Lines Series

I've completed another artwork in the Lines series.  Work on this series comes intermittently, usually when I have fused fabrics out for another piece.  Thus far, all the pieces in the series are 12" x12" or smaller and they are all fused.

Lines XVIII

12" x 12"

©2015 Lisa Flowers Ross

$95

This artwork was created using some of the same fabrics I had used in my SAQA Benefit Auction piece (which I posted about here).  I really like the combination of lime green and teal blue.

I envision working on larger pieces for this series, someday.  I have so many ideas to work on, it is hard to get to them all.

Field Study Series

Field Study is one of my more recent series that I have been working on.  The inspiration for the series came from a field outside of Ketchum (you can read more about in this post). Still "riffing" off that same field, I created Field Study (K2) and Field Study (K3).

Field Study (K2)

fabrics hand dyed by artist, machine pieced, free-motion stitching

38" x 29-1/2"

©2015 Lisa Flowers Ross

(Available for purchase)

Detail of free-motion stitching

Field Study (K2) definitely is further afield from the field (ha!).  In Field Study (K3), the abstraction is not as extreme and looks the most like a field of any in the series.  Although the goal is not to make it look like a field.  The goal is to make pieces inspired by fields.

Field Study (K3)

fabrics hand dyed by artist, machine pieced and stitched

29-1/4" x 30-1/4"

©Lisa Flowers Ross

(Available for purchase)

I plan to continue with this series using different fields for inspiration.

Vertical Nature

I have been working on a variety of different things since the beginning of the year, mostly for deadlines.  I have several series going that I want to continue working in, but haven't recently. Vertical Nature is one of them and I realized that I have not shown you the last one that was completed last year.

Vertical Nature V

hand dyed fabrics, machine pieced, machine stitching

41-1/3" x 28"

©2013 Lisa Flowers Ross

Available for purchase

Vertical Nature

Here are the third and fourth pieces in the Vertical Nature series.  I don't have a picture of the fifth one yet.

 Vertical Nature III

hand dyed fabrics, machine pieced & stitched

39-1/4" x 26-3/4"

©2013 Lisa Flowers Ross

$1,200

Vertical Nature IV

hand dyed fabrics, machine pieced & stitched

40" x 25"

©2013 Lisa Flowers Ross

$1,200

Vertical Nature

I have several series that I would like to continue working on this year.  Vertical Nature is one of them. I was able to finish the fifth in the series before the end of the year, so I could start the year working on a new piece.  But what I realized is that I haven't actually shared any of the pieces in the series with you yet.

You might have caught a glimpse of them on the walls when I showed my nice clean studio for the open studio event.

My original inspiration for the series started with pictures I have of canyon walls.  But as the series goes along, it may change.  The inspiration is just the starting point.  I decided to call it Vertical Nature, because I can expand the series to use other inspiring vertical nature things like grasses or trees.

Here is Vertical Nature I and II.

 Vertical Nature I

hand dyed fabrics, machine pieced, machine stitched

50-3/4" x 32"

©2013 Lisa Flowers Ross

$1900

Vertical Nature II

hand dyed fabrics, machine pieced, machine stitched

43-3/4" x 25-1/2"

©2013 Lisa Flowers Ross

$1300

I'll show you the third and fourth piece of the series in the next post.

Utility Series

In my last post, I showed you the first piece of my Utility Series.  Here are two more.

T-Square #2

fabrics hand dyed by artist,

fused appliqué, machine stitching

10" x 10"

Available at Lisk Gallery (Nov. 7-Dec.31)

T-Square #3

fabrics hand dyed by artist,

fused appliqué, machine stitching

10" x 10"

Available at Lisk Gallery (Nov. 7-Dec.31)

The Utility Series is named for the the shapes in the artwork and for types of tools and hardware. I have sketches for L-brackets, C-clamps, D-rings and O-rings.

These first pieces in the series will be in the Lisk Gallery Small Works Group Show starting this Thursday, Nov. 7 (opening reception 5-9 p.m.) through Dec. 31.

Greenbelt Series

Here is the third piece in the Greenbelt Series.

NE 10.3

fabrics hand dyed by artist, machine pieced and appliquéd, 

hand embroidery, free motion machine stitching

20" x 24"

©2013 Lisa Flowers Ross

$395

Detail of some of the free motion stitching. 

Greenbelt Series

I cannot believe that one month of 2013 has already gone by.  I have decided to start a daily project for this month and will be sharing the progress with you soon.

