Run for the Wall is finished!

Well it took a while, but I have finished this tribute piece to Vietnam veterans. I call it “Run for the Wall“.

It depicts three Vietnam veterans at the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington DC. They are doing a rubbing of a name on a dollar bill. They were there as part of a motorcycle ride to the Wall by a large number of Vietnam veterans.

The photographic source for this art quilt is one of the Vietnam veterans depicted. He is a friend of mine and his name is Mike Guerin. He is the vet in the middle. 

It took a while for me to finish this piece, but I wanted to get it right. I am proud of the way it turned out. I hope to get it in some shows this next year and remind viewers that freedom isn’t free. 

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Two Fiber Art Pieces at PIQF

"Waste Not, Want Not", Eileen Wintemute

I'm proud to have both my "Waste Not, Want Not" and "Dirty Dash Damsels" pieces on display at Mancuso's Pacific International Quilt Festival (PIQF). They will be part of Beyond the Edge Fiber Artist's Special Exhibit entitled "Say Something".

PIQF runs from October 16 through 20, 2019.

The show is located at the Santa Clara Convention Center, 5001 Great American Parkway, Santa Clara, CA.

"Dirty Dash Damsels", Eileen Wintemute

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Run For the Wall

I’m continuing to work on my Vietnam Veterans Memorial piece.  This is the reference photo that this piece is based on:

The vet in the middle is my friend, Mike. His depiction is what I am showing in this post. He is “in progress” here. 

I used a variety of fabrics and paints/inks. I am trying to get a realistic image in this piece and I’m taking my time with details like patches and clothing wrinkles. I like the results so far. 

It is September 11th, a day to remember all those who have sacrificed for our country, including these vets. 

Thanks for visiting my blog. 🇱🇷

My Latest Fiber Art Piece

I have been working on a new fiber art piece over the last few months. It is based on this photo of  a friend at the Vietnam Memorial. He is at The Wall with friends touching the name of one of his buddies who died in the war.

I have been taking my time with it, because I want to put a lot of detail into it, and do it justice.  

This is my rendition of the Vietnam veteran on the left side of my source photo:

I did a lot of painting and collage to try to get a realistic impression. I’ll post more of this piece over the next few weeks. 

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Ruching Experiment

I have been trying to finish up some old projects this year. A few years ago I experimented with learning how to “ruche“. I had several ruched strips and flower shapes around. I decided to put them on this pitcher that I had appliquéd.

I added several buttons and some hexagons as well. It is now a little patriotic piece that I put up on holidays. 

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Scottish Highland Cattle

  Isn't she beautiful? How can you resist that hairy mug? Well I couldn't. I decided to make a little art quilt of a Scottish Highland Cattle. And here it is:

I used oil pastels, thread painting, and inking to make the image of the cattle.

The image was applied to the black background before the thread painting. I machine quilted the background and then couched some yarns and added buttons.

It measures about 14" x 14". It was a fun little project.

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Blue Wool Bag

I definitely do not need more bags, but I love making them so here is another addition to my collection:

The lower part of the purse is wool, and the upper is raw silk. I appliqued the wool dandelions to the body and added some embroidery stitching. The upper area has decorated with yarn that I couched.

It is lined and has a pocket inside. I put feet on the bottom and a magnetic closure. 

Thanks for  visiting my blog. 

I've Been On A Note Cards Binge

It's been a busy period of time for me lately. I've gone on a couple of trips, been involved with a fiber art exhibit at the Cerritos library, and have helped with a quilt show. I've also been making a few things along the way. Today I'm going to show you some note cards that I put together.

These are mixed media note cards. I painted the background and bird bodies, glued on fabric, and then did a little pen and ink work.




















Birds were fun, so how about elephant note cards? I used the same techniques as described above.





And here are some Sun note cards. I've got others, but I think by now you get the picture.


These small cards are a fun way to practice mixed media techniques.

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Quilting and Details

    Here is the final piece!  I show some details below:

This is a fun memory piece for me of Shane in his younger days. Thanks for visiting my blog!

