Month: July 2010 | Crazy for Fiber

July 2010
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Archive for July, 2010

And the winner is:

Thursday, July 29th, 2010

# 124 — Brooke Atherton! Congratulations. Send me your snail mail via the contact tab at the top of my blog and it will be on the way. For those who missed out, I suggest that you go to Jane’s website — Complex Cloth — order the book, and she will autograph it for you!! Thanks, again, for entertaining me with your comments.

As you know, from my tie dyeing escapade, I am heading out of town next week. My daughter and family are coming to house and Scooter sit. So, I have spent some time today, trying to get the downstairs area cleared of my messes so that M & M have a place to play. I think they are bringing their Wi with them and they need some space.

Tomorrow, I am going to try to de-clutter my studio. It has reached that stage where I can’t concentrate on anything because of the messes. I need to get the aspen piece done asap. Once I get my leaves cut and everything attached with some final stitching, it will be ready for photography.

My fiber sketch for today was so much fun. I read recently that you can use lutradur for machine felting. So I cut a piece of my leaf fabric and felted with some of my curly dyed roving. It works very well. I like it because I am not starting with much thickness. So I will do more of this.

Posted in Felting, Just for Fun | 4 Comments »

Catch-up Day

Wednesday, July 28th, 2010

Sometimes, I like to challenge myself to make a composition in 5 minutes. I reach into my fused scraps, grab piece of fabric and just do it. I don’t want to over think it. So, feeling a bit worn out tonight, I did this quicky fiber sketch.

This morning, I overslept a bit and then the game was on because I had a guild committee meeting here at 10 am. I did a bunch of errands, three loads of laundry, packed up the t-shirts to send them to New York and then did the farmer’s market run.

I always feel exhausted around dinner time. Then, I head down to my office and studio and have a burst of energy and often get some of my best work done. Today, on Face Book, I posted: A woman’s work is never done…especially if she takes time out to make art. I find that on many days, I get caught up in the day to day stuff and the evenings are my only uninterrupted time to create.

I have been cutting leaves from the lutradur. I love the color variation and the texture of the medium.

I want to say how very much I have enjoyed reading every single comment that has been left. I really am overwhelmed. Tomorrow night, I will do the random number generator and post the winner.

Posted in Lutradur, My creations, Sketchbook Project, This and that | Comments Off on Catch-up Day

Wow!!

Tuesday, July 27th, 2010

As of 10:30 tonight, 95 people have left a comment, hoping to win Jane’s book. It was so much fun reading all of your comments today. On Friday, I will use a random number generator to announce the winner. So if you are just reading my blog today, you still have time to leave a comment on yesterday’s blog for a chance to win Jane Dunnewold’s new book, Art Cloth.

I was so tired after dinner tonight that I thought I could not possibly do a fiber sketch. I printed out my leaf templates on freezer paper and played some solitaire on the computer. I went into the studio to iron the freezer paper to the painted lutradur and I suddenly wanted to use some of the lutradur for a sketch. I titled it summer. By the way, I cut out some leaves and the lutradur is going to be perfect.

This morning, I washed out the dyeing that I did yesterday. Got some great results with the t-shirts. The fabric was less than spectacular.

I used a cool black dye for this shirt – you can see the blues that have shown up.

For several of the shirts, I used chocolate brown and teal — I really like this combo.

Here is another version of the teal and brown for Mia.

This is some cheese cloth that got dunked in the black dye. I like this.

This is another piece done with teal and chocolate brown. I think this will bee really cool for discharging.

I love this wacky piece. I hung the fabric on the clothes line and poured various leftover dyes on to the fabric ala Robbi Eklow. I love a piece of fabric like this that can be cut up and used in compositions. There are many fabulous elements to this.

Joining me in the studio was my faithful assistant, Scooter. He remains calm, cool and collected through it all.

Posted in Dyeing, Lutradur, painting fabric, Scooter, Sketchbook Project | 6 Comments »

Dyeing, Painting and a Chance to Win Jane’s New Book

Monday, July 26th, 2010

I have had a busy day and am feeling great. I made a trip to Target this morning to buy more t-shirts. I had some left over dye and decided to dye some shirts for my M and M and Mr C hinted that he would like one, too.

I scoured the shirts and got everything dyed by early afternoon. I had enough dye left to use up on some fabric. I had mixed up some chocolate brown, teal blue and black in addition to the red, blue an yellow that was left from Saturday.

I bought some light weight lutradur at Fabric Depot on Saturday which I think will make nice leaves for my latest aspen piece. I painted it with Jacquard Dyna-Flow this afternoon. I love the colors. I will make leaf patterns with freezer paper and spend tomorrow night cutting and cutting.

Tonight, I am feeling rather tired and achy from all the standing and walking the dog so I decided to start working on Allegro, by next organza pocket piece. Since I need to make the background quilt before I attach the pockets, I have to know the exact measurements. For the 12 by 12 piece, that was easy. Here is my start. I think it might be easier to work it out on graph paper.

The darker pockets will fill in around the white pieces. I am trying to decide if I need to paint more of the white pieces.

Now, I have an extra copy of Jane Dunnewold’s new book, Art Cloth. It is a fabulous how to book from the queen of surface design. Leave a comment and I will do a random drawing on Friday.

Posted in Dyeing, My creations, painting fabric, Uncategorized | 129 Comments »

That Was Fun!!

Sunday, July 25th, 2010

I had fun washing out the tie-dyed shirts. Considering how many I dyed while under the influence of drugs, I think they turned out really well. I hope the kids like them.

I bought six white cotton sun hats for myself. I do not go out in the sun without a hat. Now, I have a colorful array to choose from.

The onesies are so cute. I have 3 mos, 6 mos and 9-12 mos. I will be giving some of these to my friends who are expecting new grandchildren this year.