World War I Poppies - Finished!

Here it is, my own mixed collage interpretation of the World War I poppies:

Image and design copyright RPS

Here is a detail of the letter:

Image and design copyright RPS

The letter is actually a note on a postcard (copied onto fabric) that came with one of those wonderful scrapbooks that I found earlier this year.  There is no doubt that they came from a local family.  The postcard is a double length one:

The sender was apparently training at Camp Sherman in Chillicothe, Ohio.  The card is postmarked August 22, 1918 to a resident of Quaker City, Ohio.  Judging from the message, it was before the devastating influenza outbreak that occurred that year.  I wonder if the sender made it through the epidemic, and if he ever made it overseas.  The message reads:
        "Hello Rodney - How is the pike job coming?  We had some try out on Liberty trucks like they            take through there last Friday.  We will be driving trucks in France within a month from today if          we get over all OK.  We have a dandy pair of driving gloves & we get a Norfolk overcoat at the          port of embarkation wherever that will be we don't know.  But we can get a few shots of good              French wine, ha ha.

World War I Challenge Progress

Sadly, I am missing the entry deadline for this quilt, it is still not finished.  I'm not upset by missing the deadline, I will still finish the quilt and since I am going to be a vendor at the show it was to be entered into, I will have it on display (and for sale) in my booth.  I have a few more things to add to it, but here are a couple of detail images of the quilting and the very cool stamens in the poppies (hand stitched - straight stitches with French knots).  Enjoy!

images and design copyright RPS

This week is quieter than last, so I really have every intention of posting on Thursday... will it be about the finish of this quilt, or something else?

World War I Challenge

Yikes!  It has been a while since I posted here.  I have gotten wrapped up in  the World War I challenge piece that I mentioned previously.  The challenge is a poppy themed quilt, inspired by the poem, "In Flanders Fields."  Here are some in progress images:

First, my initial idea involved rubbings from gravestones in a nearby cemetery.  I only found a metal medallion indicating the grave of a World War I veteran.  In my collection of fabric collage stuff, I found a vintage hanky with some red poppies on it, and a felt tobacco premium flag  (Belgian flag, of course) from the World War I era.  I wanted those two items to be a part of the collage.

Image and design copyright RPS

Adding the flag and hanky would be the last steps in the collage, at this point I really needed some poppies.  I free-motion quilted the outlines of the flowers and leaves:

Image and design copyright RPS

Then, I colored the poppies with crayons, and heat set them by ironing.

Image and design copyright RPS

At this point, I wanted to add some detail with hand stitching, so I auditioned the flag and hanky again, changing the planned locations for them.  I didn't want to hand stitch where the extra pieces would cover my hard work.

Image and design copyright RPS

Check back on Thursday to see how the hand stitching and additional quilting turned out.

Stitching the Summer Flowers

Slowly, I am am adding hand stitching to both of my little summer flowers series.  The hand stitching slows down the progress of a piece, which brings up a significant dilemma.  My art quilts are all about a multitude of textures and details that includes lots of hand stitching.  It also adds exponentially to the time and therefore the selling price of the piece. This occurred to me as I started to stitch yesterday on these little flower quilts.  

Image and designs copyright RPS

One hour's worth of stitching on the day lily, fifteen minutes on the Joe-Pye-Weed.

I have been intending on having 8 x 10" art quilts as a more affordable option to customers at future art fairs.  The more hand stitching I add, the less affordable they are, but leaving out the hand stitching compromises the integrity of my vision for the quilt.  So far, I have worked on the Joe-Pye-Weed for one hour and 35 minutes and the day lily for two hours and ten minutes.  I could split the hour I spent piecing the bases, since I made two bases in that time, that would bring down the times for each.  The hand stitching is something I like to do, but it is going to wreck the cost factor.  Take a look at the Joe-Pye-Weed (the one on the right above), I have a long way to go!  

That day lily really needs some leaves...

Another Ten Minutes

We all would love more time to create, but we all have busy lives - believe me, I'm right there with you!  I have a point with my "ten minutes" series.  I waste a lot of time everyday messing around with truly foolish stuff, and in breaking the progress of this small art quilt into ten minute increments, I am hoping that I am inspiring you to find a few minutes each day to pursue something that you have been wanting to do.  Give up ten minutes of internet time, skip a TV show for a half hour of good creative time, work on something while sipping your morning coffee, or while waiting for a pot of water to boil.  At the end of one week, astonish yourself with how much you have done on a project.

