Color Explorations & DWW #7

Welcome to Design Wall Weekend!   If you have a blog relating to quilting, fiber art, or related topics, please check out our rules and post your link below!

Photo of a gerber daisy I took today.

Today's been very exciting for me... I'm spending my birthday realizing a goal of mine- to be in the ongoing, long-term coursework at the Gail Harker Center for the Creative Arts.  I started in "Studies in Design, Experimental Machine and Hand Stitch Level 200" yesterday.

We mainly have been working on color theory and dyeing the last two days.  The photo above is a great example of color.  You probably know and can see how the complementary colors of blue and orange make this photo extremely vibrant.  But the photo also works well because it has red-orange, yellow-orange, yellow, and yellow green.  The spectrum of the color wheel from yellow-green through to red-orange are all included, which are analogous colors.  Also, the blue, red-orange, and yellow-orange combine to make a split-complementary theme.  Now, if the colors were all in the same proportionate amount, it wouldn't be nearly as effective.  but the dashes of yellow-green and red-orange really help the photo POP!

A few of my embroidery threads and yarns that I'm hand-dyeing.  The dye is wet on the thread here and will look different once it has been rinsed out.

Beyond playing with dyes on paper and practicing color schemes, we started hand-dying our thread today.  I played around with variegating between colors, from dark to light in one color, and with using a split-complementary color scheme on the thread.  

Some of my notes and a color study of creating neutrals from
complementary colors (Red-Orange and Blue-Green)

Tomorrow we will get started on dyeing our fabric and hopefully get to stitching.  I have three more wonderful days of this session... then it's home and off to set up the Tieton, WA "Salsa!" exhibition, which will be opening Memorial Day weekend.  I'm pretty confident that I'll be freemotion quilting as soon as I get through my show opening!

Design Wall Weekend #7 -- What do You Have on Your Design Wall?

What kind of blogs should link up?

I think that it's best to have content that matches the content and interests served with the blog that's hosting the party, so please only link up if your blog post is about any of the following:

• Quilting and fabrics 
• Fiber art of any kind
• Hand & machine stitch or embroidery
• Mixed media art
• Book-making, art journals, and sketchbooks
• Tutorials for any quilting, fiber, mixed media, sketchbook and other arts
• These can be works in progress or finishes

From my sketchbook- Creating shades by adding black to a pure color (orange) and mixing a triad of
Yellow-Green, Yellow-Orange, and Violet

Rules for the blog linking party

• Mention Fiber Artist Journey in your post, either with a link or button-use the direct link to the specific post - not just your main blog website (this helps with your search engine position.)   If you have buttons on your sidebar that works great, please just at least mention something in your post, for example "I'm linking to Fiber Artist Journey, see my sidebar for their button."  If you need help on how to add your link, read this.

• Please take the time to visit other links, everyone loves new visitors and comments!  Try to comment on at least two other blogs in the party.

If you would like to add a button to your blog you can copy the code which is below my buttons and add it as a gadget on the layout page of your blog. Here is a tutorial on how to do it.


Other Great Blogs to Link Up with and Check Out!

Leah Day's Freemotion Quilting Project

Nina Marie Sayre's Art Quilt Blog

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Balzar Designs - Art Journal Every Day

Richard and Tanya Quilts

Quilt Matters

Sew Many Ways

Exhibition Struggles and Design Wall Weekend #6

This is being a tough month.  It's not like I didn't expect it... but here I am in the midst of it and I'm feeling a little in overwhelm.

First, as most of you know, I'm share the head of exhibitions for the Contemporary QuiltArt Association and we have our "Salsa!" exhibit opening Memorial day weekend.  Our jury met on April 28 at my home... you'd think that once the pieces were picked out, it should be smooth sailing, right?  Wrong.

One of the wonderful things about the venue we're going to be in, the Mighty Tieton Warehouse Gallery, is that they're going to print a catalog of the exhibit. So, as soon as I know the juror selections, I needed to get the photos of accepted pieces to their printer, which meant I had to download 114 photos (a full and detail shot of each piece) from the place where the artists had submitted them.  However, I soon found out that not every artist had sent high-resolution photos.  This meant I had to contact those artists who had sent low-res photos and help them get high resolution ones to me.  I even ended up taking photos for one artist!

