Lily Pads, Illustrator, and a Quilt

I took this photo, and a few others, of the Lily pond in the Conservatory of Flowers at Golden Gate Park a few years ago. There is a glass wall around the pond, which allows you to see the pond below the water level. I thought it interesting how there is a reflection on the surface of the pond above the plants. Here is my interpretation in illustrator. I added a crayfish based on one I found in Wikimedia.

I used the same photo in 2007 as inspiration for a Fast Friday Fabric Challenge.

Completed Kalanchoes

Succulents IX and X are completed. These will probably end up matted and framed similar to the last two Succulents.

Kalanchoe Project Started

Yesterday, I started the Fast Friday Challenge announced a week ago. I’ve got a good start on two small 5 x 7 pieces.
We are supposed to pick a color scheme from product packaging. I purposely let the yellow and blue run together to create some green.

Midnight Garden

Deadlines are great for getting projects done. I wasn’t very inspired by my latest project, so I procrastinated on quilting it. I like it now that it’s finished. Some white paint was added after the quilting was completed. And it was completed just in time to enter into a juried show.

Working with Scraps

Our Fast Friday Challenge theme this month is outer space. We are supposed to use unusual materials or embellishments. My plan is to follow the requirements for this challenge while making a piece to submit to a show asking for art made from scrap, recycled, or repurposed items. I got started a week late for the challenge, and haven’t been working all that fast, but deadline for entering the show is still a couple weeks away. I think I have a good start with repurposed old jeans, garment sewing scraps, and pattern cloth scraps.

Succulent VII & VIII

I got two 5 x 7 pieces out of the current project instead of the one I was planning. I am looking for a good source for pre-cut double mats for framing.

And I had some scraps leftover to make ATC's. Two of the ATC's have some stitching to join some of the smaller scraps together.

Looking More Like Succulent Plants

Nearly done with this one.


I'm thinking about adding a pale wash over parts of the flowers to define better where there is a bit of overlap. Then I need to decide the best way to crop it for a finished piece.

These are Not Flowers

My current work in progress looks a bit like chrysanthemums or Dahlias to me. The plan is to add green. Maybe it will begin looking more like succulent plants then.

Radial Symmetry

This month’s Fast Friday Challenge is to be based on radial symmetry and colors from nature. I didn’t have to stretch my mind at all to fit succulents into the radial theme, and colors from nature could mean anything.

Imperfect symmetry is more interesting to me than perfect kaleidoscope type symmetry. Nature is full of not quite perfect symmetry, and rather lacking in much that is perfect.

Radial symmetry makes me think of circles, so I began by painting some white fabric with circles. This will be an under-painting when the quilt is complete. Many of my green succulents have a bit of red or yellow in them.

I have traced some succulent shapes onto interfacing. I will place it behind the batting, and quilt the shapes from the back, and then add more paint.

When I am done, I plan to select a section which can be matted and framed, and turn the remainder into ATC’s.

Transforming a Rejected Succulent

Quite a while ago, I began a succulent for the SAQA Auction, and then set it aside as a reject. I cut it into rough squares a couple months ago, with the intention of completing the Fast Friday Challenge which was supposed to be based on grids with an accent color. I picked out the fabric for the accent color, but then couldn't satisfy myself with the final arrangement, and it got set aside again. This months Fast Friday challenge is to work with pattern or texture and triad color scheme. My rejected project was already the right colors. I sewed the squares together at random, quilted, and then used orange and white paints to bring out the texture and add some dimension. Then I cut it apart again, and inserted orange veins. This was a fun experiment. The current plan is to cut this into trading card size pieces to swap at my next CQFA meeting.

Neutral Challenge

"Succulent V"
11 x 9

My fabric has been luring me to get back to some creative quilting. This month’s Fast Friday challenge was to work with neutral colors. I wondered if I could do succulents in neutral colors without them looking dead. Cynthia did a wonderful landscape in blue tinted grays which made it look like it was drenched in moonlight, so I thought maybe a blue tinted gray would work for me as well.

This piece started with a bluish gray which now seems nearly achromatic. I added a bit of yellow to the final painted highlights to add a bit of warmth to it. I prefer the brightly colored succulents.

I will post the piece I am making for the SAQA auction tomorrow.

Echeveria Forest

I have finally finished this small succulent quilt that I have been working on. It is about 8" x 10". I don’t want to name it Succulent V, because it doesn’t seem to be part of the same series as the other succulents. I have given it a working title of “Echeveria Forest”, but don’t know if the name fits. Any better suggestions for names? I have satin finished the edges instead of using a facing or a binding. If I hang it, I think I will mount it behind a mat.

This Month’s Fast Friday Getting Slowly Done

I’m getting a late start on this month’s Fast Friday quilt. I almost decided I would skip the challenge for a month. But then decided to spend just a couple of hours and make a quick fabric sketch with freehand cut fabrics, which led to hand stitching with embroidery floss. Half way through the stitching, I decided to make some changes in my fabric choices. So now, several hours into the project, I’m not halfway done. It will be getting done, but not on the schedule I had originally planned.

For this month’s challenge, we are to put some Rhythm/Movement or Tension/Energy into our piece and use an analogous color scheme. The plan is to finish hand stitching around each fabric piece, and then do free-motion machine quilting in the background. The piece is loosely based on a succulent photo I took in my garden last month. I believe these are echeveria.

Succulent III

Another Succulent quilt is completed for the Fast Friday Challenge.

My first idea of flower stalks reaching upwards was abandoned, since the only flowers blooming on my succulents right now seem to be the sorts that bend downwards. And the stalks all seem to be at awkward angles. I was having trouble getting a composition I liked. So I settled for leaves reaching upwards.

