wordless wednesday

wordless wednesday

quilt hawaii 2011 in waikiki at marriott !

Aloha, this is the year of the poinsettia to be painted .
 quilt hawaii aka quilt ventures is hosting the show at the
  MARRIOTT  WIAKIKI BEACH  RESORT
and SPA
 JUNE 28-JULY3 2011

wordless wednesday with Noodles

wordless wednesday

wordless wednesday

painting fabric Pat

 this is my  quilting friend Pat from Washington state that has taken my class several times , the  orchids, hibiscus, anthuriums, gingers, and will be back again this July.  in the hibiscus class Pat paints up a storm. she is very enthusiastic and driven and organized and makes beautiful quilts , some with the pieces she paints. we  just   might see the hibiscus  quilt  one this summer. i for one can hardly wait!

                                    below is some of her painting afternoon  2007.

so this morning i get a call and it's Pat getting excited about putting this quilt together from her painted pieces  and seeing plant forms and colors she had not noticed before in her fabric  and making me happy  that we paint. and together it is really fun. she was trying to describe what i call atmosphere and that is almost impossible to paint with words but cloth and paint ,YES.   congratulations Pat, i can hardly wait to see what you do with your fabric painted art once you get to designing, cutting and sewing and piecing and quilting!

ps
 this quilt went on to be born and win best machine  ribbon at quilt hawaii 2012!

painting fabric

Aloha,

Yesterday  i started to paint up fabric  as the weather was good and i needed more colors for  my projects. and shows.  theses are a few of the pieces i did  outside on my 4x8 plywood table top.   i like to paint one yard to  half yard pieces as they are manageable. For larger i like to use the lawn as a surface.

I love the way two colors merge, it is the magic the cloth and paint make together  when cloth is damp and a spray of water makes it even more so. I am not interested in control, 

rather than that letting gravity and sun have the freedom to play out. 

the one just  below i call "underwater garden "

and was done on the lawn.

                          

The one just above is another example of what i call atmosphere painting. done very wet and left to make its own migration. yummy possibilities here.

After pieces dry, i  heat treat with iron and wash and iron again.

This would be boring but for the fact the fabric is interesting as i iron and gives way to design time. i like to let the fabric drape from old wooden hangers  to inspire new work or finish a  project started.
i have been happily painting with Versatex screen printing inks since  1983,
 both making yardage for my quilts and for painting figuratively and florals more deliberately.
My choice of these products from Dharma Trading Company have been a pleasure to use, making my artistic life colorful and creative. 

and this is what i received...

in the previous post i showed the ATC 's i made and sent out

for the     Reduce  Reuse  Recycle    theme

and this is what i got in the mail in trade .

 we all used this and that and parts and paper and fabric and you name it ,

we use it. feathers, and game parts, stamps, ribbons, metal, clay, cheese cloth, rickrack, leaves, buttons, sequins, used food packaging and  paint and glitz. even stuff sent in the mail as advertisements got  used. one was even fragrant!

 all into a 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 inch size little art card.

a good exercise for creative brain power improvement is to look around and see  old stuff or  ready to toss stuff in a new light. how you put it together is your latest story .

instead of using a  regular envelope, i cut apart a beautiful quilt calendar from 2005? folded and sewd around my out going cards. and that's the rest of my story, today! 

ATCs from recycled items

                                               reduce reuse recycle

my first trade in this group is right up my alley. it is about using up stuff

that some just toss in the trash or recycle now a days. ATC refer to Artist trading cards and are 2  1/2" by 3 1/2" in size.

this trade was with  the http://artisinthecards.blogspot.com/  group i recently joined.

i started with some fabric paper i made using torn tissue from last Christmas packaging and other thin papers painted that were thin glued to a fabric that was destined for the yard sale. half white glue, half water

painted on cloth and over papers randomly placed.

beach glass is what i thought background looked like. and i love beach glass!

some machine free motion quilting in variegated thread to doddle about shapes came next. i have saved can pull tabs for a while and they were attached with thin ripped fabric remnants. some gold paint and a bit of glitz added here and there. i glued them to the backs of a ginger ale carton cardboard cut the same size as ATCs and then zigzaged machine stitch all around.

i had a colorful 2005 AQS calendar that i cut up to make envelopes and sewed the cards into them  and off they went with a first class stamp .

i enjoyed my first round with this group even though i had a hard time deciding which of these to keep and which to send so i did it randomly.
sonja

 

hearts and flowers

                                                     happy valentine's day,

once again

a day of hearts and flowers (and dreams of chocolate treats, too).

