I Know, I know....

Nothing new in almost a week. I've been regrouping (and shopping!) I've got 7 things in the works right now and had to do some planning, sketching and preparing -- which doesn't always make for the best content or photographs. But -- here are some photographs of my "purchasing" trip to perk your interest. Most of these fabrics are Island Batiks, with a few Kaffee Fassett and Modas thrown in for fun. The batiks are just gorgeous !

Oh and -- if you see your name on this list (other than Leslie because her fabric is not pictured here) chances are -- you may get a glimpse of your present in it's "BEFORE" stage!!!
Here's what's in the works:

1. Sonoma Valley Art quilt for my lovely sister in law, Leslie - fabric has been purchased, washed, ironed and ready to go. Ovesized copies made and now I'm sketching and making templates for the design elements;

2. My Iris slice - The background has been painted and flower pieces have been cut out. I'm now ready to affix the flowers and begin painting in details with Tsukineko ink and acrylic paint;

3. Wurzerl's (Renate) Echanacea - sketching and designing in process;

4. Wild Girl's trade - fabric purchased today and is in process of being painted, stamped, etc.

5. Sabrina's dress for the art show - silk dupioni tapastry print this time

6. Aunt Nancy's birthday present (the details of which I cannot disclose because she visits here)

7. A surprise for a friend - fabric purchased today and is being painted and cut - and (the details of which I cannot disclose because she visits often!!)

Here's what needs to be in the works -- soon:

1. Sabrina's art teacher's "Pop Art" tote bag;

2. MIL's 80th birthday present;

3. Sal's "Ocean" duvet cover

(FYI - All of the fabric above was purchased at my favorite local quilt shop - Wish Upon a Quilt. AND, lucky you -- for those who don't live in the Raleigh/Wake Forest area -- they have an internet store with 100's maybe even 1000's of bolts of fabric. Here's the link: Wish Upon A Quilt)

A Family of Artists.....

It seems everybody at the Recca house is working on some project or another -- even Sal. Here are two projects that my son is working on.



He cuts and sands a piece of pine into the shape of a surfboard or longboard and carves and burns images into it.

Then he paints, inks, stains or color pencils in color -- varnishes it, puts a coat of polyurethane over the top, glues the fin on. Very creative concept and he does beautiful work. He is a child of the ocean. All of his artwork is ocean themed.

Progress on Iris...

Just realized that my Van Gogh slice just so happens to be in the same colors as my TIF challenge (with some minor adjustments) so I can kill two birds with one stone on this one. Today I began painting the background and laying in the leaf color. I plan on painting the entire leafy background in a vague "impressionistic" sort of way, and then going in with some purple/navy silk dupioni to create the iris petals and maybe some angelina fibers and ivory raw silk for the "beards." After I get that all placed I will begin thread painting the leaf veins and black detail, as well as the detail in the iris with rayon and metallic thread. I'm not sure yet. Right now I'm just working on the background -- which -- Sabrina informed me today looks like someone "threw up on it!" Thanks honey - for the encouragement! (I can't argue with here there as the colors aren't the most attractive) but this is just the first of many layers that hopefully will improve with each step.

What a Week!

With the "dress situation" behind us, the talent show last night was fantastic. After weeks of sewing, rehearsing, and a city-wide search for a "concrete garden angel" in the dead of winter for her stage prop, Sabrina's performance went off without a hitch. As she stood up on stage and belted out "Concrete Angel" by Martina McBride -- it appears that it wasn't just her parents that were moved by her performance as there wasn't a dry eye in the place. With all of her friends, her dad, her brother and I there to cheer her on against some pretty stiff competition (The competition was for 7th-9th graders and she is in 7th grade) she took home second place!

While we are all so very proud of her, I don't think there is anyone more proud of her than her brother. No sibling rivalries here -- they truly support eachother and take great pride in eachother's accomplishments -- they always have.

Congratulations honey - you will always be the "brightest star" in our sky! We love you. XOXO

With that chapter of our life behind us (at least until three weeks from now when she's participating in a huge art show and she's already asked me to make her a dress for that!!) .... I plan on doing a little work around the house "outside" to enjoy the day and then staying in the rest of the weekend wherein I will make myself a HUGE (maybe spiked!) soy latte, turn on some music, do a little reading and begin work on some projects I have lined up. Lock the door from the inside -- I'm ready for some "ME TIME" !!!

Have a great Saturday!