But today, I wanted to show you the second artwork in the Greenbelt series.

NW 0

fabrics hand dyed by artist, machine pieced and fused appliquéd, 

hand embroidery, machine stitching

20" x 24"

©2013 Lisa Flowers Ross

$395

Greenbelt Series

I did it.  I made my deadline with two days to spare.  It's nice to have that done and be able to move onto something else.  This deadline has been utmost on my mind for about a month.  I made three new pieces to submit.

The three are the first in my Greenbelt series.  I do have ideas to create more, but for now I have a large piece that was in the works and needs to be finished.

Here is the first piece in the series.

N 0.0

hand dyed and commercial fabric, machine pieced and appliquéd, 

hand embroidery, machine stitching

24" x 20"

©2013 Lisa Flowers Ross

$395

The title comes from the Distance & Orientation Trail System (DOTS) on the greenbelt within Boise.  It is designed to help locate points of interest and aid in the event of an emergency.  Along the path on both sides of the river are painted white circles with a location.  Here is an example.

What this indicates is that you are on the south side of the river 2.4 miles east of the 8th Street pedestrian bridge.  Here is a link to a map of the Greenbelt and some of the DOTS system.

The artwork portrays some area near/at the location indicated by the title.

Renew

Here is a piece that I completed before, and showed in Textiles x Two.  The title, Renew, comes from the fact that this piece started out by cutting up an older artwork and using some of those pieces.

Renew

fabrics hand dyed by artist, fused appliqué, hand embroidery, machine pieced,

free motion machine stitching

19" x 14-1/4"

©2012 Lisa Flowers Ross

$195

Have you ever cut up/painted over/remade an older piece?  I have looked back at some earlier works, which at the time I thought were fine, but as I have progressed in my own artwork over the years, I now think "blah."

Several times some of these pieces have been cut up in the hopes to make something better or different.  Sometimes just taking a smaller section of the artwork helps.  Sometimes it doesn't and it just ends up in pieces.

The piece Renew came from an artwork that was called Spring Green and, ironically, I showed it in the same gallery as Textiles x Two, two years previously.  I only used some pieces of it to make Renew, so I could make another new artwork with the leftovers (or not).  I am very happy with Renew, for now (who knows what I will think about it in a couple of years).

I'm almost embarrassed to show you Spring Green, but I guess I will.

The greens look quite a bit different in these two (my photography skills have improved), but that bottom section is what I used.  I added a lot more stitching in those sections for Renew.  The skinny strips are where I connected the pieces back together.

The circular stitching gave me some ideas for new artworks.  I currently have one of these ideas started and up on the design wall, but it has to wait to be completed as I am trying to work on some other pieces to meet a deadline.

Lines Series

This is the next piece in the Lines series.  It is now available in my Etsy shop.

Lines IV

Fabrics hand dyed by artist, fused appliqué, machine stitching

12" x 12"

©2012 Lisa Flowers Ross

$95

Lines

Before we installed our Textiles x Two exhibition, I made a number of small artworks, thinking I would put four of them into a grid pattern for the exhibition.  In the end, I only used one of these new artworks and had some older pieces in a grid pattern instead.

Over the next week or so, I will show you the artworks which ended up being the Lines series.  I posted Lines I here.  Next is Lines II.

Lines II

Fabrics hand dyed by artist, fused appliqué, machine stitching

12" x 12"

©2012 Lisa Flowers Ross

Private Collection 

Lines III

Fabrics hand dyed by artist, fused appliqué, machine stitching

12" x 12"

©2012 Lisa Flowers Ross

$95

I have reopened my Etsy shop and Lines III is available there.

Print Preview

Here is a preview of one of the pieces I will have available for sale at the Wintry Market this Sat. and Sun. at Ballet Idaho (10 a.m. - 5 p.m.).  It's November and a good time to think about holiday shopping.

This is a mono print I did fairly recently at Wingtip Press' Monotype Monday.  It is the Akua ink and I went back into it afterward with some acrylic ink.  I will have just a few mono prints for sale at the market.

House and Tree

monoprint on paper with acrylic ink

image size: 6" x 8"

©2011 Lisa Flowers Ross

Also, First Thursday is coming up and you can do a drive-by viewing of my traffic box design and three others. Read the news release here.  I noticed it, myself, the other day when I drove by the museum, but I have not had a chance to take a good look at it to see how it turned out.

