Archive for the ‘Available for Purchase’ Category

Two More Little Quilts….

Monday, September 13th, 2010

I finally finished another Fast Friday Fabric Challenge! This time I ended up with two pieces instead of one…. even if it was by mistake :)

Black and Gold Blooms

This  is the quilt I meant to make… “Black and Gold Blooms” is 8.5″ wide by 12.5″ high, and is available for purchase in my Art Quilt Studio on Artfire, (just click  on the name of the piece to go directly to the listing). I wanted to use one of the sunprints I did during my latest sunprinting sessions. (This post shows some of the fabrics I printed, and this post shows more of the process of creating the sunprints.)

This month’s Challenge was to incorporate metal into our quilt in some way. I have had a roll of the gold metallic ribbon for quite a while, and decided to use it for a bow “holding” the bouquet of flowers in the sunprint. I had also collected a set of metal letter charms that I thought would work nicely, too. I used a sheer fabric in gold with metallic accents for the section beside the sunprint.

Black and Gold Blooms Detail 1

Here is a detail shot showing the butterfly made from Angelina fibers with details stitched with gold metallic and black threads. The centers of the Nicotiana flowers are parts of snap jewelry clasps that I had collected at some point in the past.

Black and Gold Blooms Detail 2

This detail shows the bow made from the metallic ribbon, and hand stitched into place.  The hearts and vine design was free motion quilted into the lower black panel, and the veins of the leaves and flower details are also stitched with the same gold metallic thread. The letters BLOOM are hand stitched onto the gold side section.

As I mentioned, I made two pieces instead of just one…. The mistake I made….. I grabbed the wrong sunprint to use. I had two prints cut to nearly the same size, and had the one I wanted to use pinned on my design wall with the other pieces ready to use. For some reason, I grabbed the other piece I had cut that was just lying on the ironing board.

Black and Gold Dream

This is the piece that got made by “mistake”….“Black and Gold Dream” is 7.25″wide by 12″ high, and is also available for purchase in my Studio on Artfire.

I really wanted to use the heavier ribbon with the less delicate sunprint. For some reason, I didn’t realize I had the wrong one in the piece until I was quilting with the gold thread and something didn’t feel right…. I happened to look at the design wall, and there was the sunprint with the Nicotiana flowers that I wanted to use…. I almost just finished this piece and let things be, but the other sunprint was telling me it wanted to be used, so I did them both. The sunprint in this piece is of lacy Queen Ann’s Lace foliage and Pansy flowers. I found a thinner, more delicate gold ribbon to use for the bow on this, and used the word DREAM along the side.

Black and Gold Dream Detail

This detail photo shows a couple of the flowers and the gold butterfly beads flitting above the flowers. I used small confetti butterflies in the sunprint, and thought the two teeny-tiny, and one small butterfly beads fit well.

Both pieces are similar, with the same fabrics used for the side and lower panels, but they each have their own personalities.  Sometimes “mistakes” end up turning out pretty well!

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Back to Sunprinting and New Book Covers!

Sunday, September 12th, 2010

As I sit here on a dreary, cool day I am finally writing about and getting photos posted here of the first major batch of sunprinting I have done in a loonnnggg time during a hot, dry week the end of August. In this post I am going to hit a few highlights, and in a post on my Classroom Blog, I will have a more detailed post of the process.

Sunprints 8-31-10

Above is a photo of a pile of fabric from my second day of printing. In the past, I had done my sunprinting with mostly lighter colors. This time around, I wanted to give black and deep colors a try and got some great results! I did a couple of sunprints with black paint back in 2008 on just about the last day I could print that year. I used some of those prints in a black and white challenge quilt.

Forest Ferns, black & white Art Quilt by Sue Andrus

Forest Ferns

Here is the quilt I made then…. it had been traveling for a while and returned home earlier this year. Since doing this piece, I kept thinking that I wanted to play with more black paint, as the sunprints really seem to stand out much more on the black than they do with many colors vying for attention, too.

Ginkgos on Fabric finished

Here is one of the first pieces I did this session. I finally found where I had stored the Ginkgo leaves I collected last summer, and wanted to play with them. This piece has prints of Ginkgo, Maple, Nishiki Willow, Green Dragon (Arasaema) and Corydalis foliage with some Phlox florets. I love the effect of sea salt on the paint, so used that on most of my pieces, too.

Black with Feathers

This piece is the first I have done since 2006 using feathers. I just randomly layed them on the surface for an allover print. The more downy feathers make very different prints from the heavier ones. These feathers are from a package purchased at a craft store. I also “had” to add salt, too.

Black and Blue Sunprint 1

I used my Dye-Na-Flo paints fro Jacquard for this batch of prints. This paint is very thin, with high pigment load for deep colors and no plastic feel of the regular textile paints. For this one, I added some of the azure blue with the black. this piece had more Ginkgos with ferns, Little Leaf Linden (chewed by beetles), and a Green Dragon with Phlox florets. I had some trouble with my leaves curling while the paint dried, and found a way to prevent that which I explain in the leaf preserving classroom post.

Black and Red

Here is another piece with red added with the black… It gave a nice black cherry color.

Black and Green Sunprint

Here is one in green…. I played with some foamie cutouts of lizards and frogs along with the leaves and flowers.

Set of Black Book Covers

Here is what I used some of the black sunprints for. These are the first of the newest group of notebook and journal covers I have finished. I did up most of them with black & white or gray, but added some color with dyed fabric for a couple for something different. The Composition Books are available here in my Andrus Gardens Studio on Artfire.  The Mini Composition books and Memo Books are available here on Artfire.

