Cotton Quilt Painting ~~ Finished

I have another finish to show you. A few weeks ago I took an art class at the high school where I teach English. Our art teacher had another artist come in and teach students how to paint cotton. I sat in a couple of times and loved learning new skills.  I wrote about that experience and the artwork here.

After painting that first piece, I was hooked and decided to "play" a bit more when I hit on the idea of making a quilted painting. I've since played some more--this time changing things up a bit because I learned a few things with the first one. 

I've learned a few more things this go round, also. In fact, I have plans for a third quilted painting. I've discovered that I prefer to create the painting on the long-arm switching back and forth between painting and quilting. 

I also discovered that I can achieve a much cleaner, whiter cotton boll using applique, which I didn't use in the first painting. 

And lastly, I found a clear gesso which means I don't need as many layers of paint. I can also paint on darker fabrics.

Although I don't necessarily like all of the cotton bolls on this piece, I'm enjoying this combination of painting and quilting and have a feeling that I'm going to keep playing for a while at least. 

What are you enjoying working on? Is it different from your usual work? I'm very interested in seeing what you're doing, so pleas leave a comment with your blog address. I'll stop by for a visit sometime this weekend.

Linking up with:

Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts

My Quilt Infatuation

Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday at Quokka Quilts

Whoop Whoop Friday at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Let's Be Social at Sew Fresh Quilts

Quilt Painting ~~ Finish

I should be sewing and having fun at Fountainbleu State Park with other crafty friends, but I've worked so much on testing that I decided to take a raincheck on the weekend. I just didn't think that I'd be able to drive the 2½ hours to the lodge. So I thought I'd finally share this finish.

Several weeks ago I told you about a painting class that I "attended" at school with both students and other teachers. We painted a cotton stalk with the cotton bolls. I really enjoyed working in paint medium, so I decided to combine it with quilting. 

Oh my! what fun! Of course, I chose fabrics (in this case blues with a touches of gray and navy) and sewed them up in a variety of lines and curves. I made the quilt sandwich on the long-arm so that I could quilt and paint interchangeably. 

I chose the places where I wanted the cotton bolls to be and drew them out with a few stitching lines. I then quilted around those areas so they would pop forward. At this point I stopped to paint inside the stitched areas. For the most part, I switched back and forth between stitching and painting until I felt that it was done.

After it was all done and dry--which took several days--I mounted it on an empty frame that my art teacher friend, Leta, had given me and decided that I really do like it. 

In fact, this project is the result of those free frames. Leta told me she knew I'd "do something with them." And so she gets credit for putting me on the path to painting both pieces. 

Imagine what she'd have me doing if I actually took her art class! Her classes are painting another project, this one with a Louisiana theme, and some of the works are pretty amazing. Because I've been busy with testing, I haven't been in much, but what I have seen I love. Now to share this work with her so she can see what I've been doing.

Linking up with

Crazy Mom Quilts

Sunday Quilt Inspiration: THREAD

Do you have a tread addiction?  You know it!  Come on, admit it.  We all do.  I can't tell you how many spools and cones of thread I have--mostly because I don't know!  I have a wall of thread, a shelf of thread and two (yes, 2) nice little organizers....all filled to bursting!

And now for some gorgeous projects.  Love the little pincushions here, then check out the detail on the quilts.  Some (though not all) are photographs printed on fabric then quilted and thread painted.  Amazing work!

A Quick Recap of 2017

While reading some of my favorite blogs, I naturally stopped over at Kaja's Sew Slowly and Ann's Fret Not Yourself where I was reminded that it's time for AHIQ. I shared a post to Kaja and Ann's linky party since the last two things I created are both improv pieces. 

Kaja posted a recap of her quilting for the year, and I thought it such a good idea that I decided to do something like it. 2017 must have been my year of small things. I made ten quilts total: almost all are small. The few larger ones are AmandaJean's QAL and a couple of tee shirt quilts for customers. 

