Whole Lotta Makin' Goin' On!

Fun videos aside, I really haven't posted any artistic progress for over two weeks.  And...it's going to be April on Saturday.  Who'dda thunk it?!

The time has flown, what with work at The Shop, and buying a new car, and making new work for the up-coming Art Show & Sale in Lacombe (April 21-22).  

With that video I proved to myself that I could actually do a demo about something -- so I quickly asked if there were still a slot open for one at the Art Show and -- YES!  I'll be doing that same wee mono-printing demo there on Friday, April 21 at 3 p.m.  They'll give me an extra table on which to work, and I'll have access to the janitor's work room and sink for cleaning up.  All I need to supply is something to protect the table, and my mono-printing supplies.  The great thing is that I'll have at least four minis done with that technique, plus the one large piece I did last year for my 15 x 15 Group.

These new ones include two of the birds-and-beads pieces that people really seem to like...

"Town Hall Meeting" - 2017

"Family Reunion" - 2017

And a couple of new ones based on a photo I took of the sky in September...sometime...and can't locate (at least at the moment!)  

"Golden Autumn" - 2017

"Spring Greens" - 2017

Yes...the branches of those are mono-printed before stitching and yes -- they've been framed!  My manager at The Shop had taken them out of inventory because they'd been there for ages and not sold; she gave me a good price...and I bought several.  The two pieces above have mats and glass.  The one below does not:

"January Moon-set" - 2017

Also in the "something new" category of minis this year are these two, that I finished this morning...and as I want to make at least two more pieces, there may be more in this vein...

Needle-felted minis, mounted on mat-board:

"Coming Home" (2017)

"Spring Rising" (2017)

I've played with needle-felting before -- I even have an embellisher and I've taken a class -- but this time, inspired by my friend Mary who's taken up wet-felting with great results, I was determined to make it work.  I finished each piece with a bit of gentle wet-felting to 'set' the felt, but in truth they are quite soft.  "Coming Home" has had a light non-woven stabilizer fused to the back of it as it's composed of pre-felt (the sky) and acrylic felt (the land) sections.

"Spring Rising" is felted onto a square of recycled wool blanket that had been washed (and therefore lightly felted) before using. Not wanting to put them under glass, I searched the internet for mounting ideas and settled on one: I marked a hole in the mat under each corner of the given piece, and punched it out with an aul.  I then ran embroidery floss through the hole into the back of the piece and out to the back, and tied it there in a double knot.  I further secured each knot with artist's tape, thus:

I really enjoyed the process, and hope that others will like them enough to take them home.  Meanwhile, I have a few more minis to make, and some sleeves to attache to larger pieces...so I'm going off to link this to WIP Wednesday at The Needle and Thread Network.

Have a great rest of the week!

From the C&G

'Star Dust'

My City & Guilds tutor, Linda Kemshall, and her colleagues will be closing the online 'schoolhouse' on Friday for the Christmas and New Year holiday.  I decided I'd best finish Activity 4 of Module 5, so I could make a fresh start on the next activity in the New Year.

Two methods of tied quilting were required for the assignment.  Because I had only one sample, I decided to combine them in the one piece.  Can you pick out the two different approaches?  Here's a detail shot to give you a better idea:

The other thing I've done with this sample is finish the edge on one side, just to see if it would work well.  I trimmed the batting right back from the edge, and the backing to 1/4" (or so -- I did it free-hand).  Then I folded and finger-pressed that bit of seam allowance and whip-stitched it to the already-folded edges of the outer hexagons, using the same fine silk thread I used to attach the hexies to each other.  I rather like the results, and when I have a few moments here and there, I'll go around the other 3 sides with this technique.  With the zig-zag edging, I'm thinking it might be interesting to mount the finished piece on stretched canvas -- or on a solid-coloured quilted background (a quilt on a quilt).  What do you think?