Key #1

Sometime ago my Beyond the Borders group tossed around ideas for a new group challenge. One of my favorites was to use a common theme such as "Key". I like it since it presents many possibilities: house keys, car keys, a piano key, the answer key ... but the idea I had was to use an old key (formerly a lost key -- or is it the lock that is lost?).

I had experimented with gelatin mono-printing and joined Robin Atkin's Beaded Journal Project about that same time, so I used all three variables and created this:
I began this piece in July of 2007 using one of my mono-prints as its base. I captured the key onto the fabric using only beading-stitches (similar to stitching on a cabochon), then added more beading beyond that. Next came the two laser-cut hearts and I hit a bit of a stall and couldn't quite figure out how to finish the piece. Then in December of 2007, my BTB group held a fiber swap (in lieu of a gift exchange) and one of the pieces I received that day became the perfect final touch with its swirling tangle of a funky fiber. Thank you Mary Ann Littlejohn - it's one of your fibers!

This piece honors the 20th wedding anniversary that I celebrated with my dear husband Ronnie last July 26, 2007 (now you know the secret of the "26"). I have named it "Key to My Heart."

Note: it represents the 2nd of my Beaded Journal pieces, the one for the month of July, of course. I'm currently rather behind with my BJP pieces - but have finished a few, have several others in progress and am slowly, steadily catching up.

Big Foot -- the story

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago... well, actually it was April 2007, I went on my first quilting retreat with my Beyond the Borders art quilt friends. We stayed at a B&B, "The Belle at Round Top." (This was prior to owning a digital camera so here is their website for the curious. It is a beautiful B&B and we were honored to be the first quilting retreat there.)
http://www.belleofroundtop.com/content.aspx

Having finished my first project early in the evening, far too early to stop sewing for the day, I started on the next piece in my cottage series. I planned to stray from my original "Happily Ever After" by zooming in on a-still-undecided-object in the picture. I began by building a hillside using rotary-cut fabric slivers, remnants from an earlier project in shades of green and brown. The last thing I added that night was an appliqued tree trunk. Imagine the quilt below with simply the sky, the hill and the light brown tree.


That morning before settling down to work again, everyone wandered by the communal design wall to comment on each other's progress. "What a great foot!" someone said. Imagine my surprise when I discovered they were looking at my tree! Wow, my tree did have the same profile as a bare foot! I quickly thought of the best name for my work-in-progress -- "Big Foot, the Tree"! I did not mind at all that my tree looked like a foot, instead I was quite happy as now I had both a great title for this quilt and an idea for the next piece of the series. Naturally the second quilt became "Big Foot, the Foot".


Both quilts start the same, with a clear blue sky, a rolling green hillside, and a mottled brown fabric for the big foot. But at that point they differ -- one features a distant view of a dark cottage with smoke swirling up from its chimney and an overhanging branch in the foreground, while the other features a flower garden partially trampled by an intruding foot.

I envisioned more quilts in this series -- an elegant Big Foot in a stiletto high heel with a sleek polished toenail peeking out, a sporty Big Foot in a tattered tennis shoe topped with a stinky rumpled sweatsock, etc., etc., etc. These quilts live in my dreams at this point (although I plan to make them one day ...).

Let's look back, for a moment, at how I tried to differentiate between the two Big Feet. To make the tree trunk look more tree-ish, I added mottled brown veins running up and down the trunk and clumps of grass growing closely around its base ...



To make the other look more foot-ish, I stitched the hairiest leg I could imagine adding a yellowed, scurvy-looking toenail on the toe.


This foot has flattened the flower garden, and yet one blossom remains pristine and untouched by the invading stomper.

One can only wonder if the big foot has crushed these flowers accidentally or not. What do you think?

Here it is ...

For my first blog ever....

I thought I would share "Hearts A'Flutter", a fiber art piece I created to fulfill the first two challenges with the Textile Challenges group:
1) Cut-back Applique in which layers of fabrics are cut-away to reveal further depths underneath, and
2) Altering the Surface using any technique to alter the fabric's surface (pleating, painting, beading, etc.).

I used a diversity of fabrics and threads: cotton, velour, rayon, tulle ultra-suede, artificial flower petals, vinyl (that looks like leather), eyelash yarn, Sulky rayon threads, cotton threads, ending with a sprinkle of sequins and beads.

While I would love to say that I finished this piece because I was eager to share it with my new friends in Textile Challenges, the truth is that I worked hard to get it ready for the first group show of Beyond the Borders, my local art quilt group. The show, held in February 2007 at the Copper Shade Tree Gallery in Round Top, Texas was so hugely successful for both the gallery and my BTB group that Gerald and Debbie Tobola, the gallery owners, invited us back for a second show this year, again held in February.

This time I submitted a few journal quilts, all variations of my first journal quilt "Happily Ever After" (inspired by a Sulky presentation to our Daytime Guild in May 2006 and not in this year's show). This piece reminds me of my small cottage home -- except this quilted home is in the open, rolling countryside while I live in the heart of Houston, surrounded by many homes & fences.

"Feeling Blue" is my first mono-chromatic quilt -- but if you look closely, you will see I couldn't resist putting in a field of bluebonnets, the state flower of Texas. Just like "Happily Ever After", this quilt has four rolling hills, two trees and the cozy cottage -- all of which are fused and machine appliqued.

When I began this journal series, my idea was to play with color within a single pattern, to examine how color choices impact the feel of a finished piece.

"Calico Cottage," the third quilt in this series, features vintage calicos from my fabric collection dating back to 1970s and earlier (leftover strips (1.5" wide) from an early strip quilt made for my sister Gretchen -- more on that another day). I affectionately call this one my wonky piece. In using the old pre-cut strips of calico, I had to piece backgrounds from which I freehand cut the sky and each hillside (the foreground is the only solid piece of fabric). The rooftop is pleated, the tree-tops are semi-ruched, and both tree trunks are pieced from two semi-coordinating strips. I also played with placement of color -- blue hillsides and ground, green tree-bark, and of course the tiny, white calico cottage!

I must showcase my Beyond the Borders art quilt group too. Here are a few of us at the close of our Opening Night at the Copper Shade Tree, February 1, 2008 -- our second gallery show!


In front: Gerald Tobola, Linda Minton, and myself, Cathy Winter.
Behind us are: Connie Fahrion, Debbie Tobola, Barbara Jensen, Susan King, Liz Broussard and Nancy Dickey.
Not pictured but also featured BTB artists that night are Mary Ann Littlejohn, Jo Sweet and Rex Watson.
We are in the front room of the gallery. Look closely at the walls behind us to spy art work by Connie, Susan, Mary Ann.....

This is an amazing group of fiber artists that I am thrilled to call my friends. I always look forward to seeing them at our regular meetings.


I cannot close until I include this link to the Copper Shade Tree so that you can see the Best little art gallery in Texas!!! (at least in my humble opinion)

http://www.coppershadetree.com//index.php