Paper Making

http://www.threecreativestudios.com/ had paper making as the technique of the month, so I tried it. I shredded the mail that you can't just recycle for safety reasons, so the paper has a slight gray cast from the ink. It was a sunny day and pleasant to be outside. Paper making is messy.

This one has dyed petals and large glitter.I embedded feathers here.

More glitter in two sizes.Dried leaves and petals.

Tissue paper embedded. To make things stay on the paper you have to put some pulp over them and make them part of the paper. The tissue is mottled, because it is from one of our sun painting session where we put tissue over the wet fabric.

So all the paper seemed colorless to me. How to add color without having the paper fall apart.I used a multicolor ink pad and swiped it across the surface. It inks the high spots. I like this one.

I learned that you can lean too hard. The black is too heavy and will take a bit to dry. The blue is better. I did use a paper towel to try to wipe some off, but then the paper bits can come too. Everything is a learning experience!

Quilt

http://threecreativestudios.com/ has a quilt challenge every other month. This time the word we were to interpret was Reflection.

The brown is a hand dye I bought somewhere. The pinkish fabric I painted. The thread for the hand quilting/stitching is one of the ones I dyed. Then there is some machine quilting to echo the curve. I see this as hills in a landscape.

Take a Stitch Tuesday, Machine Embroidery

Sharonb at http://www.pintangle.com/ posted the Chained Cross Stitch this week. I'd never done that one before. I did a couple of rows in the normal way, a row changing the width, and  then did a random one.

This was a piece of pleated fabric that was in my scrap pile. I used leaves as a mask, then transfer printed the background using paper painted with transfer paints. I machine embroidered the outline and veins to make the leaves stand out.This one is leaves stenciled with textile paint on batting then machine stitched.

The Art quilt group comes here today, so I guess I'd better finish getting ready.

Take a Stitch Tuesday, gifts

The Vandyke Stitch is the next one posted by Sharonb at http://www.pintangle.com/ First I stitched it in a straight row with long legs in navy wool. Next the light blue is Perle Cotton with the cross off to the side. It looked like a stitch that could be done randomly, so the red is that example in floss and a smaller Perle Cotton. It's an easy stitch and can be moved around. http://www.threadcreativestudios.com/ has a lot of interesting things on it and free instructions for lots of projects. Each month on the 16th a Technique of the Month is posted. Everyone who posts a photo in the forum has their name put in a pot and one is drawn for a prize. I won and look at what I received!Vicki's fabrics are so special and the card is lovely-giving me lots of ideas. http://www.vickiwelsh.com/

I also received button, threads, and a book by Sueb  http://www.suebleiweiss.com/  I write down what I do each day, and the book will be perfect for next year. If I don't write it down, I tend to think I've accomplished something when I haven't. Seeing it written makes me work harder.

Thank you Three Creative Studios.

Painting Fabric

Three of us got together on Wednesday to Sun Print using Setacolor and Dynaflow paints. Being in the NW of the US meant that the sun didn't come out until after lunch! Some of the prints still worked. At least the wind wasn't blowing.

On this one I used the freezer paper snowflake shapes I'd cut out to use as a stencil on another piece. They aren't ironed down-use laid on top of the fabric.I decided to try a white on whits fabric to see what would happen. It's busier but has real possibilities.

We started talking about whether shibori techniques would work, so I folded the wet fabric in pleats in two directions and let it dry. It made a nice grid-need to try more.  Neither of them have a blog, so I can't direct you to their work.

Felt

I did this little felted piece using some rovings a friend gave me. The circles are created by twisting a length of thick and thin yarn and punching it down. Be careful when you try it as it is thicker. I go across in one direction then in the other to make an x. Then I go around it. I added hand stitching to make the circles stand out.