Fractured Art Quilt - DONE

Dorothy just e-mailed me a picture of the fractured "gladioli" art quilt we've been working on -- and it's all put together. It's not quilted and bound yet -- but WOW did it fit together nicely. Isn't it hard to believe this is done in fabric, threadpainting and applique? Doesn't it look like a painting???? It's too bad you can't see the details -- because there are beads, metallic threads, three dimensional applique petals and other amazing embellishments on this. I will try to get a picture with my macro lense the next time I see Dorothy -- so you can see the amount of detail that went into this.

If you recall -- this was the art quilt that I posted about below wherein five artists each got a "slice" of a poster and did her own interpretation of that slice -- knowing that once complete, everyone's slice was going to be re-assembled into a final picture. This is such a cool concept and was so much fun.

My art quilt is next. I've selected Van Gogh's "Iris" painting and it's quite large - about 36" x 25". I have sliced mine up into five slices vertically with each slice about 6-7" wide. This should be really interesting because each artist basically has the same thing to reproduce and it will be fascinating to see how each one interprets Van Gogh's iris flowers and leaves.

I have been thinking about opening up this type of project to my blog friends. I'd like to find out if we can get five or six artists from around the world (or country) who may be interested -- to participate in a project such as this. I'll think more about that and post on it later.

Meanwhile - have a great Friday. Oh, and the dress -- it's done (wooohooo!!!)-- ironed, satin ribbon attached - and on it's way to the talent show as we speak. Pictures will be posted tomorrow.

Enjoy your day!!!

Furiously Working....

on 'THE" dress for the talent show and not much else. I'm pulling my hair out.

NOTE TO SELF: Never agree to make something which you've NEVER made before that requires an accurately fitted bodice, slippery lining and a !@#$!@#$!#@$ invisible zipper. IDIOT!

Now that I have that off my chest -- I'll get back to work.

PROGRESS REPORT....

It took me the entire day to cut out the pattern, cut out the lining, cut out the actual satin, and read every article I could find on the internet and in my favorite sewing book on how to put in "darts," "invisible zippers," and linings. I guess I can't put it off any longer ---- it's time to start sewing - YIKES!!! But first a quick call to Dominos Pizza for some dinner as no one feels like cooking tonight. Then, it's back to sewing.

Art for Charity...... Think Pink!!

I met a cool gal through an art blog (Girl Gone Thread Wild!!) who placed a call to artists for donations for 2x2 art squares to decorate an art doll for charity. Her mission is as follows:

"the pink artist"is a community of artists joining togetherto create one joint art doll to benefit the

Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.

When the doll is complete, it will be mailed in to Art Doll Quarterly™before finally being auctioned off on eBay at a later date. ALL PROCEEDS WILL DIRECTLY BENEFIT CHARITY."

These are the 2 x 2 art squares I have made for this wonderful cause. Their bases are made from hand made soy silk fabric (pink/orange) Lumiere painted fabric (blue), heat blasted tyvek and foil (pink), hand painted and then foiled and stamped silk dupioni (purple) which were all finally embellished with glass beads and free motion embroidered with metallic and vereigated threads. It is an honor to be a part of something so worthwhile with such wonderful artists. Thanks Monica -- for putting this together and for the invitation to join in!

Impressionism......

I have been working on Sabrina's dress all day (cutting out the lining and the actual satin pieces) and HAD to take a break. Inasmuch as I am just getting ready to begin painting the background for my Van Gogh "Iris" art quilt interpretation, I decided during my break to do a bit of research on impressionism.

"The word impressionist was first used mockingly by a journalist to describe a painting by Monet in 1874 entitled Impression: Sunrise. Many artists recognized their style in the word "impressionism" and continued to use the term. Impressionist painters are highly respected today for their talent and innovative genius. Most impressionist paintings were painted between 1867 and 1886. The impressionist movement was touched off by painter Edouard Manet's Luncheon on the Grass, which was exhibited in 1863. Manet himself was not an impressionist, but his work influenced a group of painters who rejected the conventional techniques and concepts of painting. This group, consisting of Claude Monet, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Berthe Morisot, Armand Guillaumin, and Frederic Bazille, did not see a painting as a fixed record of an object or landscape. Instead, Impressionist painters tried to capture a moment in time because objects and landscapes look different at different times of the day. "

Again I am faced with interpreting "impressionism" with fabric (silk dupioni, organdy, burlap and batiks) -- a technique I found difficult as evidenced in my posts about the previous "art slice" quilt I did. How do you blurr the clear cut lines of a piece of fabric?? An interesting challenge and something I am going to think about for a while.

Well, back to work on Sabrina's dress I go.

Yeah - it's Friday!!!!!

