Home For Sale in Calvert County Maryland-Waterfront

Okay, why not advertise my house on my blog? My husband and I have decided it is time to restructure our life style and relocate. Our home is on the market now. To see the virtual tour go to: http://idx.imprev.net/03782F07/37305/504813 These virtual tours are amazing!

Our home is wonderful and gorgeous. It is on St. Leonards creek near Solomons Island.

We have 2.5 acres that is mostly waterfront. The house is too big now that it is just the two of us living here.

We are considering a move to Sarasota Florida. Anyone that has information about Sarasota, please share it with me.

I sure will miss my wonderful studio. I plan to establish another one just as nice if not better.

We are excited about the possibilities.

If you would like more information, please let me know. We have three pages of details about the extras in the house.

Quilt University Class: Floral Pizzazz Has Begun

My new class: Floral Pizzazz opened yesterday. So far about 25 people have signed in out of the 62 that signed up. The people span the globe. There are people from: France, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, England, Austrailia, Canada, Mexico and more.
I am pleased to be working with such a diverse group. I will post reports here as the class progresses during the next seven weeks.
If you tried to sign up and didn't get in, there will be another class opening in April. Watch for it in the newsletter.

February news

February is usually not a fun month for me and I use it for re assessing my work. Now that winter has set in, I long for spring and summer. Luckily my studio is in the basement and has no windows. As much as I would love to have natural light in my studio the benefit is to not know what the weather is. If it is cold and dreary, I can work without concern. If it is nice and warm outside, I won't be tempted to stop working. Either way, I get my work done.

I have been experimenting with collage lately. After studying with Beryl Taylor last summer, I rediscovered my love of paper I took an inventory of my supplies and realized how much paper I had! This was collected over the years and stored away. I also have a lot of litho prints that are left over from when I owned a gallery. They are old, out of date and I have no idea what to do with them. They are not appealing to me or anyone I have shown them to. Everytime I go into my storage area I stumble over the enormous print rack stuffed with prints in plastic sleeves. These are a sore spot for me but I can't bring myself to pitch them.

Recently I decided to gather all of my paper, ephemera, paints, embellishments, etc. and set up for collage work. I have two wall paper books and watercolor paper. I was thinking of what else I could add and then it dawned on me: The prints! Do I dare tear them up?? Is this against some "art law". It felt like it was however; I decided it was only paper and began to tear!
How cathartic that was!! I started with the ones I liked the least. The Civil War officers had haunted me long enough. After I tore them and made fabric paper with them, Robert E. Lee never looked so good to me! I was so excited that I gained a whole new level of interest.

I made two large sheets, about 36" x 30", of fabric paper using both the wall paper and prints. Both were nice and thick and when the sheet was finished and dry it had the feel of leather.

Next I had to start making little bits of miscellaneous ephemera and painted papers to have a collection to draw from. Now some of the weird embroidery thread and junky costume jewelry can be considered. All of a sudden many of those things I saved or bought, but didn't know why, became useful.

All of this preparation took longer than I expected. I started out with my favorite design of a Kimono. Using a nine patch as a layout, I proceeded to make nine little kimonos; how tedius this was! Fiddling with the tiny pieces and details wore me out quick. I am accustomed to working fast and spontaneously. I vascilated back and forth because I also love details. As I plugged along, I had second thoughts about this working style; I wasn't getting anywhere. The kimonos looked nice but the layout was to structured and had no focal point. My work room was a mess and I was not enjoying myself. I felt the frustration building and knew any time I could easily abandon all of it. I needed something to click; and low and behold, it did.

I was hesitant to cut into the wonderful sheet of fabric paper I had made; it was a work of art alone. However there was one section that I thought stood out, so I cut that part out. I did not like the mechanical look of the cut edge and I knew I needed to change that. I decided to use my favorite motif-leaves, and make a variety of leaves with multiple materials.

Now things were coming together. I knew I was on a good track. All of this took about three weeks of pondering, creating and gathering.

Once my mind was open, new thoughts rushed in. This moment was what I was hoping for. I am enjoying this process now. I have hope I can continue along this path for a while.

The Quilt University 2008 Class Schedule is open.
My class titled: Floral Pizzazz starts Febuary 16th.
(See previous post for more details)

This is the Flora Rosa design sample for the class.

Quilt University 2008 schedule announcement

The 2008 Quilt University class schedule is available now! Go to http://www.quiltuniversity.com/
to check out the classes offered.

My class is on the schedule, title: Floral Pizzaz.

Look for the image of the class sample on the home page. Click on it to sign up. Sign ups started January 12th. Classes fill quickly; don't hesitate if you are interested!!

Class description:

Learn to use contrast, value, depth and overlap to create drama with fabric to make your work more exciting and interesting. Using her original Flora Rosa design, Debbie will show you how to use foundation applique for the primary design and collage for the base of the flower. Through a series of exercises you will work towards developing your own personal style while improving your understanding of several important art tools. Debbie will make it possible to step out of your comfort zone in a safe way.