Once the photos were sent over, I had to start working on compiling all the information for the catalog... artist's statements, sizes of artwork, materials and techniques used, photographer, price of piece, year completed, as well as artist and title of the piece.  We have 57 pieces in the show, so that's quite a bit of info to put together.

On Saturday, we pick up the pieces at our CQA meeting.  We're working on figuring out a way to best hang the works... the gallery has a wire hanging system.  At this point, we're planning on using a heavy-duty fishing line to attach the quilts and art cloth from the wire.  However, we will need to tie the fishing line onto all the hanging sticks and haven't fully worked out how we will adjust the length of the fishing line to make sure each piece is at the right level and even.  My husband and I have even gone to a couple hardware stores to try and see if there was some sort of hardware that we could put the line through and pull it and it would catch and not slip.  At this point, it looks like we're going to just be adjusting it by hand and tying it off.

On the 20th, we head over to Tieton (about a 2 and a half hour drive) to hang the show.  I'm not sure how long it will take considering the tying aspect.  Then our Opening will be on Saturday the 25th, so another long drive that day (I may stay overnight for that one since it goes from 12-5 and there is an artist celebratory dinner afterwards!)

Oh, did I forget to mention that my two-year long program at the Gail Harker Center for the Creative Arts starts this month too?  I will be going up to La Conner from May 14-19 for my first class. We'll be meeting approximately every three months and have a good deal of homework in between each session.  However, as you can see from the photos here, Gail's student's create some amazing fiber artwork!

All this said, I've decided to back off of my initial goal this year to create a 5 x 7 piece each week.  I'm a little disappointed, but I am working on my artwork daily, so I suppose that's the real goal.  Since I'll be staying up at our cabin on Whidbey Island next week while I go to classes in La Conner, I plan to bring my freemotion quilting sampler quilt that I'm working on for Leah Day's Craftsy class to work on in the evening.  Having six days away from my husband and kids to just work on my art will be a real vacation!

Speaking of Leah's Craftsy class, she has just released "Freemotion Fillers Volume 2."  In celebration, if you go to her blog, you can click a link to get 50% off any of her three Craftsy classes (click here to get the page with the 50% off)!

OK, let's get going with Design Wall Weekend:

Design Wall Weekend #6 -- What do You Have on Your Design Wall?

What kind of blogs should link up?

I think that it's best to have content that matches the content and interests served with the blog that's hosting the party, so please only link up if your blog post is about any of the following:

• Quilting and fabrics 
• Fiber art of any kind
• Hand & machine stitch or embroidery
• Mixed media art
• Book-making, art journals, and sketchbooks
• Tutorials for any quilting, fiber, mixed media, sketchbook and other arts
• These can be works in progress or finishes

Anna's hummingbird from my sketchbook - Acryllic paint, watercolor pencil, silver ink

Rules for the blog linking party

• Mention Fiber Artist Journey in your post, either with a link or button-use the direct link to the specific post - not just your main blog website (this helps with your search engine position.)   If you have buttons on your sidebar that works great, please just at least mention something in your post, for example "I'm linking to Fiber Artist Journey, see my sidebar for their button."  If you need help on how to add your link, read this.

• Please take the time to visit other links, everyone loves new visitors and comments!  Try to comment on at least two other blogs in the party.

If you would like to add a button to your blog you can copy the code which is below my buttons and add it as a gadget on the layout page of your blog. Here is a tutorial on how to do it.

Other Great Blogs to Link Up with and Check Out!

Nina Marie Sayre's Art Quilt Blog

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Balzar Designs - Art Journal Every Day

Richard and Tanya Quilts

Quilt Matters

Sew Many Ways

The Jury Process and Design Wall Weekend #5

I've been incredible busy getting ready for the Salsa! show this week.  First we had our CQA (Contemporary QuiltArt Association) jury meet at my house on Sunday.  Jurying a show is a fascinating process.

