Can You Say "OBSESSED"?

Yes, I'm obsessed with fabulous, gorgeous, hand dyed fabrics. What can I say. I do, however, think I may be nearing the end of this obsessive streak, for now anyway. Here is the latest two-color gradation. Turquoise and amethyst. Another winner in my book.


Below are my updated color charts showing all the two-color gradations I've done to date. I can fit seven gradation sets on each page and I have one more set to make to finish the second page. I think I will do that one more and then take a break. I have other things I need to concentrate on and I think that 14 sets of fabulous fabrics will keep me very busy over winter among other things.


Remember the pink and cream quilt? Well here's a sneak peek at it's progress.

Fabric and Flowers

I made some new PhotoEZ screens this past week. Some were more successful than others. This first photo shows a piece of fabric that I've used my screens on. There is one design on this piece that I used a purchased stencil and it is the darker turquoise circle shapes.


Here is one of my latest hand dyed gradations. The most recent that I dyed is now drying and perhaps I can show that one tomorrow. This color set was made with Chinese red and chartreuse.


While taking a stroll around our property recently, I spotted this sneaky character growing. My husband is always cursing at these as they are considered noxious weeds here. I find them to be very interesting and grabbed the chance to photograph it before it gets pulled.


This year I planted a new clematis plant. I've wanted a white clematis for a while now and finally got one. Here is the very first bloom. Gorgeous! There is one more color I would like to have some day in a clematis and that would be a deep red.

Lettering School

I have always been a huge fan of fancy lettering and such and just never felt like I was any good at it. I always found myself disappointed with any attempts to add a word or phrase or quote to my art. Well when I saw that Martha Lever was teaching an online class on fun calligraphy style techniques, I signed right up.

The class started this past week and I've been practicing every day with the writing style. This is so much fun and Martha has such a laid back, easy going teaching technique. You can't help but have a blast.

So here is one of my practice sheets. At this point I'm basically writing the letters in the way Martha has taught us. In time and with more and more practice I will probably (hopefully) take the letters in my own direction or style.


The next photo is my brave attempt to add some lettering to an artwork that I have had on my painting desk for a few weeks. I did try and add a little of my own flair to these letters. I practiced this quote for I don't know how many times before I felt I was ready to put it on the canvas. And even then I think I held the pen poised over the canvas for so long because I was afraid. Afraid I'd ruin the artwork. Once I started and got going, I was having fun and I should really loosen up and if a mistake happens, well paste something over it I guess.


Happy Weekend!

Something New

So I had to try my hand at something new. Just couldn't resist. WEAVING!


You might remember about a year ago I got started with hand spinning my own yarns. Well I have so many lovely hand spun yarns in small amounts (not enough to really make sizeable somethings with) so I though that weaving with them might be just the ticket. Like I didn't have enough tools and gadgets around here. So my first weaving trial (above) was just using some of my purchased novelty yarns. You can see I started out at the bottom just going back and forth the full width. Well I got gutsy later on and decided to try a design, the heart. The heart is centered on the warp threads but you can't tell that because the beginner that I am, I was pulling my yarns too tight and the right side of the weaving looks tighter or smaller in width. Oh well, I'm a beginner, right?

Oh here's something else that's new. A new technique for surface design on fabric. Well new for me anyway. This is a flour paste resist method that I've been wanting to try for ages and I came across the technique recently while browsing through some of my books/magazines. So I decided now is the time to do it. I think it was a fun technique and one I will play with some more. In the photo below, I applied black Dye-Na-Flow starting on the left side and soon ran out. I didn't have much left in my bottle to begin with. So I took some black textile paint and watered it down to the same Dye-Na-Flow consistency. The textile paint area is the right half. I think I like that side better as the Dye-Na-Flow side seems to have seeped more into the fabric and blurred the web-like lines more.


And I couldn't write a blog post without showing my lastest two-color gradation. This is chartreuse and turquoise. Mmmm yummy!


REMINDER: If you aren't getting the Two Creative Studios newsletter, you may miss out on our fabulous summer give away. Click the link to read all about the prizes and how to earn more chances at winning.

Quilted - Dyed - Bundled

I finished the free-motion quilting on my pink and cream quilt this week. It's now been washed and dried and I'm just loving all that texture. Now it is ready for the next phase.


Here are my latest two-color gradations. I really, really, really, love how these two groups turned out. The top group is deep yellow and amethyst. The bottom group is amethyst and chartreuse.


I've bundled up all my two-color gradations so that they don't get separated during storage. I want to keep the color groups together so that I can use each group when making a quilt. Don't they look great all bundled up and stored together?


And I also updated my charts for these color groups.


Hope you are having an enjoyable weekend!

