Five Ladies - Part Two

This is a continuation of a previous post about the making of the Five Ladies art quilt.  I uploaded hands from the original picture and sized them to fit the size of the pattern.  Its interesting that I started with the face and hands... both are my nemesis.  I've thought a little bit about putting sun glasses on all of them.  Hmm, have to think about that.  In the meantime, I've picked out some fabric for the outfits.

I looked at the fabric in my stash that I could use for the background, and all of my larger pieces of fabric were too light (blah) or too dark (dreary).  So, off to the quilt store I went.  And I went a long ways!   One of my favorite quilt stores is called Stash, and it's 4 hours away in Walla Walla, WA.  It wasn't too hard to talk my husband into a quick getaway for wine tasting and some nice meals out,  and, of course, a quick stop at Stash.

They have the largest selection of fabrics for the modern quilter and I found a nice Tula Pink fabric.  Here it is:

I made one of the outfits and pinned it up on the pattern.  It is lightly sparkly and very fun.

I hope you like this quilt so far!

Bees on Flowers - Painted Art Quilts - Verbena Bonariensis

This is a continuation of several previous posts about the making of the Bees on Flowers painted art quilts.  This one is the verbena bonariensis.

Here is the painting part completed:

After thread sketching:

And the final.  It measures 9-1/2"  W x 12-14" H.

I hope you like it!

Bees on Flowers - painted art quits - Verbena Bonariensis

This is a continuation of a few previous posts about the making of bees on flowers art quilts.

The second piece that I painted was the bee on the pink flower.  I believe it was on a verbena bonariensis, which is actually purple.  I'm not aware that I have any pink flowers that look like the picture, but I know that I took it.  Anyway, instead of trying to recreate the actual color, I used the color as it appeared.  I mixed the paint in a palette that allowed me to mix a lot of shades of the colors that I wanted to use.  It has a cover that allows me to paint a bit, and then come back the next day to finish it off. 

Here is the piece with just the flower and bee painted.

I painted the background after the flower had dried.

I'll show the thread sketching and quilting in a future post, and I hope you like it so far!

Bees on Flowers

OK, these are not quilts.  But I do have to post some of the pollinators that are in my garden this year.  I love having a garden filled with plants that are welcoming to all kinds of bees, birds, and bugs.  Enjoy!

                                                                    On a zinnia

On a dahlia

                                                            On a drumstick allium

Bees on Flowers - Camasia - part 3

This is a continuation of 2 previous posts about the making of the bees on flowers art quilts.  This is the bee on the native Camasia flower.

I layered the painted fabric with a stabilizer and did some light stitching, or thread sketching, to bring the piece to life.  Many things can be done with thread that can't be done with the paint alone.  But too much threadwork covers up all of the glorious painting.  So, if you do it, make sure its with a light hand.

The piece was layered with batting and backing and quilted.  The edges were faced to complete the piece.

I hope you like it!

Bees on Flowers - Painted art quilts - Bee on Camasia

This is a continuation of a previous post about the making of 2 bees on flowers art quilts.

I decided to paint the one with the purple Camasia flowers first.  They are a native plant to my region and when they bloom, they are such an amazing shade of purple with stark yellow stamens on long stems.  The bees just love them.   And so do I, especially when you are sitting in a field of them.  Below is a picture of my sister and mother near Yelm, WA.

After I had the sketch enlarged, I placed the image on the light box and traced it onto the PFD fabric.  When transferring the image to the fabric, I usually use an engineering pencil and use a light hand so that the lines virtually disappear after the painting is done. 

The PFD fabric was then taped to a foam core board.  I got out all of the painting supplies in the colors that I picked for this picture.  I find that trying to closely match what's in the picture yields the most realistic results.

I mixed up all of the colors and added a bit of extender and white into their own paint cells.  Coffee stir sticks come in really handing when mixing paint.  I have to admit that some of my paints were old, and even though the tops were tightly screwed on, the paint basically hardened a bit.  I have to remind myself to get newer paint next time.  So, here is the painting part all done.  I let it dry overnight and then ironed it.

Stay tuned to see how much this piece changes when the thread sketching part is done.

Five Ladies

I decided to really stretch myself and make an art quilt with 5 ladies on it.  This was a jumping off point after the series of the 10 Garden Ladies.  Every time that I've made faces and hands, there is something that just didn't look right.  So tackling 5 in one piece is going to be a knuckle biting experience.  Wish me luck.

I found an inspiration photo of 5 ladies making slightly goofy poses in an ad for Gundrun Sjogen clothing.  I traced the picture and had it enlarged 700% at my local print shop.  I'ts 38" H x 53" W. Here is the starting pattern for this piece.

As you can see, the faces all look ghoulish, and I know from previous pieces that at this stage that's OK.   I needed the relative size and placement of eyes and mouth to make the faces look realistic later.  I went searching on the internet and found 5 copyright free images of different women that would work for this piece.  I downloaded them, sized them to fit and tacked them up in place on the starting pattern.  A little more work needed to be done to get the sizes just right; one face is too small, another is too large, etc.  And, of course, they will all look very different when done in fabric.  

I hope you like following the steps so far!