Three?

Three seems to be an ongoing number in my life.  Three husbands, three homes, three children and 13 grandchildren.  My astrological numbers are prevelently 3 with 6 and  9 as secondary.  I chose to use a commercial stencil stitched with a cover of glitter tulle to give an etherial feel.  The background is hand dyed. This was fun as it is quite different for me.

Pat Havey

October: Forest

After I'd spent a month thinking about what to do with a forest with no results, I contemplated posting in our group that Forest had me stumped.

And suddenly, there it was.  Stumps.  Funny how the mind works, isn't it.

My background is another computer generated fractal, printed on fabric.  The fused bird shapes were created with photoshop brushes.  This turned out to be another comment on our ever changing natural world.

once a forest was
tall green home to migrant birds
only stumps remain

September, November, Falling, Brew

Yep, I am cheating here, combining two words into one piece.  So shoot me.

The main leaves in this piece were created by pounding leaves with a small rubber mallet until they left their natural dye shapes on my fabric.  This is a lot of fun, though it's right noisy and can leave one's arm and shoulder muscles trembling if one goes at it too long at a stretch, but it's a great way to work out any residual anger and frustration that one might be harbouring.  The additional leaves were quilted on with 30 wt. Sulky Blendable threads, after I'd quilted the background and decided that enough wasn't enough.  

wicked storm brewing
falling leaves swirl on the wind
dancing down to die

August - Flow

This one is meant to be some sort of statement about how many places on earth are having water scarcity problems due to overdevelopment and changing weather patterns.  The binding is something new - couched satin cord.  I like the way this turns out for these little pieces - so much less bulky than traditional bindings, no matter how narrow they are.  And it's way quicker.  Another fine thing, that.

And yes, I do own a calendar.  I just keep forgetting to turn the pages.

when the rains don't come
flowing rivers all run dry
how then will we live?

A new haiku project

I've posted before about how I love haiku -- but to find them, not to write them.  A few months ago I started a new project, to find haiku in junk mail.  I scrutinize the letters for haiku phrases, then paste them on the envelopes.

At some point when I think I have enough, I plan to bind them into a book, perhaps arranged in chapters -- environment, financial services, telecommunication, etc.

But meanwhile I'm just concentrating on processing my mail into poetry.

Many of the haiku end up being pretty accurate synopses of the dire situations described in the appeal letters.

Others echo the appeals themselves.

Some are a call to action.

Others don't bother to appeal to your higher nature -- just to your greed.

I'll post again as the project takes shape.

Flow

Time flows, fits and starts
Impermanent and fleeting
Just beyond our grasp

Simple improvisational piecing of vintage fabric, with vintage buttons and random quilting with perle cotton.

Please excuse the less than stellar image quality - my camera has disappeared into the morass of my house, and I'm using my cellphone.

July : Whirlwind

July's moon is called the Thunder Moon in most North American cultures. Appropriate that, given the prevalence of thunderstorms to dampen the fiery heat. Our prompt word for July arrived just days before the derecho. Whoever heard of such a thing? I personally had no damage other than some small limbs in the yard and a couple of hours of scariness. While a derecho is not so much a whirling wind, but more of a straight wind, I knew I wanted to try to make one.

The source image from the National Weather Service can be found HERE. (scroll down to almost the bottom of the page)

I tried making it with fabric. Twice. Both failed. It was too clunky or something. Then I tried sketching in the storm lines with pearle cotton in the bobbin, something I'd never done before. I like the technique and the textural effect, but the piece itself is weird. I thought maybe I could quilt it right, but that didn't happen either.

Even if I hadn't included the moon, it would still be weird. I haven't bound it. I don't like it enough to waste any more time or thread on it. Some things just aren't meant to be. I do like my background fabric though. The black streaks are meant to be flying debris.

Just for the sake of discussion though, if one of you had been trying to make this derecho map, how would you have gone about it?

