"Fading Memories"

"Fading Memories" (26"x 26")

Since you last saw this piece back in mid-January, it has been finished.  Seed beads are scattered among the colored leaves as well as in the background just off the edge of the muslin overlay, a variegated red rayon yarn strip was couched over the "horizon line", the trim with the glass leaves was added to the bottom edge, as well as the binding and a hanging sleeve have been applied.  There's just the label to make and it'll be ready for entry to the Smoky Mountain Quilt Guild Show.

Here are photos of the composition as it progressed.

Initially all the elements came together easily.  However the more I worked on it, the more WORK it became.  This piece started out simply. Just leaves pounded into a piece of muslin fabric on a sunny day up in the mountains.

When I got back to my studio I painted the piece on the back side with the hope of not disturbing the natural images while adding a wash of color to the background. As you can see, I got the background color, but lost definition of those original leaves because the base fabric wasn't treated to hold pigments. To remedy that, I gathered and pounded leaves from my yard to add defined leaf images.

Seed stitches with single strands of neutral colored floss were scattered between the leaves, both to give texture and to attach it to the foundation. In retrospect two strands of floss would've been more effective than one, which had seemed counter productive to keeping it delicate. Two would've been more visually effective for those stitches that spilled over the edges into the background. Then the layering of oil stick pastels and paint began to make this piece work. Which is okay, because layering is a signature of my style.

Diluted black acrylic paint was added which helped. The value contrast between the muslin piece and the background was lessened, but it had also became dull. A touch of contrast was added with black oil stick pastels which made it better. In the meantime, I also gave the leaves added strength and definition with more color and a coat of Acrylic Medium that made them prominent and shiny. This was a good thing. They now had the same shiny texture as the glass leaves on the the trim that hangs along the bottom edge.  The glass seed beads could've been left off.  However, I had just the right colors, amber and brown, so they became reflecting points of light.

Visually this piece looks simple.  However, the construction of it is complex.  Because of its origin plus the great amount of time, effort and thought put into this piece it is being added to our personal art collection.

It is now one of three pieces that rotate being hung on this wall.  The other two are "Ode To the South Pacific", my first crinkle quilt, and "Reflections", an imperfect quilt that I love.

Pounded Leaves Piece

Since the beginning of this new year I've been struggling to make this piece work. Even the possibility of cutting it up to make smaller works occurred to me.
I'm pleased with the background piecing. All those elements came together easily and fit together so well. The negative maple leaf images in the discharged linen fabric mirrored those pounded into the muslin square. The bottom piece "reflected" the muslin square. While the fabric with stripes of natural colors became winter time tree trunks. The five tapestry woven dragonflies seemed the perfect topper.
It all began with this piece of muslin that got an impromptu pounding of leaves into it. I've had moments of nostalgia for its original fresh appearance of simple leaves.
Over time I've added paint, ink, oil stick pastels, and lots of seed stitching trying to make it work ... to integrate it with the background ... to keep it visually anchored instead floating above. In recent days even more paint, ink, and pastels were added. This solution of darkening the muslin panel came to me when I began to see and think of this piece in a different context.
Earlier this month I joined the Liberated Quilters Yahoo group. The group's project, The Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI), got me thinking about this disease that afflicts loved ones in so many families. At some point, I began to relate the dimming and loss of memories to the background elements within this piece.
From my own experience, I know the joy experienced when a memory or moment of recognition surfaces momentarily in a loved ones afflicted mind. That is what I now see in the muslin square.

Now that this piece has a meaning beyond that of being a delightful whim, I can take it to completion with thought and care.

Stitching In the Smoky Mountains

Every fall we spend a long weekend up in the Smoky Mountains with a group of friends.
Last year Judy and I transferred some of the colorful fall leaves to fabric. That can be read about here.
After that weekend last fall my piece of muslin imprinted with those leaves ended up in this art quilt. Go here to read about its creation.
It's what I took up there this year to work on
while enjoying the fall colors in that expansive view of the Smoky Mountains from the big porch that wraps around two sides of the house.

Pounded Leaf Piece

Remember this piece of muslin with leaves pounded into it? I have backed it with a thin layer of batting and embroidered many seed stitches between the leaves.
I pieced the background fabrics that had been chosen to showcase the leaves. Then I machine quilted it.
Yarns were also couched to the striped panel to give the effect of a stand of saplings. The loose ends will get trimmed away after something gets couched along the horizontal seams above and below that section.
The leaf piece was added to the background and I machine quilted around the individual leaves. Now I'm in the process of add many more seed stitches that pass through all the layers and spill off the muslin panel onto the background.
To view the beginning of this piece as well as other work that incorporates pounded botanical materials click on the label at the end of this post.

