Jill Lee-Jones

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2012-01-23T13:27:00.000-08:00

Siskiyou Golden Fair

2012-01-20T11:25:00.000-08:00

In the spirit of trying to get caught up, I went back through my sketchbook and scanned these sketches from the Siskiyou Golden Fair last summer. I spent 3 days at the fair--2 days sketching and one evening doing photography. By the end of the third day I felt I had really hit my stride with the sketching and spent most of the day drawing in the poultry and rabbit buildings. I was pretty happy with the sketches and of course met lots of inquisitive and knowledgeable young people who were more than happy to give me details about their particular animal. I ended up doing all my sketching standing up and made notes about color and details and then took breaks by going outside to a bench to paint my sketches. I really enjoyed the fair and will probably end up going for 4 days this year!

Trying to Get Back in the Saddle...

2012-01-19T12:37:00.001-08:00

Well I have been really lax in posting, so I'm trying to get back on track and start posting some images. During my absence I've been outdoor sketching quite a bit. Yesterday we got our first real snowfall here and I went inside to sketch...at the Siskiyou County Museum, where I met up with a sketching buddy, Bob. We had a great time looking through the museum and trying to decide what to draw. I ended up tackling this fully outfitted covered wagon display. The light in the museum was dim so I made a mental note to bring a headlamp next time. There are tons of amazing artifacts in the museum to draw so I think I'll be heading back there soon, since our weather is not supposed to improve much over the next week or so.

I used Noodler's Lexington Grey ink in my trusty Lamy Safari EF fountain pen. Then Daniel Smith watercolors on top. This is in my 5.5" x 8" Pentalic bound sketchbook. That's why the amazing gutter in this picture. I am almost at the end of this book and I have to say I will be glad when I'm finished with it. The paper cockles badly with watercolor and the book is so swollen that it will hardly stay closed. I only have 4 more spreads in it and then I will start with one of the new books I have that are watercolor paper. I really love the idea of the bound book, but in this case it just has not worked out well for me. I've also had issues with bleed through on the thin paper, so I'm looking forward to working on a more substantial paper.

In October I went to Yreka for the WW SketchCrawl #33. Here are a couple of images I did that day...

This one I did from the parking lot across the street. I got a lot of people stopping and asking questions and just watching me draw. It was fun to have the little kids asking questions and just generally hanging out.

I did this one from inside the Audacity. I sat at a window table and had a really great mocha made by Carmen. Thanks Carmen!

Will post more images in the coming weeks....

Happy Holidays from the Shasta Valley

2011-12-25T18:03:00.000-08:00

2011-06-25T07:10:00.000-07:00

Just couldn't resist taking this photo this morning. The light was wonderful. This is probably the last of my peonies for this year...the heat is finally ramping up. I've been busy with the vegetable garden the last few weeks. Lots to do there. Photos when it really starts to look like something...

2011-06-17T08:27:00.000-07:00

2011-06-16T07:02:00.000-07:00

2011-06-15T09:01:00.000-07:00

2011-06-14T21:15:00.001-07:00

Sketching Out

2011-06-13T17:36:00.000-07:00

We took a day off last week and headed to the McCloud River for the day. It was great to have some time to take photos with the new camera and make a couple sketches. This is the first time I've used a bound sketchbook for on location sketching. Also first time with the Platinum Preppy fountain pen. I did discover that the Platinum Black ink is NOT waterproof. So next time will try the Carbon Ink which is supposed to be better with watercolor. Lower Falls was so big I decided to use two pages hence the gutter in the middle...

Platinum Preppy Fine Point Fountain Pen with Black Ink and Daniel Smith Watercolors

First Peonies

2011-06-07T17:55:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I picked the first peonies of this year and brought them into the house. It is very late for them, usually showing up in early to mid May. Our weather has been very unpredictable this spring, lots of cold and rain, but it looks like from now on, things are going to be warmer and drier.

I've been quiet because I really have felt I haven't had much to say. Last month I finally made a decision on the new camera I wanted for my birthday and the photos in the last few posts are from that camera. It feels really good to be back using an SLR again and being able to use different lenses for different effects. I am still learning so much about this new camera and really enjoying it. Look forward to more photos...

In the meantime I've been busy with lots of catch-up/utility sewing projects. Like making new covers for the deck furniture and mending all kinds of things. I've started a new sewing project recently, but can't really show anything until it is finished, so you'll have to wait on that. In the meantime I'll be updating this blog with more photos and sketches. Stay tuned...

