At long last!  There has been precious little time for making art quilts over the past few years.  What with family chaos, the hurly burly of every-day-life, writing a book and making all the samples, marketing the book, travel-teaching and whatnot, I’ve can scarcely recall the last large art quilt I made just for the sake of making it. Here’s a detail (you’ll have to keep reading to see the rest!  yes, I’m evil <GRIN>):

Last autumn, Jamie Fingal and Leslie Tucker Jenison of Dinner at Eight Artists invited me to submit a quilt for consideration in a juried invitational show called “Beneath the Surface.”  (Note:  a list of accepted artists is on their blogpost dated March 22…what fine company!) That means you make a quilt to theme and size (36 wide by 48 tall), and it still might not get in.  My first thought was…I have too much on my plate.  Then I realized the due-date (which always gets me in gear) was early enough in the year that I might actually have time to do it!

My first thoughts were underground waterways, roots, rocks, critters that burrow.  Then, thanks to the influence of my friend Kathy who loves the sea, I thought about under the sea.   But then I thought, no, everyone will do that…. I want to do a portrait!  Then I realized, it could fit the theme:  What is under the surface of a teenage American male?

I took about 65 photos one evening of my older son playing guitar, which is such an elemental part of who he is.  I selected two:  one for the overall body position, another for the face (angle of head, mouth closed, eyes looking down).  I ended up using a third picture because the proportions of the first two didn’t give me enough of the room for the measurements of the quilt.   Luckily, I finished on time and got in!!!

I’ll share the construction process (I’m always fascinated by how a quilt comes to life, but decided I’d show the results here, THEN show the process because, well, I’m impatient and want to share!) in future blogposts. So, here it is!

I think this may be one of the best quilts I’ve ever done; best of all, Joshua likes it too.  I was worried about the funky batik I used for the guitar neck, but when he saw it he said “If I could find a guitar like that in real life I’d BUY IT!” How cool is that?

My original statement for the quilt was (big surprise) a bit too long, so I’ll repeat all of it here:

What is beneath the surface of a 16 year-old male?  Some things are obvious:  music, food, girls, friends, food, school, guitar, food, video games, movies, girls, friends, food. Others are not so obvious.  There is the man he is becoming:  kind, compassionate, interesting, funny, breathing music in his soul, argumentative, loyal, passionate, tolerant, stubborn, smart, gregarious, curious, honest, loving and loved.   “Mom?  Can you fix me something to eat?”

Thanks to Moore’s Sewing Center (in southern California and online) and Brother International, who are sponsoring the exhibit at the IQA show in Long Beach, California; we are hoping the exhibit will continue on to the big IQA show in Houston in Fall 2010.  Thanks also from me to Iris Karp of MistyFuse for her generous support.  This entire quilt top was made with fused applique…MistyFuse ROCKS!

So far I know these artists have blogged about their quilts in the exhibit:

• Deborah Boschert
• Terry Grant
• Karen Rips
• Gerrie Congdon

Those of you who can, I hope you can take pics at Long Beach!  Enjoy, and again thanks to Jamie, Leslie and our sponsors!

In my last post, I shared the carving of the 12 x 12 inch sunflower block, and a while ago the first attempt to print with the owl block (about 4×6 inches).  Well, the Speedball water-based printing ink arrived.  I only ordered one tube, copper metallic, to test it.  Shoulda ordered more!  It prints MUCH sharper, cleaner prints–I’ll put side by side of the owl in textile paint and ink below.   But first…the sunflower…..Oooooh la la!

Here are the two prints I’ve made so far:

The one on the left is the first attempt.  Since the copper color of the ink is about the same color as the linoleum, it is almost impossible to tell visually by color if you have enough ink.  Clearly not.  The second print on the right is much better.  Oddly, thought the ink appears metallic in the tube, it doesn’t look metallic on the cloth.  Still, I really like it.

I ADORE this block. I was thinking of cutting it apart into three sections:  the center, the petals and the outside.  But what if I mess it up?  So I think I’ll keep this one as is, then carve another center and another ring of petals separately, so that I can print the block in different colors for each segment.  My mind is already racing on how I can use this to create new cloth, made a t-shirt, and basically have a ball. Here are closeups, first of the too-pale version.

This one will make a good candidate for overprinting with a different stamp in darker ink.  The darker print is much better, but I have to work on getting an unwrinkled “underneath”…I protected my padded surface with a plastic garbage bag that has fold marks in it, and they showwed up in the print:

In my earlier post about the owl, I mentioned that I didn’t care for the heaviness of the lines to the owl’s left:

So I removed some of the lines and tried printing again.  On this one also I had the same issue with guessing how much was enough ink, the first one being too pale, the second and third better:

Here’s a closer view of one of the better prints:

There is a learning curve, but I am moving along it, and this is GOOD.  And I can see having a lot of fun with this technique.

While watching the Winter Olympics one nippy Sunday, I decided to work on my lino-cutting class.  Our lesson was textures.  I thought and thought and didn’t want to do something like the teacher.  A friend of my older son LOVES sunflowers, so I thought hmmm….   love the seed-pod texture

of the center, the silky smoothness of the petals, so I decided to do a jumbo life-sized sunflower.  The linoleum square is 12 x 12 inches; i think the center measures about 6 inches or so across.  In the photo above you can see my pencil marks and the beginnings of cutting away the spaces around the seeds/circles.  I actually like this amorphous, amoeba-like shape so much I may make a few printing blocks that are similar to this one…like water seeping through the mud finding the path of least resistance.

And an angled view–by the way, I used a medium or small “U” shaped gouge for this part:

You can see in this photo the size of the block, and that I used some of my plastic quilting circle templates to mark the perimeters for the seeds and petals.

In this shot, I’ve begun carving the petals using a medium “V” shaped gouge for the outside, and a small “V” for the inner lines:

And again, an angled view (somehow the lighting shows up the carved bits better)–I just LOVE that center!:

In the next photo, you can see the carving jig I made.  Woodblock carvers use something similar, with a lip on the close-to-the-body edge so it snugs against the table.  My jig is larger (to accommodate the large lino blocks) and lacks the lip… I find I like to angle the block, so wanted to be able to turn the jig.  Since doing this one, tho, I discovered I can take an extra strip of the molding I used to make the edge/frame and put it at an angle on the inside, so I may add a lip after all.  Having cut myself on my first effort, I now have a wary respect for how sharp the carving tools are! The safety from using a well-made, well-designed jig are well worth the minimal cost (about $10 for the supplies, tho still need to buy some felt to glue to the bottom).

In the photo above, you can also see that I have begun carving away the outside in a flame-like pattern.  By this time I’d been cutting for several hours, and my hands began to ache, so I took a break and finished it the next day (which was also Spring Break and more of the Olympics television marathon). Finally, carving DONE!

And the angle view:

Can you tell I’m having fun?  Then I had to wait for an order with some Speedball ink to arrive.  My textile paints aren’t working as I would like  for the printing, so we’ll see if the Speedball water-soluble ink works any better.  It can apparently be heat-set and made permanent….. time for more testing?

If you think you’d be interested in taking this class online,  contact Dijanne Cevaal who is (I mentioned this earlier, forgive me for repeating it here) originally from the Netherlands, immigrated to Australia and lived there most of her adult life, travelled to the middle East and is currently living, at least for a while, back in Europe.  Consequently, we have a glorious around-the-world group in our class.  You can contact her by using the link in the sidebar (to the left) which will take you to her blog.

Sometimes silliness and serendipity happen….   one night I made cornbread biscuits.  As I buttered one, my older son said “It’s a smiley face!”

Then, at that same wrestling meet of the double-chicken-wings, I saw and enjoyed this t-shirt:

That’s all for today…some random smiling and food for thought.  Personally, at the moment I’d like one of those hot cornbread muffins…..

It has been a long time since I posted about our sons… somehow the vastness and sometimes-creepiness of the internet (and the fear of what may be lurking at the dark ends of cyberspace) have led me to be significantly more cautious about what I say and post.  But let’s face it…. kids and hubbies and family are what make life worth living.  They are also what constitutes “life happening” meaning that quilts don’t happen!  I wouldn’t give up either.  And, in these photos, the kids are basically unidentifiable, so here goes!

This season, our younger son’s second in wrestling, is proving to be a good one.  The first year on a wrestling team is often a learning year as the wrestlers figure out holds, what to do, what NOT to do, and learn to try to win (as opposed to wrestling “not to lose”).  This year, E. clearly is in the “going out to win” mode.

Last year, E. got pinned (and therefore lost) when a kid got him in what is called a double-chicken wing.  He achieved a goal this past meet:  he did it to another kid–see photo above!  So far this year, E. has had six matches with opponents (when the other team doesn’t have someone in the same weight class, he gets a technical win, but real ones are better).   He has pinned the opposing kid (which leads to more points for the team than winning by points alone) six out of six times.  In this past meet, he had four matches, won all four by pins, and won three of the four in the first period. E. ROCKS! Here’s how one of his matches went on a recent Saturday:

Shake hands first:

E. makes a move (he’s the one   on the top, with red stripes down the side and the headgear/ear protectors  falling off):

E. grapples, gets the kid in a near-pin, but not quite, so reconsiders and goes for a double-chicken wing (and don’t your shoulders hurt just looking at the poor kid on the bottom?)

…this is the classic…the losing kid is the one in the upside down, how-can-he-really-be-in-that-twisted-position:

To get a pin, BOTH of the opponent’s shoulder blades must be on the mat for one full second.  That means the ref ends up flat on the mat peering in unusual places and positions to make sure there is full contact for the full second.

PINNED!  Ref slams hand on mat, match is over, E WINS!  E ROCKS!  It is good *not* to be the one twisted up like a pretzel!