Deirdre's Exquisite Corpse

My piece was returned to me, just before Christmas. I am thrilled with the way it came out. This was my drawing before I put it on the fabric.

We then picked a section to work on when we were done we covered the front and back of the section we worked on then mailed it to the next person on the list.

I had some help from my resident quilt inspector

Then I covered up my section

I sent my piece off and waited for it to come back. In the meanwhile I worked on the 5 other women’s pieces as they were passed around. I had a blast working on them.

I got my Exquisite Corpse back right before Christmas. Linda was the last woman who worked on my EC. She asked if she should cover up her section. I told her no, so when I opened the package this is what I saw!

All the other spaces were covered up. Uncovering them was harder than I realized it would be. I was afraid to cut an important thread, so the process took some time. I didn’t know what order they were covered, so I worked my way around the outside.

Here is the 2nd square that I uncovered and a detail. I’m not sure who did this section, but I’ll add the names as I get them.

Corryna’s 3rd section uncovered and detail

Gail’s Section - uncovered and detail (Isn’t the face wonderful!) Gail was the first person to work on it. She also told me she make the bluebirds!

The next section uncovered. I need to get a close of up this section.

And finally I uncovered my section. I LOVE THIS - everything worked beautifully!

A Special thanks to all the talented women who worked on my Exquisite Corpse -

Thanks, Gail, Leslie, Corryna, MaryAnne and Linda!!!

And a special thanks to Arlee - The hard working organizer of this swap!

eirdre

Nellie's Corpse - Round 2

My Exquisite Corpse completed its rounds quite awhile before the deadline of December 20th. When it arrived I hadn't even opened Carol's. My work space was piled high with elfish duties of making and wrapping presents. I cleared a space, filled in the last section on Carol's corpse, packed hers up, and then excitedly tore into my package to reveal this piece of fabulousness.
Each talented corpse mistress in my group completed a section without having a clue to what was previously done. So those resulting alternate patterns of warm and cool hues amaze me.

The way this interesting round robin project of international scope worked is that a basic design was created by each of the six participants in three groups. I was in group two.I transferred my drawn design to a background cloth and divided it into six sections and worked the first one. It is hand appliqued using a freezer paper method. Meaning each piece was transferred to and then cut out of the FP with an added narrow seam allowance which was then turned under before each paper covered shape was blind stitched into place on my chosen background fabric. I completely covered every bit of my worked section and sent it out into the world.
Included was a note to use full-strength colors ... meaning no pastels, nor muted tones. I also stated my preference that the piece be quilted after it returns to me. I requested that each name be written on the fabric covering a worked section (those have since been pieced together as the backing).

Carol in Wales was the first to get it. I'm sure she figured out that her chosen section was the other half of a face. The pink area is hand-dyed cheese cloth while the blue is machine felting. And then there is painted tyvec and newsprint as well as beads.
It was then sent onto Nancy in Canada who filled the bottom right section with wild colors and pieced it together with lots of texture.
Betty in Alabama was the last one to work on it and hand appliqued silks and crystalline fabric in the bottom left section. Her points could not be any sharper and the scattered beads sparkle on that rich, deep, shining blue.

In the meantime, Anne Marie of Canada was the third corpse mistress to add her talent to the upper right section. She suspected my design was a variation of a NY Beauty. She was a little surprised by that after checking out my blog and not seeing much traditional work. So she decided that my "traditional" block wasn't going to be very traditional, if she had anything to say about it. She even included orange snake skin pleather on the point pieces.
Paula in Maine painted the upper left section and then filled in the shapes with beads ... and then more beads to create radiating patterns.

I am most pleased with my piece and thank all those who contributed their talent and creativity to it. I brought it on my holiday travels to work on. I've blind stitched the seams between the sections closed, layered it with batting and a backing pieced from the signed cover cloths, and am quilting it with seed stitches. There will be another post about this one when it's finished.

Susan on Arlee's piece

I was the first one to work on Arlee's piece so had a good choice as to which area to work. The first picture is of the whole area finished. Arlee had painted some and I followed her color choices and painted a bit also. I did a block print of the large gear shape then cut out some copper, punched it with eyelets, put some purple/blue wallpaper into the cut out holes and stitched it into place. I used some purple eyelash yarn to fill the 'squiggles' and then wound some wire around a bamboo skewer to create spring like thingies. I filled one of the other gear areas with some copper paint and the attached 2 or 3 tiny skulls to the piece. I also free stitched another gear looking bit with a variagated blue/brown thread.

