A trip to South Carolina to see our son Nick and his family while he was there, from where he is stationed in Germany, for training and his wife and son were visiting family, was a tiring but great way to end the month of April. We visited a botanical garden and wandered downtown Charleston while we were down there.

Flower Tent Inside before Mother’s Day

May brought Ken’s new endeavor, selling  plants and flowers at a Flower Tent near home.  Unfortunately, he needed help and I ended up spending some of May in my glory, surrounded by and helping customers choose flowers and plants for their gardens.  I quickly found that too many hours spent there resulted in full days lost, spent in bed… What a bummer of a way to spend some of the nicest days of the year… Seeing all the flowers was quite therapeutic and I got lots of photos of beautiful flowers. I also had one boring, cold, rainy day that I had to watch the tent… very few customers came out in the ikky rain. I try to keep my camera with me at all times, so I spent some of the day taking photos of flowers, raindrops and raindrops on flowers.

Flood in tent… The “river” running through the tent… We are extremely lucky to have a location on a paved parking lot… lots of rivers and lakes, but no muck and mire….

 
The Photo above just doesn’t show the depth and flow of the water…  Thankfully my shoes have thick soles… My feet still did get wet…  Following are a few of the many photos I took that day… The two that turned into butterflies are noted in the captions…

Raindrops on the tent frame reflecting trees

Raindrop with reflections of hanging baskets.. One of the photos used for butterfly wings.

Raindrop with Impatiens flower reflections… Drop number 2 used for wings.

White Lobelia with water drops

Raindrops in Pink… I think these were Verbena flowers.

Raindrop on pink Rose Petal

Raindrop on a random stem with interesting reflections.

Wet Hen… The Hens and Chicks really hold the drops of rain

While spending time and playing with raindrops at the tent, the latest round of Art Cards for the Arts in the Cards trade group were nearing their deadline to be sent…   Knowing I might not have much time for art in May, I started them early during April, little by  little, adding more layers to one of the pages of an old calender that I have been using as bases for collaging, painting, stamping, etc. Each time my granddaughter visited and spent some time painting with her Grammy, I tried to add a bit more to this page.  The photo was taken just after I started cutting it apart.

Collaged Base with layers of paint, bleeding tissue paper glued on, and white paint added using sequin waste and paper doilies as stencils and stamps.

And now for the “Fun” part!  The butterflies….  The page above was quite interesting, but needed more to make the Art Cards complete.  The Photoshopping began….  raindrop number one and two were copied, flipped, rotated, and merged to create the shape of the butterfly.  One drop became the lower wings, and the other became the upper ones. Once the parts were put together, I played with coloring parts of the raindrops till I had the right shade of blue to look good with my background paper.

Butterfly Image printed on white Kraft Tex

I decided to see what would happen if I printed the butterflies on C&T Publishing’s new Kraft Tex in white. I was lucky enough to be one of the testers for the product and had a bunch left to keep playing with. It feeds nicely through my printer and the above photo shows the printed result. The black ink soaked into the paper a bit, so I enhanced some of the black areas with a black Sharpie marker.

Kraft Tex Butterfly with Sharpie accents and Glossy Accents

Of course, after darkening the black, I just HAD to add one of my new favorite supplies- Ranger’s Glossy Accents.

Glossed Butterfly cut out from the Kraft Tex printout

Once the gloss dried, the butterflies were carefully cut out, then some bending and manipulating was done.

Butterfly Wings Folded to prepare for gluing on cards.

Since I wanted the wings to be free on the cards, I folded the wings to crease them so that the body and head would lie flat on the cards while the wings would be loose.

Butterfly Wings Curled to give dimension.

With the wings curled, they looked a bit more realistic. The Kraft Tex is a heavy paper-like product that will also tend to hold some curling and shaping for more interest.

Butterfly on ATC

One of the butterflies glued onto one of the cards cut from the collaged base paper.

Wing Loose on Card- Only the body is glued so the background can be peeked at.

Look! The wings can be lifted to peek at the textures and colors under them.

Group of 4 Calypso cards

Four of the cards with their antennae added, ready to be packed and shipped to their new owners.

Single Finished Calypso Card

I hope the new owners of these cards will enjoy them as much as I enjoyed making them.  Check out the Arts in the Cards Blog to see the other cards made for this theme. The Kraft Tex material from C & T has  been very interesting to try out. It is described as a paper that  has the feel and texture of leather that is very durable and I have been finding new used for it all the time.

This has just shown you how being bored on a rainy day can actually turn into a good thing…. You just never know what can be done with a camera, and some time spent with Phohotoshop.

Alcohol Ink Applicators- Made from small pieces of scrap lumber.

I tried the Adirondack Inks again, this time with some homemade applicators that I made from wood scraps from Ken’s workshop (I did have to cut them smaller- thankfully I am not too afraid of the chop saw). I glued on velcro and since I can’t find any arcrylic felt around here (I know I must have some Somewhere), I used some wool felt… Acrylic felt might be better??  From watching numerous videos and reading tutorials, etc. I know the inks do best on glossy paper or other non porous surfaces (like my buttons). The only glossy paper I have on hand is inkjet photo paper and some Crayola Sparkle paper. I also ended up with some “new” glossy paper to try… Just as I was leaving my quilting retreat, I was gifted with a bunch of 2012 calenders featuring guild member’s quilts with “My Dream House” on the cover.

Guild Calender Cover- Click link above the photo to see it in the right colors.

Yea, I got the cover, but the photo was awful… the color was totally off…Ikkk… I guess if you don’t know what it is supposed to look like it might not be so bad?  The calenders were to be sold at our guild’s show, Fall 2011 but flooding cancelled the show and lots of calenders are still lurking in boxes. There is a lot of glossy paper in these calenders to play with, but I  need to cover up the quilts first since I don’t want them as part of my art. I found using leftover white eggshell finish wall paint is working well as a primer without taking away the gloss.

Inks on Photo Paper in Greens

The first paper I tried was the photo paper which is for inkjet printing. It is not the best because of the coating on the paper to allow for  the printer inks to work on them. If I worked quickly, the colors went on fine, but if I spent too much time in an area, the coating wanted to lift off. I also am using plain alcohol instead of a blending solution, so that might make a difference.  Using lots of alcohol with the inks helps to spread them.  The sparkle paper had the same problem with the surface coating for inkjet printing.

