Lavender Haze

The previous post showed only a portion of the lake piece. Here's the whole before the layer of tulle was added ...

The pink tulle lessened the contrast of the colors and contributed a "haze" over it all ...

"Lavender Haze" (31"x 32") #85

There's also a bit of iridescent paint, water color pencil and oil stick pastel work to highlight some areas, as well as to blend others into the background. I do that after much study of the piece hanging on my design wall. I go slow with these additions so the major element of fabric is not overwhelmed ... so it doesn't lose its identity as textile art.

... and a close-up of the beach grass in the foreground ...

It was free-motion machine quilted with this variegated thread...

Next up is a presentation of the final eight that will be the Smoky Mountain Quilt Guild's entry to the Guild Challenge in next summer's AQS show in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Red Violet Challenge

As a member of the Smoky Mountain Quilt Guild, I took on the challenge contest for 2013 ... blindly choosing a spool of thread, then using that thread color to create a monochromatic quilt. This is mine ...

I sorted through several huge bags of scraps for bits and pieces of fabric and thread and yarn that related to red-violet to create a lake scene ...

I suspect the intention is for us to use all the different values of one color ... the addition of black and white to make lighter and darker hues. I've also included the muted shades of red-violet ... those hues made by adding gray or the complementary color. It will be interesting to see if my piece qualifies.

The reveal is at the November guild meeting this next Tuesday evening. After that I'll post a photo of the finished quilt (the above picture is the first step of laying out a foundation layer in my collage process). Now I need to get back to finishing the construction of the back. Interestingly, the art part is all machine work while the backing and hanging parts are mostly handwork.

Blue Lake

Blue Lake #84 - 21"x 17"

It's been a while since I've added to my lake series. The last being the three gray and orange mini-series made especially for my Michigan gallery's 23rd anniversary show. This one was commissioned through Good Goods. It was completed the night before my recent surgery. I needed to make this one not only for the customer, but for my psyche. It's blue for her with the a touch of uncertain weather on the horizon reflecting my situation at that time.

Pink Sunsets

Dramatic pink sunsets have lit up the sky over Lake Michigan last evening and this one.

These magical and seemingly unreal effects always amaze me and I hesitate to portray such "outlandish" effects in my lake series. Going back through the photos of that series I found that I had done so in these three:

 "Lake #26"

 "Lake #56"

"Lake #62"

Reality can be amazing! This pink and violet sunset with a lightening strike happened a few weeks ago. If I portrayed this in an art piece it would look so UNreal.

Orange and Gray Lake Series

This mini-series of lake pieces featuring orange and gray was inspired by a pair of hand-felted slippers.

One of my friends had posted a photo of the slippers on Facebook. I was intrigued by their color and the gradation of the hues from orange to gray. I couldn't get them out of my mind. A few days later Good Goods gallery that carries my artwork in Saugatuck, Michigan put out a call to all their artists to create new pieces for a special show titled "Lake Time." It didn't take long for me to know exactly what I wanted to do ... create three new lake pieces based on the intriguing hues of those slippers. The titles are "By the Light of the Moon," "At Daybreak," and "After the Storm." Each measures 21"x 17" and are mounted on stretched canvas frames. I'll post more about each of these pieces in the near future.

Tomorrow night is the opening reception for this show that celebrates Good Goods twenty-third anniversary. If you're in the area please come. It's from 4-8:00, Saturday, May 19th.  Go here to see photos of some of the other art created especially for this show.

Oh ... I ordered those slippers all the way from Lithuania and am considering wearing them to the party.

Lake #69

It's been a while since I've added to my series of 100 lake quilts.

Lake #69 - 19"x 14"

All the fabric pieces it's composed of came from the scrap bag on the right in this photo.

There are quite a few people who save their scraps for my "ortwork" quilts.  This bag is special in that it came to me through my friend, Tone Haugen-Cogburn.  These scraps are from her student's projects made in the workshop she recently taught at the John C. Campbell Folk Art School in North Carolina.  Collecting them for me was initiated by Julie who reads this blog.  To see the projects from which these scraps came, as well as photos of the school grounds, go to Julies photo album.

The two boxes on the left in the above photo have scraps separated out from the bag for two projects.  The bottom one is for an upcoming project that needs larger pieces, while the top one has the size and color of scraps to make lake pieces.  Here's the state of this lake piece midway through the process. Yarn and wool roving are added to the scraps to give definition to the clouds and crests on the waves.

It was made as a house present for friends who used to live near Lake Michigan.  We spent the night with them in Hendersonville, North Carolina on our way to South Carolina.

