Hey Katie Jane...... it's on it's Way to Ohio!!!!

I know, it's taken long enough -- right?? Well, here it is and it's on it's way to you as I write this. The base is an acrylic painting on heavy white cotton duck cloth. I appliqued hand dyed batik iris shapes down on top of the painting and free motion embroidered over the iris and the leaves for texture.
I did some "fill in" quilting throughout the piece reminiscent of impressionistic brush strokes -- short and in varying directions. I used a cotton - wool blend batting and backed it with a commercial cotton. I didn't want a hard edge, so I stitched some the hand dyed fabric over to the front and free motioned over top of it.
To finish it off, I tied some variegated dyed ribbons to the top for an organic hanging element (at Kathy's request.)



In return for the iris, Katie sent me the coolest stained glass wind chimes for my garden. I've been visiting her blog for a while as I have a whole box of stained glass and haven't figured out what to do with it yet other than the mosaic table I made for the front porch. Kathy's made some gorgeous stuff and goes on some great excursions. To pay Katie a visit click here.

I've hung the wind chimes right by the front porch. In the early morning when I sit outside with the dogs and the the wind is blowing the reflection from the sun dances across the grass and Gizmo likes to chase it.

These are just beautiful Katie. Thank you so much and please know that they are appreciated and enjoyed every single day!

In Progress....

Still working on these placemats. Got the quilting done in the center panels and outline stitched each and every little piece around the edges. Could I have picked a more time consuming pattern??? Between the pieced edges and now the beveled and mitred binding -- I have one thing to say, @$!@#!@#$^.

I'm also working on a 10x12 Van Gogh inspired Iris threadpainting as a special request from a friend. I've gotten the base painted and have laid on most of the threadpainting. I just have to complete the black outline and bind. I think the next one I do will be Starry Night. I saw a technique demonstrated once on Simply Quilts wherein you slice up little bits of fabric into skinny little slivers and use them to paint the surface of your design, securing the slivers when you are done with tulle and quilting. I think the very nature of Van Gogh's impressionistic brush strokes on that one will lend itself perfectly to the "sliver" technique.

Has anyone ever tried this technique or something similar? I'd love to hear from you if you have. I'm tempted to try this one on a really large scale -- but am leaning toward trying a tiny one to begin with and, if successful maybe doing something like 24x36 which is "large scale" for me.

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.