Painted Quilt #2

 Painted Quilt #2
Acrylic, stamping, drawing, collage on watercolor paper, mounted on cradled wood panel, 10x10x1"

Are my quilts collages or are my paintings reminiscent of quilts? Yes, both. Collages are an additive process and so are most of my fused quilts. The real difference here is that there is so much more pattern than I usually put in my quilts, and that is because printed fabric is someone else's design, so I avoid it, most of the time. I do love dots and stripes, and those don't carry as much of someone else's personality. But I digress. 

With these painted and stamped papers that I have made, I can arrange them into a composition that has a quilt-y look and that satisfies me deeply. I get to paint, draw, and design to make it mine. 

$100 Email me.

Painted Quilt

Painted Quilt
Acrylic, collage, stamping, ink, on watercolor paper, mounted on cradled wood panel, 12x12x1"
I have now amassed a stash of painted papers and like a good quilter, I wanted to combine them into a composition. There is a tiny bit of color in this one, but since it is a busy image, there seems to be enough going on to get what I want. Adding the stitching marks was just a giggle!

Working in black and white is a bit different than relying on color for impact. One has to be aware of the tremendous strength of the black and white and their dominance. I try to balance the two with gray, and smaller bits of both, while also trying not to make it too dark and brooding, which I believe this one is not.
The scribbly lines I added feel like play.

 

I've been 'studying' this Pinterest board Art Collage and Mixed Media as a way of learning how to do this stuff. Not that there are rules, but the look is there and I am seeing how powerful a low key composition can be. $100 Email me. SOLD

The Space Between

The Space Between
Acrylic, modeling paste, ink and graphite on watercolor paper, mounted on cradled wood panel. 9x12x1"

One of the things that interests me is drawing in new ways. And now that I have a format to present a finished drawing, well, the door has been opened wide.
For this drawing, I had no specific subject matter in mind, so it was a total adventure to find my way into and out of the work. To begin, I mounted the paper on the panel and prepared the surface with heavy gloss modeling paste. It leaves a textured surface which can be drawn into with pencil or pen, and can also be 'corrected' with a wet paintbrush.
Once the surface was dry I set about finding the shapes to emphasize or define.
This drawing was a seat of the pants adventure. Since it isn't a picture of anything in particular, it leaves the viewer with the challenge of deciding what to think, making it a conversation between us.

I particularly like the freedom to make marks with nothing inhibiting my imagination, knowing I am making something completely unlike anything I have done before. $100 Email me.

Fruit!

First, may I address all your wonderful comments from yesterday's post.
I was amazed at all the care you all took to help me out, which was lovely. Thanks so much. However, I was so much happier when I dropped the sewing idea completely. Ha!
 I was also amazed that so many of us have the same issues with patterns, and our mature figures. I have some patterns that I make over and over again because they work, and usually they require knit fabrics, which of course, have built in ease. In real life I so rarely wear woven clothing, I admit. T-shirt, knit tops etc. The sleeveless versions of the patterns I used fit perfectly, but my arms, especially since I lost 30 lbs, look like very wrinkled fish bellies, and are not for public display.
Funny that no one suggested that I just go ahead and order a garment or two from Marketplace of India! I'll figure out something else to do with my quilt fabric...besides quilting it. Eventually.
Thanks again for chiming in. I so appreciate that you are there for me.
And now to answer a request about the garden.
We have ABUNDANCE.

 

 Cantaloupe are coming along nicely. We have about 8 total, I think, altho some more may be hiding under the sweet potato vines. And we have two adorable figs!

 
 This one fig tree has outgrown all the others. At least 14 inches of new growth. I am thrilled.

 And do we have peppers! Poblanos, Grand Marconis,

   
And Bells of the Orange and Red varieties. Unseen but still growing are the beets. Poor beets. Covered almost completely by the monstrous sweet potato vines.

I am amazed at the size of the rutabagas. Their leaves have become lace from the cabbage worms but they still seem to be getting bigger anyway. I will have a lot of mashed rutabaga dinners this fall.

 

 We have lots of cute watermelons. One big one, which is still only an icebox size. I mean it is smaller than a basketball.

