Art Spirals

Earlier in the month, I had a wild hair, or is that hare? (insert grin), that I would plan, start, complete and submit a journal quilt to be juried into the International Quilt Festival show in Houston this fall. The theme is the elements, I worked out an idea in my sketchbook, full blown, fit the theme, reasonable size (17x22 inches), the only kicker is that it's due August 1st. With my life, work, kids, etc. I finally realized that I wasn't going to make this goal...or if I did, it would be to the detriment of something ELSE in my life, and everything else is much more important. BUT I do still love the idea, and a deadline is good for me, so I considered it. in the end, I'm doing it for me, and we'll see if I want to submit it anywhere. And this way, I get to talk about it on my blog and show pictures.

The quilt is about our trip in June to Carlsbad Caverns, which is an amazing place, if you haven't been. Here are some photos I took, and I"m using them as inspiration.

I just love the texture and possibilities here. So I gathered all my fabrics that I thought would work, graded them light to dark, took black and white photos, just to double check, and started out. I cut a snippet of each, stapled it to a board, and used it to shop for varigated thread. Great idea! Found this purse at a garage sale for $1, washed it, thinking it might fall apart, which it started to, but that's ok. the bulk is great rock texture, the threads will be wonderful to couch on for embroidery.

So here's the start of the top 1/3 of the piece, the background for spires of columns/stalagmites in front, and a path down. I can see how doing this on an embellisher would be a great technique, but I'm managing to incorporate and integrate snips of other fabrics into the stitching to show variations and veins in the rock. it's a start. you can see the left section has a piece of fabric that's not stitched down yet. It'll require many layers, just as mother nature required to make it the showcase it is!

Then, the other day I was playing with Shiva paintsticks and got a lovely russet brown color and thought...this might work for the detailing of the rock. I pulled out a piece of what I think is interfacing, with neat ridges already on it, and made a iron on ripped stencil from freezer paper and I think it'll be a good start for the base to mimic the very first picture above. With FME to do the shadows and crevices on top of the paint...hmmm....might work.

And silhouettes of the kids will be in there somewhere too, my little explorers.

If you're interested, as I am, in eating local foods (see other posts), here's a neat link to the New York Times compilation of articles they've run on the subject:

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/l/local_food/index.html?8qa&scp=1-spot&sq=&st=nyt

Ok, so I put this under the fabric dyeing category...not dyeing per se, but painting. anyway, we have a swap on the Clothpaperstudio group to use some sort of paint, in stick form, on fabric and make postcards.

So I got my shiva sticks out, and started playing. In addition to the piece to work for the Carlsbad Caverns journal quilt, I made these:

My inspiration for this was the "desert" Mexican Red Bird of Paradise bushes in my front garden. I know now I want to use another technique or media to do a piece on the flower. The iridescent yellow in my pack just isn't the right shade. I probably need a cad yellow, which I see I can buy separately. Its real name is Caesalpinia pulcherrima.

These two were just playing...in sea colors....I think this one looks like the ridges in a seashell.

And this is for a study/sample for the peaches for the back porch quilt. CMurphree/Shiva/photo#5225276162576539202">

Don't you love the quizzical expression of her mouth?

My second grader made a wonderful art doll last night. On her own. And I love it. I asked her if I could have it, when she was ready to give it up, and she was so tickled. She gave it to me. It’s in a place of honor on my shelves in my room, near Wendy’s journal and Diane’s philodendron leaf book, and my sister’s goodies.

It might be because I’m nostalgic, that I love it so. it's hat is a sock they wore when they were little, and I’ve always ADORED those socks…want to stretch them to fit me…and they know it, I’ve told them many times. the body/head is a wooden game board, for pegs, from Cracker Barrel restaurants (garage sale), the glasses are cut coin holders, held on with a pipe cleaner with feathers for ears/hair. and she drew the little mouth and eyes/nose with colored pencils darkened with water. The same technique she was using to "paint" her fingernails earlier in the day! and her sister was painting HERS a midnight blue. Here's the back. Handy, it doesn't even need an doll stand or anything!

Watercolors from 2006.

Oh, we weren't speaking of veggies? well, we were awhile back, when I showed you my wonderful produce from the organic farm cooperative I belong to. Here in lil' old El Paso, Texas, we're on the cutting edge...as witnessed by the New York Times. Cool article on owning a share in a farm. Ok, our farm, Mysterious Horizons, isn't mentioned there, but everything they talk about, we're doing. and last week, for the first time, we had pasture raised chickens from Brookhaven Farms in Las Cruces. Feels good to support local, organic businesses and have good healthy, tasty food too.