2011-05-26T23:04:00.000-07:00

Visitor

2011-05-17T10:51:00.000-07:00

2011-05-15T20:35:00.000-07:00

2011-05-14T19:06:00.000-07:00

2011-05-11T20:21:00.000-07:00

IFJM - 4/30/11

2011-05-01T11:54:00.001-07:00

IFJM - 4/29/11

2011-05-01T11:53:00.000-07:00

IFJM - 4/28/11

2011-04-28T15:35:00.001-07:00

IFJM - 4/27/11

2011-04-27T19:05:00.001-07:00

IFJM - 4/26/11

2011-04-27T19:04:00.003-07:00

IFJM - 4/25/11

2011-04-27T19:04:00.001-07:00

IFJM - 4/24/11

2011-04-27T19:03:00.001-07:00

IFJM - 4/23/11

2011-04-27T19:02:00.000-07:00

IFJM - 4/22/11

2011-04-27T19:01:00.001-07:00

IFJM - 4/21/11

2011-04-21T19:01:00.001-07:00

IFJM - 4/20/11

2011-04-21T09:12:00.001-07:00

IFJM - 4/19/11

2011-04-21T09:11:00.000-07:00

IFJM - 4/18/11

2011-04-20T18:27:00.001-07:00

IFJM - 4/17/11

2011-04-20T18:26:00.002-07:00

IFJM - 4/16/11

2011-04-20T18:26:00.001-07:00

IFJM - 4/15/11

2011-04-20T18:25:00.001-07:00

IFJM - 4/14/11

2011-04-20T18:24:00.000-07:00

IFJM - 4/13/11

2011-04-20T18:23:00.001-07:00

IFJM - 4/12/11

2011-04-13T15:29:00.001-07:00

IFJM - 4/11/11

2011-04-13T15:28:00.001-07:00

IFJM - 4/10/11

2011-04-13T15:27:00.001-07:00

IFJM - 4/9/11

2011-04-11T19:30:00.002-07:00

IFJM - 4/8/11

2011-04-11T19:30:00.001-07:00

IFJM - 4/7/11

2011-04-11T19:28:00.000-07:00

IFJM - 4/6/11

2011-04-08T22:17:00.001-07:00

IFJM - 4/5/11

2011-04-08T22:16:00.001-07:00

IFJM - 4/4/11

2011-04-08T22:15:00.001-07:00

IFJM - 4/3/11

2011-04-08T22:14:00.001-07:00

IFJM - 4/2/11

2011-04-08T22:12:00.000-07:00

My Fabric from the Complex Cloth Round Robin

2011-04-06T11:50:00.001-07:00

I'd forgotten to post a photo of my fabric which arrived home in February. Here it is. Everybody did a great job and for now it is hanging in the studio until I can decide whether or not I want to cut it up!

IFJM - 4/1/11

2011-04-05T22:24:00.001-07:00

Ancient Signs Book Slideshow

2011-04-05T22:15:00.000-07:00

For a page by page slideshow of the book, click on the photo above...

This Book Class Was A Kick!

2011-04-05T19:09:00.000-07:00

Trying to get caught up on all the stuff I've been doing lately. Last month I took a book class with Albie Smith in her beautiful Jacksonville, Oregon studio. We made this...what she calls 'Sculpture or Book'. I think it's a little of both!

Each page has a small pocket on the left hand side for a tag, photo, whatever you want to put in there. And I love the fact that when you set it down on a smooth surface it naturally wants to spiral into a circle. I've handled this book a lot in the last few days and it never ceases to me make me smile. Definitely need to make more of these.

We used Stonehenge papers and paste paint made with Daniel Smith colored gessos and fluid acrylics. First we painted the pages' backgrounds. These photos don't do justice to the shimmer from the gold gesso we used. Once the pages were dry we added stamping and stenciling with the fluid acrylics. Final assembly was with archival double sided tape.

Last Piece from Complex Cloth Round Robin

2011-04-05T13:56:00.000-07:00

Last week I finally sent off the final piece from the Complex Cloth Round Robin started last year. I ended up holding this piece for an extra two weeks as I had no idea of what to do with it. It was very monochromatic and had lots of things going on in the background, no clear ideas about color came to me. I figured the only way to go forward was to be BOLD. The photo above shows the fabric as it came to me...

I jumped right in and began by cutting stencils and using DeColorant discharge paste to get rid of some of the muddy color in the center of the piece. After washing I went back into the discharged spots with SetaSilk paint mixed with Pebeo's special thickener. One thing I should mention, the thickener has a jell-like consistency and tended to evaporate very quickly making a yucky clumpy mess in my mixing cup. I wonder if it is just sanitary hand cleaner jell in a jar, because it behaves quite the same, as I've used that with SetaSilk in the past to thicken it. After the SetaSilk I moved onto several colors of Jacquard Lumiere Metallics in Citrine, Russet, Burnt Orange, Copper, Gold, Bronze, etc.

