Thank you all so much for following my art and ramblings. This page just got to 100 likes, so thank you everyone. I'm going to plan a giveaway later this summer, so keep checking for those details.

I have been working on my quilt square for SOC and putting together the whole quilt today. I'm loving how this is working out. Who needs to clean house anyway, art is better.

I have some hand stitching planned today to finish my quilt.

I have the quilting finished, now I just have to connect all the squares into one piece of textile art.

I got some gardening and yard work done this morning. This afternoon I am finishing my new quilt and writing a blog post about it.

What subject would you like me to tackle for a mini quilt giveaway? I'm taking suggestions from all of you so that I can give you all what you want.

I'm going to be part of something special this fall within the quilt guild that I belong to. I'm really looking forward to it.

I working on my three new pieces in between chores and family stuff. Hopefully I'll get some pictures up soon.

I'm going to a Wine & Wool festival and a Quilt show tomorrow. It's going to be a fun day.

I had a marvelous time today at the shows. I got some new things to play with and some some amazing quilts.

I'm relaxing and working on little bits of this and that. I'm going to paint later with my two little boys.

I made some progress on my nature triptych and I'm baking some blueberry cobbler. Nice treat for a summer day.

I had fun at the quilt guild meeting tonight. I'm helping to form an art quilting group within the guild too. It's going to be a great year.

My quilt "Winter Woods" is going to be at the Jackson County Fair next week. If you are a local and want to see it close up head to the fair

You can see these day by day if you like and follow me here.

I have been working on a nature triptych for several weeks now.  I have finished all three.  These were inspired by Carol Sloan from an article in pages magazine.  I followed some of her techniques, but wandered off on my own path too.  These were a lot of fun to make and I want to continue the series.

They started out as three pieces of duck cloth with raggedy edges. I started out by putting a layer of gesso on the front and back of the canvas followed by a layer of plaster on one side.  While the plaster was still wet I pressed in joint tape, threads, and the imprints of leaves, lace, string, and many other things.  I wanted to have highly textured backgrounds to work on.  

Next I went through my stash of mono-prints and other bits and pieces to pick out elements that I wanted to use for collage.  I used bits of fabric and deli paper that I had mono-printed.  I also used a leaf and feathers that I have collected and pieces of torn cardboard. I arranged them onto the surface and took photos so that I would remember the placement later.

I took off the collage bits and added a glaze of paint to each one. I used browns and rusty oranges for my glazes.  I love Quinacridone Nickle Azo Gold and often use this rusty orangey brown.  After that layer was dry I added modeling paste to some areas and imprinted my self-carved nature stamps into it.  I let that dry and added a glaze of the Nickle Azo Gold over the entire piece and let it dry.  Then I glued down the collage pieces.  

Next I used bits and pieces of poetry and collaged them down. I also added eyelets to the top and put ribbons through so that I could hang these from sticks. The final touch was to apply some metallic Shiva paint sticks paint to select areas and rub them in. This gives some shimmer and helps to highlight the textures.  

Here are all three together.  

I plan to create more pieces like these this fall.  It will be the perfect time to get beautiful leaves for collage.  I like to pick up leaves in the fall and press and dry them.  I hope you enjoy these.

I added my nature pieces to my shop now. Please check it out. They are $75.00 each or all three for $150.00, which means you would get one for free. Go here to shop: http://www.handsandharts.com/paintings.html

Have a great week,
Janelle

I have been dyeing a lot of fabric this summer.  Summer is a great time to get a lot of fabric prepared to use the rest of the year. I enjoy dyeing fabric one color and multicolored.  I like to have a well stocked stash so that I have the fabric I need for any textile project I want to make. Here are some examples of pieces I have been dyeing this summer. I love to have fabric that is imbued with the essence of summer. 

This fall I will be teaching a dyeing workshop locally.  Keep watch for details coming up if you are interested in designing custom fabric.

I am also going to give away a mini quilt on my Facebook page soon.  If you would like to have a chance at that please like my page and stay tuned for the details.  Click here.

Have a great weekend,
Janelle   

The colors for this week are Raspberry, Tangerine, and a splash of lemon.

I had a piece of fabric already dyed with all three colors.  I love this color combo and have dyed a lot of fabric, ribbons, and thread in this colorway.  These colors say summer to me and remind me of eating sherbet, yum!  I had fun creating my block for this week.    

