Sweetness and Wool Felt

October 3, 2012 by Leave a Comment

I’m still here, believe it or not.  I have been busy as a bee getting ready for fall shows and events.  Even in August.  Some things I have been doing lately is this:

Isn’t it sweet?

A sweet little wool felt needle case. I sewed the button flowers on and embroidered the stems and leaves in the little flower garden. Then I practiced the blanket stitch on the edge.

I vended at the Quilt Connection’s quilt show this past weekend in Greenwood, IN.  It was a very good show with a very good attendance.  The show coordinator had a bunch of these kits left over after the demonstrations were done and she offered me one.  Now I will make her one of MY needlecases made from paper cloth.  I hope she likes it!

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At The Gallery Part 2

November 4, 2011 by 4 Comments

Here’s a couple more pieces of my exhibit that have not been seen on my blog before.

Sticks and Stones #3

Rust dyed cotton sateen, silk screening, stenciling, applique, hand writing, paint, ink, dyes, stitching with polyester thread.

Sticks and Stones #4

Rust dyed feed sack, discharge dyed cotton sateen, silk screened, stenciled and stamped, paint, dyes and automatic dish washing liquid and other discharging products, hand writing, inks, stitching with polyester thread.

Filed Under: acrylic paint, applique, Art Exhibits, Contemporary Art, discharge dyeing, dye paint, new art, rust dyeing, stamping Tagged With:

Where Did I Go?

September 5, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Oh my…I STILL have not printed that screen from the last blog post…and that was quite a while ago.

Life is going on…I am preparing for the upcoming show season.  That means placing orders for retail items to sell at the quilt shows.  Sometimes it takes me lots of thinking to get an order together.  There’s an instructional video with these sets of inks…that’s nice. I wanted to see it.

Now I have to try them out so I can demo them…then there’s some new books…mmmmm…

I sent an application in to enter a SAQA show for the first time.  We’ll see if I can get past the jury. ;=)

I worked on my earring inventory last week getting ready for fall festivals.

I also started a new sample of a Christmas pattern.  I am having trouble with my Bernina..it needs to see the “doctor”.  I think the problem may be in the floor pedal…sometimes (well, maybe about 1/2 the time) it doesn’t want to quit sewing!  This is annoying when you are doing applique…so I am not going to applique the gingerbread pattern until it’s fixed.  I have to drive it to the shop an hour away from me.  I will do that this week.

And last week I made a banner for my booth for art festivals.  Now people will know who I am without asking. ;=)

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Filed Under: applique, Art Exhibits, breakdown printing, quilt shows Tagged With: , ,

This And That…

July 17, 2009 by Leave a Comment

From one of my morning walks…the long wispy needles of pine trees always fascinate me.  They look soft.

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Peanut Butter Chews…my husband’s favorite drop cookie/candy.  His birthday was yesterday and he requested these.  Recipe follows.

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Peanut Butter Chews

1 c. sugar

1 c. Karo light syrup

1/4 cu. oleo or butter

Heat all together to boiling.  Then add:

1 cup peanut butter and stir.

Pour over 6 cups of corn flakes, mix and drop by spoonfuls onto a sheet of wax paper to set up.  I think peanuts would be good in these too.

Interesting photo…to me.  This caught my eye at the opening exhibit last Saturday.  The contrast and the sharp lines are what I caught first and I snapped a picture.  It will be inspiration for…something…step back from it…you’ll see what I mean.

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And….here is the quilt I sold a few weeks ago.  I am missing it a bit, but might make another one!

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Filed Under: applique, color, digital photography, traditional quilts Tagged With: , ,

Another Sample…

September 8, 2008 by Leave a Comment

I made another sample last night. I made this one to show one way to use Angelina film. It’s not terribly artsy, but I did put some creativity into it. Since I will also have Tsukineko’s Fabrico markers for sale, I used those on the sample too. Thanks to Gerrie Congdon’s advice I was able to photograph it without a lot of glare. (Thanks, Gerrie!) I think the Angelina film is interesting to work with. The background is gray hand dye cotton.

Now this morning I think I am going to get outside in this glorious weather and dye paint some more cloth!

The town-wide yard sales on Saturday netted me a very nice Scrabble game with a story for $1 and a Singer sewing machine for $1. (and it works too!) I was almost in heaven.

Filed Under: applique, hand dyed fabrics Tagged With: , , ,

Today…

July 25, 2008 by Leave a Comment

…And here are the fabrics all nice and ironed from yesterday’s dyeing spree.

I took serious inventory of the messy patio and did some major cleaning out there this morning.  The shop vac picks up the dust, dead bugs and other fun things from the concrete floor.  Of course, all the lawn chairs are stored there and have to be washed off.  It’s looking better already even though I’m not done and it beckons me to spend some more time out there!  With cooler mornings, I don’t mind that at all.  I have a vast number of used dryer sheets that need to be painted and there is pimatex cotton on the way that will need painting when it arrives, as well as more dyeing.  I am working on the fabrics for Rosa and Friends.  It can be ordered from my website here.

