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Archive for October, 2009

Squirrel!!

Thursday, October 15th, 2009

deckvisitor

lookingatme

If you saw the movie Up, you realize that I am trying to distract you. I feel as if I have been slacking a bit. I did finish the edging on the post cards and they are ready send out. I uploaded some new work to my website and did an online entry to Form Not Function. This afternoon, I went shopping for some new clothes. I needed some comfortable stuff for everyday wear. Mr C gave me a gift  certificate to Chico’s which I have yet to use. Didn’t get there today, either. By the way, the squirrel was on the deck this morning, looking at me through the kitchen window.

I did some binge shopping on Amazon the other day.

drawingbook

This is a very cool drawing book by Steven Aimone. It has lots of neat exercises which I hope to do.

spikesbook

This new book, Quilting Art, by Spike Gillespie as loads of eye candy work done by 20 contemporary, many that I know and some that are new to me.

meechbook

This book by Sandra Meech is filled with gorgeous work and art classes that you can take to learn her techniques. I think I will have fun with this, too. I am trying to get myself back to creating more of my own fabric. I so admire my artist friends like Judy Carpenter and  Connie Rose, who get into the studio every day and do the work.

Tonight, I started stiching the black hole piece. I decided not to paint another one. I think I can have fun just stitching and adding some bling to this. This photo has a lot of glare on the foil so it looks a bit weird.

blackholestitching

Tomorrow, I am looking forward to an art date with Terry. We are going to see the work of art quilter, Mary Catherine Lamb, who recently died from cancer. She was too young. Her is a link to a video about her and her work.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

postcardsstotched

October 15th is Blog Action Day and this year’s theme is Climate Change. I thought I would share how I reuse and recycle materials in my studio.

I don’t throw much of anything away. I hang on to the dogs (the boo boo quilts). I keep scraps of all sizes, especially if they are fused. I love to make small compositions from them to jump start my creative juices. Here is one I did earlier this year.

scrap042809

I have a rather large quilt that was made as a prototype for a liturgical commission. The final piece was made from hand-dyed silk so I used cotton for the prototype. It has been languishing in my studio hoping o be repurposed.

quilt2recycle

I decided to  make some fiber postcards so I cut some pieces from the quilt and removed the stitching. The crosses were lightly fused and not stitched so they were easy to remove.

recycle4postdcard

I stitched the backgrounds in variegated thread. For one, I used the crosses turned to look like and X. For the other, I used some of my aspen scraps. You can see the resulting postcards at the top. I glue them to watercolor paper preprinted postcards, and they will get a zigzag stitch around the edges.

Here are some other things that I do to reuse, reduce and recycle. I like to buy used silk clothing with interesting prints and colors such as this piece.

recycledclothing

I save plastic squeeze bottles and containers to hold paints and dyes. I save bubble wrap and mesh bags to use for printing and texture.

orangemesh

And here is another fun idea. These are dryer sheets that my friend, Kathy, dyed and painted.

dryersheets

These are all fun ideas, but the most important thing is that we get our government to become involved in climate change in a big way. Join me in signing this petition asking the us to act on climate change.

Playing with Colorhue Dyes

Sunday, October 11th, 2009

firstdyedrying

My bottles of Colorhue dye came with no instructions. I searched on the Internet and figured out that you need only a few drops of the dye concentrate in the water and so I forged ahead.

I had a sheet of plexiglas. I dripped some of my dye solution on the Plexiglas and then laid a piece of silk charmeuse over it. The Colorhue dyes strike instantly and do not spread very much.

dyedropsonplexiglass

The fabric in the middle in the top photo was the first piece that I did. The piece on the right was done with dry silk charmeuse and I added some black dribbles.

Next, I  folded a piece of silk charmeuse lengthwise and again the other direction, accordian style. I dipped it in 3 different colors – magenta, turquoise and pumpkin.

foldanddrip

It is the first fabric in the top photo. I was not happy with the bright fuchsia color and later, I fixed that.