I seem to be able to do a bit more free form work if someone else gets me going with either a design or a bit of material. From my own brain it doesn't come as easily

Reta's square 2nd EC

EDIT: originally written on Oct 18/08



First of all, as Grand Vizieress, i should be pilloried! For the first time, i haven't met a deadline with this project. Finished today, it will be mailed on Monday Oct 20th, 2 days after the deadline...i am so ashamed!

Reta's design was very basic, on a pretty background but with no clues really about where she wanted it to head---which is okay, as that's the very nature of the game! I chose the square at the bottom right.

I was unsure where to start! Reta had said we could use any colours, but i decided i would go with the general colouring as it was---soft, romantic and a bit old looking. I thought of ilustrations from a child's book that perhaps had been coloured by hand. First i used metallic markers on the legs, then i started thinking of where this "person" would be standing. I wanted some texture so used this stitch, layering it and using 6 strands each of 4 different greens:

(The foiling and beading by the way were added as the last step.) I redid the legs with a bit of metallic paint as they were too faded, and quilted around them, padding just the leg and foot area to add some dimensional relief.

I had to pierce larger holes in this metal leaf so that the needle would pass through with all that thread and not break. It was a snarly mess at some points and i said a few bad words! I'm filing this technique/idea for later use in other projects as well:}



The whole square was then beaded and gently sprayed randomly with an adhesive, the blue, green and copper foil pressed on---i deliberately did it over the whole shebang, beads, stitching, painting and leaf, as i wanted it to look "aged".

I wanted to do more stitching over top of the foiling, but decided i would probably hate myself for adding and adding..... and adding, as is my wont! I glued an amber rhinestone in the middle of the leaf before i packaged it up to go to the next player, but forgot to get that last picture!

Nellie's section on Carol's Corpse

I was the last to work on Carol's corpse before sending it on home for her to reveal.
She had included her color preferences of browns and blue-green as well as these inspirational materials.
Somehow in the rush to meet the December deadline before I left Tennessee for the holidays I missed seeing one of Carol's design lines that continues the flow of the ribbon across my section.
It had gotten covered up as I lay the bits of silk and deconstructed metalic threads and yarn as well as roving over the background of the square. The shapes were traced on freezer paper over a light table and cut out of silk fabrics. The whole section is constructed in my "ortwork" technique, which is a form of collage. The pieces are placed and layered and then "trapped" under tulle netting. Machine quilting holds everything in place. I finished by couching metallic cording over the edges of the shapes as well as outlining the diamond shapes at the top of my square.
It amazes me that my parallel rows of stitching on the loopy part mirrors Carol's double needle stitching on the corresponding shape in her section. I think if she were to repeat those double rows of machine stitching (or couching) in the area where the ribbon disappears in my section, it would create a ghost shape.

My finished corpse was waiting, still in its sealed envelope, for me to get Carol's finished and to the post office. It was difficult not to rip into mine until my obligation to the group project was fulfilled. Soon I'll post about my piece.

THIRD round Exquisite Corpse

THIRD Exquisite Corpse Textiles Project Round Robin
---deadline for sign up is JAN 15-----tell your friends but they MUST be able to commit and keep up. I’d like at least 2 more players but we could have 6 more----

I would like you all to either try some new techniques or build on ones you have developed and enjoyed along the way, especially the Moldie Oldies :}

Remember if you cannot meet deadlines, MAIL ANYWAYS. The owner can always finish when she receives it back.

Starting January 22/09
First deadline Feb 26
Second deadline Apr 2
Third deadline May 7
Fourth deadline June 11
Fifth deadline July 16
Sixth deadline (back to owner) Aug 20





THESE ARE NOT IN ORDER OR IN GROUPS YET:

12 players as of Dec 17/08

Linda/arlee/MaryAnne/Anne Marie/Margas/ /Nancy/Patricia/DonnaF/ Susan/Joan/Debby/Lee

I will divide into groups and sort addresses out when I have decided group line-ups.

Remember too—NO QUESTION IS TOO DUMB TO ASK!!!!!!!!!!

Shifting Gears

What a fantastic surprise it was to receive my 2nd round completed piece! I was thrilled even before i opened it, as i never received my first round one, lost somewhere in Postal Purgatory.

I had chosen violet, electric blue, black and copper for "my" CorpseMistresses to fill in my "squares", which depicted loose abstractions of gears. I started in the centre with reverse applique and discharged vintage rayon, painting, beading, machine stitch and rusty bits with xpanda paint and bundled threads.

I'd like to thank Susan Sawatzky, Julie Zaccone Stiller, Reta Brunner, Elizabeth O'Donnell and Donna Royer for their work on this piece.(Follow clockwise from the top right for who did which area.) No one got cutesey, no one used wrong colours or made flowers out of things---it's a truly seamless joy to behold! Every one of these talented Decomposers brought such talent and beauty to the piece that i was floored as i revealed each section.

