I want to thank you for reading my blog, I truly have appreciated your support and comments. I have always felt very fortunate to be able to spend my days making art, recently though I haven’t had blocks of time to really make the art that is most fulfilling to me. So I have to make some changes.
I’ve decided to suspend posting on my blog for now. My website will still be up, but I will be posting my art on Instagram and on my YouTube channel (tap the bell on YouTube to get notifications). I’m also working to get my Etsy shop open in hopes of finding new homes for some of my art.
If we aren’t already connected on Instagram and/or your own blog, please let me know so I can follow you and see what quilting and art you’ve been up to. I’m not on Facebook.
Below is my short video showing how I painted the background photo paper print painted fabric for the fish piece. I’m still thinking about how I will finish it, I’ll post to IG when it is finished. The fabric on photo printer paper technique was fun, and as long as I have the paper I will continue to explore ways to use it.
Take good care and make something that makes you happy every chance you get!
Asked how I applied the Three Hearts art quilt to the canvas, here is my answer…
I left an area in the center of the canvas unpainted (it was an already gesso primed canvas) and I applied artist gel medium over the entire canvas front and added some to the quilt back, then with the quilt face down on the table, lined the two up and I added some weight for awhile. When it was set but not completely dry I removed the weights and flipped it face up to dry completely. I hope that is clear. Next time I use that method I’ll try to take some photos.
I finished editing the video for the new way I painted fabric (that I mention in my last post), but decided I had to make the second part (applying the fish to the fabric and quilting) a separate video, so hopefully next week I’ll share at least the first if not both. Here is the piece quilted, it’s small and I have an idea for finishing it that’s not binding or facing it, but we’ll see.
Giveaway Winner of the five little hearts is Gayle C. Congratulations! Please email your mailing info to me at fiberdesignsbyann@gmail.com and I’ll send the hearts ASAP.
My husband and I celebrate our wedding anniversary this month. We didn’t get married on the 14th and so we don’t really celebrate Valentine’s Day, instead we celebrate later, the date that is special to us. The joke around here is that we can buy flowers and chocolates for each other on clearance!
I’m not a cutesy heart kind of person usually, but still I found several hearts in my work so I’m sharing some of them here.
Our first initials and a tiny heart. Hand embroidered.
The little ring around the neck on the altered jar below, was a piece of tatting one of my grandmothers made. This was a gift for my cousin who loves hearts.
Altered jar with many heartslid
I recently finished Three (grungy) Hearts below, but I’m still going to mount it onto a painted canvas for hanging. It’s just a little larger than a 8″ x 10″ canvas.
Quilled fabric
Free motion puffy hearts on silk
Kiss and Hugs Heart. Free motion and painted fabric.
The wrinkled fabric is painted shibori. Hand embroidered.
Glass mosaic picture frames.I think this would be fun to recreate in fabric.Starry Hearts, art quilt (61″ x 61″)Starry Hearts detail hand quiltingStarry Hearts back label.
If you like to color or know someone who does the below hearts “frame” can be printed out. Go to my website menu, click on “Pattern freebies” and find the PDF link. The designs would be fun to embroider too!
I make and sell MeAnndered fabric panels that can be finished in many ways. They are MeAnndered first on paper, then I laser print them on fabric.
Sometimes I print them on painted fabric…
Now the giveaway/sweepstakes…
These five little fabric hearts, all the same design, were the examples for some of the ways the fabric panel pieces (above) could be finished. After using them in a sales booth display I cut them apart and satin stitched around them. I’m sure there are many ways these little hearts could be used but I’ll leave that up to the one who ends up with them. See all three images below and the rules for entering.
They are top row – colored with marker, hand embroidered, and painted. lower row – Hand quilted and free motion quilted/thread play.
February 2 – 16 Giveaway/sweepstakes – Five little fabric hearts.
To enter: You must live in the US only (no international entries). One entry per person. Sweepstakes/giveaway begins February 2, 2022 and ends at 9pm (Pacific Time) February 14, 2022.
