Monsters! and a crafty weekend

Check out all of the work I did in one weekend! Whoa!
First off, October's weekly theme is "Monsters" of the cute and evil varitety... I made about 6 sketches, and will work from those. The sketches are about an inch high, and I was surprised that the monster translated well into the larger format.

Next are some thread jellyfish for a swap on Mailartworld.com.

Last, a table runner for Halloween that has been quilted for ages, but never bound...
Lest you think all I do is quilt, here is a "candy corn" hat I crocheted. I did this in one evening watching tv...

September Family Collages - #4

I traveled so much in September I barely had time at home, much less time to post these lovelies. I knew I would be on the road a lot, so I prequilted the backgrounds, and took along the baggie of things to attach to them in the collage style. I was the perfect hand project to take with me on my travels and I would consider this again for that reason. The fabrics all came from a fat eighth pack of Fossil Ferns all matched in these muted colors, and it was the perfect pallatte for the theme. Additionally, the photos were all fused onto the colored prints, for a texture and added "sepia" effect.
This particular quilt is all about the wedding I can't find a record for. My grandmother never celebrated her wedding anniversary, and no one seems to recall when it was. Neither grandma or grandpa are with us any more to tell us. When doing research on this, you have to know where and when in order to get a copy of the record. How silly that I can find a record of a wedding in the 1700's, but not from the 1940's. It's like a big secret I'm not supposed to know.
I ran out of the little burgundy trim, which was supposed to go all the way around the quilt, not just the word "secrets". The edge feels a bit unfinished in that I had nothing to really match or go with it in my travel baggie. The big key is from some big junk box from my mom's old house, and the mini keys are to all of my diaries I kept as a kid. I feel that the border still needs something to darken it up, but I don't want an oppressive color either...

September Family Collages - #3

Here is more of the September weekly quilt project that I did not post due to traveling for work.
This piece has a lovely pair of photographs of my great grandparents, and their children. While shopping in the Antique Center in Savage Mill in Maryland, I live to stop at a booth called the Treasure Trove. They have all manner of antique linens and lace, and this lace was bought from them. It's Belgian handmade bobbin lace. The piece was the perfect size. The buttons are partly from my friend Amy's stash, and supplemented with some from The Queen's Ink. The little baggie of buttons was $2. The lace was $4 or so, which is not bad! It included the littel purple button in the center, so I included it on the piece.

September Family Collages - #2

I did do my weekly quilt project for the month of Spetember, just did not post them due to traveling. Here is week 2:
This quilt represents my 3 grandfathers who were in WWII. (My grandmother on my mother's side remarried.) On each of the photos was written a little note, which I turned into applique-ed phrases. I beaded and trimmed the piece but had little else to put on it until I went to the Queen's Ink in Maryland, and found a pack of gears by Tim Holtz's Idea-ology line, called Sprocket Gears. It was just the righ "manly" touch for the work, and could be easily sewn on.

September Family Collages- #1

I did do my weekly quilt project throughout September, I just had no time to update them due to traveling. Here is the first quilt:

This particular one is centered around a lovely photo of my grandfather's sisters on the one's wedding day, and a piece of antique filet crochet. I traded online for the actual sixpence, which brides are to put in their shoe on their wedding day. Seed beads, an actual pearl, some trim ribbon help make up the piece.

Quickie Update

I'm about to get on a plane to Las Vegas for work, but here's some of my latest work.

This robot is either putting his heart back or taking it out. Your choice.
The last of the Robot theme. He's kinda happy.

This is 12 x 12 inches. It's made for my calendar entry for January for my Fiber Art Divas group. This looks exactly like the sketch and like what I pictured in my head.

Gotta run, but that contest I want to run is coming soon. Stay tuned!

