Sunflower Printing Block

Steens Mountain - Travel Log Tuesday

 Last July, we visited Steens Mountain in eastern Oregon.  This single uplift mountain is 20 miles long and rises to over 9,000 feet above the desert floor of the Alvord Desert.

 Driving across the desert, we grew excited as we approached the mountain from the south east.

 

The Alvord Desert was once a 12 mile long lake bed.

I'll show more from our visit to Steens Mountain over the next few Tuesdays.

Mail Art Project - Week Seventy Five

Deconstructed screen printed and discharged fabrics. Free motion zig-zag stitch.

Today's quote:
"A sure way for one to lift himself up is by helping lift someone else."
-Booker T. Washington-

Foot Square #8

The red fabric is left over from daughter Michelle's high school graduation quilt. I printed hand dyed fabrics with Chinese symbols and used that to make a quilt specially for her.
I love this leftover bit and am happy there is enough to make a 12" square.

I am calling this one "Red Mandala".

New Flower Block for Printing

I've carved another new flower block.

Iris Block for Printing

I love iris and I do not have an iris printing block. Well, I fixed that problem!

Leaf Prints on the New Piece

I have pulled out all my leaf blocks, and have carved a couple of new ones. I print some stems, and then, build up a background of leaf prints.

Here it is with all the leaf printing finished.

I love it. I especially love the size - 96" wide. It is sort of cumbersome on my 4' print table, but I am sliding it around to do the printing.

Is this a flower garden or a vegetable garden?

A new piece - Starting out

I recently came across this really lovely piece of hand dyed fabric.
It is 36" wide and 96" in length. I found myself drawn to it and hung it on the design wall to ponder.
The way the yellow and blue combine to create green in the middle makes me think of a garden.

With a garden in mind, I begin with printing along the top and bottom of the piece.
Sky printing at the top, intensifying the blue.

Various shades of green printing across the bottom. I am thinking spring green grass, here.

Petroglyph Point at Lava Beds National Monument

 I can't resist adding this last group of images from Petroglyph Point at Lava Beds National Monument.

 I really love the graphic nature of these petroglyphs.  Not the images representing animals and humans as we find in our region.  And so densely packed here on the cliff wall.

Mail Art Project - Week Seventy Four

"Chicken Talk"
Hand dyed silk, fused hand dyed cotton, wiggly eyes, machine quilted.

This week's quote:
"When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the
closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us."
-Helen Keller-

Foot Square #7 - Continued

This piece had Mistyfuse already attached to the back of the silk pieces of the collage.
I had planned ahead, and the batting was already cut to 12" square. For a finish, I just folded the fabric from the front to the back and fused it in place. A self facing, so to speak.

I like the slight irregularity of the edges done this way.
But I feel it needs something more . . . birds?

Yes, birds, for sure. Chickadees to the rescue again!

Foot Square # 7 Naturally Dyed Raw Silk

This piece starts out as a collage of naturally dyed raw silk and cotton. The fabrics have been free motion zig zagged in place. I will screen print using Speedball ink specially formulated for fabric printing. This is available at Hobby Lobby, or most online art or dye supply outlets.

I really love this Thermofax screen.

I like the subtle nature of this print, but I wanted to give it just a bit more, so I tried coloring the petals lightly with my Sharpie paint pen.

I really like the effect created by the addition of the white paint pen. More tomorrow.

Broad Spectrum - SAQA Regional Exhibition curated by Cynthia St. Charles

Ryniker-Morrison Gallery on the campus of Rocky Mountain College

1511 Poly Drive, Billings, Montana

February 17 - March 30, 2012

Opening Reception 5 - 7 pm on Friday, February 17

The gallery is an intimate space divided into two rooms. With 11 foot ceilings, and glossy hardwood floors, it feels spacious and provides a wonderful atmosphere for this Montana - Idaho SAQA regional exhibition.

Here is my curator statement:

The human existence is infused with fiber and textile. Cloth is the first thing to touch our bodies at birth and the last thing to embrace us at our death. Throughout our lives, we use textiles to clothe ourselves, upholster our furniture, cover our windows. It is everywhere around us. It comforts us, warms us, protects us.

People have been using textiles as an expressive art form since the dawn of civilization. However, this art form phased out rapidly when mass production made cloth cheap and plentiful. Now, in the age of technology, there is a deep, slow underground movement of artists around the world who have chosen textile as their medium for artistic expression. These artists are rapidly gaining recognition and acceptance in the world of fine art. Art quilts straddle the space between art and craft. The tactile quality of the medium is both seductive and comforting, while also being visually gratifying.

This is the first time regional members of Studio Art Quilt Association have shown their work together. The show was juried by Desiree Vaughn, a nationally recognized quilt artist from Suttons Bay, Michigan. The curator is Cynthia St. Charles, an award winning textile artist from Billings, Montana.

I have posted the images as they would be seen as the viewer enters the room and moves around the space.

"Grass" by Christine Mullaney and "Twilight" by Heidi Zielinski

"Twilight" by Heidi Zielinski and "Pockets of Shadow" by Heidi Zielinski

"Blue Herons" by Linda MacDonald and "Autumn Leaf" by Linda McLaughlin

"Autumn Leaf" by Linda McLaughlin and "Green Woman" by Nancy Erickson

"Green Woman" by Nancy Erickson and "The Outsider" by Pat Budge
Then, going around the wall here, and into the second room:

"Home Away from Home" by Karen Burton and "Closure" by Wanda Nelson

"Closure" by Wanda Nelson and "Peepholes #3" by Kathleen Probst

"Peepholes #3" by Kathleen Probst, "Fire" by Regina Browne and "Peppers" by Barb Olson

"Fire" by Regina Browne, "Peppers" by Barb Olson and "Indian Summer" by Lisa Flowers Ross

"Indian Summer' by Lisa Flowers Ross, Cell #8: Muse Self Portrait by Kathleen Probst, and "Resilience" by Brooke Atherton

"Resilience" by Brooke Atherton, "Ode to Dad" by Nora Bebee and

"Coneflower and Bee" by Kathy Hammond

Then around to the other side of this wall, back into the first room:

"Color Study 1" by Donna Deaver, "Big Sky Country: Heart Mountain" by Phyllis Movius

and "Montana Grizzly" by Karen Burton

I do apologize for the quality of these pictures. They were still working on tweaking the spots when I left, so many of these pieces are not well lit in the pictures I am posting right now.

The opening reception is tonight and I will try to get pictures of the crowd for another posting.
I could also do a post that shows each piece individually and with a detail, if there is interest in that.
I just wanted to give you all a feel for the venue and the show as it appears in the gallery.

As we were setting up, a few people passed through and they were quite impressed! Congratulations to all the artists!

Canyon Sun is Complete

 Here's the quilt before trimming and binding.

 

And here it is after the binding has been fused in place.

 

And a super close detail of the quilting.

Painting the Binding Fabric

 I need binding fabric for my Canyon Sun piece.  I start with white broadcloth and add diluted Setacolor Transparent Paint in Raw Sienna, Golden Yellow and Ochre.

 

While the paint is still wet, I sprinkle on some Kosher salt.

 

Here's how it looks after it is dry.   Up close.

Next, I will print this fabric so the fused binding blends with the quilt.