After several trips to the design wall, adding more here and there, I decided it needed a shadow focal point, so I cut more stencils of seeds and pods and then stenciled them sparingly with Red and Gold Lumiere.

By this time we were nearing the end of the month, and I was feeling the uncertainly of whether to keep going with it or call it finished -- I am the last person to add to the cloth before it goes to its owner.

I decided that instead of going too far, I would stop and send it on to Jill and let her decide if it needed more. I heard from her last week and she is delighted with the fabric. I am so glad! Now I'm waiting to see what she ends up doing with it!

With A Little Help From My Friend...

2011-03-28T15:51:00.000-07:00

I put this quilt top together several winters ago. It was the first in my 'winter color' phase and the pattern and fabrics are by Kaffe Fassett. The pattern is called New Orleans Star. I have not really been able to capture the beautiful colors here...sludgy greens and mauves. I had been holding onto this top waiting to quilt it. Recently I decided that in order to move ahead with my own ideas, I needed to get help with finishing some of these tops.

So I gave this one to my good friend, Veronica Nurmi, machine quilter extraordinare. She did a fantastic job with it, designing her own quilting patterns and then working with a beautiful green thread on her Juki. (She is the one who talked me into buying my Juki and I have to say I have NOT been disappointed.) So now this quilt will go into the house to be used and enjoyed. It's nice to see it again. Hopefully more of my stack of tops will get finished now that I have a little help from my friend!

Last Night's View

2011-03-17T11:47:00.000-07:00

Dealing with Denial

2011-03-06T12:19:00.000-08:00

The last day or so I've been doing a lot of ripping. Ripping out seams in a project from long ago. It began when I was thinking about starting a new project. I thought I might want to recycle or reuse something as a base to start it. I remembered this quilt top I had finished several years ago that didn't turn out right. That out of frustration I'd thrown into a bag with other tops to be quilted "when I had extra time".

It's a complicated pattern. Lots of paper piecing and curved seams. Beautiful colors. When I first put it together all was well until I got to the corners, that's where denial set in. I was on fire with this project. Everything was going well, I could visualize the finished piece with quilting and all. I'd already bought the thread and had the quilting pattern worked out in my mind. But I wasn't present, my mind running on ahead and it blinded me to the fact that on that first corner things were not working. But I pushed on, confident that I could 'fix' it if things got out of hand. And boy, they did. Once the finished top was laid out it was so distorted that I later nicknamed it 'The Parachute'. I realized that I couldn't fix it and I moved on to something else. I chalked it up as a learning experience.

So yesterday I pulled this top out of the bag and laid it out and ironed it. I thought "I can fix it...put a few pleats in here, cut some fabric out there". But I realized that once again...I was in denial. I had to buckle down to the hard work of ripping apart what had taken days to sew and to reconstruct each corner. As I spent time with my seam ripper, I thought about how denial keeps us from seeing things clearly. In quilting and in life. It makes us do things we wouldn't ordinarily do if we were thinking straight. It keeps us avoiding the hard work. Looks like I have some hard work ahead, but enjoyable now. I feel like I'm putting things right. I wish most situations in life were just a matter of ripping out a few threads and straightening a seam.

Persian Star Revisited

2011-02-12T17:00:00.001-08:00

You may remember seeing this quilt a year ago on this blog. If not, check here. Well I guess January is the time I go through my UFO box and see if there's anything in there that still has my interest, and I came across this. I decided that I really did need to figure out what the heck was wrong with this thing and get it finished so I could quilt it. After spending time looking at it, looking at the pattern, I discovered that the two side borders were each missing a block at the bottom. Hmmm...that's why I had two extra blocks...go figure. So I sewed those on, voila! One vertical border fit perfectly. The other didn't, it was too short. Then I fitted the top and bottom borders, same deal. One fit, one was too short. By about an inch in both cases. No, I was not going to go on a 'rip and resew' fest. So I decided my only option was to add more fabric at each end, center the border between it, and applique the border on. Of course I could not find the two fabrics I needed in my nightmare of a stash, so I went to my last ditch, go to place--my scrap box. After scrounging up enough scraps, piecing them together and finally sewing everything together, it was 4 hours later and finished. Now on to the layering and pinning...*sigh*...maybe another day...