Multicolored Calender Paper with Shoe Stamps

In the photo above, The blue and purple paper is a piece of the calender paper with inks applied with applicator and also dropped on, making the circles of color. The alcohol inks spread over the painted calender paper much easier than over the inkjet paper. I also spritzed this paper with alcohol, giving some more speckles. The white was done with the soles of a pair of shoes painted with an acrylic stain blocking primer… The alcohol ink colors bleed right through the primer, which is great for art, but not for walls, etc. The shimmer on the green paper is from some Pearl-Ex powder mixed with alcohol, water and a bit of metallic paint.

Art Therapy Shoes- Nothing I would ever normally buy or try to wear… I’m wearing practical shoes these days These were purchased with modifying them in mind.

Ahhh, the Art Therapy shoes…   A little diversion from paper and inks…  After seeing a post about the Kick off your Heels fundraiser on the quiltart list, I found some really fun shoe art that others have done. (Follow the link to see the call for Art Shoes that are being auctioned off to raise money for women’s heart care research, and some really neat shoes.)  Something clicked in my head and I found myself purchasing these wild heels to play with for some more art therapy (ideas are popping up everywhere again!). I am not sure if these shoes will be done in time to try to enter them into the auction, but time will tell.

Inked papers, including a calender page I did in the wee hours one morning when my body wouldn’t let me sleep, surround the shoes for their before photo above.  The calender page behind the shoes wasn’t primed first since I was just distracting myself in the near dark, and a quilt and lines for notes are showing through the lavender color. More layers of paint or whatever should do enough to hide the quilt, just leaving random little peeks of colors.

Art Therapy Shoes- Covering up those Leopard spots… The soles made fun stamped patterns… I used an acrylic stain blocking primer since I don’t have any gesso. I used the papers I was playing with under them so they got white accents on them.

Art Therapy Shoes- Finally all primed… It took 3 coats and a couple spots barely show, but will be well hidden later…

I am pretty sure that the primer I used will hold onto the shoes well and allow further layers to stay… It was the hardest stuff to get off my hands if it dried at all… Gloves would have helped, but when using art as therapy, I tend to just grab a brush or whatever and go to it without thinking much… I really like the look of these shoes without their spots… I think there may be a layer of fabric or colored paint over the primer,  so the lurking spots won’t show…  I am thinking there will be lots of blue flowers on these… just not exactly sure how things will end up exactly… I will see where they lead me…. They are sitting on a couple paper towels that got colored with fabric paint while trying to rejuvenate a faded bathing suit. A favorite shade of mine.

Back to paper….

Green Papers and Fabric- Top to bottom- Card stock with acrylic paint and bleeding tissue paper, cotton sateen with paint and alcohol ink, primed calender page with alcohol inks in green and golden yellow.

The papers and fabric above were done with this month’s Arts in the Cards theme- Kiwi, in mind.

Kiwi Art Card Materials- Sparkle paper with rings of brown suede fabric, card stock with bleeding tissue, and the painted and inked fabric from above photo cut into strips with a bright yellow fabric.

Kiwi Cards with circles and rings cut using some of the new Spellbinder dies I won to cut them.

My Kiwi art cards are quite a bit different from what I usually do… I use my new circle and scalloped circle dies from my prize from ArtFire. The brown is a suede-like fabric that made me think of fuzzy kiwi skins.  Just a touch of bright yellow was used to add a real pop of color, and some dotted tape I had added some “seeds”. To see what the others in the group have done, check out the Arts in the Cards Blog.

Art Therapy Table- There is a kitchen table under there somewhere….

My kitchen table is pretty covered up….  Papers in various stages of play, loose calender pages I am using under things to catch drips, the Art Therapy shoes, and my paints, inks, pens and more are here, ready to be played with…. Keeping things out like this makes it easy to just work a few minutes at a time when I need an escape or need to work on a project  with a time limit.  Having the sink handy makes this a better workspace for these messy projects instead of my studio.  We just can’t use the table for it’s intended purpose for now…

Painted Die Cut Flowers on a primed and inked calender page.

Something else I am working on is a project using a new craft supply for C&T Publishing… I am not sure how much I should show now, but here are some flowers I die cut and tried to color with the alcohol inks… that didn’t work, so I painted over with fabric paint I was using for another project.

Maple Tree Garden Panoramic- The only way to get the whole garden in one photo

This photo of the Maple Tree Garden was taken a week ago… there is no snow left now except for the little bits of new flakes falling here and there…. Garden Therapy will have to wait a while since it is to be really cold for the near future…  Maybe I can get Ken to get the ornamental grasses cut before things start to grow again…  Until things warm up, I will get my therapy from art indoors….   This post is linked to “Off the Wall Fridays”

Tricolor Dyed fabric- Another piece that was under other other pieces in the dye container, giving it bright colors, but more white space.

One doesn’t realize how long it takes or how mesmerizing ironing all that fabric can be…. it was like Christmas again…. You just don’t see all the details of the patterns and colors until things are pressed out nicely…. Once I got started I couldn’t stop till all was done… I didn’t want to waste retreat time with the ironing board… OK, it was well after midnight when I finished that task….

Coral Fabric- A try at a color to go with some peachy-coral and hot pink painted ones from summer…. Look at the subtle color differences and neat patterns!

Sateen Surprise #1- I loved how the colors were so bright on this piece, but didn’t realize it was a sateen till I ironed it…. I love surprises like that! The cotton sateen really takes the dye well, giving super rich, bright colors.

Multi Colors on White… This piece looked perfect for my stained glass.

There were LOTS more great pieces, but I won’t bore you with them here   I thought I might concentrate on doing more with stained glass looking borders on pieces, and the fabric above is one that is perfect for what I wanted to do.  I never know just what I will want to do during a retreat, so I usually take tons of fabric and whatever supplies and goodies I can think of that I might “need”…. Always too much….

