Last 3 canal houses

Ok, you just gotta understand that somtimes I get so involved in what I'm doing in my studio that I totally forget about anything else!  So, without further ado......here are the three houses to finish out the Amsterdam Canal Houses. Their stories follow the photo. Again, keep in mind that there are a bag of embellishments which have items that pertain to the story....like a sewing maching button, tiny flowers, etc.  Oh and don't know if I mentioned it before but because my signature color is purple....each house has some element of purple in it. 

Home of the Local Seamstress (aka House I)


But she is not just ANY seamstress! Her designs can be found gracing the elite models all over the world. Her house may seem unassuming but that is because she so greatly values her time alone in her design studio creating fabulous garments for her collection, royalty, super models, movie stars, etc. But when she goes out, she dresses in a manner not to attract attention. When she is not designing, she is traveling to exotic locations all over the world looking for wonderfully luxurious fabrics, unusual adornments and, of course, inspiration! Perhaps that is why there is often a jet flying over her house! And who knows…soon you might even be wearing a beautiful gown from her latest design collection!

Home of the Mayor (aka House J)


This substantial home is the residence of the Mayor. Being politically ambitious, he figured the best way to curry favor with the Queen was to build his house with orange bricks! (Orange being the Queen’s color). He even keeps orange fish in the canal in front of his home. So far, no royal appointments have been forthcoming but our intrepid Mayor will not give up easily. During the day his windows are closed with thick copper colored tapestry shades. His phone is in one window because he is never far from it. He often shows off his home with lavish parties that last late into the night. If you look into the windows (unless you are one of the very fortunate people to actually be invited!) you will see two HUGE fireplaces at either end of the grand hall that runs the full width of the home at the back of the house. Parties in the summer always spill out into the back courtyard that will have a “ceiling” of Japanese lanterns. He will be very friendly when you meet him on the sidewalk. But be cautious…he IS a politician after all.

Home of the Chairman of the Flower Guild (aka House K)


Not difficult to find the house of the Chairman of the Flower Guild. The full window boxes give it away I think. She purchased this house mainly because it had so many windows and she wanted flower boxes on every one of them…even the one for the attic! Even her window treatments suggest pink hydrangeas. She used to have many many flower pots on the sidewalk in front of her house but so many people picked them because they were so beautiful that she plants them along the sidewalk close to her house. They attract butterflies and dragonflies and usually a little frog to eat all the bad bugs. The rest of her wonderful flowers are in her back courtyard and of course…in EVERY room of her many-roomed home. In the spring though, she will place specially made planters along the steps of her roof just to add to the abundance of color and scent to welcome the milder weather. Her real prize is in her attic which she transformed into her indoor hot house with many large skylights. So, please do enjoy her floral display but please don’t pick the flowers.

Canal Houses - next set

OK, here are the next set of canal houses and their stories.  The next three are E, F and G/H (two house made into one.) The stories follow the photo.

The Residence of the Pink Princess (aka House E)


This is the house of the Pink Princess. She is all about hearts and flowers and the glam! Shiny things excite her…especially PINK shiny things! She IS in residence most of the time but the entrance to her pink palace is through the courtyard in the back so no one is ever REALLY sure when she is at home. She can sometimes be seen walking her pink poodle along the canal sidewalk in the evenings….just when the sunset is nice and pink. During the day…even some of the wispy clouds seem shiny and sparkly over her house and only pink fish seem to swim in the canal in front of her house. Her favorite holiday is Valentine’s Day…of course. But it is not just on that day that her heart is open. Her favorite pastime is working with charities for children…giving of herself and her vast fortune. Her little pink poodle is a favorite in the hospital children’s ward. When the weather is not pleasant, she spends her days sitting in front of her fireplace on her pink chaise reading romance novels. I think you might enjoy getting to know her in your neighborhood.

