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Archive for the ‘Discharging fabric’ Category

New Studio Update

Thursday, October 27th, 2016

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Here is my corner of the new studio. There is space for me to work on the cutting table and then my print and ironing table is closest in this photo. My paint caddy is to the left of my work space. There is a utility sink for us to use in the common area.

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I should explain how this space is set up. We are sub-letting the ground floor of a live/work space. The upper two floors, which would normally be the living space, are occupied by a group of women who make wedding gowns and do other wedding related activities.

Our space had to be sectioned off from the entry area and a room where they meet with brides and their entourage. We contemplated having walls built which would have included a design wall for me. That proved to be expensive and would have a big time lag. So, instead we hung off white draperies from poles that hang from the ceiling. Lisa needed the wall space for her paintings. She rented this space to do her fine art painting. Here is the space showing her work in progress. My space is just to the right of where I was standing when I took the photo. You can click on photos to see larger versions.

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There is a wall of windows which limits wall space but gives nice daylight. Lisa works in this area, too.

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Mr C took some of the shelves from my old studio and put them up for Lisa to have for storage.

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The actual footprint for my studio stuff is smaller, but it is a big room where I can breathe and move things out when I need more space. We are going to make a portable design wall with insulation and pvc pipe that will be double sided and can be moved easily.

I always had a problem with parking in my old studio. I have never had a problem here. It also has air conditioning for the summer. I love that there are other creatives coming and going.

Today, I finished an old project as my first project in the new space. I used some deColourant Plus which is discharge paste with color added.

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I started this t-shirt a while ago as a demo that I did for a guild group. Today, I added color to the rest of the letters which is freezer paper ironed on to the shirt.

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This is not a very good photo, but you get the idea.

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So, I am gearing up to get some work done.

 

 

Time Out

Thursday, November 5th, 2015

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I needed one – a time out that is. After being sick for a week and rushing to get some work done to submit for a SAQA show, I just crashed. About all I did in October was my SDA work and fulfilling a few obligations. I am now trying to get back on track. Above is a photo of a sunrise we could see from the condo a couple of weeks ago. We had a nice Indian Summer and now it is quite cool and rainy off and on.

We took care of Wilfredo for Lisa and Clay while they traveled in Portugal and Spain. Sometimes, I had to walk both dogs which was a bit challenging. Here we are in the elevator heading down for our walk.

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When the girls came back, they gave me this wonderful necklace which they found at a shop in Porto.

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Here is a link to information about the artists – all work is handmade and have bits of crocheted beads among other fiber frippery. I love the colors.  perdi o fio à meada

I took lots of walks with Mr C and the dogs and photographed the beautiful fall colors.

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This is a view of fall from the condo gym.

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I prepared 4 older quilts of mine to travel to Brazil where they will be displayed in the annual Patchwork Design exposition with other members of the High Fiber Diet group. It is nice to have some older work get out there.

I also shipped two quilts to Coos Bay for the In Stitches exhibit at the Pacific Park Gallery. Mr C and I are going to drive down for the opening reception and spend the night on Sunday, Nov 15th.

Our local SAQA group met in the Oregon College of Art and Craft dye studio last month. One member led a group in immersion dyeing and I gave a brief demonstration on discharging fabric and then let people play.

I showed them the different results that you can get with different agents.

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The fabric is the same black. On the left, I used soft scrub cleanser with bleach, the middle leaf was with Jacquard discharge paste and the one on the right was clear DeColourant. The green in the front was the result of discharging a piece of navy blue cotton.

Terry Grant played with drawing with soft scrub.

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Mary Arnold used some stencils and got these great results.

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I did a test on snow dyed fabric with lots of dye colors in it.

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I am also making progress on this little red sweater. I just have one more sleeve to do.

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My project this week is to clean, declutter and reorganize the multipurpose room here in the condo. I bought these modular storage units which I finally got into the room yesterday and started putting stuff in the drawers.

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Today, I hauled everything out of the storage closet and rearranged it.

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I had the hanging thread storage and the drawers with thread on the other side of the closet and they were harder to get to with my sewing table right in front. My goal is to make the whole room function better because I do so many different things here.

Finally, here are some photos of my grands. They are growing up so fast.

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Paige and her parents are coming for Thanksgiving – can not wait!!

 

 

Happy Solstice!

