REMEMBER 2016

Dearest Blogger Friends,

It's been so long since I posted that the whole format of Blogger has changed 

so that I'm trying to adjust to the new look as I write to you.  

This is a great stretch for my brain.  

Thank goodness I'm not teaching anymore,

not quite sure how all the public school art teachers are coping with lack of supplies and money,

plus just learning all the new technology.

I know me and I would have been FREAKING OUT!

I guess I've been in kind of a funk for the past few months,

trying to pull myself away from social media.

These are such upsetting and frustrating times plus I'm starting to feel very manipulated by the media.

So I find myself backing away from it and retreating into other venues:

reading, gardening, movies, knitting and working out.

Soothing activities.

Also still trying to loose weight but that's a whole other story,

an unsuccessful story.

But hey,

I'm got some great biceps going on.  

Ha ha

So anyways,

I'm super thankful for Liz Ackert (blogger friend I'm Going to Texas) 

and her checking up on me and my lack of presence here on the web.

Her reaching out feels so good amidst these crazy times.

Thank you Liz.

Now onto her quilt above.

I just revisited her post about this piece.

Firstly,

I'm so saddened to hear about her eye struggles.

She is awaiting Cataract Surgery in one eye,

and has floaters in her other "good eye".

Losing my sight has been my # 2 fear right after my #1,

Alzheimer's.

So Liz,

 my prayers are with you.

Since she is having troubles seeing to stitch,

she has found that she has enough sight to finish off her Remember 2016 quilt.

She sent me this photo above because she included us,

my art students and I,

represented as artisun,

in her piece.

When I saw that it made my heart so happy,

so thrilled in fact that I had to go back on the whirled wide web and find her post about it.

Thank you Liz for helping me find my way back to my blogging buddies.

TAAA DUHHH!!!

APPLIQUILT JOURNALS

BEGINNING 3-D ART

tye dye cloths, cotton batting, perle cottons, paper & embellishments

I'm finally getting around to posting these incredibly crafted works of art.

I realize now that I should have taken some close ups so you could see the attention to detail.

These children sewed,

 appliqued,

 and beaded/embellished their hearts out,

pouring all their love into these fabric books.

note:  I lost the paper that has all your names on it over the summer,

so if I mis-label a work ,please let me know

Let's start with senior Eileen Wang.

During the first quarter of school the kids went thru a Tye-Dye unit

 to learn to make complex dyed marks on cloth.

Then during 3rd Quarter after having learned sewing and embroidery techniques,

we brought the pieces of dyed cloth back out to applique & embellish,

then turn into a journal.

The kids really got into designing their covers,

as did English teacher Deliana Park.

Deliana spent at least a 100 hours stitching her brains out on this delightful book. 

And then there is junior Helen Park with this adorable piece.

So well planned and executed.

The kids were required to bring in at least one word of text.

8th grader Elliana Lee stitched in a whole saying!

Senior Clarissa Gutierrez fussy cut this cute little fairy to applique onto her front cover.

She also has done some lovely beading and is having fun with those detached chain stitches. 

I so wish this journal by 8th grader Sydney Eng was in better focus.

She worked her behind off embellishing this book. 

Can you see the two bumble bees flying around?

And we end with I'm not sure.

I thought it was Hapshiba but she rang in and said it's not hers

S help me out 8th graders,

taking a guess here,how about 8th grader Iris Lin??

Because I do so much estate and garage sale picking,

 I often come across antique linens and dollies for the students to work with.

Iris??,

 like Sydney above,

 took advantage of some lovely crocheted pieces to incorporate into their journals.

I've been re-evaluating this assignment,

and I saw the kids struggling to start

 because they did't know what to use for subject matter.

And for the past couple of years I have bee so inspired by the ships that 

Hazel Monte at Handstories stitches,

that I think I might limit their subject this year to ships/boats.

Any thoughts on this?

Although I did just purchase the most wonderful Star from Hazel at her shop.

And check out her lovely moon in the shop.

so hard to know what to do.

Jen Mullen

Blog friend & mixed media Artist Jen Mullen

 has recently been experimenting with painting and quilting on tea bags.

I liked what she was doing so much that I asked if I could buy one to share with my students.

She wouldn't let me pay for it so I sent her a trade,

a vintage appliqued tea towel.

Her gift to me arrived in the most exciting envelop.

It looks as if she had hand marbleized it,

then sewn up the sides.

Here is the lovely quilted tea bag,

and when I laid it on top of the envelop I felt they belonged together.

But needed just a tiny bit of contrast, 

so I found a dark gray paper and mounted it in between the two for framing.

Ahhhhhh.

Lastly,

I'm trying to decide between the grey backdrop or the white one below.

Send me your thoughts.

All Art Students,

an EXTRA CREDIT OPPORTUNITY.

Brew up a cup of tea and afterwards let the tea bag dry out.

After it's dry carefully open it up and shake out the loose tea.

Borrow some watercolors from me and paint on a design.

When dry,

bring it in and I'll cut you a piece of batting so you can quilt in down.

