Working On Windmills

Working on Windmills again, (be nice, I could certainly be Tilting at Windmills here, in fact that will be my title the next time I talk about this project.).
I've been laying all these out, trying different combinations of dark/light, prints/colors, etc. Not sure the pattern interplay between the blocks comes out very well using all prints together like this, so I might have to end up cutting hand-dyed solids to go with all the prints.  I think the blocks that have prints with close-to-solids read much better.  But I probably need to lay out even more to see what the overall effect is with a bigger selection.
So hmmmm.
More thinking about this one is in order.  I don't want to go to all the work of piecing this thing and not even be able to see the pattern you know?  So it might be a matter of laying this out very carefully instead of sewing it all randomly together (which is of course my first and admittedly lazy instinct).  What do you think?

The Queen's Return

My altered board book of Queens has returned from its year-long rounds through the hands of several Traveler's Hart artists and it really is great! This is the cover that I did that survived all the travelling much much better than I'd thought it would. Guess that foam padding helped, I thought for sure I'd lose at least one of the letter tiles. All that extra glue and glitter held it together though.
This is how the first spread by Kathy Martin looks, aren't these colors and transparencies fabulous? So much great complexity on these pages.

This is an almost graffitti looking urban design, how about all those great fonts together? I loved the little message pocket on the right, it has a very cool poem on it.
Turning the page we get to meet the Queen of The Rodeo by Terry Owenby. Doesn't that expression just make you smile?

and her neighbor The Button Queen by Shelley Boose, love all the embellishments on this page, so dimensional.



Next up is Queen For A Day! by Kim Wood. She's used some of my favorite vintage Anne Taintor imagery.She's co-ruling the Queenly Housewife page spread with Queen Of Her Kitchen by Vivan Montre. She looks like she would scare the potatoes right out of their jackets with her intensity.

Here's my page spread with the signature card pocket on the far right.


Here are the signature cards, actually queens of various suits from a couple decks of playing cards which each artist altered to suit her work.

And the reverse of those cards.
What a fun collaboration! I'm so glad that I played in this project because I learned a lot working on all these altered board books.

You can see the work I did in all the other altered board books for this project:

Jewels & Treasures,

Land Of Sky Blue Water,

Doorways & Passages,

Inspirational Quotes,

Favorite Quotes,

Eat Your Vegies.

Eat Your Vegies

One last and final book in the Altered Board Book Round Robin has come and gone. Vivian Montre's was one of my favorites which she had entitled "Eat Your Vegies!" She included a selection of vintage photos to use in our spread.


A background of a Dover wrapping paper of historic designs. Several artichokes along the right edge. And then three quotes that had to do with vegetables printed out on vellum.


"Let My words, Like Vegetables, Be Tender and Sweet, For Tomorrow I May Have to Eat Them" - Author Unknown



"Did You Ever Stop To Taste A Carrot? Not Just Eat It, But Taste It? You Can't Tast The Beauty And Energy Of The Earth In A Twinkie" - Astrid Alauda

"Life Is Like Eating Artichokes, You Have Got To Go Through So Much To Get So Little." - Thomas Aloysius Dorgan

I used several shades of green acrylic paint including metallic and some gold for the background. Round motifs were cut out of the wrapping paper used on the other page.
I cut the hand and arm out so she could be grasping the bunch of carrots. I thought her expression looked slightly exasperated like "Man, why did I plant SO many carrots this year?"

That was a fun project to participate in, I'm really looking forward to seeing what my book looks like when it is returned to me.

The Final Corpse

A fifth and final Exquisite Corpse has arrived home out of our group, so here is the story of how I finished this one off. Here is what the piece looked like when it arrived, almost a cool look just like that, based on the interesting covering-up fabrics the other artists had used. The background fabric is a Crate&Barrel table runner out of a heavy cotton toweling. I was last up, so I got to do legs and feet.

There was a border of a fancy kind of sheer/silky fabric and vertical beading as my clue at the uncovered edge. Obviously the bottom of a skirt right? I placed two pieces of lace to bring the kind of harsh stripes to the background and then some satin for legs and metallic shot cotton for shoes. I thought that fancy fabrics were warranted based on the clue I had going, this figure was obviously "dressed up".

I used Steam a Seam to fuse the shapes down then did a satin stitch around the shapes. I was going for a " kicking up her heels and dancing" kind of look to what the legs and feet were doing.

I thought the shoes needed a bit more of something, so I used a couple of heart charms anchored down with some white glass beads.
The green looked good with the green of the background.

Here's a closer look at one of the feet.

And then I added the word "heart" as the final step.

For more on the Exquisite Corpse project be sure and check out our group blog where more of these great projects can be seen.

Tango Lady

Yet another of the Exquisite Corpse projects has arrived home. This time it is Linda's, you can see the whole figure over at her blog TangoMusings. So this first picture shows my original fabric choices.

I first started in with some heavy satin stitching on the edges of each piece.
But that purple triangle wanted to stay, but it just didn't look right after the stitching. So it was jettisoned in favor of....

Beads! Of course beads, always with the beads. A strange necklace of beads stitched along the neckline.A closeup shot so you can see the bone beads a little better, along with the supporting cast of round glass beads.

