A Wild Garden...

It's that time of year when gardens are taking off with wild abandon. This "Wild Garden" quilt is one I started several years ago. The piecing and machine sewn applique pieces were the easy part. The project started out using a LizzieBCre8tive! pattern. I added the pieced border and changed the flower style a bit. The slow-down came when I began to machine quilt it. One big downfall for me in quilting, or in any project really, is thinking "this won't take long". I get started, then bog down. There was more to stitch than I anticipated (as usual), so the quilt got set aside for a time. At last our guild issued a challenge to complete some of those languishing projects. It was just the motivation I needed to get cracking and finish this one up!

In our Fiber Art Bee, we are doing a book study of Deborah Boschert's Art Quilt Collage. One exercise was to identify personal symbols that we consistently use in our work. I discovered that this bloom I call a "splat flower" is one of mine. They seem whimsical, playful and free, which is often the goal for my work.

I love the twining vines and two-toned leaves also.

In addition to quilting, I get a lot of other projects underway. Throughout June I've been participating in artist Karen Abend's Find Your Flow -a 30 day creative practice. My commitment was to sew a small collage each day of the month. The goal is to make some art a daily practice, to more fully explore one style of our choice, and to be accountable by posting our work in a private Facebook group. It was a very good practice and it caused me to stretch as I considered the materials and how to combine them in new ways each day. I also stuck to a neutral palette for the most part, though there are touches of color towards the end. Messy stitching created the message and the heart on a tea bag in this little fragment.

Keeping it simple with a free-motion stitched bloom sewn on lace and a cardstock piece.

Here's a vintage bathing beauty photo stitched to a tea bag, atop a scrap of lace fabric. The old stamp and a bit from bridal trim accent the collage. I can't get enough vintage-style art! And I'm pretty fond of recycling bits and pieces of fabric and trim along with unusual materials. I'm planning a journal to showcase the collages together. Stay tuned!

Now What?!!

Just take a piece of muslin and some dry-wall paste... WHAT?? Yes, that is the formula for making this art book. I made this following along with an online class taught by Donna Downey titled Metamorphosis. And that's how we began. After spreading the paste on both sides of the muslin, it dries with a flexible weightiness to it. And a few wrinkles and cracks which enhance the texture. This book has four sheets, which is to say 8 two-sided pages.

Once dry, the pages are ready for paint, stamping, stenciling, image transfers, and anything else a creative mind can come up with. The neutral, grungy look is intentional. I don't know yet what these pages will house- some type of imagery. But I await the inspiration to continue!

In addition to the binding, which is sari ribbon, the book also got a tassel made with yarn, fiber strips, and rhinestone trim plus sparkly beads. I like a binding that is bushy and full of fiber, inviting touch.

Here's a backpage view. This was so much fun to make, and I've got leftover joint compound, so I know I'll try more journals like this- maybe with printed fabrics and more color. Donna calls this an "ARTbook". I call it a Slap-Journal because the weight of it makes a satisfying slap when the pages are turned or it's set down on a table. At the same time I was working on the journal, I was enrolled in Karen Abend's online Sketchbook Revival. It was a free class featuring a series of video lessons by a variety of artists, from bookmakers to sketch artists to mixed media artists and water colorists. Quite broadening and enlightening. Karen has followed it up with a 30-day creative practice called Find Your Flow in which participants are encouraged to commit to a daily practice for the month of June. 

The look of the journal prompted me to commit to making a layered and stitched fabric and paper collage like this one each day. My plan is that they'll be incorporated into a journal of some sort when the 30 days are completed. Maybe even this journal, though I'm envisioning something else at the moment. But I have lots of time to decide.

I worked on the journal while visiting Disney's Flower & Garden Festival 2018 at Epcot. It was lovely, and I enjoyed the displays and the refreshing foods like this watermelon and lime cooler.

We also visited Animal Kingdom for a day. It was overcast and a little drizzly which brought more animals out during the Safari ride than usual. There were several impressive Silverback Gorillas watching us watching them.

Can you see the lion king and his lady atop this rock pile? Such a fun place to visit.