July's Thunder Moon
brings daily bad storm warnings
still, it does not rain

then the derecho
speeding down from the northwest
brings rain, at great cost

Sleepwalking with Claude

Here's my latest piece. I don't have a title for it yet. I was attempting something more abstract than my usual landscapes. It does employ a horizon line to vaguely reference a place but beyond that, I wanted abstract - color, line and texture. I wasn't trying to convey any place in particular. So much for my detour into the abstract. In the middle of my design work, suddently I saw it. Another Monet emerged. I've done several Monet inspire pieces. Enough. But without even trying, with no thought of Giverny whatsoever, there it is. Yes, it is a more abstract treatment and I like how it turned out but it amazes me that I did this. It's like I'm sleepwalking with Claude.

a detour away
takes me right back . . .
going in circles

June: Strawberry Moon

Yeah, I'm late. Really late. Later than I've ever been before. You don't want to know.

In Algonqian lore, June is known as the strawberry moon. Unlike other months, there are no alternative names in North American cultures. Here in Virginia, strawberries used to peak in June. Now it's more like May.

It took me about forever to work out how to make the strawberries, since I don't have any photos, so in the end, I just looked a a bunch of other people's strawberry pictures and went for it.

My little quilt is collaged and fused and machine quilted. I decided to try an over layer of tulle because of the serate edges of the leaves and the fraying of the red fabric. I tried various colors of tulle and settled on red in the end, since it gave a pink glow to my moon, and weird as it was to think about, I rather liked the effect.

This piece is 8 3/4 x 7 3/4. It was originally 8 3/4 by 11. There were the most wonderful moonlit reflections off the clouds, and a whole full moon too. You'll have to imagine it. Tulle melts, given a way too heavy hand with the iron in pressing the binding to the front.

under the June moon
strawberries are ripening
sweet treat for breakfast

Awakening

I don't write haiku -- I find them in books and newspapers.  I was amazed to find a great haiku in the comics this morning appropriate to the May theme -- the only thing I had to do was block out four words from the original captions and flip the order of the two panels.

Here's the original:

Here's the haiku version:

-

I need to see Scott
Why did I push him away?
I feel different.

It's June! New Word - Suggestion for Blog

It's June!  

June is a great month for parties - wedding, graduation, fathers day - you name it!

Here's what I propose:  IF you need a word prompt for June - the word is Party!

So many of us are busily working on projects and haven't had a moment to work on our Haiku Art pieces. (I plead guilty to this).

If that is the case with you then please post the work of your choice for June, with one very important request. Please post your work along with a Haiku that you feel exemplifies your work.  You may write the Haiku after the fact OR before you start your project.  Your choice.

Members:        Please leave some feedback for this alternative posting idea.

Our blog is Haiku Art and my personal opinion is that so long as each piece of art is accompanied by a haiku, I feel that we are fulfilling the goal of our posts.

I really want to see all of our work represented here regularly most of all.

Have a great June!

Guila

It Suddenly Dawned

Posting this at 10:30pm on May 31 and getting my quilt and haiku in just under the wire.  It Suddenly Dawned is part my developing series of water/reflection/horizon art quilts.  I just found out today it was accepted into the 30th Annual New Legacies: Contemporary Art Quilts Exhibition in Fort Collins, Colorado.  Very excited.  This is 75.5 x 32 wide and has a similar size and construction as Tranquil Marsh/Wild Iris of my last posted artwork that I will post a full picture of as soon as I am able.  But this gives you an idea of how big it is.

The haiku gave me a little trouble at first and then I managed to come up with two.  I like them both but they are very different in tone.  I thought I'd share both.  I think the first suits the artwork better but I still like the second.

painted sky . . .

lapping light stretches

into dawn

morning reflections

dissolve into the vastness . . .

all at sea

Elena Stokes

elena@focusonfiberart.com

focusonfiberart.com

May - Awakening

The May full moon is most commonly called the flower moon, though a close second is the planting moon, which seemed appropriate for our current word prompt of awakening. Other names are milk moon, likely referring to animal mothers producing food for their newly born offspring, and the hare moon. Judging from the rabbits running amok in my front field, that seems appropriate. There were two out there this evening playing leapfrog. Or at least that's what it looked like. I expect they were playing at mating.

I am a gardener, of both flowers and food. It always intrigues me to see the power of a tiny dried up looking seed when it comes to life and pushes its sprout up through the soil. Beans in particular, which is what this one is if you didn't recognize it, disturb the dirt to the point where it looks like someone's been out there with a hoe.

