Highrise FFFC#51

The artwork is going slowly for me, but I did participate in this months FFFC. Thanks for the great challenge Wendy. We were to use one shape to create a composition. I chose to use a rectangle, and my box of scrap fabrics. Some of you may recognize a few pieces of rusted fabric too. It was a lot of fun creating this piece.  And great fun looking at what others had created from one shape. You can view more of the challenge pieces at http://fastfridayquilts.blogspot.com/   Enjoy.

FFFC#50 Haiku: Dandelions

Finally back to doing the FFFC challenge. I had fun with the October one. Our project was to create a Haiku and put it to cloth. Here is my Haiku:
seed pods billowing
the dandelion releases
its glaze of yellow

Long Time away

Such a busy time of year, and still dealing with the left hand. Did have a cortisone shot a week ago, haven't noticed a great deal of difference. I did have some fun over the past month hand dyeing some fabric.  Here are some of the results. Oh and fun sun dyeing many pieces too!
The colors are a bit brighter on the page than they actually are.  I am attending a retreat on the 21st and will be selling my patterns and hand dyed fabric, looking forward to a fun weekend with friends.

I would like to wish all my Canadian friends a Happy Thanksgiving, and to those of you who don't celebrate a Happy Fall! And a gorgeous one it is.

Evening Walk Solitude FFFC #47

I have finished a piece for the FFFC group. The challenge was 'out on a limb' Well I got the trees, but I didn't really go out on a limb, most the techniques I used are ones I've done before. The only thing new would be the painted background.  The trees and birds are all free hand cut, no pre-drawing.
I had fun with this piece, did both hand and machine stitching on it. The woman was drawn on pink fabric, she looks very much like one of my nieces.
It feels good to be creative, I've had a summer of enjoying the outdoors and not doing much in the studio. Ah well our summers are so short we must enjoy every bit of it.

Enjoy!

Sikanni, inspiration

Here are a few inspiration photos from our trip. My grandaughter and I build a Inukshuk, wonder if it will still be there when we go up in Aug??  A neat little butterfly on a rock, rocks, beautiful fire weed and paintbrush on the side of the hi way, it rained and then a glorious double rainbow!  Those are spans leff from the old bridge. It burnt a number of years ago.

Holiday

We had a fabulous holiday at the Sikanni River, our favorite Place. Took the dogs, they could all run free...as they should. Just a wonderful peaceful time both on the river and watching the river go by while sitting around the campfire. Here are some pictures from our trip. Enjoy the pristine beauty of the great northeastern part of BC wilderness. Heading up river, the canyon, Ginger's first boat ride. The falls, a goat on the ledge, pristine water up river, the camp.

Sikanni Canyon FFFC #46

After being in somewhat of a 'slump' for many months I have finally created a piece. I missed many FFFChallenges and am happy to have achieved this one.
Our challenge was Geology with unexpected colors. I chose a picture of one of our favorite places, the Sikanni River, BC. I have included the original picture. I painted a piece of cloth and then stitched both by hand and by machine. Using colors of Utah or Fire Valley NV, as you can see in the picture not the colors of  our landscape at all.  The Sikanni has always fascinated me, pristine clear water, rocks sideways, rocks up, deep shadows, just a very intriquing place. I hope you have enjoyed this little piece of art from the north, and Happy Canada Day to my friends and family.

Coffee time

This is a piece that I started in Pamela Allan's class. I call it 'Coffee Time' , lot's of hand stitching which I enjoy doing.

Koi

Here is another finished piece. I pieced log cabin blocks with cotton and silk fabrics, placed the plumeria tree and Koi over it. The Plumeria came first, then I noticed the bottom was empty so used sashiko stitiching to add a winding stream and added the Koi.

Made from my hand dyed/painted fabric.

