Magic Tea Tree

Here is the latest quilt... this one is on a large panel of Kona cotton fabric. After ordering some 'Rub-a-Dub' laundry markers by Sharpie - I felt compelled to use them :) They are SO much better than the 'Tee Juice' ones... the black line is darker and a little thicker.

Anyway, I did paint a section at the top yesterday and hope to do more today. It's hard to paint in sections but I don't have a table large enough to lay the piece out. I'm used to painting at an easel or table where the whole composition is there to be worked on 'at the same time'... this is a totally different story! Since I don't use an airbrush, I can't really hang it up and paint. But, it'll work itself out. Besides, I love a challenge :)

Wavy Dreams

Wavy Dreams, originally uploaded by Tea and Ink.

More bedtime rituals... to be painted this week! This one has our daughter's room... with the Christmas light she usually dreams about under her bed (bad dreams) - and a dream ship that's built to go anywhere!

First Try with a Fabric Marker

night time ritual quilt 031, originally uploaded by Tea and Ink.

Here's a funny little self portrait. It's very stylized, quick and my end of the day tired looking self! (the eyebrows are super weird... they do not curve on anyone like those :) This was my first stab at using all these new materials for art quilting.

Anyway - I used Tee-Juice fabric marker in black, heat set it and then painted with Jacquard Color paint on a tiny scrap of muslin (too thin for my liking). The text is a running commentary spoken by my kids. It'd be fun to do more of these small ones. Happy Thursday!

Bedtime Rituals

Here's another in a series... it has a mish-mash of all kinds of night time treasures. This will probably end up as a big book or maybe a quilt.... possibly a wall hanging. I just can't decide yet. It's been so much fun experimenting with new media. Now that it's summer, I'm in the quilt mood, probably because I see it as more of a hobby kind of thing and not 'work'. But, these Happy Quilts do combine both art and quilts which is a comfortable pairing :)

Can't wait to be ready for the big quilting stage of this process!

Butterflies and Art Class

My daughter has an art class every week at a beautiful historic mansion in town. This week, they learned about butterflies... there was a lot of paint flying and copious amounts of very fine glitter everywhere. The butterfly wings above will be worn -along with the crowns fashioned in class - next week for another nature walk in the gardens.

After all the making, we took a walk (more like a hike) through a newly restored Victorian era garden. It's quite steep but has glorious views of the city. The remains of the garden were discovered after an ice storm when downed trees and brush were getting cleaned up. With the help of a local benefactress, (she also restored the Fox Theater) the gardens came back to life with the help of historic photographs. I'll be posting pix of the gardens this weekend :) Happy Friday.

Bedtime and The Little Cottage Garden

A new drawing series on fabric... based on bedtime rituals. (this was my son's idea and a very good one at that!) I'll show more as they progress. They are on fat quarter size fabric.

Here are a few more drawings and painting on fabric. (a la Turtlemoon) I decided to do a fat quarter size because the larger piece is fun but a little daunting for a first - timer in this medium. (although I'm not quite sure what I'll do with the fat quarter size... ?make a quilt based on a theme? ) This really is such a fun way to work. The drawings are not meant to be perfect and definitely not 'precious' or careful. The text is in a 'free write' style... not planned or copied from any preparations but spontaneous. The work is engrossing, exhilarating and in a way, exhausting!

I'll be adding another layer of color to the 'dirt' and a few other areas. There's a learning curve with this paint (jacquard color paint) - hoping it's possible to glaze!

Happy Quilt

Here are a few peeks into my latest project. I've jumped off the deep end into unknown territories this time - and it's so much fun! I'm doing a 'story quilt' of sorts. It's one piece of fabric - I drew on it with a fabric pen and am now painting it with Jacquard fabric paint. There's a lot of text and story telling in it (I plan to add more) after the method created by the fabulous Susan Shie of Turtle Moon Quilts. She has an MFA in painting but has been working in this style since the 1970s.

If only I could attend one of her Turtle Camps and really learn from the master. But, she lives in Ohio and with 2 small kids and a husband who works so much... it's just not going to happen. Instead, I've studied her diary and website and have jumped in and given her methods a try. I'll show the final product when finished.