Meet Eddie.... The picture to the right is my newest toy that my dad sent me last week. It's the coolest data collector/thermometer (named Eddie after my dad - NOT the company that markets it!) Eddie comes with a sensor that is mounted outside on the house which transmits data to this little device that makes him change his clothes according to the weather. As you can see -- it was 28 degrees when I took the picture so Eddie is fully dressed in his winter clothes with winter precipitation depicted. Now in Florida my dad's device (he has one too!) has Eddie all but naked (he's in his little beach shorts) with a sun shining above. Eddie has many accessories - an umbrella, a beach chair, a snowman and every morning we (Sabrina and I) rush to see what Eddie is wearing to see if it's going to snow!! I LOVE him! (Thanks so much daddy. I know you got tired of me trying to steal yours!!! )

Anyway - it's been a busy week. Haven't had a chance to do much of anything FUN except work and chores. I am looking forward to finishing up with the aforementioned (work and chores!) and getting my hands dirty in SOMETHING this weekend. We are supposed to get snow tomorrow (we'll see!) and if so that will entail some playing outside -- but aside from that , it looks like it's going to be a good weekend to grab a yummy soy latte, work on Sabrina's dress, maybe do a little painting with my new Tsukineiko inks, finnish up the book I'm reading (Mayflower), start Leslie's art quilt and cuddle with anyone who will have me -- probably Gizmo!

Have a great weekend -- find a creative (!) way to stay warm -- and check back for progress pics over the weekend!!

Just Another Tuesday Night....

While anxiously awaiting the season premiere of American Idol tonight, everyone at the Recca house, it seems, is diligently working on something. Tobie and Gizmo are both chewing intently on their rawhide bones, Sal and Blaise are out (even though it's only 31 degrees) working on the boat, Sabrina is hard at work on her art project, and I am wondering what the heck I've gotten myself in to.

Sabrina is singing in the NRCA talent show again this year -- which of course means -- once the song has been selected ("Concrete Angel" by Martina McBride) and practiced to perfection (she won the first place trophy last year for her rendition of "I Hope You Dance" by LeAnn Rimes), begins the search for the perfect dress. It can't be too fancy, it can't be too babyish, it can't be too sophisticated AND it has to fit "just right." Last year for some reason we had no problem. A quick trip to Macy's unveiled the perfect black satin (pretty, yet conservative) dress -- complete with a 50% off price tag. This year, however -- seems to be "the year of the HOOCHIE MOMMA" -- and a pretty, yet tasteful dress is nowhere to be found. And believe me -- we looked EVERYWHERE. Exhausted and disgusted we decided to head for home -- but only after one last stop -- the fabric store, as I needed to pick up a piece of canvas for my quilting frame leaders.

To make a long story short -- a very excited and hopeful Sabrina screamed across the store that she had the perfect idea -- "Momma, you can MAKE me a dress!!!" And she ran toward me with a big smile and a pattern in her left hand that she found all by herself while I was looking for something else. I've never made a dress in my life -- I've made quilts, I've made pajama bottoms, I even made her a robe for Valentine's day -- but I've never worked with fine fabric, zippers and notions. This moment flashed in my mind and reminded me of when I was a little girl -- my mother made me some of the most beautiful clothes. I remember her laying the patterns out on the floor and cutting the fabric, measuring and pinning and fitting everything so it would be perfect. I was the envy of all my friends at Lee Burneson Junior High School as I had the most beautiful outfits.

What could I say to this -- here was my daughter, hopeful and excited and "oh so certain" that her momma could just "whip up" the perfect dress for her to wear in the talent show. So after a few minutes of self doubt I said, "o.k. - let's give this a try." So off we went to pick out the perfect fabric, a wine colored crepe backed satin with matching lincing, coordinating thread, matching zipper (I've never put a zipper in anything in my life!!) and some of the prettiest hand dyed silk ribbon I've ever seen. The dress (or at least the picture of the dress on the pattern package) really is lovely and she will look beautiful in it -- IF all goes well.

So tonight, while everyone is working on their projects -- I sit here, fussing and worrying about how in the world I am going to make her "the perfect dress" for her solo and missing my mom.

Art Quilt "Slice" Done!!

As promised, here is the little tutorial I have put together on my journal with this little art quilt slice. To recap -- the owner of an art poster cut her poster up into five pieces. Each member of our five member group selected a "slice" of the original poster to recreate using whatever techniques she desired. The slices had to be done in fabric and fiber as they are all going to be reassembled, quilted and bound in the end. My slice is outlined in pencil in the middle left area of the picture (you can see it if you look really close.)

Here are the details of the construction of my slice:

Step 1 -- I laid a piece of tracing paper over my "slice" of the poster and traced it with sharpie. I then traced over the tracing paper with "freezer" paper to make my little applique templates.

Step 2: I ironed the freezer paper templates on to the fabric I selected for each section. In most cases, I used hand dyed fabric or batik.

