What I’ve Been Doing…

July 8, 2009 by Leave a Comment

It’s been awhile again since I’ve blogged…I’m getting so lazy!

Update on the Arts Council show…I got a call last Wednesday that I have been awarded an Honorable Mention award…yeah for fiber! Rayna wrote me a nice note and said that this is extra special because this is recognition in an art show.  Thanks, Rayna.

Update on the Runaround Bag…I decided not to go with those antique buttons.  Instead…I think some fun, funky buttons are called for…

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I have been dyeing some fabric to replenish my supply.  The multicolored ones sell pretty well for me.  The striped ones were hung on the clothesline and I poured the dye on them.  That was sorta fun if you can keep the dye off your toes…I may do more, mostly because I would like to use them myself.  I also soda soaked some white cotton and hung on the line…and guess what showed up?  The Japanese beatles swarmed the white cotton…go figure…they must like the soda ash.

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Last week I prepared some discharged black sateen pieces to sell and to stitch on.

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I will be making more of these…”painting” on black cloth with dishwashing gel is too much fun.

Filed Under: art shows, Arts Council, discharge dyeing, dyeing, hand dyed fabrics, new art Tagged With: , , ,

More This ‘N That

June 30, 2009 by Leave a Comment

Woohoo!  I feel like I actually got something done today.  I got a sample bag made, and it went pretty fast.  This is the Runaround Bag by Lazy Girl Designs, made, of course, in my hand dyed fabrics.  One fabric has paintstik designs on it.  I didn’t have a 12 inch zipper to match the fabrics, so making do with the yellow one I did have.  I think it looks just fine…it makes  a yellow stripe.

Front…

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Back….with a heart embroidery stitch used as topstitching…

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How about some antique buttons added…?

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This is a cute pattern and makes up fast.  The finished bag measures 7 1/2″ x 9″. I have patterns for sale.

I am planning what shows I will be attending this fall and what I need to have done as far as samples.  This bag is one sample I wanted to make up.

On another note, I was juried into the annual Working Together exhibit to be on display at the Evansville museum from July 11 to August 28.  This is an Arts Council exhibit. I have shown this piece in another post on this blog.  It is …But Words Will Never Hurt Me (Sticks and Stones). I am happy it will be in this exhibit.

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Rust dyed cotton sateen, discharge dyed sateen, screenprinting, stamping, stenciling, cotton thread, handwriting.

Filed Under: art shows, collage, discharge dyeing, new art, rust dyeing Tagged With: , , , ,

What’s Going On Now…

December 10, 2008 by Leave a Comment

The Christmas artisan’s fair is over again.  I didn’t have a lot of sales, not enough actually, but it’s funny how one thing you do leads to another….I was asked to do a solo exhibit in a gallery…in 2011.  I think I can get ready in time!

So this week, I have a goal.  I am planning and writing up a proposal for a commercial commission job.  I had started it a couple of weeks ago, but then other things got in the way and took my attention and time.  Now it’s time to get dreadfully serious about it.  I’m not one to sit still and do a lot of paperwork and all the thinking that goes along with it.  Perhaps I need this exercise.  If nothing else, I am sure I will learn a lot.  So that is my plan for this week…after I go teach (that got cancelled)…and go to the dentist…and bake a cake for Jesus’ birthday party with my 3-5 year olds class at church…and make my nieces’ Christmas presents…and the list can go on and on.  It’s the holidays, right?  If you are already busy, the holidays just doubles or triples it for you.

My scarves are selling pretty well this season.  I’ve sold 4 out of my etsy shop in the past couple of weeks.  And I got a check from the shop I consigned a dozen to…she is selling them too.  I keep them pretty simple with what I do to them, because I am not sure that my current market will support higher priced work.  But when I do the exhibit, I think I will do some that are very special with more surface design on them.

Here is a rose pink silk crepe that I decided to do more to.  I was wanting to experiment with it a bit. It was going to be my play scarf.  I screened some words on it with a Thermofax screen.  Since the scarf was still a bit damp, the words blurred just a bit, not bad.  Not being satisfied with that, I came back with the discharge paste and a sea sponge and stamped it.  Perfect.  I wasn’t sure I even wanted to sell this scarf…but sadly (or happily, depending on your view) a girl wanted to buy it, so I “let” her.  Sigh.  Maybe I can duplicate it.  I really did like this one.

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Filed Under: art shows, discharge dyeing, hand dyed silk scarves, silk scarves, Thermofax screen printing Tagged With: , ,

Sunday This ‘N That…

November 17, 2008 by Leave a Comment

The last few days have been like one loooonnnnnnngggggg day. I was busy finishing up working on silk scarves, getting them cataloged, tagged and priced. Then I needed to pack the car with what I planned to sell at the bazaar Friday night and at the same time pack the car for the class I was to teach on Saturday. My brain started getting tired. There were last minute preparations for the class, handouts, notes, etc. I was so busy I forgot to get a picture of the first rust dyed crepe de chine scarf I made. It was quite lovely and of course, it sold Friday night. I actually sold quite a few scarves and am very pleased about that…so pleased, I am ordering more blanks! My scarf supply is pretty depleted at this point as I then consigned a dozen to the shop in Evansville. But I will be doing more rust dyeing. That crepe scarf was too yummy not to make more…and of course, I must have my very own, right?

