February

January brought me several beautiful Amaryllis

gifts that bloomed through February.

This first bright amaryllis has short stems, 10 inches, 

with 4 flowers, each about 8 inches in diameter. 

 This striped beauty bloomed later on stems about 

3 feet high with blooms about 10 inches in diameter.

 This last one is still blooming and was a surprise. 

It was a gift from last year that 

I had hoped might bloom again.

The New Image Artists meeting for February 

was close to Valentines Day so we needed a 

Valentine theme for the centerpiece

 Julia Fogg helped me create cake pops 

for the center of the centerpiece. 

She made a red velvet cake 

for the base of the pops.

 Saturday, February 22 was the opening of the 

NO FABRIC, NO RULES exhibit at 

the Virginia Quilt Museum in Harrisonburg.

Here, a few of the artworks we saw.

This small piece (20 by 11 inches) 

by Connie L. Broy, NOTHING BUT THREAD

is embroidered on recycled dryer sheets.

 PACKAGED PINWHEELS (44 by 28 inches) 

is by Eileen Doughty

and was shown in a window so it glowed.

Masking tape, bubble wrap, and shipping tape.

 This extraordinary art is by Jennifer L. Hand.

WHILE WE HAVE LIGHT....is 60 by 48 inches.

Oak leaves, thread, vellum, graphite, beeswax.

 Joan Dryer had two quite different artworks 

in the exhibit.

This first one TIME PIECES is 20 by 20 inches

and is of tree bark and thread.

 Her FLAG is 43 by 17 inches and was hung 

in the center of the room.

She stitched Dental X-rays and MRI film.

 Mary Beth Bellah created her 

CHICKENS IN THE BEER GARDEN 

from Polytex feed sacks, bottle caps, wire, thread, 

bubble wrap, and batting. It is 72 by 40 inches.

 TRAVEL QUILT is by Sally Cooney Anderson.

It is 36 by 24 inches, 

a plastic assemblage using hotel key cards. 

My two are at the end and 

were mentioned in my last blog.

One idea now taking hold is having each member

of New Image Artists 

create one large scissors or is that scissor ?

Each will be identically sized.

Scissors may be a beginning of a group piece.

 Opening Saturday, February 29  at the BlackRock 

Center for the Arts in Germantown, MD,

HANDCRAFTED: FIBER ART + TURNED WOOD

My SATIRICAL STILLNESS is included.

And, last.....

My ONCE READ NOT FORGOTTEN

 of paperback books was included 

along with my big Tyvek piece, SEISMIC SHIFT 

in the NO FABRIC, NO RULES exhibit.

There will be more news and 

further developments 

in March of 2020

The Anatomy of a Commission

Late in August I was contacted by Ginny Friend about creating a small 

commission as a gift for a 'retiring' curator (Rebecca Stevens) 

from the GWU &Textile Museum.

Jeanne Benson had drawn and painted several 'illuminated' letters 

and I thought, "why not try embroidering initials" as a sort of illuminated

theme. I started sketching with the R and S of Rebecca's name.

And, I did a lot of sketching. Many of these are on tracing paper.

 Rebecca Stevens full initials are R.A.T. S. I decided to make the 

A and T small and include them within the R and S.

 Further drawing and I decided to make a pattern 

of the centers of each letters to be cut out. 

This way I would be able to try different colors inside the outlines.

 While continuing to plan I sketched in some shading

 to get a feeling of color placement

 The theme for the evening of this presentation was blue and white shibori.  

Yoshiko Wada would also be given an award at that time. 

Part of the invitation is shown here.

 Cutting out the centers of the two letters I started trying colors.

Here black and white

Then a watery aqua fabric. I tried several more combinations of colors, but.....

Settled on some shibori fabric to be the center of each initial. 

Luckily I have friends who had all created Shibori samples 

and gave them to me. I used most all of one of Joan Dryer's fabrics.

Again this is on paper and I tried the colors for the outlines.

 Some of the shibori samples friends lent me.

 Now came the embellishing of the letters. I started planning how and where 

I would add small images to add to or highlight the initials.

 And, more drawing and planning

 Then thought I'd better embroider the letters to see

 how the small images could be attached.

This first R I decided against. The reds are too dark. 

It turned out I made several attempts at each letter and each of the small images.

 Laying the R and T on three shades of blue before attaching them 

and then working on the small images.

 As I said I started to make these small images and ended 

with two or three not useable. 

As often as I have created many subjects with thread

 on the sewing machine I never realized 

how hard it would be to make tiny ones.

Here I have taped some to the paper drawing 

before permanently sewing them on the embroidered letters..

As you can see images were rearranged and 

not all images were used. Here is the final presentation. 

The butterflies stand up a bit.

 However, since this was to be an award 

I thought Rebecca ought to have an original certificate 

that this gift represented.

I worked out the document on the computer and 

wanted it to be printed on fabric. 

I ironed freezer paper to both silk and cotton to print the certificate

and then my printer failed. 

Finally Dominie Nash printed it for me. Her printer used the

cotton beautifully.

 Still looking at the original invitation with hundreds of the 

white cherry blossoms 

I started embroidering tiny ones to be used to surround the certificate.

Here is my hoop with a few of the many blossoms and some already cut out.

 This then became the back side of the hanging.

There is a small casing at the top if it is to be hung in that manner.

The presentation was made last Thursday evening at a lovely dinner.

I cannot see Rebecca Stevens leaving the Textile Museum 

and I hope she stays on as a consultant as well as on the board.