What Creative Possibilities Will This New Year Bring?

Well, it has been a while since I have blogged and that has mostly to do with the weather, which left us without power and gave me lots of extra work to do. It also has to do with the fact that we've just come through the Christmas and New Year's holidays and those times are so filled with extra company, festivities, and a general lack of routine. So, I didn't get a lot of art making done.

But it is now a new year and it's time to make art a priority again.

One of the first things I did was to become a member of SAQA (Studio Art Quilts Association). This is a group that promotes the making of Art Quilts which is what I do as opposed to traditional quilting. I received their latest Journal and it is filled with inspiring quilts and articles. I'm hoping that this membership will help me grow as an art quilter and maybe give me the confidence to enter some of my work into Juried Art Quilt Shows. I have attempted to enter in the past but was rejected for various reasons. Perhaps this membership will help me to become a better art quilter and enable me to produce higher quality quilts with better technique.

Another thing I started was a small 8 X 10 inch quilt for a challenge from the Quilting Arts Magazine I subscribe to. The challenge is called "How does Your Garden Grow?" The rules are that it must be 8 x 10 inches, it can be made with any materials but must be quilted, and two low-resolution images must be sent via email by January 24th. The deadline is looming and I haven't gotten very far in the process. I am planning to use painted tea bags again. I felt that my last attempt at using them was quite successful.

A sampling of some of my painted tea bags

I also created a background for the quilt onto which I will sew the tea bags. This background is just plain off white dropcloth. I used a gel plate to print onto the fabric. A gel plate is a clear rubber slab that you apply  acrylic paint to and then print with it on fabric. Before these gel plates were available in the stores, artists used to make them with real gelatin. The drawback was that they could only be used so many times and then they were garbage. I haven't totally got the knack of using the gel plate but I gave it a try.

The "Gelli" Gel Printing Plate in the package

Here it is ready to accept paint. You can see, if you look closely
that I've painted it loosely with yellow at the top.

This is the background gel print for my "Garden " quilt

I'll keep you posted on it's progress and whether or not it is accepted into the challenge.