Frances Holliday Alford ~ Quilt Artist

Foto/Fiber, a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society

The Artists Village – Blog Tour

Last year my friend, Kathy York, had a brilliant idea to organize a project to create an artist village with three dimensional stitched houses. She was inspired by the houses Judy Perez made several years ago, that were published in Cloth Paper Scissors.

Kathy just happened to have this beautiful green quilt that works perfectly as the village green. Hopefully, this fabulous project will get accepted to Tactile Architecture, so lots of people will have the opportunity to see it.

 

For the public unveiling of the project, Kathy has also organized a blog tour during  the month of May where each artist will post information and photos about their individual house in the village.

Susan Else (website)  May 2 

Frances Holliday Alford  May 3 

Pamela Allen (website)  May 4 

 Frieda Anderson  May 5 

Lisa Call  May 6 

Jane Davila  May 9 

Naomi Adams  May 10

 Jamie Fingal  May 11

 Barb Forrister  May 12

 Vickie Hallmark  May 13

 Connie Hudson May 16

 Leslie Jenison  May 17 

Sherri McCauley  May 18 

Judy Coates Perez  May 19 

Melanie Testa  May 20 

Laura Wasilowski  May 23

 Kathy York  May 24

 

My yellow embellished house is made entirely of beads, buttons and found objects stitched to a Timtex base.  I have various figures flying out of the chimney.  It is one of the smaller houses, but probably the one that weighs the most.

 

We have all been astounded by the appearance of St. Francis in my yard.  From the snow, this apparation of the saint has suddenly started to show his features.   Friends have speculated that there is a blue bird on his shoulder.  We are not sure yet, but hope for more to be revealed.  Judy K. says she can see Elvis’ image in the mud. 

We are a lot more sure of this apparation’s identity.  The cross and the brown robe are consistant with the attributes of St. Francis.

  

The fabric has been washed and dried.  We hung it off the balcony and the wind picked it up like a giant kite.  

There is still snow on the ground, but spring is in the air.

I am going to iron this great long banner and try to think of something to do with it.

Most of the snow has melted, leaving the Black Cherry/Eggplant dyes on the fabric. 

I put the fabric into a plastic waste can.  Dante drilled holes into the bottom of the can so that the melted snow and excess dye could drain off.

I poured some pewter dye along with a little yellow and orange.  This will strain through all of the now scrunched fabric.

I added a combination of  Black Cherry and Eggplant dye to the white spaces.  I did this by mixing the dye, soda ash and snow together in a bowl.  Then I spooned it onto the areas where I wanted it.

I prefer less white, but I love the colors.

 

As the snow started to melt, the dye landed on the fabric, making interesting patterns.  Snow acts as a resist and it also divides the colors that are mixed in the dye bottle.  I am going to do something to get rid of the white areas of the fabric.  My choice.

When we had all the dye spread, we had a rainbow across my front yard.  Now we have to wait. 

Yes, people stopped by to ask what I was doing.  Performance art.