In the Beginning; It's Scary--Beth Schnellenberger

Beth and Judith from And Then We Set It On Fire asked me and at least one other former resident artist for the group to fill you in on what we have been doing since we left the Fire blog. I was one of the original contributors to the blog. It was a GREAT learning experience for me.

I remember when I first started my own blog Quilter Beth's Blog. I was really scared to put myself out there. I decided to work through a book (Art + Quilt) and post my successes and failures on the blog. Again, it was scary. Then, I was contacted by Judith and asked to become a resident artist on the Fire blog. I remember emailing Judith and saying I couldn't do it; I wasn't an artist. I had been quilting for MANY years, but I hadn't really "done my own thing." I wasn't sure what I could share in the "art realm." Judith had been following my blog and saw something in me that I didn't see myself. She convinced me I did have something to contribute to this new blog. I was SCARED, but I have NEVER regretted the decision. I did have REAL trouble, however, calling myself an artist.

Throughout my time with the Fire blog, I learned SO much--I met Judith in person (and found we had A LOT in common), I learned to write a decent blog post explaining my process (including pictures), and I added MANY new "tools" to my toolbox. I did not, however, do much work on "becoming" an artist--on finding MY OWN voice. After much soul searching, I dropped out of the Fire blog to work on my own art. Again, I was scared.

Since leaving the blog, I have been spending time developing my own artwork. It really started when I took an Advanced Independent Workshop (for two years) with Jane Dunnewold. I really feel that the work I did in that workshop set some really good things in motion for me.

I had told Jane that part of my problem in creating art was that I liked every aspect of fiber art (stitching, piecing, dyeing, painting, screen printing, etc., etc., etc.) and couldn’t narrow it down enough to actually get started. I had read LOTS of books, worked through LOTS of exercises, and taken LOTS of classes. I guess I was afraid to actually “do my own thing.” Jane made me focus on “what I liked and what I was good at.” I had to quit being pulled in so many different directions, quit taking classes, and quit reading how-to books and experimenting--I had to actually DO/MAKE/CREATE. The fact that Jane made me accountable for getting some of my own work done gave me the incentive I needed to get started. During that time, I ended up making 12+ pieces of art.

I got brave enough to start exhibiting my work and sold one of the first pieces I showed publicly. No one was more surprised than me!

"Flying Bikinis" (named by my son) is heavily hand quilted (as Jane would say...something I like to do and am good at). It contains pieced silk sari strips within appliquéd bias curves and measures 10" X 23.75".

That sale and the positive comments at the show gave me the courage I needed to continue creating and showing my work. Since that time, I have had pieces juried into several shows, have had a solo show, and have had pieces in an invitation-only exhibit with artists I really admire. I was scared to do it all, but I have found that I grow when I do things that really scare me.

Have you been thinking you might want to "put yourself out there?" It is a scary thing to do; but you CAN do it, and it can be very rewarding.

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Painting with Thickened Dyes--Quilter Beth

I finally had a chance to try painting with thickened dyes this weekend. I have to say up front that I am NOT a painter in any way shape or form. That will become abundantly clear after you see my attempt at this technique. It was VERY intimidating to try this technique after seeing the beautiful work of my fellow resident artists. 

I looked through my sketch/idea book to come up with a drawing I could paint. This drawing was inspired by photographs I took at an exhibit of Chihuly  glass. I LOVE the flow of the molten glass and tried to capture that in my piece.  According to the tutorial, the thickened dye should stay wet so it can batch properly. That was the hardest thing for me; I’m sure it didn’t stay wet. I tried to cover it as I went with small pieces of plastic, but that was next to impossible for me. 

I let it batch overnight, and this is my rinsed and dried piece. I guess not keeping it really wet didn't make a big different in the end, because the piece kept great color. I'm hoping with some quilting and thread painting it will be something I can use.

 I wanted to test the colors on a piece of cloth before I painted anything, so I used this next piece for testing and cleanup. (It was soaked in soda ash first.) It isn't great, but I did find that I LOVE the texture the wrinkled fabric and paintbrush made. I will be trying that again with a more controlled color palette.

I’m glad I tried this technique and now have it in my arsenal of tools, but it is not one I anticipate using frequently. I find that I have much better control (and WAY less mess) when I color a drawing on fabric using fabric paint.

Trying Sugar Syrup Resist--Quilter Beth

To get started with the sugar resist, I first covered my cutting table with a doubled layer of Eco-Felt to give it a little cushion and covered that with a big sheet of plastic. To that, I pinned three pieces of soda-ash-soaked fabric.

Next I made my sugar syrup according to Lisa's directions. While that was cooling, I mixed my dyes--Golden Yellow, Pumpkin Spice, Mixing Red, Terra Cotta, Basic Blue.