It almost seems that I did more sewing than quilting. I made shorts for Rory's girls, a dress for myself, some quilted buckets, purses and bags, lots of quilted pillow covers, and several pieces of quilted art. I seem to be moving into the realm of art quilting with absolute abandon: I'm making what I like. I have now five pieces that are complete. Today I started a new one. This one will be painted like the cotton pieces. In fact, I may go back to cotton one more time. It's so much fun painting something close to my heart. 


But I also want to capture some of the sights we saw on our travels. Nebraska haunts me. Reading Willa Cather like a madwoman this year probably adds to that sense of wonder.
The Professor's House is my fifth book by Cather, though I didn't read them all this year! 

Interestingly we've visited all of the states that provide settings for her books, so I have seen the corn and rye and wheat swaying in the plains' winds. 

I have to do something with the haunting images of Cather's books and my experiences. I have yet to figure it out, but it must be done. 

What awaiting plans haunt you in the sense that you can't let them go? Does your heart ache to think of them? How close are you to seeing them through? 

A Finish and a Nap???

I hope you had as wonderful and productive a day as I have.  I started and finished one piece.  Then worked on another piece that I've had on the long-arm for a while.  

And I climbed in the hammock in our backyard for a bit of relaxing.  Our summers are much too hot for lying outside, so I'm trying to take advantage of the beautiful sunshine and cool breezes that we've been getting.

This is a very rare selfie!  I don't like being in front of the camera any more than I like taking the pictures.  Imagine my aversion to taking pictures of myself! But, well, I was enjoying the afternoon.  

So enough about me--back to today's accomplishments.  
I decided to create a teaching piece for a talk I'll give at our next guild meeting.  The subject is how I create my art quilts.  The second piece I worked on is an art quilt that will be completed in time to show at the meeting.  This piece is meant to help explain the steps that I use.  I decided to create three trees of the same general shape--each one in a different stage of completion.

The first section, on the left, shows my color palette, and the second shows the beginnings of my picture.  To show that I use any fabric that will work, I've included black netting, which I also use for shadowing.  I begin quilting the background when largest parts of the picture is in place, so I echo quilted around this section of the work.  Finally, I used white thread to stitch around every piece on the picture so that it will easily show.

In the third section I've quilted the background and begun adding some details.  Everything is "pinned" in place with stitches that will hold it down just enough to move the quilt from the long arm to the Bernina.  The details that are in this section are the bird nest, the squirrel hole, and the grass.

The last section shows the thread painting that I've added to finish the piece.  Notice how much thread painting I added to the detailed parts--the bird nest, squirrel hole, and grass. I spent maybe 15 minutes putting in all those stitches using the Bernina stitch regulator.  The only thing left is to bind the piece with black binding, which I like because it frames the artwork nicely.

Another Cotton on Green ~~ Finished

On Friday I told you about the most recent cotton painting I created. What I didn't tell you is that I had loaded two canvases and worked on them side-by-side. Sister paintings, if you will. 

They have many similarities, but one is not their sizes. This one is 15 X 18. Another difference is this little blossom on the upper left side of the canvas. It just found its way there with no argument from me. I just sew without thinking when I work on these. Sometimes some interesting things happen. 

Cotton bloom - Google images

I decided that this serendipitous occurrence was something to take advantage of. So the blossom became a cotton blossom out of season. I quilted around it in the same way that I quilted around the cotton bolls, and let it take care of business. It may not be a cotton blossom, but it's not far off. 


There are the right number of petals and it is white. Which, by the way, means it has not been self-pollinated because, once they are, they turn pink becoming a deeper pink as time goes by. 

In the next stage the flower dies and falls off leaving the green boll where the cotton grows. It is enclosed in green bracts which dry up and split open as the boll gets larger. Once the boll is fully mature, it will eventually fall off the stem. The seeds are in the fluffy cotton boll and are supposed to find their way to the ground, but most end up at the gin. But that's another post.

This cotton painting, then, has all the stages of the life-cycle of a cotton plant. Now that's serendipitous!