Ho Hum, Another One

Here's the latest hand dyed set. This is brilliant blue and orange. I did turquoise and orange a few days ago and I like that combo much more than this one. Are you getting tired of these yet?

Preferences

Here's my latest set of hand dyes and threads. This is fuchsia and grape. Love it! They are resting on my completely pieced together pink and cream quilt background. On to making a sandwich. Quilt sandwich silly! Not peanut butter and jelly.


Auntie Jude asked me a question that I thought interesting.

Do you prefer designing or executing the design more?

After giving this a little thought, I think I have to say....it depends.

• I tend to get bored with piecing fabrics together, so that part of the process I usually don't prefer.
  
• I really enjoy designing projects, the sketching/drawing part is fun for me.
  
• I enjoy painting, so surface design is fun for me.
  
• I enjoy free motion stitching, but don't enjoy struggling with larger quilts on my short arm.
• I'm not totally crazy about putting binding or hanging sleeves on.
  
• I really, really enjoy looking at the end result, especially if it's successful.

How about you? How would you answer this question?

Pink Monday

I spent most of the day today working on a new quilt background.



I was hoping to have it all pieced together and sandwiched, but I just didn't get that far. Oh well.

Have you heard about the SAQA Benefit Auction 2009? It will be held in September and SAQA members can donate a 12" x 12" quilt if they so choose. The donating deadline has come and gone, so if you didn't donate this year, perhaps you'll consider donating next year if you are a SAQA member. Well I chose to donate a quilt this year. I donated a quilt last year too, my first time to do so.

The SAQA folks have been busy getting photos of the quilts up on the website in recent days and at this point I'm not sure if they are totally updated. But you can still take a look at what is currently there. I must tell you, there are bunches of fabulous art quilts. You can see them here. My quilt is on page 5. Maybe you'll see a quilt that you want to bid on in September. Here's a little more information about this auction.

Beautiful Color

I'm not sure exactly when in my life color became such an exciting thing to me. I've enjoyed crafting for as long as I can remember, but I don't recall color being an important factor way back then.

These days just looking at colors and color combinations can give me such pleasure. It certainly is candy to my eyes. I think this color enjoyment comes from not only working in fabrics and paints, but the age I'm at. I think as we get older, we enjoy more simple things. Okay, maybe not all of us.

Anyway, I had wanted to share my newest hand dyes with you yesterday, but obviously that didn't happen. So better late than never right?

I was able to sneak in another two color gradation besides the two I spoke of in my earlier post. So I have three new gradation groups to show you.


The color groups in the photo above are: top - golden yellow to grape, middle - orange to grape, and bottom - orange to turquoise. In all the groups, the fabric that is on the left side is the results of using the remaining dye at the end of the gradation mixing.

I mentioned in my previous post that the two color groups using grape were similar in color results. Well I said that when they were still wet in the dye buckets and they really did look close. But now they certainly don't. I love how the perle cotton dyed up as well and doesn't it look great with it's matching fabric?


I also have some exciting news. I received notice yesterday that my quilt Waiting has been accepted into the Blurred Boundaries exhibit, which is an exhibit that is part of the Fabrications Retreat. More information can be found here.

Woo Hoo Friday!

You know, I still get excited about Fridays, even though I'm a stay-at-home all the time person. I consider myself fortunate, lucky, blessed, etc., that I am able to be at home full time and play art. I applaud all of you who work full time or part time and still are able to crank out some amazing art work.

Here is where I am at with this painted fabric. This started out white. I added the background colors and then have added some more designs with screen printing, stenciling and stamping. I haven't yet decided if I'm done with it or if I'll add anything more. Best to let it percolate for a day or so.


Remember the sponge I showed you in the previous post? Well here is how it looks once used as a stamp. This is the light colored sponge, that had more air space or texture holes in it. I cut a chunk of the sponge from the main sponge so that my sponged design was not so large. I really like how it looks.


And here is the coordinating paper towel to complete the ensemble. I always like to keep a paper towel close at hand when painting because it works so well for cleaning the paintbrush and using up excess paint. And in the end I can use it for art making too. Double bonus!


Here is a sneak peek at one group of my hand dyes that are soaking in the sink. I did two groups of 2-color gradations, one group was golden yellow and grape and the other group was orange and grape. They are both very similar in the color results, with small variations between the two groups. I saw that Vicki had created these color gradations a while back and just drooled over the colors in these gradations...so I had to create some of my own. I'll show the completed fabrics tomorrow along with their matching perle cotton threads.


This is another Etsy purchase I made recently. This is a clay tile with a small art quilt attached. I just loved it and had to add it to my collection. I bought this from Clay n Fiber. She does such lovely clay work.