Third Round of 2010/11 Complex Cloth

2011-02-11T12:15:00.000-08:00

I have to admit that I haven't gotten much done in the studio the last few weeks. We've had a glorious break in the weather with daytime temps in the upper 50s and 60s and lots of sunshine. The nights are still quite cool, getting down to the teens and twenties with lots of frost. So I've been trying to spend as much time outside as possible before the 'big storm' that's supposed to hit on Monday and break this pattern of weather nirvana. *sigh*

I did spend some time in the studio working on this cloth for the next round in the Complex Cloth Round Robin I'm participating in. Another beautiful piece of dying by Jacque and Gisela. The previous layer was accomplished with snow dying and black dye, so I guess I had snow on the brain when I opened this package. Much of the patterning on the cloth reminded me of snowflakes and I just couldn't get that image out of my mind, so I decided to define it with more 'literal' snowflake images. I used a screen from Lyric Kinard's design collection and screened with Jacquard's Lumiere Metallic Silver.

I'm really happy with the outcome of this...was thinking this would make a lovely curtain or room divider if it was a little bigger...

Here's some playing around with different colors trying to decide which one(s) to use. Hmmm...in the end going with a simple color seemed best for this technicolor cloth. It's now off to the next person and I'm waiting to see what's passed to me next. So far I am loving the challenge of working on these diverse and beautiful pieces of cloth...

Round 2

2011-01-14T15:52:00.001-08:00

This week I finished up my second piece in the Complex Cloth Round Robin. Above is a piece of bamboo/cotton blend fabric dyed by the amazing Jacque Davis for the first layer. I totally fell in love with this fabric from the moment it arrived. I had so many ideas that I could have used, but ended up with the idea of stenciling trails of small bubbles on the fabric to complement its watery theme.

I made a stencil out of reinforced brown kraft paper, by burning with an incense stick then sealing with numerous coats of gel medium. Once the stencil was ready, I used a mixture of Jacquard's Lumiere in metallic turquoise and metallic purple. A little extender made the paint flow easier and toned down the metallic part.

I was really happy with how this cloth turned out and I plan to try to make a similar one this spring when the weather warms up enough for dying. Hurry up summer!!!

Most Recent Completion

2010-12-29T15:50:00.000-08:00

Now that Christmas is over I can show the project I've been working on over the last six months. This is a wedding gift for the oldest son and his new wife.

I started on it last summer, but got sidetracked with deadlines on other projects so decided to finish it off for a holiday gift for the two of them. It is 54" square and made from the numerous Asian fabrics I had in my stash. Most of these fabrics are old. Purchased in the 90s when I had just started sewing and was wanting to do an Asian quilt (which I never did). The edges really are straight, these photos are taken on a clothesline outside on a breezy day.

I really enjoyed working on this one, despite the issues I had while quilting the inner border which is made out of gold dupioni silk. I'm looking forward to seeing it displayed in their house, but I think this is the best view of it.

21° Freezing Fog

2010-12-16T11:05:00.000-08:00

I've had my head down working hard on several projects, but this morning I woke up to my landscape sketched in graphite...

with a hint of watercolor...

distilling shapes and forms...

except for these busy patches of yellow...

making the most of this neutral background.

'River' is Traveling...

2010-12-15T11:35:00.000-08:00

Looks like my quilt 'Late August on the River' will be going to Road to California quilt show in Glendale, California next month as part of the 'Along the Rogue' exhibit. Check out the details of the show here.

:.:.:.:.:.:.:.....

2010-11-27T09:03:00.001-08:00

First Round...

2010-11-18T19:49:00.000-08:00

On Monday I sent off my first contribution to the Complex Cloth round robin I joined in September. I'm part of a group of 5 who will be circulating 5 pieces of fabric, each piece receiving a contribution of some kind of surface design from each person. My first piece came from an amazing dyer, Jacque Davis. You can see her work here. She sent me this beautiful piece of tray dyed fabric for me to add my mark to.

I really felt that this piece DIDN'T need anything, so I scratched my head for a while while it hung on my studio wall. 30 days is a long time to stare at a piece of fabric and I kept waiting for it to speak to me. But it remained remarkably quiet. The ideas I had I felt were too literal and would steer the piece in a way that I didn't want to go. Eventually I decided the best course was to do an abstract paint roller discharge on the fabric to bring some light areas into it. My first attempt was a bust. I guess the Soft Scrub I was using was weak as nothing happened. After trotting off to the store for a fresh bottle, the next day I tried again, using a stamp with a meandering pattern. Well, another less than effectual result. I was able to get the darker colors to discharge, but the golden yellow was staying put. I really wanted to accentuate the flow of the dying so I decided that I would change tack and go for another kind of contrast and use some black Jacquard Neopaque with a credit card and put in some sketchy marks across the fabric. I was pleased with the outcome, but on the last row a blob appeared and when I tried to scrape it off...ACK!... a big streak. At this point I was beginning to feel like I was three strikes down. That little nagging voice inside me said that I had really messed up this beautiful piece of fabric, that I should just give up on surface design, that I was a lousy artist, that I should quit the group. But that little streak turned out to be serendipity. I stood back to see just how bad it was, and well, I kind of liked it. I quickly put more streaks in, and was pleasantly surprised that it was just what my weak little sketchy marks needed to pump them up a bit. So once again I learn the lesson of persistence...

