Summer of Color-3

This week the SOC colors are lavender, grey, and a splash of plum  These color were fun and inspired me to design a panel that wasn't a flower.  I challenged myself to make every quilt block in this series relate to nature and have both machine and hand stitching.  It is nice to create different themes for each block. So far I haven't added any backing or done much quilting in the backgrounds.  I am planning on adding those details when all the blocks are done.

These are the fabrics that I dyed for this project.  I don't have any plum dye so I used a dark purple/red that I already had on hand.  My lavender looks bluer in the photo than it is in real life, because my camera has problems with purples.  It is a lovely color and one of my favorites.     

I knew what elements I wanted to use in this block from the beginning, but I played around with the placement a bit.  I finally came up with something like this.

I fused the fabrics down after I placed them just like I wanted and machine stitched the ground, tree, and the darker part of the sky.  Then I added stitches for the leaves of the tree.

I hope you enjoyed this week of SOC.  You can see what the other artists are up to on this page.
I'll see you next week,
Janelle

Artistic Dates

http://www.handsandharts.com/blog/artistic-dates

Summer of Color-2

The colors for this week are coral, teal, and a splash of bright white.

I had a coral fabric to use, but I had to dye a teal.  None of the ones that I had were quite the right color.  I love dyeing fabric all different colors so that I have a stash of fabrics to use when I want to make some textile art.  I also dyed a piece going for a pinker coral.  I added a little too much pink for it to work, but I still have the pretty fabric for something else.  

Teal

Coral

Both together

The piece that I dyed that turned out too pink.

After I got my fabric ready, I put the two pieces of fabric together with a piece of stabilizer in the middle.  Then I free motion stitched flowers using a zig zag stitch.  I cut the flowers out and stitched them to my teal quilt block with some white perle cotton thread.  I love adding dimensional elements to my quilts.  

I used the pinker fabric for the back of the flowers.

I think that all the quilt blocks will look wonderful turned into a quilt at the end.  It will really come to life when I add the stitching to the backgrounds.  I hope you enjoy my creative process. Have a good week,
Janelle

Sun Printing

I made a video last week when I was sun printing.  Today I edited the video and put it up on YouTube.  I hope that you enjoy seeing a bit more of my process. 
Click Here

I will also put this and a link to making my sun printed pillows up on my free tutorial page in the next few days. That can be found here. 
Have a great weekend,
Janelle  

Summer of Color-1

It is time for Summer of Color again.  This has been one of my favorite summer art activities every year for the past three.  I am expecting this summer to be a blast too.  I love having color prompts that prod me into directions that I may not have gone in otherwise.  The colors for this first week are teal, yellow, and a splash of pink.  I like using these colors anyway, so this one was fun and easy. 

This year I decided to make quilt blocks that are 6" x 6" and after all the color prompts I will make a wall hanging art quilt. I love making textile art and want to continue in that trend this summer.  I'm going to try and stick with a nature theme this year as well.  Here is my first quilt block.  

I used all cotton fabrics that I dyed myself.  I added fusible to the back of the fabric, cut out each element, and fused them to the teal background.  I added stems with embroidery thread and I machine stitched the flowers and the vase.

To see the whole quilt developed and finished please keep following along every week.  
Have a great week,
Janelle

Workshops

Local people, what workshops would you be interested in taking from me?
• Painting a textured whimsy canvas
• Painting an art journal page and learning more about art journaling
• Dyeing cotton fabric
• Making printed fabric art cloth
• Sun printing fabric and making a pillow
• Any other ideas
I'm wondering what people are interested in learning. These workshops could be for adults, kids/teens, or a parent child mix.

Please leave me a comment and let me know what you would have fun trying out.
Janelle

This is Granny Apple a new color of dye that I used for the first time today.

Art, Beer, & Wine Featival

I am going to be selling my art at the Art, Beer, & Wine festival on Saturday at Ella Sharp Museum .  If you are a local please come out and join the fun. I will have some new pieces for sale and many previous works.

Click here to see the festival poster

One of my new pieces is "Flourish". Just like flowers add beauty to our environment, so too does love add beauty to our souls. It is a mixed media painting that is "16 x 20".     

I hope to see you there.  Have a great weekend.
Janelle