Starting “Passion Flower”

I am starting work on a new piece based on this photo of a passion flower. (I took the photo at Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden more than a year ago.) It is one of two projects I am designing specifically for my Once in a Blue Moon Fiber Art Retreat, which will be held in Black Mountain, NC (near Asheville) Oct. 4-7, 2012. 

I am getting very excited about the retreat. Joyce Mullis, a friend and fellow quilter who is organizing the retreat and handling registrations (she’s also a wonderful cook, and will be preparing our breakfasts and lunches!) and I are planning some really fun stuff. There are only five spots left, as we are limiting this retreat to only 25 people. We will spend the first full day constructing the fused appliqué art quilt, and the second day thread sketching it. If you are interested in learning more about the retreat, you can download a PDF flier and registration form by clicking here.

Tonight I pulled out some green fabrics to audition them with the photo. I use this process to see if I have a good range of values in the colors I need. In some ways, the value is much more important than the color. You need to have very dark values, very light values, and everything in between. 

When I’m working on a piece that is highly realistic, I look for fabrics – I prefer hand-dyes and batiks – that have lots of variations in one color range, but without strong patterns or recognizable designs. Solid fabrics usually look too flat. I love working with batiks and hand-dyes because they usually are a nice heavy weight, and because their high thread count keeps the pieces from fraying too much. 

I will be sharing some photos of this project as it progresses, so stay tuned!

Meet your macro: Post from The Sketchbook Challenge

Have you been following The Sketchbook Challenge blog this year? I’m one of the host artists for 2012, and I’d love it if you’d join us! Get inspired to work in a sketchbook, and get your creative juices flowing! What follows is my post from a few days ago:

The theme for February – Close Up – got me thinking about the macro feature on my camera. When I sketch, I work a lot from my photos. I often don’t have much time to sit and sketch my subjects where I find them, so I use my camera to record what I see, and then sketch later. Here’s a sketch I did yesterday (above) based on the photo below.

I used the macro feature on my inexpensive point-and-shoot digital camera to take this photo. If you are not familiar with this feature, I urge you to get out your camera now, and look for it. On most cameras, it is the button with the little tulip symbol on it. On the camera in the photo below, it is just to the left of the "FUNC. SET" button. See it?

On this camera, when you push the macro/tulip button, you can toggle between the regular setting (shown as a little person in front of a mountain) and the macro setting, and it shows up on the big screen:

When you use the macro setting, your camera can shoot things – and keep them in focus – from only 3 to 6 inches away (depending on your camera; check your manual for details). Just make sure you are not zoomed in at all. If you zoom in with the macro setting on, it will go out of focus.

Here’s a photo I took several years ago, in the fall, when the blooms on my hydrangea had been touched by the cold, and had turned amazing shades of purple and maroon. Taking this photo with my macro lens helped me to observe the tiny structure with the pistol and stamen at the center of the bloom in the lower left:

Here’s a sketch I made from this photo:

When I look at the photo next to the sketch, I can clearly see that I need to work on value in this sketch. Nearly all of the values are medium values – there are not many lights and darks. I need to go back in and darken the green areas a lot, and add more shading to better define the petals. Discoveries like this are another great reason to try adding photography to your bag of tricks in your quest to become better at sketching.

Using the macro feature on your camera can help you start to see up close, to train your eye to observe the tiniest details in nature. You’ll be amazed at what you see through your lens.

“I See the Moon” is done!

Last night, I finished putting the facing on my newest piece, “I See the Moon.” As you can see, it is long and skinny – 24" x 60". It was fun – and somewhat of a challenge – to design and work in these proportions.

I am really happy with this piece. It gives me a wonderfully peaceful feeling when I look at it, and remember the song my parents used to sing me to sleep:

“I see the moon, the moon sees me

Shining down through the big oak tree

Please let the moon that shines on me

Shine on the ones that I love.”

I think that I also like it because of its clean, graphic quality. Plus, I love trees, especially in the winter, because you can more clearly see the structure of their branches that make patterns as intricate as lace against the sky. 

Maybe it’s because I was born on Halloween, but I have always felt that there is such magic in a full moon. To me, it is a symbol of serenity and stability, the sense that all is right with the world… and at the same time, of the mysterious, miraculous and fragile universe in which we live. I tried to capture all of these feelings in this piece.

The rising moon always reminds me of lyrics from one of my favorite singer-songwriters, James Taylor, in “You Can Close Your Eyes”:

“Well the sun is surely sinking down

But the moon is slowly rising

So this old world must still be spinning ’round

And I still love you.”

