Update from Deborah

Even after nine years, 12x12 is still such a cherished part of my life -- personal and artistic.

I flew to Portland just a couple of weeks ago especially to meet Helen, but also because Kristin, Gerrie and Terry live there. We had a fabulous get together. It's pretty cool to have five of the twelve of us in one place. Now I just need to get to New Zealand to meet Kirsty.



My "lorikeet" quilt has been in my mind a lot over the past year or so.

I've continued to explore the ladder as a personal symbol. This is Evening Climb, also 12x12.

Plus, Yellow Ladder is on the back of my new book!

That's right, I am thrilled that my new book is now available. It's called Art Quilt Collage: A Creative Journey in Fabric, Paint and Stitch. 

Several of my 12x12 quilts are included in the book. I included a list and a shout-out about the project on the About the Author page. 

I've got signed copies available in my Etsy shop. As a thank you I'm included a fat-eighth of original surface designed fabric with the first 50 copies purchased directly from me. 

I also write regularly about inspiration and how to convert inspiration into art. I hope you'll consider subscribing to my newsletter Three Bits of Inspiration.

Honestly, I look back on my work and experience with 12x12 as one of the greatest sources of inspiration and it's so thrilled to think it's been inspiring to others too.

Lorikeet at the château

Especially for our princess lorikeet, here's a picture taken this morning a bit before the opening. :-)

We had about 500 visitors today, which is rather good for a Thursday, I think.
Some people knew already about the group and the Colorplay series, and there were a few real Twelve by Twelve fans among them! Most visitors were interested to hear about our story and had lots of interesting questions to ask. I think I talked almost non-stop from 10am to 5pm. Now I need a little rest.
More pictures tomorrow.

Colourplay Countdown: Purple/Yellow and Lorikeet

My  Colourplay observations continue in the English countryside.  Here is Purple/Yellow:

I despaired of finding anything from the Lorikeet palette but, once again, a tractor came to my rescue!

These begonias and lobelia also come close:

Colourplay at Grand Rapids

Thanks to Monica of Michigan for sending through some photos from the Twelve by Twelve Colourplay exhibition at AQS Quilt Week at Grand Rapids.  The show continues until Saturday, 17 August.  

Colourplay & Flying Colours at AQC 2013

For me, one of the lasting benefits of being part of the Twelve by Twelve International Art Quilt Challenge, has been the opportunity to test out design ideas in a small format before developing works on a larger scale.  Indeed, the Twelve by Twelve project has sparked many series in my portfolio.

My Flying Colours series started with Lorikeet Circus in the Colourplay challenge and the latest piece, Budgies Uncaged (125x125cm), has been selected as a finalist in the Australasian Quilt Convention 2013 challenge - FREE.

Come along to AQC in Melbourne next week, 18-21 April.  The fabulous Kirsten and I will be giving daily floor talks at the Colourplay exhibition at 1.30pm..

 Read about The Process of Creating Budgies Uncaged on my blog.

Across the Spectrum

I see that this month's virtual exhibit on the Studio Art Quilt Associates website is Shades of Gray curated by Leni Wiener. And the Art to Wear exhibit Twitchers all of a Twitter at the Sydney Quilt Show last week was based on a lorikeet palette.  Click the image for a slideshow:

Colourful Dogs

Remember Diane's Labikeet piece made for the Lorikeet Colorplay challenge? Check out this Labrakeet on exhibition at part of the Doggie Dogma - Dog in Art exhibition in Sydney.

The Colourway Collection So Far

The Twelve by Twelve website has now been updated to showcase the Rusty Colorplay challenge quilts. In addition to checking out the Artist Colorplay Gallery pages for each Twelve, it is instructive to review the Colorplay mosaics so far as we reach the midpoint in this series:

  

  Pink                                  BlueWhiteBlack

 

Kilauea                            PurpleYellow

   

Lorikeet                                Rusty

I have found that the inspiration and design process is quite different when a colour or palette is your springboard rather than a theme word. As Diane mentioned in her rusty reveal post, a theme word was useful in narrowing down the options and providing focus.  Fortunately we all revel in colour so this new series is keeping us engaged and challenged.

