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Thursday 26 January 2017

Inspired by Another Call for Entry

The Studio Art Quilt Associates, of which I am a member, issues many Calls for Entry each year. Some are specifically for certain areas of the world and only those artists that are members in those locations can enter. Others are open to members anywhere in the world to enter. I don't often enter for several reasons. Perhaps the deadline date is too close and I don't think I can complete a quilt in that time or the theme of the show or competition is not something that fits with the subject or genre that I work in. I am also a bit afraid of losing a quilt if I have to mail it to a location outside of Canada.

I recently came across a Call for Entry for a Spotlight Auction. It is called the Creation to Curation Spotlight Auction which is an opportunity for all SAQA members to have their work showcased at the 2017 SAQA Conference in Lincoln, Nebraska.

The quilts are to be small; only 6" X 8" and they will be displayed in mats. The pieces will be sold through a Silent Auction at the Conference Banquet with the proceeds going towards SAQA's exhibition programs. The deadline for entering is February 24/17 and the entries have to be received by March 10/17.

I feel like this is a Call for Entry I can handle and it will not take as long to complete as one of my larger quilts.

I like that the proceeds are going to SAQA which does a lot of planning for it's exhibitions. Most exhibitions travel from place to place and that is expensive. One of my quilts is being exhibited in its second venue. It was first in Stratford, Ontario and is now in Thunder Bay, Ontario.

I took my plan from a small quilt I did a few years ago. It won't be exactly the same but similar. It will be mostly thread painted. Instead of batting, I will use a thick felt as the middle layer and the front and back will be muslin.



In the photo above my hand is resting on the thick felt. The fine layer that is laying over my hand is an adhesive that I buy in sheets. I cut it to the size of the felt and place it on top of the felt then using a silicone sheet on top of the adhesive I iron it to the felt on both sides. Then I cut the muslin to size and iron the muslin on top of the adhesive. That way the layers will not come apart and makes it easier to quilt.




I've decided to use different shades of red. Above is my plan for the 6 X 8 inch quilt.


I fused the heart to the muslin and then used the different colours of thread to start my design. Hopefully it will develop fast and I can post the finished quilt here next week. I also plan to embellish this one with beads.

Thursday 12 January 2017

Creativity in Unexpected Places

Have you noticed them? Keep your eyes open when you are out walking or driving on city streets. On many street corners stand utility boxes. I'm not sure what's in them but I assume they have something to do with wiring for electricity or telephones or something like that. You may have driven past these boxes without even noticing them because they were painted grey and kind of blended in with the surroundings.

Well, someone decided that they would be great canvases and here and there I have been noticing some that are brightly painted with various designs on them. I've tried to photograph them when I see them. Usually I only have my I-phone with me so the images aren't great but you can see the designs.

This one is downtown somewhere and is covered with
Queen Anne's Lace flowers. This one looks like a photo
that was printed on decal paper and then wrapped around
the box.

This one looks like it was hand painted and it looks like
various stones on a beach-like background. It is on Islington Ave
between Finch and Steeles.

This one is on the Southwest corner of Finch and
Islington. It has been hand painted with a tree
with exposed roots.

This one was hand painted by members of the Franklin Carmichael
Art Group as a copy of a Franklin Carmichael painting. Franklin was
a member of the Group of Seven. It is located on the corner of Albion
and Thistledown Blvd near the Shoppers Drug Mart. It is beautiful.

If you happen to see any others in your city travels, why not take a photo and send it to my email address. I'll try to post them in a future blog.

Thursday 5 January 2017

Some Results of my Batik Class

In the Fall I had enrolled in a Batik class that the Toronto District School Board offered. It was being held at the Central Technical School on Bathurst Street.

I missed the first class because I was out of town but attended the next few. I was really enjoying them in the beginning and I did learn how the waxing of fabric is done, however, there wasn't very much in-class instruction so I was quite confused as to how many times to dye the work and didn't know exactly how to get the wax out of the fabric.

When the Christmas season came around I decided not to finish the course. I wasn't enjoying it anymore and it was a long drive to get to Central Tech.

I still had some unfinished fabric that I wanted to do something with. Some of it was dyed and waxed several times so I decided to try to get the wax out and see what I ended up with. I googled how to get wax out of batik fabric and it told me I could iron it out with newsprint between my iron and the fabric. I tried that and my fabric looked like it had an oily residue on it and I wasn't able to get that out.

So then I tried to boil it out. That worked better but it took three attempts at boiling before most of the wax was out. It still was the better method.

Below are some samples of my fabric.  I am pleased with them but I may experiment with other resists that are easier to get out.

This was only dyed once therefore it is very pale. Where the wax
was remains the original colour of the fabric.

This was dyed twice with the same colour. You can see some areas
are a darker shade and the wax left the original colour of the
fabric.

This one turned out better and was dyed with yellow first and
then blue.

This was dyed yellow before the wax was placed on it, then dyed blue
and then rose.

This one turned out the best with yellow first, then wax then red
and then spots of green.

I love the colour of this one but I should have used more wax.