Image and design copyright RPS

The next ten minute step on my Joe-Pye-Weed mini collage was to couch yarn for the stems, and spot glue the leaves in place so that with another ten minute block I can sew the leaves into place.  After that, I will be ready to start hand stitching the pink florets.  I am looking at the real thing as I work on this, but I am not trying to make an exact botanical illustration, it is a personal interpretation of a flower that I love.

I'll get back to the day lily next week...

In Ten Minutes

So, I have two little stitched pieces that I intend to be bases for some sort of embellishing.  I have not touched the pieces since I put them together last Wednesday.  I have though a lot about what I want to do with them over the past few days.  Many ideas for this project have flowed through my brain, and I keep coming back to putting a single flower on each one.  I picked a Joe-Pye-Weed flower head and placed it on one of the pieced back to see how it might look, thinking that I could stitch a portrait of the flower:

I want to do something with a day lily too, so I gave myself ten minutes today to come up with petals for that and leaves for the Joe-Pye-Weed:

All images copyright RPS

Yes, ten minutes, that is it.  I have not sewn the pieces yet, they will be raw edge appliqued.  I freehand cut the pieces, looking at the real things while I cut.  The orange for the day lily is silk dupioni that I dyed last summer with marigold flowers, and the green is a hand-dyed cotton gauze.  Now, I won't work on these again until the weekend.  I'll take them with me to a local art festival where I will be doing demos.  I should have both pieces finished next week, and I will document the time spent on them over the weekend.  How long do you think it will take me to stitch the leaves and petals down, stitch the stems and hand stitch the flower head for the Joe-Pye-Weed?

On Thursday, I will have some sort of of-the wall ramble here...

Getting Ideas

Another quilt show vending stint in the books, and though sales were abysmal, I received some good comments, most of all about my color combinations in my Creative Kits of mixed fabrics and embellishments.  The most frequently asked question I get at any show is, "where do you get your ideas?"  The short answer is, anywhere and everywhere.  I have more ideas than I have lifetime to make them. 

I'll address the color combination ideas today.  I have made it a priority to study the color wheel and know the various ways to combine colors (complements).  There are some excellent books out there on the subject of color.  Aside from studying color from books, take a look around you.  Make a note of the colors that someone wears that catches your eye.  Look for color combinations in advertising, on buildings, in store displays.  Nature is a constant source of ideas for me.  Take a look at this quick bouquet I picked from my garden (day lilies and Joe-Pye-Weed):

The maroon and peach of the day lilies are really speaking to me, and I am envisioning an abstract fabric composition with pink stitching added.  I suppose the real inspiration in this color combination comes from what was waiting for me in my kitchen:

Mmmm, fresh peaches and blackberries!  Yes, I get artistically inspired by my food sometimes.  So, tomorrow, I am going to set aside one hour to create a base composition of peach and maroon fabric and maybe start embellishing it.  There is a method to my limit of one hour, I like to challenge the notion that I encounter of "oh, I don't have time."  Check back on Thursday to see what I did with my one hour.

Summertime

It has been a challenge to sit inside, in front of the the computer for any reason lately... I have been taking in the amazing view I have of a valley filled with meadows and a bit of woods.  Cicadas buzz, the cricket chorus goes on constantly and butterflies float by my lookout on a second story porch.
Sometimes, I wander around and get mesmerized by simple things.  Last night, it was a stand of vibrant orange butterfly weed that captured my attention.  I look forward to the bloom of the butterfly weed every year.  One of my ongoing series is variations on a meadow or fence row featuring these flowers. 

The flowers, leaves and grasses leave plenty of opportunities to be captured in stitching.

I am in the midst of a fabric dye session, so check back on Friday to find out how my yellows and oranges turned out.

Dye Garden Dreams

I'm in a garden planning mode this week, after my hollyhock dye adventures from the weekend.  I usually plan and plant more than I can reasonably handle, not just in gardening, but in other aspects of my life.  So many dreams, so little time!  The weeds start getting ahead of me halfway through the season, and end up hiding ripe vegetables from my sight.

