Barbara Harms Fiber Art
Contemporary Fiber Art From A Unique Perspective–abstract to stylized nature
Cherry Blossoms time, the theme of my new art quilt
I love cherry trees, it’s breath taking to see each new tree as it is in full bloom. I love the romance of the pink “snow” which covers the ground after the blossoms fall. I love that glorious spectacle that occurs every year. The fact that it lasts for only a brief time, makes the experience even sweeter.
In a earlier post I mentioned a charming Japanese tradition which celebrating the beauty of their blooming cherry trees. I am enchanted by this wonderful Japanese tradition, that occurs every year. As the cherry trees begin their bloom season the celebration of that beauty begins,
There are many varieties of cherry trees, each one has it’s own bloom cycle, some early, some mid season or others bloom late. As one variety of tree begins it’s bloom cycle, another variety is just finishing it’s. The blooming season is extended with the staggered bloom times.
I have no idea of the history behind what follows, perhaps it is simply a way to appreciate the beautiful display. Families picnic under the trees which are currently blooming. When the next round of blooming begins, they follow and have another picnic beneath the blossoms, and on this will continue til the blooming has finished.
You may wonder how do people know which trees are currently in bloom? Bloom updates report the currently blooming trees and their locations, in much the same way as ski reports are broadcast here in the states. Which ski locations have fresh snow, ” Vale Colorado has fresh snow with a depth of …” .. As the updated blooming reports are made a flurry of people travel from one location to the next follow, taking in all the beauty.
I think this story illustrates the excitement and awe we feel as we observe this wonderful spectacle. I decided to make the theme of my new art quilt one tree in bloom. Looking up the old gnarly trunk of a old cherry tree to see a pink cloud of blossoms spilling out over the branches. It is a striking contrast.
I’ve made a start on it. My quilt is on a long hand painted panel, which is about 50″ by 19. I’ve fused on many cherry blossoms and am in the process of appliqueing them on. Then the thread painting will add detail, the bark on the tree and so forth.
Here are a few photos of this early stage, I’ll try to give you updates of the progress.
full length
Progress of an custom art quilt part 2 and counting
As I mentioned I am including updates on the jelly fish art quilt I’m making.
Just FYI I reread my last blogs and am I a bad typer oh my, mistyped everything [see what I mean? miss typed the word miss typed. LOL pathetic just pathetic]
Back to the quilt… here’s a few new photo
[I just miss typed few]
From these to these most recent ones as of today:
thread painting started
Next Thursday 6/13 is the day my feature will post on Janome’s Global website. That’s exciting for me. So please look for it Thursday, I’ll post the link then, I think it runs one week So come over to janome.com and have a look.
To tell you the truth I was surprised when I received the email from Janome. But I’m am big fan and not afraid to say so!
Here it is my wonderful machine.
Fire and Ice art quilt. Hand painted silk art quilt with lively thread play.
NEWS NEWS NEWS! I’m Excited But I Have News!
NEWS,NEWS, NEWS I have a few upcoming events. which I hope you’ll look for. It’s NEWS! One is about myself and the other is concerning Rachel Biel. Read on to find out.
How about that new Janome?
The first one is a real thrill for me. I was contacted by Janome, they are starting a new series on Janome.com their page. It will be a series of brief interviews with different quilters and fiber artists and so forth who run their own small businesses that involve quilting, fiber art and the like. These are woman who depend on Janome machines in their work. I’m one of the women being featured in this series,which will be most likely sometime next week. I’ll post the date as soon as I get it and a link too if possible before hand. Please come and support me, besides this actually is a fun site to poke around in, lots to do, info, FAQs, forums, projects, tips, information about your machine, updates, lots more- and no it isn’t just a site with different models and features pictured. Oh, last but not least, there is a new series you don’t want to miss
TA DA of featured women! It’s no secret that I love my Janome 8900 QBC, if that comes as a surprise to you, well you haven’t been reading my blog, hummm. I love my machine and I am vocal about it, no one is offering me any incentives or twisting my arm, I just love it, and sound like a walking commercial I realize.
This second announcement is equally exciting, keep on reading.
I am posting an upcoming interview with Rachel Biel. She is the woman behind TAFA, which you likely are familiar with or should be if you are interested in fiber or textiles.Rachel is such a interesting person, she has been involved with fiber and textiles many years[I keep wanting to say fiber art here, she is a fiber artist in her own right] but TAFA involves much more. Rachel is one smart dynamo of a woman, I loved what she had to say, she’s honest, real and a straight shooter. Her years of experience have given her insight and a lot of savvy which she is generous in sharing, You can’t help but admire her “go get it” attitude, isn’t afraid to work hard, and do what it takes to achieve goals. What she has to say has value, it’s not fluff! You will enjoy this, she’s one interesting woman.