Next stop for "Shifting Gears" is the Cyber Fyber show in South Carolina! As an invited piece, this one symbolizes what i enjoy most about the internet---groups of strangers becoming fellow artists, creating astounding collaborations and yet rarely if ever do we meet in person. Magic and memories!!! I hate to let this work go, in one sense----i pray it arrives safely in Susan's hands, and that it returns to me after the show, but i'm also very proud to send it out in the world again!

Carol T's EQ comes home.

Well my EQ came home and I can't tell you the eagerness I had to get the covering fabric off! The tresure beneth was worth al the careful unpicking. The design i chose was based loosely on a celtic swirl, but included diamonds and dots too.I included pieces of brown silk, had to be brown I am sure Arlee will be laughing at this! I also incuded some annealed copper mesh.

This first square was completed by Nancy and include's the mesh and silk and beautiful purpley blue fabric with a peacock feather and some rusty coloured velvet. It is just lovely nancy thank you.
The next is by Anne Marie and is so lovely and crunchy textured, looks weathered and corroded and is very me! There are some lovely textures and she used the mesh in the same way I did on my square. It is mainly hand stitched too! Many thanks Anne Marie.

The next square is my own and I used fabric paint, silk and the twin needle. I FME'd the grid of painted foil and annealed copper mesh in place.

The next squarewas completed by Paula and is also hand stitched. It is also painted in a lovely detailed way and beaded and hantha'd beautifully. Thanks paula, I love it.

Nellie completed the next square and is full of lovely FME and the eye shape has the metal mesh in incased in sheer. Love the diamonds at the side to, such strength of colour. Many thanks Nellie.

And finally is the square completed by Betty. I can't wait to find out what Betty did as the technique is fab. It has metallic swirls and beading and a lovely turquoise bottom to the swirl. Thank Betty I can't wait to hear how you did the background.

Here is the whole, it needs a little integrating, mainly around my square it has to be said. Hope you all enjoyed working on it as muc as i am enjoying looking at it.

Elizabeth's Exquisite Corpse

Julie's Work on Donna's ExqCor

Donna's Exquisite Corpse from round two has been revealed, see a few posts below for a view of the entire piece. This is a closeup of the square that I worked on. The black stitched circles are done using the circle stitch on my machine.A closeup of the beading that I did. I really liked how the red beads looks on the black and white. I tried to emphasize the curviness of the shapes with my beading.
And this is the original version which I did without noting the color scheme that she'd requested. It wasn't written on the piece, but was on the online list which I'd neglected to check before beginning work. D'oh! Boy did I feel stupid. Luckily the artist I was sending to, Elizabeth, noticed the wrong colors peeking out from my covered up completed square and sent it back to me. I'm so glad too, because I like the black/white/red version that I came up with much, much better and it sure would have ruined the whole piece if one of the squares had been the wrong colors! Thanks again Elizabeth for saving my unobservant patootie.
I got to pick out allllll this machine embroidery stitching. It didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would, but I did muck up the fabric a bit. Hopefully the stabilizer I put on the back will keep the revised square together ok for Donna!

arlee's square for Elizabeth

Elizabeth's was the first i received to work on in the second round of the Exquisite Corpse Textiles project. The background was a lovely dyed/handpainted/stenciled rust and umber with varying depths of motif. Liiz's colour choice for her design was black. JUST black! At first, i was stumped. How do i delineate areas using only black materials, merge them so they fit the idea and yet make them stand out in areas?????

TEXTURE!!!!



I painted the feet, couched yards and yards of black soutache and eyelash yarn on the body and tail sections, then thought it needed a wee bit more to make it "mine"--even though the owner is Liz:} There were spots where some colour had shown up from her stencilling and painting, so i accented them with a few torn scraps of burgundy velvet and added some shell beads. Yes! I like it :} Liz's theme obviously was Ravens, a common animal totem in several cultures.

Elizabeth's Ravens

When I received Elizabeth's piece I had four areas to choose from and I chose the bottom middle. The design in that area was pretty sparse with only two sets of feet and a head to work on.
The night before I began work I actually dreamed about a bird nest and when I started working on the piece I decided that a nest of baby ravens would be perfect. The nest was really fun to do. I began with paper stitched and restitched adding threads and bits as I went along.
I read up on raven nests and then searched for days for a picture of baby ravens. I finally found one and printed the babies out on fabric then stitched and feathered them with clipped bits of yarn.

The large raven head was done again using the clipped bit of yarn.
The beak was painted and both sets of feet were of a sparkly felt. The final touch was the red bead to echo the red lines of paint Elizabeth had put on the background fabric. I really loved working on this one.