Have you seen this?

Pretty exciting to see the quilt I painted a year ago gracing the cover of Quilting Arts magazine!

It's like coming full circle. What a year it's been. I am in the very midst of the transition the cards spoke of that inspired this piece.

8 of Cups: Moving on and letting go. Time to change direction in life. Dissatisfied and disappointed, wanting something entirely different, but not knowing what. Finding courage, taking time to rest and heal.

If you are interested in seeing how the painting progressed and the symbolism of the imagery on this piece you can click here to read about it.

Now I'm packing like crazy, sorting through 20 years of shared belongings, dividing things up and getting rid of unnecessary things (which is taking a lot longer than a typical move). I am streamlining, if that's really possible for an artist, lol, but I'm trying.

I feel almost like I'm going through a birthing process, with the last year of gestation, knowing this time was coming, getting psychologically prepared, doing the work that needed to be done to make it happen. Now I'm in heavy labor, doing the hard work and soon life as I know it will be very different. I'll be moving on to the next phase of my life in a new place with lots of new adventures on the horizon!

Kudos to Jamie Fingal and Lesley Jenisen for curating the Rituals exhibit that my quilt is hanging in at International Quilt Festival and the other 10 artists quilts from the exhibit that are featured in this issue. Hopefully I'll get a copy soon so I can see it and read Jamie and Lesley's interview.

8 of Cups - finished

After the quilting was finished, I marked out the finished size: 24" x 60", sewed a tight straight stitch just inside the marked line, then trimmed it to size.

To finish the edge, I chose 3 different cords that picked up the colors in the quilt and used them to make a couched twisted cord binding.

DETAILS

In the home stretch...

The quilting is done!

I chose to do my curvy meandering fill stitching that is reminiscent of leaves and flourish-y shapes in the white background areas to contrast all the linear stitching on the cups and flourishes.

I stitched with Bottomline thread which is generally used in the bobbin, it's a lighter weight thread, because I wanted the stitched lines to be more subtle.

Next:
cropping and binding.

What I learned...
Because I like experimenting and trying things differently, I always learn something new with every project. Sometimes I discover a great new way of working and sometimes it turns out that my initial idea created unexpected challenges or wasn't as successful as I'd hoped.

As you may recall, I used wool rayon felt instead of batting, because I wanted a flat smooth finish for this piece. I used felt a friend had given me that she most likely had sitting around for about 15 years. I had two issues that popped up from using this.

The first one was the stiffness of the felt, compared to batting, made it more difficult for manipulating under the harp of the machine. I think 30 inches would be the widest I would recommend working with felt. Wider than that and I could see some definite limitations to quilting the surface smoothly. I had to roll and fold the piece to work the central areas which sometimes got a little cumbersome.

The second issue came about after I fused my top to the felt. I had a fair amount of rippling of the top due to it not fusing completely in all areas or staying fused for the duration of the quilting (it's possible there may have been a finish on the felt that kept it from adhering), as well as some possible shrinkage of the felt by the high temperature and steam used while fusing.

After the cups and flourishes had been quilted there was a significant amount of buckling in the white areas, I don't think the fusible web was even sticking anymore at that point, luckily the open areas were not very large, maybe 9" at the widest so it didn't present too much of a problem and it all smoothed out nicely with the quilting.

Conclusion: would I use felt again? Yes, but I would take size into consideration, if I was working on a particularly large piece I would probably use a lightweight batting instead. I would also pretest the wool to make sure I didn't have a problem with adhesion when fusing. I think a newer piece of wool felt wouldn't have had the adhesion problems that this one had, I suspect it had a finish on it.

8 of Cups progress

I have been really loving spending time stitching! There are some other things I really should be doing, but I am feeling so in the groove right now, I don't want to stop.

I decided to continue using monofilament for stitching the feathery flourishes since I do not want to obscure this part of the painted surface with lines of thread and because the monofilament is relatively clear, the more noticeable holes punched by the needle through the fabric gives another kind of visual patterning that I think is kind of interesting.

Next, I'll begin to fill in the white areas using Bottom Line white thread.

Chicago's first winter snowstorm today, stay warm.

Things were humming along and then...snap!

Isn't it ironic that my free-motion presser foot breaks at strength?! LOL

Well as frustrating as that is I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised, this machine is over 20 years old and it is my favorite so it gets a lot of use. Luckily I found a replacement online pretty quick and have ordered a new foot.

I've been stitching the cups first, adding strong black lines to echo the illustration style of the vintage anatomical heart engraving and using monofilament across the rest of the cup to secure the fabric but not add as much visual texture.

Happy New Year!!!

I am definitely ready for a new one, things have got to start getting better!

8 of Cups progress

I am finally getting some time to work on my latest piece. I decided I want the quilting to have less loft and dimension and instead have more stitched illustrative details, so I am using wool felt instead of batting. Luckily I had a big piece of yellow felt that a friend gave me during a recent purging that was just the right size.