That spot isn't where it's going to "live".  We took down an art piece so I could show her how to hang "Lake #69".

We stopped in Asheville to visit our favorite galleries, New Morning and the Blue Spiral ... and yes, we bought something, but it's still in its wrapping so there's no photo.  But I do have a picture of a car we saw in traffic on the way from one gallery to the other.

There was a stoplight, so I got to speak to the driver.  She had "beaded" it herself.  What a hoot!

Gifting Back

Yesterday I took a break from "The Lake" to create a gift for a friend.

"Laura's Lake" - 14" x 11"

This piece honors my friend Laura who died in February of this year.  Laura's 88 summers were spent on the beach of Lake Michigan here in Macatawa.  The colors and light reflected on this lake and beach is symbolic of her full and gracious life.

Laura was an accomplished needlework woman.  Near the end of last summer I was gifted a box of her threads and yarns.

It pleased both of them to know that bits and pieces were incorporated into "Prairie Performance".  I wrote about that here.  Her husband was touched to get back some of those yarns and threads in "Laura's Lake".

"The Lake" Quilt Begins

The prep work of tearing old army blankets from World War II that had been at the family cottage "forever" into "batting" for the twenty-five panels was done the other night.

Fabric backings were also torn to size and ironed.  The fabrics were those that had been passed on to me.  The blue one had been two lengths sewn together for a make-shift table covering by somebody.  The stains and faded areas won't ever be seen because the backing for these panels will get sandwiched between the top and yet another piece of fabric that will be stapled into the foundation frame.

Two bags of scraps were dragged out along with containers of raveled threads, trimmings, and yarn ends,

The first two panels were laid out at the same time so that lines, shapes , and colors flow from one to the other.  The panel on the left is already quilted while the one on the right is pinned.  It's since been quilted and I'm about to lay out a third panel for the horizon row yet tonight.

Quite a lot of yarn has come to me from the collection of a friend who was a weaver.  I'm pleased to feature them ... and Elvis who will make an appearance in every panel.  His image is being taken from the chiffon scarf that can be seen at the left in the top of the above photo.

Elvis is quite obvious at this point.  He'll blend in a lot more later on when I get to the point of shading, emphasizing, and obscuring with the oil stick pastels.

  This installation piece will progress a lot more quickly than did "Prairie Performance".  There are three levels of work ... laying out the composition, the first round of quilting which is part of the design, and then the second round of more spare quilting that attaches the panel to the mounting fabric.  The prairie flower panels had seven layers of work.

My Irish Eyes Are Smiling!

Yesterday I made the BIG decision to create another installation.  Today  my Irish eyes are smiling because I mapped out a plan and made a mock up for a huge lake piece.

"The Lake"  -  7' x 9'

To do this I used the image of Lake #1, the first quilt in my 100 lake piece series.  That one got chosen because the installation piece will have beach grass growing in the foreground.  I printed two photographs of Lake#1 on a heavy matte paper.

Then I figured out the scale for each piece that represents a panel based on their being mounted onto mounted canvas foundations that measure 20"x 16".  Originally, I had done a layout for the twenty canvas frames that I purchased on sale earlier this year with just a thought towards this project.

The foreground pleases me. I like that the edge of the water breaking on the shore falls at the space between panels.  These panels will be framed with the same soft-edge finish of couched yarns as I had done for "Prairie Performance".  The horizon line between sky and lake needed to fall well away from the space between the top two rows in order to be defined as such.  The area that's left became lake.
I want more lake!  So ... I printed out a photo of one of my other lake pieces, cut it up,  and inserted another row of lake in the center.

I got out my oil stick pastels to blend as well as to define elements so the eye flows across the whole piece.  I'm really happy with what I see.  Tomorrow I begin preparing the foundations for twenty-five panels.  These will count toward my goal of making 100 lake pieces - beginning with #69 and ending with #93.  No, make that #94.  I just remembered my plan to compose every twenty-fifth piece with the cut-offs from the previous twenty-four quilts.

mmmm.... that means with the completion of this project, just five more quilts PLUS the 75th one made up from the cutoffs and the 100th one made-up from the cut-offs of #'s 76 thru 99.

Beautiful Fall Days on the Lake

Here are two very blue days with big cumulus clouds floating across the sky. They are much like most of days we experienced through September. This one is a calm day with strong reflections glaring off the water and sand.

Lake #67 (13"x 11")

While this one is more typical of large waves washing ashore.

