More art quilts and MORE snow!!!

Another long gap but I have been busy and not had the time nor the light to do the photography. However, I now have something to blog about. I did the photography today and took some more images of yet MORE snow!! I suspected that our share of snow wasn't over but I was hoping to be wrong.

As I often create composite digital images, I take and compile files of images that will be useful so I took the opportunity, today, of taking some more snow images. We have a block set drive and it didn't take long for the snow to begin to melt and create patterns-

It has cleared completely now - let's hope it stays away!!

Now for some creative textile pieces. Some time ago I took a photograph of a rubber molding mat, opened it in Photoshop and played around with it. I created three images which I liked.

I used these three images to create three art quilts. I made patterns for each one and using a light box traced the designs onto the fabrics. I used a white crayon on the dark green fabric. The two dark green designs were then painted with metallic paints. Once the painting was complete I made up the quilt sandwiches and free machined the designs. After the turquoise quilt was stitched, I sponged the surface with a black granite metallic paint. The three were edged and hung as a triptych.

Last summer - seems a long time ago now - my OH and I went for a photo shoot at an old derelict railway yard which is now a kind of restoration museum. Growing amongst all the rusty bits and pieces and old wagons were beautiful tall foxgloves. They grow in places like that but will not grow in my garden!!.

I took photos of them and these became the subject of my next art quilt.

I opened them in Photoshop and as usual played with all the settings, filters etc and then I began to create a composite from the different images and selections from those images. I always intended to make one of these images into an art quilt but it was after buying Charlotte Zeibarth's book that I decided to combine both of them into the one piece. I recommend her book and also her web site.

This was the original composite which I had every intention of keeping to, but as the piece progressed I changed my mind.

Each of the images - the long image on the right, the three horizontal images on the left, the two selected flower heads, the four mini horizontal images and the ten selected bolts - were all printed on white cotton. I use an A3 inkjet printer with pigment inks. There is no need to treat the cotton when using pigment inks. It is at this stage that I made the first error which contributed to my change of mind on the final composition. I forgot to flip the centre horizontal image. Once printed, I highlighted the flowers with metallic paints.

All the printed and painted pieces were then made up into quilt sandwiches and I proceeded to free machine them using a mixture of rayon and polyester cotton threads. When they were all stitched, I laid them out on the studio table and began to create the composite. It was then that I realised that I had forgotten to flip two of the images - grrrr! However, when I laid all the small images over the top of the large ones I began to realise that a lot of the very detailed and intricate free machining was going to disappear under these patches. Me being me, I could not come to terms with this so I began to redesign the composition. I came up with an alternative design and stitched all the main body pieces together first, then those patches which I did want over the top - ie the bolts and finally I joined the remaining small pieces.

The whole piece was edged with a zig zag machine stitch which enclosed a six stranded embroidery thread. I was not disappointed at all with the final piece and it adds to my list of successfully rescued pieces. It is about 60 x 70cm. I gave it a coat of acrylic gloss medium which enhances the colours and protects the surface. It does, however, change the feel of the surface but if it is to be hung then it is beneficial.

and a close up of some of the detail.

I am now on with the next piece - another art quilt but very different to this one. I will post about it when it is finished.

Until then - cheers everyone.

Happy New Year to everyone and hears wishing you all a very creative and satisfying year.

We have lots of snow here and as usual this country is not very good at coping with it. It looks very pretty and for me I prefer to look at pictures of the snow rather than endure it. I was brave enough at one point to go out and do some photography but stayed inside my garden. I took this one just outside my front door.

I ventured a little further and found this 'snow tongue' on the mahonia. This bush is in blossom at the moment and the blossoms that were out have suffered with the ice but there are new ones coming out.

I liked the way the snow landed on the conifers looking like a 'snowfall' of snow.

In the back garden the pond was well frozen.

There are lots of frogs down under there. Brrrrr.

My OH has just gone out to the coast to do some photography and as keen as I am on photography I declined to go. I must admit that I am a bit of a fair weather photographer.

Now to the zentangles. I have always been a compulsive doodler and it seems that my grandson has the doodle gene in him too as he loves to doodle and they are very mature considering his age. Doodles are also known as 'Zentangles' and there are web sites dedicated to them. This is a link to one of them Zentangle Gallery.

I have come across a few zentangling/doodling bloggers who are also textilers and quilters too. Here are their links if you are interested - Artopia - Janet ; Finishing Lines and The Quilt Rat .

Back to my zentangle piece. I decided to make a checkerboard quilt with black zentangles on the white and white zentangles on the black but when then the black on white zentangles were complete I felt it was more effective leaving the black squares black.

The photograph isn't as it should be as my usual photo studio in the conservatory - which gives me such good light - has the roof covered in snow and is darker than I like. I always try to use natural light when photographing textiles and still life pieces. This piece was pinned to a board, propped up against my computer monitor with light coming directly at it from the south facing window. I had to use the 20mm lens as I was so close to it so adjustments had to be made. However, it does show the effect of the 'Zentangle Checkerboard Quilt'.

It reminds me of the chess board I made for my daughters wedding present. I made a blackwork board and created blackwork designs using hers and her husbands initials. A for the 8 black square on one side, C for the 8 squares on the other side and a combination of A and C for the 8 centre squares. I remember one square took 8 hours of stitching. I bought them the Lewis chess set to complete the gift. I also drew the designs on paper showing how the letters had created the designs and this was stuck on the back of the board.

I never took a photograph of their board but here is the one I made for myself and my husband using the same criteria.

Not a very good image as it was taken many, many years ago on slide film. I must get around to retaking all the slide photo pieces - when I have the time!!!! Speaking of which - it is lunch time so cheers for now everyone.