But, first, I wanted to try some shibori. I wrapped a scarf on a pvc pole with cotton string.

polewrappedsilk

I put brown, pumpkin and turquoise in squeeze bottles and dripped the dye on the wrapped silk.

shiboricolorhuedyes

Here is the result of my first Colorhue shibori attempt. You can click on any image to see a larger photo.

1stshiboriattempt

Not, bad, but the brown is not brown, it is purple. And there is a lot of white space. I let it dry a bit and brought it back into the dye studio and just poured turquoise dye over it to fill in the white areas. Here is the final scarf which I took in to church today as a class sample and got 3 more sign-ups. It really is very lovely.

finalshiboriscarf

Here is the back story on the brown. Ginny Eckley who sells the dyes told me that the brown is a very red brown and to add green and yellow to it to get a better brown, so I will try that next time.

So, I am finished and I have left over dye and dye in the bucket that dripped from the shibori dyeing. What would you do? I threw all the dye into the bucket and immersed the previously dyed pieces.

overdyedsilk

moreoverdyedsilk

I grabbed a couple of scarves that were previously dyed – one with acid dyes and one with indigo and rust.

oldshiboriscarf indigorustdye1 rustdyedshibori2

I threw them into the dye soup with this result.

finaloverdye3

I like how the dye toned down the orange and green,

rustdyefinal rustdyefinal2

On this scarf, the dye gave a richer color to the scarf. The original scarf did not get a very strong indigo dye.

Then, I noticed that I had not put the black into the dye soup. Dumped it in and added the original 3 samples which now look like this.

finaloverdye

finaloverdye2

This is so much fun with instant gratification.  Next, I want to try Lumiere and Neopaque paint prints with over dyeing, bubble wrap, and fabric tied around a rope.

Last night, Mr C took me out for a fabulous dinner. Tonight we have Scooter school. It was canceled last week because the trainer was sick. Tomorrow, for my birthday, I am going to the dentist in the morning and then to theology class in the evening.

Thank you to every one who is e-mailing and sending greetings. I love my virtual friends.

I am Verklempt

Friday, October 9th, 2009

deborahmini

This lovely arrived in the mail today from my fellow Twelve (and one of my adopted art quilting girls), Deborah. I broke into tears to find this Hillside Celebration made just for me. Here is the back story. This is a smaller version of the quilt that Deborah made for our most recent theme: Twelve. You can see it here. If you read the comments you will find a little who loves it more going on between Kirsty and I. So, I was really touched to have a version made for me for my birthday. Deborah, you really made my day. I do have wonderful quilty, virtual friends, don’t I?

I mentioned to my friend, Karen Miller, that I was planning to do a scarf dyeing class at my church. She recommended Colorhue Dyes. My shipment of 9 colors came today.

colorhuedyes

These dyes are instant set and can be diluted with water for lighter shades and mixed with each other to get more complex colors. I will be playing with them tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Yesterday, I forgot to show you the cool little stamps that Terry gave us yesterday. She bought them at the African Art Museum in Washington DC. Love these. (Photo taken in the kitchen tonight with bad lighting.)

africanstamps

Want to rent a good movie? Mr C and I just watched the French flick, Tell No One. It is a thriller to the end. Did you know that Kristin Scott Thomas speaks perfect French?

Artistic Food

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

tomatozucchinitarts

Aren’t these gorgeous? Reva made them for our Stash meeting lunch. They are puff pastry with a savory cheese base and tomatoes and zucchini. They tasted great, too. For dessert, she made a beautiful plum tart with plums from her backyard tree.

revaplumtart

Before lunch we sat around and caught up on our comings and goings and carved rubber stamps with some instruction from Terry.

terrydemonstrates

I carved a small prototype of Aspen trunks that I want to carve on a larger piece.

aspentrunkstamp

aspenstamped

I obviously was having some inking problems, but overall, I am happy with the image. That was all I managed to make. It was a very relaxing time. I love spending time, laughing and chatting, with this group of friends.