Leave a comment/reply on this blog post that you would like to be entered for a chance to win the five little fabric hearts and include your first and last name (or last initial).
On February 14, 2022 I’ll use a random drawer and announce the winner on my next blog post.
Winner will email me their mailing information and I will mail the five little fabric hearts ASAP. If I don’t hear from the winner within five days of drawing date, I will run another random draw. Good luck!
If you have any interest in assemblage and mixed media art or just want to enjoy something a bit different from fabric and quilt making, I recommend Ina’s Art Room on YouTube. She makes wonderful works of art, usually using surprising elements (sometimes fabric). Ina also invites subscribers and visitors to participate in her 4 Core Challenges. I’ve participated in the past and it’s fun! Ina posts her videos on Fridays.
Ina’s January 2022 #4core challenge was to use a book as the substrate and include texture, metal, and give the piece a “winter vibe.” After the deadline she posts a video showing everyone’s finished projects. The January challenge video should be posted on her channel in early February.
I decided to participate again and here is my piece; a candle backdrop featuring a fabric landscape.
I have made the inside of the book the new “front.” The votive is covered in fabric coils and has a flameless tealight.
The cover is now the “back.”
I bought the used book at the local library. The original hardcover was red and had some globs of glue under the paper part of the cover… so I scraped and tried to cover it with snowflakes. I tried a few different things to add texture to the snowflakes but in the end just painted them with a pearl white acrylic paint.
Here are few photos of the process.
First painted gesso over the red book cover and then acrylic.
Added splatters for flying snow.
I had the painted sky fabric in my stash, the white/gray fabrics are commercial, and the foreground snow is thin white batting. The fence is cut-up (used) craft sticks (tongue depressor size) that I painted, and the wire is just coated wire. I added a few little frays of silk fabric for the grass. The “snow” on the fence and wire is sawdust (for texture) mixed with gesso and some acrylic paint.
It was fun to quickly stitch up a very simple, little fabric landscape for this project.
Auditioning before the fabrics were fuse and quilted.
The fluffy border is a beautiful soft yarn and I think it worked perfectly!
The things I love about Ina’s challenges – She encourages artists to really make it their own, she offers loads of ideas, and there’s no pressure (though there is a finish-by date). I enjoyed every minute of making this project… well, all but the waiting time for materials to dry!
Winner! Thank you to those of you who entered the appliqued miniature landscape top sweepstakes/giveaway. Congratulations to the winner – Deborah F (Please email your mailing information to me at fiberdesignsbyann@gmail.com).
2022 – Many unfinished pieces have been weighing on me for far too long, so I’m going to work on actually finishing as many pieces as I can this year. I hope you’ll come by to see what I’ve done, maybe get more ideas and be inspired. There will probably be a few giveaways along the way.
I have been scanning some old quilt related photos. “Old” as in before camera phones so we didn’t know how good (or not) the photo was until it was developed, so please keep that in mind as you look at these images.
I got into watercolor style quilts after meeting Gai Perry, the guest artist at our local quilt show. Oh my gosh, it was fantastic to see her quilts in person. I had a copy of her book – Impressionist Quilts by Gai Perry (Soft Cover Book 1995), but I think I gave it to a quilt guild. It is still available in a few places online.
I’ll admit that some of my pieces do stretch the technique a bit or are combined with other quilt/patchwork styles. I don’t have any of these pieces and didn’t keep good records. Some were finished and sold or given away and others were sold as tops only.
This was my favorite and I think the most successful.
I loved the challenge of finding fabrics that would “reach” to the next for a smooth transition.
Where the contrasts come together to create a hard line can make a good frame or shape.
For my parents – Mom liked teddy bears and dad accidentally collected pigs.
I took an easy road to finishing by using large triangles in the corners of this piece. I did finish this and my folks kept it on the back of their rocking (the grandbabies) chair. I don’t have a photo of it finished but I did hand quilt it; that was before I did machine quilting.