Saturday, December 21st, 2013

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I love both the winter and the summer solstice. Today brings the promise of the return of more light. The summer solstice is the celebration of the longest day of light.

I got so much done in the last couple of days, even though they were short on daylight. Yesterday, I embellished a little jean’s jacket for Paige. My sister-in-law in CA thrifted it for me. It is a size 2 toddler so she may need to grow into it. I put it and a few other things in the mail to her yestereday. Here is the front. Not terribly inspired, but it will be unique.

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I want to thank all of you who helped me destash my studio. I only have 3 bundles left! I might add some hand-dyes and some inexpensive scrap bundles later. Today, I printed all the labels and packaged up the goodies and dropped them off at the Post Office. You should receive your fabric a day or two after Christmas. Here is what I delivered to the PO this morning.

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Then, I went to work on de-personalizing our home to prepare it for selling to someone else. First, I took down my cross collection – didn’t want to scare off a potential buyer! I also packed up all the family photos from several different rooms. I got a bit weepy as I saw the transformation happening, but it will all be good when I can put every thing back in a new home!

Then, I scooted down to the studio and spent some time locating some of my tools and thermofax screens in the storage room. I need to print a fat quarter to go in The Printed Fabric Bee fabric pack for Virginia Spiegel’s 5 K to Fight Cancer. I wanted to discharge a pattern on a hand-dyed fabric, hoping the turquoise would remain where I discharged. I couldn’t find my Soft Scrub so I ran out to buy a new bottle. I wanted to use one of my favorite old screens with wonky lines. You can see where the softscrub is on the fabric.

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Processed with VSCOcam

Unfortunately, this Soft Scrub did not have enough chlorine to discharge the dye. So, I just have a very clean piece of fabric. I will try again with discharge paste, if I can find it!! Or maybe, I will screen on paint. That would probably be easiest.

Moonstruck

Saturday, June 22nd, 2013

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As the Super Moon also known as the Strawberry Moon, shines brightly tonight, I have been spending the day trying to discharge a moon shape on a red background.

My first attempts were on red silk and red cotton. The silk was a bust.

 

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The cotton discharge was pretty good, but I decided it was too small.

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I cut a larger freezer paper stencil and discharged again.

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The result was the photo at the top of this post. I am very happy with it.

I finished the red organza collage, edges and all. It looks great. Tomorrow, I will stitch the red cotton to the pre-felt and shrink it and hope I get good results!!

 

Checking Things Off My List

Thursday, May 23rd, 2013

Montanas y Lunas copy

 

If I am going to leave for California next Tuesday (and I am), I have to keep moving and shaking and getting things done. Yesterday, I sewed the sleeve and made a label for my XOXO quilt as I had to ship it off before I leave town. I also finished the hand stitching on my SAQA quilt, Montanas y Lunas. I submitted the online auction entry form for SAQA. Tomorrow, I will get it in the mail and cross that off my list. Here is a detail:

Montanas y Lunasdetail

 

I love the organic quality of this and the texture. I don’t know if it will sell, but it is the type of work that I like to purchase.

At the end of June, after I get back from San Antonio, I have to have a submission done for the next High Fiber Diet exhibit, Simply Red. I pulled out my red fabrics to see what I have and to encourage some creative juices to flow.

I have some nice organza. The piece on the left is silk as is the black and red in the middle. I am pretty sure the other piece is synthetic.

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I also have a funky piece of cheesecloth that might be interesting with something else.

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These are various shades of hand-dyed red cotton.

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I was thinking that I would try to do a larger piece of shrinky dink red with a discharged design. So I did a couple of discharge samples. The one of the left is with Soft Scrub with bleach. I left it on for quite awhile with hardly any change. The one on the right is deColourant discharge paste. I like what has happened so I think I will go with that. I just have to come up with a design that will work with the shrinking process. I probably will do a sample as I have not done this with cotton.

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I have been working on the name tags for the conference. I have several different types to do and I need to get them printed and shipped on ahead to San Antonio so that I don’t have to take them in my luggage.

This afternoon, I headed out to the mall to get a few new things to fit my shrinking body – I especially needed new summer pants. I also got some new black sandals that I really like. Tomorrow, I am going to try on my dress and see if I think it needs to be shortened. I also need to go through my clothes and decide what to take for the upcoming events. Making lists and getting things done – that is my life, right now. Since we have the return of winter weather, I might as well be hunkered down, getting things done.