Painting Photos = Paint By Numbers

An old tinted photo in an oval frame with curved glass came to live at my house a few years ago. I'm not saying how many years, just a few. The little girls, my Mom and her friend, Lucy strike a typical pose. My Mom has a satisfied grin, and Lucy is scowling, unhappy because my mother got to hold the doll for the picture.

The tinting of the old photo, probably taken around 1920, always interested me. Of course, at that time, photos were black and white or sepia. Color was added by carefully painting the print.

Ways to create more realistic painted images to stitch have been rolling around in my head. As I looked at that picture of Mom and Lucy, it ocurred to me that if they could tint photos in the 1920s, I could paint the images printed onto fabric using the computer and simplify the whole process. I'd get the realistic look I was going for with minimal effort. I'm not exactly being lazy, I told myself, just efficient. Depending on how much I play with the photo before I print it, I'm probably not being efficient either. I could produce more copies of the an image, change the colors, change the stitching, etc. Endless possibilities.

Usually composing the image has already been done with the camera, and whatever I don't like can easily paint over with an opaque paint. Creative license! Transparent paint can add color while still leaving the photographic image underneath. It's a win, win! It's almost like sitting with a 96 crayon box of Crayolas and coloring away. Way too much fun. Try it sometime!

New Work

My solo show in July and August at the Adirondack Mountain Club headquarters in Lake George, New York has inspired me to create pieces more realistic than what I usually do and that are reflective of our beautiful surroundings.

My camera goes with me when hiking or on morning walks and the photos have become the basis for a new series of work. The combination of photography, painting, and stitching has endless possibilities whether bound in the traditional quilt manner, mounted on gallery wrapped canvas, or framed.

I have years of photos to choose from, so many in fact, that I have to periodically burn them to CDs just to keep the computer from groaning under the load. And that's after deleting a lot of them! They are divided in to categories such as trees, leaves, flowers, rocks, architecture, etc. Some really niggle at me to play with them. So many pictures, so little time!

This picture of baby leaves unfurling is one of the latest in my new series of small pieces that will be at the Adirondack Mountain Club Gallery.

Playing with Paper Towels

It all started in a class with Elizabeth Busch at Quilting By the Lake. We were painting on fabric and paper. We were cleaning up with paper towels. I kept looking at them in my trash
basket and thinking, hmmm.

Elizabeth told us about doing quick sketches with fabric on index cards. They were fast and fun, little bursts of creativity, potential ideas for larger pieces. But what do you do with all those little "gems"? In an ah-ha! moment, I started sewing the "gems" made with fabric scraps to greeting card stock. When I started saving the paper towels that I cleaned up the paint and dye with, I started using the paper towels for backgrounds on the greeting cards.

Now I buy white paper towels for the "quilt" design in the towel. No towels with tea pots on them for me! Sometimes I skip painting the fabric and monoprint the paper towels. They soak up the paints beautifully, dry really fast, and iron well. A few tears here and there give them character. They can be backed with fusible interfacing to give them more body if needed or fused to other surfaces with fusible webbing. The paper towels are a little more fragile, but anything you can do with fabric, you can do with paper towels, too.

This paper towel thing is just too much fun. There are more things to create with paper towels...jewelry, books, collages, quilts... See you later! I have to go play now.

Inspirations and musings

Lake George from summit of Sleeping Beauty

Those of us who live in the Adirondacks are blessed to be able to find inspiration in our own backyard. It is difficult to live here and not be influenced by the beauty that surrounds us. Elements of our environment find their way into our work whether it is the blue of the sky, the texture of pine needles, or the squeek of snow beneath our feet at -35 degrees.

Emotions and nature emerge in colors and shapes on my design wall. Whatever I have been thinking about is there in front of me even if I have not been consciously aware of trying to portray something specific. About half way through a piece, I can say, "Oh, yes! I've been thinking about that!"

And, no, I didn't take the photo. Hubby gets the credit. I'm a serious klutz in sneakers on flat ground in the summer, so winter hiking in snow shoes? I've been told I could trip over a seagull feather on the beach, so I'll wait until the ice and snow melt away from the trails in the woods.

The turkeys are moving around and we saw a flock of geese winging their way north this afternoon. We here in the "North Country" are looking forward to green grass and daffodils providing us with more inspiration

"Vineyard" Hits the Road

"Vineyard" is included in the SAQA 20th Anniversary Trunk show at The Big Sky Retreat and Show in Billings, Montana March 11 to 14. Some of these small works, 8" square in 12" mats, will be included in the collection to be archived by the International Quilt Study Center in Lincoln, Nebraska.


"Vineyard" is painted and printed with Acrylics and Setacolor on upholstery fabric and tissue paper adhered to fabric with gel medium.


It would be really cool if "Vineyard" went to live at the Quilt Study Center, but if not, it will find a good home somewhere...maybe in Kansas with Dorothy and Toto!

Paper Towel Queen Strikes Again

All those glorious paints and dyes that I wipe off my brushes and pallettes color the paper towels and they're just too neat to toss. I hang them on my drying rack, carefully separate them into two sheets, iron them and stack them in the paper towel drawer! Yes, I have a designated used paper towel drawer.

Husband comes in and says, "What are you doing???" "Ironing paper towels!" He rolls his eyes, shakes his head, and retreats. Friends ask if using paper towels is an economic issue and when they come to paint, they are surprised when I grab their paper towels out of the trash and hang them up to dry!

Here's the latest paper towel quilt. It has one of those thick, utility paper towels for batting, a cotton backing, and was quilted with rayon machine embroidery thread. Do I put a binding on it or frame it??? Haven't decided yet. What do you think?