Posted May 15th, 2012 by Roxane Lessa

May News From My New Studio

I have to say a big thanks to my MOM, who is my biggest supporter, and now that we share a house, I can be more active in her care.  The studio is a large bonus room with lots of light and I love it!  Still is a bit of a mess, but at least I’m back to making art.  

 

So here’s what I’m working on- a new series- TA DA!!  The Energy series!  No, I haven’t abandoned my other series, just adding a new one.  I have so many beautiful night shots I took on that 4th of July in Boston, I just had to make them into small fiber paintings.  Actually they are not that small- 16″ x 20″ and mounted on a canvas, so they really look like paintings.  

Here’s Enregy #2 with the gold glitter understitching.  I will layer on more colored pieces, but you can already see the movement happening.    I drew the lines on first with a sliver of soap and them freely quilted them with gold Glitter thread from Superior threads.

CLASSES:

Speaking of quilting-  join me in exploring YOUR quilting. Call Bernina World of Sewing in Raleigh to register for this class on MAY 22 AND 29 from 1:30-4:30 PM.  If you’ve ever wanted to improve all aspects of your quilting, this is the class for you.

Also, the DESIGN YOUR OWN ART QUILT is coming up in Chapel Hill at Thimble Pleasures on June 3rd  1-5 pm and 9th 10-5 pm. I have not taught this one in a while, but it is a blast and many folks have taken their own photos or others and made them into stunning pieces of fiber art.  Click on the store names to go to their websites for more info and registration.

Hope you are enjoying our Spring and hope to see you soon!

 

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Posted May 11th, 2012 by Roxane Lessa

I’ve Moved!

I am amazed at how much has happened in the last few months.  I sold my house in 1 week, packed all our stuff or sold it or gave it away, drove over to my mom’s house, and tried to move in.  Unfortunately, a lot of stuff had to go into storage temporarily.  My boyfriend, Paul was a huge help throughout the whole ordeal.  The kids and I are still adjusting.  I still wake up and go, “oh yeah, I live here now”.  But the up side is my mom’s large bonus room is now my studio!  It’s bright and large, but I did have to clear out a bunch of stuff first.  

I decided to start a new series and put them on gallery wrapped canvas. The series is called the Energy Series and they will be very mix and matchable.  In other words, you can hang any 2 or 3 together, and they will look great.  These are studies of slow open shutter light pictures I took 2 years ago on the Charles River on the 4th of July in Boston.  I have another Desert piece that needs quilting, but I decided to work on the Energy Series instead since it’s a time for new beginnings.

Here is the photo:

Here is the fused and quilted piece:  Energy #1

A detail:

I used a lot of glitter thread and discovered it doesn’t like it when you don’t use a backing fabric.  It kept getting hung up and breaking, probably because of the soft batting underneath.  I’m looking forward to making many more of these!

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Posted March 22nd, 2012 by Roxane Lessa

Many changes afoot

Hello everyone!  Happy Spring!  Everything is blooming chez moi.  My azaleas are coming at a record early time.  Besides all that, I’m finishing up repairs to the house getting ready for closing.  No, I’ll still be in Raleigh-not moving very far.  I’m really looking forward to having more time to make and market art, now that I won’t have a big house to take care of.  Speaking of which, here is the new desert piece that is emerging.  I am aiming for more abstraction and less realism, which I find hard to do for some reason.

The photo was taken by Tjaart van Staden, who died in a plane crash.  The scene is of Black Mountain in Namibia at sunset.  I love this color scheme of analogous colors.  It has snow dyed silk, hand dyed and shibori dyed cotton and various batiks.  The hand dyes are from my collection and from others I have purchased.

A Quick Tute:

 For those of you who wonder how I make these, here is a shot of the backing fabric folded back to reveal the wool batt with pieces of black Misty Fuse.  This is how I stabilize the back and the front to the batt without pins or spray basting.  The pins being a pain and getting in the way of quilting, and the spray being a mess unless you do it outside- also a pain.  Misty Fuse is so light it doesn’t add any stiffness or bulk to the finished piece.  Just iron with a hot dry iron with your teflon sheet, and everything will stay put while you quilt.

Upcoming classes are:

ThreadUtopia: March 31, 1-4 pm. @ Thimble Pleasures, Chapel Hill

                                 April 2, 10-2 am. @ Bernina World of Sewing, Raleigh

This class trains you to work with all those tricky threads.  It’s fast and fun and you will learn all about tension, threads, needles, etc.

Design Your Own ARt quilt:  June 3, 1-5 pm. and June 9, 10-5 pm. @     Thimble Pleasures, Chapel Hill. You must be there for both days to complete the class.

This class trains you to take a make an art quilt using a photo by making your own pattern and fusing .  If you have a great photo you’ve always wanted to make into an art quilt, this is your class!

That’s it for now, and hope to see you in class!

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