Esparta Fiber Arts Blog

I have been working (at least in my head) on this piece for some months. I had not had time to work on it until school let out. So finally, it has gotten beyond the tea stained piece of fabric I started out with. This piece is approximately 12″x12″ and is for the SAQA Auction. This raises money for Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) which helps artists who have a fiber art focus. This group is really diverse and provides a lot of support and inspiration for those of us whom are newer in the field.

I did a series of photos of this piece to document my process. Much like “guys in the band” (yes, I am still working on them) this is a similar process… although not on as large a scale and I did not use resist for this piece at all… I just freehand painted and then had at it with the sewing machine. It was a fun piece to do and nice to be able to finish in just a few days.

Information on the auction and the pieces that have already been sent in can be viewed here SAQA website. Here are the photos of this piece… “Dock Ropes #7″.

Dock Ropes # 7 in process

Dock Ropes #7 in process 1

Dock ropes #7 in process 2

Dock Ropes #7 in process 3

Dock ropes #7 full view finished

Dock Ropes #7 back stitch detail

Dock Ropes #7 detail 1

Dock Ropes #7 detail 2

The other piece that I recently finished was for Quilt Art’s  “Quinceañero” challenge. It was a ton of fun and meant to celebrate QuiltArt’s 15th year. I have only been a member for 4 or 5 years now, but I have learned quite a bit from various list members.

My personal piece is called “QA15″. I know it is not the most original title, but it was a ton of fun to create. I have been exploring blobby, cartoony type shapes and trying to get them more dimensional. I used my favorite method of painting with ink onto white fabric, then I used “prismacolor” pencils to add detail and shading. Really fun, but lesson learned. Wow, do you need to spray that stuff with fixative of some form… My arm was pretty grey after shading in… I also evened out the paint job with corresponding colors. I think it came out pretty cool. I need to redo the binding as it is really awful. Someday…

Here are photos of my “QA15″ piece.

QA 15 starting to pencil in

QA 15 in process

QA15 mostly painted penciled

QA15 full

QA15 detail

So I would highly recommend visiting the links to the SAQA site and Quilt Art site as they have such a great group of artists to view and I am really proud to be among them!

have fun,

mathea

Surprise, I am not timely in updating this poor blog again. Partially, this is due to my lack of creative work happening. But I am getting back into it again.

I need to put a hanging sleeve on “my beach boys” as it is going to hang in Maine Quilts next weekend so I better get cracking. I hate to sew sleeves on, even more than I dislike binding a quilt! This task always gets put off to the very last minute. I have to turn the quilt in tomorrow…

The “guys in the band” is at a standstill right now as I have not had the time to work on it. This ticks me off, as I think I am just not managing my time well. (Actually, I know I am being a lazy butthead.)

Last weekend I had the good fortune to teach a machine quilting class at Mainely Sewing. I had three students and they were amazing. They were very bold and were really quite willing to take chances and try most everything I suggested. I think that with practice they will all do really well with Free Motion Quilting. This is the second time I have taught this class and it was easier this time around and the women were very generous and gave me good feedback. I am very fortunate to have these opportunities. I also managed to get a pic of the class and they all said it was ok to post…

I managed to get partway through my “crazy patch” sample for an upcoming class. I have some more embroidery to finish and then I will bind it up… So there is an in process photo of that as well.

The smell of cookies downstairs is luring me away… Hopefully, there will be more updates soon, with more cooler stuff. (ok not such great English there)

have fun,

mathea

Finally I finished guy 4′s pants… Now for the hair and face. It shouldn’t take too long actually the face is simple and the hair looks like it going to be quite fun. It goes in all directions so I will have fun being fairly random. (my speciality) It took quite some time to get this guy done. There were quite a few disruptions. I hope to have him totally done Monday or so… we will see how it goes.

My brain is numb at this point. We watched the Star Wars Phantom Menace this evening. I hadn’t seen this one yet and it was pretty entertaining. I really liked the music. I will have to resurrect some of it for skating. But the arty side of this and what makes it relevant to this blog were the sets and costuming. Wow. They were really well done. I really like the effect of antiquity combined with the futuristic. Very cool. Yes, I know they did this with the original 3 back in the late 70′s early 80′s, but technology has progressed and the effects were well executed. (The originals were excellent for their time as well.) The amazing thing is despite the technological advances, they managed to make the movies not look as if there were 20+ years between them. The sets and animation type effects were stunning and very livable. I think I will maybe strive to do a piece that combines those attributes… antiquity and futurism… hmmm…

could be fun… here are a couple of not so great pics of quy 4′s pants done in the rock wall pattern.

have fun,

mathea

Well, I admittedly have not worked on “Guys in the Band” as much as I would like. Life interuptus again… I did not get as much done this past month due to picking up a tutoring job, traveling to QN, working a little more for Mainely Sewing and being sick. I also picked up my first commission.
It (the commisssion) seemed like a small task, but has turned into a major time sucker. But I like the project and it is educational for me.  I will post the results when I am done.
So back to “guys in the band”… I have worked a bit on guy 4 and he now has his shirt, cuffs, arms and hands done, and part of his pants. I am using the rock wall texture for the pants. I thought I would use “pebbletech” a smaller rounder texture, but it is too small for this size piece and way way too labor intense. So the pants have the pattern of the 100+ year old rock wall in my back yard on them. I think I am going to like the overall effect.

so that is it for my short update… I have a small detail shot of guy 4 at the end.

have fun,

mathea

guy 4 detail of textures

I will admit, this entry is largely kyped from my “myspace” blog… the rantier side of life. It is not the total entry, but a good portion is similar.