Level: You should be comfortable with your machine and free motion stitching. This class is perfect for people with a large stash; five lessons with an extra week after Lesson three.

Hand Made Book

Last summer I studied with Beryl Taylor and learned to make a book. She has remarkable talent! The cover of the book was made with 300 pound hot pressed watercolor paper and covered with "fabric paper". Making fabric paper is covered in her book. The book was painted and embellished witj the edges wrapped silk ribbon and dangling beads.

Cover
The book contained four signatures The inside of the cover was a separate layer that the signatures were attached to. That unit was glued to the cover. The dangling beads had a ribbon attached. The ribbon is between the two layers and the covered edges with silk ribbon. I used pearl cotton to stitch the ribbon and other embellishments.




Side View
The pages were decorated and had assorted themes

A 1" wide ribbon wraps around the book to hold it closed.

Page Example

Kohinoor Brilliant Waterbased Dyes were used to paint all of the pages and the cover.

This page was painted intensely and collaged with torn pieces of painted paper which had been stamped and embellished with words and assorted bits of thread.


This page was painted with the waterbased dyes, wet into wet.
The right side has a felted "postcard" that was created with wool roving using an Embellisher machine.
Inside back cover
Inside of back cover (enlarged to show the detail)

This page has a "postcard" made of lutrador with fused torn bits of tulle in various colors, beads and embroidery stitches in metallic gold.

I highly recommend her book: Mixed Media Explorations
It is a gorgeous book a true work of art!

My Recent Article in Quilting Arts, Oct/Nov 2007

I had the wonderful opportunity to write an article for Quilting Arts for the Oct/Nov 2007 issue (#29). Title: Spontaneous Composition, page 40.

The article describes a method I use that utilizes (wonderful) "bits" that result from trimmed edges of quilts. The example is a 3 sided vessel I made from bits that resulted from a quilt titled: Gathering Leaves; instructions detail how to make the vessel.

Vessel

The length of the article was limited and I could not include the complete story about the vessel, here is the rest of the story....

In September 2006, I made a quilt to enter into a show in Ireland. Title: Gathering Leaves

The theme was autumn and the size requirement was exactly 11.5 x 8". After the quilt was quilted and trimmed exactly I ended up with some wonderful extra pieces, that I NEVER throw away! I refer to these as "bits". This particular design had some interesting shapes that extended and added even more interest to the bits. My work usually does not have straight edges. I prefer to include interesting elements that would otherwise be cut off. I purposely go around them; I like the effect much better than a unnatural straight edge.

The quilt was finished and shipped the quilt to Ireland however; it did not arrive in time for the show; it was lost in the mail. After much anguish I finally did get it back about 2 months later!! When I had it back in my hands, I realized how much I liked it and it inspired me to re-think the extra pieces I had left over. I had a two fairly good sized extra pieces and used these to make two more smaller versions (with straight edges). Afterwards, some very small "bits" were left. These were "wonderful" slivers; they were very unusual and quite intriguing. These are the pieces I used to make the vessel.

After I made the two new quilts, I made a "mat" for each one to mount them on. I used off white linen backed with Timtex and quilted it with a wide spaced pattern of leaves. I thought the presentation was good.

I decided my story might be suitable and interesting enough for others to read. In June 2007, I decided to submit it to Quilting Arts. I was surprised when soon after, Patricia Bolten (Pokey)herself called me. She said she was very interested in my topic and asked if I would be able to write it in the next few weeks; she wanted it for the autumn issue. I agreed and proceeded to write the article. What I didn't realize at the time was that I would now have to recreate the actual process! I had to retrace my steps and thoughts and make another quilt as I did from the beginning. They needed the vessel, the quilts and the infamous "bits" to photograph. Wow! Now that was challenging. I did manage to accomplish this and to my surprise, it was even more joyous the second time around.

When I create, I am not consciously aware of my steps, as most artists tend to function this way; I purely enjoy the process. Recalling this was amazing. I did not realize the multiple stages and decisions I had made. I made a "sheet" of collage. The base of the sheet is raw linen. The pieces are raw linen, tulle, organza most with acrylic paint added. The layers are stitched with clear thread. Batting and backing fabric is layered to make the quilt sandwich and then the sheet is quilted with a variety of threads; some are metallic.

After the quilting was finished, I marked sections to cut and photographed them before and after. I did this because I wanted to be able to recall the positions for future use.

Notice the interesting shapes that fall on the edge. This was not an accident. I like to save these and cut around them to preserve them and have options later. Working this way opens my mind and can offer a lot of options.

In the spring of 2007, my 93 year old friend Mary gave me a selection of daffodils from her garden. They looked great in the vessel. I slipped a plastic medicine bottle inside with water to hold the flowers with water.

The bottom of the vessel is closed with a bean bag made of wool. Bebe's fill the bag and provide weight, and a good spot for my label.

I thoroughly enjoyed this experience and the multitude of benefits that came my way. Now I can proceed and find something to do with the remaining bits!