Week in Review 2013 - 04/05

Express Your Love - a preview of what is to come. The design
and quilting patterns for this piece come from Leah Day. What
to quilt where,  with what thread and quilting are by
Gwyned Trefethen.

I'm back. That is I have returned from a multi generational family vacation on Treasure Island, FL.  I find transitioning from home life to vacation and back difficult. I do best with routine. Vacation and returning from vacation with the inevitable backlog of things to attend results in difficulty focusing and a greater propensity to drift. The result was that I didn't manage my accustomed three full studio days this week. I did spend three partial days in the studio. Here is what I managed to accomplish.


1) Pictorial Painting

Canyon before any paint is applied.

a) Mark the fabric for painting. - Done!
b) Watch the portion of the lesson that demos how to paint the Canyon piece. - Done!
c) Bonus - I started painting.

Canyon after the foot hills have been painted.

2) Express Your Love

a) Do whatever assignment Leah comes up with next. - Done! 

Leah has gotten back in the groove of providing assignments. I managed to try my hand at two of her spiral variations. The first being Wiggle Wiggle Spiral and the second Hot Hot Spiral. I checked in with Leah this morning and see that there is yet another spiral pattern to explore. 

Close up from Express Your Love. The aqua ribbon has been
quilted using Hot Hot Spiral.

b) Finish quilting the hair. - Done!

Close up of the hair from Express Your Love. The design
Wiggle Wiggle Spiral was used in the upper of the two red rays.

Express your love was my primary focus this week. I am really wowed by how it is coming together. Leah's original line drawing and her quilting patterns produce a fascinating image. What is especially fun is to check out how Leah's other groupies are executing this same piece. 

3) Reflection (Absolute deadline April 23, 2013)

a) Finish stitching the facing. - Done!
b) Make and attach the sleeve. - Oops, could have done this.
c) Make and attach the label.
d) Add Reflection to my website.

I had forgotten when I assigned myself the finish work on Reflection that my husband (also my photographer) would be out of town. I wanted a "formal portrait" taken of Reflection to use for submissions to Calls for Entry, the quilt label and for my website. Not being able to move forward on Reflection I started planning my next quilt...

4) Adoration (Shooting for a deadline of June 1, 2013)

There is something about Madonna and Child paintings
with loving gaze and focused light that has appealed to me
since I saw my first one in a history of art book of my mother's.
This painting is Adoration by Correggio. 

a) Selected and cropped the image to use to guide the quilt.

Yes, that is me gazing adoringly into the eyes of
my first grandchild. This is the image I am using
as a starting point for Adoration.

b) Created a traced line drawing of the image.
c) Used the line drawing to create a to scale pattern.
d) Selected the fabric.
e) Painted the fabric to be used in the grandmother's blouse.  

Hand painted fabric to be used as the base fabric for the blouse.

Tips, Techniques and Thoughts...

An issue I have with fabric painting is that so many blends of paint must be created with various amounts of gel medium that may be needed later in the day, the next day or even next week. It is easier to create all the blends I need at once, but then the problem is how to store them since the left over paint resides solely in the dimples of my palette. I have found that by covering the palette with Press 'N Seal the paint lasts at least a week without drying out.

Clearly I have some catching up to do next week. This is what I plan on accomplishing between today and April 12.

1) Pictorial Painting

a) Continue to watch the portion of the lesson that demos how to paint the Canyon piece.
b) Finish painting Canyon.

2) Express Your Love

a) Finish quilting Hot Hot Spiral Ribbon
b) Do a ribbon in Loopy Doopy Sprial
b) Do whatever assignment Leah comes up with next.

3) Reflection (Absolute deadline April 23, 2013)

a Make and attach the sleeve.
b) Make and attach the label.
c) Add Reflection to my website.
d) Submit Reflection for consideration in "The Eye and the Needle," a SAQA IL/WI exhibition.

4) Adoration (Shooting for a deadline of June 1, 2013)

a) Mark the background fabric as a guide for where to place the appliqué pieces.
b) Start cutting and positioning the appliqué pieces.

Apology - recently Blogger has started to put a white background behind anything I cut and paste into a post. I have tried numerous fixes, but haven't found the right one yet. Please bare with me.