autumn – Guila's Art & Other Assorted Joys

Process Video Uncovered!!!

June 29, 2020April 8, 2023 Guila Greer

I came across this video on youtube this morning. It is a SAQA video that I made to explain the steps in making my SAQA Auction donation quilt a few years ago.

And this is the resulting art work – Barn in Autumn.

Art, Art Quilt, Fiber Art, Mixed Media

Cloth Journey

September 4, 2017 Guila Greer

Artists from the Surface Art Association are featured in the Art Exhibit currently at the Hillcrest Center for the Arts through September 25, 2017.

The Center is at 403 West Hillcrest Drive, Thousand Oaks, California. Cloth Journey can be found in the Galleria.

Call 805-381-2747 for additional information including hours. ConejoArts.org

I am so excited to have 12 pieces hanging in this show – all available for purchase.

Hospitalitea_Serenitea — Hospitali-TEA (above) Sereni-TEA (below)

First Sip Of The Day — First Sip of the Day

Leaves I and II — Leaf Study I (above) and Leaf Study II (below)

Fiber Art

The Making of Autumn Barn –

September 17, 2015January 6, 2017 Guila Greer

Several years ago I spent the greater part of October in Pennsylvania, readying my late mother’s home for sale. As you can imagine, this was difficult work both physically and emotionally.

One morning I decided that I needed a day off. I got into Mom’s elderly Oldsmobile and headed out in the general direction of Lake Edinboro, being careful to stick to rural roads.

I was greeted with the most beautiful Autumn displays wherever I looked. As I drove I was also treated to glimpses of rural Pennsylvania that were inspiring and refreshing to the eyes of this California girl.

Pennsylvania Highway 99 Travelling South

One shabby old barn in particular caught my attention. My camera got a workout.

I was certain that some of these images would one day find their way into my art

Determine which elements to keep in the photo and which to discard. Convert image to grey scale. Convert photo into an image suitable for making templates for quilt

Assemble fabrics for construction. I decided to use my own hand dyes and was successful with the exception of 2 that I found in my stash of commercial fabric. My goal was to use a lot of saturated brilliant color to offset the aged and washed out look of the barn.

Construct a background – All I needed was some fabric suitable for sky and some greens. Most would end up being covered up.

Make the templates and adhere them to the fabric

Determine the order of sewing down all the elements

Thread Paint the details

Sandwich and quilt the quilt

Finish the Edges

Dealing with Setbacks

Of course I was running late finishing the quilt to meet the submission deadline. So I decided to finish it pillowcase style instead of a traditional binding. Well, I tried, but that didn’t work. The quilting was too dense up to the edges and there was no way this quilt was going to be flat with that kind of a backing and edge treatment.

So I had to remove the pillowcase back and come up with something else. I determined that because the barn itself was shabby and had loose boards (think ‘threads’) all over the place, that a casual zig zag finish would be appropriate.

Of course, in the process of “turning the quilt” I had already clipped the corners. But I decided that was just fine. That little imperfection just added to the theme of this dilapidated barn in the midst of the Autumn beauty.

This quilt is part of this year’s SAQA Art Quilt Auction beginning online September 18, 2015

The SAQA Art Quilt Auction Begins 9/18

Art, Art Quilt, Fiber Art, Mixed Media, Quilts, works in process

Work (still) in Progress

May 2, 2014 Guila Greer

There are lots of reasons we don’t finish our projects right away. And one of them is that we’re not quite sure how we WANT to complete the piece.

So this has been hanging around for awhile now on my design wall.

This started as a plain piece of Lutradur. I took a photo of a tree on my street and worked with it using Photoshop Elements. I took out everything that I didn’t want in my finished piece including all the leaves on the tree. This step also included removing all the color.

In the meantime I painted the Lutradur with acrylic paints. I used some from Golden paint and some Lumiere in various coppery hues.

Then the moment of truth as I printed my tree onto the Lutradur.

Then lots of fun to thread paint the tree itself. I used a variegated 40 weight cotton from King Tut – (In the meantime I had layered the piece with cotton batting.

and that’s when I stopped.

The biggest question in my mind is whether or not to add quilting.

So now it’s time to finish and I’ve given myself 2 weeks to do that. I hope by posting the process to date I’ll have more accountability to do that – to keep it as a priority.

What’s your opinion on adding more quilting to the piece?

Accessories and Ornaments, earrings, Jewelry

Sneak Peek – Latest Earring Creations for Fall (and late summer too)

August 9, 2012August 9, 2012 Guila Greer

Hi y’all! On this 108 degree day in the Southland in a week that has seen a murderous 113 (and more they say), my thoughts are turning to Autumn. And in addition to promises of cooler breezes I visualized the beautiful color scape that Nature brings to us in the fall.

I took some time out from stitching to design some new earrings and just started listing them on Etsy. So you get to see most of them before everybody else!