25 Million Stitches

I am participating in a project to raise awareness of the 25 million plus refugees around the world. You can read all about it here and see more pictures of what other participants have done. I was inspired by Linda McLoughlin, a blog buddy, who showed hers last week. She does the most incredible hand stitching every day and blogs about it weekly. She is doing three oversized hands in shades of brown. I am also doing hands, but mine are all traced from real hands, adults, kids, male and female in varying bright colors.

We are to use unbleachd muslin or vintage linens. I chose two vintage damask napkins that I pieced and cut to the required width, 15 inches. The damask is a joy to work on since I am not using a hoop. Right now it is 40 inches long, but I am leaving the bottom ten inches blank for now, just in case I run out of steam. They can be anywhere from 30 to 60 inches long. I will scatter my hands, as you see here, and them possibly have some overlapping. This is good TV work, since all you need to concentrate on is having the stitches fairly even and keeping the piece flat.

I am linking up with Off the Wall Friday.

More fun with alcohol inks

I had to make a new 4" x 12" to replace the one I made a few weeks ago, since it had sold. I decided to make it in different colors. As with the first one I used Yupo papers and embossed metal with alcohol inks. I added buttons, stitching and die cuts and mounted it on a 4" x 12" cradle board. It was a little hard to photograph because of the shiny surfaces.

I'm also using the Yupo papers in my cards. The two below use the same tree die-cut in its entirety.

I've made a few of these in different color inks and papers. I've left the inside blank so that I can use them for any occasion. The cards are 5" x 7", bigger than my usual 5 1/2" x 4 1/4". I used glossy Yupo paper on these, but I am going to get some matte Yupo paper. It will give a different look, more like watercolor. 

I will be linking up with Off the Wall Friday.

Summer 's End

Last Rose Begonia of Summer. I cleaned my deck in the back of the house a couple of weeks ago. All  the flowers were gone and just the succulents were left, pretty but no color. This past Saturday  I tackled the front porch. I wanted to put out some yellow mums and pumpkins, but they did not look good with the pink flowers. So I brought them around to the deck where they are giving me a much needed splash of color. There is another pot on another table. My deck is visible from my kitchen and family room, so I get to enjoy the view every day.

Aren't they pretty? Not sure of the name of the variety, but I will be sure to get them again next spring at my favorite nursery. These are planted in a cobalt blue pot, but they quickly grew so big as to obscure the pot and bloomed and bloomed and bloomed. They are a bit messy because the flowers do fall, but I think they are worth the effort. 

Finished!

I put the last stitch in this quilt a few minutes ago. I thought I was going to be able to do a no-hand-sewing-flange binding, but it didn't work for this quilt. I have another quilt that needs binding and I will use it on that and I will explain it then. I did a regular binding on this and hand sewed it to the back.

This is pinned to my design wall and it looks wonky, but in reality it is perfectly flat and squared. Hooray! Unfortunately the quilting does not show in this picture, but it is heavily quilted.

I did an all over quilting design in a pattern that is called garlic. I have used this design many times and I can practically do it in my sleep. It is so versatile and can be facing in any direction. I probably should have done it in a bigger scale, but once I started I was committed. I did it on my Sweet Sixteen and did have some issues with it. A call to the Handy Quilter help line was very helpful. She was on the phone with me for about a half hour until we got it worked out. It is a joy to work with when it is behaving.

Another good thing about using the Sweet Sixteen is the powerful motor. This quilt had a LOT of seams and a LOT of intersecting seams that I know my Bernina would have balked at, but this baby just glided right over them. It was just like quilting on a whole cloth. It also has that 15 inch space between the machine and the needle, so no rolling up was necessary. 

I made two extra blocks from the left over triangles in two different patterns. I still have to add some borders and quilt them and they will be pillows to accompany the quilt.

I will be linking up with Off the Wall Friday.

Another opening, another show

Today was the opening for the FANE group show, another fiber group of which I am a member. This year's theme was Signature Style and the only stipulations were the size, 18 x 36 and that it be

in the artist's signature style.

The library has a lovely wide hall gallery on the third floor with cork walls, a great place to display the art. It is a very popular venue and we now are only able to display there every other year. There is also a large reception room that opens out onto a terrace overlooking Lake Mahopac. I forgot to take pictures of that room.

Here is the art, in no particular order. The names were not hung next to the art but instead they had these itsy-bitsy push pins with numbers that correlated to available sheets with titles, names and prices. 

DREAM PASSION
Raina Lynn

BLUE...WITH BEADS
Joyce Sullivan

SHASTA DAISIES
Linda Stern

COLOR BLOCK VII: WEAVINGS
Barbara Sferra

BORO INSPIRATION
Nancy Mirman

NATURE'S COLORS
Judy Gignesi

IN BLOOM
Gloria Michaelis

FALLING
Carole Hoffman

GEOMETRIC ABSTRACTIONS
NIke Cutsumpas

NATURA
Jane Davla

SABRA DANCE
Tamar Drucker

TEXTURES OF THE HEARTLAND: INDIANA TURNPIKE N JULY
Cindy Green

STUDY IN BLACK AND WHITE
Claire Oehler

LINES, LINES, AND MORE LINES
Maria Weinstein

T

ALLELUIA
Norma Schlager

Opening

This past Sunday was the opening for our annual  FiberWorks show at the Newtown Library. Throughout the year members made small pieces, either 4" x 6" or 6" x 6" from the word prompt that month. Then we each made one large piece that was sewn onto a 30 " x 30" black canvas for this show.

 

Jess made this wonderful poster for the show by sending the logo to Spoonflower, then adding a border and quilting it. It was mounted onto a white canvas and displayed on an easel by the entry door.

Beth Johnson's piece was the first one you saw as you walked into the room. Beth had a lot going on in her life at this time and did not have time to make one large piece, but mounted all of her small pieces onto the black canvas. It was a good introduction to the show.

The library had new screens this year, such an improvement over the old ones and so much easier to hang the art.

On the pieces below I will put the prompt word, title and artist. Some artists did not give their piece a title other than the prompt. Their small pieces are hung beneath the large one.

SUNSET

Evening Show

Ruth Savasta

SCRIBBLE 

Chris Wilkinson

RADIANT

Hibiscus

Norma Schlager

(I am happy to say that this piece has sold.)

CURVES

Hidden Waves

Barbara Drillick

MOTION

Barbara Dorry

CURVES

Curvaceous 

Norma Schlager

CURVES

Nike Cutsumpus

ILLUMINATION

Jessica Tell

CURVES

Dunescape Sunrise

Susi Lehman