So that’s all my NEWS NEWS NEWS coming up really soon, look for these. I sure want to encourage you to check out my little feature and the interview with Rachel Biel is going to interest and engage you. I’ll post the
dates as soon as I can.
http:/http://www.rayela.etsy.com//www.rayela.com/
Had to throw this in somewhere, my quilts are in there.
Put one of these up on your site, I’m going to if I can figure out how and join!!!
Whoa Nelly and Alphonse Mucha
I must apologize for an attempt last night [a really, really late night attempt] to post these two quilts. Somehow I posted a rejected draft, which was jumbled, incoherent, misspelled and unintelligible. To answer your obvious question, No, I had not been drinking heavily at the time nor was I having a psychotic break with reality. Sorry and embarrassed, I deleted the mess. Yet as we all know, once anything is published on the internet, it will linger on forever.
I freely confess that I am a terrible speller, as you might have noticed, although I cannot understand why spell check allows me to run a muck like this. I admit that I often ramble on violating the entire point of blogging. I regress, repeat and occasionally leave out key words. Editing is a skill I do not possess. I will reread a post multiple times before posting, searching, yet missing the mistakes. I assume the reason for these editing failures is that my mind corrects any mistakes it encounters without my being aware of it, so I do not see them.
Strangely, the very instant I hit the publish button, they all magically appear. There are many reasons why I should be stripped of my blogging privileges and banned from ever writing anything publicly again. But the mishap on my last post was an all time low, even for me.
I will now re-attempt to post these quilts in an understandable and coherent manner.
Here are the last two quilts of what I have dubbed my “stressed out series” of three. One is an art deco bed set with Alphonse Mucha‘s art thrown in the mix. The last quilt is a neon bright geometric art quilt. I used commercial fabrics in this one, not my usual hand painted silk. I simply couldn’t help myself, these fabrics were calling me, or maybe more accurately screaming to me and could not be ignored. The art quilting is playful, it matches the wonky piecing & outrageous” Whoa Nelly” bright colors.
I used the ink jet printable fabric sheets for the first time, great results. I brightened her colors up with a little fabric paint, including metallic gold.
How to quilt this really busy fabric? My solution, crazy wild quilting.
Quilt # 3- I was not exaggerating about the bright colors, was I?
As I conclude this post, I must say that this post seems to have an imbalance. It is a top heavy mixture of too many photos with too little words, The Google bot does not that I have read somewhere.I often post too many photos, I forget that not everyone has my same fascination with all the details.I’m afraid I have run out of words to say, sorry little Google bot, these are all the words that I can muster. I hope that my last garbled post will dissappear, replaced with this one, but that’s unlikely I suppose.
Two Down, One Scraped? Who Rah!!
A Stroll in the English Countryside
In a recent post I bemoaned the stress I had created for myself, starting three quilts around the same time. I usually don’t jump back and forth between several projects. It’s easy to get into that frame of mind, there is so much beautiful fabric available, it’s hard to control the urge to start a new project with every new wonderful fabric you see or buy. It reminds me of a 2 year old running from one toy to the next until he has emptied his whole toy box. I always feel that I’m 4 or 5 projects behind.
The point I’m rather slow in making is this, it is a great feeling to finish one and start your next. I it is it is a sense of satisfaction to have completed really good feeling to finish one and move to the next. I’m feeling a little cocky and relieved too, I finished two of them. Woo Rah!!
At this point I had just about decided to scrap the 3rd, I just wasn’t feeling it, at a creative stand off. Glad I kept going, cause I got over the hump and find that now I like it. Np pictures yet I’m quilting it. I did use commercial fabrics on it, maybe I’m a bit prejudiced about that .
So I’ll post pics of the first one and next two in my following my post.
Hand painted silk art quilt with thread painting/
The flowers of an English cottage garden
I’m finally thinkin’ spring
We’ve had rain, cold, a sunny cold day, then rain, rain and cold, a spot of sunshine here and there.. You’re probably catching my drift, not much of a spring yet. Personally,
It’s always iffy to plan spring events here. You just can’t predict weather. It will warm up, but showers will come and go. Any planned outdoor event must include a contingency plan. Weather men, stations and reports are unreliable further out than a few days.
My point in my ramblings is to demonstrate how truly dedicated a devotee I am to the enjoyment of spring. When it is slow in coming, it generally means the jump from the cold wet end of winter to summer is a direct one skipping the season I love the most.
Here are a few photos of the flowers and colors of spring, past and a few present and a few from the past. Hope you enjoy this glorious season.
Past Garden Tea Party
