Rag Mama Rag

This is the piece of art cloth I did to meet the regional (Southern California/Hawaii) Surface Design Association Challenge which entailed making anything using one piano damper and one piano hammer. I took the photo after VERY carefully aligning the two items, tweaked like crazy in Photoshop to create three different patterns, and then sent it off to Spoonflower where the fabric was printed. I then dyed the gauzy one and pieced it all together.

BLOG Design

Well, you can see that I've been playing around with the design of the blog. I now have a piece of my art cloth as the border. Wish it could be loaded large enough not to have to tile, but Blogger limits the size of background images to pretty darned small. Oh well! Here's a photo of the whole piece (a couple of yards long).

VOILA!!

Done at last! Here is the finished piece. I decided to go with the black border as it just seemed to make the piece pop. It is called Foehn - part of my Hot Winds series; Santa Anas and Mistral are already finished. The Foehn is a hot southerly wind that blows through the Alps.

New WORKSHOP Contemporary Embroidery

Double click to enlarge.

Step Six

Now that the top itself is finished (the batting is already there because I quilted it in place when I did all that hand stitching), it is time to think about the back and border. I prefer to make all that in one piece bringing the fabric from the back around to create a border on the front. I need to decide what fabric to use. I tried various possibilities from my stash and have included four of the best ones here. My favorite fabric store, The Cotton Shop in Redondo Beach, is going out of business after over 30 years - the mother of the current owner started it ages ago in Hermosa and Haley took it over when she passed away), so I will purchase more of the chosen fabric during their liquidation sale - a very minor tribute to the years of pleasure I have had shopping there. The photos show the ones I'm considering; blog viewers are free to comment about their choice, so let me know what you think. Keep in mind that in these photos the fabric is just folded over two edges of the piece so it is much sloppier than it will be when it is all stitched in place.

DIVERSION

Today I'm posting something entirely different. These are bowls I've made from repurposed plastic bags and bubble wrap. I will be putting together a lesson on how to do them in the next few weeks but for now here are a few for you to enjoy. They are going off to a "new age" gift shop early next week in time for the holiday season. They measure between 5"-8".

I will get to Step Six on the quilt early next week.

Step Five - opinion, please

I did some outline stitching yesterday and here are the results. Because the background is white I like the way the running stitch makes the forms "pop" so I think I'll keep going. But please leave comments with your opinion. Isn't it interesting how a piece of art evolves and begins to assert its own aesthetic without a lot of forethought by the (presumed) puppeteer/artist . . .

Step Four DONE!!

I've been stitching like a woman possessed in every free moment over the last few weeks and have got all the bits securely in place. Now I'm faced with a decision: to outline stitch or not . . . I think the only way to decide is to do a little and see if it adds enough punch to the piece to make it worthwhile to spend the extra time - weeks - to complete a Step 5. I'll post some photos of the area I outline in a few days, and you can let me know your opinion.