 Plenty of basil, parsely, from seed! and the huge new variety of basil, Mammoth. What big leaves.

 The squash and cucumber continue to overproduce for our needs and I have given away so much more than we have eaten, that I am ashamed. I loved seeing the big plants and all the fruit they produced but I think it was the last time I will grow them. My spindly tomatoes are full of fruit and I have kept up with eating those. Yum!

The front yard...meh. It is too hot and not shady enough for my hydrangea. Darn. They are burning and crispy. The hosta seem to be ok, but I will have to rethink this spot for next year. Sunpatiens are all a mess, and really couldn't be grown in this hot and sunny climate. We live and learn. I should have a sign in the garden with that slogan pasted on it.
 

Stalled

My second try at getting this garment idea sewn also fell short of comfortable, especially in the arms.
 I lifted this image from Pinterest, as an illustration of my problem.
 I don't want to give up, but I recognize that the old patterns I am using have not met with my goals. I did spend quite a long time looking at patterns and came away empty handed, figuring I had what I needed in my collected patterns at home. NOT. So I figured I will hold off trying to fix/refashion them, in favor of finding one which already has what I want.
But I didn't go to the small pattern companies, ones that show up at quilt shops for example. And my other thought came from the comment on yesterday's blog:
I wish you the best of luck in your clothing adventure, Melody. I used to make much of my wardrobe, but after purchasing pattern, material etc, and having a OK-to-wear-but-not-exactly-right result, I realized that if I had tried on the same garment ready-made at a store, I would not have purchased it...so why would I purchase it AND spend time making it? You will do better, I'm sure.

I'm starting to think this would be my experience too. So maybe I will hold off on all of this and just get back to having fun with paint.

 

Distracted by Sewing!

 

While I have been painting, I have been trying to think of what I will be doing with all my fabric, when I return to it. My pal Mary has been a big inspiration towards a solution because she did a dye/shibori workshop at Arrowmont last month and had oodles of beautiful things to share. I have a lot of pretty-pretties too. But how to use them? Clothing! I love the stuff I see from Marketplace of India, so comfy, practical and features great fabrics. Why not make something from my stash that takes advantage of what I already have?

These are just two of the ideas I have been trying to make from patterns that have fallen short of being just right.

 First I thought I would try this top, which I have made before, back in the early 2000's.  I think it was a knit I used, and it just didn't feel right in woven cotton. Binding in the armpits. Not free and comfy like the tunic or pullover top above. Back to the drawing board.

 

I looked at this pattern and thought it was perfect but it called for shoulder pads which is a clue that the shoulders would be too billowy and it didn't include sleeves, so I decided against it. The I looked at this little pattern I found at Goodwill for $.69. It has the drop shoulder, but no shoulder pads, and it has sleeves, and two lengths and pockets. Hmmm. I wanted a button down front, which is easy to do, and while it looks like there is a piece across the midriff, it is just a shaped belt that is tacked on, not part of the dress at all.

 I drafted a pattern and gave it a button front with a rounded neckline and cut it out of some Brandon Mably fabric that I had prewashed and it is now ready to assemble. Fingers crossed.
If this is the right fit, and shape, I will then start designing a garment with multiple fabrics. Stay tuned.

Wake Up Call

Wake Up Call
 Acrylic, stamping, collage, drawing, stenciling, ink, graphite, on watercolor paper, mounted on cradled panel. 12x12x1" $100 Email me. SOLD

 

White Swan Coneflowers

White Swan Coneflowers
Acrylic, collage, drawing, stenciling, stamping, ink on watercolor paper, mounted on painted cradled panel. Finished with acrylic glaze.  9x12x1" $100 Email me.
SOLD

I was lucky earlier this year and found these coneflowers reduced to $1 a pot so I got two of each. What makes them wonderful is they are shorties, rather than the tall wild version and the flowers are so much more abundant. Botanists keep working on changing the colors of coneflowers but this change in scale is even better than the reds, orange and yellows that recently appeared on the market. I might like the green ones, if I ever find them. As you can see, the bumble bees are also big fans.

Have a happy and safe Fourth of July!