week 36--sun

Today begins week 41 of 2011, so this is only a few weeks late (oh, plus one year) ... I will spare you the lame excuses for the delay. They're the same as always anyway.

The inspiration to finally take this one on came last week during a 'moment of silence'; I envisioned my 'core' and it burst out (just figuratively!) like the sun, from deep yellow/orange at the center, layered colors fading to the edges. Last April, at the big quilt show in Cinci, I'd purchased some silk dyes but hadn't used them yet. This project called for them, finally. I went for it, without reading the directions first (rebel!) so the squiggles/rays didn't stay white and the colors didn't quite stay within their boundaries, but hey, this is the sun. Just try telling it to not flare out.
Not the clearest pic--my cell phone camera usually takes great ones, but evidently not this time.

Silk, silk resist, Colorhue dyes, decorative yarn, cotton thread, glass beads.

week 35--ring

Hey--remember me?!? I'm still here! It only took six months to complete the latest word! Actually, six months to figure out what to do, a few hours to complete it. Must...loosen...up.

So, 'ring'. Lots of phrases with that word came to mind but what to do with them was the tough part; rather than pick one, I combined them. On key rings I put little jump rings, on those I attached little pieces of vellum on which I'd written the phrases: ...of fire, Olympic..., ...toss, bathtub..., key..., ear..., ...a bell, wedding..., brass..., ...tone, with this..., ...around the rosie, circus..., ...s of Saturn. Did I miss any?

I am quite curious about the next word I'll pull out of the bag--probably some spiders in there, too.

Cotton fabrics, colored metal key rings, base metal jump rings, vellum, pigma pen, thread.

week 34--moon

Back so soon? Yup, I am. I liked this word from the moment I pulled it. Ideas didn't flow right off the bat, but I just went for it after a couple of days and here it is. As I worked on it, I wasn't sure the result would reflect the effort, but I am happy with the outcome after all.

I mixed three colors of Jacquard Lumiere paint (metallics in pewter, pearl white, and turquoise) in soapy water on waxed paper, dipped an old cd in it and 'stamped' it on a used dryer sheet, hoping that soap bubbles would create the illusion of craters. The concept was there, but the process didn't quite get it, so with a foam brush I just painted the whole thing, using more pewter to the shadow side and more pearl white to the bright side. Machine-stitching with two shades of grey thread took care of the craters.

Painted used dryer sheet, Jacquard paint, fusible web, cotton backing fabric, machine-stitching, hand-beading.