February has rolled around once more. This year our Haiku prompt word is ‘moon.’ When I get back to the Valley I’ll work on the challenge, writing my haiku based on the prompt and completing a piece of artwork to represent it. In the meantime I’m jotting down some ideas – a stream of consciousness series of associations for the word ‘moon’.

Last year the February prompt word was ‘love.’ With so many new people on board this year I decided to encore the February 2011 haiku and art work. The piece was and is one of my favorites. My goal for the artwork was to illustrate feelings resulting from the loss of love and the subsequent attempts to hide emotions from others.

Here you have a heart that has been fractured into many pieces along the faultlines that were there all along. And floating over the pieces of the heart are a tangle of ribbons attempting to hide the tears underneath.

letting go of love

hot salty tears flow freely

bruised battered heart cracks.

All the red “shards” combine to form one complete heart. The pieces have been attached to the background with a lot of heavy quilting. I used heavy cotton plus metallic. The ribbons are hand tacked. Under the ribbons are tear-shaped beads peeking out. I purposefully left the thread tails and frayed edges alone as they are part of the over all feeling that I wanted to generate.

Art, Art Quilt, Art Quilts, Fiber Art, Haiku, Poetry, Poetry and Photography

Challenge for January: Exhilaration – Haiku and Art

January 26, 2012April 2, 2012 Guila Greer

The Haiku Art prompt word for January was Exhilaration.

The American Heritage Dictionary defines “Exhilaration” as “The state of being stimulated, refreshed, or elated.”

Sometimes all it takes to experience these feelings is to step outside on a sunny day.

The Haiku

scent of new mown grass

sunbeam caresses my cheek

living…feeling…aaaaah…

For the art work that I was preparing to go with this haiku – I didn’t want to be too structured. I wanted to indicate an almost childlike feeling of exhilaration with my composition and color choices.

At the same time, as a developing art quilter, I wanted to incorporate a couple of new techniques and see “what if”?

First off I used a “blah” pastel print in lieu of plain muslin as my base. I didn’t mind that it partly “showed through” – just felt it added some interest.

I felt that color was of first importance in this piece – so before doing anything else I painted my background using acrylic paint. In order to add some texture to the piece I used some Golden Light Molding Paste to parts of the grassy area.

I quilted the piece extensively with heavy thread.

Art Quilt, Fiber Art, Photography, Poetry and Photography, Quilts

My Sweet Little Gardener

January 14, 2012April 2, 2012 Guila Greer

I finally took a photo of this quilt – completed. It’s one of my earliest art quilts – 2007 – and it is from a pattern by Wendy Butler Berns. I started this quilt in Wendy’s workshop at the Glendale Quilt Show. She was teaching a technique for turning your favorite photos into art quilts. It was an excellent workshop.

This particular design reminds me, of course, of my granddaughters. The little girl in the picture could be either one of them.

I enjoyed making this – especially selecting the fabrics – and later doing the quilting. It’s a somewhat tedious process but well worth the effort. If you get a chance to take Wendy’s class I recommend it highly.

: My Sweet Little Gardener

Thanks for visiting ! I’d love to hear your comments.

Art Quilt, Art Quilts, Fiber Art, Haiku, Journal Size, Poetry, Poetry and Photography, Quilts

Procrastination – Observations: Visual and Poetic

January 7, 2012April 2, 2012 Guila Greer

One of the keys to overcoming any bad habit is to have some understanding of why we do it in the first place. So why don’t we “just do it” a la a Nike commercial and put off some tasks for later? And I’m not just talking about doing the dishes. I’m talking about taking care of tasks that we enjoy as well – could be sewing or gardening or whatever.

For some it could be some underlying fear of failure or even, for some others – fear of success. Maybe we don’t think that we have the specific skill required or talent needed to complete the task and that we will face ridicule. Maybe we’re in conflict about the task at hand and aren’t even sure it’s something that we want to do. Maybe we’re overwhelmed by other demands in our lives and can’t give adequate attention to this newer demand. Maybe we don’t have a clear enough image of exactly what it is we want to accomplish. Maybe the task is boring compared to some other activity that could substitute. I’m far from qualified to give out any advice here but maybe there’s some food for thought in the above possibilities.
I considered these ideas and wrote the following Haiku:

Demands, wants, needs, musts
I want to……….I don’t want to
Relentless tick – tock

I decided that I would set specific goals for the art work that would accompany this haiku:
1. to complete the work in a set amount of time – time that I alternatively would have spent that evening playing a game online . I thought that it was not unreasonable to have the main designing and rough assembly done in 45 minutes. I would do the quilting and finishing the following day.
2. I have a plastic storage box full of previously fused cotton scraps – some of which are remnants from previous projects. My challenge was to use ONLY fabrics from that particular box. Believe me there were plenty to choose from.

