The Partial Reveal & A Hosta Bag

I just finished building the fern fronds for the design I revealed in my last post. Here are the fronds with all the parts on them that were cut on my Brother ScanNCut. In this photo they are just hanging on my white design wall. This weekend I will find a suitable background. This project is an attempt at working in a more graphic and abstract style. If you have suggestions for background colour/s, I am all ears. I was initially leaning toward white to further enhance the graphic qualities. I am not sure at the moment. My design wall looks a little off-white here and that may be why it isn't pleasing me.

This week I received two photos from Virginia Miller. She took my Hosta Leaves 101 class last year at Textile Traditions of Almonte. She chose the Hosta Trio pattern, and instead of making a wall quilt, she cut hers up and turned it into a bag. Pretty cool and clever I would say.

If you are in the Ottawa Valley, I will be delivering a lecture and trunk show on Monday night, January 16 for the Kemptville Quilters Guild.

Creating with the Brother Scan & Cut

It is the first week of January, and we are in the deep freeze here in Ottawa. I am in my studio, and it feels good! So I'm working on this idea I posted about late last year. It started with an up-close section of a photograph I took of ferns on Vancouver Island in June of last year. I played around with some settings and filters in PhotoShop that emphasized these little black circles on the fern fronds and made them look more 3D. I have no recollection of what the setting or filter was. I was playing that day. I loved how the little black circles had value variations through them, darker on one side than another.

Here's the design worked out in my sketchbook, I will make the centres of the fronds less yellow, probably a lighter value of the same green I'm using for the main part of the fronds.

Late last year I also dyed a value gradation of a neutral black.Now I ask, why are we dyers always trying to find a neutral black/grey? Well I know why ... because when we go to paler and paler shades we tend to find greys that look more blue or green or ... but we want just plain grey. However, after the painting class I took a few weeks ago, I've come to the conclusion that greys are more interesting when you CAN see a bit a colour in them. Very little in the world is a neutral grey. However, for the purposes of this project, I'm sticking with my neutral black/grey.

Here's my design enlarged. I traced it to transparency film and projected it to the wall with an overhead projector to enlarge it. I did not draw out all the dots on the leaves. I just drew a few different sizes.

I thought this was the perfect project to try out my new Brother Scan & Cut Machine that I purchased 7 months ago from Ottawa Sewing Centre since there are so many repetitive little dots that need to be cut. When I purchased the machine, I thought it would be great for cutting tree bark for my tree collages, and I was excited about the possibilities of cutting shapes out of organza without using fusible web, and thus retaining the sheerness.

Then I traced my dots onto a piece of paper, one or two dots in each size.

I scanned this into my Brother Scan n' Cut.

I knew I should be able to reproduce the dots to fill an entire space the size of the scanning mat. It took a bit of fiddling and reading (I hate reading manuals). However, you can see here I did manage to figure it out. 

Hard to photograph the screen without it showing a glare, but I think you can see in the photo below, that I've now managed to fill the entire screen with dots. This gets saved into my Brother Scan & Cut.

I've taken a piece of fabric that is approximately 12" x 12" in size, and ironed fusible web to the back of it. I still had some Steam a Seam Light in my stash. Better use it up before it gets old.

I've pulled the backing paper off the fusible that I ironed to the back of the fabric, and I've positioned the fabric on the mat meant for cutting. Except I made a mistake and used the scanning sheet that I'd affixed an extra tacky sheet on way back when I bought the machine. I used that extra tacky sheet to cut organza without any fusible on it. Alas I erred here, and cut through the really tacky sheet, such that it became permanently attached to the back of the dots I was cutting.

Here you can see the first sheet cut. I then figured out I had used the wrong sheet, didn't need the extra tacky one, just the mildly tacky one.

Once I used the correct cutting mat, everything worked wonderfully. So here I have a table full of dots in a variety of sizes and values. I'll go and buy a couple of new mats at the Ottawa Sewing Centre. I purchased my Brother Scan n' Cut from them.

I now also have these cool sheets of fused fabrics that have holes in them.

Actually an entire little wall of them attached to my design wall. There must be a fun use for these?

For the rest of the design (the leaves themselves), I used my usual method of tracing them in reverse onto the fusible web, ironing the web to the back of fabric, and cutting them out.

Here's my first leaf. What do you think? I dunno why, but I am craving a white background, but we shall see. Am I going modern or what?

A few more leaves to go. The big reveal should come in a day or two.

