Procrastination

I know, I know. I said I was headed for the ironing board, but as I scrolled through my old posts I realized I had no photos of my quilts up. Here is what I found on the computer. Will have to dig out the CD's for more later. Most of these are samples for classes I have given.


Piece includes dimensional paint, Shivas, rusted fabrics, hand dyed fabrics and a fiber binding.

Gelatin plate prints, hand dyes and fiber binding.

Silk and cotton hand dyed, rusted and beaded.

Painted commercial fabric, hand dyed scrim and hand dyed silk carrier rods. Some beading.

Clutch made from a sample of velvet. Silk papers, painted misty fuse, stamped, and free motion quilting.


2007 Christmas cards. Silly me mailed all of them before getting a picture of the finished piece.

Just playing around. paper pieced, drafted by me. Machine appliqued.

Wood nymph. She was a gift for a friend battling cancer.

Amish nine patch. One of the few traditional quilts I've done. I had a pile of hand dyed rems lying around. It sounded like a good idea at the time. It really is straighter than the picture shows.

Autumn leaves. Hand painted using thickend dyes. Thread painted detail.



Two more clutches from the above mentioned cloth. It was a large piece.

Time flies

Where does all the time go? I have been busy, but that's no excuse for slacking off. The first 5 pictures are some of the things I've been busy creating. The first is discharged black kona.

220 thread count sateen using a modified low water immersion.

200 thread count cotton bound resist dye.

Another bound resist. Trying to decide if this one is finished, or if it needs another layer.


The following are some bundles I put together. I have a huge tote full of bits and pieces of these fabrics. It was overflowing, so decided to share the wealth. These plus many more are now up on my eBay store looking for new homes. Have a look.

http://stores.ebay.com/Badger-Canyon-Hand-Dyes_W0QQsspagenameZMEQ3aFQ3aSTQQtZkm

Back to the ironing board and camera. I want to go shopping at Lowes today. I'm looking for new bound resist stuff.

White Christmas?

Oh how pretty. This is what greeted me this morning around 7:00. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!


There won't be any dinning on the patio tonight. Can you see the snow falling?


Nice! No need to decorate outside if this keeps up.

Thinking out loud

Follow along if you like while I ramble through some ideas bouncing around in my head.

I am contemplating doing a different surface design technique a week. Kind of patterned after Jeanne Williamson's quilt a week idea. Some of the techniques I would explore would include:

Resists, both dye and paint.

Soy wax screen printing resist.
Potato dextrin.
Flour.
Wax paper.
Gel medium.
Gel glue.

Whole cloth dye painted and textile painted quilts.

Foiling

Use of unusual items both as tools and elements in a quilt. These could include soft metals, screening, foil, plastic netting, plastic fencing, rusted items, paper, fibers, roving, fusible web, plastic bags, feathers, tyvek, heat sensitive fabrics.

I believe a week will be sufficient time to explore most of these ideas. If I find a particular technique that I love the week may not cover it. My main interest is to document through words and pictures my failures and successes.

Stocking Day

The annual stocking making day at the Wink house! Every year a group of my friends get together for a day of sewing, food, some wine and a good time. These are my non sewing friends, so we try to keep it simple. My best friend and I are polar opposites. I lean toward obsessive compulsive, and she leans toward "close enough". Needless to say it usually means a fun filled day.

This is Jami putting the finishing touches on her Asian themed stocking. The girls have to work with whatever fabrics they "shop" for in my stash room. They are really brave about going in there. I'm pretty sure we lost someone last year.

Here I am in my left over dye Tye-dye shirt. I tried to keep the 6500 to myself. I'm more protective of it than I was with my children!


Jami and Chelsey.

Terri picking out her fabrics and trims. We ran out of table space, so the floor always works.

Leanna and her daughter Dotty choosing their fabrics.

Chelsey busy at the 6500.

Chelsey's finished stocking. Pretty nice huh?


Dotty about halfway there.


The finished pieces. Purple one is Chelsey's, maroon paisley belongs to Terri, black Asian is Jami's and the blue velvet is Dotty's. Leanna chose to do a table runner this year. As you can see the Asian theme was popular.

Class sample

This is one of the two patterns I will be teaching at one of the local quilt shops. The main elements are hand dyes silk roving and organza. I trapped some scraps of fiber between the two. It is free motion quilted to hold the layers together. This is a great bag for embellishing as the base is felt. Can be beaded easily prior to lining.

Domestic stuff

Nothing exciting going on today. I finished my fabric Christmas cards today. Now need to sit down and address them. I also managed to finish the stockings for the grand-babies. Of course I forgot to get a picture. No I am not going to open the boxes I spent a half hour packing to take one either.

I plan to get a few more done for other family members, so will keep the camera handy. I love this time of year, but am already tired of rushing around. I hate to post without a pic, so here's one of our tree. Yeah, it's a monster. It takes a full week to set up and decorate, so we always have it up by the weekend after Thanksgiving. Had to get a head start this year as we will be out of town the last week of Nov.

Projects, Ideas & Inspiration

Dextrin resist pieces rinsed, washed, pressed and ready to ship. The first is the black. I did find the black dye didn't develop as well as I wanted due to garage temp below 70. The brown piece developed better, but still shifted slightly to green for the same reason.


This is the pattern I sketched for my Painted Hills piece. The colors in these hills located just outside John Day Oregon is very close to what I saw while in Nevada.


Photo of the hills. Yes they really are this colorful.
First step of quilt finished. Many pieces of fabric fused using Misty Fuse. I applied Oil sticks to create shadows and depth. These will cure for several days before I heat set them. I plan to thread paint more detail before backing and FMQ.

Progress

Here is what I've been up to the last few days. The first two photos show the front side of the dextrin resist batching. Gorgeous reddish browns, and one in black.



These four show the backside prior to rinsing. Love the crackled, lacy effect.







A few posts ago I have a photo of some rocks I picked up on my last trip to Nevada. We drove to Virginia City from Reno one afternoon. The hillsides where blazing with color from these beautiful rocks. My wonderful husband was very patient about stopping several times so I could bring a few home. Below are the fabrics I dyed up trying to come as close as possible to the changing tones. I think I came pretty close. I have one more piece in dye. Hubby pointed out the "purplish" tones in the far right stone. Good eye!

Now I just have to design a quilt around these. I keep seeing long narrow 3 panels. Can't decide if I will piece this or tear the fabrics and fuse in place. Will have to do a few samples.