Painted Threads

My first book!

2009-11-13T08:35:00.003-06:00

I just self published this little portfolio of my art quilts and mixed media work using Blurb. I have seen several people write about using Blurb on their blogs and thought I would try it out myself. You can preview the book here. The book is 7 inches square, 40 pages long, printed on premium paper and can be ordered with a soft or hard cover. One of the nicest things is that I can reorder any

Hey West Coasters, Mark your calendars

2009-11-12T08:24:00.001-06:00

I just got my paperwork from the IQA that I will be teaching in Long Beach at International Quilt Festival July 22-25! I will have three classes: Thursday (all day)- Mixed Media Painted Fabric, Friday night (6-9)- Ornamental Fiesta and Saturday (all day)- Wholecloth Painted Fabric. Mark your calendars so we can make some art together!

Painting- done I think

2009-11-11T08:34:00.000-06:00

I think after eleven hours of painting yesterday it is done. There is always the possibility I will tweak thinks here and there. I had to force myself to stop last night at midnight, I was touching up lights and darks on the leaves on the tree on the right to give them a little more contrast. I probably could have spent another hour touching them up here and there.

A little blue

2009-11-10T09:24:00.007-06:00

I only had a short amount of time to paint yesterday so I didn't get as far as I would have liked. Hopefully today I will get the rest of the flowers painted and begin the grass.

The flowers are starting to bloom

2009-11-09T12:15:00.003-06:00

I have finished painting the greenery and am now painting the flowers. I am only using red, yellow, white and blue for the flowers since that is the limits of the flower colors in the hunting paintings. I have chosen to make the white flowers tinted a little pink just so they are not a stark white. So far I have worked through red and yellow, next I will start on blue. After I finish the

SOFA and Ellen

2009-11-07T00:07:00.011-06:00

Friday morning I went to two wonderful textile themed lectures at SOFA. The first one Fiber Art: Expressions & Aesthetics, Part I: fiber artists Marcia Docter, C. Pazia Mannella, Carol B. Shinn and Barbara Lee Smith share their ideas and inspirations. Barbara Lee Smith Carol Shinn The second was Fiber Art: Expressions and Aesthetics, Part II: Fiber artists Jon Eric Riis, Geoffrey Gorman,

Not much different and I'm going to SOFA

2009-11-06T08:02:00.000-06:00

It doesn't look much different and I won't have chance to paint because I am going to SOFA today. I love this show, it is always so inspiring. This morning I am going to two textile lectures, I'll tell ya more later, my ride is on the way.

This is my kind of gardening

2009-11-05T09:39:00.000-06:00

The only green on my thumbs is from paint. I love plants, I am just not very good at keeping them alive. Except for cacti and succulents, I do really well with those, but unfortunately I don't live in California anymore.

A little touch of gold

2009-11-04T08:06:00.006-06:00

I outlined the yellow scroll design with metallic gold paint, to give it that classic gilded touch. Now I begin the plants, it will probably take me a few days to paint all the flowers and grasses. The plants will be in a variety of greens from the green I have painted first to strong yellow greens like in the leaves of the trees. The plants I have started painting first are made with

Getting there

2009-11-03T08:55:00.003-06:00

I painted hairs on the deer to look more like the deer in the hunting paintings, it also has the benefit of looking stylistically more different from the smooth painting style of the little deer. I also darkened up the shade side of the antlers to give them a little more definition. When I work I usually leave my paper cartoon under my fabric and slide plastic underneath the fabric to create a

60's deer painted

2009-11-02T09:19:00.000-06:00

I painted the little deer using opaque paints with white because I wanted him to feel more like a solid object, since those figurines were always made of glass or plastic. I also wanted it to have a brighter cheerier look than the more serious painting referenced background so it is painted using a warmer more colorful brown.

Base painting for large deer

2009-11-01T11:16:00.001-06:00

Saturday night I managed to get the big deer painted. I used a transparent brown textile paint and used varying amounts of textile medium (Jacquard; colorless extender) to lighten the color. I plan on painting brush stroke hairs over the majority of the deer similar to the way the animals are painted in the hunting paintings, but I will probably tackle the little deer first and come back to

Trees done, I think

2009-10-31T16:22:00.001-05:00

I got in a couple hours of painting time today and finished up the trees. As the painting progresses there is always the possibility that they will need further tweaking, but they are done enough to move on to something else. Now I had to drive the boy child to a party up in Evanston, then drive the girl child to a party in the south loop, hopefully I can get in a little more painting time

7 hours didn't get me very far

2009-10-30T11:40:00.002-05:00

I painted 4 hours in the afternoon and 3 hours in the evening and have still not finished the leaves. The leaves are now being painted with opaque paints with a fair amount of white mixed in. I am using opaque paints because I need that opacity to paint on the dark green backgrounds. After I painted the green background on the trees, I had to put my fabric and printed cartoon on a light table

New Work in Progress

2009-10-29T13:20:00.001-05:00

I am starting another whole cloth painted quilt for an exhibit and am panicking a little because I don’t have a lot of time left to make it and I have to use a specific fabric which I only have enough to do this once. Normally I never show any work in progress, I always feel kind of afraid I won't be able to pull it off, but I figured I would share my anxiety I mean progress with you this time.