The completed piece is approximately 12 inches by 12 inches.

It demonstrates how focus, definition and time limits overcame procrastination in one dedicated to that art.

Quilts, Traditional Quilts and Quilts for People

Sometimes the Setting Makes The Quilt

January 2, 2012April 2, 2012 Guila Greer

Happy New Year Bloggers and Bloggees :-). (some people will wish you Happy New Year all month; I’ll stick to this week, lol)

Awhile back when we were talking about design walls I had the pieces of this quilt up to demonstrate. Well it’s finally done – at least the quilt top is. I still must lay it out, pin it, quilt it and bind it. Details, details.

This was an experiment. I put these blocks on point just to see how it would work. I think I prefer the on point to the traditional setting; how ’bout you?

I’ll put pictures of both settings up for you to see.

First is the traditional set – unsewn on wall.

And I just added this photo of the diagonal set without the outer triangles and border – again unsewn.

and finally: The diagonal set with inset triangles and border – all ready for quilting:

Art Quilt, Art Quilts, Fiber Art, Mixed Media, Quilts

I’ve Got Lips – Art Quilt using Extravorganza

December 23, 2011April 2, 2012 Guila Greer

I love doing these journal quilts – what a wonderful way to try new techniques. For “I’ve Got Lips” above I first did a pieced background and quilted it. Then I drew and cut out appliques of various “lips” – with a variety of pink and red fabrics. (I had to add paint to get the right color a couple of times) I looked for as many “lip” quotes as I could find and printed them out in various fonts using ExtravOrganza in my inkjet printer. I then cut out the sayings, frayed the edges and painted each one using a fabric marker. I adhered them to the quilt with a clear fabric glue.

Fiber Art

Fiberart For A Cause – to benefit the American Cancer Society

November 28, 2011 Guila Greer

Foto/Fiber 2012
90 Photos AND 90 BONUS Fiber Surprises
Beauty and Mystery Unite to Fight Cancer

Gold Donor Day – February 15, 2012
Make a minimum donation of $100, choose a photo by
Virginia A. Spiegel, Karen Stiehl Osborn, or Cynthia Wenslow
and choose a BONUS Fiber Surprise
by a specific artist from an amazing list of generous fiber artists.

Regular Foto/Fiber – February 16, 2012
Make a minimum donation of $50 and choose a photo by
Virginia A. Spiegel, Karen Stiehl Osborn, or Cynthia Wenslow.
Your BONUS Fiber Surprise will be chosen at random for you
from the list of generous fiber artists.

Artists donating BONUS fiber surprises include: Natalya Aikens,
Frances Holliday Alford, Pamela Allen, Liz Berg, Sue Bleiweiss, Nancy G. Cook, Jane Davila, Vivika DeNegre, Diane Rusin Doran, Jane Dunnewold, Jamie Fingal,
Leonie Hartley Hoover, Leslie Tucker Jenison, Lyric Kinard, Susan Brubaker Knapp, Lynn Krawzcyk, Jane LaFazio, Susan Lenz, Jeanelle McCall
Linda Teddlie Minton, Karen Musgrave, Gail Myrhorodsky
Karen Stiehl Osborn, BJ Parady, Cate Coulacos Prato, Yvonne Porcella
Wen Redmond, Sue Reno, Lesley Riley, Susan Schrott, Cynthia St. Charles
Lura Schwarz Smith, Sarah Ann Smith, and Terri Stegmiller

Drawings for Fiber Art throughout the event.
All patrons of Foto/Fiber 2012 will also have multiple chances throughout Foto/Fiber to win amazing fiber art donated by:

Leonie Hartley Hoover
Lyric Kinard
Lynn Krawczyk
Yvonne Porcella
Susan Schrott
Mary Ann Van Soest

More information on how Foto/Fiber 2012 works:

FotoFiberHowItWorks.html

Our goal – Raise $7,000 for the American Cancer Society
in just ten hours over two days.

Fiberart For A Cause has already donated over $215,000 to the American Cancer Society through the generosity of fiber artists and their patrons.
Contact
Virginia(at)VirginiaSpiegel.com
for more information.