Finding Inspiration from David Mack

I'm a little David Mack obsessed this past week. I just enjoyed my latest copy of David Mack's Reflections, #9. Mack is a comic artist that works in what I call a form of collage art or I guess mixed media. It's a combination of sketches, paintings, photos, and found objects. He currently works on a comic called Kabuki. I have not actually read Kabuki yet. It's a slow process, and it does not come out frequently. I know him more from all the cover art he's done for comic books. I love his covers! Reflections is a regular publication of his sketches, and his thoughts on the art process. Lately, I've been very interested in other people's sketchbooks; how somebody gets to the final product and this is not a disappointment.


Below is my favourite piece in this issue. He shows the steps to this final page, he writes "I used a deep dark green for the hair paint because the composition was giving me the sense of a tree. So I went with it & continued with earthy tones & let the hair branch out as it seemed to have a very elemental earth goddess effect."

Before I even read the description I was thinking "Mother Earth". I love how it is all strong at the top and so vulnerable below, especially the fact she is nude and covering herself in that way. I am so mesmerized by this piece.

Below, I pass this on to my quilting friends, it is Artistic License. I hope you can read it from this photo. It says "This ID certifies that_______is an activist in the Global (and internal) WAR OF ART.....copyright free. Duplicate and pass on to fertile minds."



I have now ordered my copies of Kabuki: Circle of Blood, The Alchemy of Art DVD, and The Shy Creatures, a children's book by David Mack (at first glance, influenced by Dr Suess).

Round Robin part 2: From Christine

This is the block Christine gave me! Isn't it lovely! I love the boldness and the colours! I need a name for it though, I can't keep calling it From Christine! or can I?

But what to add to it. This was a lot harder than I thought! First I pulled some matching colours from my stash, I have lots of the red and blue, but what to do about the brown. Should I add another colour? What type of add on do I make? I started perusing my old mags looking for centre applique pieces. A lot of them had flying geese borders, which I like, but I just did that on my Echt Hollands; I wanted to do something else. Some turn it on point and add giant triangles to form a square in a square, which if I used the red and blues I had, it would really darken it up; or turn it into a star, which I also did in my Echt Hollands, so, no...something else. Then I decided to consult my Collaborative Quilting book by Marston and Moran! Lots of ideas! yes!

I settled on Four Patch on Point, gives a similar effect at flying geese but a little different. It all started well enough, but I tell you, no matter how hard I tried, I got a wonky strip, and of course some of my corners a little cut off. However, I like the overall effect and I will live with my mistakes.

Round Robin: To Christine

This year for Christmas, Christine and I decided we would exchange applique blocks as gifts and start a round robin. We would add to each block and pass it back to each other, eventually ending up with a finished top; mine would be with the original block she made me and hers, with the one I made for her. This post is about the block I made for her, next post will be about the one she gave me and what I add to it.

Christine has a westie named Daisy. I knew I wanted to make her a block with a westie and a daisy on it. Here are a few of my sketches:

Christine has a Scottish background, so I was thinking of putting in some plaid somewhere, but I just didn't have the colours to work it out. (I ended up making a plaid westie for her Christmas Card, see previous post instead.) I played with baskets, westies, daisies, and wind vanes...


Until I came up with this, viney, tentacle thing:

Finished product! I used left over fabric from my Robyn Pandolph project, plus the red was from a fat quarter I won at a guild meeting, the green pot was fabric that Christine gave me for my birthday.

I am really pleased how this turned out. I call it The Daisy Block, but sometimes refer to it, affectionately, as Daisy on a Stick!

I kept wondering how this block would look repeated in a four block applique, so in Picasa I made this collage for fun:


Neat, eh? If you don't have EQ5 or whatever, this is the lazy man's design tool. I've tried this 4 block applique a couple of different ways, the hearts in the middle was the best.

Fabric Postcards

These were for Kathy, Kathryn and Miriam:


This one was for my friend Christine who has a westie named Daisy; I call it "Santa's Little Daisy"


an extra to save for next year:


"New Year's Cheer", I made using the guild challenge fabric, for the guild postcard exchange. This one was fun; I used some fabric wrapping paper I got from the dollar store to make the glasses; zigzagged the glasses on with invisible thread; french knots for the bubbles. I used Fast2Fuse Interfacing for the first time; it's fusible on both sides. It was great! Made both sides, made my sandwich, ironed it and then zigzagged my edges, and because it's fused it doesn't move under the sewing machine.

Our Man Spike

As you know, my first cat is Spike. My best friend from college, Lisa (above) got me in touch with her sister, Laura, who was going to get married and move to Australia. She couldn't take her cats with her and we happily offered to take Spike. I haven't seen Lisa for almost 10 years, since she got married and moved away too, But this year she and her husband managed a quick side trip to London when visiting family in nearby Alymer. Laura and her family were also down to visit, from Australia. And apparently the subject of Our Man Spike came up. "I wonder what happened to Spike, He couldn't possibly be still alive!" It's been 18 years since Laura has seen Spike, and I was happy to report he was still alive and well! So Lisa came down to see him. It's too bad Laura couldn't come down too, so we took a few photos for proof! Spike is about 19 or 20 years old. Below is Lisa's hubby D'arcy and my brother Andrew and Our Man Spike making the rounds.

So Laura, these photos are for you! Thanks for your generous gift, Spike has been the best companion!