Showing posts with label Prayer Flag. Show all posts

Thursday, June 27, 2024

Prayer Flags on Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome! I hope that you're having a great week 🌞 The weather has been all over the place but I've enjoyed stitching in my backyard as much as possible. Let's get on with the fun stuff 😎

Prayer Flag production

Last week I showed you the "Thanks" Prayer Flag (see Related links below). Here are the rest - in various states of completion.

"Joie" Prayer Flag - completed and hanging outside in my backyard

I took this picture earlier in the day yesterday and left it outside. It's rained in the evening but since it's going to be outside for the rest of the summer, I guess it got it's first dunking.

"Paix" (Peace) Prayer Flag - ready to be dyed

The "Paix" (Peace) Prayer Flag was bundled up with a big iron nail that came from the land around Arbor Gallery, as well as other small rusty pieces.

"Paix" (Peace) Prayer Flag - bundled up for dying

This time I used 4 black tea bags and found a taller glass container to let it sit. It was outside in partial sun for the last two days. This morning I removed the bundle and squeezed some of the liquid. It's now drying in the back yard. Since it's now rather cool, it could take a couple of days. I'll bring it in if there's any rain!

"Paix" (Peace) Prayer Flag - in the
very strong black tea solution

"Paix" (Peace) Prayer Flag bundle drying outside this morning

Did you notice that wonderful antique metal milk can in the background? My artist friend Lyne painted it for me. I just absolutely love it! I've been wanting to take picture to post for a while but need to get the background plants looking their best....yeah, one day! This is the Spring side. I'll show you the other side later this summer 😍. Thanks Lyne!!!

Here is my last Prayer Flag "Health". It's for Health of body, mind and soul.

The "Health" Prayer Flag just needs embellishment and a tea bath

To Do List

Sorry for repeating myself but here's what's left to do! 😊 I will be installing the work on ~~July 3rd~~ July 2nd (in ~~2 weeks~~ less than 1 week) and I still have lots of work left to do.

"Raining Pink Petals"

Stitch the bunny and butterflies in place
Prepare the dowel for hanging
Create a label

"Essence of Leaves"

Finish FMQ the background ✔
Fix the hanging sleeve ✔ and prepare the dowel for hanging
Create a label

Create one more fence art piece called "Squirrel!"

"Thanks" Prayer Flag and Create 3 ~~or 4~~ more Prayer Flags ✔

Finish embroidering and embellishing "Health"
Dry and clean up the rust from "Paix" (Peace)
Dye and dry "Health"
Prepare for hanging once they are all done
Create a label for the series

Outdoor hanging sculpture

Make another fluffy blue cloud
Make one or more birds

What I learned

I've been putting quite a few hours slow stitching the Prayer Flags. I've worked it in a series so that they all have roughly the same size and feature some of the same fabric and embellishment.
I'm finding it hard to make the "Health" Prayer Flag different. I've just been inspired... I'm going to add empty tea bags to the piece and depict body, mind and soul. I just thought of this while I was preparing the post. 😁
I've figured out how to make the other fluffy blue cloud more efficiently. We'll see where that takes me.
I finished the FMQ (Free Motion Quilting) on the Essence of Leaves garden fence piece. I love it and will soon take an outdoor picture to share.
I've prepared all of the written information that was required for the exhibition and had to make a few decisions. So, my garden fence pieces now have a theme - they are Seasonal.
"Raining Pink Petals" represents Spring, "Essence of Leaves" is Fall while "Squirrel!" will be Summer.
I'm basing my "Squirrel!" garden fence piece on the hoop that I made during a workshop with Bethany Duffy through TextileArtist.org Stitch Club (August 2022). You will probably recognize it!
I taught the journal making playdate on Monday for Out of the Box (OOTB). It was a hot, busy but fun time! I'm looking forward to sharing pictures if the participants send me pictures.

My inspiration for a second Squirrel! piece 😊

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to Week 487 of Free Motion Mavericks. Thank you for linking up! Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting.

Kat of Scrap Box Quilts finished another baby quilt, this one based on a panel. It's so cute 😊. She FMQ around the quilt and the shapes.

Kat made up this cute baby panel quilt

Sally of Painted Thread participated in the 2 Colours Mystery Quilt Challenge with Joanne the Canuck Quilter. She adapted the quilt to make a headboard for her mother's bed. What a job! She stitched around the stars and straight-lines along the stripes to quilt it, then made a headboard and attached it! If you want more details, check out Sally's post!

Sally's 2 Colours Mystery Quilt

Here is the finished headboard on the bed!

It's now your turn!

Thursday, June 20, 2024

Outdoor art pieces coming along on Free Motion Mavericks

Hi and welcome to week 486 of Free Motion Mavericks. I'm staying away from the heat and humidity by being productive in my studio. The garden will have to fend for itself for the week 🌞 while I make more garden art for Fibre 15's upcoming show.

