New Landscapes

Hello, from Central Texas.  Wow, we are having a glorious Sunday.  The pastures are beginning to show tinges of green after our rains.  Although the rains were not a drought buster, they were very welcome.  Below are my fantasy landscapes.  This is how I wish our country looked!

Creek During Summer, 2011.  Hanging at the Copper Shade Tree in Round Top, Tx.
framed to 26x30.

 I am a member of Studio Art Quilters Association which is a fabulous and creative group devoted to art quilts.  The Texas chapter was asked to decorate the walls of an exhibit at the Houston International Quilt Festival during November.  The quilts will all be 9x12 with a hanging sleeve attached.  Here are two of the three I will have at the display.

 Spring Flowing in Fall, 2011.

9x12 with hanging sleeve.

Autumn Morning, 2011.

9x12 with hanging sleeve.

Cotton Voile Scarves

Greetings!  I have found a new toy on the internet.  It is called Spoonflower.com.  This company prints your designs on various types of fabric.  What could be cooler?  I uploaded some of my landscape photographs and started playing.  Then, I uploaded photos of my fiber art and life really got interesting.  I am using Gimp to manipulate colors and then upload to Spoonflower to printed on cotton voile.  Finally, I make the scarves.  I chose cotton voile over silk because this is Texas.  Cotton is just so much more wearable.  After wearing my scarves, I have discovered that they stay put whereas silk scarves are always sliding around.  I have several styles of scarves and several prints.  Take a peak at:  http://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/debbie_g.   I have also included photos of my scarves.  All of these are for sale at the Copper Shade Tree in Round Top or by contacting me.

 Large Ruffle from the Longhorn and Calf print.

 Long Rectangle from the Bluebonnet and Strips print with beaded fringe.

 Small ruffle from the Mason Bluebonnets print with eyelash fringe.

 25" square from the Longhorn and Calf print.

 Small spiral from the Llano River Blues print.

 Medium Ruffle from the Longhorn and Calf print.

 Large Ruffle from the Mason Blues print.

Scarf poncho from the Bluebonnets and Stripes print.


Greetings!  I have found a new toy on the internet.  It is called Spoonflower.com.  This company prints your designs on various types of fabric.  What could be cooler?  I uploaded some of my landscape photographs and started playing.  Then, I uploaded photos of my fiber art and life really got interesting.  I am now having these manipulated photos printed on cotton voile and then making scarves.  I chose cotton voile over silk because this is Texas.  Cotton is just so much more wearable.  After wearing these scarves, I have discovered that they stay put whereas silk scarves are always sliding around.  I have several styles of scarves and several prints.  Take a peak at:  http://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/debbie_g.   Attached photos of my scarves.  All of these are for sale at the Copper Shade Tree in Round Top or by contacting me.

Here is a sneak peak at a new print.

Hill Country Blossoms

So, I said that I was really struggling with the prickly pear picture.  I found a solution!   I literally cut out the prickly pears and blossoms which I liked.  Then I made a desert background and stitched the prickly pear and blossoms onto it.  I framed it in a simple brown frame flecked with gold and bronze.  It is now for sale at Copper Shade Tree Gallery in Round Top!  It is 11x14.

Prickly pear blossoms

I am struggling with this one.  I still need to do lots of thread work on it, i.e., adding the thorns with a varigated yellow to brown thread.   I think I am going to just go forward even though I want to stop!

In this picture, I am also experimenting with using larger pieces of fabric instead of giblets.

Bluebonnet

I keep working with these blues.  I just love them.  For this 5x7 bluebonnet image, I chose to make my own mats and then wrap around stretcher boards to for an 8x10 gallery wrap.  I think it works!

Butterfly Roses

In Fredericksburg, the city has used the butterfly rose (Rosa Mutabilis) in many of the plantings, most notably at Markt Platz.  It is a beautiful antique type single rose which has 3 colors on one bush.  As the blossom ages it turns colors before shattering.  It is truly lovely.  Here is one of my photos of my rose bush.

This last week I did this 8x10 rendering of these roses.  

Adhamh, Julia, Duncan feeding the horse

Since my last post I have done the background for the picture that I started on the 5th.  It is 20x24.  I am now working on the horse ...  Here is my work to date.  Also, I am uploading the photo which I'm using as a model.  I love the line from Julia's head down to the apple then up the back of the horse!

So, the horse is so heavy and dark.  I'll post more when I get there!

New start

Yesterday was the day. You know the feeling when you can't work fast enough? I was so inspired when I began to select fabrics for the new picture, just so excited to see those colors! Brain working faster than poor hands could go. So, I have my sky laid in and will begin on the faraway part of the landscape today. This is good work.

Fine Arts Association of the Hill Country Gala

Our fine arts club is having a gala event on Sat., April 30th.  The proceeds from the ticket sales go towards a scholarship for a high school student.  The event will be at a warehouse next to the Peanut Mill restaurant in Mason.   There will be food, music and wonderful art.  The event gets better every year.  The warehouse is transformed into a beautiful venue.   Members are able to enter five pieces into this sale.  Here are mine!

Bluebonnet, 3.5x5, framed for table top, fabric collage.

Bluebonnet, 7x5, framed for table top, fabric collage.

Bluebonnet, 5x7, framed for table top, fabric collage.

Dagger, 5x3.5, framed for table top, thread painting.

Bluebonnet, 5x7, framed for table top, fabric collage.

Songbird Quilting Retreat, Kingsland, Texas

What a wonderful experience to go on a retreat!  Eight of us went to Songbird for three days and two nights.  Our host and hostess were wonderful and the house was exceptional.  We had lovely meals and wonderful work area.  Here are two of the pictures I completed and have in a gallery!  These and others of my things can be seen at Artisans of Rocky Hill gallery in Fredericksburg, Texas.  The two above are 4x6, matted and framed to 8x10 table tops.

The knitters

Greetings from the Hill Country.  There will be no art cards or thread paintings this week.  Our grandkids are on spring break with us while their parents move into a new house.  We practiced our knitting yesterday.  What fun!  Even the smallest one has started although all she did was stab the ball of yarn.  My grandson is 6 and his after school program got him started.  He is the reason I picked up knitting needles.  I couldn't have him doing something that I didn't know how to do.

Art Cards

I have made several art cards in the past two weeks.  This time I made a very small quilt -- 4x6.  I used my technique which I do in larger paintings, small giblets of fabric held in place with tulle and stitching.  Since I am not framing and matting, I used a traditional binding which is glued with Aleene's fabric glue.  The quilts are mounted on the sugar cane cards with acid free glue spots.  Glue spots are the greatest!  I get them in the scrap booking aisle.  There is no wrinkling or warping of the card!  These cards are thank you notes for family members.  The Strathmore cards are made of sugar cane and are smooth, ivory.  The glue spots are made by Elmers, Craft Bond.