The Royal Residence (aka House F)


Obviously this royal purple house with the precious metal décor is the home of a royal family. No one is sure just WHICH royal family though. Rumors abound but because the entrance to their home is through their back courtyard, no one has ever actually SEEN then arrive or leave. Some conjecture that they are a members of the once well-known Russian royalty. Others believe they once recognized a Scandanavian prince in the window. But alas…no solid lead has ever surfaced. This mystery is furthered along because their house is at the very top of the bridge so to be less visible from the canal itself. Perhaps while they are living with you, you will catch a glimpse of them and final reveal their true identity!

European Home of Jackson Pollock (aka House G/H)


When Jackson Pollock was alive, he loved to visit Amsterdam! He visited so often that he decided to purchase a large home on one of the canals. Not long after moving in, he painted the outside of his house. Now it is unlike any other. As his legacy to the art world, his will left instructions for his Amsterdam Canal home to be turned into an artist retreat. Artists needing to get away and rejuvenate their creative muse are welcome to stay here at no fee for three months. These visiting artists each leave a wonderfully creative touch on the inside of Pollock’s former house. While Jackson Pollock was a painter, ALL genre of art is encouraged at the retreat. At any given time, the residents could be painters, musicians, poets, writers, sculptors, mixed media and fiber artists, etc. Culinary artists also visit regularly so the kitchen is constantly supplied with tasty tantalizing morsels to sample. It is possibly the liveliest house on the block…so drop in sometime, sit around the kitchen table and just drink in the air of the creative soul.

Tomorrow I'll post the final three houses. Enjoy!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Yep! Here it is.....2011!!!  As you can see, the holidays knocked a big whole in my schedule plans but I'm not back in the studio and will try to catch up somewhat with posting here.

First thing I want to do is show you the stories I wrote to go with the canal houses.  Here are the first four houses.  The stories are below the photo which are left to right A B C & D. Please keep in mind that many of the embellishments were sent along with the individual house so some of the story references revolve around those embellishments which will be added on by the recipient.

Three Generation Family Home (aka House A)


This is the residence of a large family. Currently there are three generations living here together…the grandparents, parents, and seven children (three of which are under 4 years of age!). It is a happy home, even if somewhat chaotic and noisy at times. There is an artist studio at the back of the house that looks out onto the back courtyard. The grandmother spends almost all her days out there. But sometimes, she invites in a grandchild or two to begin to teach them the joys of art. At least one of them shows great promise of talent even at the age of three! The 10 year old doesn’t visit as often but has artist talent all his own! The room in the attic is very special. It is the guest room for visiting artist friends!! Every morning the kitchen smells of freshly brewed coffee and on the porch you can hear the murmur of friendly conversation and watch the cardinal on its daily visit.

Home of the Chief Judge of the Kennel Club (aka House B)


While Chief Judge sounds ominous and intimidating, this judge is very friendly and approachable. Especially when he is on one of his twice daily walks with his own lovable dog. In fact, you might even say this is the Dog’s Home as almost everything in this house is doggie friendly. The morning newspaper is left by the front door for him to retrieve and a bone has been known to be buried at various times in the flowers under the windows. He’s a very friendly dog, too, so be careful when walking by dressed in your fancy clothes. He WILL jump up and give you a big lick! But only if his master is not around. All in all though, he is a well-behaved and beautiful dog. So, walk along with them sometime and hear all the amazing stories of the Kennel Club annual competition!

Residence of the President of the Yacht Club (aka House C)


Yes, he only has a small skiff on the canal but at port he owns a fairly large ocean-going yacht! He loves all things nautical or having to do with water and boats. Even the window treatments are the color of a lagoon and have waves stitched into them. And his weather vane is a canoe. He so loves being as close to the water as he can, that he has his study on the basement level with a window practically at water level! The red and gold color of his home remind him of the brilliant sunrises out on the open sea – ushering in yet another wonderful day of sailing. The sky over his home even takes on a wavy look just for his pleasure. Next time he’s pulling out into the canal, if you ask nicely, he’ll probably be more than happy to take you out on the water with him!