Van in Slush- Not what you want to see when you are planning an escape…

Ahhhh…. the travel morning…. Yea, a slushy snow, sleet, rain storm was upon us…  Ikkkk!  Thankfully it was warm enough that the ice on the van slid off easily and the roads were pretty bare and mostly just wet until I got near the retreat center.  Lugging my things in with golf ball sized splatting snowballs falling wasn’t too fun, but once all was moved in, I would be able to stay inside for the rest of the time there.

Group of Brag Book Photo Albums

Once I got my things set up and organized, I began by finishing up several of the photo album and journal covers I had started months ago using some of my newest sunprints.  By the middle of day 2 I had the four albums above and 3 larger journal covers done.   A good start considering I was dealing with one of the worst pain flares I have had in a long time… It wasn’t a surprise…. remember the ironing??… and lugging stuff always sets off flares…. I did a lot of stretching, pacing, and a bit of napping and got through the worst.  The Album on the right in the above photo gave me a bit of a challenge… I could not find a button in my stash that looked right, so I began some playing with new supplies that arrived 2 days before I left for the retreat. (a future post will show what I got…. it was a prize that I won!)

Playing with Alcohol inks on Buttons- This shows how the same ink looks on gold and silver tone buttons.

I had 6 new  bottles of  Adirondack Alcohol Inks to try out and decided to add some color to some of my buttons.  I had never played with the stuff, so I didn’t have any applicators or extra alcohol to clean things up (or gloves)… I ended up with some great buttons And a hot pink finger… (since getting home I have learned a lot from online videos about using the inks… lots of play ahead!)

Inked Buttons- with Vintaj sealer on them

I learned a lot with the first buttons, and finally discovered that poking the shanks into a piece of card stock made things much easier…  Next time there will be parchment over the card stock… I almost sealed the paper onto the buttons and almost ended up with an extra decoration permanently on the handle of my spare rotary cutter handle.  I only happened to have the Vintaj sealer by luck…. another part of the prize…  The bottom left button was white pearl with gold around it.  The silver rose with Wild Plum ink was used on the Maple leaf album.

Mini Design Wall with “subjects” for the week.

After finishing some book covers, I started with my stained glass…. I have been trying to think of ways of updating some of my older little quilts that I have left from years of selling at art and craft shows.  I got the idea after I decided that some new pieces needed a bit more pizazz and started adding the stained glass look borders to them. The Delphinium piece above is one of my newest, and the Rose is circa 2003 from my “Botanical Applique” series of simple quilts for framing.  Since my stash of “chunks and hunks” (little fused quilt sandwiches in various sizes) was very unorganized, I started by sorting things to see what colors I needed to add to what I had on hand.  I spent one whole evening sorting and organizing things.  I even threw out some of the tiniest pieces  I had been saving (horrors!)… they did go to a good cause… someone was collecting little bits and scraps to use as filling for dog beds for a shelter.

Mostly Large Hunks and Strips- This is a large plastic drawer full of sorted pieces… There is also a small container of itty bitty bits for pins… I couldn’t part with all the little stuff   Under the container are pieces of an art quilt started years ago…

Small Strips and Chunks- Sorted by color family and size

The above strips and chunks were laid out on a tray table and a larger table at the retreat while I was working with them so I could see what I had to use… It was Wonderful having so much room to work! Now at home they are neatly in a plastic container till I use them again.

Small Stained Glass Pieces- in the process of becoming borders.

To make my stained glass, I satin stitch seam my little fused sandwiches using black thread.  I start by randomly stitching different colored pieces together and keep adding, cutting and adding more until I get something I like. At the end of the retreat I had this little container with lots of pieces.

Watson Dining Room Windows- This was a HUGE Room! This photo doesn’t begin to show the size at all.

Off on a detour now…. Here are photos from inside the retreat center where we were… As you can see out the windows, the ground was covered with snow… It snowed at least a bit every day we were there except moving out day… Perfect weather to be able to stay indoors.

Watson View 1 Out The Windows- showing the “hotel room wing” and the view.

Watson View of Chapel- We were working in the room below the chapel.

Even though we were indoors, there was lots of walking involved… We had use of a huge room under the chapel shown above, and stayed in dorm rooms along the halls between the chapel and dining room, or in hotel rooms way on the other side of the rambling building.  We also had an extra room downstairs near the main room where we had our scrap pile for sharing and other items to share along with a couple extra irons… Too many irons in the main room results in tripped breakers.  I left a LOT of fabric pieces and leftover strips on the share tables that went home with new owners

Delphiniums in the Garden With Stained Glass Border Stitched On

This was the first quilt I worked on… I thought it was finished months ago, but then I realized it needed something, so it got a stained glass border.  While making the border for this one, I also started one for the Yellow Rose piece in the earlier photo.

Delphiniums in the Garden Finished- 11″x14″- Black with silver yarn couched around the center panel and used to bind the piece.

Delphiniums in the Garden Finished Detail 1- Shows pearls, crystals and pearly painted flower centers.

Delphiniums in the Garden Finished Detail 2- Showing Butterfly

The only quilt finished during the retreat…. “Delphiniums in the Garden” also ended up going home with a new owner!!  Another guild member saw it when I took it for show and tell, wondering if it should get the stained glass…

Yellow Rose Nearly Bordered- Ready to be stitched to the Rose panel after I remove the white border. This will finish about 11″x14″.

My Yellow Rose got pretty close to done…. the border is ready to be stitched on and finishing touches added.

More Mini Quilts Awaiting Borders

The two little quilts above are a couple that are 5″x10″ in size with their ivory borders and I think those borders will stay and the stained glass will be added to make them 8×10″ when finished.  The stained glass piecing is pretty meditative and works well as something to so when my brain isn’t working well… I love seeing how the colors interact with each other as I add them with the black stitching.  If this helps to make some of my oldies but goodies more marketable, then that is definitely a win, win, win!

Now that I have been home a while and nearly recovered from the “back home flare”, my next project will be to play with my new supplies that came before the retreat….between bouts of stitching stained glass.

Prize won in the Get Crafty Promotion put out by ArtFire! I still can’t believe I won all this!

