Puzzling

This is the second piece in the "Whole" series. It consists of hand marbled fabric I made ages ago, some hand dyed white on white, hand dyed fabrics and commercial batik.  I think it's fun to see how different they look flat like this when the piecing is done:

Then after I've quilted them and run them through the laundry to get that cool laundered texture, then framed them up on canvas stretchers. This one is on a 6x6 canvas stretcher.

And of course it doesn't stop there, this one has three puzzle pieces added to complete it. Isn't this fun?

I sure think so.

I've been really struggling with my sewing machines. The Necchi acts like it's clutch is slipping, I just took it BACK to the repair shop to try and see if they can get it fixed this time.

The Singer drops stitches like a drunk co-ed even though I got it back from the repair shop on Friday. However, the problem is very erratic. I never know when it is going to happen but I can't use it for quilting when I can't get a happy seam out of it.

I just got my third machine back from the repair guy today and this one works. I hesitate to even mention that it works because it may decide to quit on me also. We shall see.

So far I've spent more $$$ on repairing sewing machines than I had budgeted for fabric for this project. I do hope that at least one of the four will stay working long enough for me to finish up this project in time for the art opening.

Have you seen my project at Kickstarter.com? I really love the whole concept of kickstarter and have my eye on a few projects that are happening there. A friend of mine is an inventor and I hope to bring one of his projects to Kickstarter.com. I also know of an artist killed in Iraq who documented the people and war in Iraq through his photography while serving in a medical mission there. His voice, his vision... is one that should be seen even though he is no longer with us. I hope to host a kickstarter project to see an exhibit of his work come together as well. So many ideas, so little time. I hope you'll check out my project and consider buying one or more of my quilted textile and found object pieces like the one in this blog post. Or perhaps one of my cool enameled keys, those are just SO COOL!

Happy Creating,
-Carmen Rose

Quilt Design

I am enjoying a bit of time in the quilt studio from time to time.  It doesn't seem like I get nearly as much time there as I'd like, but when I get the chance... I sure do enjoy it!

When I saw this image of a stained glass window, I knew I had to try it in fabric.

So I played a bit with the drawing to explore some other color options.

You'd think it would be a simple exercise to put this one together in no time flat?

Not so much!

But I am pleased with how the pieced top turned out!

Hand dyed cottons and un-dyed white.

Happy creating,

Carmen Rose

Freedom Quilt 7 ~ Finishing up the Ironing

The ironing is finally finished! I'm glad to, cause after 40 yards I was getting tired of that!

I have 80 fat quarters, a zillion 3.5 inch strips and then all these lovely chunks!

 

I can't wait to see what comes of all this!

Thing is... I just realized I have ten more yards of cotton... and there are still come colors that didn't quite come through in this...

I'm considering a whole new round of dying! LOL!

(I may need more than 40 days!)

Happy Creating!

-Carmen Rose

Freedom Quilt 5 ~ Ironing

I've started ironing, cutting and folding the fabric for the Freedom Quilt.

I love the textures and tonality of these! There are some bold ones and some milder ones, all of them have a beauty of their own. Ironing feels like a process of discovery. I love it!

And somehow I manage to turn colors again... that is why we call it hand dying!

Today I ironed about 16 of the 40 yards.  I have been cutting fat quarters and 2.5 inch strips and these are the leftover chunks of the yellows.  Such a range of colors, I love them all!

Happy Creating!

-Carmen Rose

Freedom Quilt 4 ~ Laundry Day

YAY!  It's time to wash the fabric!  Now to see how it all turned out.

First the yellows:

 Then the blues:

 Then the fuchsias:

Wow, this is starting to feel like laundry day!  Now it's time to iron.  Oooo.... boy!  

Why did I do 40 yards again?  This could take a while... BUT THE COLORS!

MERCY ME I DO LOVE THESE COLORS!!