New or finished work

Here are some other pieces that I have finished.
White Peacocks, when researching them I was surprised to learn that they are not albino, but belong to the Peacock family and are quite fantastic and brilliant when theya re all white.
Lot's of thread work on this one.
Raindrops at Radar Lake is made with my hand painted/sun dyed fabric and commercial cotton. I didn't want to lose the effect of the sun dye areas by quilting over them, so made 100's of french knots to represent raindrops :)

Quilt show

Our guild held their annual show on April 11th, it was a huge success. I had many pieces in it as did others, we really thought for awhile that we wouldn't have enough for a show. As it turned out we had 37 pieces.
In this post I am posting the three viewer choice winners.
Rhoda, 1st , Josie 2nd and Barb 3rd.
My piece was a hang appliqued quilt, pattern by Susan Gorman. Three years and five hand surgeries and it was finally done!  It was my first attempt at hand applique and I can sure see the progression of the neat stitches.
I thoroughly enjoyed making it, but likely won't repeat the process for awhile.

I believe Josie's is a Jinny beyer pattern. Barb set very old crosstitch blocks into her winning quilt. I have included a picture of the close-up quilting on mine, I machine quilted it.

Enjoy.

Spring

I have sorely neglected my blog in the past few months. No excuses, just haven't got to it.

Here is a new piece, 'White Peacocks', I always thought they were albino but they aren't. They certainly are a gorgeous bird.
The weather has been very cold the past week, supposed to warm up next week, I hope so I really do want to get out in the yard and muck about.  We had our guilds annual show on Sunday, and I vendored for the first time. I was surprised at how much of the snow dyed fabric that I sold.

snow dye

Had some very nice results with snow dyeing last night. The snow is melting so is quite heavy, which seems to make for less white.  However, I like the results.  I did two orange/yellow ones, they both are about the same so only posted one.
Will do some more tonight, the snow is going down fast.

Blog Giveaway

My friend and fellow student Will Opio has a blog give away, some of her gorgeous snow dyed fabric.  Visit her blog for a chance to win, and view her awesome work.
http://wilopiooguta.blogspot.com/

Pamela Allan's class cubism

Last week in pamela's class we studied Cubism. When researching artists and viewing their work I thought it looked easy, sure found out differently when I attempted a Cubist composition.  So here is my effort, not stitched, Woman playing Cello.
This class with Pamela has been very intense and I feel I don't have enough time.  However, I am learning so that's the main thing.

A gorgeous sunny day in the north, little chilly this morning but no complaints from me.

Pamela Allan's class

Here are two more starts I've done in Pamela's class. They both need stitched and quilted.
The first one is 'my garden' and the second is a still life done with funky floral shapes.

It has been fun exporing flowers in a whole new way. I've got one more from this lesson to complete. Will get at it soon I hope.
Still snow dyeing and had some great results with turquoise the other night, Here they are.

I used turqouise Jacquard reed dye with some tan and scarlet Rit dye....still experimenting :) I am finding that freezing the wet fabric before applying the snow gives great results.

Such fun.

still more snow dye fun

I had some great results from yesterdays snow dyeing, of course there is NO shortage of snow up north. For these three I used Rit dye. Very neat designs, and more whitish than I've got using the other dyes I have here. I see a background for my funky flowers done in Pamela's class for Lesson 2.

I'm excited about the results.

February already, class with Pamela Allan

I don't know where Jan went, I do know that winter is still here.
At present I am taking an online class with Pamela Allan, very intense and she is such a great teacher.  We were to choose one of our favorite artists pieces and duplicate the colors. Only cutting with scissors...your scissors are your pencil in Pamela's class.

Macke is one of my favorites, I chose his 'Three People Walking' a rather serene lovely piece.
Here is my take on it.

No stitching it is just pinned and glued in place. No pre-drawing or drawing, just shapes cut out with scissors.

Next we were to use the same colors for our own composition. I chose to create a scene that is less serene, mine is called "Three People watching the storm"

I will do some handstitching on it and hopefully it will come to life.

I don't know  what is in store for us next week, but this weeks work on color was an eye opener for me.

I also love seeing all the other artists work that other studens have chosen.