A Few Things to Show

I keep telling myself that I’m going to take pictures of the quilting I’ve been doing lately and then I’m going to write a LOOONGGG blog post….

Yeah, haven’t gotten there yet.  I’m never home on weekdays before dark (I need natural light and my front fence for good quilt pictures), then I totally forget on weekends….

But I really owe my readers some text and pictures, so I’m going to forge ahead with the cell phone pix and some short stories.  If you read this:  text, Facebook message, or even call me and tell me to get my camera out!

MN Quilter’s Show

If you’ve read this blog with any regularity, you know that I decided to do the challenge at the MN quilt show and that I struggled with it.  I designed a pattern, did a test of it in colors other than the challenge and then made it for the challenge.  I didn’t look hard enough at the rules, and my first piece – albeit gorgeous – was too large!

Rather than making the piece again in a smaller size; I designed it, so that would have been easy, I abandoned the whole project for a while.  Then, I quickly designed another piece. 

Here is an “in progress” picture.  Since I hadn’t made a test of this one, some of my designing was done on the fly.  Let me explain what is going on here.

There are TWO fabrics that had to be included and had to be prominent.  One of them is the black with white dots that shows pretty well.  See the center, and the black shapes coming out from it?  That first fabric is the “wings” on those black shapes as well as the center of the unattached outside triangles.  Also see the paper in the upper right?  That’s my design sheet – the focus fabrics are represented in yellow on it.

The second fabric is the strip on the side of the picture, laying to the right, on the carpet, totally unattached.  It is actually already in the quilt – in the centers of the other unattached triangles.  You cannot see it well, can you?  That was a problem.  Notice in my paper design again that the corners are supposed to be the solid like black.  I was planning to put simple squares of that black fabric in the corners (empty spaces on the laid out piece).

Here’s the finished piece hanging at the show.  Notice what I did to add more of that focus fabric and make it visible.  I think it came out well.

I think that pointed corners would have fit better with the design, but I was down to the wire!

Cats and Quilting

What is it with cats and fabric?  All I have to do is lay out a square of fabric ANYWHRE and they are there!

I was sorting through fabrics and cutting strips.  As I finished with each, I piled them up.  Bronx decided that it was his place to be.  He fits perfectly on my pile (I fold my fabrics “bolt style” to fit on my shelves!

My cats are not supposed to be on the ironing board.  I’m trying hard to train them not too.  In fact, the water bottle seen in the background here is the “training tool”.  Fat lot of good its doing.  I didn’t have the heart to kick him off – he looks so comfy!

A bit of a note, the quilt he is laying on is one that I just finished for a friend.  She did the appliquéd bears as well as pieced the top; I simply quilted and bound it for her.  Michelle!  Enjoy your moment of fame!!!

Sylvia’s Sampler

Last up on quilting items before I move onto glass… The Sylvia’s sampler.

I have been working on this for something like THREE YEARS… but, only very sporadically!  The quilt is something around 140 separate 6 inch blocks (it’s a book, look it up).  I am doing it all reds/blacks fabrics with the same background fabric on all blocks.  I have all the fabrics in a recyclable grocery bag.  I bring it to some quilt meetings and some vacations and cut out blocks and baggie them up.  Then, 3-4 times a year, my quilt group has a “Sylvia’s Sampler Saturday” and I catch up on the piecing.  I have somewhere been 60-70 blocks done and I am currently out of cut out blocks and need to have a cutting day.

My plan is to make as many blocks as my background fabric allows.  I won’t do the 140+, but may be close.  I do have a few duplicates already (it’s not a project I’m being anal about!).

A couple weeks ago was the most recent Saturday get together.  Here’s what I pieced there.

Glass Work

I have some huge conflicts!  Quilting is my first love… nothing will ever surpass it… but, the glass work is drawing me….

Since I don’t have my own studio and kiln yet, I travel to The Studio at Rush Creek and use their facilities.  It’s 30 miles from my house and I feel the need to spend many hours there to justify the drive.  Also, just like quilting, it does take me time to piece together what I put into the kiln.  

