Altered Book Making

I used to get the magazine, "Cloth, Paper, Scissors" and I LOVED the altered books. They just seemed so cool to me. I even collected a few old board books so I could make an altered book but never got around to it. So when I found out that the American Visionary Art Museum was having a workshop, I jumped at the chance to go.

If you are ever in Baltimore,  you have to go to AVAM. All the work they display is created by self taught artists. It is really different than what you find in a regular museum.  This guy greeted me when I was on my way to the workshop.

The workshop was really fun and totally hands on. Everything was included in the cost so all I had to do was show up and have fun!

We learned all different ways to alter a book. Here's some of my pages.

We used clear packaging tape to transfer images from magazines. Now that was a neat trick!

Lots of fun things to play with here!

The book I used was an old Wonderful World of Disney. It was from a educational series and mine was about transportation. I cut out a few images I liked and used them on altered pages. Note the google eye on my shark. I love google eyes.

This was my favorite page. I made a stamp and did the bottom layer and then painted on black swirls by hand. I use those swirls all the time when I quilt. I call them "death spirals" because when I first started doing them I was reading a book about salt water crocs in Australia and they were always talking about the death roll in the book so some how it stuck in my mind and this quilting pattern became death spirals. 

Weird I know!

Then we glued lots of pages together and cut out a hole. By pure luck, the image in mine ended up being this plane. I thought that was pretty neat-o so I left it. And I really liked painting over the book pages. That was a really fun thing to do. Add colors, patterns, etc with paint......I even tried some finger painting.

Thanks for the great afternoon of fun AVAM!! 

Spring Break!

First thank you for all your kinds words of encouragement and support. I truly appreciate it.

This week, the kids are off school so we went to Hershey, PA. Here's a thought for you......Hershey bills itself as the sweetest place on earth AND swimsuit season starts in two months. Hmmmm....now that's a bit of a internal conflict. Naturally chocolate won out for me!! Yay chocolate!

I saw this quote on a sign while I was there, "Chocolate doesn't ask questions, Chocolate understands". Now those are words that deserve to be in a quilt!

Not much stitching getting done in the past few days with Easter and the trip to Hershey BUT I did manage to have fun painting with melted chocolate!

That's right, they let you play with food at Hershey.

The little red dishes held marshmallow fluff and melted chocolate so I could make a s'more. Oh yum! And I had lots of fun making the chocolate flower painting.

The kids had a good time too......

Have a good Wednesday everyone and send some warm weather to Maryland. It is still freezing here, ugh!

Kathy

I'm back

The last time I posted was in May 2011.....almost two years ago. The road I traveled since that time has been pretty dark. I stopped blogging, reading blogs, and pretty much sewing too. In June 2011, conventional treatments had failed to put my dad's cancer into remission and it was necessary to take a much more radical approach. Much of my free time over the next year and half was spend visiting and providing emotional support. Along the way, death knocked on my family's door again and again......Quint the cat, Brad's 10 year old classmate, Pepper the dog, my co-worker...  On the first day of school in August 2012, my son's high school had an active shooter in the cafeteria. He was in locked down mode for three hours before his class was escorted by the SWAT from the building. That day, an angel was watching over the kids in that school. Only one student was shot and he recovered. Teachers were able to overpower the shooter before he got off more than one round. It was a miracle no one else was hurt.....

By October 2012, my father was rapidly failing from the cancer. He and my mom took a short trip to Florida   for a respite from the hospitals, the treatments, the endless tests. On the third day of their trip, I got a phone call....my dad had taken a very bad turn for the worst. I was on a plane within hours. He died two days later. By then Hurricane Sandy was off the coast of Florida and was beginning its northwards trek. Words can not explain the next two weeks....racing home ahead of Sandy to prepare my home then heading northwards to New Jersey to prepare my parent's home. Sitting through the storm, no power, cell lines all jammed up, bailing water, no gas, the amount of damage......and in the amid all this, trying to bury my dad. 

We ended up just burying him......me, my oldest son, my mom, brother and sister in law. There was no power, no gas......and was too unsafe for people to attempt to come for a funeral. My husband and two younger children had remained behind in Maryland to ride out Sandy there and take care of our home. They wanted so much to come for the burial, but it was so unsafe to travel.....

Six weeks later, we held a memorial service for my dad. 

This past weekend I was up in New Jersey, helping my mom with going through my dad's things. 

On October 29, 2012, I took this flag down before Sandy struck.......on March 29th, five months later, I hung the flag again. It has been a very long road traveled. Spring is coming to this part of the country, a time for rebirth, regrowth, and longer days. Things are finally taking a turn for the better......and I am slowly coming back.