My tiniest watercolor sold at a guild auction and was won by one of my Continuing Ed teachers.
Cat on a Mat (top only). I have mixed feeling about this piece but it was fun to use all those cat fabrics.
With the piece below – the fabrics don’t “reach” into each other, so technically not a watercolor but still has a little bit of that feel. Made before I bought Gai’s book.
The next two photos are the same quilt but the first one shows that it is quilted (hand quilted). The upper area in part was inspired by Margaret Millers Block Bender style and the lower right area is watercolor. My thought was an abstract quilt of birds flying over the ocean. A lot of hours of play/work!
Below is not a watercolor quilt but a cathedral window that my late aunt made for one of her daughters. She came out for a visit and I gave her hundreds of squares of fabric (I think 4.5″) and this is just one of the quilts she made with some of them.
Now for the sweepstakes giveaway…
The winner of the 6.5 inch squares is Julie K.
and the winner of the hand painted fabric pieces is Cherie M.
Fabric winners please email your mailing information to me and I will send your fabric as soon as possible. If I don’t hear from you within five days I will draw again.
I’m wishing all of you a safe and happy New Year, with time to art around!
I laugh when I think back to the days when I would only work on one project at a time, start to finish, and they were usually pretty big size (quilt) projects. Now I’m usually working on at least three projects at a time. Maybe it’s because I’m older and there are so many things I still want to try.
I was hoping to have this one finished but some days just don’t go as planned, I’m guessing you know what I’m talking about.
This is the mini landscape in a leaf that I designed a while ago. The sky and water are my hand painted fabric, the other pieces are commercial fabrics. Below are some of the process steps. As I worked on this I thought about how I would be so much more comfortable doing all of it by hand – the applique, even the quilting. I have always felt happier, more in control, doing hand applique and quilting. All of my early miniature landscape were made by hand, and ti’s the way I have taught mini fabric landscapes to students. But now that changes day to day and I’ve had to change my ways; raw edge fusing, machine quilting and sewing have allow me a better chance of getting projects done in my lifetime!
To begin – The little landscape pieces were positioned on Wonder Under, pressed and the leaf cut out. Usually I would remove the paper and then cut it out but in this case it was easier for me to cut it out with the backing paper still on the back.
I measured and cut freezer paper about the size of the finished quilt and pressed it onto the black background fabric. Next I positioned and held a cardstock leaf pattern on the freezer paper and drew around it, then I extended the landscape lines out from the edge of the leaf. I numbered them from furthest back to the most foreground piece.
I cut them apart and removed the pattern and freezer paper. Next I pressed/fused the leaf in place on the the background fabric. and ironed the freezer paper pieces in order, back in place (like a puzzle), leaving a little gap; a bit of trimming was required so there would be a gap. BTW – This could be the makings for “stained glass” style quilt too.
Then I used a Chaco liner and drew in the gaps. I drew quilting lines for the sky, and then wiped them away, and tried a few more times until I found a design I liked.
Here the leaf, sky, and landscape extension lines have all been quilted – blue thread for the sky and a gray for the landscape. I started to close quilt using color thread within the extension sections, out from the landscape elements and sky, but it was not a good day for that…
Early on I knew it wasn’t a good day for me to be quilting. But instead of quitting for the day like I should have, I ripped out colored thread quilting and grabbed black thread. I’m thinking about dry brush painting some of the outside edges of the black quilting. I’ll have to think on that after I finish all of the black quilting… we’ll see!
Reminder – Next post I’ll be announcing the Leaf Decorated Box winner.
As winter and the holiday seasons approach I hope you will be safe and find some time just for you.
“That’s interesting” is sometimes the comment my Mister gives when looking at my art. He has been incredibly supportive through all these years of my art making, but sometimes when he doesn’t “get it,” or care for the art piece, he knows how to be diplomatic.