Never sewn before?

Let's set up a lunch date and I'll show you how.

Turn in before Dec. 22nd for some first semester extra credit points.

The more you work on it the more points you will earn.

Anyone up for the challenge??

Shop Update - My Work

I'm finally feeling able to part with my very first quilt, so into my Shop it goes.  Not a machine stitch anywhere, completely hand stitched and quilted.  Hoping I can find a loving home for it  :)  This was made in 1983-84.

Appliquilt Journal - My Work

One of the many peaks of my job is to get to be able to create right along with the kids, only I have to keep one day ahead of them so I have a piece to demo. on.  This is the Appliquilt Journal I got to build this year, and it was a blast.  I got to start with two tye-dye pieces for the out and inside foundations that I thought looked really good together.  I also forced myself to work in colors that I wouldn't normally choose, I find it's good to push yourself every now and then.  I bought the great butterfly button years ago, knowing that one day I'd find a place for it.

I'm loving cheesecloth right now so I incorporated a bit on it on the front and back side.  And I wanted to balance the butterfly on the front with one on the back so I found a handmade piece of paper that I ripped into butterfly shaped pieces and collaged them onto a piece of posterboard to strengthen them so I could sew it on onto the backside.  That beautiful paper bead was a gift from mixed media artist Kelli Nina Perkins, again, a special piece I've been saving for the perfect art piece.  I put in a lot of quilting stitches for additional interest...

and added a bit of donated lace to extend the journal edges because I accidentally made the journal pages too wide :)  I added a lace pocket on the inside jacket and slipped in an older picture of my daughter and her best friend Hope when they were 5 years old, something else I've been saving forever.  A little hand tie to keep the journal pages organized.

Then on the inside back jacket I cut off and saved pieces from each of this years 3-D students tye-dye pieces so that they could be together in my journal, a piece of each of them.  I like that. They were a very special group of kids with great chemistry.  A remembrance.

Appliquilt Journals - Student Work

Boy oh boy, did my Beginning 3-D class learn how to stitch, quilt, applique, tye-dye and embellish this year, and use those skills in putting together these journals.

The inside and outside foundations are from their tye-dye unit.  We put batting between the 2 foundations so it became quilty. They had to applique and stitch designs onto front and back covers, work text into their designs, and they needed to embellish with charms, beads, etc.   And then they learned how to book bind using the Long Stitich.  I believe we spent about 3 weeks on this assignment.

This first gorgeous book was built by senior Jessica Barnett, and it flows so well from front to back.

This next piece by senior Kasie Le-Nguyen is so earthy and rich, really reminds me of Fall and the Harvest Moon.

I've lost track just a bit of who made this heart-felt beauty, it's either senior Priyanka Shah or Eugenia Jacob.  Sorry girls, get back to me so I can make the correction  :)

"Colors of the Wind" was done by senior Michelle Yoshimoto, and the colors she has used in this work are really lovely and appealing to the senses.

Senior May Luong, whose work we've seen a lot lately in both this class and the Beginning 2-D class, gives us this sweet piece about love.  Look closely at all the applique May has worked into her design, hours and hours of time spent. 

And senior Leah Huang is another who put so much effort and time into hers themed "Country Roads Take Me Home".  Did John Denver or James Taylor write that tune and record it first?

And then there is sophomore Laarnie Barcelon who goes completely wild, and puts so much cool stuff into her works.  Below is the interior cover page which makes hers very special.

Junior Kaya Quarles is another who did a sensitive and beautiful job with her front and back covers as well as the interior.  So, so pretty Kaya.  I just knew yours was gonna be good!  :)

And just look at the impeccable workmanship on "Free as a Bird" by junior Ashley Duru.  Ashley is one of the students who can talk constantly while she works and still pull off one of the most beautiful pieces in the class.  Huh, Ashley?  LOL  Yeah, yeah, I know, you aren't the only one who talks a lot  :)

Love you!  Should I tell who the others are???

And this adorable "When Pigs Fly" piece by 8th grader Jenna De La Paz was one of everyone's favorites.  Jenna is such a superstar.  Notice her very sweet interior cover page below. 

And one of my personal favorites came from sophomore Reis Misaka in his "Counting Sheep" journal.  Just look at all that hand stitching he worked into the background  Wow!

Tons of effort and time from all of you, thank you!

Fiber Artist Grace Forrest

I want to share the textile work of Grace Forrest, a woman who inspires me on a daily basis with her lifestyle in New Mexico;  her goats, her yard, the wind that blows thru, and her art.  

Grace calls this piece below "Luring Crows", and she graciously decided to part with it so that I could enjoy and display it in my home.  

From the moment I watched her begin this piece on her blog,  it was love at first site.  The colors of the natural dyes on the cloth, the textures, the stitching and finally the girl calling to the crows.  I used to call to the crows myself when I was a youngster, then later again as a young adult (they are such spiritual birds).    I asked Grace if her piece was for sale and she said she needed 6 bales of hay for it or the price of the bales  LOL  "Sold I said!"  