I placed a layer of Mistyfuse between the felt and the painted top and did the same with the back. I wouldn't do this with batting because the fusible web penetrates the batting, glueing both the top and back together reducing the loft of the batting, but for this project that is not a problem.

For the back I used left over fabrics that had mistyfuse already adhered to them from the Agave quilt I made several years ago. I don't do fusible applique very often so the fabrics have just been sitting on the shelf not getting used.

For the quilting on the cups, I am using back thread in an illustrative way, using it to create more visual dimension that looks more like drawn lines.

That's it so far, I don't think I will make very fast progress on this piece right now. I have a very busy couple of months ahead of me, not only with the holidays, but I need to start clearing out possessions and get my place ready to put on the market in January. I am planning to move back to California in the spring. I need to stop living in the limbo I've been in the last three years and take my life back and that begins with moving and getting my divorce finalized. Never thought I'd be starting my life over at this age, but hey if it doesn't kill ya, it will make you stronger right?

8 of cups

While trying to gain perspective on things, the card that turned up most often as an outcome in tarot readings was the 8 of cups. It expresses exactly how I feel and has helped me realize I need to be more assertive in taking control of my life. 

Being a tea drinker, using tea cups felt like the perfect imagery to pull all these disparate symbolic images together to represent this card. After painting deeper shades of the various colors around the cups, to separate them from the background, I painted white around a scrollwork design, which feel like flames and feathers, passion and lightness.

I felt like it needed a strong graphic element, so I added a large 8. Then I used a gold paint pen to add decorative details to the scrollwork design.

The cups still blended into the background, so I added a rough and bumpy (like the road in life) outline to the cups, mimicking the style of the 8 and bringing them forward visually.

Finished painting, I think...

Eight of Cups: Moving on and letting go. Time to change direction in life. Dissatisfied and disappointed, wanting something entirely different, but not knowing what. Finding courage, taking time to rest and heal.

Making progress in life and art

This is my initial drawing on fabric as the base for my painting. I started with an anatomical heart from an old medical illustration engraving. I extended the arteries into curving vines to represent new growth and life. Below I have drawn veins from a heart, going upwards, which feel like barren trees, but also have the symbolism of roots to me. The fabric is about 3' x 6'.

Using acrylic inks and a 2 inch wide brush, I painted over the drawing with large brush strokes of color.

The only way to get a photo of the whole thing was to stand on the table, unfortunately there is a large shadow falling across it from the window.

Now the thing to keep in mind is, I really don't have a definite plan here. I am just doing it. I am trying not to worry about whether it will come out "good" or not, because really that is not the goal. For me right now it's about processing feelings, thoughts, aspirations hopes... just what's going on personally.

Cicadas, I love the way they buzz in the trees, communicating with each other in circular pattens of sound and I think the growth cycles and transformations they go through in life are fascinating.

The Moon: deception, disappointment, dishonor
Strength: acceptance, courage, optimism, heroism
2 of Cups: resolution, harmony, partnership
2 of Coins: need to balance, energy, amusement

The World: new life, the end of a cycle, attainment of purpose
Cancer crab: represents someone
3 of Swords: betrayal, separation, clearing the way for something better

Grieving the death of relationships, closure and renewal

Hanged Man: suspension, meditation, transformative thinking
6 of Swords: letting go, moving beyond sorrow, the road to recovery
Wheel of Fortune: positive change, progress, beginnings

The cards represented are ones that have come up multiple times in recent readings, so I think their meaning is significant and so very apropos.

More painting and layers of imagery to go.

Finding my way out

Thank you so much for all the words of support and encouragement, I appreciate it so much. I am blessed to have so many wonderful friends and kindred creative spirits in my life. I needed to find perspective over the last week and realize that although times are difficult, I am not alone and things could always be worse and for that I am extremely grateful.

I am also grateful I put in an order to upgrade my phone a week ago, because I managed to drop my existing one in the toilet saturday night. I was wondering if this was the universes way of diminishing some of the guilt I was feeling about spending money on an upgrade right now even though my phone was cracked, lol.

I made a point of taking a much needed break from obligations this weekend to make some art and process the turmoil I've been going through. It's always the best way for me to work through things and come out the other side in a stronger more positive place. I've had so little time to make art this year, this is much over due.

The illustration above is a small detail of an image I am drawing on fabric with Copic markers. This is intended to be a base image that will probably end up pretty obscured once I start painting. It's a pretty elaborate drawing to end up covered up, but that's ok, I am hoping little bits will show through here and there in the finished piece. The important thing is it's part of the catharsis, the imagery and symbolism I put into the work helps me to take the intentions in like a meditation and lift my spirit.

I'll post more pics as I make progress.