The Bakery (aka House D)


While some claim that the Pancake Bakery is the best….we know better! Wil’s Bakery on the Canal tops them all! AND they serve delicious Starbucks coffee! Now what could be better than a cream cheese croissant and a Pumpkin Spice Latte! There are tables inside so go on in, grab a newspaper and your yummy treats and spend a leisure morning. Sometimes it is difficult to concentrate on one thing because ALL your friends seem to pop in while you are there. But that is a joy in itself. Coffee, croissant and friends…well, that’s just about as close to heaven as one can get! One group that meets here on a regular basis is the artist ladies! Wil is one of them and they meet here because she lives upstairs. (You can tell because her sewing machine is by the window.)They’ve been know to spend an hour or two here before they head off on shopping sprees to buy the latest art tool! They aren’t around every day because their trips usually have to take them to the US!! But…they will be back before you know it! So, enjoy your baked treats and Starbucks lattes and keep an eye out for them!

I'll post the next three houses and their stories tomorrow!

FINALLY!!!!!

It is DONE!!! I was beginning to believe this day would NEVER arrive!  ALL my canal houses are completed and ready to put in a box and mail to the Netherlands tomorrow!!!  It's been a HUGE project and a fun one.  But at this moment in time...I'm very glad they are finished!

Now the go off to Wil and she will swap out all the houses and send us back at least one of our own and the rest from the other Fractured Architecture group!  I can hardly wait now to see what I get in return mail!  Probably after the holidays however. 

So, without further ado..........

Here is the whole row of houses. Each house is separate. I just put them really close together so you could see how they would look.

Group 1 - the first four houses

Group 1 - the next three houses (These three houses are the ones on the bridge)

Group 3 - the last three houses

Now...I'm off to a VERY blissfull night's sleep!!!

Fractured Architecture

THIRD POST TODAY!!

Ha!! Just realized I didn't post my latest endeavors for the Amsterdam Canal Houses project! OK, so our embellishing challenge for the first part of April is pleats and tucks. So, I thought I would use that technique to make one of my houses! I ironed the pleats so that they were kind of like window shutters. Then, when I did the pleats crosswise I added some bits of thread lace. This is to be window boxes (pleats) with flowers (pink and purple thread lace). Quite fun really!

Haven't put in the windows yet or snipped threads even! But here it is!

And here is a detail picture -

Fabric for Water

Is that kinda like "Water for Chocolate"? Nevermind..........

Anyway, I have been known on occasion to "forget" that I had fabric in Soda Ash to soak in preparation for dyeing. Sometimes for longer periods of time that I care to admit. One time, I decided that since they WERE soaked in soda ash after all............why rewash them only to soak them again. It was one of those "I wonder what would happen if..." moments. So, I just squirted on some dyes in the colors I was working with at the moment and let it batch overnight, rinsed it out the next day, washed....you know...all that stuff. Then I ironed it.....AMAZING RESULTS. Well, at least I love it!

I found a piece like that in my bucket just the other day. Hmmmm I had some dye mixed...why not do it again! I used some Mixing Blue and Marigold. And I gotta tell you...I LOVE this piece of fabric! AND I have an immediate use for it! You know those houses we are making in the DAG group???? Well...........this would make awesome water!! Don't you agree???

The whole piece is 18" X 44". These are pictures of different sections of it.

Fractured Architecture

A group of us are now starting a new project. The original is a line drawing of the canal houses in Amsterdam (or a reasonable facsimile thereof!). There are ten of us and we will all do the 10 different houses. Then the hostess will swap them out so we all end up with one of our own houses and one of the houses from everyone else!! And it is a large project. 33" high and somewhere around 70" or more wide!!! I could hardly wait to get started.

There are five main components for the background. Working my way down from the top -- the sky, the house, the sidewalk, the canal wall and then the canal. There is also a bridge in the middle with houses on it also. The only really important parts that have to match are the sidewalk and the canal wall. And there will be one fabric that will run throughout each house. The hostess dyed it and sent us all a piece. Somewhere in each house there has to be some of this common fabric. That will help tie it all together in the end.