Raining Pink Petals

My first fence art piece is finished and looked rather nice in the backyard for its photo shoot. 😊

Raining Pink Petals fence art piece ✔

There wasn't much left to do to finish this piece except to add more petals on the sides. I looked through my fabric and found a perfect bunny and 4 butterflies to add to the piece. I used fusible web to attach them. I will be adding at least one or two invisible stitches in each of them before the installation. I'm creating a list below of all that's left to do to finalize these pieces for the installation.

Essence of Leaves

I've created another fence art piece using one of Connie's Textile Art fabric pieces that I bought last year. I mentioned her work in May when I bought more of her fabric at Fibre Fling 2024. I asked Connie how she had created this piece. She replied "I think I sun printed the lighter coloured ones and then used textile paint to stamp/print the darker coloured ones. All done at the family cottage with leaves growing there. I also used coarse salt on it."

Essence of Leaves

I attached the fabric to the outdoor woven fabric that I've used for all of my fence art pieces. I then FMQ the darker leaves and then the lighter ghost leaves. It still needs a little more stitching but I want to keep the emphasis on the leaves. I'm thinking of echoing the leaves in an orange thread that matches the background.

Our show's theme is "Impermanence". I named this piece Essence of Leaves since we can only capture the essence of the leaf in our art since they are impermanent.

Prayer Flags

I made the first of a series of Prayer Flags that will hang in the trees surrounding Arbor Gallery. A new workshop in the TextileArtist.org Stitch Club peaked my interest. I haven't had much time to participate in the last few months but this one came at the perfect time. The workshop to make a stitched and dyed sampler with Deb Cooper, is perfect for creating my Prayer Flags.

"Thanks" Prayer Flag dyed in tea

I made this first sampler using mostly white and off-white fabric. In the image below, I've placed the original fabric next to the dyed piece. I used a variety of thread - white #8 and #12 perle cotton, beige perle cotton, white linen cotton as well as white cotton sewing thread. I included a commercial fabric that had a white background with black lines. It's really interesting to see how the fabrics have taken, or not taken, the tea dye.

Dyed fabric with the original fabrics and thread

I embroidered the work "Thanks" on the t-shirt fabric on the right (two fabrics from the stick). I've added colour by threading through the back stitch. If you're wondering about the stick in the photo above... I learned a new technique - you stitch around a stick, remove the stick and voilà! It makes for very cool thread rings. In this case, I added some fluffy yarn (acrylic I suspect since it didn't take the dye) to create texture.

Prayer Flag - "Thanks"

Outdoor Hanging Sculpture - In The Sky

The hanging sculpture is looking good. I attached the Suns and Clouds to a branch. I painted Golden GAC-400, a textile stiffener, to the edges of the sun. What a difference it made. Hopefully it will be ok in the rain.

Applying some GAC-400 to stiffen the edges of the sun

Sunset with the fabric stiffener

As I put the sculpture together, I realised that my instincts were correct. My pretty cloud is too small. I will make another fluffy blue cloud to attach to the one already made.

Need to add to the fluffy blue cloud

After the cloud, all that remains is to make a bird(s) on the branch below. I thought of using one of my tamarack geese as a model, but they really do look like geese. Next to the geese, I found a beautiful soapstone bird. I'll use that as a model to make one or more birds out of wire and fabric.

Soapstone bird to use as a model

To Do List

The installation deadline is July 3rd (in 2 weeks) and I have lots of work left to do. I hope you don't mind if I keep a running tab of what needs to be done here. 😊

Raining Pink Petals

Stitch the bunny and butterflies in place
Prepare the dowel for hanging
Create a label

Essence of Leaves

Finish FMQ the background
Fix the hanging sleeve and prepare the dowel for hanging
Create a label

"Thanks" Prayer Flag

Prepare for hanging once the others are done
Create a label for the series

Create one more fence art piece called Squirrel!

Create 3 or 4 more Prayer Flags

Outdoor hanging sculpture

Make another fluffy blue cloud
Make one or more birds

What I learned

I have so many pieces on the go that it was really good to spend the time figuring out what is left to do.
Most of the work is not too daunting. I have an idea and a title (Squirrel!) for the third fence art - I just need to figure out how to do it (i.e. appliqué, FMQ, etc.) It will be something simple and fun.
The birds make me a little nervous but now that I've found my model, I'll find the YouTube video and get going!
I've had a lot of fun with stitching and dying with tea. I'm going to experiment with other types of tea to see what effects I can get. The stitching takes a while but it's relaxing and I can do that easily in the evenings.
I started a piece in Alaska that I was going to use as a prayer flag. For some reason, I kept hesitating. I finally figured out that our theme, "Impermanence" just didn't go with the very solid mountains of Alaska. I guess in the grand scheme of things everything is impermanent but I thought that it was stretching it. Besides, I couldn't make 3 or 4 more like it - it's just too time consuming. I'll share it with you, as soon as it's done.
As well, I'll be facilitating a journal making playdate for OOTB on Monday. I'm looking forward to it, but it is making things busy 😊

Free Motion Mavericks

It was a busy week! Thanks for linking up. Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting.