I now have my second piece of fabric in hand, again dyed by Jacque, and am thinking on this one as well. I am looking forward to the lessons this particular piece of cloth might teach me. :-)

Passing shower...

2010-11-14T15:38:00.001-08:00

A Little Catch Up

2010-11-12T15:45:00.000-08:00

Wow, life has been busy for me the last few weeks. Along with all the usual stuff I've attended a two day monoprinting workshop, a paste paper play day, and finished my first piece in the Complex Cloth Round Robin. So I'm a little tired to say the least... Anyway as promised here are the close-ups of the fabric from the last dyeing of summer and the last piece in my 'stitched to dye' group.

This was the final piece in my 'stitched to dye' experiments in September. I finally sat down and pieced these strips together today and eventho this did not work out as planned, I learned a lot. I had pre-cut these strips and then dyed each one separately, but I didn't pay attention to the seam allowances and painted over them so I lost almost all of the lovely rough edges once they were sewn together. Also I washed these pieces in my washer and amazingly one disappeared. I now know where it went because in the second load a larger piece from another project went missing! After a week I had pretty much forgotten about it when I was doing the regular laundry and the washing machine refused to pump out the dirty water. After my DH and I siphoned all the dirty water out and laid the washer on its side, he removed the pump and TA DA! there were my missing fabrics! Thankfully he was able to do the job and save a costly repair bill. Lesson learned--put small pieces into a mesh bag so they stay put. One of the pieces that was sucked in was 6" x 7" so beware!

This piece and the following ones were created on my last dyeing day of the year. This one is made with a wooden trivet I picked up at a yard sale. Wouldn't this make a neat Christmas fabric with red and green?

I've been very interested in the meditative process of creating these Zen circles, a single brushstroke to create the circle. These are done on plexiglass and then monoprinted on the fabric. Another lesson learned -- weak lemon yellow dye and too much print paste make for a washed out yellow. I may go back into this one and print some yellows.

This one is monoprinting as well. I had the print paste too thin and most of the detail in the drawings is too washed out. I'll revisit this idea again next summer. This one also suffers from the 'washed out lemon yellow', see lower left corner.

All in all it's been a good summer dye painting and printing. Can't wait to get back to it!

1.7 Inches of Rain in Two Days

2010-10-25T09:30:00.001-07:00

We had a big storm come in on Friday night. 1.7" of rain in two days, which for a place that only got about 7" of rain all year last winter, it's a lot. I guess we are really transitioning from fall into winter now. 34° this morning...brrrrrr...

Another batch of dye painting

2010-10-20T16:07:00.001-07:00

I've been busy washing out fabric this morning, drying on the line. Later I'll iron and take some proper photos, but I thought they looked great with the valley view.

Eco Dyes

2010-10-19T08:41:00.000-07:00

Last spring I played around a bit with eco dying after seeing some examples on the internet. I gathered together some cotton fabric, leaves, flowers, rusty metal, stones and crochet thread. I carefully placed the natural material on the cloth then folded it, wrapped it around a stone, bound it with crochet thread, and put the bundle into a jelly jar. I then filled the jars with soda ash solution and put them out in the sun on the front walk for about a month. When I finally opened them and unwrapped them I was amazed. I had a lot of nice patterning, which is what I was after, but lost most of it when I washed the fabrics out. I really like the subtle colors that I got from the maple leaves, black iris blooms, lupine, rose and cherry plum. I am really happy about the matching threads. I can't wait to try some stitching with these. Soon after the 'dying experiment' I purchased India Flint's excellent book EcoColour. What a wealth of info there. I need to go back and try this again, now that I know more....

View from the Studio

2010-10-18T17:04:00.001-07:00

10.10.10

More time passing...

2010-10-17T08:24:00.000-07:00

Here's another little hand piece. The background is woven strips of cotton cloth which were secured with running stitches. I started pulling scraps from my batik bag just roughly sewing them in place with running stitch, whatever color of embroidery cotton I happened to lay my hands on. Another work in progress...slowly evolving...to where? I'm not sure yet.

Passing time...

2010-10-16T07:35:00.000-07:00

I usually have a couple of little hand sewing projects in process for when I know I'm going to waiting some place or riding in the car. I keep a small makeup bag with all the necessary sewing things and if I can fit it in, the project itself. I started this piece last winter when I was thinking about a new way of working.