Out and about

Another rainy day here in Maryland but that's ok. I just planted my garden this week and I am hoping all this rain makes things grow!!! Especially the pumpkins! The boys wanted to try growing pumpkins this year so I figured why.....will see what happens.....

The last few weekends I have been out and about at local events and thought I would share some of photos....

Two weeks ago I went to the American Visionary Art Museum's Kinetic Sculpture Race. It was alot of fun and the entries are so cool to look at. The sculptures are human powered for 15 miles through the downtown area and face a water test as well as an obstacle course. We went to see the water test....

Here's Fifi the 13 foot poodle....

The Platypus entry....

The catepilar from Alice In Wonderland....

Some kind of mutant dog.....hmmmm....

Lucky the elephant....

the human element to Lucky.....pedal harder!

The catepillar takes to the water.....it was really funny watching some of the entries hit the water.....they had to go around the pier and back out again. Not all of them  made it.....

Part of the fun for the day is to dress up......when I saw this costume, I knew I had to get a shot....

Yup, those are thread spools she is wearing.....and I love the tutu!!

Then last week it was off the BMA for textile day. They had lots of hands on activities for people to try.....

The boys tried out screening printing....

While they were in line waiting a turn.....I saw this on the back wall.....

Vincent's Starry Night done up in mixed media by kids......

I LOVE this!!!!

Looks like clay decorations, glitter, felt......

This would be so fun to try out.....a play day project!

That's what's great about doing projects with kids. They have no "rules" in their minds about art yet and just do what feels right.....try going fabric shopping for a project with a kid sometime. They have some interesting choices than can really make a project "bloom".

I saw this table in the museum.....it is over 150 years old. The craftmanship is amazing.....and it was all done in  a time when there were no power tools, computers, etc etc.....

And it's a circle with wedges.....imagine if it was an off center circle with wedges. Now that would have been interesting......I wonder if they tried things like that back then or stuck to the tried and true....

Have a good Thursday!

kathy

The circle in nature

My friend Amy has been on the hunt for circles lately. Man hole covers, clocks, portholes,  you get the idea.

Now I have always had a fondness for circles. Hence my interest in the New York Beauty block. I always am cutting out the curvy and spiky patterns when I see them in magazines. But I also reallllllly like organic forms.

The uneven edges, the irregularity, those things add a level of movement and excitement to an organic design. 

So when I was talking my dog for a walk this spring, I thought I would be on the lookout for circles in nature.

And they are really hard to find!

I came up with these......

Kinda of a circle with spikey edges....

A real irregular circle within a circle with the tree stump....

Yet another circle but this time with ruffles edges....

Now this one is closest to perfect circle.....but the edges are still off a bit....if I could fold it in half, both sides would NOT be equal.

It was really hard to find circles in nature.......interesting.....

Are they a mostly man made shape? 

Do we humans find circles so pleasing for the regular perfect edges they give us?

If two pictures were made up of same colors and design but one had perfectly round circles and the other had organic circles would each invoke different feelings?

What would those feelings be?

I think this would be interesting for me to explore more.....

My faithful dog enjoyed our walk.....but sometimes got in the way of my photo taking....

Poor flower.....

I leave with with circles on the brain.....have a good Monday!

kathy

Charm Pack Challenge

I joined the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild a few months ago and we are doing a Charm Pack Challenge sponsored by Robert Kaufman Fabrics.

I have a month to do the challenge. The rules are pretty simple:

Must use some of each color

Must use a new technique that is new to you

Can only add solid fabrics

Now I've been thinking about this and I want to go with either Curvy Flying Geese or Snakes.....

I actually really want to try both.....hmmmmm, maybe make two mini quilts for the challenge????

What do you think?

My good friend Amy is in the BMQG too.

She's very talented.....that apple she's about to take a bite out of? Its fake, she made it with wool....

Impressive huh!

Have a good day!!

kathy

Glass making Fun

I recently set up a glass making workshop for our cub scout pack at McFadden's Art Glass.

His stuff is amazing!!!!

Here's an example.....

How fun is that!!! I want this sink in my bathroom!!!

They offer all kinds of glass making workshops for the general public so if you are ever in the Baltimore area, be sure to make this is stop on your must see list. I made a pumpkin and glass ball before, so fun!

 There is a gallery and restaurant on site too.

The boys had a great time make glass pendants or marbles.

Even my 14 year old had fun and he wants to go back for more in depth instruction. That says something if your teenager wants to go for more!

While wandering around, I saw these.....

My kind of flowers.....yep, those are some random dandy lions mixed with glass flowers. 

Have a fun Monday!

kathy