fiberhart

How Does Mickey Make It Look So Easy??

In case you are wondering, I am referring to Mickey Lawler, the fabric painter and author. It was taking a class on her fabric painting methods that first introduced me to the idea that I was not dependent on commercial fabrics for my stash.
I have been trying to paint a sky for background on the house quilt I am making for a friend for Christmas. A simple, not cloudy, summer sky. How can that be so difficult?? And yet here I am, three fabric lengths later, and I am still not totally satisfied. Too dark, too stripey, a vertical line down the piece---argh!!!
Here are a couple of my efforts---




I think what I will end up doing is using the back side of one of these pieces. I have never watered down my paints as much as I did these, and they are still too dark!!

I've also finished my luminosity piece for the Salt Lake art quilt group meeting this week. I'm trying to get over the feeling that every piece I do should be a "masterpiece", and tried to approach this one as a study and learning experience. I'm ok with what I ended up with from a color and value perspective- not so happy with the quilting design I came up with. The entire effect looks too stilted to me. Maybe after I finish the house quilt, I'll do another one of these and try some other, more flowing quilting designs. Food for thought, here's a picture of the entire piece and a detail.





And for the not-quilting content, Sadie and I have been hiking up the canyon again. No more tree canopy over the hiking trail, the majority of leaves are gone. But the view from Vivian Park is still beautiful. even though the colors are much more subdued now.



Sadie and Dieter have become best buds in the short span of two weeks. They play hard, and then crash next to each other. In fact, the only family member who hasn't yet figured out how to get along with Dieter is our cat Annabelle. She spends most of her time hiding in Shannon's closet, and then creeps out at night when he's crated. Hopefully he will figure out that she doesn't want to play with him, and that chasing her does no good.



I've added a site meter to my blog, and am fascinated with the locations of people that visit me. The internet certainly has given us a window to the world that didn't exist when I was growing up! I'm trying to be more conscientious about leaving comments when something strikes me on a blog I visit, since I enjoy getting comments also. So, if you see something you like, let me know! And, if you want to critique any of my quilts I post, please feel free. I consider myself a learner and a student, who is playing catch-up in many ways. There is so much gorgeous work out there- I'd like to think that I've got some striking art in me. So I keep plugging away, making pieces I hope others like and from which I try to learn how to make better art in the future.