I wanted to do a piece that would be a kind of diary or tell a story about what was going on in my life. Taking inspiration from Jude Hill, I started it on the blue moon last winter and have added to it a little at a time over the last year. I find that whenever I'm stressed or just feeling out of sorts, it feels good to make a cup of tea and sit in my big chair next to the window and put a few pieces of cloth and thread into this.

I plan to keep working on it, adding to it. I feel like it needs something from October so maybe leaves or pumpkins. Who knows? I didn't plant a garden this year and am really missing my pumpkins right about now. Maybe I can grow my own in this little world?

Dye Experiments

2010-10-15T12:01:00.000-07:00

Last month I got together with a couple friends for a fabric dying play day. I wanted to work on an idea that had been floating in my head for a while--how it would work to dye different already constructed fabric pieces vs. just flat yardage. Here's the results...

This piece is 100% cotton print cloth that I pieced then layered with a cotton batting and then ditch quilted. I soaked the finished piece in soda ash and then hung on the line to dry. A quick press with the iron and then I dye painted it. I'm quite happy with the look of the brush marks on this one.

This piece is of the same fabric but just not layered and quilted. I also like the look of this one.

This one I was less happy with, but it does have some potential. It's just a piece of the same flat yardage that I marked out a grid on with pencil.

I also painted on various small strips of fabric thinking that I would piece them afterwards, but there was a lot of fraying in the washout and I'm not sure the original idea would work. I've still yet to sew the pieces together so will show those when I do.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with these. My thought was to stretch them on canvas stretcher bars and hang as a group of four. They all have 4" plain borders all the way around. Or maybe make pillows out of them or ??? Still playing around with ideas at this point.

Finally...the River Quilt

2010-10-13T17:08:00.000-07:00

--Click to enlarge any photo--

I've been so busy with travel and other projects that I really haven't been keeping things as current here as I'd like. So over the next few days I'm going to try to fill in the gaps and show pictures of all the projects that have been keeping me busy, the biggest of which was 'The River Quilt'.

This project began a year ago when at the October 2009 meeting of the Rogue Art Quilters we signed up to be part of this project to create a 39 foot long quilt divided into 19 sections. We were each given an entrance and exit dimension on the left and right for the 'river' and then overall dimensions for the size of the piece which were variable by 6" either larger or smaller. A particular fabric was designated as the water portion in order for there to be some continuity between the pieces...i.e. to make them 'flow'. Other than that we were left to our own devices to create a river-themed work due on July 28, 2010.

I spent about 6 months just thinking about how I might want to construct the quilt and what kind of imagery I would want to use. Lucky for me, in August 2009 I spent several days in Sunriver, Oregon photographing the Deschutes River. At the time I had no idea what I was going to use the photos for, but I loved the colors, the light, and the feel of the area, and I immediately thought of that photo archive when this project came up. After studying the photos, I had a general idea of the colors and types of fabrics and threads I wanted to use, so I spent the remaining time casually shopping for fabrics and threads until I had pretty much everything I needed. I spent a week or so compositing several photos on the computer in Photoshop, playing with placements, colors, etc. and finally printed out a full-size road map for the quilt construction.

The actual construction started on May 1 and I finished on July 21. I tried to be vigilant about keeping the hours of work involved but there were a lot more than my worksheet total of 93! I decided to use raw edge applique since I thought it would be much more realistic looking and frankly, I was tired of piecing and working out paper piecing patterns. I wanted to be able to cut and utilize the parts of the fabric that would work best for my aim so I tried a new technique using a product called Liquid Thread vs. a sheet fusible web. Most of the fabrics are hand dyes or batiks. I basically started at the top and worked down, creating whole sections of trees, grass, sky, etc. then putting them together once all the pieces were created. This allowed me to make changes and to be able to redo any sections that I wasn't happy with. I did a lot of auditioning on the wall with various fabrics to get just the right colors and light. Since I was using photos from different times of day, shadows were very important to get correct once the construction began. Reflections in the water were also a concern. One of the most difficult portions was the near bank of dry weeds. There were several editions of this before the final one appeared after a stroke of insight involving cotton parcel twine, cheesecloth, acrylic paint, and thread. The entire piece was then pin basted and free-motion quilted using my own freehand designs and over 30 different colors of thread, including metallics. It was an intense 3 months but I really enjoyed this project and look forward to making more of these realistic pieces.

Back from San Francisco

2010-08-04T17:00:00.000-07:00

I'm just back from a wedding in San Francisco at the beautiful City Hall. I'd never been inside the building in all the trips I've been there, but for me, the best sight was outside...a huge copper statue "Three Heads, Six Arms" by Chinese artist, Zhang Huan, from Shanghai. I wish I'd had more time to photograph it, as it was amazing. Will definitely have to make a trip back to do just that...