The Woman in Orange

2009-10-25T09:13:00.006-05:00

Who is this amazing looking woman in orange making such a striking figure at festival? Well it is none other than Ricë Freeman-Zachery the author of Creative Time and Space a wonderful new book that I am thrilled to have been included in. We finally ran into each other Saturday night at the end of Surviving the Runway.

Surviving the Runway Houston 09

2009-10-24T09:24:00.002-05:00

One week ago, the place to be at 5:30 Saturday night was the Make It University class area at International Quilt Festival, Houston. If you are a fan of Project Runway, this can be your way to have a little taste of the excitement, creativity and sheer chaos, that happens when competing for some excellent textile booty by creating a wearable object out of craft foam, duct tape, rick rack, glue

Group art making in the wee hours

2009-10-23T09:52:00.004-05:00

On Wednesday Leslie and Jamie ran to Texas Art Supply and picked up some fun after hours art supplies, which included a two yard piece of primed canvas, various sponge and paint brushes and acrylic paints. After dinner we gathered in their room in our jammies and started painting. No theme, just put some color down and go, while we talked and laughed, giddy from long activity filled days, lack of

Painting Whole Cloth Fabric

2009-10-22T10:45:00.002-05:00

Saturday I taught whole cloth painted fabric, I was surprised to find I had 30 students instead of 25. Thirty is a really large number of students for this kind of class, I felt like I was at a bit of a disadvantage here, trying to give everybody individual attention and needing to do double technique demos since the class had to be broken up into two groups so everyone would be able to see. I

We are a sophisticated group

2009-10-22T09:12:00.003-05:00

Rachel Perris, Leslie Jenison, Jamie Fingal, Melly Testa and Frances Alford. I think Jamie is calling on the forces of the great spoon Goddess. Iris Karp of Mistyfuse struggled to make a spoon stay on her nose, but after repeated attempts she finally had success, which we decided must have been attributed to her use of Mistyfuse. Susie Monday also achieved spoon success. Nina's nose is so

Festival: where to begin...

2009-10-21T13:12:00.006-05:00

It has taken me a couple days to catch up with life enough to start writing a blog post about our adventures in Houston. I have been to Festival every year for the last 13 years, this trip was a lot of fun but way more exhausting than any trip I have ever taken. Teaching at International Quilt Festival entailed so much planning, packing, shipping, focus and talking... since I was also teaching

Moon Garden won a ribbon at festival!

2009-10-13T21:00:00.004-05:00

My quilt Moon Garden has won an honorable mention in the painted category at International Quilt Festival. If you are at festival make sure you ask someone to show you the back of the quilt, so you can see all the hidden images quilted into the background. I probably won't have time to post until I get back from festival, but I will post lots of pictures when I do.

Toasty soft handwarmers

2009-10-12T10:01:00.001-05:00

With the instant arrival of fall and obvious signs of winter I have been finishing up projects started last year and thinking about new ones. I like to have a lot of hand warmers around because when the weather starts getting really cold and I need full coverage outside I will wear these inside. I don't know about you, but my hands get so cold when I am at the computer in the winter and with

Misyfuse buttons at Festival

2009-10-11T09:49:00.002-05:00

When you are at Festival be sure to head over to Mistyfuse, booth 957. Iris has made some cool buttons with different artquilts on them. This one has my quilt Arbol de Vida. There are also buttons with the work of Pamela Allen, Jamie Fingal, Yvonne Porcella and Eserita Austin. It will be hard to choose just one, I hope she has made a lot.

Be seen on The Quilt Scene!

2009-10-09T09:53:00.007-05:00

On Tuesday my daughter Nina and I will be going to International Quilt Festival for lots of fun and creative adventures and our first stop will be the Quilting Arts booth 1244, to be seen on the Quilt Scene! On preview night (Wednesday) I will be doing Open Studios from 7:30-9:30, next to Make it University, just look up at the hanging aisle signs for the huge MIU banner next to aisle 1200. If