Friday, July 27, 2018

New Work

I have an alcove going into the master bedroom in my new Florida house that was just screaming for a quilt. I wanted something long (I have 10 foot ceilings) and narrow. I wanted to do something very contemporary, more fitting with the decor and I wanted to make it in navy and gray, my accent colors throughout the house.

When I saw a quilt by Cindy Griselda in the April//May issue of Quilting Arts, I knew that I had found what I wanted do. I don't usually copy someone else's work, but her style was so in sync with mine that I didn't feel too guilty. I changed the colors to suit my needs. It was probably the easiest quilt I have ever made. I designed it, pieced it (I love to piece) and machine quilted it (love that, too) within the week. I even have the binding on. The fabrics are all my hand-dyed.



45" x 20"






I quilted the background in an all over clamshell. It was fun to do and quilting with navy thread on a navy fabric was very forgiving of any goof-ups. The big block, a wonky log cabin, was quilted in different designs in each strip. If you click on the photo you can see what I've done.

I'm linking up with Off the Wall Friday.

Wednesday, July 25, 2018

Tuesday, July 24, 2018

Exciting Exhibit

Last week I traveled with my friend, Barbara, to the North Castle Library in Armonk, NY to see the exhibit of a fiber friend, Natalya Aikens.  Natalya's work is very unique in that she uses mostly recycled plastic bags for her works. They are then enhanced by hours of machine and hand stitching and are truly spectacular. She also uses antique linens in some of her pieces, also heavily stitched by hand and machine.

Here is Natalya standing in front of her huge installation, made entirely from recycled plastic. The fire escape to the right is made from plastic drinking straws, so much in the news these days.

These two pieces are quite large, almost floor to ceiling . Detail below.






Many of her works depict city scenes, such as this fire escape.


We asked her about the thread that she used for this hand stitching and she said it was velvet thread, something entirely new to me.







She often draws on her Russian heritage, having been born in St. Petersburg. This one is made of vintage laces and other fabric, then heavily stitched. I purposefully left part of Barbara in the picture so you could see the scale. This was exquisite and I was lusting after it.


Another using antique fabrics and the same size as the one above.


This was much smaller than the previous, only 12" x 24", but equally as stunning.

More plastic bags. Detail below.




She often uses the words on the bags to give visual texture to the piece.


Bridges are another favorite topic.

Detail


This table held many of her smaller framed pieces for sale.

The show is up until August 10, so if you are anywhere in Westchester County in NY State or nearby CT, try to see it. I did not show you everything.

This is one post where you should click for larger views to see the fabulous stitching.

Friday, July 20, 2018

Party Report

I showed you the fabulous find of the shibori printed boxes that I found at Joanne's a few weeks ago, but forgot to post how I used them for my party.



 I put them on the side table in the dining room, large dinner napkins in the bigger box and smaller napkins for dessert in the smaller boxes. I put the utensils in glass tumblers with blue rims. Another amazing find was the Melamine Tommy Bahama dishes on sale at Marshall's. I bought all they had. Don't they also look like shibori?

The table also had a shibori runner and placemats that I had made. This was a part of the entree: medium rare cold filet, homemade potato salad, green salad (with beets, goat cheese and walnuts) fruit salad, and shrimp. Not out yet was the salmon baked with pesto butter (served hot) and baked beans. Everyone said it was delicious and I agree.
Appetizers had been served earlier. Dessert was to come later.



Red and white fresh roses for my centerpiece. I thought that the stitched circle shibori on the table runner looked like fire works.

It was a fun party and I was blessed with an absolutely perfect weather day after a week of very hot and humid. Everyone wanted to stay outside on the deck, which is where we ate.

Friday, July 13, 2018

Mother Said

The theme for my FireWorks exhibit this fall is Inspired by Word. That gives us a lot of leeway since your piece can be inspired by the words in a song or poem or anything, but I decided to take it literally and really have it be inspired by words, this time words that your mother said. I have found that so many of the things our mothers have said to us growing up were universal.

I made this piece in the same style that I made my Presidential Fabrications. That one was meant to be strident and I use colors accordingly, vivid oranges, lime greens and gray. This time because it was about our mothers I used pretty colors in Dupioni silk, most of which came from the stash of a departed fiber friend. I also used what I think is a feminine font, Lucinda Handwriting, for the words that I printed on the computer.





The background words were free-motion quilted using a heavy black jeans thread.








My mother was a warm and caring person and although she may have said some of these things, she never said the somewhat snarky things that are on here. But I bet you can find something that your mother said. Each of the sentences in the background are different as are each of the printed sayings on the appliquéd pieces.

I am linking up with Off the Wall Friday. Go see what some talented fiber artists are doing.

Wednesday, July 11, 2018

Tuesday, July 3, 2018

Shibori

If you follow my blog you know my fondness for shibori. I've made my fair share of fabric to use in art quilts, the velvet shibori pillows I made last year, and the many, many vintage napkins I made last summer. It seems like shibori is ubiquitous these days, in clothing and decorating, but I still could not believe my eyes when I saw these storage boxes in Joanne's the other day. I didn't know what I would do with them but I knew that they had to come home with me. I bought the only two they had, one sightly larger that the other.

Here they are, one stacked on top of the other.


They have grosgrain ribbon tabs to open them on the top.




Surprise, surprise, they are the perfect storage place for SOME  of my napkins. And look how pretty the boxes are inside.


I was planning on using my napkins for a holiday party I am having this weekend and was wondering how to put them on the buffet table. Now I know. I am going to put the whole opened box on the table with the silverware tucked into glasses on the side. 

 Happy Fourth of July!

I will be linking up with Off the Wall Friday