Something About Nothing

The beginnings of the Spring Queen - since the last wasn't called "Winter Queen" who knows what her name will end up being once she is complete. She'll let me know. Hand carved stamp, mask, and printed fabric ready to embroidery quilt. Final paper rough draft. Her face is embroidery quilted. Figuring out colors. Of course I had to order more. Her bangs begin. And of course her hair needs to be pulled back in order to get a beautiful Afro puff. More to come!

This idea came to me from a friend. She wanted to know if I had any wintery pieces. After thinking about it, I remembered a snowflake piece, and another small piece of a girl in a parka. I decided I needed to make a wintery face. I searched for photos online of beautiful women, and drew a few ideas. At first I thought I wanted her to look up at the sky, but after drawing this face, I knew she was right. Winter looks you right in the eye. She is bold, not bashful, yet cool, thus she would be shades of blue. July 5, 2021 My original thought was to shade her facial features with stitches, but after embroidering the outline of her eyes on a courthouse steps block, I decided she didn't need the shading. I thought she should have curly hair so the snowflakes could be catch in her hair, but I wasn't sure what stitch to use to create the look of curly hair. I looked online to see what other people have done to embroider an afro. Most of the things I saw were a solid background, and the...

This certainly seems to be my blue period of art.  I have really been drawn to the blue dyed fabrics lately. They feel so much more calming, however,  that isn't entirely true with my "Blood on Our Hands" piece.  Although the background is calm, the hands reveal so much more. They are jarring. No matter how much you try to hide them, you can see them. What do these hands say to you? Who do they represent?  

And the Stitch goes on. . .  -think Sonny & Cher -  hope I just passed along that little ear worm.  You're welcome. Swirly, twirly winds stitched in to the sky And now, The Hands... One Hand Two Hands Three Hands Five Hands Sometimes I know how to count. Each hand was traced with a chalk pencil then stitched using a basic outline stitch. These stitches go all the way through all three layers.  The back side so far. And although it is a basic stitch, each hand took a little over an hour to outline. It doesn't help that my carpel tunnel has been creating a lot of pain and numbness in my own hands.  Next it is time to fill in the back ground! I'm also dyeing more fabric for another project. I always have at least three projects going at one time  so I can bounce from one to the other when I get bored.  How do you work?

FYI: In an attempt to catch up the blog with the last year AND stay up to date, I'll be attempting two short posts a week. One that will show what I am currently working on, and one that will be back dated. Hope it doesn't confuse anyone too much (myself included!) I'm currently working on this 18" square, improv pieced art quilt. I'm thinking about entering it in to the Springville Quilt Show this summer. We'll see. I have an idea for a larger piece too, so if I'm lucky, I will have two new pieces to enter. If not then I will enter one of the pieces I created for my Art Cloth Mastery Show (more on that in another post). This piece is created with hand dyed fabrics. I was experimenting with gradations of color by adding neutral gray or black to blue. I really love the dark grays I made with these combinations. You can see the progression of the piece from the top left, down to the bottom right. This is the current state of affairs. I will start quilting the...