Eat a Pear

This was an unusual start to this project. I bought a real pear and took several photos. Here's a sample.

Then I painted a watercolor of the photo, of which I am still not very good at. But Kelli Perkins had an article in Cloth Paper Scissors a while back on sewn watercolors, which made me want to give that a try. So here is my version of that.

How did I pass 150 posts and not celebrate?

Geez! I guess I will have to celebrate 200 instead. Shouldn't be too hard to get to, right? Rory's RIP post was actually 150.

Now, if you are my mother, please stop reading now, or at least, wait until after your birthday to read this.

Are you peeking? That's not fair! But if you want to ruin your suprise, then it's fine by me...

This is Mom's birthday present. I'm mailing tomorrow. Hope it gets there on time. The frame is not this wonky, it's just the angle I took the photo at.

Grab a Pear

This lovely work was last week's quilt. I was playing with several of the principles and elements of art, as well as some of the "pseudo-elements" which aren't considered canon "P&E of Art". First, I was working with color. Next, my compostition is circular and "open". I have an odd number of pears, and I am also using transparancy. I got to work with some of the hand dyes from Cherrywood fabrics, which is what gives the pears that velvety look. I really enjoyed making this. It was a bit like Robbi Joy Eklow's works, though that was unintentional until it was finished and I was looking at it.

I also went to Blick Art supply and got myself a portfolio/presentation case for my works to take them to meetings alot easier. I was already asked if I plan to present to galleries. Hmm....

RIP Rory Root

I know I rarely post about "work related" things, but I have worked in the comic book industry for almost 12 years, and yesterday one of the nicest retailers around passed away. Rory Root had great vision for the industry as a whole. When he made a suggestion to me for a change to our services or data, it was not just a good suggestion for his store to benefit from, but for all retailers. I was fortunate to see him in Las Vegas in March this year.
At my very first San Diego Comic Con last year I stopped by his booth, and he was there sitting on his stool with his hat and coffee cup, and we chatted for a very brief second. I'll miss Rory with his soft spoken voice and gentlemanly manners. His spirit for the industry will hopefully live on.

Monthly Quilt - Little Twin Stars

Oh my gosh, how can I describe loving Little Twin Stars as a child? Who am I kidding? I love them even now! Kiki and Lala (respectively) are part of who I am when it comes to artwork. I copied Lala's pink hairstyle onto countless characters of my own as a kid, winning me some coveted ribbons in the 4th grade Art Fair. I still collect what I can from Sanrio that bear Little Twin Stars. In the theme of "shrines", as a child I lined up all of my LTS merchandise on a special shelf in my room, and still have all of that stuff to this day.

I have these "diaper pins" from ages ago, and they say copyright 1978 on the back, but I know they are not that old. Since April was the "recycling" theme, and because I didn't have much time to put this one together, I used a piece of stationery I have and adhered it to the fabric using gel medium that I added some iridescent medium to. The result was quite flexible and still sewable.

These monthly "shrine" quilts are so much fun to think of. "Gee, what do I really really love? What have I loved for as long as I can remember?" This has been a neat project to do.

Grow a Pear

This pear was entirely painted. I drew a funny pear with a face on it for a swap at my favorite ATC trading site a few weeks ago. I decided to do an all painted quilt for this week's work.

ALA Judy Perez! The pear is tsukineko inks, and the background is Jaquard Lumiere paint. So cute!

The Bounty - Show and Tell

I saved for quite a while to take a goodly sum to IQA Chicago, knowing it was the place to find odd tools and such. Here's a look at everything I bought.
I made several trips to the Cherrywood Fabric booth, and spent over $30 each time.

A pattern I coveted from last year's show(!), a jelly roll for a couple of baby quilts I am making, and two fat quarters of dupioni silk from Vogue fabrics.

18 inch batting samples from Hobbs. These were $8 a bundle, and there's 2 different bundles here.

Only at a show like this can you find tools you can't find in stores. These Clover pompom makers and needlefelting molds are exactly that.

Lakehouse fabrics bought at the Tammy Tadd booth. There's about $90 worth of fabric here.
I plan to try some dyeing this summer, so I bought a gradation kit from Pro Chemical and Dye.

Two orphan blocks of embroidery that I bought for $5 a piece. I love the idea of rescuing these poor things. The Kewpie doll is really ugly, and I had to have it!

Another place I can drop some serious money is at the Quilting Arts booth. I bought some cool embellishing kits, and the first season o fthe Quilting Arts program on DVD. The little hearts are from an antique quilt booth, made of a cut up quilt with hand piecing and quilting on them. Not sure what I will use those hearts for, but they were 50 cents each.

Booths selling wool were everywhere. And while i am not looking to get into making quilts or projects with wool, I do have a DVD bu Jane LaFazio who does a little wool applique piece I would like to try. So with access to great hand dyed wools at the show, I indulged a bit. There's $20 worth of wool here.

Lastly, a bit about being Teacher's Pet. In my experience, I have gotten a "gift" from each teacher I was the Pet for. Now, I will say, that I NEVER expect this, and it's a wonderful thing that they do, but I must say that I also EARN my rewards. As Teacher's Pet, you are not paid, and you also paid for your enrollment to the class, so the job should not be so overwhelming that you do not get to enjoy it. You get a pin to collect as your reward, but this is something extra that teachers may do. I always get there very early, ask the teacher throughout the class if they need anything, and also help them pack and clean up IN ADDITION to the duties given by the show organizers. These kits were my reward for the classes I took.

That's it (I know... this is a lot of stuff, but Chicago only comes once a year)! I hope to post some pictures eventually of the stuff I made out of these supplies!

Tomorrow

Tomorrow I will post the items I purchased at the Quilt Festival in Chicago for a very special "show and tell" post! Don't miss it!

Pick a Pear

I don't know why I picked "pears" for this month's theme. After the "Incident", the pears I stamped out of foil have been on my mind. This is one of my class samples from my foiling class.

There's pears everywhere. In fact, two Art Quilt books I am studying from currently have pear projects in them. I also recently did a pear watercolor, so it's not quite as obsessive as I have been with the Pomegrantes, but Pears could be a whole subject to themselves...

I am not sure why, but I have been lackluster in blog-land this week. I apologize to my readers for not posting very much, but I hope this will change. I am rolling out the big project at work this week, and it's taking my mental energy. I am also working on some super secret stuff, and hope I can reveal that in due time.

I was a "winner" this week too. I went to a spring/summer fashon show put on by my salon, and was the winner of a gift basket full of Redken products! My New Year's resolutions were to "use it up" and I haven't bought new hair or face products since the beginning of the year since I already own so much that I never use! Now I have even more. I was pretty excited to be the winner though!

How did I forget to post this quilt?

I guess I was so busy with the challenge piece for the last week of April, that I forgot about the work I did in NYC! I unpacked the rest of my suitcase this week and found this in there. Ugh.

This recycled piece is made from fused plastic bags. The red and black bags are a rare commodity and I save all bags that I get that are an unusual color. The rest of the work was done with variegated embroidery thread. I like the boldness of this piece after so many pink-y pastel works in this recycled theme. I promise I won't forget to post next month's works more timely.
My last post about fusing plastic bags is the top hit page of my blog, which you can read here.