So, to begin, I've been playing with techniques for some of the background or base pieces. I have some sky, some canal wall and some canal.

This is a piece of woven fabric for the canal wall. Each strip is 1/4" wide so this could make a wall for several of the pieces if needed.
OK, so I'm now addicted to woven fabric!!! This is a piece for a couple of skies

This is a piece that I pleated (rather irregularly by hand) in parts and left other parts unpleated. Then I stitched with metallic thread to reverse the pleating. I think it makes great current or perhaps slight waves from the wake of a boat!

This is a technique I've seen but never tried before. I have a 1/4" grid cookie rack that I used to poke the fabric through for this piece so the "bricks" are apx. 1/4" square. If you ever try this, I found it much easier to keep the already poked parts from coming out when I poke in the area next to them if I sprayed it with spray starch before poking! Then I ironed MistyFuse to the back of it to keep it all together and so I could add it to the slice of canal wall somewhere in a couple of houses. Or, perhaps some of it will end up being a roof or something..... We'll see.

It's good to be back on the computer and able to upload pictures and a lot of other things!! More tomorrow!

Hi..It's me yet again! - Fractured Flower!!

Gosh I'm chatty today!! I think part of it is that I'm so excited to be back in my studio on a more regular basis and doing creative things and completing some projects. YEAH!!

Today, being between projects and almost brain dead I'm so tired, (stayed up late watching football.........and crying because we lost and shouldn't have!!) I decided I had the wherewithal to at least sew together the four pieces of the Fractured Flower! AWESOME!! Oh and the 1/2 inch wiggle room seam allowance is absolutely necessary BTW! I got it all set up like I wanted it, stitched it together and Voila! Here it is!

Now I'm leaving it on my design wall for a bit and let it tell me just what it needs/wants. Then I get to do the fun part of making it into a quilt wall hanging and embellishing!!!

Lots of things today!

First, I didn't quite complete the Studio Clean-Up but plan to just continue clearing out stuff and putting stuff away (translate - finding a place to put stuff!) until it is all done. Of course, it is never totally done but I'll know when it is where it should be.

Then, you gotta love FreeCycle! I just picked up 20 hospital meal trays and 20 loaf pan looking containers (but they're plastic) from FreeCycle! GREAT tool for when I'm dyeing, painting, you name it!! AND the person said they have a continuing access to a supply of these used items! YEAH!! Believe me, I'm keeping her e-mail address!

Next, I'm participating in a couple of ATC swaps. The ATCs below are for a purple swap.

Purple Mountains Majesty - The background is watercolor paper painted with purple dye left over from my recent snow dyeing day. The mountain on the left is purple cheesecloth from a project last year. The middle mountain is left over from when in another group we made little gift boxes. The right mountain is a purple candy wrapper I've been saving for ages. One of those "you just never know...." things.

Purple Haze - The background for this one is one of the darker paper towels from the clean-up of my snow dyeing day. I wrinkled it up and ironed the wrinkles in. Painted it with Gel Matte Medium. The tore strips from a lighter purple clean-up paper towel and put those on in wisps. Covered the whole thing with pink netting to make it "haze-y" and then used a stitch on my machine to do the wavey stitching across it.

Now......last but now least............my Creativity Card for the coming week.....I can hardly stand the suspense!!!!

Stand On Your Head

The concept is to look at your work from a different perspective. Like upside down. Only I think I'll just turn the work upside down. This body isn't up to standing on my head.....at least and not living to tell about it! LOL! My plan today is working on a couple of ATCs anyway so I'll give it a try. I think it would be fun to try that with the Fractured Flower pieces now on my design wall to see how it looks upside down....or sideways!!! But that will be later in the week.

So now I'm off to play in the studio for the morning!

Still on Schedule - WOW!! (and Fractured Flower!)

