Finishing Up A City Scape

Red and Blue Tie Scape

I like to use men's ties to make city-scapes. I cut the ties and use the various parts as buildings. I like to place the ties on a background that is a man's handkerchief. I associate the ties and handkerchiefs with men's work attire from a by-gone era. I like the idea of using these to create a depiction of the place they would have gone to work. It's an homage to working attire in a big city, I guess.

The ties often are made of interesting and beautiful silk fabrics. They are not stiff and often end up being a little wonky in their appearance as a building.  I think that adds to the charm of the city.

I have made a few of these over the years, and I have taught workshops on making a "tie-scape". When you teach a workshop in something you end up with a few partially finished items, all at various stages of completion. I've decided to finish my in progress tie-scapes, and I'm going to show that work on my blog. 

These are photos of a couple of other partially finished ties scapes. I plan to finish all of these, but I'm going to start with the one I show above. Thanks for visiting my blog!

Red and Brown Tie Scape

Blue and Yellow Tie Scape

Some Recent Things I've Been Doing

 

I thought I"d show you some of what has been keeping me busy lately. This is a picture of me with my niece, who is depicted in my art quilt, Shootie-Pie. This piece is one of my "Attitudes!" pieces that is in my exhibit.  I have been busy getting all the pieces done and the exhibit ready for shipping. It will ship today to the Mancuso Florida World Quilt Show!



Watercolor! I've been taking two watercolor painting classes this fall. One is in a class room and one is plein air. I've been focusing on painting more quickly. I don't have a lot of time to paint at home, so I want to get a painting done while I'm at the class. I try to paint on a smaller scale and move more quickly. My work is looser than it otherwise would be, but I'm improving with the faster painting practice. This was an assignment on palm trees. It is from a photo I took in Hawaii.



Ukulele! I play ukulele and this is me (second from the left, the shortest one) doing "Santa Baby" at a performance with the group I play with. It is a lot of fun!

I hope you are having a wonderful Holiday season! Thank for visiting my blog!

Mediterranean Inspirations

I have been traveling this fall quite a bit and haven't had time this last month to do many posts on this blog. But I am getting back to my normal routine and will start showing a project soon.

My travels took me to Oregon for a fun fishing and camping trip with friends, the Houston Texas International Quilt Festival and a Mediterranean cruise. The cruise was the best of the three trips. I visited Italy, Croatia, Montenegro, Greece, France and Spain. Every port had interesting sights to see and visit. I am posting below some of my favorite photos from the trip:

Rome Architecture

   

Gaudi Sagrada Familia in Barcelona

Naples Balcony

Corfu Greece Knitting Shop Owner

Roman Cafe

I took over 1,000 photos on this trip, so these are  obviously just a minor snapshot of what I saw. It was an inspiring trip from an artistic point of view. It will be a highlight in my life for a long time.

I've got a few activities that will keep me tied up through the middle of December, but after that I will begin posting a new project. As always, I thank you for visiting my blog!

An Abstract Wall Hanging - "Watershed Moment"

I nearly always do representational work, but on a rare occasion I complete something abstract. This piece is an abstract interpretation of an aerial view of  a water drainage system.  I hand painted the fabric a few years ago and liked the design. I didn't want to cut it up, but I also didn't know what to do with it.  Finally I stared at it enough that I realized it reminded me of the aerial photographs of water drainage through mountains that I used to look at when I worked as an environmental professional.

I enhanced the design with oil paint sticks, and added beads to represent boulders.

I think this is my favorite detail:

It's good to break away from your comfort zone and try something new. Thanks for visiting my blog!

"Tough Old Bird" in the Houston Show

I'm thrilled to have my "Tough Old Bird" piece in the "World of Beauty" contest at the International Quilt Festival in Houston this year. The show runs from November 1 - 5, and is at the Houston Convention Center.

I'll be going to the show, so it will be a treat to have a quilt hanging while I am there!

Thanks for visiting my blog!

A Beaded Bird - TV Watching Project

I like to make beaded birds while sitting in front of the TV. I try to have one in the works so that I can add some beads to it when the mood strikes me. I usually make them from a heavier fabric and sew beads and other doo-dads on them. Here is my most recent bird:



I like to sew a heart on the chest area, and you can see this birds heart in the photo below:




I found a place on a shelf for this bird, near some other fiber art pieces that it coordinates with.





Thanks for visiting my blog!

"On the Boulevard" is Finished!

"On the Boulevard", by Eileen Wintemute

It's done! Here is a photo of the finished art quilt featuring my Mother walking down the shopping district in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She was young and full of life. I think I captured that and it puts a smile on my face. 

This piece will be included in the "Attitudes" exhibit that I talked about in a recent post. I'm thrilled!

Thanks for visiting my blog!

"ATTITUDES" Solo Exhibit Announcement!

"Fashion Plate" by Eileen Wintemute

“ATTITUDES” – that is the name of my new solo exhibit that is going on the road! Yippee! I am proud and honored to have this exhibit debut at Mancuso’s “World Quilt Florida” festival in Orlando at the Orange County Convention Center.  The show dates are January 18 – 20, 2018.

“ATTITUDES” is a collection of fiber art pieces I have created showing people depicting great “attitude”. I don’t necessarily mean they have a good attitude, but their posture and expression show the world they are full of something… 

I show one of the pieces, “Fashion Plate”, here. I think you will get an idea of what I mean from this one.