From my art journal  - Page painted with acrylics, Magazine photo, drawing with colored pencil

Torn paper collage

We have a PowerPoint slide show of all the full and detailed views of the entries, which we project onto a screen.  The first run-through is quick, just for the three jurors to get an idea of all the entries and the overall scope of the show.  Next, we go more slowly, allowing the jurors to choose whether their initial impression is to YES (have the piece in the show), NO (don't have it in), or MAYBE.  During this second run through, there is no discussion.  We then tally each of the jurors Y-N-M votes and any piece with 3 Yes' is automatically juried in.  Likewise, 3 No's excludes it from the show.

Torn paper collage

After that, the jurors go through and make decisions about each of the pieces with has anything other than a unanimous decision.  We also have jury helpers to handle other jobs during the process... secretary to take notes on the juror's comments to share with the artists; assistant to navigate through the slides; and a person who tallies the linear inches of width of each accepted piece to ensure that we don't exceed what the gallery can hold.

So, after getting the show decided upon (and my Salsa quilt was accepted!), I've had lots of work to prepare for the show.  I had to get notifications of acceptance and of regret out to each of the artists.  I had to get photos to the venue for printing in a catalog.  I had to get new photos from a few of the artists when I found they hadn't sent high resolution photos.  I had to get things sent out to our publicity chairperson. Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

Watercolor pencil and collage from a theater show "Teatro ZinZanni"

So, I haven't had time with my sewing machine all week, and I'm feeling a bit guilty.  I am working on preparing my freemotion quilting sampler quilt that I'm doing in conjunction with Leah Day's Craftsy course, "FreeMotion Fillers Volume 1."  Now that I have it all pieced together, I need to layer it with the backing and batting and then baste it.  I don't know that I'll be getting it finished this weekend, however, as I have a Contemporary QuiltArt Association Board retreat, as well as I'm hosting a Surface Design Association group where we'll be hearing about and trying out Golden Acrylic products with Barbara De Pirro.  I have, however, spent more time on my hand stitch and am working on a new little stitch book.  I've also been working in my art journals and thought I'd share a few photos from them today, before going into Design Wall Weekend.

Pencil drawing of my dog, Dexter from this week

Now on to some fun with Design Wall Weekend!

Design Wall Weekend #5 -- What do You Have on Your Design Wall?

What kind of blogs should link up?

I think that it's best to have content that matches the content and interests served with the blog that's hosting the party, so please only link up if your blog post is about any of the following:

• Quilting and fabrics 
• Fiber art of any kind
• Hand & machine stitch or embroidery
• Mixed media art
• Book-making, art journals, and sketchbooks
• Tutorials for any quilting, fiber, mixed media, sketchbook and other arts
• These can be works in progress or finishes

Rules for the blog linking party

• Mention Fiber Artist Journey in your post, either with a link or button-use the direct link to the specific post - not just your main blog website (this helps with your search engine position.)   If you have buttons on your sidebar that works great, please just at least mention something in your post, for example "I'm linking to Fiber Artist Journey, see my sidebar for their button."  If you need help on how to add your link, read this.

• Please take the time to visit other links, everyone loves new visitors and comments!  Try to comment on at least two other blogs in the party.

If you would like to add a button to your blog you can copy the code which is below my buttons and add it as a gadget on the layout page of your blog. Here is a tutorial on how to do it.

You Might Also Be Interested In:

And the Winner Is...

A Slice of Lime

Peppers and Avocado

Other Great Blogs to Link Up with and Check Out!

The FreeMotion Quilting Project

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Nina Marie Sayre's Art Quilt Blog

Balzar Designs - Art Journal Every Day

Textile Diva

Salsa Complete! and Design Wall Weekend #3

"Salsa" by Christina Fairley Erickson
Freehand Machine Embroidery, decorative stitching, freemotion quilting, trapunto

Fiber Art exhibit at the Schack Art Center

It's been a tough week.  Of course, completing my "Salsa" quilt and getting it entered in the Contemporary QuiltArt Association's (CQA) show (of the same name... Salsa), is a big achievement.  But perhaps it's a bit of a let-down too... I've put so much effort into this piece I'm not quite sure where to go from here.  I apologize for being offline this week- between taxes being due, having lots of work to get ready for the jury process for the Salsa show, and feeling a bit under the weather a couple days, I just didn't get much time at the computer.  I'll work at doing better over the next week.

"Pray for the Forest II" by Larkin J. Van Horn
Fabric, beads  $750.