This week I followed the nature theme with a close-up of a flower. Just like all the other blocks in this series I fused squares of fabric and Pellon 805 together.  Then I cut pieces of fabric and fused them to the base to make my design.  I added free motion stitching to give the flower some shape..  I used french knots for the hand stitches this time around.  I love the texture that french knots add to the fabric.    

I also finished up all the blocks for Summer of Color and put them together into one art piece.  I decided to finish them all individually instead of sewing them into a traditional quilt.  I just don't do traditional when it comes to quilts.  Here are all the blocks with the backing before I quilted them.   

Here they are after I quilted them.  

Here's what the back of the bird block looks like.

I spent a while figuring out how I wanted to combine all these into one art quilt.  I decided to follow the nature theme and hang them from sticks.  I used my hand dyed rayon ribbon to hang them and to sew the blocks together in the centers.  I also wrapped the sticks with a ribbon that I dyed blue and green.  I love how this gives a glimpse of summer scenes and invokes memories of past summers.    

I hope that you like my art quilt. I enjoyed the Summer of Color challenge once again and look forward to next year.  
Janelle  

I have been working on a few small pieces of art this summer along with the Summer of Color challenge that I am participating in.  

These two photos are of a watercolor card that I painted.  I wanted to play around with my Twinkling H2O's after doing so much textile art.  I decided to paint this little whimsy girl on a thank you card.  The whole card shimmers in the light.  I love these watercolor paints for the beautiful rich colors and the shimmer and sparkle from the minerals.  

I drew this fairy on watercolor paper a while ago and decided that I finally needed to paint her.  She is also painted with the Twinkling H2O's.  It is good to play with supplies and gain more knowledge about how they work.  I also enjoy painting just for fun with no other purpose in mind.   

I read about how Susan Brubaker Knapp took a denim jacket and stitched it with a sewing theme.  You can read about her's here.  I found a denim jacket at a resale shop here in town and decided to do the same thing.  I have been working on this for a week, so I don't have very much done yet.  This project is perfect for those times when I have to sit and wait for one thing or another or while watching tv and movies with my family.  So far I am enjoying covering areas with these simple hand stitches. This project will keep me busy for a long time to come. 

I hope that you enjoyed these glimpses of what I'm up to.  Have a great week,
Janelle 

The colors for SOC this week are red, royal blue, and a touch of light blue.

I have a lot of blue fabrics and a bit of red that was enough for my plan for this week. I decided to dye a piece of fabric royal blue so that I had a piece dark enough.  I have been wanting to make a royal blue piece for a while, so this was the perfect time to make one. Here is my selection of fabrics for this week.  The one that looks white is actually a pale blue. 

Here is more of the piece of royal blue fabric that I dyed. 

In keeping with my nature theme I decided to make a bird on my quilt block for this week.  We have a lot of birds where I live and I enjoy watching them.  I loved creating this little bright bird.  I used my pale blue piece of fabric for the background.  Even though we were only supposed to use a touch of blue, this piece made a perfect backdrop.  There is only a touch of blue dye in the fabric, so it fits well enough for me.  I also added just a touch of light blue stitching to the bird feathers on the tummy and tail.  I also added some cream like a real bird would have.  I couldn't help but add some white swirls to the sky.  I love the movement that the swirls add to the background.  

I used rayon threads in the free motion stitching so that the feathers would shimmer in the light. 

I hope that you enjoy my submission for SOC this week.   Next week will be the last week and quilt block that I'm making for this quilt.  I hope to see you next week. 
Janelle

This week the colors for SOC are pink, apple green, and a splash of dark green.  

I happened to already have a couple of pink pieces of fabric to choose from and a large selection of greens.   I love having different greens in my fabric stash, they always come in handy. We had a big storm this week that knocked out our power for a day.  A lot of people in the area lost power for even longer.  So I'm glad that I didn't have to dye fabric this week.  I have to have water for that and no power means I have no water.  It wasn't that bad though, just inconvenient.  That is part of summer time in Michigan anyway.

So onto the art now.......  I recently got a new dye called Granny Apple, so I had to use that dye for this week. 

I decided that this color scheme was perfect for a little dragonfly and a grassy hill.  I used Pellon 805 to fuse all the fabrics down to each other and to the batting.  Then I free motion stitched the grass for texture and to make sure that none of those little pieces came up. I used a variegated perle cotton thread to outline the dragon fly with hand stitches.   

When I put the whole quilt together into a nature themed art quilt, it will all come together and be quite lovely.  I am really enjoying the colors this year and seeing all the creative projects that the other artists are making.  If you would like to check them out click here.

Until next week,
Janelle