"Peggy's Leaves" Quilting

I finished quilting Peggy's Leaves quilt, she made it with her hand dyed fabric from our workshops. I used various colors of rayon thread to put veins in the leaves, then a variegated primary colors rayon in the background with a small wandering leaf pattern. I added a fern pattern around the border.

Polyester-Marble wrapping

I tried a technique that I found on the blog andthenwesetitonfire.blogspot.com You wrap in a shibori technique, polyester or chiffon/synthetic fabrics around marbles, buttons, or rocks. Then boil it for 15-30 minutes, and then put in ice water to cool, unwrapped the texture from the tying stays permanently in the fabric. This really looked cool on their blog, check out their site for great pics and more detailed how to. I started with an assortment of chiffon scarves, tied the first one with large flat marbles, and boiled, etc...

Several of the large glass marbles did break when I unwrapped the scarf. So I used regular marbles for the next one, they tied up like a bunch of grapes. It was a narrow scarf with a marble pattern on it and I tied both ends. I was very disappointed with the results. The first scarf, all that happened was the dye came out and I lost all the pattern. No texture at all. The second one I boiled longer and let cool and dry completely before I unwrapped it. It had more texture and a white ring where the dye came out, but not at all like the blog site. The only trouble shooting I can do is try tying them tighter, boil the full 30 minutes, or try a different fabric.

Making Leaves

Several of our Fyber Cafe ladies attended a leaf making workshop for Sherry and Kay. Sherry's fiber group in Ketchican, Alaska has a grant to make a 17 foot fiber tree in the children's section of the new public library. They need thousands of leaves, so we spent the day painting and stamping on paper and layering with a stem and fabric backing.

They still need to be trimmed and coated with gloss medium, Sherry had samples of finished leaves for us to admire. We had a wonderful lunch and it was fun to make a mess with paints and help a wonderful cause.

The White Album

As we are getting ready to put our Beatles Challenge pieces in the Sutherlin Library, an idea popped into my head. To stitch white on white, a picture of the four Beatles, and call it the white album. My supervisor at work, is a big Beatles fan and had several posters and pictures in her office. So I borrowed one that is a black and white silhouette style, traced it onto tracing paper and then onto white fabric. I used a red, heat disappearing pen to draw the pic, and free motion machine quilted it. I added lyrics and song titles around each head to add texture and fill in areas. It looked really strange with the red markings, and I was worried they would not come off. I wish I had taken a picture with the ink still on it. A quick hit with the hot iron and it instantly disappeared!! WOW, Magic!! I got the binding on and finished the sleeve, and had the whole thing finished in about 1 1/2 hours. The black and white picture is really good contrast and you can see how it really looks like them, not so much the outline only. It was difficult to photograph the white on white, I set it on my ironing board and put a small lamp, low so it was table level, casting as much shadow as possible. I had to lighten/whiten it up in photoshop cause it looked all creamy colored, like dark muslin.

We got quiet a few more pieces done for the challenge, so it will make a nice display at the library.

Linoleum Block Stamps

I started with a photograph of a crow on a branch, and was working on photo transfer, using gel medium. I transferred to a piece of paper for my sketchbook, and it came out very clear, but to finish it off, I wanted to make a crow stamp. So I got out my linoleum blocks and carving tools, and used an image from my gelli print masks. The carving went well and I made a second image on the back of the linoleum. It is so thick, it is a waste not to make the stamps two sided. The second image was traced from one of my photographs. I made several prints on paper to check them out, if I use them on fabric I will use black paint instead of ink.

More Ice Dyeing

Several ladies from Fyber Cafe came over to do some more ice dyeing, as they missed the workshop. We did silk scarves and a shawl, silk yarn, cotton muslin, and almost a kitten.

The pinks are all mine, I put a bunch of scraps together in one basket, so they came out similar, I used fuchsia, red, and burgundy dye. My cheesecloth came out peach, and I got one muslin with bronze dye, that came out a rich salmon color. I tried some silk hankies, in plastic strawberry baskets, but now I don't know what to do with them. They are not handkerchiefs they are layers of silk fiber for spinning. For more info see Fybercafe.blogspot.com there are more photos posted.

Sketching Blog

After posting two blogs on my recent sketches I decided I would start yet another blog. amysartjournal.blogspot.com it took me several days to scan in my 50+ sketches and get them posted. I have always had a notebook in my purse, for quilt ideas, quilting patterns, sketches, to do lists, etc... But it was lined paper and ball point pen. After finding several blogs on sketching, and getting the book "the Artists Journal Workbook" by Cathy Johnson, I decided I wanted to practice my drawing skills, and try to add a little color to my notebook. I do mostly original designs in my art quilts, and have been trying to use my photographs in my recent quilts, so sketching patterns is important, composition, balance, proportion, all the "BASICS" of good design. I think regular sketching will help me with all the basics. I can see improvement already in my drawing skills, and I'm getting better with the watercolor paints. So I will leave this blog to my art quilting, and if you want to check out my sketches go to the other blog. Check out our group blog for "Fyber Cafe" a textile arts group, here in Roseburg, Oregon. at-- Fybercafe.blogspot.com Also check out pattsart.blogspot.com to see how painted fabric can make wonderful quilts. Her paintings, classes & student work, and "Route 66" project are awesome.