Sea Fan Quilt

The Sea Fan quilt is now finished. It's 8 x10 and mounted on a canvas. Eventually it will go in a floating frame.

If you click on the photo you can enlarge it.  I used a real star fish and shells. Also fresh water pearls and seed beads.

Fishy Quilt (working name)

Okay, I know, it's a stupid name. What can I say, I hate trying to name my work. I'm now incorporating my beading skills with my quilting skills. This piece is 12 x 12 and will be mounted onto a canvas.

First, let me say that what was in my head when I started isn't what I got. But I'm still very happy with the finish product. The blue background was hand-dyed by me last summer. I don't generally dye my own fabric, but I took a class and I had a ball. Still, it's not something I plan on getting into. No place in my house to do it anyway. The fish is all hand embroidered onto a backing that is similar to pellon/timtex. Right now I can't think of the name. Lacey something or other. I printed a photo onto it and then proceeded to stitch two beads at a time following the colors of the fish.  Nemo took 3 days and the other one took 4 days. If you look closely you will see that I machined stitched 2 jello fish. To do this I first traced them onto water soluble stablizer and then pinned it to the background and did a free motion stitch. I've added shells, starfish and a sand dollar. All real, along with pearls and assortment of seed beads.  The sea fan from the previous post will go on an 8 x10 quilt  and canvas.  I will also be adding assortment of shells and pearls.

Sea Fan

I made a beaded sea fan for a project that I have had fermenting in my head for a while. First, I printed the pattern on organza and than proceeded to bead it with size 15 seed beads. Two beads at a time. It took me 14 days. I photographed it every night when I finished for the day.  I thought it would be a neat idea to make a little slideshow of my process.  I plan to incorporate this into a quilt which will be a underwater scene with fish and coral.

Moving right along with my new MAC. I had a little set back the second day. I feel so embarrassed, but no one told me there was a on/off button in the back. Even when I called the geek squad at BestBuy. Even brought it into the store. The fellow plugged it in and it went on. I asked what did he do. He said nothing. OK. I pack it up, take it home plug it in and nothing. Drove me nuts. At this point I was to tired to fight and gave up for the night. Next morning I call Apple Support.  She says "do you hear and sounds when you power up?" I said No! what do you mean power up? I thought I was powering up. She said there's a button on the back of the MAC. OMG! you can't imagine how stupid I felt. I had thought it powered up by pushing the little arrow in the upper right hand corner on the keyboard. That's what I use on my MAC Air. 

I've have called Apple support on different issues in the past and they have alway given me the best information. I can't say enough good things about them. I live to far to take their free classes, but if you live close enough I highly recommend taking them.

New Mac

Tech support arrived early this morning transferring all my stuff. There are still things I have to figure out yet but I think I can manage. Patience, that's what's in order. So far I'm still in the honeymoon stage. There was software I had to buy, Quicken for one. So while I was on Amazon, I figured what the heck, I ordered Adobe Lightroom also. Next I have to get better surge protectors. It seems the ones I have are not very good. Basically they are just fancy looking power strips. 

So that's it for my day. I feel like it was an early Christmas. 

New MAC desktop

I got so tired of battling with my PC and fed up with having to replace it yet again. So today I bit the bullet and bought a MAC. Best Buy geek square is coming tomorrow to make the transfer. 

Renaissance Quilt

I just picked up the Renaissance quilt from Michael's that I made for a client. OMG! I just love it. It's going to be very hard to hand it over. LOL. Now, I took some photos, but honestly, I don't think they to it justice. First, I had to take it from an angle so that I wouldn't get a flash back.  Here is the best of the shots that I took.
                    

Starfish necklace. (working name)

Don't really have a name for it. But oh, do I love this necklace. It looks so pretty on. Sorry, I should be more modest. But when I create something that puts a smile on my face, I just can't help sounding like I'm bragging. 