It lives at our home now, and hangs to my right as I write this post.  It is such a feel good piece to me.  I love glazing at it from afar as well as close-up.  Thank you again Grace for sending it my way.

I hope Grace, you don't mind, me sharing your intriguing story about how you packed the quilt and sent it to me, and what happened as you did.  Perhaps I should ask you first, I don't know, since you posted it on your blog,  I'm assuming it might be alright.  Well here goes...

"i wasn't going to say anything about this.

but then, as time goes on, it feels like i am dishonoring something.  This is the cloth and the stick that i sent to Debra in California....Luring Crows.  i packaged it in a very LARGE cardboard folder, much larger than the cloth, to accommodate the stick.  it was more than 2ft square.  all kinds of feelings and thoughts were present when i was taping the stick down, wrapping the cloth in tissue.  making it secure.  all kinds of thoughts and feelings about exchanging this THING for money.  a LOT.   and in it i enclosed a short note to her telling her about what that meant to me...luring crows.

how there are crows that go overhead and have recently swooped low, seeming to be interested in the arrival of the Goats, seeming to be, just more Willing to look down.  and how i call them.  how i hang laundry on the clothes line almost for them,  how i wave and yell to them  if they are high.  and what it is i want.....is just that they might come here, for just a  moment  to light on the dead branches of the big Russian Olive, or on the fence, fence post.  Just that.  that it would be enough.

so, i put this note in with the cloth and stick and there is a great Wind doing what it does out there and i go out, to go to the post office to send this and as i am unlatching the gate, i for whatever reason, look to my right and then

up

and there,  There on the top branch of the Russian Olive is

a crow.

a crow.

i stand there and see it.  i watch it seeing me.  seconds pass and then in a kind of slow motion, it's wings raise just barely and extend, just barely and Wind lifts it up and sails it off to the right, up and in the current....the crow making no effort at all and it is gone from my sight.

i stood there.  hanging on to the cardboard envelope.  not knowing what to do.  feeling like i should fall to the ground or something, i  should DO something.

but what i did is to continue through the gate and latch it closed and get into the car and head off for the Post Office.  staring straight ahead.  continuing.  and i mailed it.  and now it's a couple days later and i think as i did in that moment driving down the road,  that That's also probably like how it is even when we are dying.  When we somehow know we are about to exhale for the last time.  and we

exhale.

we Just Go.  

and i wasn't going to write this here.  it seems so improbable.  so surreal.   But it happened. 

it was no more, but no less."

A few close-ups of the delightful detail that Grace has stitched into her work.

The girl...

 the crows...

and a tiny personal favorite, this wonderful mark that she has stitched into the cloth.  I wonder?  Does she always stitch this mark into all her pieces, kind of like her signature mark?  I like to think it is just for the crows.  I'll have to ask.

Dee Mallon - Professional Fiber Artist

Inspired by the "Blue Moon" on August 31st, and her extensive rabbit population explosion, fiber art Dee Mallon created this whimsical quilt.  She has used some of her indigo dyed fabric and hand quilted this wonderful piece.  I fell in love with it at first sight and asked her if it was for sale.

A week later it arrived in the mail and now it hangs in my home.  I really admire how quickly Dee can put a work of art together.

Here is the back side and her label.  Thank you Dee for agreeing to part with this sweet , playful piece.  It makes me smile every time I walk by it, and reminds me of when I was a child and my mom would hang our clothes out on the line to dry.  Such heartfelt memories.    

Jenclair at Bayou Quilts and Dolls

This exquisite piece is the one I was telling you about in yesterday's post by Jenclair at Bayou Quilts.

It's amazing how different lighting and times of the day can affect the 2 photos I took of it when it arrived.  I've never heard of or seen encrusted embroidery before I saw it on Jenclair's site.  They are so intricate and fascinating.  But what I love the most is it seems they are done in a free form manner.  Each one that Jenclair does is unique and it seems she works very intuitively with no pattern.  

Thank you again Jenclair for this lovely gift.   

When it arrived in the mail I was inspired to make a background to showcase it on.  I'm also currently enrolled in Jude Hill's online Cloth to Cloth Quilt Weaving class, so I thought I'd weave a small quilt with some of my favorite old linens.  The red stripped fabric is from my Aunt's dishtowels that she embroidered on as a young woman.  The cotton hankie was my mother's that my grandmother embroidered the dainty flowers on.  The loosely woven fabric were from linen place mats that belonged to my husband's mother, and the back piece that the whole piece is stitched onto is my husband's old shirt.  Jude refers to these kinds of fabrics as story cloths. 

Last night I came across a pressed leaf from this last fall that my daughter picked and gave to me and it seems the perfect piece to put behind the encrusted piece.  I think I might brush some polymer medium over it to help preserve and strengthen it so I can stitch thru it.

So Jenclair, I hope you like how I'm going to frame out your gift.  I'm thinking a shadow box in a natural wood trim to hang the whole work in.  :)