the little painted hearts above show my love of flowers and color and fabric and hearts. they  are  sewn into shape and quilted by hand or machine.
 they are about 5 inches by 5 inches more or less.

if you could turn them over a small pocket is revealed .
 something special can be tucked in and the loop of ribbon allows it to hang.

 if only a drop of your favorite scent on a cotton ball is tucked into  the pocket ,

it is sweeter still.

may your hearts be full each  day with the things and folks  you  love and enjoy.

aloha, sonja

big waves of january 2011

i don't think i shall ever get tired of wave watching. mornings are fresh with rainbows sometimes added, evenings  sparkle, and diamonds blink  back at noon as the water moves towards the shoreline under the sunshine.

 i must have a ton of shots at sunset, of big wave days, and beautiful mornings.  this wave is of Waimea Bay breaking and a surfer taking off down the face. you can see the water spray back over the wave carried by the morning winds. the many shade of blue are indescribably beautiful.

 so i sit and stare. sit and dream.

sit and be grateful for all the beauty around us at any given moment .

sit and be in the moment.

i hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that calm has set in after all the shopping, cooking, baking, hiding and finding the gifts you bought/made,

that wrappings and dishes have been cleared and that Santa left something you have been wishing for under your tree.

i wish you a  healthy and creative new year 2011.

i just got used to writing 2010, barely.

cooking up a batch of cranberry sauce

Happy Thanksgiving !

 this is  how i make cranberry sauce. it  is good any time of year if you find a bag of frozen berries in your fridge.  and you can change the flavors depending what is on hand.

 water to cover and sugar to taste, or follow the instruction on the back of the bag. i add grated ginger, honey or maple syrup, lemon zest, cinnamon, chopped apple or pear ,chopped up orange  in small chunks that include flesh and skin, halfed grapes, shopped up dried fruit bts, and a splash of Merlot.

 cook until the berries start to pop. cool .add nuts if you like a crunch and texture. this is  an adult sauce and my nieces preferred the canned sauce when they were young.

                                              yummo! i love this color .

Happy Thanksgiving to all !

pumpkin carols anyone?

October is almost gone and i am still having pumpkin dreams.

i love these colors and i have a challenge to finish with 3 other artist ladies , postcards of thankfulness and i am still in the  painting stage. they will not dry.... it is raining here so things will not dry. i blew out the hair dryer that was on its last leg and now in the trash  so i am  re-learning patience, again.

 even my feet stick to the hardwood floor with this much humidity in the air.

"frost is on the pumpkin,

 salt is in the air,

pumpkin headed angels 

are flying throught the air"

this little ditty came to me a decade ago while making some folk-arty figures for my Christmas Tree and i feel naked with out one around the studio the rest of the year. i painted a pumpkin on its gown and wrote out the words as well. this little dude tells a  tale of signs of winter? winter in Hawaii  as the waves build and send salt molecules into the air . he has quilted wings to lift him above the salty brine which swirls up seveal hundred feet and covers your windows and everything else .

have a great pumpkin day however you do it and God bless Charlie Brown.

baby quilt time

Oh Baby!

this is the baby quilt i made for my niece's' first girl a few years ago.

a lot of stars in vintage reproduction fabrics and girly colors are used  in here.
 Baby girl quilts are fun  to make and this ones echos the colors of the
Christmas Cactus we call Isabel as it was a cutting from my mother in laws plant on her front step years ago , that coral pink that i love with green.

hanging over the rail letting the low light of a winter sunset
 to back light up the quilt , it is a warm and cuddly sight and a delight to have made. what usually happens is that i grossly under estimate the time it takes from idea to a finished quilt, to fold and
hand over  the quilt to the  new baby's family.
 this one finished out about 35" square . 

and i have no idea how long it took..... 

but i really i love how it turned out!

So i  was most  happy to get a request this summer to make

this one below.

 a BOY baby quilt.

this little guy is made up  in the vintages reproduction fabrics reflecting the 1930's feed sack prints . i like the small conversational  type prints and tossed in a favorite of mine, a banana yellow and blue denim like  fabric i find  very appealing, pun intended. i made nine patch units and snowball units to get the overall look. the vines that surround the blocks are hand painted and i seem to use this framing method from time to time on quilts of various sizes as i can't go too long with picking up a paint brush or so it seems.

the quilt  is not done until the label is attached and dated and i always paint and customize my labels. and i seem to get my toes in some  photos as i go about barefooted most of the time.

 i sent it off  yesterday in a pillow case  made of blue plaid fabric echoing the colors of the quilt. all it needs now is a ribbon to tie it  closed.