Playing With the Leaf Piece

The side panel that had the leaf rubbings had begun to bother me. It was pulling my attention away from the square of pounded leaves. I thought it worked because the pattern is nebulous and secondary to the pounded leaf piece. Even though my eye came back to the focal point I felt there was too much pull.
So, I began to think about other elements that would complement the leaves ... how about tree trunks? I got out stripy fabrics and auditioned. This one works well. It repeats the red tones in my two leaf fabrics and I like the gray blue stripes that look like glimpses of sky between tree trunks.
The dragonfly strip looks better at the top ... after all they are flying, right?
The bottom looked skimpy. One of the fabrics I had pulled from my stash for the side panel audition is a shaded dark batik. It makes a wonderful base for the composition and those glass leaves are showcased. This may be it.

Enhancing Pounded Images

The natural pigments of leaves and flowers pounded into fabric are quite stable IF that fabric has been treated to retain dyes. However, this project of pounding leaves in the Smoky Mountains was spontaneous and the only fabric I had was pre-washed muslin.
Last evening I enhanced the piece by sketching around the leaves with a fine point permanent marking pen. Then I used oil stick pastels to lightly color the leaves.
Before these additions I had heat-set the natural and paint pigments with a hot iron. Afterwards the ink and pastels were heat set.

This is the piece with the oil stick rubbings of big leaves that will be used in the side panel of my leaf quilt.
Here it is with the leaves enhanced.
Again, I lightly sketched around each leaf and lightly colored in the leaf shapes with the metalic gold oil stick pastel ... then heat-set the added pigments. Now I'm auditioning which half will work best in the leaf quilt.

I would hesitate to use pounded botanicals in a project that requires washing even if they they were applied to treated fabric. Although, enhancing the natural pigments as I've done with inks and pastels definitely makes them more permanent. If anyone has washed a project with pounded leaves or flowers please leave a comment to let me and my readers know the result.

note: photos will enlarge if clicked

Leaf Piece Has Begun

This is the arrangement hanging on my design wall. I'm studying the proportions of the main section plus the angle of the newest piece with the pounded leaves that was begun in the mountains about a week ago.
The dragonfly piece at the top is a strip of upholstery fabric given to me by a friend. The edging with glass leaves was another gift from someone who knows I like to use bits and pieces. Both of those are a bit longer than my arrangement so there's room for adjustment.

The large piece with the black leaves is linen that I discharged a number of years ago. Real Maple leaves were scattered across it and then a strong bleach solution was spritzed over all. The bleaching action was stopped by immersing the fabric in a bucket of vinegar and water. At that time I discharged all the yardage I had of this linen with various patterns, some of which was used in "Come With Me to Kasbah". I love the copper color of the bleached areas. I had gone back to the store to purchase more, but it was GONE.

The vertical rectangle is one of five pieces I fabricated a year ago. Here are the other four pieces.
When we were in Memphis for Thanksgiving I had found wonderfully huge leaves with strong veins along the bank of the Mississippi River. They were too dry for pounding an image out of them so I did rubbings with oil paint sticks. After heat setting the leaf images the fabrics were saturated with water, then each was crumpled in its own pie pan and dabbed with acrylic fabric paint and left to dry. This method allows most of the pigments to migrate to the peaks of the folds giving those wonderful natural lines. There's room for more manipulation in this process. I'm sure I adjusted those wrinkles after a day and spritzed more water for more pigment movement.

All those pieces had been accumulating in pile for a year just waiting for the final element and the right moment to "become". There are quite a few pieces from that pile not being used and I think they'll get put away to make room for the other piles of possible projects stacking up in my studio.

Transfer Botanical Images by Pounding

My friend, Judy, who was pounding leaves with me last weekend sent these photos of her results on fabric...
...and paper.A bit more about my process. I place the botanical between 2 layers of fabric (many times just folding over a single piece). The image from the underside of a leaf or petal is usually stronger. The best thing to use for pounding is a rubber mallet. Although, I've used a hammer and river rocks as well as that stick last weekend. I've also found it's best to pound on a smooth cutting board. I cover it with a plastic bag so as not to leave stains behind.

