Here's What I've Been Up To.....

Busy, busy, busy .... that's the only way to describe things around here. That's the reason I didn't get a chance to post last week's journal. Last week, I was perusing the "Go Green" Quilting Arts issue and was inspired by the menagerie of five inch squares created for the challenge. In turn, I took out the final sewn scraps I had from my Tropical Bubbles challenge piece and joined them into a square. I followed up with branches made from an orange plastic bag and leaves from a green one. I had the bird print lying about my room, so I put that in, too. (The print was made from an etching on a styrofoam butcher's plate.) This was fun to do.


I've been thinking a lot about my blog and my artwork lately. I imagine that my blog can get pretty boring to look at sometimes because it seems I primarily post about my journal quilts. Some are lovely (some are not!), but that doesn't make for particularly compelling reading. Unfortunately, these little pieces are often all I have time to do. I think they're very helpful for me -- they get me to create and I try new things, but I think I've become too focused on them. They leave me little time for anything else. So, for the remainder of the year, I'm going to try to be a little more light-hearted about my journals and try to use them more as I intended: as exercises in creativity. And, I'm going to try to find some time for larger pieces.

With that in mind, here are two pieces that are on my design wall (I don't recall if I've shown them to you before). Please pardon the pins and basting you see in the pictures. I'd love your feedback. This one is waiting, I think, for the perfect sheer to augment the rectangles -- all cut from a larger piece of fabric printed using gelatin plate printing. I'm hoping some of the fabric I bought last week in the city will be perfect.


This one is waiting for me to sew down the irregular border pieces. I think I'm going to add some big spool shapes after that.


And this is a piece of fabric I painted today. I had a few minutes to spare and decided to play. I must say that I so enjoy painting fabric. It's the one of the few things I feel comfortable doing without an end result in mind. For this piece I sprayed water all over the scribbling I'd done with Neocolor pastel pencils so the colors would bleed. Then I stenciled on top of that with painsticks. I confess I love how this turned out.

Comments

that's exactly right - light hearted is the key to the journals...
Rayna said…
Vivien - clearly, you need to do more unplanned work. The gelatin fabric looks great cut up.
Sherryl said…
I am really into color and I so much like the 2nd piece. I am interested to see what you will do with the first piece. I haven't been brave enough yet to try gelatin printing.
Vivien
Don't every think your blog is boring. Let's get that straight from the start. It is always interesting to me to see how other's work and your journal quilts have been your way of staying connected to your artwork when you have been otherwise very busy. But, I have to say, I was very happy to see that you are back to some of your new and bigger pieces and are experiencing the joy of creating for yourself.
Judy Alexander said…
Especially love the painted fabric. I also love to play with paints and paintsticks. I admire you for keeping up with your journal quilts!
Unknown said…
Ditto on the sentiment that your blog is NOT boring. In fact, what could be more fun than browsing through all all of your wonderful eye candy? Your quilts are wonderful.