The original intent was to edge the larger leaves with bright red the way it is in my garden. It was to be my “zinger” color to fit the theme of the challenge. But now I think I should leave well enough alone. I don’t think it needs the red, and I’m afraid to overwork it now that it seems done.

The original photo was backlit with strong light along the edges of the back leaves. I may go back and soften some of the white edges and make the white blend into the green more.

Out in the garden, some of the succulents are blooming.This succulent was received as a gift, and was one of a variety of succulents planted in the one large pot. It was beginning to crowd out some of the other succulents, and was looking rather crowded itself. So I made some cuttings from the potted plants, and a succulent garden was born. The potted plants are still only about ten inches tall, but it took off right away when it was freed into open ground. The tallest plant stalk is now nearly three feet tall, and the leaf rosettes about a foot across. It will likely become part of my succulent series some day.

Christmas Gifts & Illustrating Character

Did everyone have a wonderful Christmas? I received a pinwheel block from my nine year old daughter. She hand stitched it without any help, and I have instructions that I may finish it with quilting. I think I might make it a bit larger and turn it into a dresser scarf.

This month’s Fast Friday Challenge, we are to work with “zinger” colors, and illustrate a mood or emotion with the piece we create. I know I can easily add some zinger colors to a succulent piece, but how can I express emotion?

Verticals, branches reaching towards the heavens, sunbeams reaching down, rising bubbles, all seem of joyful. I nearly always choose to work in a vertical format even when my subject is a landscape. Last January, I did a digital experiment to stretch one of my vertical landscapes into a horizontal. The horizontal version seems more peaceful and spacious, and the water and horizon seem to have more emphasis. I prefer the vertical version where the emphasis seems more on the tree and the upward reaching branches.

So, perhaps this month’s succulent quilt will feature flower stalks reaching upwards.

I have been working rather precisely lately, tracing photographs to lay out main shapes before I begin to paint and quilt my succulent pieces. Perhaps I should try cutting or drawing freehand shapes to see if this will add character to my succulent series.

How do you express emotions or add character to your quilts or other artwork?

Paying Attention to Value

Elizabeth Barton gave excellent advice about using value on her blog a couple of months ago. She also said quite a bit about value in this blogpost in which she says, “Check your value patterns – the deepest darks should create an interesting shape overall as should the brightest lights. It’s often easiest to see this by either squinting, or by taking a photograph, putting it intoPhotoshop and desaturating the colour. When it’s in black and white the value pattern becomes quite evident.”

I had Elizabeth’s advice in mind when I was searching for a photo to use for the latest succulent quilt.

I rejected a lot of photos, because the lights and darks just looked scattered and didn't interest me. One of the reasons I liked this photo was because the two large leaves in the upper right are relatively dark and create a diagonal balanced by the dark area at the bottom left. I was planning on emphasizing the values when I did my painting.
However, now that I compare my finished quilt to the original photo, I think I forgot my original thoughts. Black and white photos do help in seeing value without being distracted by color. I like how my final quilt came up, but the shading is very different than the photo. I was perhaps a bit stingy with the white paint as I was finishing for fear of overdoing it.

I have a second piece in progress using this photo. I will pay more attention to my original inspiration this second time.

Succulent II

Succulent II is based on a very close cropped photo of a succulent. It is for a Fast Friday challenge to work with either a close view or a far view with the focus on value. The base cloth is the clean-up fabric that I posted about last week. The patterns and colors in the original cloth have nearly disappeared beneath more paint and stitching, but bits of the original fabric still peek through. Working with this fabric helped free me from the need to interpret the colors from the original photo literally, and let me focus on value.

Succulent – The First in a Series

Succulent
10 x 13½

May I dare to call this a series when the rest exist only in my mind? Anyway, the first is done. And it is as I imagined it to be when I first began the painting and quilting a week and a half ago. I will make more quilts similar to this one.

Getting Ready to Paint Again

I have my latest two pieces quilted, and am ready to add more paint.

I want to finish the Succulent piece, and forget about the Clam Cove piece which I don’t think is as successful. But I guess I better finish the Clam Cove piece first so I can see what I can do with it, and to give me practice for the Succulent piece.

I am a bit hesitant to start adding more paint to either piece, after so much time spent heavily quilting them. I guess I better just do it, and hope it looks like the finished work that is in my mind.

The Beginning of a Succulent Series

The Fast Friday Challenge for this month was announced a week ago, and I got a late start. This month, we are to do something monochromatic and use perspective in designing our piece. I have some thoughts for perspective with a Sea Glass piece, but don’t want to only use one color, so I decided to start a new series.

This close-up of a succulent seems to show perspective well. I converted the photo to greyscale and increased the contrast so I could concentrate on line and value.

A medium green-blue fabric was selected, and a line drawing stitched on it in the same manner as for Clam Cove III which is still in progress.

These shapes are mostly larger and simpler than the ones in Clam Cove III. I thought again that I would cut different values of fabric shapes to define the leaves, but I changed my mind again and decided that this piece needs paint.

I used my Setacolor transparent paints to add the darker values in the image. I went back after I took this photo to make the darkest darks just a bit darker.

There’s something to be said for turning your work upside down while drawing or painting. I did just to keep my hand from smudging the wet paint, and almost immediately noticed the whole leaf and a half that didn’t get sewn with thread. I sketched it with pencil before I continued and stitched the last few lines after I did the painting.

My thoughts are to layer and quilt, before I go back in and add highlights with white or another light valued paint. I am hoping to achieve the same textured look like I did on Coyote Hills Marsh.