I touch up the finished piece with crayons. Heat the fabric with an iron so the colors melt into the fabric rather than sit on top. Watercolor crayons and pencils would work well, too. I also have outlined the images with permanent pens. Heat set the natural as well as any added pigments to make them more permanent. Using "prepared for dying" fabric or treating it to retain dye would be best.

Click here for an in depth article about the process that I just found through Google. Go here to see and read about other projects I've made with pounded flowers. Now, go have fun and wake up the neighborhood with your pounding.

In the Smokies

A week ago we were in the mountains with friends looking at this for the weekend.
The leaves were at the peak of color and the weather was glorious. At some point during the weekend I talked about pounding leaves and crayon rubbings to one of my friends who recently became serious about making art. On our last afternoon she tapped me on the shoulder and told me she'd like to try pounding leaves. I just happened to have a couple of pieces of muslin in my go-everywhere project bag. Within a short time we had gathered some of those beautiful leaves, found some sticks, and were pounding away.
All that tap-tap-tapping attracted observers, one who brought us a metal meat pounder from the kitchen ... the sticks worked best. This was the resulting image of leaves and weeds that I pounded out.
When we got home I decided the background needed color. I thought if paint were brushed on the back side of the fabric the imprints wouldn't be disturbed. I was wrong and am sorry to have lost some of those wonderfully clear prints of the mountain leaves. The strong impressions you see on this piece are from leaves I pounded in from our trees at home.
On the bright side, the additions of paint and leaf impressions made this a more complex cloth. This small square excites me and I feel nudged to create the leaf piece that's been brewing in the back of my mind for more than a year. You'll be seeing more of it.

Exquisite Corpse Round 1 "What is a Weed?"

I was the fifth corpse mistress to add to Julie's "What is a Weed?" piece. (note: To see and read about the whole piece click on Julie's name to get to her weblog. To see and read about all the Exquisite Corpses as they are revealed go here.)
Arlee's dangling appendages presented a challenge to work around. I figure they serve to push my flat area more into the background. After all, weeds can hardlty be noticed growing in the hard dirt where nothing else will sprout.
The plants in this piece are actual weeds that I had picked along a rocky bed of a stream in Colorado. They were pounded with a flat river stone into a piece of muslin. That was done several years ago and the natural dyes had faded so I used crayons to give them color. I heat set the crayons to melt the wax and pigment into the fabric. A fusible web was ironed on the back before I cut them out and adhered them to the background fabrics.

The ground fabric is textured from a crayon rubbing over a cut wood surface from the same area. It is over painted with fabric paint. The blue sky is a piece of hand-painted fabric.

A dark green tulle netting is layered over the whole area. A piece of batting provided by Julie is sandwiched between my piece and her background fabric. I machine quilted with black thread to outline as well as to define the weeds. Seed stitching by hand quilts the ground and sky to add a bit of texture.

I had fun! I'm glad that a bottom square was left open for me. The dirt serves as a base or ground for the whole piece ... or at least this bottom corner. I like to think that I would've thought of a different composition if my space to fill had been in the middle of the quilt.

Rubbing and Pounding

I have done a lot of rubbing and pounding here in Colorado. Whenever we take a hike I carry along a square of muslin and a crayon to make rubbings from interesting surfaces ... mostly trees and logs.The poundings are of flowers and leaves. This one commemorates the area in which we stay.

Memories of Rockmount - 12"x 12"

It has crayon rubbings of surfaces within our cabin and the top rail of the bridge leading to it. The pounded flowers and leaves were picked from the shoreline of the stream as well as the basket hanging outside the cabin. It was gifted to the retiring managers of the complex.

I made two pieces from these rubbings and poundings that are similar to each other. Rubbings were painted to look like mountains. Each corner represents a time of day ... sunrise, noon, sunset, and night.
The first was made as a wedding present for my husband's cousin who was married in the mountains. The center of this one features wild flowers which the bride carried in her bouquet. It also has small stones from one of the hiking trails couched with metallic thread to the four corners of the center. This one was presented to my brother-in-law who has a house in Aspen for his 70th birthday.

It's center features pansies from his garden and Aspen leaves from the trees in his yard. The stones are from his collection that have been found in the mountains and then polished. I took a small selection from the basket in the guest room, telling him he'd get them back.
I had not treated the fabrics before pounding the flowers and leaves. The natural dye is strong at first, but fades. To ensure that the color lasts, I lightly colored the flowers and leaves with crayons and set the wax and pigment into the fabric with an iron.