So much has been going on that I’ve been really busy, have a ton of things to share with all of you, stuff quilty, home-y, but sometimes a mom’s just gotta brag on her kids.  In this case, I need to share what Joshua has been doing.  Many of you may remember the portrait art quilt I did of Joshua playing his guitar a little over a year ago (most of the posts are in April and May 2010….beginning  here.   Well, now you get to hear him play his latest composition….

I know Joshua wrote the music as well as played it, but I think he also recorded a couple of tracks and meshed them on the computer in Garage Band (software on the Mac).  He did this YouTube on his girlfriend’s laptop, and she may not have a built-in camera like mine does (which he used for the next clip).  No matter what, Way cool, kiddo! 

Joshua clearly has talent (and has practiced and played a LOT), which he did not inherit from me!  Music skipped my generation, but mama was good at piano, singing, and loved classical music.  Joshua’s taste is mostly *really* heavy metal, but he writes beautiful music as you can tell.   Here’s another piece that is the type of music he usually plays / shreds:

How he can keep all those notes, in order, in his head and then out of his very fast fingers defies comprehension!  But he does it….and well!  (Proud mama beaming!)

I’ll be back soon (I hope!) with pictures of the painted basement center area, nearly the last fix-up in the studio, some watercolors from a journaling class online with Jane LaFazio, teaching in Nebraska, painting what was Joshua’s room (he moved into an apartment with his girlfriend) and is now Paul’s new office, a shelf for mugs in the kitchen, and other assorted “life” that has been keeping me busy!

By the time I got to making the two small pieces, I had ONE week left, and lots of other stuff to do during that week.  Can you say work fast?  Under pressure?  SHeesh!  I really hope life slows down, because I can’t take too much more of this!

One of the architetural photos I took and used for the small pieces

The other of the architetural photos I took and used for the small pieces

These two photos were the ones whose lines shadows most inspired me.  I love the interplay between straight lines and the curved, the grid of stone and the undulating shapes, the blue sky and the white stone, and the shadows.  I love how the architect used bands/lines of (metal?) whatever to create de facto louvers to shield the galleries and interior spaces from the bright sunlight, and how those bands create striped shadows on the pillars and walls.

Here are the two smaller pieces, with batting and backing sticking out, and their sketches/tracings above.

Due to lack of time, I quilted both small pieces at once… I’d thread up on say ivory, quilt those areas, switch to cream and repeat, then to tan, etc. on both quilts, working my way to the dark of the windows and the sky and, finally the facings!

But I still wasn’t happy with the shadows from the table and chairs, so I went back to the now not-quite-done central piece.  In the next photo you can see the two pencils plus the paintbrush.

I still wasn't happy with the shadows (or lack thereof) on the main piece, which was ostensibly finished. Guess not. So I took out my Inktense by Derwent pencils (the Payne's Gray and a neutral gray) and took a deep breath

This picture shows the table shadows partially done....

Using the pencils was a bit of a "thriller" moment: I used two colors of gray to get the shade I wanted. The lighter gray on the bottom is where I have colored over the gray quilting threads with the pencil (see black arrow marks on the photo). You can then dampen the pencil marks to create an ink and intensify the color. However, I didn't want the color to bleed into the sunny stripes that came through the slats of the table. So I took out the hair dryer! I used a damp paintbrush in my right hand to moisten the ink, and the hair dryer in my left hand to dry as I painted/wet the pencil-ink. I had very little bleeding into the sunny stripe as a result, and what I did have doesn't really impact the image much at all. PHEW...time for a nice glass of wine after that... I could have totally ruined the whole, finished thing...with just days to go before hanging the show!

The quilt was getting better and I was disliking it less.  But it still wasn’t quite right to me.  There was too much blue at the top.  So for the show I “cropped” it by folding the top to the back… I’ll decide how much to trim off the top and re-do the facing and hanging sleeve after the show comes down.  So here is a question for those of you who have slogged through these blogposts:  how much should I remove from the top?  Here are three VERY similar versions:

So I do I leave it alone (far left), crop a little (center) or crop a bit more (right)? Photo is clickable to see it larger...