Domo Arigato

More cute robots. This guy's arms could have had a bit more contrast. You can't see them on the blue body that well. I should have done purple or black. C'est la vie!
I appreciate the comments on my last post. Art doesn't have to have a reason. Right now, I'll make art and not apologize for it. Much like B.W.O., which I linked to some time last week, in which people who want to blog can just "blog" without apologizing for not "blogging" lately. Apologize to your friends for not writing, don't apologize to the ether for not blogging. In that same vein, why make art for a reason if you don't have to? I mean, I do have some reasons to make art: A postcard project for CyberFiber, and some online ATCs, and I would like to finish the journal quilt that I missed the deadline on just to complete the idea and get it out of my head. So there are bunches of things I can do, I just don't have to be sorry about it.
On another note, two things are going on here: One is we are having built in bookcases put in the next 2 week sometime. We're very excited to finally have our library come together. Second, I'm pulling together some cool stuff for a giveaway on my blog! Woo woo! So if you are a regular reader, you could be a winner! Oh, and if you work at OfficeMax in the Chicago area, and you visited my blog on 8/20/08, please email me, you were my 5000th visitor and I want to send you something cool.

Even evil robots need love...

After seeing Wall-E, sad robots in love are quite popular. This is my take on a sad, slightly evil, cute robot with a broken heart. I love the blue circuitry fabric, of which I only have a small bit left.

Signature Styles

I recently had someone tell me that they knew a project was mine because it was my "style". Really? I has a style? This made me take a look at some of my past works, and I looked at sketches of upcoming projects I plan to work on. Indeed, a formation of a style is there. If you look at my Japanese Doll theme, and it continues with the Robots theme, I do have a signature look to the work. It actually came about before these works were thought of. My Journal Quilt, that was not made in time for jurying, was very much in this same vein as these recent themed works. Is it original? Well, the work is original, but is the style?

In clothing, it's easy(ier) to say that this dress looks like Betsey Johnson, or that looks like Michael Kors. Surely a painting style can be attributed to being "after Picasso", or "after O'Keefe", or whoever has the closest style to your painting. It seems like my style copies so many things that I am influenced by, that I did not originally see my own style. Am I inadvertently copying the style of someone else? Who is the original artist if my style and the other artist's style are developed independently? Is it then in the realm of who is more famous? At what point does your style become yours? Back to clothing, the recnet Project Runway winner Christian Siriano has a look that is becoming his own, but it is often still described as "Vivienne Westwood meets whoever". The point is: when does it become his own?

After discussing this with my husband for his feedback he had 2 comments:
1. This whole thing goes back to "are there any truly original ideas anymore" and because I am influenced by what I see, by natural extension my work is going to incorporate those influences. His own work has a style that I recognize, and someone mentioned to him previously, but he does not.
2. That I should not get caught up designing to meet my "style", but to continue to make art and let that style develop over time.

This second one is true. This got me thinking about why I am so concerned with even wanting/having a style at all, which led me to "why I make (my) art". Oh boy, that is a topic for another post!

Destroy! Destroy!

Sitting in the bookstore, drinking a cup of coffee with my DH, I mentioned I did not know what I would do for August's theme. It's a 5 weekend month, meaning there will be 5 of this theme.

DH says "You should do Robots".

Immediately, these robots come to mind. Cute but Evil Robots. My dad likes robots, we're both fans of The Day The Earth Stood Still. We're eagerly waiting for the remake.

I didn't expect to be overflowing with so many cute robots for ideas! So Robots it is... For you Muppin!

Monthly Quilt- My Cats

If I had to enshrine anything, it sure is my girls. This is Bastet, Vermithraxis Destroyer of Worlds, and Lillith. I used my Gocco machine to screen the little faces onto my beloved hand dyed fabrics. My girls get only the best! Next time I need to use more contrast on the faces.

The Gocco did not have the sticking problems on the screens like the last time, because I tried the ironing technique mentioned on Flickr.com's Gocco group. I still may stamp their names onto the fabric near their little noggins, but for now, I'm happy with the cute results.