Posted in Book Covers, Book Covers, Dyed or Painted Fabric, New Projects | 1 Comment »

TWO Quilts Finished!

Wednesday, August 18th, 2010

OK, I am excited, and they are both small, but just finishing anything this year is an accomplishment!

Stormy Sky Finished

I finally got time to finish the quilting on this one… Made for last month’s Fast Friday Fabric Challenge.  I had all but the sky quilted, but was unsure how to continue, so I uploaded it to the FFFC Blog anyway for some ideas. We then left for GA, and I finally got back to it. I used clear thread, and did have to do a bit of touching up of the needle marks in the sky. It finished at 10″x10″ with the black suede yarn binding.

Stormy Sky quilting holes

When I finished stitching, the holes from the needle really showed up a lot…. Not good! (the above photo shows them fairly well, it also shows more shine than the piece really has) So I pulled out my thinned gel gloss medium, water soluble wax pastels, and a stiff small brush….. I tried to match the color of the medium to the area of the sky I was working on, and it worked nicely. I did have to add a new back over it to cover the mess I created there with the color running through the holes, but I like the effect much better now.  The only thing that jumps out at me now is the “A” in the sky… not sure what I was doing when I zigged instead of keeping things rounded…

Stormy Sky Finished Detail

Here is a closer look… I also am not sure how I ended up with the tree top leaning so much, but I could say “the wind was blowing”, even though it wasn’t at the time I took the inspiration photo. Maybe it only bothers me….

Orange Echinacea on the Rocks Finished

This is the second piece I finished…. It has been in the works for much longer. This is 12″x12″ in size with the fuzzy yarn binding. I had the lower right rocky section beaded, then stopped. As shown in the preceding post, I finally got it back out while on our GA trip. I am really glad I put in my “travel bead studio” last minute…. I almost went away with no hand project at all to work on…. That’s how bad things have been quilt wise….

Orange Echinacea on the Rocks detail

Here is a detail shot showing some of the tiny shells, bug beads, and gemstone chips I added. I also added beads to the flower center for more texture. “Orange Echinacea on the Rocks” is available in my Andrus Gardens Quilts Studio on Artfire.

Now I even have a few more pins beaded since my last post!

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Heart Pins as Valentine Gifts

Thursday, January 21st, 2010

With Valentine’s day arriving soon, I have been beading more of my heart pins. Yesterday, I delivered a batch along with other shapes to the local PA North Country Artisan Center and Store  in Towanda.  November and December were good sales months, and I really needed to restock.

Group of pins beaded Tuesday

This was the batch I beaded on Tuesday. I am liking the new heart shape a lot. This new shape will be perfect for Valentine’s Day sales, but is great for wearing any time of year.

Heart Shaped art Quilt Pin

Wonky Heart Pin in Black & White, Red and Pink

This photo shows my “Wonky Heart” much larger than it’s just over 2″ height and just under 2″ width. I was playing with the shape to give it some character, but am not sure if I sill do many more of these or not. This one gave me the most grief during the beading process. I usually don’t have very large sections of single fabrics, and ended up removing the first attempt at adding beads to the large upper left mostly white section. I like try number 2 much better… This along with the following pins are available for purchase in my Artfire Gift Items Studio- Andrus Gardens.

Heart Pin Pink Lime, Sue Andrus Andrus Gardens

Heart Pin in Pink and Lime with Butterfly

Heart Shaped Art Quilt Pin available in Artfire Studio, shown with Hershey Kisses for size reference.  Chocolate is also needed on Valentine’s day, too isn’t it?

Heart Pin as Pendant

Hot Pink and Black Heart Pin as a Pendant

The last pin of this group is shown hanging from a black satin cord. Most of my pins can be worn as pendants by simply pinning them to a chain, cord or simple necklace. This way they can be worn in more than one way. This mainly Hot Pink and Black Heart is also available on Artfire.

Any of my pins would make unique gifts for Valentine’s Day or any other occasion. If you would like to check out a wider selection of hand crafted unique gift items, there are lots of goodies to look at on Artfire. Click this link for the Valentine’s Day Gift Guide, or this one for the Unique Gift Guides.

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New Heart Shaped Pins

Monday, January 18th, 2010

More time in the studio has resulted in my newest shape of pins. With Valentine’s Day coming up soon, I thought it would be the perfect time for hearts. I have thought of doing more shapes, and hearts have been on the list, but just never got done.

Heart Pin Bases

I pulled out one of my boxes of small “chunks and hunks” (leftover quilt sandwich pieces) in pinks, blacks, a touch of red, and a bit of lime green. I used silver metallic thread for the stitching, and finished the edges with black or white yarn with silver running through it.

Group of 4 Hearts ready for beads.

This is a closer look at a few of the hearts. I just randomly satin stitched chunks to each other. Couching the yarn to finish the edges is a bit tricky, going around the curves and inner corner. I think this is why I hadn’t done hearts sooner… the first one didn’t work out so well.

Art Quilt Pin Heart in Hot Pink and Lime Green

Heart shaped Art Quilt Pin with Hummingbird

This is a closeup of the first finished heart pin. I added a silver tone hummingbird to the lower point. Cat’s Eye beads  in white, pearl beads, glass beads in pink and black along with Swarovski crystals for extra sparkle.

Heart Pin as a Pendant

This photo shows the pin used as a pendant, hanging from a black satin cord. The pin back is attached so that the heart can be pinned to a necklace for use as a pendant.

Today is a very dreary, foggy, drizzly day… the perfect weather for curling up on the couch with my Ott light, a bunch of hearts and pretty beads to dress up the rest of my hearts.

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