Musin' on Susan.....

A strange thing happened this summer....

Far from our vegetable garden...

a bunch of Black Eyed Susan flowers sprouted....

and I was fascinated with them...

how they grew...

what they looked like close up...

how they changed...

and the creatures who visited...

and so...

I tried to capture them in fabric, stitching, 

painted and melted tyvek, fiber,

French knots and a charm...

Unfortunately, getting this done with only minutes to spare

means that the light is no longer ideal for photographing!

And I have not yet decided whether I like 

the thread sketching on the petals

so I am still musin' on Susan!

YIKES!!!!! I'm late!!!!

I'm Late

From "Alice in Wonderland"

Music and Lyrics by Sammy Fain and Bob Hilliard

I'm late!

I'm late!

For a very important date!

No time to say "hello", goodbye!

I'm late!

I'm late!!

I'm late!!!

No, no, no, no 

I'm overdue!

I'm really in a stew!

No time to say "goodbye", hello!

I'm late!

I'm late!!

I'm late!!! 

I probably shouldn't be smiling! 

My apologies for my extreme tardiness
but it seems that I have been bogged down by a variety of obligations
 and unexpected circumstances... 

and I'm almost out of gas!!!

I have to admit that I did get a (very) late start 

(my days of punctuality seem to be a thing of the past!)

and after pondering...

 and hemming and hawing a lot, 

I went with an idea that Brigitte had suggested (in jest?!) in an email exchange we had

 after this challenge was announced!

It was really a literal translation of "artistic license".... 

as in that which you might have on the license plate of your automobile!

(I still have to add some brads and perhaps "New York" to the license)

And...

while my piece is late,  

not done,

 and seems to be never-ending,

it was time to reveal what I have to the group.

"I'm Late!" is a  true mixed media work..

watercolor crayon/pencil on canvas

with free-motion stitching

collage,

Transfer Artist Paper (TAP),

hand embroidery,

rubber stamping on painted Lutradur

 and more!

And thanks again to Brigitte for the idea!!!

A Tribute to Frank Mills

So what do you think of when you think of music?  Opera, Rock 'n Roll, Jazz?  It was a question I asked myself when Janet suggested this theme.  First I thought of portraying a musical instrument; something like this:

 

But this wasn't striking a chord with me.  I thought perhaps rendering the image of a great musician might do the trick, something like this:

 

 

Nope this wasn't sounding the right note for me either.  Okay, more research and I thought, hmmm maybe a well know album cover, something like this:

 

 

This "mouldy oldie" was not going to play nicely in fabric.  Maybe I was taking this too literally, so I browsed my music collection and heard this:

 

 

This provided the harmony that I needed to get me started and on my way to completing a piece for this challenge.  So my tribute to Frank Mills is my interpretation of this particular melody in fiber. 
 

 

Thank you Janet for bringing MUSIC into my studio. If you step over to my blog, you will see how I put it all together.

Aaaaaaand bringing up the rear (literally!)

Just like most of our other Tangled Textilers, I had a really tough time making this theme, "blue", work for me.  Well, truth be told, I did a lot of work on this challenge!

I will leave the gory details about this looooong, draaaawn out process of getting to my final piece to my own blog (but that post isn't written yet!).... suffice to say that there is a story!

After much deliberation, I was inspired by Neil Diamond's song...Forever in Blue Jeans.

And after much embellishment (a rather new technique for me), I was finished....

"Homage to a Clothing Staple or Yes, Neil, Forever in Blue Jeans"

There are some tags from jeans... both retired and still on bodies!

 

Stenciled, painted, embellished word and more tags...

   

The said rear pocket - which is actually at the center of the basic

 log cabin configuration of the quilt- 

that's not to say that the rear is always at the center!!!

   

Some buttons from the fly fronts and 

from the suddenly out-of-commission pair of my overalls (oh that was sad when it happened!)

 

And there is my attempt to honor Neil, himself...

And the straps from said sadly missed overalls.

Now I am totally exhausted. Off to rest up before the next challenge is posted!

Green...in green...on green!

I initially drew a blank with this one, but I grabbed my pencil and started writing words that suggested "green".  As the list grew an idea started to take shape. Here is the result.

I thought I would print the words out on different green fabrics, but after several failed attempts, gave up that idea.  Besides I had to get packed for my trip to Empty Spools and I would let the idea percolate for a while.  Good thing I chose to wait because a trip to a quilt shop in McMinville, Oregon on the way there provided the perfect fabric to put my idea in motion.

You can see the fabric piece here.   Half the width of the fabric was used for the background, while the other half was used to make the words. 

I felt the piece was a bit "top heavy" so to balance it out I added small embellishments; a leaf that I made from two layers of tulle and some frog buttons.  I would like to add some beads vertically to the left of "fern".  What do you think?