Finished individual piece

I have finished my individual piece for the Pairings project of Missouri fiber Artists.  I used a tea dyed embroidered cotton, and did a tombstone rubbing on it.  I only used the top of the rubbing.  I couched gold thread for the floor, using a purple embroidery floss.  Then I covered a lot of the design with sari cloth remnants. I basted some gold silk under the piece so that the gold would peek through the holes in the embroidered piece I cut a piece of batting to go behind the cloth, and using ecru embroidery thread, quilted the piece.  A friend gave me a piece of pleated fabric.  I put batting behind the piece, I stuck more thin sari remnants in the pleats, fastening them down with contrasting embroidery floss.  This quilted the piece.
I put the embroidered piece on top of the pleated piece, and sewed it down.

Cemetery rubbings part 2

I have been working on my piece for the Pairings Challenge. The piece is a tea dyed doilie.  I used sari silk scraps that I bought at 2 quilt shows and embroider floss to decorate the piece. The floor is couched thick gold thread, couched with purple floss.  I plan on mounting some gold silk behind the piece so that it will show through the holes in the piece.  Then I will put some batting under it and quilt it.  Cemetery rubbings part 2 this part will be mounted on some pleated silk fabric. I'm having a lot of fun, along with some problems working on the piece, and will be excited when it is done.

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Cemetery rubbing

Missouri Fiber Artists is are sponsoring a Pairings event.  Two or three members are getting together to create one collaborative piece, and one each piece by the pair.  Sue Penrod and I are paired.  I traveled to their farm west of Hermann Missouri. First we went to some country cemeteries, and did rubbings on the gravestones.  We selected the one we wanted to work on together.  I used some black string and sewed around the decorations and text, making them more visible.  Sue will work on the piece next.  I am going to work on the round piece done on a tea dried doilie.
Later we eco died some fabric.   The long piece was done on a piece of raw silk that my father brought back from Japan in the 1950s.  We had a great time.

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The Vikings are coming

I have completed another piece in my English history series.  I call it the Vikings are coming.  I pictured 3 Viking ships approaching the British shore, with a ruined building on the top of the bluff.  I used raw edge big stitch applique for the piece. I'm not sure what comes next in the series, maybe the Norman conquest.

Rosie's Monkey Quilt

My 9 year old granddaughter drew a picture of a monkey in a tree.  I made a small quilted piece based on her design. I used some handdyed material from Kathy Loomis and from Wendy Richardson.  The piece is a raw edge applique.  I used embroidery floss to attach and to quilt the pieces.

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Maeve Warrior Queen of Connaught

I took a workshop on calligraphic printing.  I wasn't pleased with what I made.  We used Gina's printing lab, and she challenged us to make something with the fabric we had made.  I cut mine up, and made a Celtic queen.  I called the piece Maeve: Warrior Queen of Connaught. Rosemary Hopkins
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Cubist adventures

The third lesson in Pamela Allen's class was on cubism.  I made a piece, called Lemonade.  Then I made another piece, using the same colors and placements and cut it apart.  Cubism is hard to do in fabric--I suppose it is hared to do in paint as well.  You can see the first piece, Lemonade that I will probably finish

later, and the cubist attempt.

Some new art quilts

I am taking an online class with Pamela Allen, About Style.  I have learned a lot, both from Pamela and from the other students.  Our first exercise was to choose a work of art, and reinterpret it in fabric, not slavishly copying it, but using the same color palette.  I chose Aaron Bohrod's Venus.  I couldn't figure out why

he named the piece Venus, until Pamela pointed out the tiny white circle in the sky.  I am going to Missouri Fiber Artist Conference this weekend.  We were to bring something for the silent auction, so I finished the piece and will bring it.  The above piece About Style art quilts was Bohrod's, of course.Next we had to use the same palette and create something different.  My second effort isn't finished yet, so it is unnamed.

The last thing we had to do in lesson 1 was to make our own piece. I am very interested in historical themes.  I had done a piece on Beowulf in the last class.  It's kind of strange--I called it the ghost of Beowulf. Along the same lines, I decided to do a piece based on a dolmen, or platform tomb.  I added a figure to it, and named it Watcher at the Portal Tomb.  I'll post pictures about our cubist adventure in the next blog entry.

