Month: July 2020

Owled: More Serieous Work

| ellenanneeddy
Hunter’s Moon 2

I can’t explain my fascination with owls! I only know I want to fly with them. In general, I think it’s the silent, swift explosive movements they make. I only wish I could move that way.

Or it just could be a need to occasionally work with browns. Owls will do that for you.

Or the desire to live in the light of the moon. I don’t do them often, but I love it when I do.

Indigo Blues
Hunters Moon 2
Hunters Moon 3
Owl faces

Or their faces, wise and feral, and all seeing. I would very much like to be an owl.

Sometimes its a wonderful thing when a quilt doesn’t work. I did an attempt of a quilt with 3 owls in it that was awful. I never got the background to work. But the owls… Three owls. Just doing nothing.

Hunters Moon 2 detail

Here is the first owl in Hunters Moon 2

I’m working with the second owl now in Owl at Sunset. It will be in process for a while, but I thought you might like to see some of it’s bits.

Woo knows what will happen with the third one. Aren’t you glad that first quilt didn’t work. I am.

owl with background
split light source to give her more room
thread choices for moths
moth embroidered for lunch
trimmed and ready moths
Angelina Sunset
angelina sunset detail
cut rocks
The owl so far
sun and rocks added

Come back and I’ll show you more as I get there. It can’t get more serieous.

And check out these other Serieous Blogs!

Ladybug Series
Fish in the Stream Series

Dye and Dye Again: I Always Need More Fabric. Don’t You?

| ellenanneeddy

Using commercial fabric feels like wearing someone else’s panties. That being said, I’m dyeing again next week.

It’s not that it’s not pretty. It’s gorgeous. But I need fabric with light sources where there’s room for ideas to grow. Besides, I’m out of brown and I need to make a tree for my owl.

I’ve always made fabric available to people, because there are always gorgeous fabrics that just don’t work for my plans. And I always wanted to make what I use available to students trying to learn what I do. But hand dyed light source fabric is like every wonderful thing, addictive. Once you use it, it will feel like yours in a way that commercial fabric just can’t. I love having fabric that is individual to each piece and never really repeatable.

Ironing with a mangle

Your fabric arrives prewashed, starched, ironed and needle ready!

I sell my fabric two ways. You can set up a video call with me and pick out your fabric personally.

Or you can tell me what you need and I’ll dye it for you. Do you want pink sunsets? Deep woods? Meadows drenched in sunlight. You can do that with hand dyed fabric backdrops, before you stitch at all. That’s why I use it. You may want to as well.

Why build a landscape when you can have it dyed.

This batch is the 44″ dyer’s cloth from Dharma. It should be breathtaking. It’s a short dye run for me, but I’m happy to dye fabric just for you. It sells for $24 per yard, usually in 1/2, 1, and 1 1/2 yard pieces, unless you tell me otherwise.

Call me at 219-617-2021 or use this contact form to order the fabric that is dyed just for you. Or to pick from a collection of instant backgrounds that will jump start your next project. For more information about my fabric check out these posts. The Dance of Dye, and Well, I’ll Be Dyed.

More Serieous Work: Fishing in the Dream Stream

| ellenanneeddy

My father fished as a religion. His days off, his sabbath, was spent in a battered row boat, sitting, waiting for the fish to bite. The First Church of Fishing created much better people than those in my mother’s church. I didn’t really catch either of their faiths, but I was shaped by them. Perhaps faith is something one can really only come to on your own. She took me to her church on a regular Sunday

But when I was very lucky, he’d take me with him. He quickly learned that I had no interest in the death of fish. Or their consumption. I wanted nothing to do with fish dinner. Bur I was fascinated with their fishy lives. I would lean out of the boat until I could almost touch the water with my face, to look in on their fishy world.

I remember his hand on my shirt, lightly caught from the back just in case I slipped. I suspect that taking me fishing was very different than fishing on his own. But he never complained or refused to bring me. He just knew the day wouldn’t be spent in the catching of fish.