Color Fields #12 and #14

I seem to have trouble keeping track of which pieces of this series I've posted.  Somehow, I think #12 got missed.

Color Fields #12

hand dyed fabrics, 

machine pieced and machine quilted

13" x 13-1/4"

© 2011 Lisa Flowers Ross

And here is #14.  This is the piece of which I gave you a sneak peek at the quilting.

Color Fields #14

hand dyed fabrics, 

machine pieced and machine quilted

41-1/2" x 36"

© 2011 Lisa Flowers Ross

Color Fields Revisited

This Color Fields series has been occupying my attention for quite a while.  I think I'm ready to move on to something different now.  Although I said that before and ended up having more ideas.

I don't think I ever got around to showing you the finished version of Color Fields #4.  I showed you it before quilting here.  But here is the finished piece.

Color Fields #4

hand dyed fabrics,

machine pieced and quilted

34-1/2" x 66-3/4"

© 2011 Lisa Flowers Ross

New Work

Because I create my art with fabric and a sewing machine, it is hard for me to work on art while on vacation. I always try to have some small handwork ready that I can bring with me to work on. Of course I always bring my sketchbook and do sketches if I want. I've also brought a small sketchbook and a travel size watercolor kit. But watercolor is not really my thing. Therefore, I don't do a lot of creating when I travel.

It was the same for this past trip to Long Island, but I was able to finish the bindings on three little plant-a-day pieces, finish the hand stitching on the piece below and start another small work that will only be hand stitching (although who knows when it might get completed now that I have access to the sewing machine again).

Spring Forest
hand dyed fabrics,
machine pieced, hand stitching
8-1/4" x 8-1/8"
© 2011 Lisa Flowers Ross

It was with great contentment that I was able to get back to work in my own studio this past week. It felt so comfortable and right where I belong. Before we left, I thought I had completed the Color Fields series, at least for a while. But my mind had other ideas and I have pieced two new Color Fields works, and another in progress, this past week. I'm still trying to decide how to do the quilting on the first two while I'm designing the third.

Gray Day

Today is another Twelve by Twelve reveal day of their color theme gray (or grey). I thought that was such an interesting and challenging color choice. I found it even more challenging to try to dye gray fabrics. It's hard to get a "true" gray, what we think of as gray. More often, I ended up with "grayed" down colors like blue-gray, red-gray, green-gray, etc. They are all handy to have.

I thought about what to do with this gray theme, but didn't think I would have time to get around to making a "play-along" piece this time. But Sunday night, I started and finished this piece, which is actually 12 x 12" for the first time, I think.

Cloudy Day

hand dyed fabrics, machine pieced and quilted

12 x 12"

© 2011 Lisa Flowers Ross

I liked how this turned out. It looks more blueish-gray, but the top and middle fabrics are more gray. The bottom fabric has the most color with some green in it as well. It represents a cloudy day with rain, and to me it seems very calming.

Color Fields #9

Color Fields #9

hand dyed fabrics, machine pieced

fused applique, machine quilted

© 2011 Lisa Flowers Ross

Since I am having company, I haven't worked on anything new recently, besides my chalk art drawing.  (News flash: my daughter won first place in the student category for the chalk art event!)  This is another piece in the Color Field series.  This piece is a bit different than the others.   The squares are fused on and I didn't do very much quilting on it.

Color Fields #8

I have finished the Color Fields series, for now. I have 12 pieces in the series. Number eight is below. I am switching gears and getting ready to do some of my summer fabric dyeing this week.

Color Fields #8
hand dyed fabrics,
machine pieced and quilted
15-3/4" x 12-1/2"
© 2011 Lisa Flowers Ross

Parts

I have been known to cut up a finished piece and put it back together. Or I have cut up a piece and never put it back together. But on Terry's blog, she cut little pieces out of a bigger piece to stand on their own. Something I had not done.

So, I thought I would try it. I had a piece I made in 2006 which I spent quite some time on. After it was finished, there was always something that wasn't quite right for me. While I was getting out another artwork, I found this piece again and decided to try Terry's idea.

I ended up with 10 very small pieces (some only a couple of inches wide).  I zigzagged the edges to finish them all. Now, I don't know what I want to do with them. I can just leave them as is or maybe sew each one to a larger background piece. I could put several together on a larger background piece (although they are all different sizes). Or I could put them all together in a montage on a big background piece. I could also mount them on canvas or mat board.

Below are three of the pieces. I don't even want to show you the original, it was so different from what I'm doing now.