Happy Creating,

-Carmen Rose

Freedom Quilt 3 ~ Hand Dying Fabric

It's day three of the Freedom Quilt project, it's time to dye some cotton, ya'll! And I'm pretty excited, I always love this part!  Playing with color is my thang!  I started by mixing dyes, dying small samples to see if I could manage to get the colors I was looking for.  I was working with primary colors though I did use some orange, and I also mixed up some black for adding some tonality to colors.  It's not easy to tell if the colors are off at this stage, but once they come out of the dryer there is no doubt.  There is a learning curve!!

I started out with the first ten containers.

Then closed them, made some changes to each bottle of dye and then added dye to the second set of ten.

This is why I call it hand dying... because even with gloves, I will certainly turn colors!

Forty containers, forty yards. 

All that glorious color hidden in there...

No idea which ones are going to work out beautifully and which ones I'm not going to like...

Forty containers of infinite possibility.

Before long I'll send these through the wash and begin to see how they turned out.  Anticipation is part of the fun!  Day three of the freedom quilt is complete.

Happy Creating,

Carmen Rose

Freedom Quilt 2 ~ Cut & Soak

Freedom quilt, day two!
Today I turned 40 yards of fabric

Into forty yards of fabric...

in one yard sections. 

I soaked it all in soda ash solution, then wrung them out and put them in containers, ready to dye.

Tomorrow... I dye!

Unless life gets in the way... in which case it will need to wait a while.  But that's fine.

No worries,

-Carmen Rose

Cool!

Blog? What blog? I know I haven't written much lately, and I may not be around for a while. I have moved and don't know quite what to do about studio space. All in good time I suppose.

I did want to pass along this little treat.

My work is on the cover of a local weekly paper:

That's my display at the Oasis gallery, my art glass with my dyed scarves, there is a corner of one of my dyed skirts showing and a portion of one of my art quilts on the wall above. I have asked my friends who live in the paper's coverage area to save me copies of this paper. I'm very pleased.

And this excellent article is inside:
http://www.rocktownweekly.com/rocktown/focus.php?AID=3961

Happy Creating,
-Carmen Rose

The New Skirts

Here are a few of the hand dyed skirts I recently dyed at Studio B.  I'll post more info on them soon, they are going pretty quickly.  In this photo #2 and #7 are both already sold.  More photos coming of the rest of the collection as soon as I get a chance.

Happy Creating,
-Carmen Rose

Jacob's Ladder Series Continued

The Jacob's Ladder series continues... this time turned on it's ear. This pair has been on the design wall a while but I've just finished up the one on the right. The other was in an earlier post.

I suppose I got a little carried away making "ladders" but they are a little like Pringles.  Can't make just one, can't eat just one... completely addictive!

I wrapped it around a 36 x 12 canvas that is about an inch deep. 

And I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

Put it together with some of the other quilts from the study and they seem happy together..

I have no idea what to title this one either, it's in the "Jacob's Ladder" series but turning it on it's side kind of changed the ladder into a slightly more architectural look.  

"Untitled in Blue"

hand dyed cotton, hand dyed white on whites and batik

fused and machine quilted

12 x 36

$450 framed

Happy Creating

-Carmen Rose 

Jacob's Ladder Quilt

Yeah, it's a theme with me right now... this "Jacob's ladder" imagery. I think it's safe to say that I'm on a "kick." This is one of the earliest ones, it's been on my design wall for a while.  

I quilted it up and stretched it over a 12 x 12 canvas.  I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

I love the piece of fabric on the right hand side.  It turned out with such neat color and texture.  And the fabrics are a combination of mostly hand dyed fabrics, some hand dyed white on the whites plus my favorite rich purple batik. 

"Jacob's Ladder in Blue"

Hand dyed cotton, white on white plus batik

Fused and machine quilted

12 x 12

$199 Framed

Happy Creating,

-Carmen Rose

Iris Quilt

I looked at a drawing I did ages ago and decided I wanted something to go with it

And this is what happened: 

I decided to put this one on a canvas stretcher as well as it was too big for any of my other frames.

The batik used for the background is all through the piece, so I think that's kind of cool.

Here they are together, the happy couple. 