Baby shower in 10 days so  i am so glad i made it close to the deadline which is always harder for me than making  of the quilt as i always  take way  more time than i think. that is why it is almost an impossible question for me  to answer when someone asks...how long did that take to make?
   

                                                               "  until now "

                                                                               

                                     

ps.... the quilt has reached the person that ordered it last summer at Hale'iwa Arts Festival
and here is the music to my ears that little quilt has caused...     

" Hi Sonja. The quilt arrived and it is beautiful. I am so excited to give such a special gift. It is incredible - and I see the TLC that was put into it. Thank you so very much. I knew the quilt would be great - but it is above and beyond "great".

Many many thanks. RW"

i am grateful my hands and eyes work well together

Now that makes my day!

                                         

shower trees and QH painters

Autumn has  officially arrived on the calendar in the land of somewhat endless summer  with  some of shower trees in bloom .

Here is a 

part of my class from Quilt Hawaii  last Summer 

 with some of the class painting and some at show and tell. i always loose a few  to photo sessions at the end who are camera shy

 so if you are missing  that might be why.

thank you all again for showing up and painting with me the colors of the islands, you are all amazing women and made a  most wonderful day for me ! 

i will ad more  pictures and copy later .

what i did this summer so far

                                

Here they are below, the  very latest painters of fabrics and flowers and ferns and yardage- all together on a glorious summer day  and they came  my way via quilt shows and art festivals ! we had a great time discovering that we all have a colorful and playful side and agreed this was a good time to let it  loose.  I provided the paints and atmosphere of playfulness along with odd and common materials and tools i use  most everyday when  i  paint.

Taking the time to do so is the hardest part according to my vast research  .

                                

Here some of their pieces are drying pinned to a cork board

and  belo , taking a Kodak moment in front of  their wonderful and newly made art fabrics are

   Sharon, Elaine, Carolyn, and Barbara,my newest painter in the pacific!

 .

                                 

                                                     and then in the afternoon,

 we took to the  shaded lawn with dampened  fabric spread out  and weighted  down on the  corners with small rocks and pinned to the grass with clothespins....  we painted some more this time with more than brushes.  as  the paint came squirting out of ketchup or is it cat sup ? containers thinned with water, (the paint not the condiment),  we make color appear on cloth with our hands and the whole body , bending over to fold  and smush the cloth  around, moving the paint  about and making a point that  i feel is for my self at least mostly  true, that we don't just paint with our hands or arm  or the brush in our hand  but with  the whole body, our whole self . that is most likely why i can't paint sitting down .

And that's another reason why i love the Hokey Pokey ...

'cause i can put my whole self in !!

after our  one yard pieces dried enough, i invite them to  pick one they could part with and rip them up into fat quarters and  we exchanged  with each other  our colorful fabrics.

and so went yet another  beautiful summer day 

 of art play

in the shade of a friendly tree  .

Hale'iwa Art Festival, 2010. the  short report

 i have only have one photo of the Haleiwa Arts Festival this year so far  as i forgot my camera  the first day and was so busy the second i did not take photos. i found one on creative grammie site that she took.  It looks like i am in the process of releasing  one of my gardening/guardian angels 

into the world .

  One  of the interesting  things that  did happened that weekend was that the staff of the Festival did a booth contest thing and out of 120 booths i landed in the top 10 i was told  by Saturday late afternoon. best designed booth was the criteria or decorated and i maintain all of my stuff and fabrics arts  are for sale with the exception of  some props, like the vintage Featherweight,  and containers and display things. Well, i must say i did sleep well  and didn't  think too much of it as i usually bring all this stuff to shows , much to my DH dismay . I brought a set of chairs to sit or wait in as in "husband waiting chair"... and a table and a vintage table covering and I use vintage bark cloth and chenille spreads on my display tables because i like them .I  put arrangements of flowers on  the 3 corner posts of the tent.  Did i mention this was outside ? and windy? we call them Trade Winds and they do cool things off. In my case i  also bring a box of small rocks and clothespins to somewhat anchor things down.

Sunday  morning i get the word that i was a top  contender tho  i had not won the contest even tho i had several folks that were cheering and debating for me to be the one who would have a large blue ribbon  pinned to their booth, blowing in the brisky winds. oh well, it would have been nice to have next years booth paid in advance but i was happy enough  to be in the running  doing what it is i do with fabrics anyway. Thank you creative grammie for taking  the photo below .

thanks to the HAF staffers that  boosted my spirits !

AND what a BIG surprise i had when Kathy Lukens and Jill flew in from the Big Island and brought me lunch!

you guys rock!!

i had a great weekend !

be well,Sonja