You're Invited....

2010-08-01T17:48:00.001-07:00

Click to ENLARGE...

Also on the way...

2010-07-26T14:56:00.000-07:00

This one is a gift for a friend's birthday. It measures 11.5" x 15". She loves cats and the color purple, so Lavender Garden Cat with Green Kneepads was born. This was fun to make using just free-edge applique with the machine and then applied embroidery and buttons. Background fabric is hand-dyed shibori by me. Inspired by Jude Hill's amazing beasts....

Gentner's Fritillary

2010-07-13T15:55:00.000-07:00

Been busy working on the latest project which I'll be able to show in a couple of weeks time. In the meantime, I've just packed this one off to its new owner in Portland, Oregon. This piece measuring 6"x24" was done for the Rogue Art Quilters show in Jacksonville, Oregon. The show coincided with the Fritillary Festival, a celebration of the endangered wildflower, the Gentner Fritillary.

Changing Light

2010-06-21T07:41:00.000-07:00

With all the unusual weather we've been having lately the light has been spectacular. Most days I find myself running for the camera to catch it before it fades, which only takes seconds. Now I think it's best if I keep the camera with me when I'm out. These photos are not doctored...this is the way it really looks. My husband calls it a 'Maxfield Parrish Sky', I think watercolors...

Today is a strange Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year. We have yet to have a day in the 90°s, which is unheard of. Plants and trees seem confused, not knowing what to do with this cool weather. Peonies and iris are still blooming a month later than usual. Warm weather plants are languishing, waiting for things to heat up.

I've been busy in my studio working on another challenge piece. I'll show it when it's finished. Needless to say it is pushing me, not only by working on it, but by keeping up with all the ideas that seem to be generated when my mind is otherwise occupied. Looks like it could be an interesting summer.

Fabric Pieces in Detail...

2010-06-14T11:38:00.001-07:00

I am getting really hooked on painting and printing on fabric. These were made with silkscreening and then overprinting with cardboard templates. Click for an enlargement.

This one (below) was stamped using half an orange, the detail was amazing.

More photos here.

More Painted Pieces

2010-06-12T10:02:00.001-07:00

More fabric on the way from the June 5th open studio...

Fabric Flat Photos Are Up...

2010-05-24T11:53:00.000-07:00

OK, the photos of the washed out fabrics are here on my Flickr photostream.

Painting Fabric Again

2010-05-23T18:15:00.000-07:00

I've been busy while I've been away from the blog. I took two more fabric dying classes in Ashland and have been savoring the results. The first class was a low water immersion class and I need to take photos of the booty, but the weather here has not been cooperating. We've either had rain or windy sunny days. Hard to keep fabric pinned down when it's windy. Today we had a break in the rain so I washed out the five painted pieces from yesterday's class in thickened dye painting and hung them on the line. I really went crazy with some wacky ideas that had been floating around in my head since the last dye painting class I took last fall involving potatoes, stamps, etc. I love the look of these hanging outside in the sun. And I think I'm in love with the smell of Synthrapol. :D More photos in the next few days....

I have to write a bit about our weather which has been very strange lately. The last two nights we have been below freezing -- 23° on Friday night, 29° last night. Then on Saturday morning while driving over the Siskiyou Pass to Ashland and my class we were caught in a blizzard! I am really ready for summer to start in earnest PLEASE. My flowers and grapes have all been severely nipped by the frost and it's so frustrating!!!!

Recap (or continuation?) of International Fake Journal Month

2010-05-07T09:03:00.001-07:00

A few days ago I received a blog post from Roz Stendahl to give a recap of my experience of International Fake Journal Month. From my blog you can see that my author stopped journaling sometime around April 15th. In real life, a trip to Southern California to visit relatives for ten days put a real damper on my time and enthusiasm for the fake journal. Eventhough I had packed all the supplies to continue on, I found the inspiration and story kind of dried up under the stress of the trip. I tend to like to work on my journals in private and since no privacy was to be found…hence no journal pages. I intend to finish this particular sketchbook story, but at a somewhat reduced pace, as I really enjoyed the process. Some interesting things I learned from it…

1. When I discovered IFJM and Roz's website I had been looking at blogs of people who regularly do visual journaling because it was a practice I wanted to cultivate for myself. I do a written journal everyday for about a half an hour or 3 pages minimum. It's my way of clearing out the cobwebs, getting my petty gripes out and just clearing the decks for the day so I don't have a bunch of extraneous junk cluttering my mind. I also have a design sketchbook which is mainly just pen and ink drawings and notes for projects or future inspiration. But I wanted to add to that practice by starting a third purely visual journal in color. I've always loved looking at other people's journals and sketchbooks and decided it was finally time to try this on my own. The IFJM seemed a perfect way to commit to this process.

