Long Beach International Quilt Festival

Yoga Poses in Public Places

Of course, I had to do Yoga Poses in Public Places, this time with the fabulous Pokey Bolton.

"Nature Journal" by Jane LaFazio

Then I had to go see the Rituals exhibit to see my quilt. Rituals is a really really fabulous exhibition of forty-some quilts. (You can see it at the other International Quilt Festivals this year.)

Text and Textiles workshop

Thursday, I taught Text and Textiles, hand stitched story quilts. Great group of women!

student at work in Text and Textiles

student at work in Text and Textiles

Friday, I taught Intro to Surface Design with another delightful group of women.

student work (she made her own gear stamp!)

student work. (nice pods stencil)

student work

student work

student work

student work (she made her own bird stamp)

At the end of Intro to Surface Design, they combined their fabrics into a small quilt:

student work

Create on the Spot "Felt like Stitching"

Saturday, I taught a one hour workshop, "Felt Like Stitching" on the exhibition floor.

student work

student work

student work

Also on Saturday, I taught at 1/2 day Stamp Carving with some great results and great conversation:

student work

student work

student work

student work

student work 

Drove home to San Diego, and I leave for Art Unraveled (in Phoenix) right now! Hope to see you at one of my classes!

More fun with my PODS stencil ~

Pods Quilt in progress by Jane LaFazio

I'm having tons of fun with the PODS stencil I designed for StencilGirl products.

I also printed the PODS stencil on silk organza, using the same technique. Then I pinned the organza to the cotton and did some free motion stitching.

free motion stitching from the back of the quilt

Pods Quilt in progress by Jane LaFazio

Pods Quilt in progress by Jane LaFazio

You can see some other ways to use my PODS stencil here.
And you can see all my stencils here.

from my sketchbook ~ 10 objects 10 ways

from my sketchbook. 10 Objects 10 Ways. by Jane LaFazio

from my sketchbook. 10 Objects 10 Ways. by Jane LaFazio

I teach a lot, and "Sketching and Watercolor: Journal Style" is one of my most popular classes. For this page, I created a challenge, for a new one day workshop I'll be teaching at Art Unraveled, in Phoenix on July 31, called "10 Objects 10 Ways."

detail from my sketchbook. 10 Objects 10 Ways. by Jane LaFazio

detail from my sketchbook. 10 Objects 10 Ways. by Jane LaFazio

I really had fun creating this, and did the whole thing in an afternoon.

detail from my sketchbook. 10 Objects 10 Ways. by Jane LaFazio

detail from my sketchbook. 10 Objects 10 Ways. by Jane LaFazio

You can see my full teaching schedule here. You can look back on my sketchbook pages from my blog too.

Interviews as Inspiration ~ Danny Gregory!

This is the fourth of a series of Interviews as Inspiration. I'm inviting people I admire; artists, authors, people I know, and people I don't. It should be fun! and hopefully inspirational for both you and me. 

I'm am beyond thrilled to give you my interview with Danny Gregory.I consider Danny my mentor, since I first saw his blog in ~2005, and it was he who inspired me on my sketchbook path. 

I was lucky to met Danny, just once, on a sketchcrawl in Los Angeles in 2006.

Sketchcrawl 2006! 

Then, when he invited me to be in his book "An Ilustrated Life" I was so honored, excited, thrilled and we've continued to stay in touch.

So, grab a cup of your favorite beverage and watch the delightful  20 minute video Danny made in response to my emailed questions. (The video was a complete surprise to me! and what a treat!)

You can see Danny's other videos here, on DannyGregory TV
Danny's books and his recommendations:
Everyday Matters by Danny Gregory

An Illustrated Life by Danny Gregory (I'm in this one!)
Artist Journal Workshop by Cathy Johnson

The other book Danny mentions are harder to find: Sketchbook Paris by Ronald Searle, Creative Ink Drawing by Paul Hogarth, Coastline by David Gentleman, A Journey to North Korea  by Guy Delisle,  and Painting People by Charlotte Mullins.

Everyday Matters on Flickr

Everyday Matters on Facebook

Everyday Matters Yahoo Group

Now, go grab your sketchbook and draw!  

Links to my other Interviews as Inspiration:

Rachelle Archer, expressive arts therapist at a school for homeless
Cas Holmes, textile artist

Mary Beth Shaw, artist and Stencil Girl Products founder

Marcia Derse, textile designer

Lesley Riley, artist and author

Danny Gregory, artist and author

Judy Reeves, writer

Carlo Roberts, The Blue Walk travel company founder

Jane Powell, Random Arts owner 

and the winner is...

Winner of Jane Sassaman's book Patchwork Sassaman Style is: 
Mrs. C! 
Email me with your mailing address!

Painters tape ~ tutorial

 Tree Dreaming Tree by Jane LaFazio

detail by Jane LaFazio

~ 14 inch square artwork by Jane LaFazio

ScotchBlue Painter's Tape is useful for so many creative projects.
 I used it here, to create a tree shape on both paper and cloth. 

1. On a piece of plexiglass, create a tree shape using ScotchBlue Painter's Tape 

First, here's how I printed on paper. The plexiglass is my printing 'plate.' (I'm using acrylic paint for this example)

2. Brayer over the tape, using acrylic paint.

3. Remove the tape (it comes off easily, all in one piece!) 

4. Place your paper (image side down) on top of the plexi and brayer over the back of the paper to create a print. 

5. Lift the paper, and here is the print you'll get

As you can see, the ScotchBlue Painter's Tape served as a mask. In the example below, I created a collage, then printed over it, so that the collage would show through the tree area, masked by the tape. 

In this example, I used the technique described above, but on a collaged paper.

I actually heard of this idea, from a student who had created a large tree on the wall of her daughter's bedroom, using ScotchBlue Painter's Tape. Then she'd painted over the wall, removed the tape, and had a wonderful slightly abstract tree on the wall! Imagine~then you could go in and paint leaves and birds and all kinds of things on the wall. 

.....and I couldn't stop there! I had to try it on fabric too!

detail of small art quilt, by Jane LaFazio

white cotton fabric with pattern created from a stencil

Remember the fabric I created with my new PODS stencil? I selected a small piece of it to use for the background.

create a tree with tape

I created a tree, using ScotchBlue Painter's Tape tearing small pieces, almost like sculpting as I created the tree. I made sure to save the parts of the stencil print that I especially liked, by putting the tape over them to mask them.

tree complete!

Spray with color

Then I sprayed with transparent color.

I could have let it dry

And placed it outside to dry...but I couldn't wait, and pulled the tape off when it was still wet!

But I couldn't wait and peeled the tape of right away!

tadah! 

I love it! (Next time, I might have ironed the fabric to a piece of freezer paper, to keep it flat and stationary, then applied the tape, and sprayed it with color.)

I added a piece of batting to the back and did some free-motion stitching around the tree shape

Now, I wanted to make a small quilt with it, by adding a piece of batting to the back and doing some free motion machine stitching with black thread.

Small art quilt by Jane LaFazio

This post is a collaboration with ScotchBlue Painter's Tape, whose dedication to recognizing and rewarding creativity led to this post.  Get started to win some coolprizes by clicking here.