Bald Cypress

After joining Facebook a few years ago I was pleasantly surprised to reconnect with several people I had lost touch with over the years.  One of these people was my college roommate.  I discovered she was an accomplished photographer.  You can find her work on RedBubble. I fell in love with her photos of cypress trees.  Living in the midwest all my life I have only had glimpses of these trees in photos or on vacation.  Michele Conner has an entire calendar full of seasonal photos of these gorgeous trees.  She has many other photos as well, sold as cards, calendars and prints

cypress tree begins

After purchasing one of her calendars I really wanted to make a cypress tree quilt.  I've thought about how to do this for a couple of years and my recent attempts at painting fabric seemed like a good fit.  So, I asked Michele if it would be ok if I used her photo to make a quilt.  She said yes!

                                        

partially painted Cypress

The challenge for SAQA Minnesota this year was to make a 14" x 20" landscape.  The two goals seemed perfect for each other.  I made the pattern, an outline of the tree and its shadow.  I put my pattern under a piece of clear plastic with my fabric on top.  I can see the outline of the tree through the fabric.  I cut a piece of white fabric, a little larger than what I needed, made sure I had the colors of so-soft paint as well as Folk Art Floating Medium and I began to paint.

almost finished painting

The paint dries quickly and so it was soon ready for the longarm.  I used several shades of brown, black, and rust to add to the shading from the paint.  I didn't want to add much to the shadow so it would stay a little less defined.  I did brighten the leaves on the tree a little.  Artistic license, right.  I was a little rushed with the binding, but managed to get it done in time to turn it in today for display in the Minnesota Quilt Show.

Bald Cypress photo by Michele Conner Quilt by Janet Hartje

stitch detail

I still have more to learn with the paint, I am a little heavy yet and may try some different types of paints and fabric to see what happens.  It will be fun to experiment.  I want to make a number of flowers this summer.

After the Rain

Have a Creative Day

Janet

Getting Ready for Minnesota Quilt Show

My challenge quilt for Minnesota Contemporary Quilters is finished.  This quilt gave me some growing pains while I was working on it.  I have been working on improving my quilting for traditional quilts.  So when it came time to do something contemporary, I was a little confused about how to quilt it.  I like how the painting turned out and honestly, I was afraid I would mess it up.  How many times do I let fear hold me back?  I really let this quilt sit there longer than I should have out of fear.

It dawned on me to think of my sewing machine as a paint embellisher.  I just wanted to highlight the painting and add more texture to the finished product.  That's all it took, a little shift in my thought process and it was done.

The challenge this year is "Abode" in whatever form it speaks to you.  My abode is a saquaro cactus and living inside is a family of gila woodpeckers.  My inspiration came from a photo I took while vacationing in Arizona.  The photo is of the cactus with the hole just beckoning a family to move inside.  I found the woodpeckers in a Dover book.

Prickly Abode by Janet Hartje

Have a Creative Day
Janet

Playing with mixed media

Awhile ago I joined a Mixed Media group. An exchange was initiated in the group to make altered paper. I made around forty half sheets of paper, all with the same technique. I sent my papers through the mail along with my return envelope and received forty different half sheets in return. Each of the sheets includes how-to instructions on the back. They are each a work of art! So many talented people out there, I can't wait to try all of these techniques. I'm planning to try some of them on fabric as well as paper.


Last week at the Minnesota Quilt Show I took a class called Heavy Metal Play Day, taught by Judy Coates Perez. It was a lot of fun, an entire day playing with designs on pieces of metal. I decided to use her techniques to make a cover for all of my altered paper techniques. It isn't quite finished yet but I just started yesterday. I need to buy some inks to add some color, and finish adding some texture to the background of the picture.



I had a wonderful time at the Minnesota Quilt Show, took three full days of classes. I've only taken one class before and that was four years ago. I am almost ashamed to admit I have never been to any show but the Minnesota Quilt Show. I haven't been quilting long, so four years ago was the first show I went to and that was only for one day, half of which was taken up with a class. Last year I went to the MQ show in St Cloud Minnesota but only for about half a day. That was a quick run through and see as many quilts as I could manage. This year I ran down between morning and afternoon classes to see all the quilts. Amazing work! This show is completely run by volunteers and they do an extraordinary job. Next year, I plan to do my part and volunteer for one or two spots. I have several big shows in mind to try to attend in the future. I think the AQS show in Des Moines would be good for a first big show.
Have a creative day
Janet

Minnesota Quilt Show

This week St Cloud, Minnesota is hosting the Minnesota Quilt Show, "Quilting in the Quarry"
I have only entered the show twice before this year, one quilt each of the past two years(pictured above). For some reason I went a little overboard this time. I have four quilts in the show.

The first is with Minnesota Contemporary Quilters. The theme this year was Melange a Trois. I just posted about this quilt recently, it is my Cathedral Quilt.


The next two are with SAQA Minnesota. One is the quilt I made for the rust dye competition, since mine wasn't selected for that exhibit I tried the SAQA exhibit instead. I used a fabric I had shibori dyed, the red circle with the blue and yellow on the outside. I than used an old fashioned popcorn popper, the kind you would use over an open flame. I rusted the center of the dyed fabric. I painted the petals with shiva paintsticks. And, there you have a Moulin Rouge Sunflower. This is one of my favorites.

The second is Grape Harvest and is a combination of photo transfer on fabric and metal, and using metal for the first time on a quilt. I used recycled diet coke cans and Arizona Iced Tea cans. I prefer the diet coke cans as the metal is thinner and easier to manipulate. This was a fun quilt to make.

The final quilt is in the non-judged portion of the Minnesota Quilters Exhibits. This is the first quilt I have completed on my longarm that has given me hope that I might actually be able to call myself a longarm quilter one day. I have new wheels for the back of my machine that have made a huge difference in the amount of control I have. I'm still not very good at sewing straight lines, maybe my next purchase to add to my machine will be the electric channel locks. The thing I like about the Innova is you don't have to be able to afford everything at once. It is easy to add on to the machine. The photo isn't the best since I am not used to taking pictures to show off the quilting. Maybe by the time I figure out how to take good photos, I will be at the point where I will not mind showing the details of my quilting.

Hope you get a chance to go to the show. The quilts are always inspiring.
Have a creative day
Janet