2. I found that a 'fake' journal relieved me from trying to write something witty or profound each day. I liked the idea that 'it was not me' therefore anything I did was OK. Consequently the narrative was at times a little awkward, but I was OK with that.

3. In the past, I have always labeled myself as a printmaker. My marks have almost always been with black ink on paper. In college I struggled with painting in acrylic and using color. So the decision to use watercolor was a real departure for me. I was so convinced that watercolor was difficult but I really wanted to go for that look I had so admired in others' journals. So I jumped in and found I really do enjoy watercolor. I think the 'fake' journal allowed me to make this rough transition and not be attached to the outcome of the illustrations.

4. I found I became engaged with the travel dialog. Every morning I spent time looking at Google maps and going through my own images to create a story for my traveler. Luckily I have some experience with this type of travel (in fact not enough lately!) so it was easy to get into the zen of the trip. It was an adventure to think about where my author might go next and what she might want to journal about.

5. I'd like to get the journaling and drawing/painting time down to 30 minutes a day. I was so enjoying the process that I found myself spending a lot of time working on my drawings and then the painting. I want to let the sketches be more loose and less literal and the watercoloring less controlled.

6. Upgrade the materials. I tried using different materials, some I liked, some I didn't feel worked all that well for the process. I used a Canson Field Sketchbook which didn't respond well to the watercolor process. The pages became quite distorted and after the first day I took to painting only every other page because the warpage was so bad. Also I found the spiral binding was a problem. I had initially thought that I would fold the book flat to work in it, but since it was only 5"x7" I found the single page not big enough to contain my author's thoughts. Next time I think I'll go for bound journal with real watercolor paper. I also used a KohINoor watercolor wheel stack pack as a way to replicate the concern for space when traveling on a motorcycle (ditto for the journal size). I don't know enough about watercolor yet to know the difference, but I'm planning on upgrading to better quality watercolors to see how that effects the outcome of the pages.

7. I was surprised at how much people enjoyed following the story and identifying the locations visited. The acceptance of the journal was beyond what I had expected. I had people asking where I was going next and what was I going to do with the 'finished' book.

All in all the IFJM was a great experience and has spawned a new appreciation for the visual journal. Plus it has taught me what is possible. I fully expect to continue this particular narrative until the book is filled and then will go from there. I've already got April 1, 2011 marked on my calendar. Thanks Roz for such a great idea!

IFJM - April 14, 2010

2010-04-15T12:34:00.000-07:00

IFJM - April 13, 2010

2010-04-14T18:48:00.000-07:00

IFJM - April 12, 2010

2010-04-13T17:49:00.001-07:00

IFJM - April 11, 2001

2010-04-13T09:11:00.001-07:00

IFJM - April 10, 2010

2010-04-12T15:23:00.001-07:00

IFJM - April 9, 2010

2010-04-10T10:52:00.001-07:00

IFJM - April 8, 2010

2010-04-10T10:51:00.001-07:00

Text on the Surface

2010-04-08T21:57:00.001-07:00

For the last week in addition to working on my IFJM sketchbook, I've also been working on homework for an online class with Susie Monday called Text on the Surface.

For the first week we made collages from text and did online research into artists who use text in their work. Here are a few of my collages and the resulting images when played with in Photoshop...

IFJM - April 7, 2010

2010-04-08T15:31:00.000-07:00

IFJM - April 6, 2010

2010-04-07T12:20:00.001-07:00

IFJM - April 5, 2010

2010-04-07T12:19:00.001-07:00

IFJM - April 4, 2010

2010-04-06T14:20:00.000-07:00

IFJM - April 3, 2010

2010-04-06T14:19:00.000-07:00

IFJM - April 2, 2010

2010-04-06T14:18:00.001-07:00

IFJM - April 1, 2010

2010-04-06T14:13:00.000-07:00

A few months ago I decided to participate in International Fake Journal Month hosted by Roz Stendahl. Basically you keep a fake sketchbook journal for a fictional person for the month of April. I've decided to post my pages here every few days as they are completed. If you want more info, click on the button at the upper right of this page and it will take you to Roz's site with more information. Now, on to the journey...

Valentine's Wishes

2010-02-15T16:31:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day!

More Pods...

2010-02-03T17:08:00.000-08:00

Charcoal, Pastel on Rosin Paper.

Playing with Pods

2010-02-02T18:57:00.000-08:00

Charcoal, Pastel, Acrylic on Kraft Paper

Always Changing...

2010-01-30T11:59:00.001-08:00