The Susan G. Komen, Race for the Cure in Portland art quilt is now complete. I am pleased with the outcome and hope you enjoy it also.

I thought it was time to share what I was doing. This cactus art quilt is just in the beginning of it’s journey to being completed. I plan to resize and move the cactus plants around to make it a better composition. This has been a slow process since the pictures I took in the high desert. I am still considering adding some other elements such as line drawing of baskets. This is something I have done on the other recent quilts such as Portland Through Runners’ Eyes.

I have just added some new art placemats to the gallery so take a look. Below is just one of the exciting examples.

After taking part in the Susan G. Komen, Race for the Cure in Portland this past summer, I decided to make another art quilt featuring runners. So far, I have the back completed. I collected number placards from several participants (some pink, to recognize “survivors,” with those in white ones for “supporters”). I also included my own. The top for the quilt featuring runners is now in progress.

The Fairy Candle art quilt was inspired by a class I attended with Jane Sassaman on Abstracting from Nature. It has been an interesting project, and I look forward to doing more with this process. The design comes from a picture of a skunk cabbage that I took some time ago. I really like the process, and am quite pleased with the results.

My Night Riders art quilt is  experimental, using black batting for the background. The texture gives it an interesting look.

Now that summer is over and things have started to slow down, I have been able to focus on some “work-in-progress” that have been in progress for too long.  I am still working with bikers and runners, and look forward to doing more on theme.

My Portland art quilt now has a name:  Portland Through Runners’ Eyes. Included in this blog is a peek at the back of the quilt, as many have asked what I did with the reverse side. I gathered number placards from runners, received when they participated in a run or race. I had many saved from my running days in Japan, but as this art quilt was an Oregon original, I wanted to remain that way. Working on this piece has inspired me to experiment more with such placards, from both biking and running. More to come in the future!

This summer has been very busy and my work has slowed to a crawl. But I did finish the “runners” art quilt. I would really like to explore the runner theme more, along with that of the bikers. As to the quilt, the runners are silhouettes and the background is painted and stamped. I took pictures of some of Portland’s unique bridges, and then used Photoshop to modify them. They were then transferred to the fabric. The process really intrigues me.

For the back of the quilt, I used the number placards runners receive when they enter an event. I am now saving more of these (and scrounging some from runners!) as I love the way they work on the back. To protect the paper numbers, and to make them easier to attach, I used gel medium. I am still working on a name for this piece of art.

I look forward to the end of summer so I can get back to work, and develop more projects around this idea and method.

I finally have this art Celebrating Gloom – The Worst Day of the Year Ride work finished. The title really tells the story, but here is some additional information. The Worst Day of the Year Ride, which takes place in February, and  attracts about 4,000 hardy and adventurous individuals. Participants log about 18 mile, coursing through the streets of  downtown Portland. Food, drinks, and moral support are provided along the way. To get a feel for this unique event, take a look at the bike ride site.

The art quilt that I am doing for Vietnam is ready. I am using our troubled environment to express this theme for Her Presence in Colours X, which will be held in Vietnam in 2012. The theme is Women’s Art – a New Direction in Global Culture.

Paradigm Shift is the title of my art quilt. As we watch our environment degraded with alarming rapidity, and those in charge either unwilling or unable to bring about any meaningful change, it would seem that a woman’s nurturing instincts are needed to avert disaster.

I “recycled” a quilt top provide a base for this piece, added paper towels (used as swabs for a former project), then applied stamps, appliqué and paint.

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This March, I taught two 2-day quilting design classes at Lake Chapala, Mexico, just a few miles from Guadalajara. The classes were ably arranged by Gerri Treadway a Canadian resident of Chapala, who I met on the Internet.

It was great to exchange the gloomy spring weather in Oregon for the sunny, dry climate enjoyed by our neighbors to the south. The classes were held on the spacious patio of one of the students.

The first class featured placemat designs, which the participants took to quite enthusiastically. They returned the following day (more…)

The subject of this art quilt, now in progress, is a “Biker in the Oregon Rain.” I am making it for High Fiber Diet’s Diversity Show. I am hoping to finish it, and the green one, by the end of April. Progress has been slow, but I am getting there.

This is a close-up look at the latest art quilt in progress. I had some paper towels that were used to mop up paint, and had very interesting patterns, so I saved them. I am incorporating them in this piece. It seems to be working out pretty well, after applying two coats of gel medium. They are still very flexible and workable. If you look closely, you can see them. Stay tuned for the finished result.

More art quilted placemats have been added so take a look. They are under New Placemats on my web site. Hope you enjoy them.

Now for the final chicken quilt. This is the second quilt created for the Tactile Expressions “Full Circle” challenge, the intent of which was to see what happens when an image is passed from artist to artist.

The challenge rules for the first quilt required a fixed-size 35″ X 28″ piece. I was presented with a picture of a tea pot. But what I saw in the picture was the outline of a chicken, and I elaborated on that theme in the two resulting quilts required for the challenge. I traced the outline of the image based upon the teapot chicken. With the first quilt, I got carried away and made it a bit too large.

The second quilt came out more in line with the size requirement. Once again, I assembled the chickens with many tiny pieces of fabric. and applied fused applique and yarn in the rest of the work. I stamped the background fabric, and  machine-quilted the entire piece.
I now have a name for both quilts: Scratching I and II. You are looking at the second effort, Scratching II.

I would like to share a little of what the students accomplished in my Buenos Aires workshop. The students were very enthusiastic, and good quilters. We made placemats using various  design methods and ideas. They played around using Broderie Perse, then moved on using shapes in different ways. In the end they experimented with using Notan as a possibility for designs. These designs were used place mats. All produced wonderful, creative designs. Here are some examples.

Shapes and Notan in progress

Estela Loitegui and her Notan shapes

Maria Giardini and Gladis Vega with their shapes and Notan almost finished.

Estela Loitegui and here work

Teresita Leal and her work

I am making this chicken for a challenge project. I was given the image of a tea set and was asked to find an image within it. What I saw was a Chicken. Hmmm. Where to find a suitable chicken? Fortunately, my doctor has chickens in her yard, and gave me a good picture she had taken of her favorite. From the picture, I made an outline and then went to work on a stylized version. The resulting hen is made up of about six different fabrics pieces. An interesting bird. I’m not sure where I will go from here, so we’ll have to wait and see. However, I decided the the red chicken needed a friend, and I created the black and white one. Take a look.
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High Fiber Diet, a fiber arts group to which I belong, hosts a challenge each year for its members. This year’s challenge is called, “View from Above.” I based my effort this year on scenes of farmland I have viewed many times from airplanes flying back and forth across the country. For my stylized interpretation, I used paints, discharge dying and stitching. The resulting piece will be traveling for a year with the High Fiber Diet show.

I am now closer to finishing my chain ring piece and it now has a biker and some texture. I have painted and stamped all over the fabric. My husband told me I really needed some chains on the piece, so I asked him to take one apart so I could make a stamp out of the links. If you look closely you will see (more…)

With the Talkn’ Trash quilt, it was fun to see how many throw-away items I could use. I began with a trash heap, and went from there. In the quilt, the cart is carrying additional refuse to add to the pile. I used plastics, paint, wool, plastic  bags, and used a mesh onion bag to hold the trash, something… (more…)