Step 3: After ironing templates down, I cut them out, peeled the freezer paper off.

Step 4: Then I ironed them down on to a piece of tea dyed muslin using a light table with my original picture on top of the light table for placement.

Step 5: After ironing all of the pieces down to the background I painted in highlights and detail with acrylic paint -- which can be heatset with an iron once dry.

After the paint was dry came the fun part. I laid out all of my silk and rayon threads in every shade of pink and green I have. Looking at the original poster slice that I had, I free motion embroidered the rest of the detail in on the flower petals, pestals and leaves.

The picture above is the original poster print of my slice, and the picture below is my appliqued, painted and free motion embroidered interpretation....

All in all this was a good experience. I learned an incredible amount along the way and am fairly pleased with the end result. It is amazing what you can do with thread to bring out the detail and suggest images. Threadpainting is something I am going to experiment with much more!

Click on this to see detail....

Pay It Forward Gifts Done!!!

Today was "catch up" day. I had some little commitments I had to work on before I start work on my next big project which is an art quilt for my sister in law, Leslie.

Here are the three gifts I will be sending to the recipients of my Pay it Forward.

I made some handmade fabric from wool, metallic fibers, pieces of foil, painted and blasted tyvek and cool Australian yarns I had laying around by needle punching them onto a piece of woold. Then, I layered on a piece of organza over the top of the whole thing, and free motion embroidered the front with metallic thread. After that I burned through the organza with a heat gun, affixed some Swavroski crystals and silk ribbons to the front and novelty yarns to the top and covered the back with a hand painted piece of cotton duck cloth that is painted with metallic Lumiere paints. They are so fun to make and come out different every time! I hope their recipients enjoy them!

It Sure Doesn't Look Like Winter.....

Was out playing with the dogs the other day and took this picture. It sure doesn't look like winter here in North Carolina. In fact, the redbud trees are blossoming. We've had some wierd weather -- in the low 20's one week and 75 the next. The corgis don't seem to mind though as it just provides them with more "frisbee" time!

This Dog has NO Pride....

I have been furiously working on my "slice" of the fractured art quilt most of the day. But I NEVER work alone. As always I had company - for both Gizmo and Tobie have quilts they lounge on in our little studio (as the floor is painted cement - it's coooold!). Anyway, when I reached down to give Gizmo a pet on the head (as he usually cuddles right by my feet under my worktable), I came to find that he had moved to just outside the studio door onto the rug -- to -- umm -- stretch out. Guess he could use a wee lesson in modesty! He is such a character. Needless to say Gizmo holds a HUGE piece of my heart prisoner!!

TAKING IT FURTHER - January

For this month, Sharon's Challenge sets forth:

"The key concept for January is a feeling we have all had, the feeling of admiration for another. Ask yourself who do you look up to and admire? Why? What is it you admire about them? This is a the first Take it Further challenge in 2008. Take the idea, develop it into a resolved design during that month and apply it to fiber or paper. As I explained on the Take it Further Challenge page every month there will be two options. The second option this month is a colour scheme. This means that if you don’t like the concept you can work the colour scheme or if you don’t like the colour scheme you can work with the concept. Or you can work with both.

After thoughtful consideration of both of these concepts I have decided that I am choosing Option 2. Option 1 is certainly a thought provoking option and would be my preference, however, considering we have a 30 day time limit to complete each project, I think that I would get "too involved" with option 1 and have opted the "color scheme" challenge. I went through my box of fabrics that I printed on as a result of a fiber art class I took over the summer and selected several which I think match up to Sharon's selected color selections quite nicely. I think I wil use these little printed pieces and create something from them....

Taking it Further......

Getting Ready for Sharon' B's TAKE IT FURTHER CHALLENGE and more!!!

Part of my resolve for 2008 was to go through my entire house and literally "touch" everything - I went through every drawer, cabinet, closet, storage box, bookshelves, etc. I cleaned out my digital camera, reformatted my computer and IPOD and defragged my hard-drive. THEN I did the same in our studio - I went through every bucket, box, drawer, closet and cupboard. I have purged and either donated, revamped or got rid of everything that is no longer useful to me -- WHAT A FEELING! I am empowered.

NOW I am doing the same to our blogs - both Clevelandgirlie and our business blog (Carolina Pines Realty.). I am in the process of archiving the old, condensing the useful and preparing the new. So check back in a few days for a new and improved Clevelandgirlie blog where you will see TUTORIALS, regular features, including a permanent and special section for my participation in Sharon B's, " TAKE IT FURTHER" - year long creative challenge. So next time you visit -- be prepared.... things are changing (for the better!) 'round here!!!