This blog records my experiments and successes with fabric and fibers, surface design, stitching, weaving, photography and whatever else strikes my fancy. Enjoy ...
I put in an order with Thread Art. They sell polyester embroidery threads with a nice sheen that are strong enough for quilting. They are not that expensive as embroidery thread goes, and I've been able to build a nice palette / stash of thread colors in the last few years that is within my budget. [Still waiting for the fancy and expensive thread companies to gift me a set of threads to make art with ... ;-)]
I said these threads quilt up beautifully. I've been using them for the past couple of years, and have been very happy with them overall for this purpose. They also work for embroidery and threadpainting. Here's another one showing how it quilts up on Hobbs 80/20 cotton/poly batting :
I am currently working on quilting Rosita's Wedding Ring Quilt. The rings are so colorful, I thought one of these variegated threads would be suitable to quilt the rings. Maybe that orange/melon?
I was burned a while back when I bought a set of Madiera rayon
embroidery threads, but they just didn't last. I was nearly in tears
one weekend trying to figure out what was wrong with my machine ...
until I finally realized that the rayon thread had gone bad. It wasn't me, or my machine, or the needles. It was the rotton and brittle rayon thread. Still
beautiful colors, but you can break it off of the spool. Not fit for
sewing anymore. Now I use them in my composed fabrics as splashes of
color.
This time, I purchased the ThreadArt Set D -- as I already had sets A, B, and C which I bought as a larger set of 120 spools on a Black Friday deal a few years ago for about $1 a spool. All those luscious colors! Set D is supposed to be the "blues & neutrals."
Here's what ThreadArt says about Set D :
"This extension set called our Brilliant set will increase your selection
of blues and neutral colors of thread. Sometimes we forget to collect
the neutral shades of thread because they are not the pretty one. Add
this set to your thread collection and you will have the colors you need
on hand. Plus, this set is not all boring. It has some really pretty
blues to enjoy."
I don't have the thread stand that is pictured above. I did have one -- gave it a try, but I just don't have the space for it in my sewing studio. Instead, I use those scrap-booking boxes. The threads stand up so I can see the colors from the top and the boxes are easily transportable to Quilt Camp or classes.Since the boxes are covered, it also keeps dust out, so they stay clean, too.
For the past 4 years, I've participated in Kat Sloma's annual Liberate Your Art Post Card Exchange, where she encourages us to print our art, and exchange it with other creatives around the world. After all, the world needs more art!
The card above is the one I sent out this year. It's a late winter photo taken in the park next to our house, then overlayed with several coffee-stained textures (that I also made myself with real coffee and paper), with a few other treatments in Photoshop Elements. It was quite the culmination of my creative abilities -- really a part of and from me. Really neat to see it professionally printed and "living" in the real world as opposed to strictly digital. Learn more about how I created Hope in Winter, including the PhotoShop processing recipe with before and after pics. It was quite a transformation!
This year, I decided to send out 5 copies of the same card, as I thought it would be easier to track where they landed. So far, I've heard from the following people in these corners of the world :
1) Tina Walker in Salt Lake City, Utah, at A Dog's Life Blog
2) Louise Mamet-Berthereau in The Loire Valley, France
3) Sheila del Gado in California - She actually got 2 of these trees as I sent an extra-side-swap (all the other side-swaps did not get the tree), never dreaming she would have gotten one in the official swap. What are the odds?
4) Michelle Sweetnam in Alexandia, VA
5) ??
These are the cards I received in the official swap :
On the back is the quote : "There is a calmness to a life lived in gratitude - a quiet joy. Sometimes you just need a break in a beautiful place alone to figure everything out."
The quote says : "We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things because we're curious and curiousity keeps leading us down new paths. -- Walt Disney
From Delphine Skinner in nearby Madison, WI
Photographed on our wood pile, as our outside is also white with snow.
From Karen Kuhlman in Durham, NC.
"Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart."
She says she's learning to paint snow with a palette knife, so I photographed it on a snowy-ish looking quilt.
From Susan in Clona Kitty, West Cork, Ireland.