Quilting “I See the Moon”

I am making good progress on quilting “I See the Moon.” I have quilted around all the branches (whew!), done some of the darkest part of the sky at the top, and have finished the moon.

I used two colors of thread on it, a medium blue on the darker areas, and white. At first, I worried that I had made it too textural and bumpy. But I think it looks okay, especially since the rest of the quilt is fairly flat. And since it is the focal point of this piece, I guess it doesn’t hurt to let the quilting draw some attention to it.

Cat on the moon!

In honor of the fiftieth anniversary of John Glenn's orbit of the earth (on February 20, 1962), I bring you The Cat On The Moon!

This is my kitten, Wicked!, taking a stroll over my latest piece, “I See the Moon.” I had it on the counter, preparing it for basting before I quilted it. She gave me some pretty funny looks while I was photographing her!

Painting “I See the Moon”

Yesterday, I finished painting all of the branches and the full moon on “I See the Moon.” Here’s how it looked by the time I was headed for bed:

The moon is painted, too, but you can’t see it very well in this photo. I use a metallic pearl white paint for it. 

Today, I started work on the background. The challenge here was going to be carefully painting around all the branches with blue paint. I realized that this would be very time consuming. Hmmm … could there be another solution?

First, I considered using paint mixed with extender – a lot of extender for the light blue area at the bottom, and just a little at the top, where it would be darker. But I worried that the blue paint would cover up the black branches at the top too much. Too bad I couldn’t dye it, I thought. I have dyed fabric before, but I wanted something I could control a little more, and I didn’t have the supplies on hand to dye. Plus, I don’t have a good area in my house for dye work. 

Then it hit me: I could use acrylic ink! I have some bottles of Liquitex Acrylic Ink, which I have played with a bit. I got out a bottle of blue ink and went to town. I mixed up one dropperful of ink with a lot of water and painted the area at the bottom with this mixture, using a foam brush. I used latex gloves to protect my hands (but they are looking a little blue anyway, now, because I took them off before I started the cleanup).

Every six inches or so, I added another dropperful (or two) of ink into the water mixture, and worked my way up the piece. At the top, I used the ink almost full strength. I did this all on my ugly 1970’s era formica kitchen countertop. Almost anything comes up off it using SoftScrub cleaner.

Once I was done, I dried the piece using my hair dryer. I really like the results. The photo below shows the piece drying completely on my front sidewalk. (The dark diagonal lines you see on the piece are shadows from actual tree branches!)

I am very pleased with how the Liquitex Acrylic Ink worked in this application. I got the transparency I needed to make sure that the branches showed up, and the color is beautifully saturated. And it only took about a half of a bottle to do this technique on this large piece (it is about 24" x 60").

Now, on to the quilting!

“I See the Moon” begun

I have just started work on a new piece that I am calling “I See the Moon.” You can see the beginning of the painting – the black branches on white fabric – above. When I was a child, my parents used to sing me a bedtime song that went:

I see the moon, the moon sees me

Shining down through the big oak tree

Please let the moon that shines on me

Shine on the ones that I love

This was a ritual I repeated with my own children. When I sang it to them, I hoped that they would feel as safe and secure as I did as a child, when my parents sang it to me as they tucked the covers up under my chin. 

I had the idea for this quilt in my mind’s eye for some time. A few days ago, while waiting in the car pickup line a my daughter’s school, I shot a photo of a wonderful post oak silhouetted against a beautiful winter sky through the windshield of my car:

I love the branches of post oak trees; they are wonderfully curvy and they look so alive, almost electrified. I took a slice of the photo and superimposed a moon shape on top to start getting a feel for my composition, which is going to be 24" wide by 60" long.

After I traced the branches, I blew up my traced drawing and printed it out in tiles (sections) and taped them together to make the pattern. I placed PFD (prepared for dyeing) cotton on top, and now I am painting the branches from my drawing. 

My plan is to paint the branches first, and then to use shades of blue for the background, from a medium-light blue at the bottom to a very dark blue at the top. I think I will use a metallic white pearl paint on the moon, with a little detail for the craters and shadows on it. I want it to be very simple, clean and graphic. 

Foto/Fiber 2012 starts today!

Foto/Fiber 2012, Virginia Spiegel’s fundraiser for the American Cancer Society, starts at 10 a.m. Central time today! I am one of the participating artists. Our goal is to add another $7,000 to the $215,000 that Virginia’s fundraising efforts have already donated through Fiberart For A Cause. 

For information on how to donate and receive great photos and a “fiber bonus” from a participating artist, go here. All patrons of Foto/Fiber 2012 have a chance to win this stunning quilt by Mary Ann Van Soest when the $7,000 goal is reached.