Can you believe it??? I can hardly believe it myself! I finished up all the quilting and today I put on the last of the embellishments. Now all I need is the binding. Trying to decide what to do that would work for this particular piece. So, no picture today......just checking in. Hopefully tomorrow night or at the latest Monday morning, I should have pictures ready to upload! The deadline thing has really helped me stay on task. I don't usually drift off to other things except things in the studio. I'm walking over to put something in the sink and see this way cool piece of metal and it is SOOOOO difficult not to even pick it up and play with it. I just kept telling myself that I HAD to keep on the quilt to have it done by Sunday night!

So, until tomorrow..........

Oh wait!!! I DO have some pictures to post!!! Received the four parts of the Fractured Flower that I need to put into a quilt. Here they are. Soon I'll be playing with them and it should be tons of fun!!! The upper left is mine, Upper right - Gena, Lower left is Karen and Lower right is Wil.

Fractured Flower ready to send

Yep, it's been a while! But finally I've completed the four sections of my part of the Fractured Flower!! These are the four pieces on my design wall. Obviously, the seam allowances make it look a bit wonky but there they are! Whew!! It was a great learning experience. Especially for someone who doesn't like "rules" that much and prefers to just "wing it". But it was worth it in the end. Now, I'm just waiting to get back the four pieces I'll have for making a completed piece. I'll post them when I get them and we'll see what comes of them!

Fractured Flower - next steps

Well, FINALLY I'm getting back to my fractured flower project. Got the pieces with the adhesive on the back and then cut out. Started placing them with the placement map and found out is was much more difficult than I had thought it would be! But, we soldier on!!

After just a few pieces are adhered it still doesn't look very promising I must admit. I think this piece was more difficult because the background piece for this quadrant didn't cover the whole picture back.....just the areas for the background of the picture. Also, this is on some light interfacing and for the rest of them I will use a light muslin from the beginning. Anyway, here it is in all its glory!


Got a few more pieces on and I could start seeing how it was all coming together. At least enough to encourage me to continue and not run out of the studio screaming!!!

Perseverance paid off in the end. Haven't put all the "finishing touches" on it yet but I think it is looking like the picture. OK, at least it is recognizable as a flower now!! The size difference I think is partly because of the angle I took the picture and also because the fabric one has the seam allowance added on to it.

Now on to the other pieces!! After finishing one, I did learn a few things I'll do differently on the next one and see if it makes a difference. Mostly it takes some concentration to be sure it is built up from the back. Now that I'm on a roll I'm actually enjoying it.

Some fun from today's play time

OK, so you have seen my lino cutting of Tallinn. Before I started the "official" piece I made a practice piece just to be sure how to use what tool to get which look. Below I printed the lino cut with brick red paint. Then I used artist chalks to color it. I'm in love with it actually. TONS of fun!!!

Wil and I were shopping yesterday (what else?!) and at the shopping mall we ran across several very interesting plants. Feeling like some sort of covert operation - I "liberated" a few of them and we used them in some more gelatin printing. Below are the ones I made. The left picture is the one with the plant on the painted gelatin and the right ones are from the paint left after taking off the plant.

This is the other drop cloth made from putting the used plants on fabric and with muslin on top of them, I brayered them to print the paint remaining on them.

Now, as long as no one got my liscense number.....we might pick up some more on Friday!!! Plant life everywhere -- BEWARE!!! Actually, we decided we are extending and enhancing their life cycle by immortalizing them in art!!! (Hey, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!)

Master Map - Part 2

So, today I'm back to my Master Maps. I took my first one and started making notations (since DH got me some wonderful markers yesterday!) I am using red to make notes about the flowers and green to make notes about the leaves and purple to make notes about the background! Ya gotta love the color coding bit!!!

The notes are about color and/or placement in front of or behind other pieces. Now from this I need to trace my individual pieces onto freezer paper! Now THAT should be interesting!