Oh, and don't forget to add the words: BELL SWEETLY, this time embroidered on. Made me think of Laverne and her script "L".

For even more Exquisite Corpse action, be sure and check out our group blog.

Documenting Exquisiteness

Here's a little sign in book I made to accompany my Exquisite Corpse on her journey. Some of the other artists added in notes or tied on fibers to the outside of the book. I cut this picture out of a nat'geo ages ago, but never found the right spot for it. Thought this was perfect for this group of artists making this complete figures together, piece by piece. The picture is on top of some torn handmade paper that has gold printing on it.
The book I think was made by painter and fiber artist Marion Barnett aka Artmixter ages ago when we were swapping stuff back and forth.
This mysterious looking card turned out to be an evelope containing a spare...

A spare wing from Jan! She had added the two wings to the shoulder area of my piece. This is really cool, so lacy and airy and sparkly, and I can't wait to think of something to use it on. A one-winged doll perhaps? To go with my Studio Guardian Angel perhaps?

A cool unicorn card with stars ( I love sticky stars too and put them on stuff all the time)

If there is another exquisite corpse, maybe I'll use this book again as there is plenty of room left.

Another Corpse Is Revealed

Another Exquisite Corpse has made it home to its owner, Betty, so I get to reveal what I worked on. I ended up with quite a conundrum, am I really supposed to be making another skirt? Yes, I ended up guessing correctly. It seemed a bit off to be doing hips again, but from the clues that I could gather from the 1/2" left uncovered I thought that the figure had been done up to the waist. (Pshew, I was right!)

Here is what it arrived looking like. White shiny satin with some interesting lumps and bumps already on there and covered up.

I came up with a bubble skirt look using some of my hand-dyed cotton, commercial cottons and batiks, sequin waste, lace and some interesting fibers. I also did a lot of embroidery stitching to give more texture to the entire skirt.

But of course it didn't look done without some beads (a definite trend here with all of my exquisite corpse work).

After the addition of some shiny green beads outlining the "pockets" and some belt height glass beads it looks more like a real skirt.

Here's some beady details.

The word that I chose was SHINY which I embroidered on with my machine in the same color thread as all the other embroidery.

And I collaged a little card for Betty's sign-in book.

The sentence that came out of this one is: Magnificent Angel knowingly see shiny character.

Pretty shiny eh? In the Firefly sense that is.

Go check out our group blog for more Exquisite Corpse action.

A Tail Artist's Heart Became Bounteous Night

I was so thrilled to receive my completed exquisite corpse home this week! Here she is in all her glory.

She began with just a head, and four empty squares outlined in black thread. Part of the game this round was to add words in a certain sequence to hopefully make an interesting poem by the end. The background fabric was a white-on-white print that I'd dyed years ago and never used for anything. I thought it had a lot of movement and interest for a background, and I liked the colors.



This is the face that I created, a self-portrait of sorts (me and my big mouth, and ever present pony tail). Words are: A TAIL
This is the neck/chest that Jan made. How do you like those lacy wings, the breast is dimensional by the way. I really love that the heart is right at the throat chakra, one of my key points that I'm working on (ie expressing myself verbally and clearly). The words are: ARTISTS HEART

This is the torso/waist that Betty made. I love the sequined belt, so pretty and flashy, and if my waist were this small in real life, I would totally be wearing one to call attention to it! The word is: BECAME

This is the hips/upper legs that Joanie made. How about that apron, and jeans, I love how this represents a big part of me being the housewifey type and all. The word is BOUNTEOUS

And finally the lower legs/feet that Linda made, dancing away the time of the night. Isn't that beaded watch and parts a cool addition? The word is: NIGHT

Here is the whole thing (click picture to see it larger). The poem reads:

A Tail Artist's Heart Became Bounteous Night.

I'm considering switching out the "i" in tail for an "l", because then it would wind up being a very descriptive self portrait!

I'm thinking this would be fun to hang on the outside of my studio door so visitors will know who they're going to encounter...

This was a really fun round of this project, I'm glad that I talked myself into participating and can't wait to see the other three completed corpses from my group as well as all the others, which will all be posted in some form or another at Exquisite Corpse Textiles
or at our Flickr Group.

Life Has Been Your Art

Here's the most recent altered board book that I've worked on from the round robin collaboration I'm participating in. One more book is left to work on, almost done!
This book's theme is that it is to be a book of inspirational quotes. I found a quote I liked and then chose an overall green theme as you can of course see right away.



The pages were already gessoed, so I laid down several colors of green acrylic paints, did some texturing with various papers while the paint was wet and then added some gold brushed on the edges and center of the book. There was a card that I'd saved that I cut the Redoute' flower from, which is over the top of scraps of lime green cotton/satin left over from my Halloween costume. Redoute' is one of my favorite botanical artists, if you haven't seen his work, it is definitely worth the time to check out.
On the right hand page, you can see a stamped image of a woman, some green lace, sequin waste and green cotton fabric which was stitched before being glued to the page on top of some green ribbons and a painted tag. The dots are a puffy paint which started out orange but dried to this nice greeny-gold color.


The quote says: "Life has been your art. You have set yourself to music.Your days are your sonnets." Oscar Wilde

The left page has the Redoute' flower and the fabric scraps.

Now on to working out what to put in the last board book I have left to finish...