Self Portrait follow-up

Sunday night, Sue Benner invited the students who participated in her January self portrait class to a wine and cheese party in her Dallas studio. Eight of us brought pieces in different stages of finish.

I added the background to mine on Sunday afternoon. Still thinking about how to quilt it.

Deborah had her's finished before the January DAFA meeting.

Here's Pam's.

And Carolyn's. 

Carolyn used lots of upholstery fabric for her hair.

Sherrie used dupioni silk.

Mary Lou

Gay

Melanie

It was really fun to see them all together. Thank you Sue!

I can't wait to see the rest at future DAFA meetings.

Retreat Weekend

My local Denton Quilt Guild hosted it's Spring Retreat last weekend. Around 70 ladies spent the weekend sewing and visiting at a local retreat center. It was a great time to catch up with old friends and get to know new ones. I finished up the last of the quilts I plan to enter in Dallas Quilt Celebration 2010.

This is "Lilly," the sister of "Norman."

I finished "Iron Dragonfly" too.

The 12x12's will hang in the Twisted Stitcher invitational, Twelve2inches, March 12-14 at Dallas Quilt Celebration 2010 at Dallas Market Hall.

I made a new purse out of the fabric I painted in Judy Coates Perez's Mixed Media Fabric workshop.

The design was inspired by my favorite Maruca handbag.

I recycled the handle from another favorite bag.

Marsha from Longview did a great demo on this cute little neck bag.

I took a break to make one. The handle is a long shoe string.

This mini is made with some spin art Becky gave me.

I started a couple more that I'll show you when they're done.

Retreat was a blast, but it sure was good to be back home in my own bed.

Joshua Tree

Several weeks ago I took a Mixed Media painted fabric workshop from Judy Coates Perez. I realized that Judy's method would be a great way to illustrate a poem I've chosen to enter in the VAST (Visual Arts Society of Texas) / DPA (Denton Poet's Assembly) Collaborative Exhibition. The artists chose poems that were already written to illustrate and the poets chose art to write about.

I chose a poem written by Beth Honeycutt called the Joshua Tree. Below is the collaged poem with a yellow and orange underpainting and metallic turquoise overpainting.

More paint on top.

Sheer fabric added with gel medium and quilted.

Detail below.

Thanks Judy for the class. This is fun.

Next project, a new purse.

Go Red for Women

The Go Red for Women luncheon and style show was originally scheduled for last Friday. Denton was hit with 12" of snow on Thursday so the rescheduled luncheon was today.

Linda is on a trip so she let me use her ticket. :) Thank you!

The Gateway Center at UNT was filled with a sea of mostly red.

(This table is full of design students and two teachers.)

In addition to a nice chicken curry lunch,

we were treated to a fashion show of 74 red dresses designed by 

the Fashion Design students of UNT and TWU.

The show started with short dresses and ended with evening gowns.

The dress on the right was one of the judge's choice winners.

The people's choice winner was a long red riding coat. 

What a fun way to spend your lunch hour.

Sorry for the blurriness, I took these photos with my phone.

2009 PTA Reflections Contest

My son entered four pieces in the 2009 PTA Arts In Education Reflections contest. “Beauty Is…” was the theme. There were 65 entries at his high school. Prizes were given in four of the nine categories. 

He won 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the visual arts category.

1st:  “Sometimes Beauty is an Illusion”

2nd:  “Pop Art Can Be Beautiful”

3rd:  “Directional Blues”

Valentine Snow

We got seven inches of snow yesterday.

Berek made a snowman last night.

Rusty can't get enough of it.

School was closed Thursday and Friday and Monday is a school holiday.

Too bad we didn't plan a vacation.

Mixed Media Painted Fabric

I took Judy Coats Perez's Mixed Media workshop on Saturday.

It was great fun. It's been a long time since I painted anything and the brush felt like an old friend.

Here are Judy's class samples.

Judy is a fun teacher. I recommend that you take one her classes if you get the chance.

We collaged black and white images onto white cotton fabric and painted over the images with transparent fabric paint.

Here is my first attempt.

and my second.

After drawing a primitive drawing on the dry underpainting, we painted the background with metallic paint.

Here's my first painting. I like this one better. The background is more turquoise and green in person.

And my second.

I think this one needs another layer of green leaves.

Here is Deborah's underpainting.

And Michelle's.

Jo painting the metallic layer.

Sherrie's metallic layer.

Naomi's second layer.

I really had fun with this and plan to do more.