Then I played...

Piece 1--I brushed the syrup onto the fabric with a paint brush and a plastic barbecue brush to manipulate the syrup before placing the dyes on the piece with an eye dropper.

Syrup...

Wet (I used the blue, red, and yellow dyes on this one.)...

Rinsed, washed, ironed...

Piece 2--I spooned the syrup onto the fabric and pulled a hard plastic notched Tupperware barbecue grill cleaning tool through the syrup to make designs. I also dripped some syrup onto the fabric with the eye dropper. Then I used the eye dropper to drip the dyes onto the fabric.

Syrup...

Wet (I used the yellow, terra cotta, pumpkin spice, and red.)...

Rinsed, washed, ironed...

Piece 3--I put the syrup resist onto the fabric with a syrup soaked sponge, and I dripped some syrup onto the fabric with an eye dropper. Again, I used the eye dropper to apply the dyes.

Syrup...

Wet (I used the yellow, terra cotta, pumpkin spice, and red.)...

Rinsed, washed, ironed...

I have one more piece, but it isn't finished yet. I'll post it later. Once I finally got around to doing this, I really enjoyed it. I love the weird shapes that "magically" appear. I'm not so happy with my colors--my red (mixing red) is too fuschia, and I thought I'd get more green in the first piece when my blue hit the yellow. I'm signed up for a color class with Jane Dunnewold this fall. Maybe I'll make better choices after that. I'm going to try over dyeing some of the pieces and see what happens.

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New Piece--Quilter Beth

I'm sorry my post is SO late, but I have been gone most of the month. I did have time to start my piece using this month's technique today after I got home. Let me tell you what I have done so far.

I started by dipping my muslin into the mixture of glue and water, and let it dry overnight. I decided I wanted my piece to finish a bit flatter, so I did iron it a little using a press cloth. I left some of the wrinkles in it, but overall it is fairly flat.

I did want some texture in the piece, so I decided I would use some of my stash "stuff" to accomplish this. I decided to use blue sinamay ribbon, some torn up (used) dryer sheets, and a flattened silk rod to start with. (Later, I will be covering everything with gesso so I can paint the piece. The blue of the ribbon won't matter if the color isn't covered 100 percent with the gesso, since I'm planning on painting everything with shades of blue anyway.)

Here is some of my "stuff." In this picture, I'm backing it all with Misty Fuse using a couple of non-stick sheets as pressing cloths.

I added some Misty Fuse-backed linen cut into triangles.

The last thing I did today was add some machine stitching--some satin-stitched-curvy lines and some free-motion circles. I thought this might add some interesting variation in color when the paint sinks into the stitching.

I am going to add some hand stitches with some Size 10 cotton crochet thread and try to get it painted with gesso before I head to bed tonight. That way, I can start the "real" painting tomorrow. Hopefully, I'll have an update in the next day or two.

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More Work with Skinny Lines--Quilter Beth

I had a chance to continue work on the two pieces I did using this month's technique from Kathy Loomis. If you look at the original entry, you can see that my plan was to combine the two pieces in some way. I'm working on a series of pieces incorporating bias strip "cages" for my Advanced Independent Study work with Jane Dunnewold. This will be the fourth piece in that series.

I haven't actually cut into the blue piece yet. I made paper copies of the sewn piece. That way, I could cut up the paper copies and "play" with them instead of cutting up the sewn piece. Here are two pictures of my design wall. Right now, I'm playing the "what if" game. If you'd like to see more detail about the process, you can check it out on my blog here.

In this picture, I have pinned blue paper pieces to the orange sewn piece. I have pinned bias strips (in dark navy) over the paper pieces. I thought the piece at the bottom looks a bit heavy, sooo...

I made the change below.

I'm thinking of adding a blue piece to the upper right side (where it looks like there is an "empty" bias strip). What do YOU think?

My Turn at Skinny Lines--Quilter Beth

I finally had some time to work on Kathy's technique. I have a whole new respect for the work she does. I did find that I really enjoyed the piecing and will probably do more of it.

I had tried her technique a little while back. This is what that one looks like.

I hadn't, at that point, read (or had forgotten) her tip about using a lighter color for the strips to avoid show through. As you can see, I have some black showing through my white background. I need the black and white for this piece, though, and am going to have to use it. Any suggestions about what I can do to save this piece? It needs to have a white background and black lines; otherwise I'd have used a black background with white lines and wouldn't have a problem! I'm wondering if there is some sort of quilting or embellishment I could do to "hide" or disguise the show through.

After this, I worked on two more pieces--one I consider large and one small. For the large piece, I started with an orange piece of fabric approximately a yard by the width of the fabric. I had previously cut a little off of one side of the fabric--thus the ragged edge in the process pictures. This finished, squared up piece measures 24" X 39".