I'm thinking I should call it "By the Sea". There is an old song running around in my head. By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea, you and me, you and me, Oh how happy we'll. Silly isn't it. Probably dating myself.  

Yesterday I received a postcard from the Mancuso show in Savannah. What a nice surprise to see my quilt "My New Neighbors" on the front.  There it is, top right hand corner.                                     

What's interesting is that it was entered into last years show to be judged. The judges comments were that, "they thought the grass in the front of the egret was a after thought since they weren't completely sewn down". Which was of course what I intended to do in the first place. I wanted to add more dimension to it. But that's ok. This year it's part of exhibit of ribbon winners from last years Palmetto Quilt Guild  Show. Bye the way, It won a Blue Ribbon in the PQG show.
Next, I sold my Mermaid Lace Necklace. woo hooo!

So that's what's new today. Tomorrow I will post another necklace that I just finished.

busy busy busy!

Yes I've been very busy creating. Besides I'm not the greatest writer of blogs. But I do like to share pictures of my work and I'm delighted the you the public seem to like them.

So here's one that I have hanging at the gallery this month.

It's not very big. Just 12" x 12".  I really had fun doing the machine embroidery. The background is one piece of hand dyed fabric by Skydyes.

 This one I finished a couple of weeks ago. Also 12" x 12" but in a gold floating frame. I love these frames, they seem to make small works of art seem more important. Not the best photo, but it will have to do.

This past week I've been beading. Making jewelry and reworking a older necklace that I made some time ago.  The 1st one has a real starfish, some shells and fresh water pearls. I'm still working on it. I'm not planning on selling it because I'm not sure how the starfish will hold up. So I will test drive it first. But Oh! do I like it. So very Hilton Head.

 This black and gold piece was made awhile ago. I had small spacers on the ends of the focal glass bead. I was never really pleased with the way is looked. I tried to find larger ones, but had no luck. So when presented with lemons you must make lemonade. I made my own beaded spacers. 

So that's it for now. There's more news, but I'll leave for another day. 

Walter Greer Gallery - Hilton Head Island

I've mentioned several times that I'm a member of the Art League on Hilton Head Island. Our gallery is at the Art Center attached to the theater. This month the featured Art work is Gullah. The Gullah people have a very interesting history and you can read about if you click on the link.  A lot of their work bright and lively and always make me smile.

  The Art league members had their work on the outside walls.

I hope you enjoyed seeing the Gallery and if you are ever on Hilton Head Island, I hope you will stop in. We change the art work every month. So there is always something new to see.

A New Year

This is the second time this year that I have tried to post something. The last one just disappeared. Maybe it wasn't meant to be read.  LOL...Anyway, I will endeavor to write something that maybe will be a little more interesting.  

Christmas was great, flew up to NY, visited family and friends and had a wonderful time. We came home before New Years Eve and had a great group of friends over to help celebrate the arrival of 2015.

I belong to several Art Groups, and in December I had one of my small quilts framed and displayed at the Walter Greer Gallery on the island, with the Art League of Hilton Head. I'm happy to say that I got my second commission since moving down here. My client loved the one at the gallery, but wanted one that was bigger. Here is the one that hung in the gallery. Not the greatest photo but it will have to do. It's very hard to photograph something through glass. But I think you can get an idea of what it looks like.

 Here is the mock up I did. When I get the go a head I will print the photos on fabric. The gold netting will get a splattering of seed beads, crystals and pearls. Then I think, I will suggest a quilted border with a off white flange. To mimic the matting which is on the original. I'm leaving the framing up to her.

I will post the finished piece as soon as it's done.

Besides having my fiber art hanging at the gallery, I also have some of my jewelry in the cases there. 