Updated Lorikeet Mosaic

It's been another busy and exciting day at the Craft & Quilt Fair in Hamilton.  Thank you to everyone who stopped by the Twelve by Twelve exhibition for your thoughtful and enthusiastic comments.  I'm now warmly esconced in Kirsty's childhood home with access to the internet and have had an opportunity to update the Lorikeet mosaic. Kirsty's Bleep Bloop looks right at home too:


I've also updated Kirsty's Colourplay gallery page.

Bleep Bloop

Am I ashamed or proud to be the first Twelve to be so colossally LATE? I'm not sure...But I do know that I have STEELED myself and not peeked (even once) at your quilts, so that I wasn't influenced. I'm sure you can imagine how difficult that has been!

Rainbow lorikeets are pretty spectacular and one would think it easy to make that colour combination work but, Brenda, oh my goodness, I struggled! Then, one day, a breakthrough - the answer was in my handbag the whole time! I was pulling papers out of my bag and there I found this sketch that I did when we were in Melbourne at AQC, the first time all of our quilts were exhibited.



At the time it was an idea for a range of shot cottons that had caught my eye, but I could easily see it working with our lorikeet colours, so, here it is...




The background is little nine pateches, cut wonky and the applique is all machine stitched - a combo of satin stitch, fly stitch, triple stitch and free-motion. I couldn't bear to not add something extra, so it is red, yellow, blue, green and metallic gold :) I resisted the almost overpowering urge to add black and white. And hot pink. And orange. And turquoise.

'Bleep Bloop' is frequently in the subject line of emails that my son sends to me; some nonsense for when you are too lazy to write a real subject title. It kind of fits with these flowers that could well be Martian and quite probably have little voices.

Now to catch up with the Wonders you have made...

Decision made

Thanks for the input on my two Lorikeet color pieces. After seeing how each looks along with the others, it seemed quite clear to me that what was missing in my first piece, though I am quite fond of it, is the color that was the point of the challenge. I even had an anonymous commenter who said I had gotten it all wrong, and maybe she (he?) was referring to both of my pieces, but I think the first is the more wrong one. So "Night Garden" is my official work for this challenge.

But just for laughs I decided to have a little fun with the "Oh, those colors" piece. I hope Brenda doesn't mind that I used her lorikeet photo. I couldn't resist. It was perfect.

A Riot of Colour!

The Twelve by Twelve website has now been updated with the Lorikeet Colourplay quilts. What a riot of colour!

The Colorplay Gallery shows mosaics for all of the Colorplay challenges so far (hover the mouse over the thumbnails and see the display to the right).  It's also interesting to see the individual artist Colorplay gallery pages: Deborah, Gerrie, Helen, Kirsten, Terry, Diane, Francoise, Kristin, Karen, Brenda, Terri and Nikki.

(Please e-mail me if you find any broken links or other glitches.)

Circle Symphony

Circles, Circles, Circles! I seem to be a bit obsessed with circles lately. They are just a fun way to play with color and texture. And what amazing colors to play with this round. They are so full of life and energy. Orange is even starting to grow on me.

To create this quilt I once again quilted a bunch of white fabric and then pulled out the paints. I spent an entire day making fabric paper in bright orange, yellow, green and blue. The house was filled with drying paint and the kids had to watch their step so we didn't have really big mess. Once dry, I cut out circles in all the different colors and sizes, layering them to explore the different color combinations. Finally, I added the copper washers and beads because I couldn't help myself.

Lorikeet in Flight

Wow, those lorikeet colors are intense. And while they look fantastic on the bird, they were way out of my comfort zone. That's good though. That's one of the things this challenge group is all about. So, I set out to wrap my head around bright green, orange and a purply blue. Although I knew I didn't have to stick with a bird theme, I did anyway. The only other thing the colors said to me was "tropical flowers," and that's been done to death.


"Lorikeet in Flight (detail)"

What did speak to me was the riot of color in motion when a flock of lorikeets take flight. Since I've been trying to keep my colorplay quilts simple and inspired by traditional quilts, I thought about feathers in quilting. I thought about big stitches in bright colors. I made a whole cloth quilt (not hard at 12" x 12") with machine stitched, rather traditional, feathers on a green and black cross woven silk. Ideally, the silk would have been brighter, but I couldn't find one with the right combination of greens. When Brenda posted her photo of a bird in flight and I saw that the underside of it's feathers were black, then I knew that a black and green fabric could be the perfect foil for the bright hand stitching to come.