Lake #68 (13"x 11')

Here's #68 laid out and pinned before the machine quilting finished it off.
The skies for both of these are the "other side" of pieces cut from a blue silk blouse with roses scattered throughout. It was given to me by a friend ... she purchased #67. That same silk was used for the prairie flower pieces I made about a year ago. They can be seen here and here.

Purple and Orange Lake Quilts

While the after effects of Ike weather was storming over the lake this past weekend I felt compelled to create colorful lake pieces.

Lake #64 (13"x 11")

How the layered piece looks after the rows of machine quilting stitches are added always amazes me. Here's the before with the layer of tulle laid on top.
That purple and orange sunset lake piece lead to another.

Lake #65 (13"x 11")

...and how it appeared before the quilting defined the clouds, waves, and patterns in the sand.
The first two are definitely sunsets. Monday morning we awoke to pink tinged clouds at sunrise which sparked this one.

Lake #66 (13"x 11")

...and its appearance before I quilted it.
I haven't run out of enthusiasm for this series and am surprised and amused at what triggers each one. It had been my concern that making so very many pieces of basically the same composition would eventually bore me. But then, I never tire of looking at the lake from the same location everyday, year after year after year after year ....

Making More Lake Pieces

Since demonstrating the technique I use to construct the lake quilts in my series to 100 at Good Good's gallery, I've been concentrating on making more.

Lake #63 (13"x 12")

The one above was created the second day, Sunday, at the Gallery. Here's how it looked when I brought it home to quilt. It represents the beautiful, clear, and warm days at the end of August here in Michigan before the effects of Hurricane Ike reached us.

I made six small quilts that looked stormy. They began as one very long piece ... the width of my work table. When I began the quilting process there was a problem with the "orts" shifting under the tulle netting, so I cut it into more manageable pieces.
Four of the small 5"x 8" quilts were presented to the gallery ladies at Good Goods in appreciation of the work they did in the wonderful presentation of my quilts. Those pictured below were gifted to two young families to commemorate their visit here at the cottage during a very wet and stormy weekend.

Lake #'s 62.5 and 62.6

I don't consider the small sized lake pieces to be an official count in the series. They get a decimal point designation after the number of the larger one just finished.

Stormy Nights on the Lake Quilts

Mother nature produces some magnificent light shows in numerous night storms over Lake Michigan, especially in the month of June earlier this summer (go here to read a bit about some of those storms). During the first of those that we experienced, my older son and I got caught on the beach. A great amount of rain had fallen and made large puddles on the beach. Thinking the storm was over, we went to check them out and got caught there by lightening from another storm. It was very scary to run and crouch every five feet till we were off the beach ... soaking wet and shaking, but safe. I knew right then there were quilts about lightning storms at night in my near future.

Lake #58 (13"x 12")

The first one (#58) was presented to that adventurous son on his 42nd birthday last week. It was a challenge to capture the quality of night let alone lightening bolts. However, by the time this one was finished, I was ready to make more.

Lake #59 (13"x 12")

This next one (#61) I thought to stop long enough to take pictures during the construction process. The first layer in all the lake quilts is made up of larger scrap pieces. I chose dark valued ones for a night storm.
That layer get a spritz of temporary adhesive to hold the small fabric bits and threads in place. A metalic silver fabric was cut in slivers to portray the bolts of lightening and their reflections in the water. Dark colored wool roving helps to obscure some details while light value roving colors and highlights the clouds. All these night storm pieces are finished with a layer of black tulle netting.
This is the piece that was used to demonstrate my quilting techniques at Good Good's gallery last Saturday.

Lake #61 (13"x 12")

I took a break from the night storm pieces to make this large one that represents the kind of days we had the last week of August.

Lake Quilt #60 (28"x 30")

Good Good's show cased this one at their entry door on the street level (the gallery is upstairs).

To view and read about lake quilts featuring stormy daytime weather so here and here.

My Weekend at Good Good's

Creating several lake quilts at Good Good's gallery in Saugatuck, Michigan this past weekend was fun. I was scheduled only for Saturday, but ended up there on Sunday afternoon as well.
Many people, both local and vacationers from surrounding states, came to watch the construction and stuck around to talk about quilts, quilting, and art. I was most pleased that Kay ("Out of the Basement" blog) drove up from Indiana to see my work in person. We have been emailing and reading each others blogs for several years and it felt as though I was greeting a long time friend even though we were meeting for the first time.
This "after the sun has gone down" piece was begun and completed Saturday afternoon.

Lake #62 (13"x 12")

The previously constructed lake piece that I had taken to demonstrate my quilting and couching techniques will be posted soon. It's one of three that represent the night storms in June.