Works in Progress- Late November

Thought I would show you what I am working on right now.  First up is the remake of my “Hairy Leg” Quilt.  This fun quilt was designed with my good friend, Lori Seavey-Christian, when we made quilts together.  The name comes from the “hair” I quilted into Lori’s quilt.

work-in-progress by Carla Barrett

Sharp eyes will notice that I still have to quilt in the legs and hair still.  LOL  I plan to use different color thread for this.  Anyway, this quilt is free-handed (meaning it is hand guided) with my A1 longarm quilting machine.

Next up is my Tropical Leaf design that I am using pigment paint to color.  As you can see in this picture, I only have one section/color completed so far:

Digital Quilt Design by Carla Barrett. May be purchased at digitechpatterns.com

I decided I needed some new colors, so I am awaiting my pigment order to finish.  The digital designs of my Tropical Leaf set is available at Digitech Designs.  I do have lots more digital designs waiting to be released in 2013, too.

Because I tend to work in several mediums at once- I am also working on a freeform beaded project for a quilt.  I hope to finish several quilt designs featuring my freeform beaded work on them in 2013!

Your turn- what are YOU working on?  Hugs, Carla

Quilt With Color

I thought I would show my experimental small quilt.   I purchased pigment paints a year ago, and I thought it was time to try them out.  Here are the pictures:

I used pigment powders and have been experimenting with using different mediums.  This brings out the child in me as I carefully paint within the lines.

Off to start my next one now.  Take care, Carla

Inktense Fabric Paint Tutorial

Santa brought me a large pack of Inktense pencils by Derwent, so I decided to stitch a block design using my new IQ, and then paint it.  This is a work in progress (WIP), but I thought I would share a tutorial.

What you need:

Inktense set of pencils (comes in different sized packs.  I own a 36 set and a 24 set)

Small fabric brushes (bought at Michaels.  Read the label as it will say it is used on fabric)

Stitched quilted fabric design (I used a digital design by Karen McTavish, but you could stitch a stencil or any design.)

Fabric or Textile medium- I used 2 types on the sample- Aloe Vera gel and Liquidtex Fabric Medium diluted 50/50% with water (see baby jar in photo above).  Jo Sonja also makes a fabulous medium for use on fabric, some with added sheen.  (Google “Jo Sonya” to buy online).

Pencil sharpener

_________________________________   Let’s Begin!

Step One:  Stitch your fabric first.  This is a quilted project, so use any high quality fabric.  I used whatever I had on hand.  For the design portion, you may use any design available- either hand-drawn, digitized or a stencil.  My sample uses a Karen McTavish design stitched out on my A1 brand of longarm quilting machine using an Intelliquilter (IQ).

Step Two: Using your diluted fabric/textile medium or aloe vera gel, carefully saturate the quilted fabric design where you plan to paint.  I discovered through trial and error that the diluted fabric medium worked best and dried less stiff than either the full strength fabric medium or the aloe vera gel.  Use what works best for you.

Step Three:  While your quilted fabric area is wet, carefully color in using the Inktense pencils.  I used 2-3 colors on my sample.

Step Four:  Last step, you dip your brush in the diluted fabric/textile medium and carefully blend the Inktense colors.  Go slow, and strive for accuracy.  Once dry, the Inktense is permanent, according to the manufacturer.  In the future, I plan to test this by washing and drying a test sample, then comparing to my control sample.

That’s all you do!  Very easy, beginner project.  Here is the finished piece:

This is just a test sample, so I think I will keep it green/white, then frame it for my studio.  In the future, one of my goals is to do a wholecloth quilt design.

Final Note:  In the spirit of giving credit where credit is due, the first artist to color a quilt (that I am aware of) is Helen Stubbings from Australia.  Helen has been most generous to share her Colorque technique with others, many who now show and teach across the US.  You can purchase Helen’s book from Amazon here.

Another shout out to Sherry Rogers-Harrison, who uses a variety of products in her Inklique work to color quilts.  I hope you will visit both websites if you have enjoyed my free tutorial.

Regards, Carla

Handmade Ornaments

Happy Holidays to you!  Today, I thought I would share my Christmas tree and all the handmade ornaments from past years.  When the kids were little, each year I made them a new Christmas ornament, with their name and date.

Here is my tree.  I have to confess that I still need to add the angel at the top, and ornaments, too.  Plus start wrapping the gifts. Note to self- bring in the ladder!

Here is my favorite ornament, though I did not make it:

   I own a few of these cute sock cows, plus some sock monkeys.

Now for the homemade ornaments:

  This ornament is special as it was made by my crafty grandmother about 30 years ago.

Cookie cutter and painted dough star.

Tin punch ornament using frozen orange juice lid.

Large Jingle Bell- writing using a white paint pen.  Used to have a ribbon bow top, but oh- well.

Beaded Santa.  This was given to me by my MIL.

Ribbon Candy wreath.

  Fabric horse ornament on a dowel.

Potpourri angel with lace and stainless steel pad hair.

  Victorian lace roses.

  Plastic straw ornament.

  Cross-stitch kitty circa 1985 for my daughter Amy.

  Amy made this cute snowman ornament when she was 9 out of painted tin can.