Amazingly, I won a big prize from ArtFire from a promotion for their new Craft Supplies section…. WOW!!  I will be blogging about what I do with what I received…  Such a wonderful thing to have happen especially when otherwise I would not be able to purchase any of those items for quite some time.  Art Therapy, here I come!

This post is linked to Nina Marie’s Off the Wall Friday… Follow the link to check out lots of great posts from other bloggers.

Die Batch 2013-1 After Dyes Added- L-R: Lemon Yellow, Pomegranate, Cerulean Blue, Fuchsia, Midnight Blue, Fire Red, Turquoise, Deep Yellow with Jet Black top and bottom

Since I wanted the colors to keep to themselves as much as possible for my sample, I placed a second yard of fabric scrunched on the bottom of the container to “catch the drips” so to speak to see what would happen…

Back Yard Snowfall- More lack of color in the great outdoors.

As this little group of photos show, things have been a bit unsettled as usual for winter here in NE PA.  The day I took these photos we were supposed to have rain… as you can see the precipitation was a bit white and fluffy instead.

Front Door Garden Alive with Birds and More… Can you see what non-bird is out here?

Squirrel Under Feeder- He seemed to  find a jackpot of seeds dropped from the feeders the birds hadn’t gotten yet.  He didn’t mind the snow collecting on his fur.

Front Door Garden- More snow adding up, but the garden is still alive with birds.

With all the snow falling, it was good to see some color indoors on my fabric.

Dye Batch 2013-1 Top Piece- Color Trials

Here is the Sample Yard of fabric after the washout… I did get areas of the single colors, with a lot of areas where the colors blended into each other. You can see that I sort of fan-folded-scrunched the fabric so the colors are at an angle and it gave me more room to trial the colors. You can also barely see where I put the small bits of black on the non yellow corners…  I got a neat black cherry color in the lower right corner.

Dye Batch 2013-1 Bottom Piece

The fabric scrunched under the sample piece has some really interesting areas. This photo shows the fabric flipped end for end in relation to the top sample piece. Since it mopped up the extra  dye, the colors did a lot more blending and I got some great crystal-like patterning from the scrunching.  While I was getting color in the kitchen on fabric, the first flower of the year was beginning to bloom in the greenhouse pond… The Water Iris usually bloom as the days begin to lengthen.

Water Iris Bud in the Pond

Water Iris Open Flower

Water Iris Flower Up Close

Roxie Posing Near the Pond- The black nursery pots in the pond are there to keep Vladdi from flopping into the water, smushing the water lilies… Not so pretty, but they work and still leave plenty of space for furry faces to get drinks.

Our little greenhouse does give me a little bit of flower color in winter… Some of the succulents that live here year round usually bloom early winter, followed by tropical vines growing on the table at the far end just out of the photo.  I have tried to use this area as a wet studio, but with 2 dogs and 3 cats living here and coming in and out through the cat and dog doors, there is way too much hair, dirt and dust. Also walking through is often tricky with the fur kids lying about soaking up the heat.  The wood stove we use for heat also lives out here, so that adds to the dust, etc.

OK, Back to the fabric….

Fabric and Color Samples Batching

The next pieces of fabric to be dyed were also more or less samples to see what single colors would do with severe scrunching, and to try some mixes of color. I have  a bolt of cotton  to play with and also a few yards of what I thought was a cotton poly blend, so a fat quarter of each fabric went into the first sample containers. I also added a half yard or  quarter on the bottom of each container in the hopes of having lighter shades.

Rinsing Fabric… During one of the Soak Stages

The first fabrics to begin the rinsing stage… The tiny piece lower right used up a bit of extra green with a dab of turquoise on top… The other  colors are deep yellow and pomegranate.  According to Jane Dunnewold in her class, The Art of Cloth Dyeing on Craftsy.com,   The dyes should  batch for 24 hours for best colors…. I waited about 6 for the ones above…. Waiting is soo hard!   I did let the blue next to sit that long…  The classes available on Craftsy are great!

Mixed Blues on 2 Different Fabrics- The fabric I thought was part poly must be 100% cotton… No difference in color, but the one is softer and a bit thinner… Feels so nice.

Finished….  Mixed Blues, Pomegranate Fuschsia Mix, Pomegranate, Greens

The first pieces of fabric I did were scrunched really tightly in the containers so that I would get the light areas and the crystal-like patterning.  Some of the bottom pieces of fabric will need over-dyeing since there is more white than color.  The blue in the above photo is a 1:1 mix of the Cerulean and Midnight blues… I found I loved that combo in past years…   After getting some fabric done, I decided to pull out some white or nearly white shirts so that I could upgrade my wardrobe…  I always look for white cotton shirts on clearance, wear them till I get them a bit spotted or dingy, then add some color to give them new life.

Shirts and More Batching in Their Containers

I ended up updating 6 shirts, a pair of socks, a bit of fabric and a few more things.  I started by pulling out some sweaters I have that I needed shirts to coordinate with and tried to get the right colors…  As you can see, I tend to like the blues, pinks and purples the best….

Bright Paint Shirts- Two previously abused shirts given new life.

Ahhh… Starting with the really bright stuff….  These shirts were mostly white splattered with various colors of paint from painting fabric during summers.  The shirts tend to collect a lot of splotches that are not that fashionable… The bright colors hide what is there already and will let me keep using them till they fall apart.

Letchworth Shirt Dyed- A free shirt I got when I did my first Art Show at Letchworth State Park in Western NYS in 1997- This was the worst looking one…. My most used painting shirt…

Butterfly Shirt Dyed- I think I paid $1 for this one years ago.

Pink Striped Woven Shirt

The pink striped shirt was in a bag of goodies that was given to me… It was white with pink stripes, but had a spot on the front… Now that is hidden and the Pomegranate and Fuchsia dyes mixed were just the right color.

Pink Stripe and Blue Textured Shirts

The pink shirt with one of my favorite formerly white shirts I wore for years… It has a nice texture to the fabric and after the dye it looks like new. One of the sweaters is a grayish blue, so I tried the Midnight Blue on it’s own…. It is just the right shade!

Textured Shirt in Midnight Blue

Textured Shirt in Midnight Blue- Back

New Socks in Shoes- Just playing around with one shoe of each pair.