I did get to a wonderful fiber art show of artists from the Whidbey Island branch of the Surface Design Association earlier this month at Schack Art Center in Everett.  Here are a couple of the wonderful pieces exhibited there.

"Compare and Contrast" by Liz Axford
3 layers silk organza- front and back layers
are screen-printed multiple times, hand-stitched
with cotton floss to reveal patterning $6500.

Design Wall Weekend #3 -- What do You Have on Your Design Wall?

What kind of blogs should link up?

I think that it's best to have content that matches the content and interests served with the blog that's hosting the party, so please only link up if your blog post is about any of the following:

• Quilting and fabrics 
• Fiber art of any kind
• Hand & machine stitch or embroidery
• Mixed media art
• Book-making, art journals, and sketchbooks
• Tutorials for any quilting, fiber, mixed media, sketchbook and other arts
• These can be works in progress or finishes

Rules for the blog linking party

• Mention Fiber Artist Journey in your post, either with a link or button-use the direct link to the specific post - not just your main blog website (this helps with your search engine position.)   If you have buttons on your sidebar that works great, please just at least mention something in your post, for example "I'm linking to Fiber Artist Journey, see my sidebar for their button."  An example of a link to a specific post would be: http://fiberartistjourney.blogspot.com/2013/04/red-hot-chili-peppers.html rather than http://fiberartistjourney.blogspot.com . If you need help on how to add your link, read this.

• If you follow my blog, I'll follow yours!  PLEASE make sure to comment and tell me you're following, and I'll visit and  follow yours too.)

• Please take the time to visit other links, everyone loves new visitors and comments!  Try to comment on at least two other blogs in the party.

If you would like to add a button to your blog you can copy the code which is below my buttons and add it as a gadget on the layout page of your blog. Here is a tutorial on how to do it.

You Might Also Be Interested in:

Tutorial- Sashing 
Pre-Quilted Blocks

True Triangles 
Video Tutorial

Fireworks Freemotion 
Quilting Design

Check Out These Other Great Blogs!

Nina Marie Sayre Art Quilts

Leah Day's Freemotion Quilting Project

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Quilt Matters

Richard and Tanya Quilts

Freemotion Quilting Sampler & Design Wall Weekend #2

Salsa quilt with "Here Comes the Sun"
freemotion quilting design

My Salsa quilt is almost finished... I only have 3 sides of the sashing/border to quilt and the binding to go... good thing since the show deadline is tomorrow!  After trying several different styles of freemotion quilting for the sashing (as well as thread color), I decided to let the fabric be my guide and created what I'm calling the "Here Comes the Sun" freemotion quilting design.  I'll work on getting a tutorial out on this design later this week.

Closeup of the sashing fabric
which inspired the design

Layout of my quilt-top for a free-motion quilting sampler
that I currently have on my design wall

I've also finally got started on piecing my quilt top together that I'll be using for a freemotion quilting sampler.  I'm enrolled in Leah Day's Craftsy class "Freemotion Fillers Volume 1" which teaches 50 different freemotion quilting designs (49 blocks each with their own design and 1 design throughout the sashing and border.)  I'm thinking, however, of substituting some of the designs that Leah teaches in the class with some of my own, such as my True Triangles design.  Make sure to check out the True Triangles Video Tutorial here!



So, what do you have on your design wall?   By the way, if you don't yet have your own design wall, click here for a great tutorial on how to make one for yourself from Quilts by Jen.   I'm looking forward to seeing all sorts of inspiring blogs for our  blog party link up!

What kind of blogs should link up?

I think that it's best to have content that matches the content and interests served with the blog that's hosting the party, so please only link up if your blog post is about any of the following:

• Quilting and fabrics 
• Fiber art of any kind
• Hand & machine stitch or embroidery
• Mixed media art
• Book-making, art journals, and sketchbooks
• Tutorials for any quilting, fiber, mixed media, sketchbook and other arts
• These can be works in progress or finishes

Rules for the blog linking party

• Mention Fiber Artist Journey in your post, either with a link or button-use the direct link to the specific post - not just your main blog website (this helps with your search engine position.)   If you have buttons on your sidebar that works great, please just at least mention something in your post, for example "I'm linking to Fiber Artist Journey, see my sidebar for their button."  An example of a link to a specific post would be: http://fiberartistjourney.blogspot.com/2013/04/red-hot-chili-peppers.html rather than http://fiberartistjourney.blogspot.com . If you need help on how to add your link, read this.