So do I leave it alone with lots of blue, crop a tiny bit, or crop a little bit more?  The photo on the far left is as made.  The way it is hanging is about where I photoshopped it in the center photo, and the one on the right is close to square (think symmetry with the proportions of the two small pieces).  So do I crop?  How much?

And just to remind you…here are the three pieces done and in the show:

Conversations by Sarah Ann Smith -- click to see larger

And yes….I might maybe do another quilt or two… I mean, look at this water-maze-garden-hedge…  how cool is that?  and the cropped version below?

the green is hedge, the dark in between is water!, and beyond are plants on the "bowl" shaped slope in the gardens that surround this water feature.

I just LOVE this rhythm and repetition....

The path to finished wasn’t exactly smooth.  I dyed the fabric…several times.  I was having a bit of a brain scramble, and not once but twice mixed up the proportions of red-yellow-blue.  At least I have some lovely browns, and fortunately I managed to make just enough of the creamy stone to make all three pieces!  The sky fabric is the first time I’ve tried a vat dye (versus low immersion) where you stir the fabric to get a smooth, even color.  But since the Los Angeles skies are screaming blue, I was so happy when this turned out just right, and on the first attempt (thanks to taking a few dyeing fabric workshops with Carol Soderlund).

For this piece, I decided to try something different…instead of fusing the entire top, shifting my piece of non-stick press sheet as I work (I LOVE my Goddess Sheets from MistyFuse!), I thought I’d fuse everything to water-soluble stabilizer, often used in embroidery or thread  sketching.  What I didn’t think through is that because the top is FUSED, the stabilizer wouldn’t disintegrate when wet.  In fact, it ended up looking like a crumpled paper bag.  Erg.

In the next post on this series, I’ll share what I did to fix the quilt (well, I hope I fixed it and didn’t make it worse!) and the two smaller pieces.  More coming soon!

When my fellow Frayed Edges and I started talking about the “Letters” challenge (see the posts in July about our Frayed Edges show at the Camden Public Library), I was working on my online lino-cutting class with Dijanne Cevaal (posts here and here and here and here).  I wanted to use writing on the fabric similar to how Deborah does, and also to perhaps make some linoleum blocks or screen prints to print onto the fabric. As I thought about the title for my pieces, I thought about the conversations that happen at the lunch tables at the Getty Museum…

Lunch was lovely! (and I have NO idea why the watermark is now smack in the middle of the photo!)

and realized that words make letters  make conversations.  Then I realized that it wasn’t just about the literal conversations, but about the interplay, or the conversation, between the sky and stunning lines of the architecture, between the museum patrons and the artwork, between the straight and curved lines in the buildings, between the buildings and the equally stunning landscape.   Conversations among the elements and principles of design–line, shape, form, harmony, rhythm, contrast, repetition….  and finally, the conversation between me and the materials:  white cloth,  dyes I used to color the cloth, and  thread.

Here are my three pieces (click to see larger):

I based the center piece on two photos:

This was the main photo; I used the two chairs on the far side of the table, but didn't like the position of the chair close to me

The chair in the foreground became the one on the near side of the table, but I had to account for the change in the location of the sun

And the smaller pieces were based on photographs I took of the buildings.

It is the contrast in straight and curved line, stark stone against the brilliant blue sky, and the shadows cast by the lines of the architecture and the lines of the bistro tables and chairs in the patio that sang to me.  At first I was going to make the center piece based on one of the buildings.  Then I realized I’d really to have a least a snowball’s chance in a very hot place of selling my work, and the chances of selling a quilt of the Getty Museum (located in Los Angeles) while based in Maine was pretty much less than zero.  So I switched gears and focused on those wonderful tables and lines and shadows.