In other news, Two Creative Studios (Sue and I) are celebrating summer with a fabulous summer give away. If you want to participate here's what you need to do. Sign up for our Two Creative Studios newsletter. That's it! If you already receive it, well then, you are all set. But you can earn more chances to win. Visit this page to learn how and to see what the fabulous prizes are. Yes, that was a plural "prizes".

Also, I just wanted to pass on this reminder...my Faces on Fabric online class will begin on August 24. Lots of time to sign up yet if you are thinking about joining the class this round. Click here for more information.

Dye Happy

I'm so happy that I'm dyeing fabrics again. I was delayed in getting back to this task because I had run out of pfd fabric and also I decided to order some bulk perle cotton to dye along with the fabric. The perle cotton finally arrived yesterday, so I'm now back in business. Well not really, cuz all these luscious dyed fabrics and threads are for me. Here are my ready-to-dye goods:


I currently have 14 half yards of fabric along with threads batching away in dye buckets. I will let them batch overnight and start rinsing tomorrow.

I also am playing with fabric painting lately. Don't have any of that to show you just yet, but the other day I was at one of those oddball stores (one that I just don't get to often) and found a four pack of sponges. Two of the sponges were like the purple one on the right, you know, the normal kind of sponge. But the other two were a little different and they caught my eye. I think they may be fun to stamp with, we'll see.


Yesterday I played with making screens for screen printing again. The first time I did this I was using designs that I had scanned into my printer and printed out onto paper. This time I played with drawing directly onto paper with a Sharpie. It worked very well. I did a sample first just to see if it was going to work and that is the first design you see here that I actually tried on fabric.


Here is the screen I made. This is a 8.5" x 11" size, and I did these with the Sharpie marker too. X's and O's! I have one sheet of the screen making material left and I have designs all ready, but it's too windy today to make them.


Are you still with me? Whew! This is getting to be a long post. The other day I happened along a project that I've been working on now for oh, a bajillion years I think. So I pulled it out and slapped it up on the design wall. There are 10 blocks that are ready as you can see, although I haven't pieced the arcs and the centers together yet. This is a Karen Stone pattern and the pattern has 25 blocks in it. I have all the block centers done, now to work on the remaining arcs. The slow part! Paper piecing! I am hoping to, challenging myself to, daring to, get a few arcs done each week. I'm not going to pinpoint a specific number or else I'll get frustrated if I don't meet it. But now that I've declared that I am going to do this to all of you, well, I'm hoping that I'll feel obligated.


And just look at this lovely ATC/ACEO. I purchased this from an Etsy seller, Sojourn Quilts. I just love the simplicity of this small work of art and decided I just had to have it.

Making Screens

A month or two ago (or it could even be longer, that's how good my memory works), I purchased a new-to-me product to make my own screens for screen printing. Here is where and what I bought: EZ Screen Print.

So today I finally got the product out and created a screen. I realized that I made a mistake and only ordered the refill sheets and not the starter kit, which includes an exposure frame. Well after reading the directions and the description of what the exposure frame is, I fashioned my own out of stiff cardboard, plexiglass, black felt, and clips.

I created four hand drawn designs and scanned them into my computer. I played with them in Photoshop and darkened the lines and printed. I followed the directions given on the package and I think I got great results. I used one sheet of the screen print material and did four designs on it. I have cut the four designs apart and think I will frame them with some duct tape or something, just so I have a handle to hold while printing.

Below are my results. This first one I repeated several times and I sort of like how some of the prints weren't perfect, almost like deconstructed printing, sort of.





I wanted to try mixing some of my black textile paint with some sodium alginate thickener to see if I could extend the paint. Well I had some of the thickener sitting all mixed up on my shelf, for oh maybe a month or two (again, not exactly sure with my memory), anyway, the moral of the story: Don't sniff the old thickened paste...oh my!!! I think I burned the hairs right out of my nose. It had a strong ammonia smell. I'm guessing I stored it too long. Down the drain it went. Just a word of caution for any of you who may have some of this stuff sitting on your shelf.

Birdie Quilt

I finished the little birdie quilt that I was working on.


I'm happy with this one. I didn't get a very good photo of it, but I'm feeling lazy today and didn't want to hassle with a time consuming photo shoot.

Other things I've done today...rearrange some of the fabric on my shelves to get all my IDyed fabrics in one area alongside all the other hand dyes. I'm starting to run out of shelf space where I keep all my fabrics. Hmmmm, I wonder if I can lift those ceiling tiles and put some up there. So now I'm asking myself, "Why am I planning to dye some more fabric?"

Yesterday I had to toss some old jars of textile paint into the trash. A few of them I've had for quite a while and when I opened them they smelled oh so awful and some even had moldy dark spots growing. I guess that should teach me something huh? Start painting more, maybe?