I found it very interesting that because the subject of my House Cat piece is familiar (our cat modeled), everyone here decided to chime in as to what I could or should do to make it better. They had valid observations and suggestions but got a big “NO, it’s done” from me.
And here’s why – After I finished quilting and thread painting a bit more, I decided not to bind it but to face it, primarily because the piece is odd shaped. But after I trimmed it I noticed one of the eyes was fraying… one of the eyes I tried to free-motion outline to get the fabric to stay down only to cause a lot of thread build up.
I never could cover the raw edge, so out came the seam ripper, scissors, lint roller, and hours later both eyes were removed.
Looking at this I want to say “Poor thing!”
That’s the lint roller sheet with just some of the removed thread.
Now with the thread removed there was quite the perforated eye shape in the fabric, both the front and back. I figured the only thing I could do was hand embroider the eyes. I would have liked to have added more embroidery but between the floss and quilt sandwich I couldn’t get the needle through any longer. I thought about painting more reflection in the eyes, but – NO, I’m done!
New embroidered eyes.
But of course I had to add more thread painting and whiskers.
And whiskers.
Initially I made whiskers by burning felt and stretching it and painting gesso on them, but in the end I used my cat’s found whiskers and eyebrows (I’d been saving). I’m still waiting for a couple more eyebrows. I haven’t decided yet, if that is clever or gross!
I love those clips!
I’ve been looking at it too long and see all that could be better but it has been a fun project; from painting the fabrics to making the pattern, and stitching it…and as always I learned a lot. When I have the hanging dowel ready I’ll share a photo of the finished piece.
REMINDER – I have a giveaway going on; if you are interesting in entering but haven’t yet, please check out last weeks blog post for details. Be sure to tell me you want to be entered (in the comments of that post), so I’ll know you want to be entered.
This little piece has been on my design wall unfinished for a while. It was a cut of a larger piece of hand painted fabric that I free motion quilted just for fun. I can’t even remember if I filmed while I was quilting it. I couldn’t figure out how to finish it, to fix it until a few days ago.
I’m happy to say I fixed it and you can see what I did here…
The November giveaway, sweepstakes item is this little leaf decorated box. It’s hard pressed paper and only the top is decorated. I used painted (mop-up) fabric leaves, a couple papers, burned matches, grave vine, and gold paint spatters. It measures 6 1/2″ x 4″ x 2 5/8″ tall. It could be used as is or it could be painted, papered, or embellished in a multitude of other ways. But there’s more… I’ll be putting a little something extra inside the box.
If you are interested in a chance to win the leaf box with surprise inside just follow the rules below. The winner’s name will be announced on my December 1, 2021 blog post.
Sweepstakes/giveaway begins November 10, 2021 and ends at 9pm (Pacific Time) November 28, 2021.
To enter: You must live in the US only (no international entries). One entry per person. Leave a comment that you would like to win the leaf box with surprise, and include your first and last name (or last initial).
I’ll use a random drawer and announce the winner on my Dec 1 blog post. Winner will email me their mailing information and I will mail the leaf box with surprise ASAP. If I don’t hear from the winner within five days of drawing date, I will run another random draw. Good luck!
It’s interesting to me how time can seem to go by slowly and other times so quickly.
I was exciting to be trying some new things (for me anyway) on the gel print plate. I made one print and for some reason decided to clean my plate; nothing would work, I mean nothing! So after hours of trying I grabbed my sewing machine oil (I didn’t have baby oil), and first trying a wipe but later switched to a dish cloth, I was able to get it pretty much clean. I sure hope it still works when I try more.
Here is the print – Jacquard Textile Color on cheesecloth. For it being a quickie, I’m happy with it.
So time got away from me and I couldn’t print anymore, for now.
I’ll share a few more of my older quilts, apologies for some of the photo quality.
Simple Miniature Snowscape before it was quilted. I altered the water fabric with paint
Hand appliqued and quilted, with hand painted sky. On the design wall, bad photo.