This and That

I’m dividing the recent pieces from the kiln into two piles.  First I’m going to show you some items done in a variety of techniques/styles.

Plate #1 (no Name)

This is an approximate 8 inch piece, slumped into a “square in square” mold.  It is clear glass, with evenly spaced purple squares.  On each square is a smaller square of white and then a disc cut from a purple “rod”.

Plate #2 – Green Crackle

The name is more the technique/description….

This is done in a cool style that one of my mentors – Irene – taught me.  The crackle part is powdered glass that is sprinkled thickly on a special fiber paper.  It is then spritzed with water and the paper twisted to give cracks.  I fused clear glass on top, then after removing the paper, fused white glass to the bottom and slumped it into a square in a square mold.  It is 12 inches.

Plate #3 – Another Brick in the Wall

Ok, that’s not its name, but it’s amusing me to type it!

This one came to me late at night and I had fun with it.  Red glass is much more expensive than other colors.  Apparently it has to have real gold in it to give the color.  I’d made a plate a while back with red and had some scraps.  This piece is about 8 inches and slumped into a “sushi” shape – with the corners raised.

The white “stringers” of glass are thin rods that I melted over a candle.  I think it gives a “graffiti” look to the piece!

Plate #4 – Leaf Bowl

Not really a plate, but I didn’t want a third category here!  This is a special piece of glass – I did NOT put in all those little pieces; it came that way!!  I did, however, add the green glass on the top to be a vein in the leaf.  It’s hard to see in this picture, but it really is a medium deep bowl and quite useful.  We actually used it on the fourth of July for fruit!

My “Style” Glass Pieces

I am developing a style of my own with my glass work.  There’s definitely an element of quilting in it, but it’s also something that I seem to do in a lot of mediums.  I have a way of doing something very geometric, and then adding random components.  I’ll show you the pictures and you’ll notice.

Piece #1

This is the first piece with my "patchwork" style.  This is an 8 inch piece, slumped into a square in square shape.  It’s quite simple compared to those that follow, and is purely geometric; no embellishments as you will see later.

There's a little square piece that started the embellishment.  I don't have a picture of that right now to include.

Piece #2

Here’s the piece that made me realize I was onto something.  When I returned to the studio to pull it out of the kiln, the Studio owner made sure to point it out!  You’ll also start noticing a theme - I use a lot of orange.  I don’t seem much orange in glass work, or even quilting; I think that’s becoming another of my trademarks!

Notice the embellishments?  They are what takes if from geometric to chaotic.  The squiggly lines are stringers of glass that I melted over a flame and shaped.  The round shapes with designs are discs cut from “millifiori” rods.

Piece #3 - Orange Large

After the praise I got for the last piece, I decided to take it a step further.  This piece, and the one that follows are 8 inches by 24 inches.  The embellishments on both are melted stringers, millifiore pieces and discs cut from solid color rods as well.

I keep meaning to document some of this process, but keep forgetting to take the pictures; I just get so engrossed in what I’m doing!

I did snap ONE picture in the making of these…

Then, the finished product.  Both my hubby and my friend Dave say that they see a fish in there.  However, my friend Sue says it's a wine bottle.  See if you can see what they are referring to...

A quick story about this piece.  I made it on a Sunday and put it into the kiln.  The following Friday, I had a really bad day at work.  Just before I left, I pulled up facebook and was surprised to see a picture of this piece on the Studio’s site.  I had not even seen it yet!

This is what the Studio wrote:  “And this one was made in the studio by the fabulous Mary Schwartz. Can't tell from the photo, but it's around two feet high. Mary's main art form is quilting and textiles . . . you can see the quilting influence in her design.”

Needless to say, my bad day became a lot better!

Piece #4

The other large piece that I made that day was more in what I consider my personal color scheme (versus the artist color scheme which is orange based).