• If you follow my blog, I'll follow yours!  PLEASE make sure to comment and tell me you're following, and I'll visit and  follow yours too.)

• Please take the time to visit other links, everyone loves new visitors and comments!  Try to comment on at least two other blogs in the party.

If you would like to add a button to your blog you can copy the code which is below my buttons and add it as a gadget on the layout page of your blog. Here is a tutorial on how to do it.

You Might Also Be Interested in:

Tutorial- Sashing 
Pre-Quilted Blocks

True Triangles 
Video Tutorial

Fireworks Freemotion Quilting Design

Check Out These Other Great Blogs!

Nina Marie Sayre Art Quilts

Leah Day's Freemotion Quilting Project

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Quilt Matters

Richard and Tanya Quilts

Sashing Pre-Quilted Blocks - Tutorial

Adding backing strips with edges ironed under over batting, which
has been whip stitched to block seam allowances

I've never made a "quilt-as-you-go" quilt before. This piece, however, was my attempt to both satisfy my personal challenge to complete a 5 x 7 art piece each week along with preparing a piece to enter in the Contemporary QuiltArt Association's upcoming "Salsa!" Show.

I have to admit I'm a bit behind on my weekly 5x7's, but putting together the Salsa quilt, as well as some other projects, have taken priority for me right now.  I'll be getting back to my    5 x 7's soon enough.

Front side of my Salsa quilt with sashing

So, now that I have all my blocks done, how do I put it all together without having a problem of differing amounts of layers in the sashing versus the blocks?  The way I solved this puzzle is to start with making the sashing and puting the front side all together.

Then, I turned it over and carefully cut pieces of batting to fit right between the blocks seam allowances, so that the batting would be consistently uniform across the quilt.  I chose to do the vertical pieces between the blocks, then the long horizontal strips, and afterwards the vertical borders.

Batting cut and added between blocks vertically

After cutting all the batting to size, I did a long whip-stitch to hold the batting in place while I will be freemotion quilting the sashing.  I then cut pieces of the backing fabric about 3/4" wider than the finished width of the sashing and pressed under the edges of these strips with my steam iron.

Batting Whip-stitched to seam allowance of blocks

Next, I carefully hand-stitched down the strips over the batting and seam allowances of the blocks.

While this might not be the most expedient (or fast) method, I think the outcome will be quite nice.  Next step is going to be freemotion quilting the sashing/borders!

Batting added other than vertical border; backing
strips added to vertical centers

Backing strips all added and ready to hand-stitch

You Might Also Be Interested in:

Honoring the Traditional in 
Contemporary Quilt Pieces

Outdoor Fiber Art 
& Call for Entry

Fitting My Challenge
with Showing

How to Use Your Design Wall

Years back, I never used a design wall.  I might sketch out a design on graph paper or in my sketchbook, but then I pretty much just went with it and constructed as close to what I'd drawn as I could.  It certainly is possible to get a good result from that... but it's kind of hit or miss.  It's much more effective to use a design wall.

Your design wall can simply be a piece of batting that you pin up on a wall anywhere you have some space to step back from it (preferably at least 8-12 feet or 3-4 meters) and be able to look at your design as it progresses.

First try- lower left seems a bit heavy with the
dark backgrounds

The change for me came when I started taking a Design series - classes for quilters that taught you the basic fundamentals of design.  Our teacher always said "Make visual decisions Visually."  In other words, you have to actually look at something to see if it's going to work, rather than just thinking it will work.

Tonight it was time to put my Salsa blocks all together.  So, up they went on the design wall.  I arranged them, then stepped back and took a look (and a picture).

I then rearranged them several times, each time checking to see how I liked the arrangement.

I like having the two red backgrounds on opposite corners

Looking through a reducing glass or at a photograph can also help you get a sense of how well the design will work from afar.

After determining the placement of the blocks, I then had to decide which fabic I was going to use for the sashing.  To do this, I pinned different pieces of fabric up and put the blocks on top, stepped back and looked at the overall effect.