New Necklace

This morning I put the finishing touches on a new necklace. This was a pattern in an old Bead & Button magazine. However, it's basically freeform and after a while I just did, whatever I thought would look good.  The base of the necklace is not as densely beaded as the one in the magazine, and I like it much better. It has a delicate and lacey look to it. I also used different size and colored fresh water pearls. I was very excited to find extremely tiny seashells to give it a "from the sea" look.  Which is so perfect for Hilton Head Island. Now I need a name for it. Any suggestions? I'm terrible at naming things I make.

Studio tour report

Our first Studio Tour was a big success. Over 4 hundred people came through the Plantation house to pick up a map. I don't know how many came to my studio, but it was a nice steady flow. Next year, I will be sure to have a book for people to sign.

Another bit of news is, a photo of my quilt, E Lucian Le Stella aka (Tosca), is in the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra's brochure.

 

I also belong to the Art League here on the Island and this December, I will be hanging one of my quilts in the Walter Greer Gallery at the art center. I've been trying to get my jewelry in the gallery, but they only have a few cases, and so I'm on a waiting list for that. In the meantime, I will get my name out there with my quilts.

Studio Tour

In 6 days I will be in my 1st Studio Tour. Let me back track. Since I moved here to Hilton Head SC, I've joined a couple of groups. One of which is the Artist Association of Hilton Head Plantation. I'm the only quilter/fiber artist in the group,which consists mostly painters and some jewelry makers. This will be our 1st Studio Tour and we are all excited with hopes that it will be successful. So the last couple of weeks I've been working very hard getting ready for it. I even went so far as to finish some of my UFO's and a small quilt that I started in a class with Laura Wasilowski and now I'm a graduate of the Chicago School of fusing. LOL

A couple of years ago, I also took a class with Freda Anderson, who also teaches the same techniques in fusing as Laura. I finally finished that quilt.

 I can't remember when I took Esterita Austin's class, as it was sometime ago. I would love to take another class with her. I really admirer her work, especially her portrayal of people.

So after working these quilts, I decided it was time to switch to jewelry. First, I made a necklace, but I really didn't care for how it turned out. So I took it apart. I did make two pairs of earrings, each very different from each other. 

Now, back to work.

Hi, I'm back. I know it's been awhile, but it's not easy for me to write a blog. When comes to creative writing, I really suck at it. And most of the time I don't know what to say that would be interesting, funny and entertaining.  I do have some news though. I will be in Sandra Sider's book 1000 Quilt Inspiration, which will come out next February 2015. I'm very excited, and it was something I didn't expect. I'm not sure which quilt it's going to be. If I had to guess I would say it's my Via Appia. But then I can be wrong.

Fabric Dying

Last Saturday I took a fabric dying class with some ladies from my new guild. (Palmetto Quilt Guild of Hilton Head Island). It was on St Helena Island and little over 1 hr. away from HHI.  I had a grand time even though I thought I was going to drop from the heat and humidity. First we did immersion dying and I love what the final results. Here is a photo of the first half of our day.

Very very happy.

Then came the afternoon. By now I'm pretty much dragging my you no what. And it shows in my second try of dye painting and shibori. Well the blue shibori is not so bad but the folded one is yucky and so are the other 2 pieces.

I was thinking that I might use De-colorant on the last 3. 

Any way this is what I've been up to. Mean time, I am getting ready to leave for Italy on Friday. Meeting up with my traveling friends, Sisterhood of the traveling scarves. Woo hoo looking forward to it.

New pair of earrings

I just found this in my Drafts. I made this awhile ago, but I guess I forgot to finish this post. They really look great on. Here's another photo.

3 new bracelets

It's a shame, but these photos don't show how really pretty these beads are. Especially the one below with the copper clasp. The half Tila beads have such a pretty iridescence color. I love these clasps. They are magnetic and so easy to get on and wear.  

 I decided to see how this pattern would look using superduo beads instead of the half tila. It worked out beautifully. I also added small silver drops as a fringe along the edge.

Sun printing

Yes I finally got around to Sun printing. Not the greatest success. I will probably do some stamping and stenciling. Here are 2 photos.