"I'm slowing down the tune
I never liked it fast
You want to get there soon
I want to get there last"
-- Leonard Cohen
And this is the card that Kat Sloma, the organizer of the event, sent out to everyone this year. Gorgeous and dreamy ...
Thank you ladies for filling the world with more beauty!
Every year, I've had the good fortune to do a few extra side-swaps,
beyond the official 5 cards given and received. Here are the extra side-swaps exchanged this year. I've exchanged with some of these people in the past, and we've kept up the tradition. Some of them are new ... some discovered in the FB Group. It's easy to contact people to set up a side swap -- especially if you really like their work, and vice versa!
from Sarah Calhoun in Atlanta, Georgia
A mosaic made of re-purposed and re-cycled materials from Howard Finster's Paradise Garden.
Reminds me of the pot-shard pavements in Ile-Ife. ;-) Order out of chaos!
From Snap Lane in Houston, TX.
She has a pond with beautiful water lilies (Lotus?) and eight fish, so I photographed it atop my old pond (not set up this year yet) with some aquarium glass and the ghosts of my own water lilies and goldfish of summers past.
This gorgeous card came from Janice Darby in California. It was a work done in tandem with with grand-daughter. I absolutely LOVE the art Janice creates. It's photographed here on top of a small cathedral windows quilt I made, meant to complement the colors.
This one is from Sherry Harmes in Larsen Bay, Alaska.
Photographed here atop a stepping stone -- a suitable foundation for home-building. Sherry has a connection to Oshkosh as she took an internship here at the local state mental health institute, many years ago.
There's also a FaceBook Event Group where you can see more and interact with other participants. There are multiple sideswaps happening, too.
Check out my LYA blog posts from previous years.
Thanks for stopping by my corner of the web.
Have a wonderfully creative year!
The Blog Hop happening April 15 - 17, 2016.
See where our art landed. It kind of feels like tossing the cards up into the air and then waiting to see where they land around the world ... Join us for a trip around the world :
Officially finished Aidin's Quilt. Just needed to add the "secret messages" in the borders.
There will be a separate post documenting the making of that quilt, to be posted after it has been gifted to the young man.
Not much contrast as it's meant to be a "secret message," therefore subtle.
Finished putting together Rosita's Wedding Ring Quilt for her grand-daughter. Even added another row (4x4). Not nearly so hard as it might have been, as long as you use the notches to mark the centers, pin and take your time (go slow ...). It went much faster than I thought it would have -- It was all together by 3 pm on Saturday with me wishing I'd brought some batting and my basting boards so I could envelope it, and start on the quilting. Another day ...
Laying out the blocks for The Wedding Ring Quilt.
It didn't really matter how I laid them out. Rosita mixed the colors in the football shapes so well that any layout seemed to work just fine.
The Wedding Ring Top is complete.
I added an extra row at Quilt camp to make it a 4x4.
Polar Bear and ice flow are assembled. Couldn't bring myself to start stitching down the applique part -- sometimes I need a good breather between one stage and the next of any given project.
1 sheet of composed fabric made from scraps from Aidin's Quilt in blues, purples, grays with a few other scraps. The quilting in lines was inspired by LuAnn Kessi's Quilting Journals. This is also good practice for me for free-motion quilting. Destined to be journal covers later in the summer. Also considering making small beaded art quilts out of them, too -- Larkin Van Horn Style.
This was at Silver Birch Ranch outside of Langlade, WI, not far from where I grew up. Ma sat across the table from me. Nice to spend the time together, even if we didn't talk much.
Playing with PhotoShop Elements 14 and Topaz this afternoon.
Wow! I love the way this turned out!
The original image, with Topaz Impression Georgia O'Keefe 2 filter.
Then cropped for the close-up.
Here's the larger image, with the Georgia O'Keefe 2 filter from Topaz.
Here's another version. This one uses Topaz Impression's Warm Haze 2 Filter.
Also nice in it's own way.
Here's the original photo, taken at The Bristol Renaissance Faire in Kenosha, WI.
The performer is one of the talented ladies from Sirena. If you don't know this group, check them out -- You may be as mesmerized as I was. And that is what these Sirens do best!
