SAQA Auction Has Begun!

The Studio Art Quilters Association, of which I am now a member, has an auction every year to benefit their not-for-profit group. This year's auction started on September 12th and works in reverse of a regular auction. The artworks go on sale for a high price the first day ($750) and go down in price on successive days, ending at a final price of $75. The pieces are sold in groups. I donated the above work which will go on sale on September 26th. If you'd like to own an original piece of fiber art, take a look at what's for sale by clicking here. (Mine is shown in group 3b. I wonder if it will sell...).

A Fun and Artful Weekend

My weekend actually started on Friday morning when I snuck away to Joann's Fabrics to do a little artful shopping. I haven't been doing as much of that as I used to because the closest store is now over 30 minutes away and also because I now have a decent stash of stuff and don't seem to need as much. It was Joann's "coupon commotion" so I felt compelled to wander around and see what was new, inspiring or interesting that I could get for 40% off! This trip I only got 3 pieces of fabric: two in my favorite shade of aqua and one plain white to paint on and play with. I also couldn't resist these two sets of pens and markers. One is those "jelly roll" pens in metallic sparkle colors. I just love those - they are so smooth and fun to play with and they seem to be fine on fabric too (but I haven't tested them for washability or longevity). I also got a set of Sakura "permapaque" pens which are acid free and can write on nearly anything - glass, ceramics, wood etc. I especially wanted a white one.

When I got home, I started playing. I first glued these thin foam shapes onto a thicker foam base to make a stamp. The sailboat fit nicely on an empty spool so that's where that went. I used acrylic paints and Stazon ink pads to stamp some of these onto some of my fabric scraps.
Then the fun really started! I ended up making a set of coasters as a hostess gift. As you can see, I have amassed quite a collection of fabrics in the aqua-turquoise-blue range and it was fun cutting and arranging them onto the 4" squares of timtex. It already had fusible on it, but I stitched some of the pieced edges and also all around the perimeter. Then I covered each one with fusible vinyl (yes, there really is such a product!) to make them waterprooof (In this shot, only the one on the upper left has the vinyl on it. Click on the image to see it larger). Aren't they fun?
I had seen this idea in one of the articles in Cloth Paper Scissors, which mentioned the fusible vinyl, so I've been wanting to try it out. Another reason I needed a hostess gift was because I was invited to a cool "arty party" at Natalya Aiken's lovely home. Several FANE members were there as well as some SAQA members from out of town (two were visiting from Hawaii!). It was great to spend some time with such a great group of like-minded highly creative people! We shared some food and wine and chatted about so many things. We also had time to share some pieces we each had brought. Below is a shot of Jane Davila, Vivien Zepf, and Robin Ferrier admiring a WIP of Natalya's which is painted on a small vintage tablecloth.

Here is a shot of Natalya sharing a recently finished piece. The hand stitching on it was really amazing.

Now that my fun and artful weekend is almost over, it's time to be getting back to reality. Look at my work area - there are scraps of aqua fabric everywhere! I really need to spend a little time cleaning up. But I had so much fun making the first batch of coasters, maybe I'll use up some more of these scraps by making a few more. I have some family members with birthdays coming up....

In the Habit

For the last month or so, I've been using every spare minute to finish my large piece (see previous post), and even though it's now finished, I found myself in the habit of going into my workshop area and doing a little something every day. Of course, I did take it a bit slower, read a couple of books, watched some TV (the new season of the next Food Network star has started!), even napped a little this week, but I dove right into my next two projects (yes, you read that right - two!). I think I was able to work more quickly than I have in the past because in the previous project I became used to just doing, not thinking. I hope I can keep up this momentum!

In planning the previous project, I bought several sheer and metallic aqua fabrics that I thought I might use as overlays to suggest water. I ended up not using them, partly because of the time crunch, but also because I felt they would've obscured all the interesting textures and details I worked so hard on. I was a bit disappointed that I didn't get to play with all those fun sheers and see what effects I could create, so I decided to use them for my next two projects. The one above will be for our next FANE show in September, so it needs to be finished over the summer. We had a group member serve as a guest curator and she came up with the size and theme requirements for our show. The size is 9" x 20"- interesting and different - and it can be hung either vertically or horizontally. She also decided each piece should be predominantly one color and that the color name be mentioned in the title of the piece.

To explore this idea, I took a long piece of cheesecloth that I had painted with watered-down acrylic paints in the spring, and cut it to about 24" (I always like to have more than enough!). I cut those sheer aqua fabrics into strips about an inch wide, threaded them on a large needle, and wove them in and out of the painted cheesecloth. Right now it's all just laying loose on top of another piece of aqua fabric, but I intend to position it into waves and use both hand and machine stitching to hold it all together. I may do some beading on it as well, as I also have a pretty good collection of beads in this color.

While I was playing with that, I started thinking that maybe I should consider creating something for the SAQA auction, which would need to be completed by July 2. That piece has a size requirement of 10-12" square, so I thought I might use some of the same fabrics but in another way. For this piece, I started with a square piece of pale blue fabric and layered wavy strips of the sheers over it to look like water. At the bottom is a soft piece of a tweed-like fabric in peach tones, to resemble sand. I added some hand stitching to this too, to give it more texture and obscure the straight lines a little (you may have to click on the photo to enlarge it to see that detail). There's also a tiny seashell in the lower right corner.
Anyway, it's obviously a seascape and I'm happy with the effects of the layering of the sheers. In person, I feel it really conveys the sense of being by the seaside. Maybe this will be the start of a series (I've got yards of those sheer aqua fabrics!). Once again, I'm a little disappointed with how it looks in the photo compared to how it looks in person. One of my goals for the year is to invest in lighting or some other means of getting better photos. I still need to work on that one...

SAQA Trunk Show entry?

Since I am now a SAQA member, I've been checking their website often to read the Calls for Entry. They always have a long list, but each show has certain particulars, and sometimes my work doesn't fit them; for instance, some shows are only accepting work from people in a certain state, or quilts of a certain size, or that fit a certain theme. But they usually have one non-juried show that all SAQA members can participate in. I thought I'd find out what the deadline is for their member show this year, since now that I'm a member, all I have to do is send it - no judging, no additional fee. I found out last week the deadline is January 21st. I thought that was a postmark date - I was wrong - it's a Received by date! Yesterday I looked through my pile of completed pieces to see if there was something that might be appropriate, but no such luck. I even thought about getting up very early this morning to try to throw something together, something similar to the "Rhythm of the Earth" piece I finished last week, only scaled down, only 10"x 10". But I ended up going back to sleep.

All morning, the idea of passing on this opportunity really nagged at me, so when I got home from work in the early afternoon, I decided to play around and see what I could come up with. I actually started it and finished it all in the same day! I don't think I've ever done that before. It's very similar to "Rhythm of the Earth" with some of the same fabrics and embellishments, but it's more symmetrical and balanced. The prospectus stated that all the pieces would be mounted behind a matte with only an 8"x 8" square showing, so I designed the piece to be viewed that way. All the embellishments fit into that 8x8 square. Now all I have to do is pare down the statement I made when I presented the larger piece to the FANE group in the fall, e-mail that off, and get this piece to California by Friday!!!!!