Gabaldon covers

I have finished making the individual pieces inspired by Diana Gabaldon's books.  I haven't yet decided how to put them on a background.  Since I am a fiber person, I don't want to frame them, instead I am thinking of mounting them on a piece of dark distressed wool.
I used dupioni silk for the background.  I backed the silk pieces with some iron on interfacing, then batting, and finally backing.  I stitched the silk to these layers using gold thread that is usually used for machine quilting. Most of the work is also appliqued in silk, with the exception of A Breath of Snow and Ashes, in which I used a crocheted doilie that I painted white.
I am excited to have the individual 8 blocks done.
The pictures don't show the colors as vibrantly as they are.

Market Day at Stonehenge

I have finished my piece, Market Day at Stonehenge.  It is a triptych, currently hanging in my kitchen.  I used Pamela Allen's techniques of raw edge large stitch applique.  I used some purchased hand dyed fabric, mostly from Wendy Richardson, for the background.  The road is from  sari silk strips.

Olympic patchwork

I was fascinated by the Olympic patchwork created by Mikhail Kusnirovich, the 47-year-old-owner of Bosco di Ciliegi, Russia’s premier sportswear company. I thought it would be fun to make a piece inspired by the jackets.  So here's a picture of the jackets, and my attempt to emulate them. Next time I would choose brighter blues.

Saki for two

I finished my Saki for 2 piece. I made it in a Pamela Allen workshop.   I added green embroidery in the left hand corner in an attempt to suggest the beaded curtains sometimes found in Asian restaurants.  I also embroidered a bento box and soup bowl and spoon on the table.  I used a recycled dark brown silk shirt for the binding.

February 1

I am still working on the St. Louis piece.  All the stitching is done, now I have to finish quilting it, binding, etc.
I am taking a class with Pamela Allen, About Contrast.  In our first lesson we were to make a monochromatic piece. I chose my favorite color, blue.  The mountain in the center is a piece I had leftover from a Roman stripe quilt I did in indigo shades.  I had a few triangles leftover, so I used one for the center mountain.  The piece is made of cottons left over from other projects. It is raw edge, hand stitched applique.

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January 28

My St. Louis piece is getting close to being finished.  It still needs some quilting, binding, a label, and a sleeve on the back. This is a present for my daughter and her family.
I thought I would identify the images on the quilt.
In the top left hand corner are Victorian row houses from Lafayette Square.
The arch is in the center, with some skyscrapers inside.
I have put a bridge over the Mississippi River, which cascades across the top and down the side.
The last image on the top is Grant's Cabin. The cabin is located at Grant's Farm, where the family often went to see the animals maintained there, and sip some Anheuser Busch beer.
On the left in the middle layer is St., Francis Xavier Church, better known locally as College Church.  Wendy and Chris were married there.
The Bevo Mill is next to the church.  It was built in 1916 by the Anheuser-Busch company to encourage families to enjoy beer with their meal at the restaurant.
On the right side in the middle is Ted Drewes, a St. Louis landmark dating from 1941, that sells frozen custard. Chris, Wendy, Rosie and Caroline are on their way to get a sundae or a concrete.
On the bottom left is a scene from Missouri Botanical Garden, featuring a gate leading into the rose garden.  The flames on the top were put in place during an exhibit of Chihuly Glass at the garden.
The final image is one of the entrances to the St. Louis Zoo.

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January 27

Worked some more on the St. Louis piece.  I changed Wendy--she was too plump, and decided

against using a hat for Chris.  The hat made him look bald, and he certainly isn't.  So I gave him some spiky hair.
I also added the zoo pieces.  They aren't sewed down yet.  When they are sewed, it will be time to quilt the piece.
I am also going to add a navy strip connecting the Bevo Mill to the bottom of the piece.

The second St. Louis piece continues

I've been sewing stuff down on the second piece, the one I am making for my daughter.  There is a brown piece pinned over the roof on Grants's Cabin, because I thought the first attempt make the house look too square. I will have to rip the roof off and insert it.
I also worked on the family'

s clothes.  My initial fabric for Wendy's dress did not contrast very much with the background, and I also thought that she doesn't wear very many dresses, so I am aiming for jeans.

