Happy Halloween!

Susie Staebell's Halloween Quilt

As you can see from the photo, it is always a bad idea to drink and then get on that broomstick! So take a tip from this witch and find a designated flier to take you home. Thanks to my friend Susie Staebell for letting me show her Halloween Quilt on this post.

Subsurface Strata

Subsurface Strata

Here is a progress report on my Lithologic Landscape.  I layed a neutral fabric over my enlarged drawing and penciled in some guildlines showing where major features start and stop.


I wanted to start with the subsurface section, and use that as a basis for fabric selection for the rest of the piece. This area is going to be a cross-section of the earth's subsurface, below the surface activities that I will add later.  I think this area will be the most dramatic and wanted to try to get it set from the start. It may be hard to visualize this as looking like a cross-section, but it should shape up as I go along.

Enlarged Drawing

Here is the drawing for the lithologic landscape project blown up to "life-size" proportions. The fill size is 2.5 feet by 4 feet. Enlarging the drawing makes it easy to cut out freezer paper pattern pieces, as well as positioning the fabric onto the background. I can lay my background fabric over the enlargement and see where each piece goes.

I have color coded the lithology cross-section area to designate things like sand, silty-sand, clay, bedrock, contamination, etc. I plan to use the same fabric for each distinct lithologic type. 

Some of my art quilts on display at UCI

I have the good fortune to be able to display some of my art quilts at the UCI Engineering Dept. on a rotating basis. This photo shows a variation on a traditional quilt that I made (shown on the left wall) and two small still life art quilt pieces on the far wall. Thanks to my friend Susie for the opportunity to display my work there!

Fabric Selections for Lithologic Landscape

 Here are my fabrics from my stash that I plan to use in my lithologic landscape project. These fabrics mirror the colors in the "plan" shown in my previous post.

And here they are all stacked vertically in a box. I can see them easily this way and there is less of a mess. And less time spent looking for the fabric that slipped off the table trying to escape!

Color Plan for Lithologic Landscape

color plan

This is my color plan for the lithologic landscape project. I create one of these for each art quilt to use as a guild when selecting fabrics. I tape this to a wall in my studio and refer to it throughout the project. I usually do a few draft color plans before arriving at the "final" one that I will use for a project.

Once I have my final color plan, I open up my stash and pull out a variety of fabrics in each of the colors. Then I fold them and put them in a box vertically so I can see each fabric. Having them in a box makes it easy to move the fabric out of the way when I have to use the table for something else, and easy to see my choices when working on the project. 

When an idea occurs to me, I write a note on the color plan and cross it off after I have done it. It helps me keep track of the little inspirations you get along the way.

My current project

Lately I've been working on a commission to create a lithologic landscape for a person working in the environmental regulatory field. They want the piece to depict surface activities that have the potential to affect water quality, and to show the subsurface strata (lithology). This is my sketch of the piece, and I've tried to include many activities that someone in the business of protecting groundwater quality deals with. These include farming, service stations, dry cleaners, oil storage, and plain old surface run-off. I have groundwater monitoring wells and some leaks that have seeped into the subsurface. I spent 20 years as an environmental consultant, so these things are all near and dear to me. I will post updates of this project as it progresses. It is a fun project to work on!

Lithologic Landscape Sketch

 

 

Gerbera Daisy Watercolor

It is so much nicer now that the hot weather is behind us (I hope!). I find it harder to work on anything when it's' hot and humid. But now that fall is here, I'm feeling the motivation to get back at it!

This is a watercolor painting that I finished a few months ago. I haven't been doing as much painting lately because I've been spending time on fiber arts more. I am hoping to make a fiber art piece based on this painting one of these days. In the meantime I'm teaching a beading work shop, and working on a landscape commission project. And appreciating better weather!






Gerbera Daisy Watercolor