I do not think I whined about my ankle on this blog… so here is my tale of woe. I think it was late February early March that I was demoing a flying camel at the boards and came down awkwardly. I assumed it was a minor sprain or possible stress fracture. If you ignore these and don’t abuse the damaged area too much they go away.
So that was my theory and I was sticking to it. Yes, I ran on it… Yes, I skated on it with vigor… I most assuredly walked all over it… I even did karate on it… Then it got difficult to push on the accelerator while driving….hmmm, not cool. The dormant Bostonian in me knows that being unable to speed is unacceptable. So I went to the doc. Apparently, I tore my Achilles tendon. Awesome. The evil man (doctor) was going to put me in a cast! Unfortunately, my reputation for stupid acts while injured precedes me… So I got a lecture and an air cast. I mean, come on, I have a 4 year old. How the heck am I supposed to chase him and shower with a cast on?  So I am to behave for the next 4 weeks and hope and pray it won’t come to surgery.

So I am heading out to Ohio for Quilt National next week. This is a dress up affair and Lord knows I do not dress up all that often… Now I have a dead sexy air cast to contend with. On the whole, I am truly excited to be going. It was an honor to be chosen to participate in this show. I am thrilled that my piece is being published. I am also feeling inadequate in that I am hanging in the show with consummate professionals and I am such a newbie. My technique and style seem juvenile compared to some of the works I know are part of this exhibit. But I have to start somewhere and I am sure it will be fun.

In the meantime, I have managed to get a bunch of stuff done… One of my pieces “Mini Rooftops” sold at Collage Mania. I finished, signed and packaged it for shipping today. I also finished off my Coastal Challenge “Watery Blues”. I have half of a shop sample completed for a class that I am teaching and I am thinking that I will get to work on some of my current project stuff, like “guys in the band”. I am still pulling stitches out of guy 2 and guy 4 needs his color stitching finished… Once I get guy 2 squared away, I will be able to start background and detail work on the first 3 guys… Yay!

Oh well, that is it for now… if you want the total rant version with the bad words and text abbreviations in it, head over to the myspace blog, there is a link to the right.

have fun,

mathea

I had hoped to be able to finish the “Guys in the Band” for Maine Quilts this year and maybe try for the International Quilt Festival in Houston, but it is not going to happen. Life interuptus did occurr and I would rather submit the guys next year and make sure that they are done really well rather than rush. I know that they will be cool and I will no doubt figure out better methods to get them to hang than I have currently planned. Guy 4′s shirt is done… I need to take some photos. Maybe tomorrow.

I did manage to finish, more or less, my challenge piece for the Coastal Quilters. I really enjoyed the challenge. We were given a bag of fabrics from another quilter and we had to use everything that was in the bag to create a 10″x10″ mini quilt. My fabrics were in blues and they really reminded me of water… so the piece is called watery blues… and I did a fishy quilt… I would venture to say some of my techniques were lacking, (machine tension went haywire too… ack.)  but I had a great time creating it and hopefully it won’t get “booed”. I admit, it was more of a challenge for me as I have not worked with commercially printed fabrics in a while. I have been painting then quilting mostly. This was collaged together and then stitched down with decorative stitching…

Anyway, I took a scan and here it is…

have fun,

mathea

Coastal Quilters challenge for 2009

Guy 3 is done with the patterning and color stuff that I put in… next will be details… cannot wait for that to happen as I hate the blobby, ghosty facial features and it looks so static right now. Facial hair wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be. Guy 4 is currently getting his patterns and color put in. I hope to have something to post in a day or so with him… Guy 2 has most of his face taken out. I will restitch and repost photos of him… I can almost start background quilting. Once I have 3 of the guys completed with color stuff, I can finally figure out how the backgrounds will be put in. This is just a short post as I need to sit and sew!

have fun,

mathea

Here are some more pics of guy 3 in process… all he has left are hair and face. I am looking forward to quilting in the hair as this guy has longer wavy curly hair. So that has potential to be fun. The facial not so much… I have to figure out the patterning for that.

Poor Guy 2 is getting his face and hands ripped out… I decided that the purple thread was too purple and looked odd in contrast to the lighter hair. So I will pull out the stitching and then restitch with the evil invisible thread. It will look much better and I will be able to add the detailing easier. I have to say that MonoPoly thread is a royal pain in the butt to sew with. I really have a hard time seeing the stuff… and trying to thread the needle… ughh. But it does provide really good results, so worth the hassle.

