The Season of the King Of Spring

     It's Spring in the Pacific Northwest - and it is displayed today with sunshine and temperatures forecast in the 70's.  Ever since early March brought the first frog/toad choruses of the season, I have been thinking about the early signs of spring.  My favorite is the croaking at night of what sound like hundreds/thousands of froggie voices, letting one another know they're alive and interesting in dating!
     My art 'small group' had a challenge to make a 9" piece based on the theme of "Spring" that would become the basis for a "round robin" activity.  I managed to keep my piece under 10" [just barely], and immediately thought of my frog friends that have serenaded me over the decades.  And, whom to portray?  Why, the King of Spring, himself! 
     The quilting is based on the type that Linda and Laura Kemshall do - and I painted over the free-motion stitching on gold-yellow cotton, painted with white acrylic paint to give it even more depth.  The frog king is a copyright-free image from the internet painted with acrylic paint and glued to the quilted piece with acrylic matte medium prior to applying the paint. 

The back of the piece looks interesting, too, I think.  Not that anyone will ever see it, but it's fun to know the pattern is alive on the back as well.
     Merrily we Spring along - waiting for Summer to arrive with its multitude of announcements in the kingdoms of flora and fauna!

A Heart-Felt New Year

Jan. 12, 2015 

     The Western WA area of the Pacific Northwest is lit by sunshine today - and warmed by much more sublime temperatures than winter usually brings to our area.  Pelting rains have subsided, flood waters are receding, and gardeners are dreaming of loamy soil and seeds that will erupt into green, growing things.  While I have down-sized from my long-time home and acreage to an apartment not far from where our house still stands [and hosts another family], I am slowly creating an art area within the few square feet that I now call home.

In a little over a month, it will be Valentine's Day.  We may have just put away the glittering lights and wrapping papers of Christmas, but the holiday of hearts and flowers erupts on the horizon in spite of our wanting to [sometimes] linger a bit longer in the firelight of winter.  I've decided to create some Valentines to honor the upcoming 'season' of chocolates and roses - and of gardens soon to awaken with the sweet scents of 'Rosa berberifolia.'

The Day That The Rains Came Down

The Pacific Northwest is getting soaked today - all day, so far.  Steady, life-giving, rain.  It's dark like a winter's day, making inside chores a much drier [depending upon the chore, however] alternative to weeding in the garden.  This June day I'm creating quilted Christmas stockings for a fund-raising craft fair on Nov. 2 at Woodmoor Elementary in the Bothell/Woodinville, WA area.  [That's my initial go at creating one, in the photo.]

Rodale Press has graciously given their approval for me to make these to sell, as seen and described in one of Lynette Jensen's quilting books.  The craft fair is sponsored by the SEPAC, the special education council and professionals associated with the special ed program in our Northshore School District.  Along with these stockings, I'll be creating additional 'traditional' quilted things [cards, table linens, lap quilts] as well as smaller, non-traditional art pieces in frames.

I just received Rodale's permission this morning, so I jumped to the Internet to order bells and ribbon.  My stash luckily overfloweth with Christmas fabrics of all colors and motifs, collected over the past thirty years or so.  SEPAC is a most-deserving recipient of the funds they receive from artists' table fees.  The services they offer go way beyond their income.  The UW Huskies football team has a 'bye' [rest day] that Saturday, so I'm not sacrificing an annual tradition with my adult children in order to participate in the fair.  And so, I'll sew on!

Many thanks to the viewers who drop by my blog from time to time.  Don't hesitate to drop me a line - it's fun to connect with artist/quilters from all over the world!

 

June 6          "Saratoga Passage"

One of the countless amazing views in our Evergreen State of Washington is across Saratoga Passage, from the town of Langley on Whidbey Island looking east across the passage to Camano Island and on to the Cascade Mountains.  In any type of weather or any season, this is a grand view.  I've tried to interpret this horizon with fabric and stitch, meaning to capture a fleeting moment in time for my mind's eye.

The April/May Quilting Arts magazine posed a Reader's Challenge called "Passages."  We can interpret the word any way we wish, and I chose this real-life piece of our local geography.  We'll see if it "passes" the juror's vision for interpretation.

Langley is a wonderful little town, full of tourists in appropriate seasons, and island residents year-round.  There are lots of art galleries and great places to eat, fine dining as well as fast-food island-style.  Langley is a short ferry ride from just north of Seattle at Mukilteo, or a longer but scenic drive accessing the island over Deception Pass on Whidbey Island's north end.  Either way you go, it's like stepping away from the stresses of day to day life and entering another world of salt air and seafood - a mini-vacation in a day.  Restful and enriching.  Always.

Look for my leaf 12 x 12 inch quilt [April, 2013 post] on the SAQA website and on SAQA's Pinterest page!  I donated it as a fund-raising piece for SAQA's annual auction.  Studio Art Quilt Associates is a wonderful organization that supports art quilt artists through education, scholarships, traveling exhibits, and more. 

Some of the small quilts will be auctioned at Houston's fall International Quilt Festival, but most will be available for auction via computer in early September.  Check out their website:  SAQA.com for information about the organization, and all of the opportunities for viewing quilts and instructions on how to bid during their auction to own a unique small art quilt created by a SAQA artist!

May's theme for our Art Chick's group is:  ferns!  Luckily, May is the month when ferns of all types and sizes unfurl from the warming soil and spring forth as swords of many ilks and greens!  I took a photo walk in my garden recently, and decided that I'd change the gorgeous verdant leaves to black and white.  This art piece was created with fern fronds as a monoprint/sunprint, using thinned black Setacolor transparent paint on PFD white fabric.  I then thread-sketched over the negative prints of the ferns themselves, and added outline quilting to hint at the movement of the ferns in the breezes that blow through our Pacific Northwest on a fairly constant basis.  So, black + white or in living color, these ferns are an annual sign that spring has sprung and summer is not far behind.

Painting With Paint and Thread

April's theme word for my art quilt small group is 'button.'  Wanting to think 'out of the button box', I decided to try painting a button, then highlighting it with thread-painting and quilting.  Where to start?  With a button, a very large button image!  Since this is a 12 x 12 inch piece of PFD cotton fabric, I had a lot of room for this fantasy button.  So, on a very rainy and dark day in Western Washington last week, with lightning and thunder accompanying my brushing, I created a very yellow/chartreuse button that I plan to thread-paint.  I took a follow-up trip to the fabric store for matching thread, and now I'm ready to try this new technique.  Results will follow in a posting in the next few days!