiny paintbrush to make those little designs.

His colors echoed the new spring blooms outside on a gorgeous sunny day.

A display of Oaxacan rugs brought in more color, and one of the weavers had set up a loom to demonstrate the weaving process.

A table of hand-embroidered Mexican clothing for sale was full of flowers, just like the gardens outside.

Mata Ortiz pottery had more subtle, earthier colors, echoed in some of the natural desert at Tohono Chul (which means "desert corner"). Mata Ortiz is the name of the town in the Mexican state of Chihuahua where the pottery is made. Its painted designs are incredibly delicate. The highly collectible pottery is a recreation of the Mogollon pottery found in and around the archeological site of Casas Grandes, near Mata Ortiz. 

Tohono Chul, my happy place!

Have a colorful day

Bits and pieces

I haven't accomplished much lately creatively, but yesterday I did manage to sew this simple black silk top. I bought the fabric 15-20 years ago planning to discharge it with geometric patterns and then make it into a long vest, but that never happened! So I pulled out my trusty pattern that cuts the top in one piece, with a hole in the middle for the neckline. All that's required is sewing side seams and finishing the edges. 

I've been dawdling over another project because I'm worried that it won't work. I printed the door photograph on a piece of 8x10 silk shantung, with the texture running vertically like the grain of wood in the door. I want to float it in the middle of a big piece of fabric that I'll paint and then connect it all somehow with hand stitching. But I'm not as confident in my ability to mix the right paint colors as I used to be because I'm out of practice.

So the other day, instead of working on it, I hiked into the desert and sat for a long time looking out at the scene above. It was absolutely quiet except for some birdcall. I tried to listen to the silence instead of talking to myself about our troubling political climate and the things at home that need fixed like my doorbell chime that stopped chiming and my drip irrigation system that died. 

Today it's chilly and very windy and sky is grey, which always makes me uneasy. But there's rain in the forecast and we dearly need it. Our desert is in a drought, with this fall and winter being the driest ever recorded. The prickly pear cactus pads are skinny for lack of water, and some are falling over ...

... and a lot of the chollas are drooping.

But last night's sunset was spectacular, thanks to the clouds that are moving in. Always a nice way to cap the day.

I'm linking to Nina-Marie so you can see what other quilt artists are up to: niche-notions-quilt-shops-on-off-wall.html

Have a colorful day