Sewing Show

A friend and I spent yesterday at Puyallup for the Sewing Show-what fun. For the first hour I thought I would be the only one who could go to the biggest show around and not buy anything-not much of a shopper. Then I found the buttons with the magic sign "50% off". The beads were irresistable too even though I have lots of necklaces in this color.On to the booth with Kimono scraps bundled in color groups also at an exceptional price. I restrained myself and just got two.Last year I found the nices scrap packages of metallic painted fabric-very generous amounts per package. This year I bought 3. Above is one of them. The booth had a number of wall hangings done with them in abstract designs that were stunning-good advertising.Finally, there were the rovings. As you can see, I like bits and pieces of things. I think it makes me be more creative to have to figure out what to do with them--other than just looking at them and petting them.  We had a nice day.

Quilt, Challenge

http://www.threecreativestudios.com/ has lots of things for us to do. One is a challenge to make a quilt at least 12" by 12" to represent a word. The first word was Puzzle. Here is mine.The pieces are lame that I cut and fused to the background. The piece that was left over looked like the part of the puzzle that was already finished. A friend had given 3 of us who do mixed media an old puzzle, so I drilled holes in some pieces and attached them as fringe. The edging is two fuzzy yarns couched to the piece. Here is a detail. It was fun to do-the idea hit me in the middle of the night as they often do.

Block of the Month

http://www.threecreativestudios.com/ has a Block of the Month section, and here is February.They posted an extra block, so I made that too. The lightest color is actually violet but trying to change that changed the other colors too much.

Class

When you sign up for free classes at Creative Textiles and Quilting Arts, you learn new ways to do things. This is a transfer to cotton of the negative of a Tiger Lily I photographed. The transfer was done with various things over the cotton to give a different look.

Here's a detail. The beads are antique-probably Victorian-that I bought in a small antique store many years ago when my son lived in Quincy, Illinois.

Class

I'm taking a printing class from Susan Sorrell at http://www.joggles.com/ My gelatin was from ages ago-can't remember what I bought it for but it was a VERY long time ago. It still worked just fine. Taking it out of the pan broke it up a bit, so I used a plastic knife and made more pattern in it. Both of these prints are on cotton. The black is overprinted on a piece that didn't have enough pattern. I think printing on black has a lot of possibilities.This last one is on paper. I did find out that as the gelatin plate breaks up, it sticks to the fabric or paper more. It isn't a problem with the fabric-just scrap it off-but the printer paper wanted to rip or just have a shiny glaze on it from the gelatin. Since the print was not at all something I liked, I actually decided to just throw it away-afraid it might attract bugs. I guess I could have coated it with medium, but it wasn't worth the work.   It's a fun technique.

Quilt

I've taken another of the stitched pieces and made it into a wall hanging. It's the negative of the mushrooms I photographed printed on cotton. Net and cheesecloth were laid down on the background before the stitching and beading. The fabrics used to border it are hand dyed. Here is a detail. I find doing these small stitcheries very relaxing.

Bead Journal Project

Here is my February piece for the Bead Journal Project. The glass part was made by a friend. It's glued to a background of felted roving that was machine quilted, then I used the beaded back stitch around it. I've been finishing the edges of the pieces by using a wave blade in the rotary cutter. The fabric is felted wool, so it won't ravel. I'm always looking for alternate edge finishes.

Class

I'm taking a class in monoprinting  from Susan Sorrell at http://www.joggles.com/  These are a few of the prints I made this week.Of course, this one is my favorite-my colors. It's amazing what you can use as a resist. The little circles with the hole in the middle are page reinforcers.This one also has some foil on it.

From the comments and emails I received, people are wondering how a small woman can control a 90 pound dog. A vet a long time and several German Sheppard's ago said that since I was small, I needed to show the puppy that I was alpha-the boss. To do this I needed to lay him on his side and hold him down through all the wiggles puppies do to try to get away until he gave up. Do it every couple of days, and they know you are the boss. It does work.  The gentle leader leash also is a big help. It does over their nose and the top of their head, so if they pull, their head goes down. It mimics the action of a momma dog.

Batting

I painted some more batting this time using watercolor paints. I like the intense colors but found that even after heat setting, they are not set. When I wet a corner, the paint bled. I'll have to use them and put a medium or something on top.

It's been so beautiful here-cool but sunny. The dog and I take lots of walks. We met a deer the other day. Jake wanted to run after it, but I said no and held the leash. He just sat down and watched, ears alert. He's as big as I am, so I was happy that he listened. I guess Obedience School all those years ago paid off!

Painted Papers, gift

On Wednesday a friend and I painted paste papers. You use thickened paint and texture it in a variety of ways. For the first one, I put a stencil on it and lifted some of the paint with a paper towel. Then I put more paint on it through the stencil using another color. 

The second one just had leaves stencilled on it in a second color.Bubble wrap pressed into the wet paint made the circles.After putting the stencil on this one, I lifted some of the paint with a paper towel then scraped the background with a comb.

I like the pattern made by scraping a comb through the paint.

See what she gave me- a piece of fused glass that she made. It has a channel in the top for a cord. I want to design a necklace using it. The colors are much more vibrant in person. Altogether a pleasant day.

Quilt

Wonder what I did with the piece of lace? Here it is featured in this wall hanging. The background is a hand dyed cotton and a batik stripped together in gentle curves. Then I applied the lame moon shapes. Ellen Anne Eddy had a Utube video where she showed that, and I liked the idea of the related shapes and had to try it. Both the backbround and the lame were sitting on the cutting table and seemed perfect for the lace.        

I applied velvet leaves and hand stitched stem with the chain stitch. Then the lace was applied. Here is a detail.

So you have JUDY'S LACEY GARDEN named to honor a dear friend who died suddenly and unexpectedly on Sunday. I will miss her so.

Class

I'm taking a monoprinting class from Susan Sorrell at http://www.joggles.com/ , and here are a few samples from this week.This is on cotton and a wall texturing tool was used to create the pattern.It's fun and easy to do. The excitement is that you don't know what you will get. This was done on a heavy a lightweight silk.This is on a heavy polyester satin.

The shisha in the last post is by hand, so I won't have to haul a machine to the meeting, just lots of samples, as I've been doing it for years. The first time I taught it all my friends signed up for the class. They had learned with me and knew the techniques I did, so I really needed to push the boundaries and come up with new ways to apply things. It was the first time I had Really explored a technique and was worth it.  If you want to see the entire vest and two other garments, check Issue 5 of Quilting Arts.