Parrots in Paradise

FINALLY! After about three weeks I finished this work.  These parrots were at the resort we went to in Maui.  Before leaving I'd read about a new technique for collaging fabric and thought using the Hawaiian fabrics from the trip would work well with this piece.

After drawing the artwork full size I pieced the image together using various pieces of fabrics in the realistic colors.  The pieces were attached using tacky glue.

I should have used the sewing machine to sew the birds one at a time onto the background fabric but was impatient and decided to do the birds and ring at once.  (This shouldn't be a surprise to most people.) I also added the green borders (without waiting...) 

After the piecing I started quilting. Cotton batting was placed between the artwork and a backing layer.  I used the machine to create the pattern in blue and did the embroidery by hand to outline the birds and hoop.  At this point the fabric was so thick it actually hurt my hand which made me feel ridiculous.  

The face was created using pastels for fabric.  I wasn't pleased with the result  (at all... kicking, screaming, punching...) and ended up embroidering around the face.  

FINALLY, the edges were done to tie the piece together.  This was my favorite piece so far... and a good way to end the summer!

Solitude

Solitude

2010

This is the first piece I created after returning from a trip to Hawaii.  Not having a completely finished art room to work in, and not fully wanting to come in out of the sun, I decided to work on something that I could do mostly by hand that could travel to wherever I wanted to sit at the time.  

The image came from boredom on the plane ride. My husband and I traveled with our friend Haley, and unfortunately (for Brent) Haley and I both have a tendency to get bored when sitting still.  Since needles and scissors are frowned upon when boarding a plane we turned to ink poisoning instead.  I drew this on Haley's arm and then again after she washed her hands... and then again a couple days later in the sand. 

The plan came easily.  I have stacks of Hawaiian fabric from two separate trips that I have been wanting to use.  I decided on this fabric to be the backing and use colors from this to be the color scheme.  All of the artwork was 'drawn' with pink threads and then accented with the actual color.

I love the end result.  In fact, Brent secretly hopes no one buys it.  I'm going to keep going with this theme, I love the backing fabrics and want to use more of them.

Here we go...

I'm new to blogging.... completely.  My goal this summer was to create work, start a facebook page, and then create an etsy account.  Somewhere 'start blogging' was slipped in and now I am ready to go- I think.  I hope to use this as a way to show the work I am creating and get feedback and encouragement. Thanks for checking out my blog, and be sure to come back as I struggle to figure out what I'm doing with it!