My first experiment with dyeing socks…. Now that I wear shoes that show my socks I am paying more attention to them…  I usually wear matching shoes out

Puple and Mixed Blue Shirts

More blue and purplish… The shirt with the butterflies was dyed a pale, pale blue a few years ago and collected a few stains since it was a nice comfortable shirt to wear in the gardens… There are butterflies on it to hide a spot that the dye didn’t hide… the upper one is another of my plain white shirts that was worn quite a bit… Done in the purple made from Cerulean Blue and Fuchsia 1:1.

Purple Shirt Front- Some of the scrunches almost look flowery…

Mixed Blues Shirt with Fabric Butterflies Fused On

New Shirts with Sweaters

The two sweaters I wanted shirts to coordinate with… I had been just wearing the white shirts with them, but wanted to wear more color with them… The colors worked! I counted 6 more shirts of various types (two are new ones) that will also get dyed… I just need to figure out what colors to use… I will probably try a deeper purple and maybe some different pinks…

This post isn’t really art quilt related, I am linking this to Off The Wall Fridays hosted by Nina Marie. The fabrics will eventually end up in some of my art pieces, so I guess it will fit… Click on the link to check out Nina Marie’s blog, then check out some of the other blogs that are linked from there.

The Inspirational Pagoda

My first thoughts went to an old, broken metal garden pagoda that has been buried under the foliage in my little greenhouse sunroom for years. I pulled it out, cleaned it up and took photos.  It was made to look like it was made of copper that had weathered with a nice patina… Fake, but I still like it, and the broken roof is easily hidden by plants or well cropped photos.  I wanted to get that layered, weathered look but wasn’t sure how to get that idea to my cards.  The first thought was to paint a piece of watercolor paper with copper Lumiere paint, modify the photo so that there were white areas where I wanted the copper to show through, print the photo onto the paper, and I would have what I was looking for…..

Copper Painted Paper in Printer- See my new Glass Heart reflected on the printer?

NOT!  Thankfully, I only printed the photo for one card at first…  It was Awful!

First Print… Notice photos on computer screen… Ikkk!

The pretty aqua coloring of the patina was lost and it was not a pretty sight….

Second Try After Modifying Photo… Still Ikkk!

I tried modifying the photo hoping that would help…. Still Ikk on try #2….

Titanium White added over the copper.

I then painted over the copper with titanium white in a random way and tried  again…  I hated to toss the paper….

The Full Set of Cards Out of the Printer

Much better!  I re-printed the first 2 cards #1 ended up off color… I now had the printed cards, but not the amount of copper I wanted to show and the color of the patina was wishy, washy….

Cards in Various Stages

I pulled out my Inktense blocks and added the turquoise/aqua color, added some more copper paint with a small brush and used that to wet the Inktense pigment to set it.  I highlighted the heart shapes with a black ink pen. I have been playing with shiny mediums, so I added some of my pearly aqua nail polish as highlights. I then outlined the heart shapes of the metal work with Ranger’s Glossy Accents over the black ink….

Oops! The Black Ink Wasn’t Waterproof…

I tried adding Pearl Ex pigment over the Gloss on the first card, but it didn’t work well. Copper Lumiere under the gloss didn’t give me what I was looking for either.

An Almost Finished Card… Needs More Gloss

I finally found that a layer of Glossy Accents over the ink, followed by a layer of the copper paint over the dried, raised gloss, then another layer of gloss over the copper gave me something I finally liked…. I also added extra nail polish to the little raised hearts in the center with more gloss on top to give it more of a jewel-like look.

My “Keeper” and The Trial Card Not Chosen

In the photo above, is the first trial card that I used the Pearl Ex on then  added more gloss over… It was the #1 card and also got some marker work to get to somewhat look similar to the others… The right card was another idea I tried by drawing ginkgo leaves with the Glossy Accents. By the time I got the copper and gloss layers “right”, I decided that the leaves hid the scroll-work I liked so much in the pagoda.

Ahhh, the Nails got painted again, not so neatly… So did the fingers.

So much for neatness… Paint on the fingers and somehow I ended up with some gloss on my glasses??  (Wow, my hands are looking like “old lady” hands…)

Finished Single Card

One of the finished cards… Photos are hard to get with so much shine on the cards… You can see the texture of the paper and much of the raised Glossy Accents….

Group of 6 of This Group of Cards

I ended up with 7 “good” cards and the 2 test ones that didn’t turn out so well… Above shows 6 of the best ones that are now on their way to their new homes.  Definitely another challenge, but I am slowly learning how some of my supplies work together, or not….

The “After the Show Crash” from the quilt show was worse and longer lived than I had hoped, so I didn’t get back into the studio as soon as I had expected…  My Pears art cards were done with hand  stitching while I wasn’t feeling up to sitting at  my machine.  As it turned out, the hand stitching worked better than machine stitching would have been for the design I worked with.

First Trial of Thread for Pear Cards

The photo above shows a close shot of the first card I started stitching… I used a piece of a painted coffee filter gifted to me and a rusty  fabric from an exchange of fabrics and other goodies as the background of them with a piece of a fabric with text on it topped with a bit of handmade paper and scrap of ravelly silk. I also added a few beads over the  silk bit…  I ended up trying different threads and was to stitch the cards before I chose the stitching used on the bottom right card below.  It was a bit of a switch from  my “normal” work, but a very satisfying way to pass time when I was otherwise not feeling very well.

Four Pear Cards with Different Stitching Experiments.

October brought visits with a new doctor in hopes of some answers to why I have less and less control over daily pain and fatigue…  New meds were tried, tests done, etc.  Our washing machine finally completely died, used hot tub was added to the deck, the last of the garden blooms of the year froze, and the last of the sunprinting sessions was done…. My last day under “The Big Top” was October 26th and by the end of that day the tent was down and packed away in the shed to wait until next year’s warmer weather.  We were blessed to miss the worst of Hurricane Sandy that caused so much damage to NYC and NJ along the coast.   I did get a few postcards and book covers started using some of my newest sunprints, and got my Art Cards for the AITC Fuchsia exchange finished and sent out on time for a change….

Fuchsia Single Card

For the Fuchsia theme, I began with a dyed fuchsia colored fabric and combined stripes of it and a number of painted fabrics for the bases of the cards, then I added die cut butterflies and flowers in lime green. Mylar butterfly confetti added to the look of the butterflies, and Inktense Pencils and pearlescent paint added even more interest.  I actually did stitching done on these, too.

Group of Fuchsia Cards

I forgot to take photos of the group until after I had them all in their clear bags, ready for the mail…. Pardon the shine of the plastic…

November began with the remnants of the storm and a set of  postcards made and sent as the last group due for Postmark’d Art.

Mixed Media Postcards

The postcards shown above were made using various papers glued onto fabric with a coat of pearlescent paint over everything. The fruits were cut from a wallpaper border and die cut flowers and butterflies were also added… You can see the wrinkles of tissue paper that was used as the top paper layer.

Shortly after these postcards were mailed, the month of November became a blur….  Wreath orders came in and had to be filled (I was amazed that I got through another year of wreath making).  Our youngest son Nick and his wife and baby who live in Germany came to visit, and doctor’s appointments came and went…. I especially Loved being able to spend time with little Lincoln who had just turned a year old.  It is hard having family living so far away, but so great when they can visit!

December began with the last of the wreaths being delivered and purchase of nearly 200 new Spring blooming bulbs that I found 75% off at Lowes…. When I found they were so inexpensive, I just HAD to get some Tulips to go with the Daffodils and Hyacinth bulbs I originally wanted. A warm spell made planting a fairly pleasant thing to do… hard work, but the weather was great.  I also got a bit more sewing done using a few more sunprints. The second week of December was a visit to Zack’s house in Philly a pair of new shoes and a visit to Longwood Gardens to see the Christmas displays… Thankfully, the new shoes I got made walking much less painful than usual.

New Shoes and Ferns at Longwood

With the gardens frozen till Spring, it was wonderful to see all the flowers and plants in the conservatories and greenhouses as well as all the lights on trees inside and out.   Back home, I started to catch up on my Art Cards…. “Lake” was the theme for November (very late by now), and Tiger Lily was the December theme….  At first I thought Lake would be sooo easy…. I thought I had  the perfect fabric to use, but fabric did not work with the glossy media I wanted to use… After a couple utter failures, I finally got something close to what I had envisioned complete with a photo of a Loon on each…. The sounds and antics of the Loons I saw while on vacations in Canada at various lakes still bring smiles….  Instead of fabric as a background base, I ended up using a blue colored transparency.  The fabric didn’t allow the glossy goodies to remain very glossy….

Single Loon Lake Card with Glittery Thumb

Using profits from my wreath making, I purchased some new “fun” supplies to play with.  I got a number of different clear glossy mediums as well as several dollar store nail polishes in glittery and pearly colors, and very pearl-like paints.  After all the trouble these cards gave me, I ended up even glittering up my fingernails with one of the nail polishes when finishing them. The first time in many, many years I have painted my nails…. The first and last time for the glitter… I had fun with it, but removing it was very tricky….  It is hard to see in the photo, but I used Ranger’s Glossy Accents to add glossy dimension to the Loons.

The final theme of 2012 for AITC was Tiger Lily, and that set of cards caused me very little trouble… I envisioned the speckled petals of Tiger Lilies in the various colors that Lilies are available in.  This was my first attempt at featuring ink drawing on fabric.  Lily petals with the spots were drawn on a multicolored painted fabric, and accented with pearl paints, Glossy Accents, and beads for texture.

Group of 4 Tiger Lily Cards

You can see the pearl paint in the lower 2 cards in the photo above.  The beads don’t show well, but they are there along with drops of the Glossy Accents that add texture and gloss to the rest of the spots.  The two sets of cards were mailed out to their new owners on the last day of 2012… Barely under the wire for the deadline of the second group.

Below is a photo of the two granddogs on Christmas morning….   A couple weeks before that Vladdi was covered with mud and skunk spray after a skunk made the bad decision to get inside the fence of the dog yard.  I couldn’t be mad at the dogs…. they were just doing what dogs do…. the skunk made his last mistake….  They both smell much better now….

Christmas Dogs

Christmas brought snow and by the new year we had about a foot fall so far…. Maybe we will have a “real” winter this year….  I am praying for a great 2013 for all!!  Maybe I will finally get that “creative groove” back???

Thankfully, the studio is back in order again!  The new electric breaker box is in, the shelves back in place and everything that used to live in the space is back home.

Empty Studio Shelves Back In

The studio looked a lot different with all those empty shelves. I did lose one shelf since the new breaker box is taller than the old one, but no other modifications were needed and the panel doors are easily accessible for resetting blown breakers or shutting off circuits for other repairs. In the past I had a plywood design wall mounted to the back wall shelf unit with hinges. That made things really hard to get to the electrical boxes, and since I had been using a 4×8′ piece of 2″ thick foam as my main design wall, the plywood one is not returning…

Shelves Almost Full Again

Getting all the fabrics and what-not back into the studio took much longer than hauling it out.  The shelves on the back wall don’t look too tidy in the photo above, but the foam design wall will hide what is there while still allowing me to quickly and easily move it out of the way to access the breaker boxes and the crawl space under the main part of the trailer home we live in. Since I have sold off most of my commercial fabrics, the bulk of what is on the shelves now is my collection of fabrics I have painted or dyed. They make for a pretty wall!

Design Wall Back in Place

Since I spent much of my time after getting the shelves filled again working outdoors painting and sunprinting fabrics, I didn’t get the design wall back in for quite a while. I cut the foam shorter to just under 7ft high to make it easier to move out of the way since the ceiling slopes down from the back wall. I really have no idea how I originally got the 8′high piece in there in the first place… I needed to cut it to get it out!  The foam also has a new cover of a double layer of poly batting that I pinned on more neatly than the first time it was in here.  Another thing I did was to cut little slits into the foam on the bottom to fit into small flower pots that make little “legs” that will keep the foam off the floor in case of new water leaks if we have heavy rains or snow melts.

The first piece to grace the new wall is one I did for a challenge put out by Karen Musgrave that I called “Funky Flowers”. I have had the top waiting for quilting for quite some time now…  The photo above shows it after quilting was done, and the one below shows it with yarns pinned around it trialing it’s binding.

Design Wall 9-18-12

Since I tend to be a major procrastinator, I needed to quickly finish up 3 more pieces that I had entered into my local guild’s quilt show that was last weekend. Two are shown in the photo above, below “Funky Flowers”   The Wisteria piece was done all but the flowers and leaves, but the stone wall piece above was started less than a week before it was due to be delivered for the show.  I seem to need deadlines to get the creativity flowing, but I really wish I could create more without the rush to meet those deadlines.

Group of 3 Quilts

The photo above shows the wall with the 3 pieces in addition to “Funky Flowers that I finished last minute for the show.  The biggest problem with finishing quilts so close to a deadline is that when they get “done” I always seem to find something that isn’t working or needs some more to make them better.  The top piece, “A Walk in the Woods” ended up really close to what I had envisioned when I started it over 2 years ago, but once I got it on the wall at the end, you can see a dark rock that really stands out too much…. It went into the show that way, but I need to tone it down with paint or something…  The “Stone Wall” piece lower right still bothers me too, with very little value change on the right side with the chair. I am thinking that lightening the chair a bit will help. Amazingly, this piece was the one that I heard about the most during the show while I was manning  my booth I had set up there.  I guess even with it’s artistic problems, it still grabbed eyes…

This post is also being linked to Nina Marie’s blog for “Off the Wall Fridays”

Quilt Show Booth

The last photo for this post is of my booth at the show where  I was selling my patterns, fabrics and some finished gift items.  The photo was taken near the end of the show when things were calm. The day before, every flat surface was covered with various fabrics and sunprints being looked through by many customers.  I sold many of my newest brights and some older, softer colored pieces. It was such fun! The first show I have done in a Lonnnnggg time, but it let me know that it will be a while before I get brave enough to do another.  Ken was great helping me with setup and take-down lugging, but a week later my body is still complaining… I miss the interaction with the customers so much, but spending much of a week in bed afterward is no fun….

My next project is using the little group of fabrics, painted coffee filter and papers that were hanging on the design wall in the second wall photo for this month’s “Arts in the Cards” theme of “Pear as a Color”. the rusty colors remind me of the wild winter pears that grow on our property.  I’ll probably show them in my next post along with my “Cool Cucumbers” from August.

Orange Jonquil Fabric Beginning

The theme for July was Jonquil… Our themes this year are colors, and the color prompts are open to interpretation which had made them very interesting and lots of fun.  I began by painting fabrics in colors found in the beautiful Spring flowers. The first piece was done with oranges and yellows. The photo above shows the first streaks of colors added to the wet fabric on my paint table outdoors. The colors were layered on while keeping things wet until all the paint was applied, and I kept spritzing the fabric with water during the drying to allow the colors to run and blend into each other.  In addition to the yellows and oranges, I also added some metallic gold for some shimmer.

Jonquil Fabrics Group

The photo above shows the deep orange finished fabric in the center, along with two others. I used the same paint colors for the two coordinating fabrics, just with more water for lighter shades. The lightest one was a fat quarter used to clean the paint out of the brushes… just enough left in them to give it a light wash of color. The medium  colored piece began as a white print with circles on white fabric that added more interest to the piece. The photo also shows the backs as well as the fronts of the fabrics. Both sides are interesting to use!

Since the medium colored fabric had circles on it, I decided to stamp circles on some of the dark fabric using various plastic bottle caps as stamps with white paint.

Stamping Circles

I have acquired a glass topped outdoor table to use under the “Big Top” (my tent set up by the front door) where I can play with paint on fabric in the shade and have easy access to my paint table that is nearby in the sun for drying fabrics. The glass is a great surface to spread paint on to dip the caps or whatever items I use as stamps. The above photo shows the orange fabric stamped with the white circles in various sizes. The pieces of Zucchini sitting on the table are waiting to be used on the green fabric on the table next to the orange for the next challenge with “Cucumber” as the prompt.

My original idea for these cards was to use the three fabrics together with the addition of stitching.  The idea had to change almost immediately, due to a burned out main electric breaker… The breaker box lives Behind the set of shelves that lives Behind the TWO design walls in my studio… While trying to find a new main breaker, it was found the brand of box we had was a fire hazard… Not a good thing, so a brand new box was in  order….  That left me moving everything that was on 2 entire floor to ceiling walls of shelves (where most of my fabric lived), as well as everything from my new ironing board shelves, everything from on and around the cutting table. What follow are a couple studio photos…

Behind Design Walls

The photo above shows the wall after my foam design wall was removed and the plywood one was opened to reveal the offending box and wall that needed to be accessed…  Note, the shelves are literally wall to wall and the back set is blocked by the South wall set… everything had to go…. UGGG!!

Studio Shelves Moved

After a day of moving, this was what the view was just inside the studio door… The shelves were moved out of the way as much as possible.  My sewing machine, iron, and lots more were also moved out as well as the thread that was still on the racks in the above photo to keep them safe from drywall dust and such…   So much for stitching anything….

After hoping things would be back to “normal”  in a week, I didn’t get much accomplished on the art cards. Then I decided I HAD to do them somehow, so the ironing board was set up in the kitchen for fusing and card construction began. (I also hoped that blocking half of the kitchen with the ironing board would hurry the process of getting my studio put back together along… it didn’t help much.)

Jonquil Construction 2

The pieces of fabric cut and fused looked pretty blahhh, especially since there could be no stitching involved, so I decided that I would add the yellow “suns”.  I still didn’t like the look of them… still blahhh… not much to look at… so some supply digging was in order… Why is it that whenever things are packed up, I decide I just HAVE to use a certain item or 3???  It seemed every time I needed something, a major search ensued… I could not remember what pile or container or whatever I had packed things into…

Jonquil Construction 3

I finally found my Inktense pencils and played with adding some greenery to the cards… I really wanted to stick with mostly circle shapes for these, and maybe NO flowers… I tend to put flowers in or  on everything…. Well… after a bit of scribbling and playing, I ended up with a row of lollipop looking flowers on each card.

