It is the end of May and I have 4 more Uncommon Quilting squares behind me. I thought I was running out of steam on this - and way too soon. I keep a little basket of things I find that might inspire this challenge, but it was empty! For # 17, I decided to try the "stitch and then paint" idea that Williamson used on some of her samples. I stitched a jigsaw puzzle pattern on plan white fabric and then painted in color using regular acrylics. Square #18 was inspired when I was trimmed the seam allowance on a polar fleece project. The bright, fuzzy chunks were stretchy and fun. I ended up struggling with this because my machine stitching didn't show up at all. Finally, I switched to black thread, which helped a little. Days later I added the black rickrack. What I really need is a lighter background. But, I'm not going to take this apart, and I am going to count it in the total! I started to have a little more fun creating the remaining squares. Square #19 was sewn up in a flash! I had saved the pull tabs from some cardboard packaging. I combined these with a scrap of a crocheted plastic produce bag and a few pieces of thick orange yarn. Then, I stitched around with black thread to hold things down, throwing in a few zigzag patterns.
Square #20 is one of my favorites so far. About 10 years ago I bought a big box of zipper at a sale. Some had been used, some were still in the original packaging. There were quite a few metal zippers and many in colors I hope to never need in a garment. I've used quite a few of these on various projects. One of the remaining gems was the green metal zipper that is the center piece of this design. There was an interesting glob of sewing installed by the original user to hold the zipper together at the bottom. The stitching there is as I found it. I added a design of other zipper pieces and continued stitching with black thread.
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I have long promised new Range Walkers for The La Veta Gallery for this summer. I had to make good on that, even as I was dragging my feet to get started. The bones weren't the best, the sticks didn't have the kind of surface interest I prefer, the figures didn't stand gracefully, and on and on. In spite of all of that, the resulting figures were among the best I have made. This is "Aguilar". His garments are made from hand painted heavy cotton. The wrap is collage with strips of fabric, tulle, and hand stitching. The very perfect beads are from the craft store "Costilla" is wearing a wrap made from an old felting experiment. Because my felting technique was not the best, I ended up using machine stitching and some hand stitching to hold everything together. it waited in my treasure box for at least 10 years to become a perfect wrap for this guy. And finally, "Baca". His wrap is hand painted on a heavy cotton. Strips of fabric with machine quilting were used to make the stripes. The bottom edge is fringed to add texture to the figure.
These Range Walkers are in the gallery now to enjoy a summer in La Veta, Colorado. I am encouraged by this group to continue with the Range Walker idea. A couple of weeks ago I got interested in creating some grid and plaid designs, first as a quilt square and then in a 16" x 20" painting. After I studied Rethinking Acrylic, by Patti Brady, I realized that I couldn't rely on Elmer's Glue and joint compound, but needed to improve my use of mediums and gels. I discovered a couple of unused 6" x 6" canvases in my supplies to use for some experimentation. I wish I could blow through a lot of art supplies with abandon, but, no. I could enjoy painting these without using very much of my new goop! I continued to work into this using a palette knife, some gels and finally some scratching marks.
The following piece is my second attempt. I wish this was 30" square instead of 6" x 6", but that is for another time! |
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