"Little Bird Dreams of Flight (detail)"

I liked the feather quilting, but the piece just didn't feel like "me." It was too quilt show and not enough art. So, back to the drawing board I went. This time I focused on birds, not feathers. How could I have missed all that inspiration? Flying Geese! Turkey Tracks! Goose and Goslings! Crows Foot! Nest and Fledgeling! Dove in a Window! Circling Swallow! So what did all these bird blocks have in common? Triangles. A few sketches later I decided to make a simple pieced "bird" with lots of background on which to make big bright stitches conveying motion. That felt more graphic than my previous quilt which looked like a free motion quilting class exercise.


"Little Bird Dreams of Flight"

As long as I had all my fun threads out for my pieced bird, I finished up the traditional feathers too. Guess what?! The one that feels more me, and more like abstract art -- the one with the traditional quilted feathers!


"Lorikeet in Flight"

I stretched this one around a 12" x 12" canvas frame and I love the final product! I can totally see it with a Saarinen pedestal table and shag rug. ;-)

Moving

I am not a last minute person. Given a deadline I deduct a week, set that as the 'real deadline' and aim to finish early. And I always do.
Of course I am not a person who has ever moved house either. Whilst the move did go very smoothly, given that I had minimal time off work, the packing, the unpacking and the decisions about which of the many rennovations should begin first and how they would be done and where we would buy the necessary items crowded out all time for quilting. If you don't count the four days I absented myself to go to Festival of Quilts. Which was all about other people's quilts and not at all about actually making one.
So perhaps it is not suprising that my quilt turned out to be a last minute one about moving house.

And with all quilting items in inaccessible boxes, apart from one carton of lorikeet themed cloth and thread separately packed, I had to be a little inventve with my embellishments.

The  blue houses on this quilt represent  both all the ones we saw, considered and rejected and all the houses which surround us in our new community. The yellow tags are made from greetings cards pushed through the door by our new neighbours, some of whom welcomed us without even knowing our names. The orange band represents the warmth of the home we will create once I get rid of the ubiqitous white anaglypta wall paper and faded brown carpets. But that home will carry memories of the only other home my husband and I ever shared and so I have kept the key for that house together with some thread wraped nails. You may remember the unusual source of inspiration for this quilt. Well, one of the hardest things about leaving that house was leaving items my Dad had made for it - fitted furniture, patio and pergola - as he is not able to do so much phsycial work now. So, the screws from the desk which saw me through three stages in my career and was latterly used as my temporary studio have come with us and  six now adorn this quilt. The green vine stitching and the orange petal stitching represent the wonderful garden which we acquired with the house, the upkeep of which represents a whole new challenge in my life.

We do not have any broadband in the house at presnet due to the spectactularly useless service from our phone provider. So the quilt was completed at lunch time and after work on the reveal day, photographed and cropped on my personal laptop and tranferred to the work internet system via memory stick to be uploaded with a few hours of Californian time to go. Thank God for time differences.

Labikeet

I did not have an easy time getting started with these colors.  While I work with bright colors often and have a lot of them in my stash, this assortment of colors had me stuck.  I had lots of ideas and looked at a lot of lorikeet pictures, I just couldn't land on anything that struck me. Funny how naming a color palette by the "thing" with those colors parks my mind on that thing!

But at some point, while looking at the wonderful markings on lorikeets (I sure do love Google Images), I thought "I wonder what other animals would look like if they had these colors."  That sparked my imagination, and it was an easy decision to turn our Lab/Weimaraner Gemma mix into a "Labikeet."

I took Gemma's picture (I was waving a treat just out of the frame, hence the intent gaze).  I recently got Susan Carlson's "Serendipity Quilts," which details her loose "free cutting" version of fabric collage images, and inspired by that I set out to superimpose those lorikeet colors onto Gemma.

This was trickier than I thought it would be -- especially getting the eyes to look halfway decent -- but I had a lot of fun doing it.  Carlson's process involves gluing (not fusing) bits of fabric down, and then trapping then all under tulle.  I guess I'm not as liberal with the glue as this process requires, because I struggled with pieces moving around a bit under the tulle as I started to quilt.  But I'm very happy with the result.  Check over on my blog for more details about the process and in -progress  photos.

Gemma was dozing at my feet during most of the construction process ... not terribly excited about being immortalized in fabric as a Labikeet, perhaps, or maybe just exhausted by the burden of being my model!