Greetings of the Season

From my house to yours, I am wishing you the best of this Season. I hope you enjoyed a restful and Merry Christmas and are now looking toward a brand new year in anticipation.

One of the sights I love at this time of year is seeing my feline family settling down for a long winter's nap. OK, I confess that winter has not hit Ontario yet, but is due this coming week. We will likely pay for a Christmas day that was as spring-like as Easter.

Wilma

Peekaboo and her tongue.

For a while now, we've had a third cat at our house. "Foxy" comes around to eat each day and we do not know if she has a home. She seems to be outside at all hours of the day and night. This photo was taken a few weeks ago when we had a brief, light dusting of snow. My husband built her a shelter as per the Humane Society instructions. Actually we don't even know if "she" is a she yet. We could probably accommodate a third cat so she is welcome to move in, but it will have to be on her own time. However, it is also possible that she likes the food better at our house than her own?

If you read Quilting Arts Magazine, you may have noticed that they featured my last fabric line with Northcott in their December issue. While the Poppy Passion collection was released last April, it is probably still available at many stores. On the Northcott website, it has now been "archived" meaning that no more will be available for sale to stores.

I confess that I've been in a bit of a creative slump this past year, due partly to a busy teaching schedule. The last few days I've been warming up by sewing a bed quilt, something I have not done in more than a decade. I love polka dots, the colour turquoise, lots of white, and improvisational piecing, so I'm working on a new quilt for our guest bedroom. Remember the one that I painted in "Serene Moment" this past summer? Photos here. Yes that one, and it is also my office.



Some of you will recognize that these blocks are similar to what I teach in my Reflections class. In this case, however, I have only pieced half the block, leaving the other half white, and I have arranged the blocks into a spiral setting. The design possibilities are endless with these blocks.

Hoping you enjoy the rest of this Christmas season! I'll be working on a new art quilt during the first week of January. Can't wait to see how it progresses.



Painting in the Style of Mary Pratt, an Inspiring Weekend

At the age of 80, Newfoundland painter Mary Pratt is still painting. It takes months to create a piece such as her "Red Current Jelly". I am a huge admirer of the light and colour in her work. I also love her use of the colour red.

So I jumped at the chance to take a two-day painting class in the style of Mary Pratt, with instructor Andrea Mossop, this past weekend at the Shenkman campus of the Ottawa School of Art. The class was about learning to paint with colour capsules, achieving luminosity, glow, sparkle and shine.

We had to bring an inspiration photo. I chose this photo of a fountain, taken at Ville Lante in Italy in 2012.

Our first task was to sketch out the basic shapes and lay down a colour map using a very light wash of paint, and then the work of painting all the colour shapes began.

After two days, this is where the class ended. I probably have months of work ahead of me to finish this, but I am pleased with my weekend as I learned a great deal that I hope will make its way into future art quilts. The whole subject of refracted light has me facinated.

I am heading back into the studio this week. Still playing with some sketches and ideas before I haul out some fabric.

Back from Vacation, Wilma is in Print, and Knee News

Last week I spent a week relaxing in Costa Rica with my sister. We spent many afternoons sitting by the infinity pool, gazing out at the Pacific Ocean in the Guanacaste province of Costa Rica. This was to be a restful holiday, and it was.

The rainy season ended the day we arrived, and we were lucky to experience nothing but beautiful weather, blue skies and warm temperatures the entire week. We spent many afternoons reading by the pool, although I also spent a fair bit of time walking in the pool. It extended a good length of the property, toward the ocean, and was 4 ft deep most of the way. Perfect for water walking sore joints. At 30 and 31 degrees celsius most days, it was also immensely refreshing.

We enjoyed this view from our room.

 

We took a couple of excursions. One, a riverboat cruise to see wildlife. We sure saw a lot of crocodiles and birds. The other excursion was a shopping trip to the town of Tamarindo, about a 15 minute drive from our resort.

Upon returning home, my Winter issue of the Canadian Quilter was waiting for me. I had been asked by Editor, Marcy Horswill, to submit photos of my studio for a series of Creative Spaces she was planning to feature in this issue. Although my studio is small (10 ft x 10 ft) Marcy was still interested :-) With a new colour of paint on the walls and new bookshelves I was willing to share.

It just so happens that on the day I took photos for the article, I found our cat Wilma sleeping in her favorite corner of my studio, and thus Wilma has made it into print! I'm very proud of her.

