Purple Phalaenopsis in progress

by Susan Brubaker Knapp



Today, I finished painting my next orchid piece for the Fiber Art Options exhibition. It is a purple phalaenopsis orchid painted with acrylic paints on Pimatex PFD (prepared for dyeing) cotton, which has a very tight weave and accepts paint well.

This piece will be about 24 x36" when it is finished. I am very pleased with how the painting turned out, and I can’t wait to start stitching on it!

I started with this photo that I took a year or so ago:


The photo I printed out, from which I worked as I painted, had a good deal more pink and red tones in it, which showed up in my painted version. I think I’m going to use a lot of bright purple thread to unify it a bit. The painted surface has so much detail that I’m not going to do my normal thread sketching on this piece. I’m just going to machine quilt it pretty heavily.

I’m so excited that I fear I will have to force myself to go to bed tonight, and not stay up until the wee hours working on it.

Embellished Travel Journal

Like Susan (see below) I am also in the middle of teaching a workshop at Joggles.

This 3 session workshop is an action packed mixed media project and is based on my Alaska Travel Journal - see Quilting Arts 10/11 2007.

This class includes machine hand and machine sewing, collage, book binding & beaded edging - here are some action shots taken from the class. It can give you an idea of what an online workshop is like.


One of the new journals featured in this workshop is based on a "Good-bye Dinner" for some friends who were leaving the country. Instead of tickets, maps and travel photos, this journal is full of recipes from the dinner, photos of our friends, and a good-bye sign-in page with well wished and signatures.

It would also be fun to make a journal for a first baby

birthday, or other "historic" event.

It is great fun to take a workshop online. You can work on your own schedule and interact with the teacher and other students using online postings.

Artists' Forum at the Mint Museum tomorrow night

Please come hear two Fiber Art Options members, Susan Brubaker-Knapp and Janet Lasher at the Mint Museum 2730 Randolph Road, Charlotte
tomorrow evening December 1st, 7-8:30pm for a discussion of our fiber art.

This program is presented through the Mint Museum's First Tuesdays forum and is free to all. We will be talking about our artistic approach, techniques and slides of our work. Q&A will follow the slide presentations.

More about Susan at www.bluemoonriver.com and more about Janet at www.janetalasher.com

This program is being offered in conjunction with the exhibition American Quilt Classics 1800-1980: The Bressler Collection which will hang through February 6th, 2010.