When I got home last night after being gone the whole day, there was a message on my answering machine about a dessert being needed for a funeral. Of course, there’s no time (or energy at this point) to fix anything in a pan I don’t want back and I don’t have any discardable pans. I don’t keep a lot of stuff around here for the unexpected events like this, so to keep stress at a minimum, I bought some cookies at the dollar store and put in a disposable bag. We had church this morning and lunch with friends, then home to rest a little bit and “pack” my “dessert”. I usually do try to make something special, but there was too much going on this weekend. So tonight I am placing another pretty big scarf order to build my inventory back up. I have an art fair the first weekend of December, so that gives plenty of time to get more done. I will lose a couple of days with the Thanksgiving holiday. I am also hoping to get new art done.

Here is one of the lovely chiffon scarves I did. It has been dyed and discharged. 44″X 44″ silk chiffon. For sale for $45 if anyone is interested. Email me.

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UPDATE ON 12/9/08:  This scarf is SOLD.

Filed Under: discharge dyeing, hand dyed silk scarves, stamping Tagged With: , ,

What I’m Doing Today…

November 13, 2008 by Leave a Comment

I am working on scarves AGAIN…I have an opportunity to sell tomorrow night as well as deliver some for consignment on Saturday, so gotta get ’em done. Since my Deep Black 609 did not work very well (too red), my scarves are mostly a deep red-purple color. I decided to discharge on some of them because they are so dark (some people may like the dark color). Not very long ago I had decided that I would no longer work with discharge paste simply because I cannot abide the odor of it…but after today I guess I’m changing my mind…can you see why?dsc03860

I stamped the paste on with a sea sponge. What a difference that made. This is a 15″ x 60″ silk crepe de chine (remember it shrinks from that in washing, now measuring about 14.5″ x 56″). For sale for $30 (includes shipping). Email me if you are interested. I am also doing some rust dyeing on a silk scarf and cotton scarves. Stay tuned.

Filed Under: discharge dyeing, dyeing, hand dyed silk scarves, stamping Tagged With: ,

Wednesday This ‘N That…

October 16, 2008 by Leave a Comment

I have been here, I just haven’t been blogging. You know… how LIFE gets in the way. Monday afternoon I had to go teach my sewing class with young girls. There are five of them, although not all of them sew when I am there. They are working on a quilt called Crooked Nine Patch. It was designed by my friend SuznQuilts and was made so that it is easy for kids to do. They are so excited and having so much fun. Sometime later I will take pics of their blocks to show you all the variety they have.

On Tuesday, I had errands to do and pick up a few groceries. My husband is working long hours in the field, so I am trying to keep the food train going for him and try to keep lunch somewhat interesting, since they eat on the run. But Tuesday afternoon, I decided it was time for me to do some sewing for FUN!!! I actually haven’t sewed anything much for quite some time. First, I worked on the hand stitched bag that I showed awhile back. I liked the pears that the Kemshalls stitched on their bag, so, lacking any other inspiration, I stitched pears on mine too and then added some paint. This is a birthday gift for a friend of mine and that birthday is coming up soon. She likes folk art and I have kept the pears imperfect and a bit funky in shape. Believe me, it wasn’t that hard to do…with free motion stitching. The next thing to do will be to bind it and shape it into the bag, then maybe add some beads by hand.

Creating art takes alot of brain power, so there are times when I just want to sit at the sewing machine and do mindless piecing. That’s my break from thinking…that’s my fun. This is when I like to pull out something unfinished and get back to it. Yeah, I still like traditional fabrics, and yeah, I still like muted reproduction colors. So except for getting the applique stitched down, I did get the borders on and the stars fused to the quilt. This ended up being a double bed size, but the fun thing about it is, it has 579 different fabrics in it. It is called Civil War Logs, again by my friend, SuznQuilts. It is all (as much as we can tell) civil war reproduction fabrics. Four of us started collecting them several years ago and trading strips around so that we all had that variety. In this particular quilt, each fabric has been used only once. It is windy out today, so I couldn’t photograph it on the clothesline. It just flies up like a sail!

I am quite pleased with it and am thinking of getting it hand quilted (probably not by me) in keeping with the Civil War look. I think I know some ladies who hand quilt every week around a big frame.

Today I finished emptying out the van from the festival and organizing everything in the garage. It’s hot out there. I am sweating badly. The other thing I am doing today is attempting to discharge rust dyed fabric. Yep, it works. Here are the results. The circles on the bottom are the discharged areas. Now I want to do some screenprinting with dye paint. How many different chemicals can this cloth stand?

Filed Under: discharge dyeing, traditional quilts Tagged With: , , ,

I Love The Benefits….

October 11, 2008 by 1 Comment

One of the perks of painting, with either dyes or acrylics, is that when you finish with your project there is usually lots of paint on the brush and on the painting surface. I’m sure I have mentioned this before, but, I was raised by grandparents who went through the great depression in the 30’s; we didn’t waste anything. And I won’t waste my paint!

Paint rag, discharged with a round stencil brush. The surprise was seeing how the circles discharged in the different colors.

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