This was made from a photograph, which I got by lying in the wet grass. Absolute dedication. What do you reckon the neighbors thought? Do I really care? I printed an enlargement, traced the outlines for a pattern and fused the fabric parts to make the whole. The pebble quilting in the dirt part is meant to illustrate the disturbed earth. That, and I have this thing for the look of pebbling, so I'm trying to practice it at every opportunity. I think I'm getting better at it.

I have had a hard time with the haiku, it's still not quite right. If I come up with better word imagery, I'll edit at it, so don't think you've lost your memory if it becomes different.

mysterious shapes
awaken in the moonlight
thrusting earth aside

Happy May !

Well it's just after midnight where I am and officially May 1.  We DO have a prompt word this month - thank you Kristin Freeman.  The word is Awakening  

For those of you who are in the midst of developing a series, I think that's great and hope you will consider the prompt word as another influence on your work this month. We had discussed that some of us would like to end up with a more cohesive body of work at the end of the year - including myself and that will definitely be doable. Most of the prompt words that we are given can lead us off in so many directions.

Remember - the prompt word itself does NOT have to be in the Haiku.

This is definitely a time of transition for our Haiku Art Group. It's wonderful to look back over the last 16 months and see all the moving words and exciting art that has come from this group.

And now we are welcoming new members and are excited to have Elena Stokes already posting her work!

We look forward to having Phyllis Cullen joining us soon as well.

Kathy Loomis offered a great observation about our two sites (internal/external) and suggested that perhaps we post exclusively here so that everyone knows exactly where to seek information.

That will certainly simplify communication.

However I recommend that we leave our internal site active for the time being just to see if there are occasions when we need it.

I don't think that the art will get lost in the chatter - we have such an easy system with the labels to find everything readily.

My final note - Congratulations to our most diligent completers and posters:  Martha Dennis and Kris Bishop. Many kudos to both of you. That's sure not an easy accomplishment.

Have a wonderful productive month of May!

hugs,

Guila Greer

honeyquilts@gmail.com

April - Pink Moon

Another moon.  I've always wanted to do a series on the traditional full moons, so I reckon that's what you'll be seeing here now, since there won't be any more prompt words.

The Native American name for April's full moon is Pink Moon, called such after the wildflowers that bloom around this time of year in the east.  Other names are Sprouting Grass Moon, Egg Moon and Fish Moon, all of which reflect what's going outside in the spring.

I have cheated a bit on this one, in that I made this piece in early March and have written the current haiku for it.  In February, I took my first class at Quilt University, a class called Dyeing with Tea and Spices, taught by Marjie McWilliams.  It was a lot of fun playing with what was already in my kitchen to create colors on fabric and I've learned enough to be experimenting with what's growing out in my yard.  Over the weekend it was dandelion greens, which produced a fine pale yellow.  Intrigued?  The class will come around again in mid-July.

This was my final class project and all the fabrics in it were dyed by me.  The pink gradation was made from Tazo Passion tea.  Those blue birds were probably from berries, or perhaps red cabbage.  The yellow and greens could have been from a lot of things.  I didn't write it down, I was busy making it out of my new fabrics.

in the warm moonlight
spring blossoms cast a pink glow
as birds soar to mate

Just thought I'd share . . .

Greetings!  I'm so happy to join your group.  Two of my favorite things - art and haiku!

I don't have an April haiku and art piece but I thought I would share a peak of the quilt I made for SAQA's Seasonal Palette exhibit that will premiere in November at the Houston show.  They have asked us not to publish until after the exhibit opens but I can show a little sneak preview.  Just to give a little background on this exhibit and me . . . I'm new to SAQA, I joined in July of 2011 though I've been quilting for about 20 years, and this exhibit was the first members exhibit I tried to enter.  Submission to exhibit was a little unusual.  Artists had to submit a portfolio of four quilts, choose a season and explain why, along with an explanation of the technique to be used. They selcected 38 artists out of 147 but I think only 36 will be exhibiting.  We had six months to create the artwork which had a size requirement of 32″ x 78″ high.  Originally, I chose winter as my season but since so many of the selected artists did as well, about half, many, including myself were reassigned.  I got spring!  Plus, when writing my artist statement, I decided to write it in haiku.  It just seemed to fit.  So, my quilt and haiku do have a little to do with April especially with the very early spring we're having here in New Jersey.  Today, in fact, I saw my first iris!  In April!  So, maybe I do have an April haiku, two haiku in fact, and artwork to share.  

