See The Forest from the Trees

Do you have a piece of hand dyed fabric that's shot with wonderful color and you're not sure what to do with it?  Well, I took inspiration from Design Matters TV and cut a yard of hand dyed fabric that I've been cherishing for some time now into 1 1/2" x 4 1/2" strips. I then sorted the pile of strips into groups of like colors, four strips per group. Each group was machined stitched together to create a 4 1/2" block. 

Once all the blocks were made, they were sewn together using the traditional rail fence pattern but... not in the traditional color scheme.  I placed the lights together, ran the mediums and the darks through the design to create a look of reflections on water. I then quilted expanding circles throughout  the wall hanging. 

When that was done I thought it looked a little flat and needed something, so as is my custom I left it on the design wall for a few days and just looked at it.  Then it dawned on me, perhaps I could stitch in some metallic thread, I tried it, but it did not work.  I then tried Shiva Iridescent Paintsticks, darking the darks and highlighting the lights.  It was too subtle.  It needed sparkle, so dusting the quilt with 007 Bonding Agent, I foiled the quilt.  I did not want the sparkle to stand out, I wanted subtle flecks of light dancing through the quilt. The foil did the job.

Although this piece started out as reflections on water, when all was said and done, I called this wall hanging, See The Forest From the Trees.  The piece is reminiscent of the deep forest with the light filtering through the leaves, reflecting off tree trunks and pooling on the forest floor.  Enjoy.

Embellishments

Embellishments: a decorative detail or feature added to something to make it more attractive.
The Oxford American College Dictionary.
There is no end to the possibilities for what an embellishment can be.  They can be made of paper, fiber, clay, metal or a combination. It can be painted or hand/machine embroidered. They can be treasured or found objects, one is limited only by one's imagination.

Embellies as they are called in the quilting and scrapbooking world can be used on hand-made cards, quilts, (art quilts are also included here), hats, clothing, etc.  I use embellishments to personalize some of my gifts, as in the card with the whisk. The young woman for whom this was made loves to cook.  The card was machined stitched, the Grungeboard heart was painted with acrylic paints and the whisk (embellie) was attached. The quilt is machined stitched and the glass "life preserver"(embellie) was hand stitched to the base fabric using metallic thread. Seed bead were then sewn onto the quilt. Enjoy.

  

Beading Bracelets

It did not take my sister very long to discover the bead shop, amysfunkybeads.com  five minutes from the house.  Within ten minutes of walking into the shop we were signed up for a couple of classes.  Allison and I are both self taught bead queens and so we felt that a beginners class would fill-in some of the holes in our knowledge and introduce us to new ideas and explain how some of the basic tools are used.  That afternoon we learned wire wrapping, which was always a challenge for me, how to use the crimper, explained the bead board and introduced us to the bead stopper.

 Now I know what to do with all these beads, pearls, gears, etc. Did I mention magpie?

Armed with all this new found knowledge, we were off to the next class - netting and in our case, a bracelet.  After choosing our seed beads, crystals and clasps we settled in for two and one half hours of beading fun.  Allison made a red and gold to my green and blue bracelet.  As it turns out, we're pretty decent beaders.

 Enjoy!

My Sister & Me

So... while Miss. Kim was at the races, her mom (my sister, Allison) and I were off to the Dali museum, the Chihuly Glass museum and the Florida Aquarium.  We were unable to take any photos at the museums as photography was "strictly prohibited."  Nevertheless, we spent many hours wondering the beautiful galleries.

Our first stop was the Salvador Dali Museum which holds one of the world's largest collections of his work. We stood before paintings of strange landscapes in awe of his imagination only to find out that not all of the landscapes were born of his imagination but were real landscapes from his boyhood home of Cadaques and Port Lligat.  We marveled at the beautiful colors, pure and true and his ability to capture light. 

Soon after leaving the halls of surrealism, we drove for a couple of minutes in pouring rain and arrived at the Chihuly Glass Museum.  As I was unable to use my camera I brought out my trusty sketch book and made some quick sketches of my impressions of the glass art.

The gallery was not very big but the color was intense and although I would be afraid to own any of the pieces, God knows I would break it, it was all very beautiful.
Our last stop was the Florida Aquarium.  The oceans have always made me pause in awe.  I was once a diver and my deepest dive was 65 feet.  That was an experience!   

We saw jelly fish, and star fish, sand dollars and turtles.

  Of course the highlight was the Leafy Sea Dragon and the Rosette Spoonbill.

