Wednesday Night Review

Dominique C.: Cut and torn freezer paper masks.

I'm finally getting around to posting a few photos from the Winter 2014 session of Exploring Surface Design. I'm rounding out teaching my fifth year of this semester-long class. This session stre...etc..ch...hed out a bit due to the weather and my Dad's memorial service.

Here is a sampling of what students did this session...

Dominique C.: Printing with wheat flour paste resist

Dominique C.: Blue glue gel resist.

Elaine E.: Print block sampler over monoprinted fabric.

Elaine E.: Printing with wheat flour paste resist.

Elaine E.: Freezer paper mask and brayer rubbings with textures

Laura L: Gelatin Printing

Laura L.: Gelatin printing.

Laura L.: Lutradur screen printing.

I'm looking forward to the Spring semester. I'll be teaching a new 5 session class called: Fabric Painting, Printing and Stitching to Tell a Story with Cloth. This class was a direct result of comments from the students in the Story Cloth workshop. They wanted more time to explore.

Healing Cloth Workshop

This weekend, I taught a new workshop at The Art League School called, Patching, Stitching, Weaving: Creating Healing Cloth.

This is a concept I've been thinking about for a while now. The act of mending cloth (patching, stitching, darning) can also mend or be healing to the maker or can serve as a means for them to create a piece that could heal another. I was inspired by two events. The first was meeting Gene and Sue Greer, a husband and wife quilting team who create memorial quilts. I was deeply moved when they told me that they work together to create special butterfly quilts for terminally ill children. A comfort for the children and then eventually for their families. The other event was designing a hamsa for my friend, Martha and after her death having the opportunity to create peace flags using her hamsa symbol. I found the act of printing and hand stitching the flags very cathartic and meaningful.

I wasn't sure that my deep connection with this idea would translate well into a class. I took a chance.

Saaraliisa Y.

I was so fortunate to have a group that was willing to take a chance with me. For two days we stitched and shared. I'm hoping that they got as much out of the experience as I did!

Susan P.

Thank you Susan, Amy, Zita, Saaraliisa and Lisa.

Zita S.

Amy J.

Amy J. (detail)

(All works are in process)

Searching for Roy G Biv III: Yellow Update #3

Flowers in a park in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Back to the archives for this month's color! A little bit of this and that...

Inner workings of the Eiffel Tower.

Fabric store in Paris.

Sunset off the tip of the Delmarva.

Vienna, Virginia farmer's market.

 A fabulous book by Junko Oki. Click here for a post about this book.

In memory of my Dad.

Looking forward to seeing your YELLOW today. Just leave a comment and I'll link to your post! I'll be updating through Saturday so hope you join me and the YELLOW seekers below:

Take a look at my color cohort, Jennifer's blog post for some urban YELLOW.
Fiona has some intriguing YELLOW and ponderings on perseverance.
Maya has floral YELLOWS and some tidbits about Indian traditions.

Sorry for the slow update response! I've been slogging through writing handouts for a new class (Healing Cloth) for this weekend...oh how I wish I had a day to just breathe.....

Here are some more fabulous YELLOW entries:
Sharmon had me longing for spring with her floral YELLOWS. Also a wonderful selection of her artwork.
Susan is also thinking about spring (I want one of those daffodil bunches!) but my fave was the YELLOW jelly fungus!
Mary Ann has some stunning YELLOW fiber collages to share this month.
Lisa has outdone herself again with her story boards filled with YELLOW mimosas. Such a happy color!
Jill has quite a collection of YELLOWS...the giant "rubber" duck had me laughing!
Yarngoddess gives us a YELLOW tour of her home.

Cindi reminds us that sometimes what we seek is right under our nose! She has an eclectic look at YELLOW. Can't wait to see what new artwork turns up with the new studio.

Margaret at Charlton Stitcher takes a look at YELLOW signage and the language of flowers.

Experiments in Printing with Arlington Quilters Unlimited

Trudi S.

Saturday, I taught a printing class to a great group of women who were all members of the Arlington, Virginia chapter of Quilters Unlimited. Delightful and fearless...we got a lot done. This was the first time they had carved print blocks...I was impressed! We had the class at the wonderful Artistic Artifacts. It was so great to see owner, Judy Gula, who I've known for quite a long time.

