Stash bargains at the Thrift Shop It was a good day!

| JP Dawes Artist

I haven’t been to this thrift shop for a while. The last time I went I purchased denim yardage for 50 cents a yard for making denim rugs.  We were in town today so I thought I would stop and have a look. I guess someone was cleaning out their stash. The top photo is all the yellows I picked up for 25 cents on the red tags or 10 cents on the orange tags. The pieces on the left are a yard and the others are fat quarters or more.   The next photo shows the ‘other’ colors but again 25 cents or 10 cents. Some are colors and prints I wouldn’t use in art quilts but I plan on doing some modern lap or baby quilts to practice more on my Sunshine 16 mid arm. 

To the right is my ‘big’ purchase. The red is a crinkled ikat that measures 3 yards for $1 and the white is waffle cotton tubing that also is 3 yards for $1. This looks like a summer skirt and 3 white tank tops  for me!  Total spent today was $5.20.

Detail of final UFO finish

| JP Dawes Artist

Detail shot of Frog Water Shallows.  Remember, you can right click this to open in a new window or tab for a larger view.  I thought you might like to see a detail of the piece. You can see the rust shading on the lily and I’m happy I chose some of my rust dyed fabric to use for this. The orange rust is a nice complement to all the blues. 

I have entered the piece to jury for SAQA’s Color Wheel of Emotion. The emotion it evokes in me is calm and peacefulness.  Now we will keep our fingers crossed the juror find it fits the show. If it doesn’t I have a few more in mind to jury for.

UFO saved – Yippee Skippee!!!

| JP Dawes Artist
Some time ago I asked your opinion on this UFO that I liked but it had huge problems because of sitting so long unfinished.  My question at the time was if it was worth saving and I asked for suggestions on how to overcome the glue problem. There were a lot of great suggestions  sent to me privately. There were a few who thought I should toss it out, learn from it and move on. I just really, really liked the piece and wanted to work to save it. 
This is where the piece is now, quilted and ready to bind or face.  These are the things I did to save it. 

 The basting glue had turned rock hard and couldn’t be sewn through.  I soaked it in a tub which helped a lot.  I was finally able to quilt the piece on my mid-arm. I simply quilted around all the elements that had to be removed.  I then replaced all the lilies with rust dyed fabric. As I searched my stash I found the fabric I used for the long grasses and leaves.  I heated the old stiff appliques and found the corresponding area on the fabric. Using a white lead pencil I drew around the area I needed to cut out and applied light weight fusible. This made it easy to replace the areas within the quilting outlines. 

The final step was to get out the paint box and shade/highlight areas. I rarely take much notice if I have used proper shading and light source on a piece like this. The light and dark is more a design element that I try to use to make areas of interest pop and the eye to move over the piece.   

There is still some final tweaking to do and small areas of detail. But I’m really glad I kept with it and saved the piece. 


Sacred Threads 2013 Acceptance

| JP Dawes Artist

Yippee! I finally got off dead center and entered something in a juried show. I’ve been on hiatus for over a year because of the surgery on my shoulder in 2012. I think entering shows may be a little like riding a horse or a bike and you have to get back on your game as quickly as you can after you fall off. Otherwise you get all sorts of self doubt and can find reasons to stay out of the game.  The only thing I entered during that time was photography in the Houston show, Eye of the Quilter.

I’m showing you a close up of Purification 2, one of my series on the outlawed practice of Sati.  Purification 1 is currently traveling with the SAQA exhibit Beyond Comfort. The gray pillar with red hand prints represents the Sati gate. The black background is burned and has both with machine and hand quilting and embroidered sparks of fire.  

The triangles of burned saris represent the widows thrown on the fire. The purpose of using triangles pointing up is that in the Hindu religion,  the triangle (trikona) is the symbol of Shakti which literally means feminine energy. When it points up it symbolizes spiritual aspiration and the element of fire which is always oriented upwards.

So this piece will be at Sacred Threads in July in Washington, D.C. in the grief category. There will be some wonderful pieces there and I’m sorry that I won’t be able to attend in person. 

Indigo Dye Dipping is not just for Fabric

| JP Dawes Artist
My two teenage grandsons have birthdays coming up. This is always a gift giving problem. One is a freshman at William and Mary and the other is in high school.  I’m tired of simply sending cash or gift cards since I don’t think they mean much to them. They do, however, write short thank you notes, actually sent in the mail and not electronically.  
As Liz and I finally got to do our indigo vat, I got into my envelope and heavy card stock to make up blank card sets. I dipped one edge of both the card and the envelopes in the dye.  They do look masculine don’t they?   I have a stash of nice leather samples from a furniture store. As luck would have it when I folded them over and stitched up the sides they were just the right size for a case for the cards.  I tied them up with a heavy round black elastic band for a closure. Now all I need to do is buy them each a pen for the set and they are ready to give.  I’m linking with Nina Marie’s Off The Wall Friday