My Street- Pretoria, An Art Quilt

About two and a half years ago Quilting Arts had a reader challenge that inspired me to do a quilt of my street.  I had just moved to South Africa at the time.  It was spring there, just before rainy season and the plants were all flowering.  Security is a serious issue in South Africa and I could help but remark on the juxtaposition of the heavy security and massive walls with the delicate beauty of Jacarandas and Fever Acacia in bloom looking like they were a part of a beautifully landscaped garden. 

The quilt is 12 1/2 x 16 1/8 x inches  (31.75 x 41 cm.)  The background is a gelatin print on cotton.  I used cottons and silk fabrics and plastic mesh screening. I used several techniques: couching of wool, cotton, polyester & plastic fibers, embroidery, beading, applique and painting with fabric paints.

10 Earth Day Giveaways, Coupons & Freebies

* The Green Bag Lady is doing a give away on her blog through Friday, April 23rd, for her handmade grocery bags and is willing to ship internationally to the winner. If you comment, say Wylde Iris sent you.
* Another green bag give away on Bag Snob, but hurry, you must post a comment of the worst ecological thing you have done by the end of Wednesday, April 21st.
* An eco-artist giant giveaway at Modish.
* Drugstore.com is giving up to 40% off of it's green products.
* Safeway also has coupons for some of their green products and a free reusable bag with $40 purchase.
* Reynolds Wrap has a $1.25 off coupon of their recycled aluminum foil.
* Get outside and see the earth up close at one of the National Parks with free admission all this week.
* Enter a chance to win a sun resistant, recycled shirt by 5pm ET, Earth Day.
* Enter the environmental books giveaway from Non-Toxic Kids.
* Free kid friendly compost gardening class on Earth Day at the Silver Spring, MD Whole Foods. While you are there you can check out the green kitchen exhibit.

Mail Art Affirmations

My little one at home has been particularly restful today, so I decided, last minute to enter the Cloth Paper Scissors reader challenge called 'Pass it On: Mail Art Affirmations.' You can go here to view the entry guidelines. Basically you create a multimedia 4x6in postcard with an affirming art-related quote. You mail that postcard to CPS magazine and then they swap it out for you with a postcard from another reader. My quote was inspired my something my minister said on Sunday and then rephrased in my own words. I was also thinking about all of the broken limbs on the trees in my area of the world because of our recent record snowfall. There will need to be some creative pruning if many of these trees are to survive.
My postcard back is watercolor paper that I painted, I then added crumpled tissue paper and lightly couched on many threads, fibers and strips of fabric to make up the tree body. The lettering is done in archival pen and gel pen.

News & New Thread tree Art Quilt

I mentioned a while back I am having a baby. According to the sonogram a few weeks ago, I am having a girl. I have two boys right now and am looking forward to experiencing a girl. We haven't decided on a name yet so suggestions are welcome.
My family will be moving, probably next summer, to the African country of Mali. I understand there to be a vibrant arts tradition in Mali and I am looking forward to exploring it. It will be exciting to share it with you.
Lastly, I have made some updates to my earlier Early Spring art quilt and have nearly completed another. The newer quilt is another thread tree quilt. I still have leaves to add, more rocks in the water and a bit more color in the right tree. I am still trying for the goal of six fiber arts pieces by December. I have two more art quilts in process. The new quilts are not thread tree quilts but different takes on the tree theme. Will I get six pieces done? We shall see.

Thread Tree Art Quilt

I have been working on this art quilt all summer. While that may be hard to believe, given the quilt's small size (aprox 18 x 15 inches), if you have seen my earlier post, you know why. Shown here is another art quilt in my thread tree series, this time depicting a foggy early spring morning in a forest. All of the quilt's elements are hand sewn and quited except the border and then I machine quilted many of the elments again. The background is a commerical batik and I have layered fine tulle to suggest fog and the light green dusting the ground has in early spring. The trees are made from threads as my title suggests and also yarn, archival markers, as well as strips of commerical and handpainted fabric. I am considering additonal quilting over the tulle and also beading small transparent beads to suggest dew.

Seasons Thread Tree Art Quilt

I mentioned in an earlier post working on an art quilt with the thread trees I have been making. I am going to only put up what I can scan because my camera is recharging and I am submitting this quilt to the county fair tomorrow. This will be my first submission! Try to imagine the pictures in the order of Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter and you will have the basic idea. Wish me luck.

Advice from a Tree

This fall I did am edition of hand illustrated books to the beautiful poem Advice From a Tree. I used some of the thread trees on the cover that I mentioned in an earlier post. One of the things I am working on right now is an art quilt called 'Seasons' based on the thread tree idea. I hope to post it here soon.
I am also working on a doll of the night sky with actual lights incorporated in her design. More to come.