My technique is simple:  I tear fabric into strips and collage it into a painting, then I fuse it down and then finally quilt it.  Even though it sounds simple enough, the collaging - the painting of the scene - takes a long time.  I use hand dyed fabrics and batiks that I collected for years.  Did anyone say fabriholic?

I realize you won't quite get the the first haiku because you can't see the entire quilt but I will post the whole thing in November!  Anyway, I hope you enjoy. 

Elena

The title of the quilt is from one of the haiku: 

Tranquil Marsh - Wild Iris

warm golden light

shrugs off the chill of gray

blinking open

lush violet

blooms in a tranquil marsh

wild iris

March - Glimmer

This is the result of experimenting with my Inktense pencils.  The rainbow colors are a bit bright...

the dark sky brightens
as the storm ends, a rainbow -
a glimmer of hope

Phases of the Moon

I thought of all the different sayings that we have to describe the moon: some quite descriptive, others turned into common expressions and a few quite fanciful.  So much folklore and romance has evolved from our common experience of viewing this orb in the night sky. 

I chose just 3 such expressions to paint a little mixed media piece called Phases of the Moon.

The Phases are:  Blue Moon, Green Cheese Moon and Harvest Moon

At a future time I plan to do a textile piece based on a similar theme:

and the Haiku

chameleon moon
many faces to delight
changing yet constant

February - Moon

Many cultures have names for their full moons, and in North America the February full moon is most commonly called the snow moon. Alternate names are Bone Moon or Hunger Moon, due I suppose to all that snow keeping the game inaccessible while the previous year's harvest stores are dwindling.

The snowy fields and the moon are hand appliqued, and the snowflakes are hand embroidered.  Lucky that no two showflakes are ever alike.

february moon
snowflakes falling to the earth
each one different

Exhileration

Arms stretch wide, graceful
Music flows all around us
Rhythm beats through us

The art came first this month. I went rooting around in the material bins, and found this snow-dye that just *looked* exhilerating. Then I noodled around with embroidery floss, sequins, and beads, and it started to look the way I felt when I belly danced. (Too many years ago now.) The haiku reflects the feeling of dancing with a group of other women.

Urban Moon

Freeway overpass

Blossoms in red graffiti

Slicing grey moonlight

The strip piecing in the upper left began as an trial of a free rotary cutting and curved piecing method I ran into last summer.  When the small bit I'd done and the cut fabrics came out from beneath the piles on the cutting table at the new year's clean up, I thought I'd play with it some more and see where it went.  There was no plan ever.  The quilt told me what it wanted and that's what it got.

This quilt is 9 x 11.5" and is totally machine done.  I also tried a new facing method, which was easy but I still come out with those weird curved corners.  Leftover traditionalist that I am, I want those corners to be square. 

I have also decided not to write the haiku on the quilt unless the design would be enhanced by the words.  I struggled with that all last year.  My handwriting is so sloppy,  that  no matter how hard I tried,  I felt I ruined some of my pieces with the lettering.

The original haiku I wrote for January was about the exhilaration to be found in working with a new method or idea:

experimenting
trying something different
exhilarating!

But I liked what turned out so much that I thought it deserved a haiku of its own.  I want to make a larger piece like this, only I would satin stitch those fused rocks first, instead of quilting them on.


exhilarated,
a river rushing to sea
wears away rough rocks

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 it extensively with heavy thread.  

Guila Greer

January: Interim Exhilaration

This is not my "real" haiku piece for the month, I'm still working on that one.

Despite my venturings into machine quilting, I never want to be without a quilt on the frame.  Hand quilting is so relaxing every evening.  This project was begun last fall and has been on the frame for almost a week.  I meant to take a picture of the completed top before it went on the frame, but I got impatient and forgot.  I thought the occasion deserved a haiku.

the piecing finished
a new quilt is on the frame
exhilarating!

Orca Bay and a new design

I started designing a wallhanging to teach in the spring. I did it in Bali's , not bad, but prefer the home dyed fabrics. Here it is:

It still needs quilted and binding.
Here is one row of the Orca Bay quilt, as you see my design board is not wide enough :)

It has turned very cold, our spring like weather is gone. -29 today and will stay that way most of the week. Great weather for finishing the Orca Bay quilt!
Hope you are having a great week.