Posted 7/29/08

I have always enjoyed working small, but an ACEO (Art Cards, Editions and Originals) is really small! I have listed a few ACEO’s in my Etsy shop.

Some ACEO’s I’ve created because I wanted a new challenge (Image 3). Others are efforts to really push my design process with my Lines series (Images 1 and 2.) It’s really fun to make a really large piece, and perhaps a 14″ series piece, a 6″x8″ journal piece, and a 3 1/2″ x 2 1/2″ piece all from the same fiber parts. And truthfully, I’ve spent a lot of work painting and fusing and quilting those Lines series pieces before I cut them up to reassemble them. I like to make sure all of that effort produces art!

Posted 7/21/08

This is my weekly journal quilt 29/52 2008, 6″ x 8″. I struggled with piece 29 in this year’s weekly series. I have felt a torn in attention, while working on my big pieces and trying to divert attention to a small piece at the same time. To be honest, I made one piece and it totally didn’t work, so I started again. Here’s the result.

I started with a background of a wipe up cloth from painting (yes, again.) I really like these pieces for backgrounds, as they are muted, but often contain a combination of colors that I might not normally use together. This piece’s background includes orange, blue/teal, and grey. I then fused a variety of strips of orange toned fabrics on top of the base. These orange fabrics are mostly “other” composition fabrics, as compared to my usual cotton fabrics. These fabrics include silk and man-mades like polyester/rayon blends.

I then put an anchor/focus fabric of the orange flower piece on top. I also placed several organza pieces on top of this that I had previously hand dyed with lime green and orange splatters. The last layer is a layer of reddish-orange tulle. I then stitched/quilted it to the Peltex interfacing base with straight lines along the strips of orange vertical fabrics. I added the fused back, and then zigzagged the edges to complete the piece.

This piece is for sale for $30 in my Etsy shop.

Posted 7/19/08

This is my weekly journal quilt 28/52 2008, 6″ x 8″.  This is a different sort of piece for me.  I started with a rough tea towel cloth that I used as a wipe up rag for stamping.  This was a sentimental piece of cloth sent to me from a friend.  I can’t think of a better way to use it than for an art piece!  This tea towel fabric had some imperfections/discolorations, so it was perfect for covering with paint to hide those imperfections. I took this painted cloth and created a composition with shiva paintstiks.  After letting it dry for several days to harden, I stitched over the design with variegated thread to highlight the major design areas.

This piece is for sale for $30 in my etsy shop. 

Posted 7/14/08

This is my weekly journal quilt 27/52 2008, 6″ x 8″. This piece is a further attempt to develop my idea for a larger work. I think it is an improvement in color balance and design as compared to my journal quilt 26/52. I used only one combination of the black and white print set, instead of 4 combinations in the 26/52 piece. Also, instead of framing the color pieces with black and white pieces, I just assembled the sets in a composition that worked for me.

This piece is for sale for $30 in my Etsy shop.

Posted 7/11/08

I’ve been missing in action from blogland, but as you can tell from the photo, I was still working on art. This photo hails from a stop at a beautiful Virginia vineyard, just beautiful. Did I say it was beautiful? Beautiful.

This is my weekly journal quilt 26/52 2008, 6″ x 8″. This piece *WOW* I say it louder! * took me quite a while. It is a study for a larger work. I created this piece by cutting tiny strips of black and white fabrics and fusing them to black and white fabrics, a red batik or a teal hand dyed solid. I then sandwiched these tops with batting and backing fabric. I proceeded to stitch/quilt the pieces with straight stitches and zig zag stitches. At that time, I cut the quilted pieces into the squares and rectangles shapes you see. I finally zig zagged the pieces “back” together, fused another piece of fabric to the back for stability, and zig zagged the edges of the piece.

This piece is for sale for $30 in my Etsy shop.