“Lenten Rose”

“Lenten Rose”
by Susan Brubaker Knapp
copyright 2014

I am rather excited to share with you this piece that I made yesterday. It will be about 14 x 11" when it is faced (maybe smaller, as I am considering cropping it in). It started with this ink drawing in my sketchbook, which I did sometime last year:

I then water-colored the line drawing:
 

I blew up the black ink line drawing and traced it onto white fabric, using a Micron Pigma Pen, then painted it with ProChemical & Dye transparent textile paint:

And then I stitched with black thread: 

 

I do a lot of crosshatching in my sketches, and it was interesting, and more challenging, to do it in thread:

I had a lot of fun with this, and I rather like this more graphic, sketchy, loose style. It is not as realistic as most of my work, but it is fun. And certainly faster. I am looking forward to using more of my sketches in my textile art!

“Gazing Globe”

“Gazing Globe”
copyright 2014 by Susan Brubaker Knapp
24" x 60"

I am excited and honored to announce that my piece “Gazing Globe” has been accepted into the “Reflections’ invitational exhibition of Dinner at Eight Artists. The 33-piece exhibition will premiere this fall at International Quilt Market and International Quilt Festival in Houston. 

Jamie Fingal and Leslie Tucker Jenison curate, teach, write and make art under the name “Dinner at Eight Artists.” I consider myself very fortunate to have had my work accepted in this exhibition, and in three of their previous exhibitions, “An Exquisite Moment” (2013), “Rituals” (2012), and “The Space Between” (2011).

Here is Leslie and Jamie’s description of the theme: “A mirror image. A response to a thought or word. A memory. What glints back at us as we gaze upon the water. The throwing back by a body or surface of light, heat, or sound without absorbing it.  What will your reflection reveal about you?”

My piece is based on a photo I took this winter of a gazing globe that sits in my garden. It was the day after a big snow, and in the bright sunshine, the globe glowed, and in some of its ripples, captured the warped reflections of the bare tree trunks and branches.  

I had fun doing some detailed quilting in the white background along the right side of the gazing globe:

Here are some other detail shots:

The piece is based on this slice of a photo I took in January 2014:

Under the needle now

 

This is what I have under the needle of my Bernina right now. It is really just an experiment; I’m not at all sure where it will take me.

Sometime last year, I took a photograph of some dried, skeletal hydrangea blossoms in front of my collection of antique violet glass bottles. The colors were gorgeous with the light coming in the window through them, and the hydrangeas look like delicate lace. I manipulated the image in Photoshop, then had it printed on white cotton through Spoonflower. 

It is about 35" x 48". My plan is to thread sketch it, then add batting and backing fabric, and quilt the background (the blue and purple part) heavily so that the fragile hydrangeas stand out. I’ve never worked this way, so we shall see how it turns out! 

Second article on thread sketching is in June/July issue of Quilting Arts

The second article in my 2014 series on thread sketching is in the June/July 2014 issue of Quilting Arts magazine. It focuses on stitching wholecloth painted quilts. You can see what’s inside this issue and purchase the magazine at the Interweave store (digital downloads are available now here; the print magazine is available on pre-order now). This issue should be on newsstands May 27.

Slow stitching

Lately, I’ve had a hankering for handwork, a need to slow down and work with my needle in my hands, more often. Here are some of the projects I’ve been working on, in between my faster moving thread-sketched, fusible appliqued, and wholecloth-painted works. 

The first project has been in progress for about two years. I purchased this denim jacket for $3 at a local thrift shop, and have been embroidering it – with sewing implements including scissors, pin cushions, thread spools, and a tape measure – since then, mostly on long airplane trips, and in my hotel room in the evenings after I teach. I’m using solid and varigated perle cotton, and I just love how it sparkles with color. I mostly have the sleeves still to do.

Here’s a close-up shot showing how I outlined the designs, and surrounded it with “chicken scratch” stitches:

The next one is a needleturn applique project I’ve had in my head for years, but just started today. It is a simple wreath of leaves. I have the first three blocks pinned down and ready to stitch. I want this to be king-sized bed quilt; it will probably need at least 25 blocks! It will be another good “take-along” project. All the foundations will be shades of blue, but different blues, and the leaves are greens, blues, and purples. 