Yellow Barns II (18" x 24") by Mary Ann Van Soest

Two more teaching gigs

I am pleased to announce that I’ll be teaching at two more exciting venues in 2013! 

The first is North Carolina Quilt Symposium 2013 at Methodist University in Fayetteville, NC from May 23-26. I taught at the 2010 symposium, and it was fabulous. (My only complaint was that I couldn't take any classes from their fabulous lineup of teachers, because I was busy teaching, too!) The 2013 Symposium is hosted by the Tarheel Quilters Guild of Fayetteville.

NC Quilt Symposium generally brings in 20-25 nationally known teachers, and students come from across the country (sometimes from around the world). So far, they have lined up Valerie Bothell, Hollis Chatelain, Augusta Cole, Aby Dolinger, Nancy Eha, Kaye England, Sandy Fitzpatrick, Harrit Hargrave, Leni Levenson Wiener, Mary Lou McDonald, Judith Baker Montano, Sue Nickels, Annette Ornelas, Linda Pool, Sharon Schamber, Anita Grossman Solomon, Jane Townswick, Janice Vaine, Beth Wheeler & Lori Marquette, and Amy Stewart Winsor.

And then from June 3-6, 2013, I have been invited to teach for Quilting Adventures at the Deep Woods Retreat in Smithville, Texas, in the Texas Hill Country. Those classes will focus on wholecloth painting and thread sketching. Quilting Adventures, founded in 2007, is now run by the mother-daughter team of Debby Walters and Kim Buchanan, who took over in 2011.

Quilting Adventures offers all-inclusive events of organized and creative instruction, with “comfortable accommodations, delicious food, evening entertainment, the camaraderie of friends and a heavy dose of Hill County hospitality.” 

Details about my classes will be available later this year.

Please make plans to join me in 2013!

Confession time

NOTE: This is a recap of my post yesterday on The Sketchbook Challenge. 

Okay, it’s confession time. Doodling does not come naturally to me. I have never done it. When I sit down at my sketchpad, I like to work in a pretty realistic way. Like the fish (a Blackbelly Rockfish, to be exact) above.

Or this Indian Scad:

Yes, I do have a bit of a fish obsession going right now. I’ll admit that, too. When this month’s theme was announced, I inwardly groaned. As a teenager in a boring class at school, I didn’t doodle. I focused on taking extremely detailed notes in beautiful printing, with perfect margins and bullet points. In different ink colors. Yes, I know … I am a freak.

I looked at the girls in my class who were drawing curlicues and hearts and (here’s another confession coming) I thought they were pretty silly.

And then I had an epiphany. I really am wound tight. Maybe, I thought, just maybe, I need to loosen up a bit. Maybe working with such tight control all the time is not healthy. Maybe trying something new would be good. Maybe I would even like it. Maybe.

While I was pondering all this, I drew another fish. A Narrow-Barred Spanish Mackerel, to be exact. I sketched first in pencil, erasing lines, refining lines, until I got things right. Then I inked my drawing. 

And while I was working with such precision, I wondered if it would be a valuable exercise to work outside my normal style. Artists spend lots of time developing their “voice” or signature style or look. It is what allows us to identify a Picasso as a Picasso or a Monet as a Monet, even if we have never seen that particular piece of art before. We try to build “a body of work” that is consistent, that demonstrates our signature style. If you work hard to do this, and if you create a ton of art, it usually happens. Most artists work consistently during their lifetimes in this one style, rarely wandering off their path.

But is this a good thing? And since it is called The Sketchbook Challenge, didn’t I owe it to the group to accept the challenge, to take the dare? Maybe it would take me in a whole new wonderful direction! Yes, I decided. Yes!  So I sat down to doodle (you guessed it) a fish. Here he is:

And I kind of like him.

“Purple Pansy” finished

Purple Pansy (7-5/8" x 9-3/4") by Susan Brubaker Knapp

Yesterday, I finished “Purple Pansy.” It is a small wholecloth painted piece. I finished it by first doing a pillowcase turn with the batting inside, and then quilting it. I used only three thread colors, a pinkish-purple on the petals, a gray on top of the yellow area at the flower center, and a green on the leaves. 

The advantages of finishing using a pillowcase turn are that it is very fast and easy, and that the piece looks more like art than like a quilt. The primary disadvantage is that it sometimes leaves slightly distorted edges that can’t be corrected the way you can do when you bind or face a piece. This distortion occurs when the quilting is heavier in some areas than others, causing the piece to draw up in some places. You can see that the finished piece is not completely squared up. On small pieces, I think this can be rather charming; I don’t obsess about it too much. But if you are more of a perfectionist, this technique is probably not for you!