This is the finished "large" piece (after squaring it up). Under it, I have included some process pictures.

Here are some of the pictures I took as I was making this piece.

Here are a couple of close up shots.

Here is the smaller piece. I made it to "go with" the larger piece. I started with a piece of blue fabric 18 1/2" X 21". This finished (not squared up) piece measures approximately 16" X 18".

I was surprised how this one turned out. I didn't use a ruler at any time, and I didn't try to keep the lines straight. I didn't consciously cut the piece into uniform-sized segments. I did find that cutting at 90 degree angles was MUCH easier for me than cutting on the diagonal.

I haven't decided, yet, how I will "join" the two, but this is a drawing I made in Inspire Pro before I made either of these pieces. Keep in mind, this is just a rough drawing. I definitely would have an odd number of blue "cages," rather than the eight in this drawing, if I do decide to do something along this line. I also think I'd use a very dark navy blue fabric for the "cages" rather than the black I have used here.

I photographed the two pieces together to see if I liked the combination. I like the play of the diagonals against the more uniform "grid" of the blue piece. I like the contrast of the dense piecing of the blue piece against the less dense piecing of the orange piece.

I haven't decides whether I like the horizontal layout of the piece better than the vertical layout. In most of my pieces, I tend toward the horizontal--not sure why.

I owe Kathy a big thanks. She has been (and still is) an inspiration to me. She has provided me with encouragement all along my path to becoming an artist. Thank you Kathy; thank you!

Deconstructed Screen Printing...Washed, Dried, and Ironed--Quilter Beth

Let me repeat...this was my first attempt at deconstructed screen printing. I like the results, so I may be doing more of it. I'll have to see if the fabric is something I will actually use or just "pet!" It seems I have a collection of fabrics I don't want to use up. I like to look at it and touch it but using it...not so much. This fabric may fall into that category.

I'll show you my favorite first. This happens to be the last screen I worked with. It is my largest screen. The texture on the prints from this screen is more defined than on the others. I am a little surprised that the fuchsia color is so prominent. I used less of the fuchsia tinted print paste than any other.

 

This is a detail shot of the Screen 3 print.

This is a picture of my very first screen attempt.

 This is a close up. (You might remember that this is the one that came out so light that I wasn't happy with it. I used orange print paste and scraped it over the top of the original print with a credit card.)

This is my second screen. I'm not crazy about the yellow stripe down the middle.

This is a detail shot of screen 2.

This is a technique I had been wanting to try for quite some time. Thanks to Beth's great tutorial, I was able to give it a shot. It was fun to do--a bit messy--but a lot of fun.

Almost Done--Quilter Beth

I didn’t have a chance to get to my screens for four days, so they were good and dry when I had some time to actually do the printing. After that, I set up my printing area. I used a table covered with a double layer of eco-felt and topped with a HUGE garbage bag (cut open). To that I pinned my PFD fabric (which had been cut in half lengthwise to fit my table).

I didn’t have any soda-ash-soaked fabric, so I mixed my soda ash into some clear print paste. I used 1 tablespoon per cup of print paste. First, I just added the soda ash straight into the paste without dissolving it first in a bit of water. I think that was probably a mistake since I couldn’t get the soda ash to fully dissolve. This is what it looked like.

Since that mixture was so lumpy looking (no matter how much I stirred), I mixed another cup. This time I dissolved the soda ash in a bit of warm water and added that to the paste. This made for a much smoother paste. (I eventually mixed the two together and felt it worked fine.)

The first screen I used had the thickest amount of dye on it. The print was (and continued to be) pretty light. I wasn’t happy with it. (You’ll see what I did to it later on.) Here are the results of the first screen.

Here are the results from the second screen. I was much happier with these results. I didn’t think they were “dark” enough after the first run through, so I used a credit card and applied a thin layer of the leftover tinted print paste directly to the fabric. I liked the results much better. (I didn't take pictures before I used the credit card.)

I was happy enough with the results of the second screen (after applying the tinted print paste with a credit card) that I thought…what if I apply the same orange/red layer of leftover print paste to the results from screen 1. The Screen 1 re-done prints are on the right; Screen 2 prints are on the left.

 The next two pictures are closeups of Screen 1 prints.

I was much happier with it.

The last (and largest) screen was the one I thought didn’t have enough detail on it. I thought the dye was too thin to make a good print. I think, though, that it turned out to be my favorite.

I took Beth’s advice and wrapped the fabric in the garbage bags that I had used to cover the table. After folding, I put them all in another bag, set them on a big metal tray, and layered the bag between two heating pads. I set the pads to a medium heat and left them to batch for approximately 24 hours. This is what my setup looked like.

Now, I'm anxious to see what the finished product looks like once it is rinsed, washed, and ironed.