Weekly Report 2014 - 10/17

Tips, Thoughts and Techniques: 

Any guesses about what I have been doing this week? That's right, experimenting. If only I could have been as delighted with all my experiments as the cheerful young lady gleefully combining her chemical potions. The truth is many experiments don't produce the result your are hoping for. All they really determine is what not to do. After my week that has successfully ruled out nearly every option I have tried, I just may have to settle for last week's strategy of getting close enough.

Night Vision after all the
seams have been sewn

Pink Acrylic
Gold Lumiere

The week was not with out its accomplishments as you can see by the progress made with my review of my plan of attack from last week:

1) Night Vision - (Due January 1, 2015)

a) Finish the piecing - Done!

White Acrylic and Blue Lumiere

That single word "done" barely scrapes the surface of how tedious and difficult the final two long undulating seams to piece the leaves together was. I pin basted them often as close as 1/16" of inch between pins and still there were  close to ten "tricky" sections that needed to be ripped out and sewn again. Yes, I settled for close enough. There are a few places with puckers that, fingers crossed, will disappear once the piece is quilted or the frog covers them up.

b) Prepare the quilt sandwich - Not yet

c) Test the new paints - Yes and no

Neon Yellow Fluorescent after four applications

I have tested acrylic paint, Jacquard's Lumiere and Jacquard's Neon Fluorescent paints. None cover the black vinyl the way I like. I would have loved the look of the neon fluorescent's but they would not adhere to the black vinyl as they were being brushed on and they are very, very translucent. Even if I could get them to stick they would require a minimum of five layers and would show the layers with uneven lumps and areas of varying degrees of opacity. I have one more set of paints to try next week. If these don't work, I am going to the use an opaque acrylic.

d) Paint the poison dart frog - Not yet

2) Free motion quilting practice. - Done!

Testing out the latest free motion quilting motif
with an eye to capturing leaf veins for Night Vision.

Testing out paints wasn't the only experimentation I tried this week. I had high hopes that I could quilt Night Vision with Superior's NiteLite thread. The thread on the spool looks granny smith apple green. I figured if the quilt was displayed in light it would blend nicely as the veins in my tropically leaves. Then if the quilt was displayed in the dark it would glow. How cool would that be? Unfortunately when quilted, the thread looks white in a lit room and that is how it would be displayed 99% of the time. Also, the thread stretches a bit. In my polymer thread expert's (my husband) parlance it has a weak tensile strength. It broke once while I was quilting the sample. My guess is that it is probably as fussy as metallic threads. On the right quilt this thread would be spectacular. 

Artwork based on Traci Bautista's
experimental prompts

While testing out NiteLite I figured I might as well see if I could come up with a free motion quilting design that made sense for the leaf segments. At least this experiment wasn't a total bust. It worked as I hoped, especially some of the repetitive traveling stitching so that key veins are slightly thicker and more pronounced than others. 

3) LifeBook 2014 - Do the assignments. - Done!

Artwork created from taking Tamara
Laporte's finger painting lesson. 

Two teachers provided lessons on what was considered a bonus lesson week. These are suppose to the be the less intense weeks. 

Traci Bautista gave us 12 exercises that could be done to jump start creativity when your muse is on vacation. I took bits and pieces from several of the exercises to create a mixed media piece.

With over nine months of dabbling in mixed media I have come to really look forward to Tamara LaPorte's lessons. She was inspired by the work of Cy Twombly.  The flowers are made predominately by finger painting. I love this piece so much I have been dreaming of ways to recreate it in fiber using the snippets technique.

Neon pink fluorescent paint. Really? It looks very red to me.

Looks like I will have plenty to keep me engaged for several life times. Oh the joy of being an artist. :) That is why I do my best to stick to the current game plan or I wouldn't get anything finished. Here is my plan for where to focus next:
 
1) Night Vision - (Due January 1, 2015)

a) Prepare the quilt sandwich
b) Continue testing paints
d) Paint the poison dart frog

2) Free motion quilting practice.

3) LifeBook 2014 - Do the assignments. 


I am now linking up to two blogs on Fridays. The first is Nina Marie's Off the Wall Fridays and the second is Free Motion Mavericks.

Week in Review 2014 - 04/18

Ariana 

Tips, Thoughts and Techniques:

Sample block for the Community Quilt Workshop

Last week I left you with this cliff hanger: "It is down to the wire for finishing Tumbling Blocks. The big question is what will happen first. Will I finish the quilt or will my grandchild be born?" The answer is in, Ariana arrived on April 14 and I am still completing the finish work on her quilt. Heavy sigh, since I hate to miss a deadline. Still, I am delighted to welcome my fifth grandchild and second granddaughter to our family.

One of the reasons I didn't have Ariana's quilt done before she was born was because I joined a local artisans collective. Their mission was to fill a popup gallery with art, music, poetry and workshops. I am one of the artists, have volunteered to run a workshop I titled "Community Quilt," am organizing the schedule of gallery hosts and of course attending some of the numerous planning meetings. The exhibition is next week. We have built it. Now, fingers crossed, the community will come to see what we are about and engage in the numerous interactive art events. The hope is that this will be successful enough to become an annual event.

Even with all this excitement I did manage to move ahead ever so slightly with my published plans for the week. Here is how it went.

Detail of Tumbling Blocks border quilting - backside

1)  Tumbling Blocks I (Due April 30 - however, Ariana had other plans) 

a) finish quilting the border - Done!
b) block and square up the quilt - Not yet.
c) make the binding - Started
d) attach the binding - Not yet.
e) make the sleeve - Not yet.
f) attach the sleeve - Not yet.

2) Leah Day projects.

a) Baste the face, torso and arms to Express Your Love II. - On hold until the quilts with deadlines are completed.

b) Do Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting lesson. - Not yet.

Actually, I was very tempted to do this, but decided to save it for next week when I would need a free motion quilting fix. 

We were encouraged to use puff paint.
I don't own any, so I substituted glitter glue.
I just can't resist all things sparkly.

3) LifeBook 2014 - Do the assignments. - Done!

Traci Bautista was the teacher for Week 16's lesson, titled "In the Moment." The premise was to create the piece intuitively with each new mark and shape being suggested by what had come before. This is the first mixed media piece I have done where I felt my text work actually enhanced versus detracted from the piece. 

4) Little Lake Butte des Morts in Fall (Due August 3) - a commissioned quilt - On hold until quilts with earlier deadlines are completed. 

Start piecing the quilt.

5) Tickling the Ivories - make and attach the label.

My priority for next week continues to be finishing Tumbling Blocks. I am very confident that I will meet my goal of mailing it to Ariana before I head out in a few weeks to give her the grandmother seal approval, a kiss on that precious baby's head.

1)  Tumbling Blocks I 

a) block and square up the quilt
b make the binding
c) attach the binding
d) make the sleeve
e) attach the sleeve

2) Leah Day projects.

a) Baste the face, torso and arms to Express Your Love II. - On hold until the quilts with deadlines are completed.

b) Do Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting lesson.

3) LifeBook 2014 - Do the assignments.

4) Little Lake Butte des Morts in Fall (Due August 3) - a commissioned quilt - On hold until quilts with earlier deadlines are completed. 

Start piecing the quilt.

5) Tickling the Ivories - make and attach the label.


I am now linking up to two blogs on Friday's. The first is Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting Project and the second is Nina Marie's Off the Wall Fridays.