With all the tumult in my life, the lino-cutting and screen printing, which I thought I would use to texture the cream colored cloth for the stone used to face the buildings and pave the courtyard,  just didn’t happen…I ran out of time and just didn’t get to explore the use of letters in the way I had hoped.   But I did write on the quilt to create the shadows on the table and chairs where there are vertical surfaces on the slats.  It is *really* subtle now that it is quilted…I’ll confess even I have a hard time reading the words! But I promise…the words ARE there (maybe it’s the way conversations fade and vanish into dim memory?).

Before I got to the writing, however, I had to make the cloth.

The fabric dyed for the tables and chairs, on my green-painted studio floor

Then I had to mess around with the cloth.  I couldnt decide how to make the shadows.  I tried darkening the light stone cloth.  I tried lightening the dark gray cloth.  I used various methods.  I didn’t like them!  It looked like paint on the paving stones–not shadows.  Somehow I needed more transparency, and any sheer fabrics in my stash were to shiny/cheezy-prom-dress stuff.  So I decided to try doing the shadows with thread at the quilting stage.  Hmmm.

I tried paint, pencil, ink, assorted other painats, bleaches and discharge agens. Nothing quite worked for the picture in my head. Hmmm....

Then there were the table legs…here, the freezer paper patterns for all the table and chair components that were metal.

No, not white spaghetti, but to-be table and chair legs

Then the construction process began.  I decided to try something new.  Having tried it, I can tell you I will NOT do this again!   Usually when I create a fused top, it is an independent thing… I fuse the top on my non-stick sheet, moving around as needed.  This time, I decided to try fusing things to a base, in this case a large piece of embroidery stabilizer.  This stabilizer is (when used under embroidery or applique) water-soluble and turns into little bits of polyester fiber, which helps add loft to the applique or become a bit more batting.  What I didn’t think was that by fusing the fabric to it, I would make it impossible for the stuff to “dissolve”.  Erk.  Not so great.

Here’s the top in progress:

The initial "sketch;" I used my digital projector to project the photos onto the paper, then outlined and created the composition from a couple photos.

The fusing begins. I cut freezer paper patterns for the paving stones, then cut from various light and dark areas of the hand-dyed cloth to get the varied appearance of the terrace.

Placing the chairs and table top.

Checking out the sky fabric. This railing and table scene doesn't really exist... but I so wanted the contrast of stone and sky, and most of the tables are in a courtyard area. So I made up a terrace that has a railing and sky in the distance!

Next, I had to figure out what my made-up railing and side wall would look like.  Straight across was too boring, so I added the angled wall.

This looks like it can work

Finally, the top is done:

The top, done, before it started looking like a brown paper bag, wrinkled!

Next post I’ll talk about the quilting, at least the first part of it.

This summer our younger son was invited to be a part of People to People’s trip for middle school kids to Australia!  The kids are apparently nominated by teachers, school staff, even other “alumni” of the program.  We don’t know who nominated Eli, but are thrilled he was able to go.  As part of the trip, the kids stay with a family for two nights and typically take a gift from their home state.  Eli took some Maine honey and Maine maple syrup, but we thought we’d add a special something:  a quilted piece made by Eli and me.

The finished piece. Aqua hand-dyed fabric by me, gold/green leaf prints by Eli and me, quilting in green by me (mom)

Eli picked the leaves from our land in Hope, we printed the fabric together, then I quilted the piece.

The wall-hanging/table-runner while being quilted

Originally, I thought this could be a table runner, but despite heat-setting the Jacquard Lumiere paint when I did a test rinse and dry (I like to wash to-be-used gifts so folks aren’t upset by the change from never-washed to the way a quilt looks after washing), some of the paint came off.  Wonder if I didn’t heat-set enough?  Anyway, it still looked nice….and in looking at the before and after washing pictures, maybe it didn’t lose as much paint as I initially thought.

Sewing down the binding by machine; I first stitch the binding to the back, then turn to the front. The wooden thingy is (I think) a cuticle stick; it was included to help piece a John Flynn miniatures kit, and it works even better than a skewer in some instances because of the blunt tip. I will now be recommending this tool along with the skewer to my students.

A close up of the bottom right corner; for some reason, the thread looks red in this photo...it is actually green!

Close-up, center left