Kokeshi madness

I have a lot of pages in my notebook dedicated to Kokeshi designs. They are so cute and easy to do with their legless, armless body. It's all about the head and hair with these dolls. I almost made her a "Cute but Evil" doll, but that was not the theme. I also firmly decided that the beautiful soft yellow chrysanthemum batik (of which I only have a fat quarter) would be the background for all this month's themed quilts. It's so pretty.

I watched "Curse of the Golden Flower" and loved the costumes in that movie.

Went to see "Wall-E" this weekend with my dad. Bring a hankie. I needed mine! But I cry at tissue commercials, for what it's worth. There's a quilt somewhere in that EVE design....

Kawaii Hina Matsuri

What Japanese doll theme would be complete without Hina Matsuri dolls? This set of dolls of the emperor and empress are brought out for Girl's day in Japan. I could not find a "kawaii" or "cute" version, so I was on my own for this one. After a few sketches, I found a design I liked. I added sleeves to the emperor because he looked like a shmoo otherwise.

I have lots of vintage kimono fabric, mostly "chirimen" or a rayon material made for kimono and crafts. I fused these down, and was happy with the results. The material did not get hard or stiff as I expected.

So cute!

Last of the June Weeklies

June turned into a long month. It has 5 weekends in it, making my weekly quilt project have an extra June quilt. After travelling so much for work, this theme ended up being a blessing. This week's is squared off filler quilting, as the rest of the month of June was all curves. It was also the only black background, with a nice light pink thread. July should be lots of fun with the theme I have picked out.

On Fire

I'm off to another comic book show this weekend. This time it's HeroesCon in Charlotte NC. I had to hurry up this week's quilt to get it done and not have to worry about it on my trip. And guess what? (Chicken butt) 3 days after I return, I'm at another comic book show.
Did you know there are 5 weekends in June? Ugh.
The flames didn't exactly come out like I wanted. They feel more "Dia de los Muertos" flames. But... It was an experiment, and that's what these weekly quilts are for!

There and back again...

The trip to Baltimore was successful, though stressful. I wanted to do so much quilting work this weekend, but slept in until 2pm Saturday and Father's Day was spent with Dad, so not much was done in reality... So without any further ado, I'll be making 3 posts with the works I have made these past 2 weeks.

To start, here are the last 2 week's worth of weekly quilts:

The purple one is "mcTavishing" learned fromt he book and DVD of the same name. I think I needed to use a thicker stitching thread, but in the end, I got the jist of how to do it.

The blue one is a form of baptist fan designs, which I learned from the April/May 2008 issue of Quilting Arts. The article by Frieda Anderson shows how to make this overall design. I thought I had backed myself into a corner a few times, but got out of them each time. One more thing about this design which is a bit interesting is that the design turns around at some point. Look closely enough, you'll see it.

A new theme for June

I didn't know what I wanted to do for June. June was not supposed to be busy, but we launched the project at work and I am being sent to a show in Charlotte NC.

So the month filled up pretty fast, and in the interest of keeping at least some part of my life manageable, I decided to make June the month of new "quilting motifs". I am a chronic stippler. I can do clamshells pretty well, and can spiral my fool head off. But that's really it. After that, I got nothing.

I found some quilt stencil designs online, and liked this one designed by Linda St. Pierre. I adapted it for 6 inch scale. I also decided that I have to see the quilting. I had originally thought to maybe match the thread to the fabric, but what was the fun in that? Now, off to do some sketching to do some original works!

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!

Recycled Materials Month- Tenkei Marshmallows

I saved this bag after consuming the delicious chocolate-filled marshmallows inside for over a year. I love the little character on it. I also got sent a pack of candies and San-X tissues from the Japanese Etsy seller who my husband bought my Gocco machine from. So I wanted to make a mini quilt out of the candy wrappers and tissues for my first week on the "recycled materials" theme. I love Japanese "kawaii" or "super cute" stuff. This way I get to keep the little bag and tissue as artwork...