I am pretty excited, my friend Diane dyes fabric and she is finally getting her own website. I think this is really cool and she is a really nice person and wildly talented as well. Gloria Hansen of GloderWorks is creating the website for her and it looks really awesome so far… I will be really happy when it goes live.

The other person I need to give some props to is my little brother. He does these incredible parties called “death match” with a theme. This last party had the theme of what would you have for your last meal… So here is a link to a report of the dinner on eGullet with links to some of the other dinners they have had. A warning, some of the pics are a little graphic on this site… my brother is Jon Dietz, one of the founders of the “deathmatch” dinners.

Last but not least. Please stop by Virginia Spiegel’s Collage Mania. May 5th – 7th is Collage Mania and it is a fundraiser with all of the proceeds going to the American Cancer Society. It is the last year she is hosting this event and the goal is to raise appoximately $20,000.00. I have contributed a piece called “mini rooftops” to this event. Currently, there are 383 fiber art collages from 161 artists and it really helps a great cause. Please stop by and check out the amazing art works. I feel very fortunate to be in among the very gifted and generous artists participating.

Thanks for stopping by…

have fun,

mathea

I like the way the different stitching looks. Now I have to figure out which I like better…

Either way, the stitching will change in appearance from the initial sewing. I have yet to do the contours and shadows… So the current stitching is very flat and not hugely appealing. I hate this stage of the project. It looks so weird, mutant and blobby. It does get better and quickly… I am tempted to take guys 1 & 2 and do the detail stitch and paint to satisfy my need to see a semi finished product.

As it stands, I have to figure out which stitching I am keeping… and the next dilemma is the guy 3 that I am working on is the first of the guys that has facial hair. What is it with rock guys and chin pubes? Ok my brother is not a rock guy and he has those irritating little whiskers too. I think the darker stitching may distract from the facial hair segment… I think this holds for guy 3, mostly because he has light hair and the tone that I used on the face is darker than his hair. Guy 4 has really dark hair and dark whiskers as well, the facial stitching would be lighter and maybe an non-issue as far as the contrast between the 2 colors.

I will post a pic of each of the styles of stitching at the end of this post… Guy 3 is progressing nicely, he has woodgrain pants and endos on the jacket… the shoes will be the same pattern as guy 1 (fiddleheads, I think). I need to put guy 2′s stitching in his shoes… (it needs to be hand done) I think that will be cool. I am just grateful right now that Guy 3 is smaller and is moving along quicker.

Oh well, I am getting tired… I have finally finished an application for CMCA’s “Work of the Hand” exhibit. So we will see if I get in… It would be cool and it is a great local museum. They are small but mighty. I love their exhibits and they are very comfortable to walk through, even with a child.

Ok here are the photos… again, please take into account these are relatively unfinished pieces and I cannot get far enough away from them to take decent pictures… (these are done in my little office space… for exhibits they get hung in the playroom or on the outside of the house)

Thanks for stopping by…

have fun,

mathea

I really like the colors of my “guys in the band”… In general, I like a lot of color… My issue now is whether or not to change what I am doing with the faces.

I originally was going to quilt them in invisible thread, so they look like my faceless people that I do in other works, but when you got up close there was facial detail… So here is the dilemma. I am not sure whether I actually like this look for pieces this large and I could acheive a similar look with purple thread. I have a purple thread that essentially will blend with the paint, instead of using clear thread. Hmmmm….

The other question is how much detail do I want to put into the facial features… I am capable of rendering (at least with a pencil) a very true to life sort of portrait type face. Back in the day, I was somewhat known for pencil drawings or watercolors done in relatively tight control… I am thinking that this is too much and as my pencil is a fast moving needle and thread maybe not the easiest look to achieve. It is entirely possible as Hollis Chatelaine achieves amazing texture and renders beautiful pieces of art using dye painting and a sewing machine. I am not nearly as accomplished as Hollis is and I am pretty sure that is not the look that I want. I think I want a medium balance…not quite Warhol or Lichtenstein, but not quite so life like…

So poor guy 1 will probably get his face taken out. One of my friends from Portland commented one day, ” Who are these poor guys? You are abusing them!” Not really… It will be fairly cool when it is finished. I am hoping to move through and have most of it done soon. We will see…

On another note, I would like to give props to Stacy over at Mainely Sewing who helped me get my machine back on track. Actually, she had showed me how to pull it apart and get it clean… I just did not have appropriate oil (so I thought) or a way to apply the oil. She loaned me her gear and coached me through it, life is good and my machine runs like a top! I in fact do have oil that can be used… I used to ride century rides when I was single and did not have a kid. In my bike maintenence kit is triflow oil that will work. So next time I will know what to do.

Oh well, I really need to sleep. I am sure that I will resolve some of this issue tomorrow with cup of coffee in hand…

Here is a shot of what I have done on guy 2. He is mostly done, hair, face, hands and shoes need doing. The shoes will be outlined with the machine, but I plan on using a hand stitch for the filler. (scatter or seed stitch) Oh and my traditional whine… this guy is really tall and this quilt is a beast to move through the machine. Whaaaa… ok, I am over it now.

have fun,

mathea