Month: November 2008 | Crazy for Fiber

November 2008
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Archive for November, 2008

Fear of Cutting

Sunday, November 23rd, 2008

I spent way too much time today thinking and over thinking how I wanted to cut my fabrics to start on the Dead Sea piece. I sketched and fretted. Finally, I just had to do it. First I fused every thing. I thought about piecing this, but I can be more free in manipulating the curves and design if it is fused.

Here are some of the elements that I have constructed so far.

And here is another piece; I added metallic white and copper bits.

M & M have no school this week. Tomorrow, we are taking Miles out for his birthday adventure. We are going to the Lego store and out to lunch. I hope to remember to take my camera. We love to have time with each of the kids on their own. It is really precious time.

Posted in My creations, painting fabric, Solo Show | 4 Comments »

Saturday Studio Time

Saturday, November 22nd, 2008

I spent some time in the studio painting fabric today. I started with some of the hand-dyed turquoise fabric and some cheese cloth. I wanted some fabric that was a deeper turquoise.

Here is the first piece that I painted with some salt thrown on to create some texture.

Here it is dried and ironed.

For the second piece, I painted with turquoise and some metallic white paint.

Of course, I had to throw on some salt.

Here is it is dried and ironed.

My goal is to come up with something that resembles that salt crystals that form around the edged of the Dead Sea. I painted some cheesecloth to add some sparkle and dimension.

I also painted the muslin that was under the cheesecloth.

Here is another Dead Sea photo that is an inspiration to me.

Hope you are having a great week-end, too.

Posted in painting fabric, Solo Show | 2 Comments »

Good Times with My Peeps

Friday, November 21st, 2008

If the early part of the week found me lonely, the last two days have been a great antidote. Yesterday, was miserably chilly and rainy. The STASH group met at Reva’s where it was toasty and the chatter was endless. Here is my sofa buddy, Stella Luna or possibly her sister, China Rose, playing the part of a stuffed antimicaster.

Reva treated us to all sorts of home cooked goodies. We had home baked cookies when we arrived. For lunch we had two soups, great cheese and bread and apple cake with ice cream.

Last night we celebrated Miles’ seventh birthday at one of those sushi restaurants where the sushi travles around on a conveyor belt and you grab plates as they go by. M & M loved it. It was fun because they enjoyed it so much. Then we went back to Steph’s for the opening of presents and a Ben and Jerry ice cream cake.

Today was crit group at my house. Two of our group didn’t make it, but the other four of us had a good time. I showed by sunrise piece and received some great feedback. We went out for Thai food.

I took a nice long walk since the sun decided to make an appearance today. Then I had to do some SDA website stuff. I finally got into the studio at 4 pm. I did a my usual cleanup and putting away of stuff to start a new piece tomorrow. I am going to make an abstract piece based on the colors of the dead sea which contains many minerals, particularly salt. Much of the fabric that I dyed is for this piece. I am playing around with some cheesecloth for the salty deposits.

Posted in critiques, M & M, Quilting Friends | 5 Comments »

STASH Day

Thursday, November 20th, 2008

It is Some Thursday At Somebody’s House. I am off to Reva’s in a bit. She is making us lunch. Yummy!

Before I go, I wanted to share this site where you can have your blog analyzed — Typealyzer.

This is what it says about this one:

ESFP – The Performers

The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead – they are always in risk of exhausting themselves.

The enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation – qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions.

I tried to paste in the part of my brain that it says is dominant when I am writing, but it won’t cooperate. Suffice it to say that it is the sensing and feeling areas. You can see the image here.

My political blog has this analysis:

ESTP – The Doers

The active and play-ful type. They are especially attuned to people and things around them and often full of energy, talking, joking and engaging in physical out-door activities.

The Doers are happiest with action-filled work which craves their full attention and focus. They might be very impulsive and more keen on starting something new than following it through. They might have a problem with sitting still or remaining inactive for any period of time.

Woo hoo! I finished my 12 X 12 challenge a week early. The reveal is December first.

Posted in Just for Fun | 3 Comments »

Better

Tuesday, November 18th, 2008

I did the unquilting on the hillside housing. It was a bear. I love my Janome 6600, but when you use the thread cutter, it makes a nice little knot that is very difficult to remove. I found some Superior variegate blue thread in lighter colors. I also bought some new batting, I am running low. It was 25% off at Fabric Depot today.

I went down to the studio to quilt it and rethreaded every thing. I still had snarls. I cleaned out the bobbin case and changed the needle. I still had snarls. I have been using the Superior prewound Bottomline bobbins which are heavy paper. I switched to a regular bobbin and voila! problem solved. These have been working fine for me. I love them because you can get an assortment of colors. Anyway, the quilting is finished, a couple of days later than I planned.

I am feeling better, too. Headache is gone. I wasn’t a bit grumpy today.

I have nothing to show you so I stole these photos from Steph’s blog. These will be for sale in her shop tomorrow. Aren’t they phenomenal. They are made from wool. Each petal of the pinecone is lined. I have such talented children.