Filed Under: applique, color, dyeing, hand dyed fabrics Tagged With: ,

Sunday This ‘N That

July 21, 2008 by Leave a Comment

The presentation for All That Jazz went very well at Sew Tech. As I probed the class coordinator about what the session was to be about, I was told it was supposed to be inspirational. Apparently people can sign up and prepay for the year to attend these monthly sessions. I had planned to briefly introduce myself and my quilting and dyeing history. I showed some of my fabrics, dyed, screened, stamped with soy wax, etc. I wanted to show my progression to making fiber art. I shared with them ideas and techniques. The ladies were quite interested and enthusiastic (that’s my kind of crowd!). I showed them art pieces and quilts made from my hand dyed cloth. Since I had just finished a sample (Rosa and Friends..see previous posts), I showed it too. They were very enthusiastic about it and I did sell the first kit. I then did a demo showing them how they could cut multiple fused applique pieces without having to trace each piece over and over on the fusible. They like that idea too. Then I shared my class samples with them. These are from classes that I have taught at the shop over the years and some that are upcoming. I feel some of the patterns that I teach are timeless and fun for everyone, no matter how long the pattern has been out. Some of my very favorites are the Bull’s Eye quilt by Country Threads, Yellow Brick Road by Atkinson Designs, 4 Patch Posy by H.D. Designs and Star Crazies by Buggy Barn, as well as all of SuznQuilts’ quilt-as-you-go lap throws that are quick and easy. There are always new young quilters coming into the shop and I like to introduce them to fun and quick quilt patterns. The ladies were choosing which classes they wanted to take and they were getting excited. It was fun…and it always is when you have people excited about quilting. In the classes I teach, the girls are always excited about the project and looking forward to a day out and getting to learn and make something new. That’s what keeps this business interesting…the people! Have a great quilting week…I know I will!

“Leafed”

Filed Under: applique, hand dyed fabrics Tagged With: , ,

New Look For Blog…

July 11, 2008 by Leave a Comment

….Like the new look?  Sometimes I just need a change.  Actually I was trying to add more widgets to the other theme, and it just has too much trouble with them, so I thought I would try a new look.  I think I like the set up.  Two columns to put widgets in instead of one.  Eek!  And I can even put my own header on this one, so you all might recognize the parfait “family” hand dyes from a post I wrote last week.

The other thing happening today is that I had better luck this morning re-discharging my black cotton.  Fresh dish detergent can sure make the difference, although I still thought it bleached slower than it should have.  Maybe I’m not getting enough on the cloth.  Sigh.  But I got it done and my borders are now on the sample I was working on, Rosa and Friends.  You’ve seen it before, but not like this.  The light is not the greatest and I will do a better photo later.  It still needs quilting and binding and the like, but I really like the discharged black for the borders.  I like it better than anything else I auditioned.  I also plan to do a smaller sample with sunset colors for the background.

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Monday Ramblings…

April 1, 2008 by Leave a Comment

I am back from the Decatur show, my head is full…of thoughts and things to do this week. There is the possibility of some workshops with the quilt guilds ahead. And now I am the proud inheritor of my grandmother’s Singer Featherweight sewing machine! I spent some time with my mother this weekend and she gave me grandma’s machine. I am excited about that. It’s good to be home and today is a “tired” day. I am resting.

Monday ramblings has turned into…Tuesday Ramblings

I did some demos of stenciling with paintstiks at the show which sold my new stencils very well. I oversold the leaves stencil, don’t ya’ know! I have plenty more on order and will be putting them up on my website soon.

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paintstik leaves

Using the 1/2 inch paintstik brush with short bristles made specifically for use with paintstiks, I stenciled these leaves onto a light gray hand dye. After applying one color and leaving the stencil in place, I applied a second color in various places to provide shading and dimension. People were quite impressed with them. Paintstiks are wonderful for stencils and rubbings. The only downside I can see about them is that you can’t be in a hurry with them. They do take some time to dry. After all, it is oil paint. But it doesn’t take the drying time of an oil painting.

Here is what a section of the Southwest stencil looks like. I did repeats of the design. Again, I used more than one color for dimension.

southwest stencil

st-southwest.jpg

These are available for $3 each plus shipping.

I see several possibilities with these designs. They can be applied to a border and then used as the quilting design; just quilt around them as it’s already marked. One could apply fusible to the back and cut them out to make applique. You could also do some thread painting on them to fill in the vein and stem areas, then cut them out for applique.

Filed Under: applique, quilt shows, Singer Featherweight Tagged With: , , ,