Summer in Japan

It was not an easy colour scheme for me. It's not that I don't like bright colours, but so many of them at the same time in such a small quilt... And I must admit that this lorikeet green didn't really excite me. But I was confident some ideas would emerge during my trip in Japan this summer.
Actually, I found out that Japan in August has many different shades of green. The one I liked the best was the bright green of the small rice fields. When I came back home, I decided my quilt would be a simple imaginary landscape based on the beautiful sceneries I had seen during my stay.
I also wanted my quilt to make reference to my mother as her weak health was a constant worry for me while I was away. I printed her silhouette several times on a piece of red fabric and placed it at the left of my landscape.

I liked that quilt a lot but, in the end, I just didn't feel like showing it. So I replaced my mom's silhouette by a single leaf shape, a ginkgo leaf, as there are so many ginkgo trees in Japan and they are seen as a symbol of resilience.

I'll post more photos on my blog later today.

Deconstructed Lorikeet

I had very few of these colors in my stash of fabric. I was about to paint some fabric when I noticed that I had all of the colors in my wool roving stash. I decided to felt the piece. I wanted to machine felt it, but I broke an attachment so I thought I would try my hand at nuno (wet)felting.

The felted piece was attached to a 12 by 12 inch square of felt. I then beaded and stitched with perle cotton. This is probably the most embellished piece I have ever constructed!!

You can see how I did the nuno felting on my blog, Crazy for Fiber. Here is a detail shot.

Yellow Ladder

In the two months since our last reveal, I didn't spend much time thinking about the upcoming theme. I was busy with the excitement and stress of moving from Texas to Maryland. I knew I would have time to focus on my lorikeet quilt after the kids went back to school on August 24.

It felt refreshing to set aside creative commitments and wait for the looming deadline. When I began to generate ideas for this round, several thoughts ran through my head. Inexplicably, I thought of the ladder sculpture at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. It just popped into my head and said "use me."

Funny. I've only been to the Modern once. The ladder wasn't even my favorite piece. I didn't know the artist or the title. But the image was so strong. Why? I'm still wondering. But, I embraced it and cut out a yellow ladder.
I debated keeping the composition very spare versus adding mixed media elements that I love: hand stitching, sheer layers, hand writing, etc. I decided in order to incorporate the full collection of colors from the lorikeet theme, I would need to add more elements. Plus, that's the kind of fiber art I like to create... layers and variety and dissimilar elements that complement each other. The ladder was just the kernel of inspiration.

The sheer section is some kind of non-woven polyester fiber. (Similar to what you'd find covering the base of your mattress box springs.) I wanted to explore using a heating tool to burn through the fiber to reveal the fabric underneath. I really like the effect. I'll explore this in the future with other fibers.

In the inspirational sculpture, the ladder is floating off the ground. In my piece I wanted to refer to the feeling of floating with the gap between the bottom of the ladder and the blue felt piece at the base of the composition. Sometimes you have to take a big leap before beginning an assent. Or get someone to help you up.

(I did learn more about the ladder piece in Fort Worth. You can read about it here.)

Oh, those colors

Beautiful, those lorikeet colors! When Brenda announced the theme I commented, "this makes me happy." But when I actually started to plan my piece I found it so much more difficult than I expected. While the colors are beautiful, they are STRONG. They are intense. They are starkly contrasting. None of these attributes are ones that I generally work with.

I thought about the lorikeets and how beautiful and vivid they are as they flash about and it occurred to me that perhaps my approach to the colors should be as "flashes" and bits of frolicking color, rather than a full-on onslaught of intense color. So I went for a field of neutral color with a horizon dancing with tiny blocks of the lorikeet colors.

 "Oh, those Colors"

I really enjoyed making this piece and I find it wonderfully clean and cheerful and a bit of a change from my usual work, but it nagged at me that perhaps I was not really doing justice to the theme colors, so I made another piece.

 

 "Night Garden"

Could this be any different from the first one?  Another out-of-character piece for me, but with more familiar elements. I like it too. Which one do I like the best? I am still undecided today as I reveal them. I think I am still leaning toward the first one, but, hmmmm, I just don't know. Help me decide!

What I really love about both of these pieces is that they were a chance to experiment—perhaps a little more than I usually do.