The green fabric to the right is bold and seemed like a good prospect, but when I tried out the black with red/yellow/orange batik, I think I found a winner!

Salsa blocks with sashing complete

Next step will adding batting/backing and freemotion quilting of the sashing.

Make sure to check back this weekend for our first Design Wall Weekend Blog Link-up Party!

You Might Also Be Interested In:

Tutorial: Add a Button 
on Your Blog

Tutorial: Adding Your
Link to a Blog Party

Design Wall Weekends

One of the best places to learn FreeMotion Quilting: Leah Day's FreeMotion Quilting Project

Red Hot Chili Peppers!

"Chili Pepper" by Christina Fairley Erickson
Freehand machine embroidery with decorative stitching and freemotion quilting

Make sure to check out the start of my Design Wall Weekends Blog Link Party coming Saturday April 6!

Well, I finally finished up my final 5 x 7" block for the Salsa Quilt.  I had some fun with this and will be posting a couple of tutorials later this week for both how to do unusual lettering and a new freemotion quilting design.  I also will work on documenting my process for installing new fonts onto your computer, so you can play around with different lettering styles like this "Taco Modern" font I use in each of my salsa blocks.

I've been super busy this last week catching up after being gone for 5 days in the "Experimental Hand Stitch class."  I've been working on continuing to complete my hand-stitch samples, which are quite relaxing to do.  I've also started cutting and piecing a new practice quilt, which I'm doing along with Leah Day's Craftsy class.  Although I'm pretty comfortable with freemotion machine quilting, the more you practice, the better you get.  The one thing I haven't completely decided upon is whether I'm going to do all the fillers which Leah suggests in her class, or whether I'll pick and choose those which I want to do.  I'm not 100% thrilled with every design she's picked, so I may just substitute some of my own, or others I've learned from Leah's blog.

One thing that's going to be a little different in the future is that I will be hosting a "Design Wall Weekend" blog linking party.  This will be open to quilters, fiber artists, mixed media artists, and book/art journalists who have blogs to help increase exposure to all sorts of great ideas.

Now, it's on to do the sashing and binding for this quilt.  Not to mention, I will need to get going on a new 5 x 7 Challenge piece for next week!  So check back for tutorials later this week and I hope you will have some fun quilting this week.

You Might Also Be Interested in:

And the Winner Is...

A Slice of Lime

Peppers and Avocado

Check out these other great blogs:

Freshly Pieced

Freemotion by the River

Quilt Story

And the Winner is...

"Corn" by Christina Fairley Erickson
Machine Freehand Embroidery, decorative stitching, freemotion quilting

Red!  Thanks for all the comments, encouragement and opinions on the background for my corn piece.  The little ends of the corn husk were challenging to applique down, but you can see a bit of the organza husk standing up in the picture.  What you can't really tell from the photo is how much the trapunto stands out.  The two longer corn rows have 5 extra layers of batting, making them stand about 3/4" up from the backing. I cut each of the batting layers a little smaller than the last, so it really has a rounded look.  The lower ear of corn has less trapunto (3 layers), since it is behind the others.


I'm now working on my last piece, chili peppers.  I started with the green stems, then went on to the darker shadowed portions of the chili.

The difficult part of these is that they are so thin, it will be difficult to convey a 3-D effect or to trapunto them.  So I tried to sew both in the long/horizontal direction and also around the width of each chili, to convey the roundness of each.

One of the main things when doing thread painting is to keep on layering your colors to add more dimension and gradation.  If you just fill in one color butted up to the next, it will look flat and like a paint-by-number painting.  Blending the colors is very important.  Also, look for the unexpected colors.  In this chili, I found a small place where the shadow had just a touch of lavender... it adds a lot to the finished piece to have those little bits that your eye might not originally catch.

Finished "Chili" thread painting

Now I just need to do the background and then I'll be on to putting all 9 of my Salsa blocks together!

You Might Also Be Interested in:

Corn - Red or Orange- 
You Vote!

Piquant Progress

Fitting My Challenge 
with Showing

Please check out these other great blogs:

FreeMotion by the River by Connie Kresin

Quilt Story