With these grandiose gardens in my head, here's five things I want to plant and use for dyeing:
1. Dyer's Coreopsis (Coreopsis tinctoria) (pictured above)
2. Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius)
3. Dahlia (Dahlia sp.)
4. Woad (Isatis tinctoria)
5. Japanese Indigo (Persicaria tinctoria/Polygonum tinctorium)

I have had Coreopsis and Woad in my garden, and I let them go to seed to have more plants in the next year for dyeing.  Sadly, I got wrapped up in other things and forgot to watch for the seeds.  I hope they sprout on their own this year, and that I don't pull the seedlings, thinking they are weeds.

Hollyhocks in March

I should have been making double use of my wood-burning stove all this past winter, simmering small batches of natural dyes.  I finally cooked up a couple of pots this past weekend.  First was a trial of purple onion skins:

There is no use in separating the varieties of onions, they all turn out the same on fabric.  The purple onion turned out the same as a batch of yellow onions that I did a while ago.  I like the golden color  that they impart on the silk.

Next I tried two batches of dried hollyhock flowers.  I had high hopes for these, as the flowers I started from seed two years ago.  Hollyhocks are biennial, they don't bloom until their second year, and then the plants die.  To keep biennials going in a garden, they must be planted each year to keep the blooms coming each season.  Last summer, my hollyhocks were just stunning, and I want to continue their splendor in fabric. 

The batch of red hollyhock was a bust.  The water turned a murky rose color, but it did not take to the fabric.  The "black" hollyhocks (see above picture) were a success - lovely tones of blue-green!

I neglected to plant hollyhock seed last summer, so I might not have any this season, but I will plant them soon to have blooms in 2019.  I want to try dyeing with fresh flowers from them.

Flower Pounding

I continue to be amazed at the multitude of techniques for fabric surface design.  I just made a quick trial of flower pounding, inspired by one of the books I just purchased in Fredericktown: Flower Pounding by Ann Frischkorn and Amy Sandrin (C&T Publishing, 2000).  Flower pounding is just as is sounds, hammering fresh flowers into prepared fabric.  The fabric (cotton muslin) is prepared just as you would for dyeing with plant dyes - alum and soda ash.

A quick tour of my property for blooms yielded violets, lilac, bluets, spring beauty, pink dogwood, redbud and weigela.  Here is a sampler of those flowers:

The lilac was most disappointing.  I love the clusters of the tiny pale purple flowers this time of year, and the air now is heavy with their scent.  The pounding process on the lilacs only resulted in a murky pinkish-brown.  The bluets and spring beauties, tiny delicate wildflowers, dissolved into a pulpy mess.  The redbuds had nice color, the weigela was another murky mess.  The pink dogwood - oh, my!  It actually came out darker than the fresh flower, and the parallel veins imprinted onto the fabric -lovey!  The violets went splotchy, but notice the color of the flowers.  Are you thinking what I'm thinking?  What would happen with violets in a dye bath?  I have one little piece of prepared silk that didn't make it into the last plant dye session.  It might take a lot of violet flowers to do it, but I am going to try dyeing with them.

One important matter when you are collecting plants or flowers from the wild: be sure you are not picking anything that is rare or endangered, and no matter what, only take what you need.  For every one that you pick, leave at least ten of the same plant undisturbed.

Oh yes, here's more of the lovely pink dogwoods:

Happy spring!

Hollyhocks in December

An extra post this week, as I am excited about my hollyhock dyed silk!  I was expecting some deep red-violet colors, instead I got this:

Interesting gray-green shades; color I thought was not possible without an iron modifier (something I have not tried yet).  I used flowers from a "black" hollyhock that I started from seed.

Maybe the red-violet color that was indicated in the book could be achieved with flowers from true red hollyhocks.  I will plant both red and black hollyhocks in 2017.

Cold Autumn Day, Sunny Summer Flower

Tuesday evening wears on, and the words for a blog post are not forming in my brain.  All I have today is a beautiful picture.

A stunning lotus flower, taken at a nearby lake this past summer.  The part of the lake that sits near the main road is a shallow area, and the lotus plants have taken over in the shallows, creating a floating field.  Enjoy!