The third project has been in the works for at least three years! It started as a fat quarter of clamp-dyed Shibori that I dyed black, then embroidered with various threads and perle cotton and couched-down threads. Now I am free-motion machine quilting it with a varigated black-gray-white thread.

I often describe myself as a “multiple-personality disorder quilter,” because I love all types of quilting and stitching. I knit, needlepoint, cross stitch, embroider, hand quilt, hand applique, and free-motion thread sketch and quilt. Some of these techniques fill certain needs (hand work is perfect for concentration and relaxation, and can be done while I wait during soccer practices, piano lessons, and orthodontist appointments). Others, such as the machine work, fill my “need for speed,” I suppose. I enjoy the variety. 

Smoky Mountain Quilters Show is May 23-25

The Smoky Mountain Quilters of Tennessee will host their 34th Annual Quilt Show and Competition May 23-25 on the campus of Maryville College in the Cooper Athletic Center in Maryville, Tennessee. This is a big guild with many talented quilters, and promises to be a great show!

The quilt show will feature 200 quilts in competition, two special exhibits, an antique bed turning, and more than 20 vendors. Vendors will be doing demonstrations on Saturday and Sunday. There is also opportunity baskets of quilting items, including a featherweight machine; a quilt raffle; small quilts for sale; and a children’s scavenger hunt.
 
Want to go?
Admission: $5 (bring a can of food to donate to a local food bank and receive $1 off)
May 23 and 24, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
May 25, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Free parking
Handicapped accessible venue
More info: http://smokymtnquilters.com/

My prayer flags

My prayer flags hanging on a door in our home.

Last week, I made my first prayer flags. Haven’t heard about them? Prayer flags are small pennants or banners, made as invocations – hopes, questions, requests, prayers or wishes. Prayer flags probably originated in Nepal or Tibet, and are still found in the Himalayas, and are often associated with Buddhism. You can make prayer flags as a religious statement, or simply as a way of expressing your spirituality or mindfulness. They make lovely gifts for friends or family who are going through difficult times, helping to remind them that you are thinking about them.

I made mine as a form of meditation. As I worked, I thought about the attributes and personal qualities I am working on cultivating: Compassion, Patience, Peace, Acceptance, Trust, Forgiveness, Love, and Comfort. Each of the flags I made represents one of these qualities. 

First, I got out my favorite paints and stencils. The paints are transparent textile paints by PRO Chemical & Dye. (They come in small lidded containers; I pour mine into bottles to make it easier to use paints in the classes I teach.) I mixed the paint with some of PRO Chem’s Transparent Base Extender to make them even more transparent. 

Most of the stencils I used came from Artistcellar. I really love the ones I just got by Jill K. Berry that feature calligraphic lines. I used a Moda Banner Set that contains 8 banners made of 80% linen and 20% cotton:

If you'd like to make prayer flags, but need some ideas, here’s a great resource: Quilting Arts has a new 47-page e-book that is a collection of articles called Prayer Flags: Make Banners of Hope & Peace from Fabric Scraps and Fibers ($6.99 on the Quilting Daily Shop).

For a limited time, you can get the Moda Banner Set together with the Prayer Flag e-book from the Quilting Daily store for $24.99. 

On a few of my flags, I also used some acrylic inks by Daler-Rowney:

After the flags dried, I added a layer of interfacing underneath (I used Heavy Weight Shaping Aid) and machine stitched some of the stenciled pattern using white thread. On some, I added fabric circles and stitched them down. Next, I added some buttons and hand embroidery. On each flag, I used circles, which to me, symbolize wholeness and balance. The process of hand stitching is very meditative, and I let it take me where it wanted to go. 

I took my flags outside and hung them in my dogwood tree, and on our azaleas and phlox, which are in full bloom.