Market Day at Stonehenge

I am a big fan of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series, in which stone circles play a big part. I have started making some of the cover art into small quilts, with a background of dipoini silk. You can see some of these further back in my blog.
But my favorite thing, maybe my most favorite thing I have ever done is Market Day at Stonehenge.  I even made it a triptych. I used hand dyed fabric that I purchased online, since I am not a dyer.  I got the material from Wendy Richardson.  I put the large stones on the background and set 3 figures at a stone table with their wares.  On the right part of the triptych I featured an oxcart bringing things to market, and on the left side  2 women with a torch.
For the most part the piece is raw edge applique, a technique I learned from Pamela Allen.  Some pieces are needle turned applique.  I used embroidery floss to attached the pieces and to hand quilt it. Some of the quilting (spirals and concentric squares) I found in a Pictish stone online. The first picture shows the completed

quilt measuring 43 wide by 17 tall. The second picture shows the right part of the triptych, and the third shows the left side.  Finally the bottom picture shows the center.

http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/

Art Quilts for the March Show

Our guild, Bits N Pieces is having a show in March.  The art quilt group, Art Bits is entering challenges and workshops that we have done this year.  We took a workshop with Rayna Gillman, in which we cut up old blocks and seamed them into a new transformation. This piece worked with a rather ugly Radiant Sun block.

I combined 2 blocks done in her class.  I wasn't happy with either, and neither was blogger, as it wouldn't accept the picture. Oh well.

We also used an advertisement and copied the colors, and their frequency in which the colors appeared in the ad, into fiber art.
I used a part of Marc Chagall's The Juggler, and made a piece I called Complements.

 The last 2 pieces I made in the workshop I combined, and called it Roots of Home.  I feel that this was the least successful piece I made in the workshop.

We also had several challenges.  One was the artist challenge, in which we selected an artist and tried to work in fabric in his style.  I selected Jacob Lawrence's #58 in his Migration Series.  I used a picture of my 3 granddaughters playing under the sprinklers at City Park in St. Louis

Another challenge involved a tricky fabric.  We called it the Shimmer challenge.  It is the roof in the piece, Princess Saving.














We also did a zentangle challenge.  I made a knight and backed him in felt. For the show he had to be attached to a square fabric.  I called him Hero.

I have a few other pieces that were not connected with the Art quilt group that I will show in a later blog.

January 7

I worked some more on the St. Louis piece.  I pinned up Grant's cabin, adjusted the sky behind the cabin, and pinned in the Arch and buildings.
I also added Ted Drewes and Wendy and her family on their way to a treat.  Most of it is not sewn

yet.  There might be some alterations as I begin sewing on the piece.  I also have to add the zoo that will be in the lower right hand corner.

January 6

Made some alterations to the St. Louis piece.  I moved the garden gate to the right, and added some foliage to each side.

I also changed some of the background on the right bottom.  I am going to add Ted Drewes in the middle ground, and the Zoo on the bottom.

I also worked on the arch and Grant's cabin, changing some of the background for those pieces as well.

January 3-4

I am making progress on the st. Louis piece, requested by my daughter.  I have some pictures of my design decisions.  First, the "canvas" for the piece--the background I started with.  A lot of the background will be covered by other material choices, and the objects that I will add.

You can see that only the Victorian houses, representing Lafayette Square are in place.
The January second picture shows some of the things I intend to include.

I wanted the blue to represent sky, but I think it is too much under College Church and the Bevo Mill.  I'll have to find some more "ground" to place under them.
I replaced some of the blue with a better ground piece, and added some other figures that I will include.
I used the gate to the Rose Garden at the Missouri Botanical Garden on my first St. Louis piece.  I used misty fuse and drew the design on white fabric.  It looked awful on that piece, so I embroidered over it.  This time I felt that it would be easier to embroider the piece first, using batting as the background, and then apply the piece to the quilt.  It worked out better that using the cloth and stitching over it.

The figure will not remain headless.  It will have blondish red hair.
That's as far as I got today

.Off the Wall Fridays