When I look at that landscape now I wonder how the water could look like that when it was hand quilted. Maybe it just looks worse in the photo. If my hand quilting wasn’t up to my standards, I would un-quilt, I did it a lot.
Rose for a challenge, it had to include one of the purple fabrics (I think the one next to the darkest). I beached and over painted the petal edges. I really like the background.
Hand appliqued and quilted.
Made early on in my sky and water painting exploration.
Hand appliqued and quilted. That was great poppy fabric. Hand painted sky.
Remember watercolor quilts, I made a few. Machine pieced, hand quilted.
I feel fortunate that I starting making quilts long ago, I think really the best years. From traditional to modern and everything in-between I have had the best time exploring, learning, and finding more ways to play with fabric. I hope you enjoyed this little quilt show and if you have any questions please leave a comment, thanks.
I’ll be announcing another giveaway/sweepstakes soon, so I hope you’ll check back again. Stay Safe and quilt away!
Things are looking up around here, for one reason, we are finally having our ancient furnace, it’s in the attic, replaced. We haven’t used it in several years and though we don’t have horribly cold winters, I’m cold if it’s below 75° and the hands don’t work well with they’re chilly. Space heaters have helped but our old kitty and I are ready for the warmth!
You may remember the cut collage bird I made a while ago using my daughter’s (dry) wet palette papers (mostly). The green wing needed help so I used some of my painted papers. I like it better now and it will probably end up on a notecard.
I started celebrating my birthday early; my (adult) kids surprised me with this box of Aurifil thread. It’s so pretty I haven’t even opened the plastic wrap yet!
I’m working on a project for a private class I’ve been asked to teach. I’m planning on including a stamp in the project so I’ve cut more rubber stamps and one is a little hummingbird. I decided to use this stamp in another project made especially for this giveaway announcement post.
I filmed some of the free-motion quilting for this hummingbird project but haven’t had time to edit it yet. Here are some images of the process and the almost finished piece. I haven’t decided exactly how I’ll finish it for hanging.
The photos are taken with my phone so sorry they’re not the best.
I started with a piece of Timtex cut to about 6″ x 7″ and “mop-up” painted paper towels I’ve been saving.
I placed a whole piece (one ply) of paper towel over the Timtex and tore other paper towel up then arranged it in an abstract floral design.
I set that aside and used black textile paint for the hummingbird on a piece of silk organza. Stamping outline stamps on silk organza is a hit or miss… without stabilizer organza wiggles! I knew I’d be quilting over it so it was no big deal that it didn’t turn out the best.
So that the hummer would be about where I wanted it, I center and laid the organza on top of the paper towel pieces and placed silk pins at the tip of the wing, tail, and the beak. Then I removed the Timtex/paper towel piece and dabbed paint on the stamp, lined up the silk pins with the stamp and laid the organza on top, and sort of burnished it with a little piece of parchment. Hindsight – press organza to freezer paper and then stamp down onto the fabric as usual. Sorry if that is difficult to understand, I think I’ll have to video it if I do it again.
I let the paint dry for a few minutes, then clipped the organza to the Timtex so I could free-motion quilt, starting with the hummingbird. Below is the free-motion quilting finished.
I put black felt behind it and didn’t like it at all so changed to blue (it’s actually more turquoise than it looks in photo). I tried to straighten and trim up the organza but since I’m still not sure where this is going I left it longer on the side. This felt didn’t look good without the organza over it (too bright).
I added a little embroidery around the edge of the Timtex with French knots at each corner. I think I want to add more. I’ll take better photos when it is finished.
Now the sweepstakes/`giveaway – I’d like to thank all who commented and because only two of you entered the hummingbird notecard set giveaway, I have decided to give Joy and Karen each a set of Hummingbird notecards. Whether you keep them or give them away, I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed making them. Please email your mailing address to me (even if you have in the past).