Painting Jonquils

A bit more digging for supplies later, I found some pearlescent paint and fine markers to add a bit of interest to the suns with.  They received bright sunrays and a little swish of pearl to give a bit of depth to them. I was liking them a bit more, but they still were calling for More!  Hmmmm….  Maybe some glassy looking clear embossing???   More digging, and I found my bottle of Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel powder and the heat gun…  Now I had not used the UTEE much at all, but knew it was supposed to be able to be used to create thick, glossy puddles if that was wanted… That is what I wanted….  Glassy, shiny suns…. I had read that I would need more than one coat to get the effect I wanted, so I began…. Layer one results in a quite bumpy look. Not knowing the proper way to add layer 2, I added more embossing ink and more powder and aimed the heat gun…  the pink embossing ink didn’t disappear like it did in the first coat… Ikkkk!  More heat added caused bubbling and a bit of smoke… OOPS!…  more ink, more powder, more heat… More bubbles, more pink sealed inside the molten mass and no glassy smooth surface….

First Jonquil with UTEE Melted

Above is the result of the first couple layers of the melted UTEE… I also added it to the lollipop flowers… You can see the pink embossing ink “nicely” encased in the melted enamel… Not the look I was after… The sun was sadly not smooth or shiny…  Time for Youtube… After realizing I was in over my head, I found a few tutorial videos and learned how one was supposed to use this stuff….  So THAT’S how it’s done!  I finally learned what I needed to do… Use the embossing ink for the first layer Only, then add the powder to the still molten goo immediately after heating the first layer, heat CAREFULLY again (avoiding smoke and boiling bubbles) and repeating until I had the look I wanted…  WOW!  That worked!  Now why hadn’t I gone to the tutorials first??  Yea, I’m a stubborn rock-head who tries things on her own first…  NOT always a good thing….

Jonquil Art Cards

FINALLY! I had my cards pretty much done… The photo above shows a group of them after the UTEE was successfully added. (Note: upper middle card was the “guinea pig”, you can see it still has a deformed sun.) I was happy to finally have the thick puddles of gloss I was looking for!  Now this wasn’t the end of the story for these cards… I did finish the edges with a stamp pad, then tried to flatten them out a bit since they buckled a bit with the heating….  OK, I learned another thing…. Pretty, thick glossy puddles of plastic will crack like glass if bent too much…  I really got frustrated, but they were done and cracks and all were sent to their new owners…

Even projects that don’t work out the way you wanted them to can be learning experiences… Now I know how to work with UTEE, AND I know that it is much better to find some tutorials online when learning to use a new supply….  I guess one thing is for sure… I know this will not be the last of my lessons learned by trial and error (and more error)…. I have LOTS to learn

Paint Tent aka the "Big Top" Outdoor Studio Space

In order to do the sunprints I love so much, I need to work in the shade and have easy access to a sunny area for drying fabric.  In my early years of puddling with paint on fabric, I used my Easy-Up canopy to give me the shade. I would have to set the thing up in the morning and take it back down when I was done since those are not reliable in gusty, stormy, rainy weather.  My “Big Top” is made to be left up all summer for use as a carport or whatever and is shown ready for a painting session above. Securely staked into the ground and attached to the wall of our mobile home, it behaves pretty well. I am able to keep  my supplies outside ready to use with very little time or effort.The plastic drawer units and a couple plastic tubs hold most of my supplies.

I have been finding myself playing with much brighter and clearer colors than I used to work with.  This has been a wonderful change from the last big painting sessions a few years ago when it seemed all I ended up painting were muddy, mucky, mossy colors. I called it my “mud and rocks period”…  I would try to start a painting session with “pretty” colors, but seemed to end up with the browns, and mucky greens.

Day's Work 7-25-12

The photo above shows one group of fabrics painted back in July. I have been using my Dye-Na-Flow fabric paints which allow me to get deep, bright colors without adding the plastic feel of some other paints.  The Strawberry red, hot pink color is a new one for me to use… The light pink piece with the flowers was the first sunprint of the season, done with Phlox florets scattered over the painted fabric.  The green and yellowish piece was made for the Arts in the Cards “Cucumber” challenge… I printed it using titanium white and a zucchini cut to resemble a cucumber.

Ferns and Phlox Flowers Sunprint in Orange and Pink

I’m not exactly sure why I started playing with the hot pink and orange together, but I have done a number  of sunprinted panels with this color combination, am I am finding I like it.

Orange Lizards, Ferns and Frogs

This piece was one of the fun ones I did using foamie lizard and frog shapes along with Ferns for the sunprints on bright tangerine shades. I did end up playing with other bright colors as you can see from the next photo.

Aug 25 2012 Painted Fabrics Hanging on Tent

This photo shows the finished fabrics done on August 25th which gave the “Big Top” a tropical feel.  I started out playing with the Orange and Pink, then only Pink, then moved to shades of blue. I even did a couple landcape-ish pieces that are on the far right to use as backgrounds for some botanical applique art quilts.

It has felt so great to actually be playing with “pretty” colors again!  I like the bright tropical shades much better than the “mud and rocks” of the past!

I woke early one morning this week with an achy body that wasn’t happy, and when walking to the kitchen for pain pills, I looked out the front door and this is what I saw….

The fog was pretty thick and  the Phlox in the garden seemed to glow, so I grabbed the camera and took a few photos.  The fog gives a mysterious look to things as it hides the expanse of lawn beyond the garden.  I then decided to see what would happen if I played a bit with it in Photoshop and what I ended up with is  next…

Foggy Morning

I did a bit of cropping and tweaking of the color saturation to bring out the glow in the Phlox. Then to see what would happen, I played with some effects and liked what I got with the Artistic- Sponge (at whatever the settings were that it defaulted to). I liked how it added some graininess to the photo and intensified the mystery of the fog.  I added the effect to a duplicate layer, so I could then lightly erase some of the graininess from the Phlox, bird houses and a few more flowers to get the brighter colors from the original layer to make them pop a bit more.  I have tons more to learn while playing with my photos in Photoshop Elements, but at least the playing I am doing is something that is getting me doing something creative more often now. Maybe a few little quilts will be inspired by my playing with the photos…