Work in Progress (WIP) Wednesday

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Progress. Is sometimes slow. But steady. 

That’s what living is, yes? My life is a work in progress. And I usually have works in progress, usually more than one. Here are a few shots of the WIP from two weeks ago. I have actually had some time and felt good enough to do some stitching on this yellow piece. I like to experiment so you’ll see more of this. It will not remain yellow.

The plan is to paint after quilting.  I layered two layers of cotton batting with the inted of getting more visible/obvious texture. I think that is working. I basically made up the design - I find that I like making it up as I go - no rules, just right. Hah!

I have only tried this once before, right after I got a copy of The Painted Quilt by Linda and Laura Kemshall. Great book!

I am also very inspired by Lynda Monk and the work she shares on her blog Purple Missus! Just scroll down through her older posts and enjoy. Her work is intriguing and inspiring to me. I don’t know what color I’m going to paint it yet, but I trust that it will come to me. So, I am on another quilting adventure – doing things I’ve never done before to see what happens.

 

Other work in progress is me. Ha. This is never ending right. I am always grateful to wake up every morning. The last six weeks or so have been very stressful physically. My diabetes numbers started to get way out of control, we’re talking upwards of 350.

This was triggered by the need to stop one diabetes med that was causing me to gain weight. Found a new endocrinologist who gave me a different med, which unfortunately just didn’t lower the blood sugar numbers like they needed to be. So, we switched to insulin. What an adventure that has been. It has taken weeks to get even close to the right dosage. It is starting to work and we still have a ways to go. But I do feel much better.

I have actually never had really high numbers until this year, especially numbers in the 370-420 range. It is a very scary and frustrating thing and it zaps energy and makes it very hard to focus. I’ll keep you posted. I’ve also been making myself attempt drawing a lot more so here is a sketch of my testing supplies. They're a little light but you get the idea. Next time I'll sketch on new paper, not recycled paper.

Work in Progress (WIP) Wednesday

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So I have 20 minutes before Thursday is over. No problem. I have the beginnings of two WIPs this week. First up is a piece of scrap fabric that I layered with two layers of batting to increase the texture. All of those rectangles you can see will be filled with quilting or other items/techniques. I am making it up as I go along. One thing I am sure of is that it will be painted once I'm finished with the quilting lines. This work was inspired by 'The Painted Quilt - Paint and Print Techniques for Color on Quilts' by Linda & Laura Kemshall.

I think the shadows give you a good sense of what it looks like so far.

Second Up are some photos of items I am collecting to use on a quilt, or a series of quilts, about type 2 diabetes. After 12 years of managing this disease, I find myself struggling with numbers out of control. I decided that since these are symptoms I have not experience before and they are having such a hugh and mostly negative impact on every single area of my life, I am going to use this series to work thru and express some of those emotions, challenges and frustrations that other people with the disease could also relate to.

My nightime, long acting insulin pen.

The doc and I monitor the blood sugar results 8 times a day and then decide what dose to raise it to since we have yet to reach the right level of blood sugar numbers.

Of course these pens are easy, easy, easy to use and the needles are fine and go in with no pain at all.

So the 'Diabetes' quilt that I create with these are other accessories and important parts of diabetes management should be quite interesting.  We shall see.

What are you working on?

Finally, the Metals part of the Mixed Media on Fabric

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Geez, life does have a way of getting away from me. I had the most fun with these. Who says you have to stick with the 'usual stuff'. I say think outside of the box, or boxes and just go for it. I make jewelry too so I thought it would be fun to add jewelry findings along with other metals. Remember you can click on any of the photos for a larger/closer view. And I'll warn you now, this is a rather long post, but with lots of pics. Have fun and I appreciate any comments.

Jewelry Mesh, Copper Jump Rings, Embossing Metal

I like this wire-lace stuff. You can find it in some bead stores. It comes in various colors and is actually a tube of woven fine wire so you can pull it into different shapes. And as you can see, you can stitch thru this on the machine as well.  

I was feeling very adventurous and decided to see if I could zig-zag stitch these copper jump rings onto my little quiltlet. I used whatever thread was in my machine so you could actually see it. But you could make it blend more with different thread choices.

Embossing Metal that I stitched to my quilt sample. It was so easy.

 This sample has wood paper (see closeup below), metal sheets that have been cut and stamped and attached in various ways to this little quilt sample, and some chain.

And finally, the last group is jewelry findings.

This little collection of jewelry findings, chain and metal shapes are meant to inspire. Any one of these things could be added to a quilt to enhance the design of the piece. Closeups below.

Click on photo for cloer look.

Whew, hopefully you made it all the way through. I would love to hear what you think so drop a comment if you have a moment. Thanks!

More Mixed Media on Fabric - Papers

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Here's another group of my mixed media examples. The focus here is obviously papers. Papers are easy to attach to fabric/quilts and the attachment can be done many ways. The most logical choice for me, and what I always try is stitching it down - either by hand or machine.