I was going to do my usual post on Monday, but it was my daughter's birthday. We meet at the Portland Zoo-which is more for her and less for me -in the middle. We were there at 8am when they opened to avoid some of the heat, stopped for lunch at 11 and then walked some more. The heat finally made us give up and go home. The animals were hiding from the heat by that time anyway. We NW people don't deal well with heat. If you want to see some of the photos of the animals we saw, check Karen's blog  http://karenlynnebeads.blogspot.com/

I've decided to go with either the first or last position for the hanging I posted last Friday and the name Desert Dawn picked by Sandy at http://sandyquilts.blogspot.com/  Please send your address for the ATC Sandy. Thanks to everyone who commented. I think it's great to get feedback from people and tried to contact all of you. Several I couldn't link to. Blogger tries to open a mail program I don't use anymore, so I go to your blog to reply.  More of the names will be used in the future, as they have given me ideas for quilts. I keep a list in my sketchbook.

Quilt

This is the latest piece, and I can't decide which way is up! Please help and let me know if one appeals to you more than another.

I started with a small piece of fabric-about 8" by 8" -that I had painted sometime in the past. It is layered with cheesecloth on it.I tacked down a gold trim with running stitch then tacked the cheesecloth with random straight stitch. Next came the needlelace in green.The border was broken up with the gold insert to carry the gold trim idea to the edge. To tie it all together, I did a stem stitch in green Perle Cotton between the painted piece and the border.

My other request to you is a name. Anyone who has followed by blog knows that I'm not a word person and have a problem with names. I will send an ATC to whomever comes up with the name I use.

Take A Stitch Tuesday

I added this week's stitch below last week's but should have allowed more space. The stitch is called the Siennese Stitch. It makes a good band, works well randomly, and would be a good filling stitch. The fuchsia is Perle Cotton with the spacing getting closer and closer as I worked to the left.  The random blue is wool.

I decided that I would also make a sampler of floral and leaf shapes. I'm not used to working on count thread fabric and finding it to be a challenge, but overall I'm pleased with the samples.

Class

I recently finished a class from Janet Lasher at http://www.joggles.com/ on using your own photographs to make a rubber stamp. I love leaves and am always taking photos of them, so this image was my choice. Carving the pink carving material is easy and fun.

Here's the image printed on a hand dyed cotton. Must do more carving.

Bead Journal Project

http://www.beadjournalproject.com/ is a group of people who do a beaded piece every month for a year. This is the third year I've been in it. It is the perfect way to work in a series. Each artist decides what their theme for the year is.

Mine is to felt a background, then machine quilt/embroider it. I always have a focal piece-makes me use those wonderful things I buy and then don't know what to do with. Additional beads complement the focal piece. Since the layers are felted wool or batting, I'm just straight stitching the edge and using a pinking blade on the rotary cutting to finish the outside. Note: the pinking blade will mark your cutting mat, so use an old one.

Take A Stitch Tuesday, Sunprints

Waved Chain is this week's stitch from Sharonb at http://www.pintangle/. It's easy and makes a nice irregular filling.

Barbara asked about how to do sunprints. Setacolor is a paint that react/develops in the sun. I put a fat quarter of fabric on a portable plastic covered board. It can be sprayed with water, but I just wet it before putting it down on the plastic. The Setacolor is diluted with some water and painted on the fabric. Objects are placed on top. Anywhere there is an object, the paint dries lighter leaving an impression of the object. On the one above, I wanted to see what would happen if I put empty glass jars on the fabric. The fabric wasn't on a board in this case-just the lumpy ground. This is one section showing what happens. You can see where the bottom of the bottle was, and the rays where the sun passed through it as the sun moved and the fabric dried. I like the effect. Another use for the recycling stuff.

On this one I just picked up handfuls of gravel from our driveway and dropped them on the fabric. There was dried grass in the gravel too.I cut off the dried leaves from the Daylilies and dropped them randomly on the wet fabric. Sunprinting is a lot of fun. This year there hasn't been a lot of sun, so I'm out there every time it shines.

Sunprints, gift

We had some sun, so I decided to do sunprints using Setacolor paints.

Leaves seem to often be my theme, as I love leaves and trees.Having 9 chickens gives me a good supply of feathers. I had to put rocks on them to keep them from blowing away.

Look what Marie of http://zquilts.blogspot.com/ sent me! I love bugs, and this ATC is perfect. Thanks Marie.