Anyone care to share their homemade or favorite ornaments on their blog, too?  I would love to see yours.  The ornaments above remind me of happy memories of Christmas past.  Hugs, Carla

 

 

Carla’s Etsy Find!

On my facebook account, which is listed by my name, Carla Barrett, I had a recent request to be friends from another artist, Puteri Noor.  I accepted, then went to view her work.

Puteri live in Malaysia and does wonderful, stunning silk and batik fabric paintings!  I will admit I loved them so much, I bought 4 pieces from her Etsy shop.   Here is a sampling:

and another:

The colors are so rich!  Here is another silk art:

I visited Puteri’s  Etsy store this morning and noticed that she is currently sold out.  However, be sure to look at her listing of textile art and you can contact her to make a custom piece to add to your quilting.

If you do this, tell her Carla sent you.  🙂   I love to showcase other artists and let my readers see such a rich variety of women creating art in our world.

Chicken Collection and other art

The co-owner of the yacht and house shown in an earlier post also has a chicken collection- which people have given her over the years.  Besides having a chicken thing going on, we also share the same birthday, too.  I took some pictures of just a few:

I’ll switch gears to public art.  I found this fish hanging up on the north side of Bay Harbor in the shopping area:

and this butterfly bench that will be auctioned off for charity:

While shopping in Downtown

, I saw this cute coffee shop with colorful stoneware cemented into the wall:

and more :

Pretty cool, I think!

Back to quilting in the morning!

Selvage and Quilted Canvas

Hello to anyone new to my blog today from Karen’s Selvage Blog site!   Karen is showcasing my selvage chicken I made a while ago:

Yesterday, I was working on a new Selvage project.  It is not done, I ran out of wrapped cording, so I need to wrap some more, then stitch it together.  Here is my Selvage work-in-progress:

Today, I am working on a beaded project- a dimensional peyote stitch.  Before I go, I wanted to show you an older project, now quilted.

I painted this huge canvas earlier this year.  This is quilted for texture, and will eventually be made into a purse.  The first image is a close-up with good lighting, the second is a larger image of the canvas.

Creative Adventure Week, Part 1

I’ve been promising a report and pictures from my visit with Lori, so here is part one.

After a 6-7 hour drive south to Manhattan Beach, CA, I arrived to Lori’s full of creative energy and excitement! After unloading the car, which was stuffed full of artistic supplies, fabric, metal art tools, sewing machine, etc, Lori and I headed over to nearby Torrance for a side trip to visit my father, who had been discharged from the local hospital.

Note: My father, Carl, is now back in Missouri and feeling better.

Day 1 was spent shopping to gather more supplies for the week.  We hit the bead store, JoAnn craft store, Radio Shack, etc. for supplies, then spent the rest of the day making jump rings in my new jump ring maker, then working on chain maille bracelets:

Day 2:  We met up with friend and talented artist Capril to hit a fabulous swap meet (Roadeum) to gather more supplies for the week.  This swap meet has lots of garment district cast offs, remnents and it is a treasure hunt for creative souls!

We came home, then painted huge pieces of canvas using the principle of layering.  Here is what my canvas looked like:

and here is Lori’s:

and what she did with a piece of it:

Lori later attached her handle.  What I loved about this project is that we have different styles, yet both turned out terrific!  We also finished our chain maille bracelet in the evening.

Day 3: We continued to add paint layers to the canvas, tumbled the chain maille bracelets with steel shot mix to make them smooth,  etched copper to make into charms,  and started our little purses to hold our iphones.  Here are mine, two colorways to match different outfits:

And this one is to wear with my brown toned clothing:

A quick note about my iphone above.  That one is my new iphone as I accidentally misplaced my last one.  This one has 3G technology and I love it even more!!  I made my iphone bags so I don’t lose it again!

Hmmm….  shall I make a tutorial when I can find the time?

To Be Continued….   This takes you through Day 3 of my visit.  I skipped over the laughter, the yummy food, and how warm and inviting that Lori and her family treated me.  They always make me feel like a family member when I visit.

Hugs, Carla

WIP

Been painting alot lately! Let me show you some pictures of my 2nd class homework project after the first 2 steps:

and Step 2:

Keep watching!

Loving, healing thoughts go out to my Dad today. He had surgery today to fix the first of 2 blocked carotid arteries. He is in recovery as I type this and he’ll spend the night in the ICU. We lost my mom 2 years ago, so I am very worried about my dad’s health right now. During the surgery, it was reported that his blood pressure went through the roof. Please send healing thoughts to the hospital in Missouri.

Take care, Carla

Mixed Media painting homework

I’ve mentioned before about Paulette Insall’s mixed media background painting class that I’ve been taking. Here is the progression of the 5 lessons:

My homework canvas above needs some finishing work, but it is almost completed. The collage words on the canvas are a reminder that it is always better to listen than to talk. Hmmm… I do need to work on this.

I am taking one more class from Paulette- one on painting faces. Guess I had better practice sketching faces since you need to draw them in order to paint. LOL

WIP_ I’m also working on a freeform beading bracelet with a peyote base, and also another painting class with a different teacher. I’ll take pictures so you can see the progression on my next set of lessons. I hope to quilt another quilt in the next few days, so keep watching….

Hugs, Carla