Enjoy this colorful selection of prints by these creative quilters...

Andrea H.

Beth R.

Jodie F.

Judy S.

Judy S.

Karen M.

 

Karen M.

Libby S.

Libby S.

Roy's Coming! Next Thursday it's Mellow Yellow

A Stitcher's Roy G Biv

Just a reminder that the Search for Roy G Biv continues next Thursday, March 20th. Hope to see some happy yellow... or warm yellow (brrr...it's cold out!). Check here for a reminder about how to play along with Jennifer and me.

Here's what I've been up to this past week:

• Spent too many hours preparing for a lecture (Playing in the Kitchen for Arlington Quilter's Unlimited) and then gave it Monday night.

• Finished going through the Copy Editor's notes and then re-read the entire book manuscript for mistakes.

• Finished putting together the handout and prepared kits
  for this Saturday's workshop, Experiments in Printing for Arlington QU.

• Working on the handout for my Patching, Stitching, Weaving: Creating Healing Cloth workshop. I've been reading through the books pictured above among others and had great fun putting together a Pinterest board for the class. 

Still not caught up with the time change and really wish the weather would just decide to be spring!!

The Printed Fabric Bee Mosaic Collection Giveaway

 
It's time for another fabric giveaway from The Printed Fabric Bee. This month's Queen was Lesley Riley. She requested the theme, mosaics and the colors yellow, orange, purple and fuchsia. Here is her inspiration photo:

The Hive got to work and here is this month's very colorful giveaway collection of 6" squares:

After some false starts, I decided to keep it simple this month. On one of my trips to the local dollar store I picked up these foam counting blocks. I found the foam marshmellows at my local Michael's craft store.

Many of the counting blocks were already attached looking like a set of tiles. I reinforced them with masking tape.

I wanted the circle design to overprint the tiles but look like it was actually part of the tile. I used my x-acto knife to cut a cross in the center to match up with the intersection of four tiles.

I used my favorite fabric paints, Pebeo Setacolor. To create the background color, I mixed two transparent colors: Cobalt Blue and Parma Violet and added water (ratio 1 part paint to 2 parts water).

This created a rich violet-blue which I painted on the fabric with a foam brush and then put aside to dry.

Next I mixed up a series of Pebeo Setacolor Opaque colors in cream, orange, yellow and violet. I decided to use a foam brush to apply paint in order to give the prints a bit of texture. I painted the taped counting blocks with the cream, occasionally leaving an unpainted square.The painted tile block was turned over onto the violet-blue background and pressed to release the paint.

After printing the entire background with square tiles, I went in with individual foam squares and the incised circle to overprint colors.

Here is the final 12" square piece for Lesley.

Now for the giveaway particulars...Leave a comment on Lesley's blog or over at The Printed Fabric Bee Facebook page under the picture of the Mosaic Fabric Giveaway. You have until March 15 to leave a comment. Lesley will draw a name and post the winner on her blog and on the FB page. It's really a colorful collection this month. Lots of Spring colors...do you think we're ready for Winter to end?!

Girl Power

Yesterday, I mentioned that I was teaching a group of 11-year-old girls as part of the SOHO project. This project pairs at-risk girls with mentors. A focus of the program is to have the girls create art projects each week that will end up being a part of their room makeover. I had the girls make pillowcases using freezer paper, masking tape and stickers. Of course, I was blown away by the results!

Joann Lui who heads up the program is a young, energetic teacher. We had time before the class to go over the lesson plan and streamline it a bit.  She had the great suggestion to have the girls think of a word or a few words to represent a future dream or something that they aspired to (or just something that they liked) instead of symbols.

The SOHO program is really quite wonderful. The girls arrive at 4:30 PM for an hour interactive program to discuss different topics to help build self-esteem and make good life choices. Then they meet up with their mentors for a provided dinner. From 6:00 - 8:00 PM the girls and their mentors work on the art project of the week. It's a great bonding time for them. After hearing the assignment and watching me demo, they sat down together and planned the pillowcase. The mentors let the girls take the lead but also take part in the art project as an assistant of sorts. At 7:45 PM we stopped for clean-up. It was great to see the girls take responsibility for cleaning up after the project.

I had such a super time. The girls were enthusiastic, thoughtful, polite and just fun to be with.

Enjoy seeing the project results!