If you are interested in learning how to finish a piece with a pillowcase turn, I have a free tutorial (a downloadable PDF) on my website here. 

Here is a detail shot showing some of the quilting stitches:

Painted Purple Pansy

 

Here is “Purple Pansy” with the painting done. It is ready for quilting, and I am getting excited. I love how the stitching makes the piece come alive, adding more color, detail and texture. I do not usually do thread sketching (stitching on the surface before I add the backing and batting) on small painted pieces like this. There is enough detail in the painting, and I try to use just enough thread to enhance, and not distract or cover what I have done with paint.

If you look at the original photo, you can see that I adapted the background somewhat. I did a blue sky at the top, because the stuff in the photo was too distracting. In the green leafy area at the bottom, I simplified the leaf shapes. I also used a little more lively green to set off the beautiful purples, blues and red-purples in the flower.

After I painted the leaves, the green color was too strong, so I used a wash of white paint mixed with “Base Extender.” The paints I am using a lot now, and loving, are PROfab Transparent Textile Paints by ProChemical & Dye. 

If you are new to painting on fabric, I suggest purchasing an inexpensive kit that includes small bottles, such as the PROfab Textile Paint Kit (SKU SINK1). It includes one-ounce bottles of red, yellow, blue, green, white and black, and a two-ounce bottle of base extender for $10.95 plus shipping/handling.

I have been trying lots of different brands of brushes, and will try to post in the future about my findings. It is a bit tricky to find the right brushes for painting on fabric. I like ones that are very stiff, and allow me to push the paint into the weave of the fabric, rather than brushing or flowing it on. 

Teaching in The Netherlands this spring

I’ve been asked to post information for the workshops I’m teaching in The Netherlands, so here it is:

I will be there from March 22 through April 6, and have workshops scheduled for March 24, 25, 31 and April 1 at a quilt shop called Cordi-atelier in Groningen. These filled up quickly, and they added two more, but I don’t know the dates yet. On April 2 and 3, I’m teaching in Bunschoten. 

If you live nearby and are interested in attending a workshop, please e-mail me at susan@bluemoonriver.com, and I can put you in touch with Lya, my fabulous Dutch host and organizer, who can answer more of your questions.

The classes I am teaching are Wholecloth Painting and Threadsketching: Dragonfly. Here are the class samples:

Purple Pansy in progress

Yesterday, I worked on a new, small (about 8x10") wholecloth painted piece – the pansy above. In late March through early April, I will be in The Netherlands to teach 8 workshops. I’m teaching my Wholecloth Painting class several times, and while my host and workshop organizer, Lya Geven, and I were talking, she suggested that I do one flower that was a little more familiar to European students. The ones I usually teach are these – croton leaf, hibiscus and sunflower:

Tulips immediately came to mind, but it was not tulip season. I considered buying a bouquet, but then realized that my local nursery was filled with pansies, and I’d have far more options there. I went there in the fall and shot about a hundred photos, and got one that I liked a lot:

Choosing just the right photo to work with is trickier than you might think. It needs to be well lit, with details well defined. It needs to have a strong focal point. I also try to keep the backgrounds simple and not distracting, but sometimes it is impossible to avoid. Too much stuff in the background can detract, but it can be eliminated when you paint.

When I teach, I have to make sure not to choose a subject that is too complex. Most students in my class take the entire six hours to complete the croton, hibiscus and sunflower (and this is just the painting, not the layering and quilting). These pieces are also about 8x10".

The photo below shows a printout of the photo (on the left), and the first bit of painting on the pansy (on the right). 

I usually trace my lines onto the fabric; this time I just positioned the fabric (a tightly-woven PFD fabric) on top of my traced line drawing. Tracing the lines onto the fabric is important if you want to do one base color and then paint darker colors on top, because you will still be able to see the pencil lines this way (but you would not be able to see the lines on the printout through the fabric and the base color paint).

My students often have questions about how many colors to mix, and how many tints and shades to prepare. It is tricky to get the right number of colors, and the right values to create depth. You can see my palette in this shot, and get an idea of how many I mixed for this piece so far:

Here is a shot showing a bit more painting done. You can see that I changed the overall color scheme of the pansy somewhat. I find that as long as you keep track of the values, you can do this without a problem. As with traditional quilting, value is far more important than color in the overall effectiveness of the piece. 

Here is another shot of how it looks now. I am going to add a few darker values to give the petals more dimension and depth. It’s good to think at this stage about what you are going to add when you free-motion quilt. The thread adds color and detail, too, so you may not need to paint everything. After that, I will move on to the background.