The drawing is not for sale.  "Best Iris in Show" Bath County Art Show, I can't remember which year.

"Iris"

Hand dyed cotton, batik

Fused and machine quilted

12 x 12

$199

Happy Creating,
-Carmen Rose

Another Jacob's Ladder Study

This is another in the "Jacob's Ladder" series, except it just kinda went every which way.

I looked at it for a while trying to decide how to finish it and finally decided to work it on canvas stretchers.

 This is a gallery wrapped canvas, so it's about an inch and a half deep.

Now to decide what to call it.  

Suggestions?

"Untitled"

Hand dyed cotton and white on white, batik

fused and machine quilted

12 x 12 gallery canvas framed

$199

Happy Creating,
-Carmen Rose

Jacob's Ladder Quilt

I think this might be my favorite quilt that I have in the show right now:

Here is how it looks with some art glass and hand dyed scarves in the display:

Jacob's Ladder

Hand dyed cotton, batik

Hand marbled cotton

Machine pieced and quilted

17 x 24

$426

Petit Fours

You may remember this quartet of quilts from an earlier post:

Inspired by a comment from a friend I decided to call them "Petit Fours" Which I happen to think is dreadfully funnny, just wish I had thought of it.

And here are the Petit Fours as a part of my Featured Artist display with some hand dyed scarves and some of my glazed glass.

They are:

Petit Four 1, 2, 3 and 4

Hand dyed cotton

Fused and Machine Quilted

6.5 x 6.5 framed to 15 x 15

$169 each

Today's Guest Blogger: Barbara Lardon! (YAAAAAAY!)

First I want to thank Carmen for asking me to be a guest on her blog. Let me introduce myself. I am an art quilter. I live in Plymouth Wisconsin which is a small town of 7000 about 60 miles north of Milwaukee.

I have been quilting for about 30 years now and mainly do raw edged fused appliqué. You can see my work on my blog at bslartquilts.blogspot.com.

Today I would like to share with you my experience recently when I decided to look into a basket I keep in my studio of unfinished projects. I had totally forgotten about some of them. While going through them I became amazed at how they are almost a recording of my “evolution” in the last 10 years.

In this one you can see I am still in my traditional primitive country phase. It is a queen sized piece with lots of stars in the border and oh I was so in love with stars in those days (still am).

Then I needed more. So I moved into paper piecing and much more elaborate and complicated patterns. Here is my Japanese Fan quilt. However, as you can see, I am beginning to do some raw edged fusing on the backing where I placed my own design of a Japanese woman in traditional garb. This is also in queen size.

And finally I transitioned all the way to doing raw edged fused appliqué. Here is an example of one of my more recent pieces.

 It is amazing to me how we travel through stages in our creative world, trying new styles and evolving into the artist we are today.  It is an adventure to me and I hope for you too.

Thank you Barbara Lardon for guest posting!  It is a treat to see how your work has developed over time! 
Thanks so much,
Happy creating,
-Carmen Rose

She is... Beginning to Bloom

Some floral inspiration:




That's some great inspiration, right?
Great inspiration and some great raw materials:
A beautiful woman, her name is Jill.

A couple yards of hand dyed fabric in a color gradation from yellow to fuchsia.

Some olive (about five different shades of greens and earthy tones) procion dye for the clothing...

A little time and attention to making petals...

Plus a handful of sunflower seeds, some moss covered wire, some spirit gum and mineral makeup

And then a very patient model who let me put it all together...

And a funny little red cardinal who sat on her shoulder for a moment.  (And then fell off!) 

I don't have any photos back from the photo shoot yet, that will take some time.  This was just one I snapped when I had the chance.  So... more photos coming.  I think one of my favorite parts were the jewelry on her wrists and ankles/feet which you can't even see.  And another angle would better show her head gear, but patience... photos are coming.

Nothing like a creative day in the studio hard at play...  If I could give that to you as a gift, I sure would.  Because there is nothing like loving what you do!  Nothing like it!

Playing hard,
-Carmen Rose