One of the things we do working in series, is that we retell our stories. Memory is not a static box. It’s a fluid river than changes moment to moment. In retelling the story, we find a way to make ourselves more brave, more healed, more whole. I know that I grow through series, working the images until they heal me.

To turn to turn, will be our delight, till by turning, turning we come round right.

Shzker song

If there’s an image or subject that catches your soul, even if it frightens you or unsettles you, work with it. It’s part of you trying to find it’s place, turned round right.

  • Commander Koi
  • just Diesserts
  • Just Desserts Detal
  • Strange Waters
  • Swimming U[stream
  • Duet
  • Duet
  • Wisteria Pond
Fish in the Stream

Over and Over Again: Ladybugs, and the Need for Serieous Work

| ellenanneeddy

Dancing in the Light This ladybug is done in Bobbin Work in #8 hand dyed pearl cotton and # 8 metallic thread.

No. I did not misspell that. All art, all creative process is a journey where we ask questions about design, color, shape, materials and techniques. Each piece we do is an answer for the question. Do I make a big moon or a small one? Out of Angelina Fiber? Or tulle? Or that strange gold brocade I just brought home? Do I make rays? Or a big circle, or spirals woven into each other?

How do you do the bblack and white parts of a ladybug? Bobbin work again, but showing different directions.

Put them all together and they make a series. Series work helps us answer a billion and one questions.

Sidewalk Conversation How do I make concrete?

There are no right or wrong answers. But each quilt gives you other questions to try. And since experience is the best teach, each quilt is a new experience, even if you will never do it again. Try a new thread. Will it work from the top or shall I put it in the bobbin? This machine likes this kind of poly monofilament. Will it work better with a cone holder? Horizontal or vertical? Endless questions that can only be answered by an endless dance of doing.

Here my ladybug is cut from oriental brocade, fused with Steam a Seam 2; and free motion embroidered with #40 poly thread. But I hadn’t tried placing it directly on Angelina film.

But the other reason is fascination. We regularly explore bits of the world that fascinate us. I’m fascinated by bugs of all kinds, but in red? Red? Where’s the red?

Well of course, I now have a reason to explore all those reds together. What if she isn’t really red?

How does one gracefully leave your leaf chair?

Do I find repetition boring? NO! I find repetition changes as we put together the puzzle of each piece

So, if there’s something I don’t know the answer to, I sit down with a pile of new work that just might give me the answer. I’m not repeating myself? I’m on a journey. Who knows what I’ll find.

I Nominate You

Cicada Song detail
| ellenanneeddy
Cicada Song

In support of women artists, I am happy to be participating in the Women’s Art Challenge. Thank you to Julie Duschack for inviting me to join. I agreed to participate for five days by posting a different artwork of my own and to nominate a different woman artist each day to do the same.

And that’s where I got stuck. I nominated two fabulous artists, Lauren Strach and Monique KIeinhans. I’m always so proud for both of you. You are such excellent artists.

Then everyone else I asked told me, in one way or another, no.

I realize I’m late to this game. Probably everyone has been asked but me by now. And I recognize everyone is busy and that people have technical problems and stress and a need to wash their hair this Saturday night. Ok. It’s either fun or it’s not.

With that in mind, if you are a woman doing your art, I NOMINATE YOU! Show it off.

Are you good enough? Yes. Yes you are. All art is emotional expression. The ability to express our emotions effectively makes us strong able people who can change the world with just one image.

If you doubt me, look at Van Gogh’s Starry Night. None of us are the same after we see that painting. And our ability to express that emotion is a lifelong journey. We work our art through our life and our life through our art. SHOW IT OFF.

Are you only making baby quilts? Keeping a baby warm and a mom happy is an art too. SHOW IT OFF.

Are you feeling your work is not perfect yet? Get a grip. There is no perfect any more than there is a normal. There’s only our work towards what is not perfect, but is fabulous. SHOW IT OFF.

Do you have to? Only if it’s more fun that what you are currently doing. Which I would assume would be washing dishes, fixing meals, and saving the world.

I will continue to show my next three quilts. I’ll post this in the form with it. And I invite you to post five works, quilt or not. You can title them, I was invited!

Cicanda Song Detail