Kat of Scrap Box Quilts has finished her Dino quilt. She quilted it with lots of wavy lines - it will make a great toddler play quilt. 😃

Kat's great Dino play quilt

Frédérique finished another donation baby quilt. She used her very cute llama fabric and quilted it using a template to make the Pearl and Squares stitching in the sashing. Isn't it lovely? Lightly quilting and pretty 😍

Llamas Baby Quilt by Frédérique

It's now your turn!

Sunday, December 25, 2022

Joyeux Noël - Merry Christmas

Hi, I would like to take a few minutes from ~~preparing~~ digesting Christmas supper to wish you a Merry Christmas, Joyeux Noël and a happy holiday season!🎄I am so grateful to have all of you in my life.😊

Last minute Christmas quilting

This week I finished a couple more Christmas scrappy mug rugs. These two went to my son and his girlfriend.

Two scrappy rug mugs

Some minor FMQ

FMQ following the fabrics' patterns, including Stars!

Blue Christmas fabric for the backs

These two, slightly smaller mug rugs went to my girlfriend.

Two scrappy Christmas mug rugs

Some free motion quilting - with ivy leaves

More free motion quilted ivy leaves

The back of the mug rugs

We've had a couple of winter storms. This one was on December 16th.

Winter storm as seen from inside 😊

Prayer Flags

I've been wanting to make Prayer Flags for a while now. I thought that finishing them with FMQ would give me some much needed practice. I was finally able to put them up today since the heavy winds have subsided. I'm sending prayers to the Universe for Peace, Joy, and a Merry Christmas through my prayer flags.

Flags on the snow since it was too windy to put in the trees yesterday

Peace - Inner peace, Serenity and Paix

Wishing for a Merry Christmas (Joyeuses Fêtes)

This one is for JOY (joie)

I'm finishing up with my favourite holiday character - the Grinch!

A Grinch tapestry made a very long time ago!

What I've learned

Although I'm retired, my life has not slowed down. It seems that living in minor chaos and stress has become a habit that I need to break!
I want to make more time to visit my friends now that I'm not working full time, but this is also something that needs to be worked at!
This year I promised to try to not be a Grinch about Christmas. I must say that I didn't enjoy the rushing around to get ready (as usual), but I've had a lot of fun in the last two days.
As you know, I've spent a lot of time FMQ the Version 2.0 quilt. There is a possible finish before year end!
If I want to finish Version 2.0, I'll be working on it and FMQ full time after Boxing Day. Wish me luck!

Thursday, August 06, 2015

Inspiration

I'm still making my Monthly Landscape Art Quilt (see below for a peek preview), but for this month's Goal Setting Party at A Lovely Year of Finishes, I'm starting a new project.

Prayer Flags

I was actually going to skip the August goal setting because I wasn't inspired. I just couldn't get into anything - new or old. Not a good place to be. And then I started reading one of my many e-books: Prayer Flags by Quilting Arts Magazine. This was it! This is what my creative soul needs right now.

A project needs a plan to get things going, whether I choose to follow it or not!

Since Tibetan prayer flags, a Buddhist tradition, are hung in groups of 10 and come in 5 colours that represent the five basic elements, in August I'll be making at least one group of 10 prayer flags. Here are the colours and what they represent:

Blue is for space;
White is the air;
Red is fire;
Green is water; and
Yellow is earth.

As Vivika Hansen DeNegre writes in Prayer Flags, "the words and symbols printed on the flags (the prayers) are spread throughout the universe as the flags flutter in the wind. Everyone who is touched by that wind is touched by the prayers. The wind spreads the intentions through the world, extending happiness, goodwill, and peace."

A Prayer Flag Project Button

Quilters have been making prayer flags for many years now. The Prayer Flag Project is "a collective project spreading peace, good will and kindness, one flag at a time..." It's been around since June 2011. Check out the blog for more information on participating and making prayer flags.

After I was inspired, I started making a list of the prayers and the flags I wanted to create - for specific people and ideas. I may be at this for a while. I want to make flags and hang them up in my back yard before winter comes. Since my garden isn't what I would like it to be, it'll be beautified by the prayer flags.

August's Monthly Landscape Art Quilt

It's one of my friend's birthday in August. She requested a landscape quilt of her kayak and gave me a beautiful photo. I hope I can do it justice.

What I learned: