Driving Home and Hiking

NOTE COLOUR ENTHUSIASTS: At the end of this post, I've included a link to a wonderful website that helps you identify colours to go along with a colour of your choosing.  

 

The highlight of my trip home from the BC coast was at the rest area of Rhododendron Flats in Manning Park, east of Hope, BC. Click here for more information. http://www.travelfootprints.ca/2012/07/wild-rhododendron-grove-in-manning-park  This website says this particular strain of flowering bushes are thought to be left over from the last ice age and these rhododendrons only grow in two other places in BC (on Vancouver Island)! What a special thing to see this beauties blooming in the wild. It was early morning and the light was only filtering through the trees but often the rays were shining right on a clump of the rhododendron blossoms. I was so fortunate to catch a glimpse of one as I was driving by and turned around to spend a few moments in this special place.



Early morning sunlight filtering through the forest onto these rare wild blossoms.

 

Marmot right outside the Tourist Information Centre in Princeton, BC. Isn't he a handsome 'fella'.

The sun was back lighting these ferns at a stop along my way home that I photographed them for a future painted fabric piece.

A recent hike which is always good for ideas for painting. The open side slope meadow we traversed was amass of wildflowers. Lupines, paint brushes, lilies, larkspur to name a few. Unfortunately the photos didn't do them justice.

Hiking up from the valley floor.

Note: Here is an amazing website that provides colour schemes. A friend and I used  it to find some colour ideas to use with a challenging set of dining room drapes. Be sure to check out the palette search area where you move the tabs along the 3 different lines to find your own colour to include in a colour scheme. http://design-seeds.com/index.php/search Jessica's colour palettes could be used not only in home decorating but also quilting and painting. I notice she usually includes one or two near neutrals in her usually 6 colour selections as well as a variety of values. Of course you can use a colour wheel to come up with your own ideas, but this is fun too.

Day 2 of Painting with Dyes Workshop

On day 2 of the Painting with Dyes workshop in Gibson's, BC we continued to paint images with thickened dyes especially finishing pieces that had been drawn the previous day as a black line drawing using thickened black dye in a bottle with a nib. Stamping and sponging were demonstrated as well and participants took the time to experiment with different techniques. E really got into some monoprinting and C pulled out a gelli plate to try. The thickened dye beaded up on the gelli plate but what texture.



Oh such concentration. Only the dog has time to wander around.



The other half of the group is just as diligently working



J and her poppies



Foxglove with a sponged background by G

Echinecea by C



Mixing of colour right on the Fabric by S



Florals.



And more florals. These florals will all work well with pieced blocks with quilted details.



Trying stamping and sponging. After rinsing this could be overdyed with a light vat dye, to colour the background.



M and I discussing what a fine job she did of fixing the spill of black dye that happened on her piece the day before when sketching in the flower outline with thickened dye. M turned the blotch into a seed pod and added two more. How is that for problem solving? I had to look the part of a 'Painting with Dyes Instructor' so I am wearing a low immersion dyed Tshirt. I have bamboo socks to match!



Using a gelli plate to print with. Nice texture!



Getting the right colour is challenging with painting with dyes as you always have to adjust for the fact that the colour will be slightly lighter when washed.



The addition of writing can give an art journal style.



What texture with the dry brush work and the sponging for the trees.



Look at the form created with these flowers. It came about by leaving the wonderful highlights and painting the deep and dark red of the petals.

Zentangles. What a great idea to use images/designs that you are doing in other mediums.



Waterlilies. Additional details are going to be sewn in this piece. It takes some careful planning when thinking that far ahead. I am very impressed with the more vivid blue in the foreground to the greyed blue of the background in order to show depth.

 

When I saw this, I said this is a 'show stopper'. H remembered to include some warm reds along with the mostly cool reds of the blooms. Note the darks that give form to the flower.

 

Very delicate colour was needed for this apple blossom.

 

Off to a great start. Unlike watercolour painting, when painting with thickened dyes you start with your darks.



Demonstrating painting on alternative fabrics such as a black and white print or even coloured cotton fabric.

The white trees were masked out before painting with torn masking tape. J told me it was quite a feat to do but look at the wonderfully irregular natural looking edge. The trees were left purposefully without colour for follow up stitching. The sponged foliage gives the impression of sunlight through a forest.

What a wonderful couple of days at this 'Painting with Dyes' workshop. Participants have said they would email me photos of what they do with their work which I will post-can't wait!

Painting with Dyes Workshop, Gibson's, BC on Day 1

The 'Painting with Dyes' workshop in Gibson's, BC was a lot of fun. This group of participants seemed dedicated to getting a lot of painting done and that was also my goal for them so they would have lots of fabulous pieces of fabric to sew with after the class. Even though there were a dozen of us, at times the room could get silent from everyone concentrating. Who said painting is easy? Fun yes, but not always easy.

Below are some photos from Day 1. There were several comments of being tired after that first day and I could see why as the amount of fabric that got painted was staggering. Watching what the participants created was joyous for me as I love to think of the true originality of fabric being created by each person. This is one of the main reasons I teach, to facilitate people in creating their own personal art work. It was an impressive first day! (Watch for day 2 in the the next post.)



Getting started on Day 1 of the workshop. We had a lovely setting to work in at Carola's Quilt Shop in Gibsons, BC. http://www.carola.ca/



Those that had previous painting skills dove right in. What a rich red!

We can use anything for inspiration. Even the table cloth. Some people had a knack for pleasing compositions such as with these grapes.



Look at the rich variety of greens. This makes all the difference in creating an interesting and lively piece.



A photo of hostas was the inspiration for this piece. All greens should not be the same shade and this piece demonstrates just what a variety of greens can be achieved when mixing dye colours. The primary colours of fuchsia, turquoise, lemon yellow and the neutral black were the only colours provided. All colours were mixed. Great job!

Sunflowers had been painted by H before and she was able to draw on that knowledge from memory. This is a skill to treasure.

Learning here how to make a graduated background. Painting with dyes is not like watercolour with it's gently blending with water. Which thickened dyes, each value needs to be mixed separately. Leaving those whites is a winner.

Love, love, love G's abilities to create wildly exciting backgrounds. She has a style already. Artists can work years to develop their own style.

How nice is that. This will be a perfect piece of fabric for working into quilting later. Rich blues in the flowers and a loose style for the foliage create this endearing bouquet.

Chartreuse! Excellent colour mixing. Those petals have such variety. Try to remember that when painting flowers. Gorgeous!

Leaving those whites between the leaves allows the viewer's eye to move around the piece. Such rich complementary colours make this a strong piece. It is perfect for a quilted project.

Ah, nice to see some buildings. C successfully used a dry brush technique to create the weathered look of the grain elevators. This will show perfectly when washed. The addition of some greenery and foreground later completed this piece

Sunshine Coast Guild Trunk Show

What a great group of quilters my sister and I met on the Sunshine Coast. I had only been to the area once before so it was fun to explore this beautiful area of the BC coast. Click here for more information about their guild. http://www.scquiltersguild.com/ It is my understanding there are several satellite quilting groups that meet along the sunshine coastal communities and once a month, Sept through to May, the quilters meet together as a large group. For the May meeting I was asked to provide a trunk show and lecture. Also I was given three tables to sell my hand (dye) painted fabrics prior to and after the meeting. I look forward to seeing what will be made with all those fabrics.

One of the highlights of being there was being able to enjoy the 'show and tell' where the members described and showed the quilts they had completed. All were unique and several were made for certain people so the quilt was specifically designed for the receiver. What a great way to provide the direction of a project.  

The creativity and design problem-solving of the group was shown several times when members made quilts and wall hangings from left-over pieced blocks or orphan fabrics from other projects. It made me wonder if the results weren't even more exciting than the original quilt.

Each quilter at the 'trunk show' receive a 2 1/2" piece of hand painted fabric attached to my business card with a small clothespin (for the significance click here Clothesline Series). Note below 5 things I came up with using a 2 1/2" square. What are your ideas?  

Quilters shopping for some of my hand painted fabrics prior to the meeting.

82 members attended the Sunshine Coast Guild Meeting on May 31, 2014 where I gave a trunk show and talk about the importance of 'design elements' in quilting.

Add 'Stitch Witchery' to the 2 1/2" hand painted square, cut out shapes, iron onto card stock, add free motion stitching to create a card.

Add 'Stitch Witchery' to the back of the 2 1/2" square, cut out shapes, add to muslin fabric, free motion stitch details for a quilt label. Write on details with a permanent Pigma type pen and press to set the ink.

2 1/2" square of hand painted fabric stitched to
 watercolour paper for a gift card.

Key Chain padded, sewn and embellished using a 2 1/2" hand painted fabric square.



Faux stamp for an envelope created out of an hand painted fabric.






10 Mug Rugs Find New Homes

Today is an exciting day!!! I am off for my first day hike in over a year during which time I have be rehabbing an injury. I look forward to the beautiful views and surely there will be wildflowers. I wanted to get a quick post in to you before a heading out but I best put in my camera and sketchbook so I can share what I saw with you next time.

Here are five of the mug rugs that found new homes! Rather than for coffee and a treat some are going to be for wine and appetizers! Note that even though the two gates are similar as well as the three hummingbirds, I have retained originality with each mug rug by varying the pieced work as well.



With this first hummingbird mug rug, there is only a small bit of red in the pieced work and the throat of the calliope so the red really stands out. In the quilted piece below the red strip in the pieced work is larger and the binding is red as well as having red in the bird and the feeder. Don't you thing the complementary green of the bird becomes more noticable?

In the last mug rug a lot of neutral colour was used along with the harmonious blue, green and yellow squares making that the colour theme throughout with a little complementary red zing of the hummingbird's throat. Fun to play around with colour.