This first example is a recycled brown paper bag, a Dairy Queen bag to be specific. I save all of my brown or white paper bags from purchases, cut them open, iron them and keep them clipped together. Sometimes, really I should say often, I paint them first. The brown bag below was painted with Lumieres (my 'go to' paints) and then foiled. I hadn't tried foiling yet and I like the look.

click for closer view

This example is a much smaller version of something I saw on the blog of Sue Bleiweiss on July 15, 2010. I love the work she does and have been following her blog for a long time. When I saw her example and the gorgeous one on her website, I was working on my little 7"x7"examples for the presentation and thought it was the perfect thing to try out and remind me to send the group to Sue's blog for more inspiration. I believe I used Misty Fuse to attach the bag to the fabric before stitching. But usually I will use medium to lightweight fusible interfacing to iron to the back of my painted paper bags to give them some stabiity before I stitch into them. Works for me every time.

This is papers attached with gel medium and then stitched. There's always more than one way.

closeup

I learned about Misty Fuse from one of Sue's classes I think. At least 2 years ago. For this sample I used tea bags that I had my boss save for me; rose petals from the bridal section at either JoAnn's or Michael's and candy foils that I had someone save for me from Dove chocolates. I love using Misty Fuse. In case you didn't know, Misty Fuse has a facebook page and they do giveaways on there from time to time.

And of course Tyvek, you know, the stuff they make postal envelopes from. So along with saving tyvek envelopes you get in the mail, which I know you can buy from Joggles, have fun at their site, they have a lot of cool stuff and a lot of great classes.This tyvek I painted and ironed between two pieces of parchment.

Next installment - metals.

Mixed Media for Fiber Arts: Experiments & Examples (part 1)

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Everything interests me! I am a creative. I make quilts. I make beaded jewelry. I make wire-wrapped pendants jewelry with metals. Over the last couple of years I have had an increasing desire to combine these mediums on/with fabric. These ideas have been fueled by my membership in the Mavericks, a contemporary art quilt chapter of the Arizona Quilters Guild. This creative group of men and women love to create with fibers and fabric and think outside the box on a regular basis.

I did a presentation to the group about my experiments with combining different media with quilting. Below are some shots of my examples using various papers, Golden Gel Mediums, and metals. For this post, I will focus on Gel Mediums. These experiments were all done using Golden Gel Mediums because that's what I happen to have. My guess is that other brands are equally good, so experiment away. Oh, and, have fun!

Vintage Glitter Glass glued w/
gel medium to fabric

Extra Coarse Pumice Gel - applied

 thru a stencil.

Extra Coarse Pumice Gel

colored w/ Lumiere

Extra Coarse Pumice Gel 'plain'

 Closeup - Tar Gel over
 magazine cutouts

Clear Tar Gel sample.

Glass Bead Gel 'plain'.

Glass Bead Gel - colored with Lumiere

Papers collaged with Soft Gel
Gloss Medium - closeup

Soft Gel Gloss Medium -
collaged papers

Next Mixed Media post - Paper - recycled, commercial, from around the house.

Molding Paste - colored & plain

Thanks for visiting! Feel free to share your questions, comments, reactions . . .

If you want to link to a blog post or website to share work you've done with gel mediums, especially on fabric, use the Mr. Linky widget below (I'm just trying this out for the first time so if it doesn't work, let me know in the comments) Thanks!!!!

Creative Living: CoOp Review - Bountiful Baskets

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Happy Independence Weekend everyone! This is a 'happy customer' review.

 Links appear at the bottom & click on any picture for a closer view.

Part of nurturing my soul includes giving it the kind of fuel that keeps it running better. I am on a mission to eat more fruits and veggies. So when I heard about the fruit & veggie coop Bountiful Baskets, I had to try it out. This all volunteer effort apparently takes place in about seven U.S. states.

Tuesday (6/29) I selected my preferred location based on their list, which also included pick-up times. I looked at their offerings for the week, the regular $15 basket plus extra choices of blueberries, cookies, breads, etc. I then  paid my $15,  for the 50% fruit and 50% veggie collection. And I also paid $20 for 12 pints of blueberries (I love blueberries!) I also had a choice of an organic basket instead of the regular for an additional $10. Since I didn't know quite what to expect, I went for the $15 this first time.

So,

Magnificent!

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My best 'One Moment' this week. 'OM' is the 'one moment' weekly meetup coordinated by http://www.alamodestuffblog.com/ . When you get to the bottom of this post, click on the OM icon and go check it, you can join us too! The purpose is to share what makes you pause, smile, slow down . . .

On one of the last few cool (you know, around 89 degrees) early evenings in the Valley of the Sun, I went to the park the other day right after work to keep myself from taking a nap. Of course, I knew the exercise would make me feel better too. Well, my reward on this day was a peacock, actually two, that spread their feathers.

I was in the section of the park with two rows of grapevines, taking pictures of how the grapes were progressing.  I spotted one gorgeous male that had his wings spread and his back to me. He would not turn around. Ok. I've never seen the back spread of a peacock. Remember, you can click on any of the photos for a larger view.

OM (One Moment)

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Thanks to A La Mode Stuff 's challenge to notice those 'moments' and fully appreciate life, I am paying more attention. Here are some photos from two different opportunities to notice the small and beautiful things . . . taken at my favorite park in Glendale, AZ

They have the most wonderul rose bushes at Sahuaro Ranch Park and I couldn't resist taking photos during my walk on Sunday

And yesterday, late afternoon with the wind blowing and rain clouds in the sky I went for a walk to clear the work day out of my head. These grapevines caught my attention and