“I’ve gone to the dogs,”
but don’t worry…..I’m doing fine! The dogs I’m referring to are two fabric collaged dog wallhangings.
Thank you for joining me for this Fall newsletter, where we will explore the process of fabric collage, carving a stamp to create your own fabric and see some of my
local landscapes in library exhibits.

“Tree Town”  57” x 38”

Who lives in this village?
I’m not really sure, but I think I might enjoy hanging out in these tree houses and finding out.

In the Summer Newsletter I had all of the pieces collaged and was ready to audition the best color of tulle (the fine netting) to be placed over the entire surface before quilting. I chose a medium blue tulle, which made all of the colors sing.

Quilting close-ups show a bluebird weathervane, rope bridges, hammocks (made of 6 strands of DMC floss), swings, Tibetan prayer flags and a
lizard on a rope ladder (he’s my hidden lucky lizard for this quilt).

"EVERYONE LOVES TOBY"
29" X 48"

While visiting family this Summer in their new home in Virginia, my daughter-in-law asked me if I would be interested in creating a large drawing of their miniature schnauzer, Toby. I love to draw, but fabric collage was the better direction for this large scale project. Thankfully my daughter-in-law agreed.

Starting with a favorite photo of Toby in a red bow tie, I traced the basic lines of the photograph on to a 8.5” x 11” piece of white paper and then copied it to an overhead transparency sheet using my printer. I projected it onto the wall to the size I needed and traced the lines on paper*, which became my template for the collage.

*HINT: do NOT use paper as I did in this collage, because at one point I had to remove it, which was catastrophic. It never pays to skip a step, and I learned that the hard way. 

The best approach is to use a muslin or a plain cotton fabric, which remains under the collage as a base. See the “She’s a Dilly” collage, where I used this approach.

I traced the paw print from the ornament. Then transferred the tracing to the Speedball carving block.

Step 1: carve the outline of the paw print

Step 2: carve the space around the lines to create the raised surface of the paw pads. I purposely did not carve too deep, because I wanted the extra carving lines to show up on the finished stamp. If you don't like that look, carve deeper into the block.

I created tracing paper templates for each of the major shapes in Toby’s body. Starting with the ears I cut out the black outline of the ear
then filled in with lighter fabrics.

"She's a Dilly"  24" x 39"

QUILTERS IN THE SPOTLIGHT

In September and October The Kent Memorial Library, Kent, CT featured an exhibit of quilts by the Kent Quilters.  Here are four Accidental Landscapes that I exhibited. The two mountain scenes...aka the "local landscapes" were made this year to celebrate the beautiful hills of Kent, CT. Three of my 4 quilts were sold, and all proceeds went to the library.

PS If you love to read and happen to be a fan of Louise Penny and her Chief Inspector Gamache book series, you’ll see that I added three pine trees to one of the scenes, to create my local version of the town of Three Pines in the book.