In February the exhibit travels to Virginia for the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival and in March to New Jersey for Quiltfest. I’ll post more information about those two shows as we get closer to the dates of the events.

Anyway, it is very exciting for me and I am thrilled and proud! Thanks for visiting my blog!

North Umpqua River

Every year I go on a camping and fishing trip on the North Umpqua River in Oregon. This is a beautiful location and the inspiration for many paintings and art pieces.  I have just returned from my annual trip, so I thought I would post this painting of a spot on the river. The location is called "Elevation" and the rock structure there is unique and very recognizable to those who know the river. I did this painting over the summer in a workshop with Judy Schroeder.

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Stitching Down the Figure

  The background stitching is completed and it is time to stitch the figure to the background.

I started with the center of the figure and worked my way out. Here are some photos showing the stitching I used:


Here you can see the stitches I used on the blouse and face:

















 This photo shows the shopping bag, skirt and jacket.




And here you see the legs, socks and shoes. I added some blue colored pencil to the shadow side of the shoes, which you can also see here.

I'm almost finished with this one. I need to do a binding, sleeve and label next. Thanks for visiting my blog!

"On the Boulevard" Background Design

I'm showing how I stitched the background in today's post. I first marked the background image with white soap, and then pin basted the top to the batting and back.



After basting was completed I began the machine quilting. I first stitched the silhouette of the figure, and then I stitched the background features around the silhouette. I tried to work around the background locking in larger areas before I went back in and completed the area. Here are some progress photos:











Here are a few photos showing the background stitching completed with the figure placed on the top. The figure is not stitched down yet.






I like the impression of the street scene in the background. Next step is stitching down the figure. Thanks for visiting my blog!

"Put A Bird On It!" at the Mancuso Pennsylvania National show

I am proud to be a member of Beyond the Edge Fiber Artists. Our group's exhibit entitled "Put A Bird On It!" will be at the Mancuso Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza in Oaks, Pennsylvania this year. The show dates are September 14 - 17, 2017. The show will be at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center. If you are in the area, I hope you have a chance to see our exhibit. This is my piece entitled "Bird of the Night" that is part of "Put A Bird On It!".



Thanks for visiting my blog!

Background Decisions

I decided to use this rust colored fabric for the background of "On the Boulevard".  It has nice contrast with the main subject and has a subtle design. The close up below shows the design more clearly.
















So what to do on the background? I like the storefront angles and the flags in the photo below. One option is to put that design element in the background.



Another option is to have a couple of figures in the background area. This is what that would look like:


   The figures would be done in tulle so they are subtle as compared to the main subject.

I opted for the storefront instead of the figures. I thought the figures were too dominating. I will use couching of yarns and thread painting to put in the background features. I'll show that as I get more of it done.

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Progress Update - "On the Boulevard"

  I am leaning towards "On the Boulevard" for the title of this piece.  I'll try it out here for a while and see what I think.

I have been making steady progress on  this one, and I'm going to show some details of parts of it with this post:

Bags;

There are three bags in my Mom's hand. I chose three different red fabrics for these, and used paint to add shadows and highlights.  The red is a nice contrast to the blues and grays. Here is a close up of them:












Pin:

There is a gold colored lapel pin on the jacket. I can't tell exactly what it is, but it could be a bird on a branch. It has that look to it. I initially cut out a gold fabric for this, but it looked too flat and artificial to me.




I had a scrap fabric that I had been using to remove paint from my brush. It had a lot of white and a mix of other colors. I painted that fabric with a gold paint, and then touched it up to add some variation to the color. This is what I came up with:




It seems to look more natural than the first one, so I'll use this one.

Jacket fabric:

I love this dark blue paisley for the jacket fabric. I used paint to give it shadows and highlights, but the main thing I wanted to say was, I love that fabric for this jacket!



My next post will be about the background. Thanks for visiting my blog!

My Mom - On the Boulevard!!!

My Mom loved to shop, and this is a photo of her doing that when she was young. She grew up in the Milwaukee area, so this is the shopping district in that city, I believe. I love the movement in this photo, and the clothes they wore!  I am making an art quilt based on this for my "Attitudes" series.























I've been painting the image of my Mom in this photo, and this is what I have completed as of this post:



I think it's pretty good so far. I need to darken the value on some of the face shadows, but I find it best to do that in gradual phases. As one of my painting teachers used to say, "sneak up on the darks". That way you are less likely to over do it.

I'll post more progress photos of this as I go along, and give some other details about my process.

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Finished Photo of "Fashion Plate"

This is the completed art quilt I call "Fashion Plate".

I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out. But I'm on to new projects, so that's enough of this one for the blog. As always, thanks for visiting my blog!

Background Construction

 Here is the little girl after the clothing and body parts have been painted. I fuse them to a piece of muslin to keep everything in the right place. I will cut the muslin away close to the fabric so that you can't see it, but here it is before trimming.

In this post I'm working on the background fabrics. I usually just start pulling various colors out and see what works well with the colors I already have. In this case, maroons and browns seemed to work well. Here is a stack I pulled to consider for this project:




Once you think you  have the right colors, then it's a matter of arranging them in a pleasing manner.
Here are some in progress photos of the background design process:




































You get the idea. It's trial and error and you keep building until you are satisfied. Thanks for visiting my blog!