Pitcher's Mound

This is a close up of the pitching mound in my "No Hitter" piece. You can see the grass behind it and the mound itself. I used a few different greens for the grass, and a Japaneses fabric for the mound. I also added a shadow next to the foot to "ground" the player. 

This also shows the painting I did on the shoe and legging fabric to give a three dimensional appearance. I used liquid acrylic paint for the highlights. I have found that to be my best paint for highlights on dark fabric. 

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"No Hitter" Background

  One of my favorite things about this piece is the background. I like how it makes him look like he's high up on the mound with a big sky behind him.

To make the background I pulled out about three different blue fabrics that reminded me of sky. These pieces were cut into different shaped squares and rectangles. The placement of the pieces is a trial and error process. 

This is one iteration. I place the ball player next to the background so I can see how he looks next to the fabrics. It is important to have enough contrast to allow the ball player to stand out.









 
 Another iteration is shown here. This one is pretty close to the final version. It's time to move on to the grass and mound!

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"No Hitter" - Progress Photos

  This is my most recent portrait piece and I'm calling it "No Hitter." It is based on a photo of my nephew Shane when he was in little league. Here is the photo that I have based it on:


This photo was taken by one of his parents.

I took the photo and traced a line drawing from it. I enlarged the line drawing and used that as my pattern.











My first step is to paint the exposed body parts. I use white cotton fabric for that. Here are some photos of the painting process:




It looks pretty ugly here, but it improves as you keep going.

Here is my palette:



After all the body parts are painted it is on to the clothing. I used a commercial fabric and enhanced it to give shadows and highlights. Here is a photo showing the shadows on the pants:
















I'll show more on this art quilt process in my next post. Thanks for visiting my blog!

"No Hitter"

I've continued working on my portrait style pieces, and for the time being I'm focusing on sports or people in action. This is my latest in the series:




I call it "No Hitter" and it is based on a photograph of my nephew Shane when he was in the little league. He's a teenager now, but it's nice to remember his younger years.

It is on my design wall in this photograph. I'm almost done with it, and I like to leave it up while I am trying to decide what else it needs, if anything.  I'll show a few "during the making" posts of it soon.

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"Say Something" Exhibit

"He's All That"

I'm proud to have several of my fiber art pieces in BEYOND THE EDGE FIBER ARTIST'S new exhibit on display at the Rancho Buena Vista Adobe in Vista, California. The exhibit is entitled "Say Something".  My pieces on display include a few of my "Attitudes" pieces, and my "Waste Not, Want Not" collage. Here is information about the exhibit:

SAY SOMETHING

A new exhibit from Beyond the Edge Fiber Artists. 

"Say Something" will be shown in March 2019 at the 

 Rancho Buena Vista Adobe Gallery (Rancho Buena Vista).  

The Gallery is located at 640 Alta Vista Drive, Vista, California. 

Phone (760) 639-6164. 

The gallery is open Thursday, Friday and Saturday, from 10 am 

to 3 pm and runs through March 30th.

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Beaded Autumn Leaves

Here is another recently completed project:

Beaded Autumn Leaves

It is a small project, about 8" x 10". It started out as an experiment with oil paint sticks and a few leaf templates. I placed the leaf templates on an orange, mottled fabric and traced or filled in around the shapes with oil paint stick. Then I sandwiched it and stitched through the three layers.















The leaf shapes were in my "projects to be completed in the future" bag for a long time. Last year I decided they needed some beading to jazz them up a bit. I beaded along the leaf veins.

 Then I stitched yarn around the edge and framed the piece.



It is now completed and ready to be displayed next fall!

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"The Lion's Mane"

Happy New Year and let's all hope 2019 is full of creative inspiration and accomplishment!

I thought I would start the year off by showing you a recently completed project. I call it "The Lion's Mane".

I created this using a fabric collage technique. It is about 14" x 14". I show below some of my in-progress and detail photos. I find the fabric collage technique to be easy and fun!

Collage pieces are in place, but no stitching has occurred yet.

Stitching is in progress.

You can see some of the stitches here.

Here are a couple detail shots:

I prefer making fiber art by painting on fabric but it's always good to dabble with other techniques to keep your creative juices flowing. Thanks for visiting my blog!