Winter Solstice

Counting down to the shortest day of the year on December 21st.  Here near the Arctic Circle, we will have fewer than four hours from sunrise to sunset, but for about an hour on either side of that--before the sun rises and after the sun sets, we have a period of time called civil twilight, and on cloudless days, that time offers up the most truly beautiful light--all around the sky, a blending of royal blue to lavendar to rose, with glints of gold and orange at the horizon--it's magical.

Mixed media collage, acrylic on watercolor paper, canvas and a chicken feed bag,
machine sewn with rayon thread, photo by Amy Mackinaw

Loons

This Loon Vase Mat is getting the final bead embellishments; then all layers will be sewn together and bound with colorful bias tape: the top quilt sandwich with polyester organza, waterproof nylon, heavyweight Pellon interfacing and duck cloth backing.  Ready to top a table or decorate a wall.

Portable bead work station--photo by Amy Mackinaw

Building Collage Inventory

While getting breakfasts and lunches ready to go, there is also time for some work with the brayer and a handmade foam stamp using Jane Davila's method.  These will go into the machine-sewn card-making stash.

Acrylics on watercolor paper, photo by Amy Mackinaw

Gelatin Plate Printing

Here's some late-evening gelatin plate printing with leaves just picked--ferns, wild geranium, wild rose--and some orange plastic fence material. I make my own gelatin plate with gelatin, glycerin and water and store it in the refrigerator, though I have read it is shelf-stable.  I leave it in the cookie sheet for easy portability.

I'm enjoying printing leaves for as long as they last, and then will have to move to inorganic objects--washers, keys, fence material, sequin waste, cheesecloth.  There are possibilities for all seasons...

Set up for gelatin plate printing, photo by Amy Mackinaw

Heading North

This wallhanging/centerpiece is made of small triangles of commercial cotton, polyester batting and cotton backing, with the central motif placed on top of the triangles.

The entire quilt "sandwich" is covered with a layer of polyester organza, pinned and stitched with free machine quilting using rayon thread.  A few beads were individually hand-stitched in place. Then several layers, including the heaviest double-sided Pellon fusible interfacing, heavyweight interfacing to back the fusible, a waterproof nylon fabric (to make it table safe if used under a vase) and cotton duck backing were all bound together with machine stitched, custom-made bias tape.

Heading North, 22"x22", photo by Amy Mackinaw

Let the Sun Shine In

Beautiful morning in my workshop, feeling inspired--

photo by Amy Mackinaw

Dimension

Fabric bowls are a great place to showcase hand-dyed, block-printed fabrics and specialty beads.  Here's how the pieces go together:

The pieces, fused and ready for satin stitch joining

The finished bowl, 8"x2"x8"

Wonderful Summer

It's been a great summer with plenty of visitors from around the world to Fairbanks.  Some of them have found their way to 2St Gallery.  Here are a few of my recent pieces--

Crane en pointe  18"x22", hand-dyed and commercial cotton, organza, beads

Mountain Flowers 5"x8", hand-dyed and commercial cotton, organza, beads

Field of Flowers Table Runner, 30"x16", hand-dyed and commercial cotton, organza, beads

Bird Inspirations

Here is a work in progress from free machine embroidery to beads to finished product.  After the power went out, I was determined to finish this and completed the binding with my Singer treadle machine.

Free machine embroidery on organza layered quilt - photos by Amy Mackinaw