Allison and the Jew fish

I caught my sister hanging out with the largest Jew fish I have ever seen.  The best part of all of this though, was the time we spent together.  We did a lot of laughing and talking about things both great and small, our mom and dad who we miss very much and of my five year old nephew, Mark who is into anything with wheels.  We had the best time ever!

 Enjoy.

Dragon Boats Racing

                                                        Greetings,

Miss.Kim

The Studio has been quiet these past few weeks as my sister and my niece were visiting.  They timed their visit to coincide with the International Dragon Boat Federation (IDBF) race meeting in Tampa, Florida, as my niece, aka, Miss. Kim, is a dragon boat racer/paddler. We are a family with roots that spread across all five continents.

Legend has it, that my grandfather Howai (Miss. Kim's great-grandfather) left Guangdong Province in southern China, the birth place of dragon boat racing, on a ship bound for Trinidad. He was only 14.  He started working for the Chinese Association in San Fernando as a cook and then married my grandmother, the daughter of a white English overseer on the Caroni Estate and a mulatto woman.  Five children were born of that union, my father Robert Man Choy Howai was one of them.

 
China was once called Middle Kingdom and it is said that if you have one drop of Chinese blood you will always belong to Middle Kingdom.  Is it this "drop" that now pulls Howai's great-granddaughter to the wonderful tradition of dragon boat racing?

Dragon boat racing is part of the annual celebration of the summer solstice which coincides with the 5th day of the 5th Chinese lunar month and the veneration of the water deity which dates back almost 2,000 years.  The Chinese dragons are believed to be the rulers of water, i.e. rivers, lakes, seas; so too do they dominate the clouds, mists and rain.  Veneration of the dragon water deity sought protection from drought and disease due to a lack of rainfall and water. One other legend commemorates the suicide of the great Chinese poet, Qu Yuan whose odes expressing his love for his country can be found in Chuci or "Songs of the South".

Although Miss. Kim did not actively participate as a paddler (due to university class schedule) she was able to be with her team in a supportive role, hold the keys, money, lip gloss and cheer them on as they cross the finish line.  The Trinidad and Tobago team went on to win 20 medals, 5 gold, 7 silver and 8 bronze. Congratulation to the T&T Dragon Boat Racing Team for a job well done!  Enjoy.

Friendship and Travel

This commissioned quilt is a celebration of friendship and travel.  The quilt measures 106.5" x 73.5".  It consists of 60 10" log cabin blocks and at the heart of each block is a photograph that was printed on inkjet printable fabric sheets.  Working on this quilt was such an adventure for me, from the Canadian Rockies to the Step Pyramid of Egypt, I traveled with this couple to places I have never been to in the photographs they gave me.   Each photograph was machined appliqued to the block using a satin stitch.

 

Trapunto initials were done in the center of the quilt and a quote of friendship was machine embroidered on the top border.  To further emphasize the initials I used color pencils to deepen the color and sealed it with fabric medium.  The quilt was machine quilted by Perdiricci Quilting Services, Inc., and hand bound by me. I enjoy hand binding quilts, its a time of reflection and bonding with the quilt whether it's great or small.  

The colors of the quilt reflect the blue of the oceans as most of the travel is/was done on ships, the cream the various countries.  The back of the quilt is a floral pattern.   Enjoy!

It Ain't Black & White

If you remember a few posts back, I made these black and white blocks but was not certain what I would do with them.  After putting the blocks together, I was not very enthusiastic with what lay before me - it needed something more - a spot of red. Once the red circles were hand appliqued to each of the blocks, I found that playing circles against squares, against rectangles proved to be interesting, yet it needed something else. 

I have an overwhelming stock of bits and pieces.  Drawers and drawers of bling, beads, pearls, shiny objects great and small, did I mention magpie!  I found the Graphic 45, Timely Point of View scrapbook paper in one of those drawers, cut out a different time piece and machined appliqued them to the blocks.  The three circles on the white panel is is the glue side of Wonder Under that was painted with acrylic paint.  I first pained the Wonder Under then I used one of my small die cuts to create the circles which was then fused in place.  Red Swarov crystals were hot fixed to the blocks

Gears (by Tim Holtz) were then added to turn the wheels of time and the lizard was introduced to bring about the energy for change.  Time and change go hand-in-hand. The quilting was stitch-in-the-ditch and for emphasis I quilted a circle around the focal elements.

My thought now is to give this mini quilt to my guild so that it may be auctioned to raise funds for the guild.

Enjoy!