Friday, July 6, 2012

Artist's Play Room: Red and White

I want to thank all the help I received in order to get online today and make this post possible. I have the BEST friends in the world.

With my friends' helpfulness in mind, what is red and white and celebrated in July? Why "Oh Canada," of course. It was Canada's birthday this week, and it was the US's celebration of Independence. So that makes two reasons to celebrate red and white at the Artist's Play Room with Jenn at Just Add Water, Silly.


I realize today is the day for my Inspiration Avenue post, but Jenn closes her challenges each Saturday morning, and I've missed several because I didn't get them in on time. So, this week, I'm determined to show my art, especially since I had to completely rework it. As an aside, I am now making a new IA challenge piece because I misread the prompt. It hasn't been a fun return to reality.

I had hoped to have this finished before I left on vacation, so I would have it pre-posted. However, when I started this piece, all went well until


I tried to put the front to the back. The overall background of the front is velvet, and I'm not a velvet person. The back is cotton, and I couldn't get anything to match up properly. So I tried to sew the front and back together and run swirls around the two pieces to try to get them to lie flat rather than bunching up in various positions. I made such a mess of things, I ended up having to take the piece with me, along with my only fabric scissors so I could rip out the tiny, tiny stitches.

When I got home, I proceeded to use a type of bonding material similar to Wonder Under, only much heavier, to fuse the front and back together. It was at that point I decided the red and white also needed a bit of color to make this abstract quiltlet work.


For the back. I used a piece of my monoprinted hand painted fabric to which I added my name before I sewed the two sides together, this time into a much flatter quiltlet.

I hope you like my take on homage to red and white.

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13 thoughtful remarks:

Jennifer McLean said...

thanks for sharing your quiltlet, it must have been murder taking all those tiny stitches out!! Thanks for soldiering through, it was worth the wait!
Best,
Jenn

Terrie said...

Great little quiltlet - what are you doing with all of them? There's not much that's worse and more boring than removing stitches, but your interfacing idea was a great one to hold things together. Hope you're staying cool....we're actually finally beginning to warm up..just a little. Summer might be on it's way (don't want to jinx it).

Serena Lewis said...

OH, how I hate to unpick stitches however I do love my 'stitch unpick tool' for this very thing!! You have my admiration! A lovely piece for the challenge and the fusing idea seemed to work a treat for you. :) I remember, many years ago, when I used to applique, I would use the double sided, iron-on webbing so I could iron all the little elements in place before appliquing around them.

SandeeNC said...

So glad you are back, you were missed! Did you take Blebeard with you or did some lucky person get to take care of him for you! I would have loved to house sit for you....I'm sure I would have enjoyed rumaging through your stash while you were gone....lol waving hi from the hills of North Carolina :)

Gloria j Zucaro said...

I can totally sympathize! I used to work in a fabric store and would spend some of my earnings on wonderful cotton fabrics. For friends and family I would make lap quilts as gifts, always in the log cabin style. I would do fine until time to attach the back and do the stitch-in-the-ditch. LUMPY CITY!!! I bought a special foot for my machine to make everything feed better, but I was never really successful! I love your color and fabric combinations! Glad you got in under the wire this week.

Arnoldo L. Romero, MLA said...

I love it. I used to sew, but haven't done much of it in the past 12 years or so. Blessings!

Halle said...

I've been sewing too...and working with my jewelry findings. Hopefully I'll have it completed next week. Busy week....hot week....doesn't equal much time for art.

~*~Patty S said...

Very nice red and white homage E!
That is a neat piece of off white fabric or is it paper...almost looks like batting?

have a nice weekend
oxo

minnemie said...

wonderful red and white creation!

Carolyn Dube said...

So sorry the computer is not behaving for you! I know I get so frustrated when technology does not do what it just should do! Love your work here- and thanks for the spark to get my sewing machine humming with fabric again!

Neesie said...

It looks great Elizabeth...I used to sew way back but struggle to even sew a button on now.
I've just seen your previous post and it looks lovely so I'm heading back to check it out!
Have a wonderful weekend ~ enjoy!

Alice said...

i do like your homage to red and white! i like that hand-painted fabric, too - very cool!

VonnyK said...

Wow, you put so much work into that, I wouldn't have the patience. Love the take on red and white. I hope you get those nasty computer problems fixed soon.
Von.