Want to know more and see some different kinds of prayer flags? The Prayer Flag Project blog shares some of the thousands of prayer flags that have been created since Vivika Hansen DeNegre, the editor of Quilting Arts magazine, started the project in June 2011.

“Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul.
It is daily admission of one’s weakness.
It is better in prayer to have a heart without words
than words without a heart.”
– Mahatma Gandhi

“For me, prayer is a surge of the heart;
it is a simple look turned toward heaven,
it is a cry of recognition and of love,
embracing both trial and joy.”
― Thérèse de Lisieux

The Prayer Flag Blog Hop
Make sure to check out each hopper’s post for a chance to see some beautiful prayer flags, and win prizes!
April 14: Jane LaFazio
April 15: Meg Cox
April 16: Deborah O’Hare
April 17: Jamie Fingal and Susan Brubaker Knapp
April 18: Carrie Bloomston


Give-away! 

Quilting Arts is providing me with a copy of Jane Dunnewold’s Quilting Arts Workshop “Design & Print Your Own Fabric: Tips and techniques for successful online fabric design” to give away! If you live in the U.S., you can choose to get the DVD or the digital download. If you live outside the U.S., you will get the digital download.

Leave a comment after this post and tell me a little bit about why you’d like to win, or if you’ve ever made a prayer flag (and why). Please leave me a way to contact you. I’ll pull one name at random at 6 p.m., Tuesday, April 22. The winner will be announced at the end of this post on that day. 

Note: If your comment does not show up right away, please don’t freak out. Please post only one comment. I now have to moderate/approve all comments, because I was getting a ton of Japanese porn spammers leaving comments and links on my blog! 

We have a winner! Laceflower has won Jane Dunnewold’s Quilting Arts Workshop!

The Prayer Flag Blog Hop is coming!

Have you heard about the prayer flag movement? It is sweeping the art quilting and mixed media worlds. Prayer flags are small pennants or banners, made as invocations – hopes, questions, requests, prayers or wishes. I made some this week; they are pictured above.

Starting next week, several artists – including me – are participating in a blog-hop to help spread the prayer flag concept. We will be sharing our process and techniques of making prayer flags, and encouraging you to get involved. There will also be some great giveaways of DVDs donated by Quilting Arts/Interweave. 

The Prayer Flag Blog Hop
Make sure to check out each hopper’s post for a chance to see some beautiful prayer flags, and win prizes!
April 14: Jane LaFazio
April 15: Meg Cox
April 16: Deborah O’Hare
April 17: Jamie Fingal and Susan Brubaker Knapp
April 18: Carrie Bloomston

A visit to Meridian Fibers in Charlotte

Colorful woven scarves by Laura Sutthoff

NOTE: Meridian Fibers has changed into a “high-end home fabrics business” as of 2021. 

Today, members of Fiber Art Options, a group of fiber artists in the Charlotte area, met to tour a wonderful new facility in uptown Charlotte: Meridian Fibers. It is owned by artist Laura Sutthoff, who has created “a working studio and teaching lab for adults and children.”

 Classes for adults – some a few hours long, and some a few days long – include:

• Stamp, Print and Foil
• Knitting 101
• Painted scarf using soy wax resist
• Felt and ribbon scarf
• Dyeing for quilters
• Dyes and resists
• Fabric design with digital printing
• Felted ruffled scarf

Laura has a BFA in Textile Design from East Carolina University, and has designed fabric, owned an interior design shop, painted murals in large office buildings and homes, taught art to 2nd through 5th graders, and printed and designed custom fabrics for the design industry. Her work is just beautiful. She’s teaching classes, and lining up experienced teachers to lead other workshops. This place is just getting off the ground; I’m excited to see how it grows!

Laura with some pillows she’s created for the design industry

Screen printed napkins for sale in Meridian’s shop

Nancy G. Cook, a member of Fiber Art Options, will be teaching an embroidery class at Meridian soon. I’m also exploring the possibility, and will post again if we get something scheduled. 

NOTE: Meridian Fibers has changed into a “high-end home fabrics business” as of 2021.