On Monday I had my assessment at The Knee Clinic. The good news is there will be no knee replacement YET. And the bad news is there will be no knee replacement yet, meaning I'll have to suffer for a bit longer. However, I agree with their assessment. I saw the X-rays from both knees, and the arthritis in the main knee compartment is mild on both knees, there is still lots of space between the bones so that means the cartilage pad is still relatively thick. However, both knees have severe osteoarthritis of the knee cap, and are bone on bone. In fact, she said the knee caps couldn't really be any worse and both are equally bad. She also said the fact that I am kinda knock kneed contributed to this. Given my age, ability to sleep without pain, etc. they don't recommend bringing out the big guns for knee caps.She recommends I continue with conventional treatment (physio, mild exercise, icing, and give the gel shot a bit more time to work) and of course try to reduce weight on my knees. She is hopeful this inflammation flare will settle down eventually, like the last one, and especially since it was preceded by an injury. She says there are two surgeons at the hospital who do knee cap replacements but she does not recommend it because at some point I'm going to have the whole knee done anyway ... however, she did say it might be soon and might not be for a long time. No one knows how long before the mild arthritis in the main knee compartment turns moderate to severe ... she said it can go fast in some people and slow in others.

So status quo ... keep working with conventional methods and try to get things back under control. Fortunately I have two quiet months coming up. I plan on taking care of myself and strengthening my legs to get me ready for my late winter and early spring teaching. I am also slowly working my way back into studio mode.

Eastern Ontario Visits

It's been a busy week here, but I've been playing with an idea based on a photo I took of ferns on Vancouver Island. I really love these Touch markers by ShinHan Art, especially the grey set that runs from palest grey up to black. Really fun for working with value.

On Monday evening I travelled to Cornwall, Ontario, to give a lecture/trunk show for the Cornwall Quilters Guild. Wow, I saw so many familiar faces  many women I've met again and again over the years at various events in Eastern Ontario. The President, Chris, on left, me in centre, and Program Coordinator, Sharon. on the right.

I did talk a little bit about the importance of value (lights, mediums and darks) in my lecture, and this concept was well demonstrated by the displayed blocks from the guild's block challenge that members had participated in.

On Tuesday afternoon I headed off to Napanee, Ontario, where I gave a lecture in the evening for the Heritage Quilters Guild of Napanee. The next morning we gathered for a workshop on Hosta Leaves. I was really glad I'd dyed some green fabric last week.

Janet and Carol were among the first finished.

This student decided to make a bright purple and green hosta leaf. Why not? It is all about the lines. I wrote down the student's name and now cannot find the slip of paper I wrote it on! 

 Pamela, the Workshop and Program Coordinator.

 Carol's finished leaves.

Here's the finished purple and green hosta leaves. Now the decision is about whether to add a purple stem or a green one?

That concludes my speaking and teaching commitments for 2015. I shall be having more time in the studio coming up.

Reflections on a Visit to the Upper Canada Quilt Guild

Yesterday I had the pleasure of visiting the Upper Canada Quilt Guild. This group meets in Morrisburg, Ontario, but our workshop took place in Williamsburg, Ontario. It was an hour's drive for me through beautiful Ottawa Valley farm country.

Our workshop took place in the community room at a Seniors Centre. I love venues like this because they are usually well-lit and accessible (read, no stairs). It would be my wish that all classes and guild activities could take place in venues like these. While my cortisone shot helped, I am still not where I'd like to be with my knee.

We had 15 eager students in my "Reflections" class. Some had never tried cutting fabric free-hand before.

A couple found it a bit stressful, but most took to it like a duck to water and happily cut and sewed all day long.

I'm really looking forward to seeing the finished pieces, especially Bev's, since she incorporated many of the hand-dyed fabrics she dyed in my "Dye Happy" class last year.

Etta's colour scheme is modern and fresh!

This one is soft and pretty. Please, if someone knows the name of this student, share it with me so I can give proper credit.

Bev brought her work with her to show me how she had used a multi-coloured parfait fabric she had dyed in my class last year. It works really well in this piece because of how it brings light through the centre. She used a Gloria Loughman technique for her background.

Debbie brought a finished work to show me that contains fabrics from my "Falling Leaves" line from Northcott. They were perfect for this pattern by Beth Cameron.

It is back to the studio and the dyepots for me this week. And I need to package more hosta patterns for my workshop in Napanee next week.

Have a great week!