Fractured Flower - Placement Map and Choosing Fabric

Here's what I did in the studio today. Since I couldn't get to a sewing machine, I decided to go ahead and trace the Placement Map for the Fractured Flower project. I wanted to trace it before I made notes on the Master Map. (It wouldn't take much to get confused I'm thinking - don't need any extra markings when I'm trying to trace!)

I used clear heavy duty packing tape to tape two transparencies together so they would be big enough to cover the master map. Then I traced all the lines onto the rough side of the transparencies.

Here is a detail of the tracing in process. Sorry about the flash reflection - I took many pictures and couldn't get it without one. This is the best shot.

Here is the completed Placement Map on a white background so you can see it.

So, Placement Maps for all four pieces are now complete. I wanted to start making notations on my Master Map but realized I didn't have the writing implements I wanted so I called DH and he is going to stop by Office Depot on the way home from work to pick them up for me. (What a great guy!!)

So, then -- what to do next??? I had already picked out a few oranges for this project but needed a bunch of other colors. Especially looking for the background pieces. So, I pulled out great stacks of colors from my stash and started going through them. (I'm SOOOOO thankful that my friend who helped me organize my studio recently insisted we organize my hand dyed fabrics by color families!!!!!!!! THANK YOU DIANA!!!!!) It made this part of the process so much easier! So far so good! I have found I think all of the ones I will need! Who knew all these years of hand dyeing and holding on to my fabrics would one day pay off so well??? I very well may not need to dye anything new for this project!!!

Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to start making notations!

Fractured Flower - Master Map part 1

Now to make the Master Map from which all parts are copied. Very important part of the process as I understand it.

First, here is the quarter of the picture I am using for this posting. It is the bottom left of the whole picture. You can see that I have drawn black lines to outline the parts I want to use as different fabrics, etc. This is so when I lay down the tracing paper it is easier to see (especially for older eyes like mine!!!)




I tried this first with tissue tracing paper. Although it worked just fine, I wasn't happy with the durability of it as a "MASTER" copy. Fortunately, I was looking for something else in a closet when I came across these large sheets of velum I had gotten for making templates when I was learning hand piecing. They are EXCELLENT for this project!! Easy to see through (easier than the tracing paper to be honest) and it is quite strong! Here is the tracing partially done.


The attached pieces need to match as well as possible so each quarter needs to run into the 1/2" inside borders. So, I slipped the adjoining piece under the velum to be as sure as I can that the lines meet. Below is a picture of that part of the process and a close-up picture.

Here is a shot of the tracing process completed.

And here is the completed tracing of the lower left quarter.

Now - on to figuring out all the notations that need to be made on the Master Map! I have to read the directions again to find out just what all needs to be on here.

Fractured Flower - Just Starting

YEAH! In an online group I'm a part of - we are doing a Fractured Flower quilt. I had seen these done a while ago on Simply Quilts and at the time thought that would be one of the most exciting projects!! Well, now I get to do one!

This one is meant to stay fairly true to color and design - read very precise (yeh, I know....but I'm gonna try anyway! LOL!) It is the picture of a flower which the hostess divided into four pieces. Each piece is to be treated like an individual quiltlet except that they should all match well at the areas that join together. When we have completed our four pieces, they are returned to the hostess and she will mix them up with the other three in my group and send me back one of my pieces and one piece from each of the other three in my group. Then I will sew them together to make one quilt!!!

So, want to go on this journey with me?????? Good! Here we go!!!......................

I just received my four pieces of the photo a couple of days ago. Isn't it a beautiful flower? I first started going through my hand dyed fabric stash to pull out oranges, yellows, golds, purples, greens, etc. I actually had more than I had thought I would.

Now to make all the tracings, master maps, etc. From what the hostess said....this is the difficult part. Below are my four pieces. I have traced out the major outlines with a Sharpie to make them easier to trace. One piece of advice...........don't drink a lot of coffee before you attempt this!

Now on to the next stage (probably tomorrow) - making the master map!