Painted Paper

Last week when I got together with two friends on Monday and then with two other friends on Wednesday, it seemed to be "Paint Paper" week. Here are the results. Both sides are painted, but shown are the sides I like best. I rubber stamped them at home. The papers are varied-drawing, Stonehenge, Braille, brown, Kozo, and others.

On Wednesday we used resists to see what would happen. We used Shiva, wax, fabric resist(save it for fabric), and pastels. Two wonderful days.

Quilt

One day a long time ago three of us experimented with Disperse Dyes. They need to be used on fabric that is mostly polyester. They can be used on paper and when dry, ironed to polyester fabric. This is the only piece I liked, so I decided to make a small hanging. Actual leaves were used as a mask when I ironed the dyed paper to the fabric. Then the leaves can be put on another piece of fabric, and the dye that ended up on them will transfer to that fabric. It's a cool technique.

Here's a detail of the center. I machined leaf shapes in the border. It has both commercial and hand dyed fabrics.

Class

I'm taking the class Dale www.thethreadstudio.com is giving called Ratty Tatty Papers. We are using napkins to create art. All 4 of the flowers used on these two pieces are from the same napkin. I didn't realize what a great variety of interesting napkins are available.

First the napkin was fused down to felt. Ink was applied to soften the edges; then machine embroidery, foil, and Treasure Gold.

Class Tester

Thank you to everyone who visits. The blog keeps me producing, so I'll have something to share.

Sorry that the picture is sideways. I've uploaded a number of times, and it won't do anything else-not a good way to start the day. This is a vase I made testing the last lesson for Sueb http://www.twocreativestudios.com/ for the Box Making Class starting soon. I did the edges on the serger but like the machine zigzag edges better.

Isn't this box a great idea? It wasn't hard to make. As you can see, the computer didn't put this one the right way either. They are both correct in my picture file. Oh well, normal fight with the computer.

Stitch Explorer, gifts

Here is the Chicken Scratch sample that I learned as Norweigen Lace many years ago. It is for the Stitch Explorer challenge from Sharonb http:www.pintangle.com

Three of us met on Monday to paint papers, and this is what the hostess gave me. The yellow is a foam coaster from the $ store. We want to try things with it-stencil, stamp? The button form is from the upholstery department. We are going to cover buttons in the next Embellisher Club. I would never have thought to look in that department. The stamps are wonderderful. She also fixed us a nice lunch which sure beat the roll I'd brought! I'm not very food oriented. It was a wonderful day with good friends.

Class Projects

I'm taking an online class from Ellen Linder www.AdventureQuilter.com and this is my warm collage from magazine pages.

Here is the cool one.

Totes

I was looking in a box of denim scraps for a patch for my jeans, when pieces just decided that they needed to be used. These are the legs of old jeans that I combined with braids that have been around here forever. The pockets are from a fat quarter.

Class Tester

This vase is made of Timtex covered in tissue paper.

This one is made of paper bag "fabric" and laced together. They are part of the class I'm testing for Sueb www.twocreativestudios.com that starts next month. Be sure to check it out. It's called Creative Box Making for the Fiber Artist. While not technically boxes, these are containers and were fun to make. People can never figure out what they are made of.

Bead Journal Project

Here is January. I used some abalone that a friend gave me when we were being transfer from middle to southern California, so the piece will remind me of her. The beads form the waves around the shells.

Gifts, Swaps

This year for the Calendar Girls Group http://calendargirls2008.blogspot.com/ we are each picking a calendar photo for one month. This is my version of Jenny's pick of a calendar with the art of Shane Pickett. The background is black wool with needlefelting and silver metallic thread handstitched. He's an artist that was new to me, but I like his work.
Here is my postcard from Lynda http://purplemissus.blogspot.com/. Isn't it wonderful and such a beautiful blue.



And look at what else Lynda sent. Beads-I'm a bead nut-Leaves-one of my favorite things-Velum with words on it-I've been using a lot of that-and foil-the fun stuff. Everything is perfect for what I do. Isn't she great?

Experiments

Thanks everyone for the comments. I try to answer them as I see them and then can't remember who I responded to. Sometimes it's hard to find a way to respond.

On the Quilting Arts DVD for Season 1 http://www.quiltingartstv.com/ I saw Jane Dunnewold make a stencil from fusible interfacing by sandwiching net between 2 pieces of the fusible. It needs to be painted on both sides with acrylic paint and heat set when dry to seal it.

I used this circle template to create a design and made a print.This one was done using a sponge, and I tend to be heavy handed, so it is a bit blobby.

I like it much better with a stencil brush . I used a coarse netting to add texture. With some of the cutout pieces, I made another design.

The blobby print left me cold, so I added another color with the stencil brush and rather like it.

I took a class from Beth Kennedy where we did a similar thing using file folders instead of interfacing and making a positive and a negative stencil.

Here are the prints using the file folder stencils. They are a little firmer, but we'll see how all of them hold up. As you can see, neither cleans up too well, but the leftover paint doesn't seem to transfer to the new print.

Tote

I saw a tote like this on Marie's blog http://zquilts.blogspot.com and decided I needed to make myself one. It's a pattern from www.thecreativethimble.com and has 10 pockets! Just the thing for someone who wants to organized her world. There is lots of sewing on this, but I learned several new ways to do pockets. Now, do I keep it or give it as a gift?

Gifts

We were actually all thawed out enough to get to quilt group, and the tree over the road to the hostess was removed. It was so nice to see everyone that we chattered like magpies. We exchanged some gifts.

Here is the vest that Mary gave to me. She has travelled the world and collected ethnic textiles. This one is from Nepal. It fits like it was made for me, and she just moved to a condo and is downsizing. The scarf in the first photo is from India.