I have been on a "green" kick since before Earth Hour... I have switched a good number of incandescent bulbs to fluorescent ones. I'm buying less chemicals and cleaning with more natural solutions, and am trying to switch from paper towels to rags that we can rewash. I have a new high efficiency washer and dryer too. My heat is on 67 degrees and my air was barely below 80 degrees last summer. It's a small start.

I'm Flossy

The last of the hip hop word theme quilts. "Flossy" means flashy or showy. I did enjoy working with all of the various fonts in my computer. Even Fergie is "flossy, flossy"....

Earth Hour

We participated in Earth Hour on Saturday, like many others, including my sister and her boyfriend, who took this picture of her.
We cleaned up the house in the dark with candles, and got us thinking about what people did after it got dark outside, especially if you had hobbies, like sewing. I tried my hand quilting, but it was too hard to see with 2 candles, and by the time I considered more, Earth Hour was over. I've been on a "green" kick lately, including switching to fluorescent lightbulbs, and "greener" cleaners. So maybe my April quilt theme will be "recycled materials"?
photo (C) Tom Gawczynski 2008

Return from Vegas

I did not win any "guap" in Vegas. Ah well... Sorry for this rambling post.

This week's hip hop word was a no-brainer. Hey shorty, it's your birthday...

It's a ton of birthdays in March and April for us.

There are 5 weekends in March, so one more week of the "words" theme. What theme should I do next?

Radio in hand, snacks by feet!

"Guap" is money, a lot of it, according to www.UrbanDictionary.com (not safe for work or kids). I like this quilt, with it's faux leopard spot/camo look, "Spray on Military" style font, and some hand stitched bling. Green for St. Patrick's Day too.
I don't consider myself really "with it", but I do listen to B-96 (96.3 FM) which is Chicago's Hit's and Hip Hop station. I have been listening to this station since the late 70's. I even won tickets to see a concert when I was calling to request a song. The concert? Lionel Ritchie's Dancing on the Ceiling Tour. The song I was calling to request? Run DMC's "You Be Illin'". So it's listening to this station that I have heard all of these words. Thank you hip-hop station, and sister's 6th grade class, that helps weed out the words that are too dirty...

Resolutions update

As an update to my New Year's resolutions, here's how I'm doing.

1. Continue the weekly quilt series. This time, each month will have a theme.
**Going well!

2. Start a new monthly series where the works are larger, 8.5 x 11 inches, vertical orientation.
**Also going well, theme is "personal shrines".

3. Enter my quilts into competitions. (3 quilts are started for entry into shows)
**One entered, and did not jury in. Second one going into an open show later this week!

4. "use it up!" I buy so much personal care products that I have too much. This year, I am not allowed to buy more until I use up all of what I have on hand. Except fabric and art supplies... I can never have too much.
*** I haven't bought shampoo in months, nor bars of soap. I have been using up my ample supply of hotel shampoos and soaps after I ran out of the regular large sizes back at the end of January.

5. Write more letters. Keep in touch with distant friends and family. Who doesn't love to get a letter?
*** I have been writing, no one has written back yet. In order to get mail, I have been using "Postcrossing" which has resulted in postcards from overseas!

6. See the bottom of the blog for the obligatory weight loss one...
***This one has sucked. Despite working out occasionally at the local community gym, DH and I have not been eating right. Must fix this soon.

7. Blog more!
***and thus the post on my resolutions! :)

Where my nerds at? Join my poll for next month's theme!

The blogosphere is quiet. Almost every blog I read has been quiet for a while, no new posts. I love new posts! And I love comments! So... comment already!
How about a poll for March's weekly quilt theme?
Ok, in March I will be away quite a bit. I will need to be able to do handwork because at least 2 weekend I will be away.

So, here are the themes. Leave a comment with your vote!
1. "3-D" 3-D fiber work in felt
2. "Words" Works with words in them
3. "applique" Various Applique methods
4. "landscapes" Since I will be away in 2 different places this month

So there are the 4 ideas, so vote/comment for what you would like to see in March for my weekly quilt theme!