Learning new things

Since January I've been taking a Master Gardeners class,  there are just two weeks left and I'm amazed at how much I've learned. Now I have to get outside and start putting what I've learned into action, if only the weather would cooperate. I think I'm a fair weather gardener. I will have to put in thirty hours of volunteer time so that should get me moving.

This past week I started an online Monotype class with Linda Germain. We started the week by making a 9" x 13" gel plate, gathering tools, making stencils and learning how to work with the inks and brayer. I made regular gel plates many years ago and have most recently been playing with a Gelliarts plate, but this is the first time I've made a plate with glycerin as one of the ingredients. My big learning curve is going to be the inks and brayer. I've always considered myself brayer challenged but have been doing better with textile paints and the gelliarts plate. In this class we are using speedball block printing inks and I'm feeling brayer challenged again, I'm sure with enough practice and re-watching the class videos I'll get the hang of it. We are working on paper, but already I can see some wonderful possibilities for prints on fabric. Here are some of my first prints.

So far this one is my favorite.

On Friday I did my final guest blogging post over at ...And then we set it on fire. This time I wrote about my weekly stitching.

The Weekly Leaf
        This week I did not print a leaf, instead I took a piece of hand dyed fabric and stitched a leaf shape with french knots and then added the veins with stem stitch. I used one my favorite leaf resource books.

Drew a leaf the correct size to use for guidance.

 Then added stitches.
Week #13

Daily stitching updates.
Line Dance #84 - #89

The Daily Paper #12 - #17

Some close ups.

linked to "Off the Wall Friday"

Settling in

I'm starting to settle in with my new daily stitching project, seems to have taken me longer than usual but I think it's because it's taking me longer to get it all together. With my previous projects I had all the fabric cut and ready to go when I started. This time I have to fuse a piece of the paper to my pre cut square and it's been a rather slow process, but I do have enough done for the next three months.
My pile of paper has it's own container now.

The pieces that are ready to use have another container.

I have two piles going, one that is a four inch square of the paper towel fused to a piece of flannel, the other is odd shapes fused to a four inch square of white cotton. The odd shapes are the ones that are taking the most time, getting that odd little piece of fusible in the right spot takes some patience. I've also included some odd pieces of hand made paper and some tea bag paper.

I was also contemplating what to name this project. Sandy Snowden gave me a couple good suggestions, paper chase and paper days, but I think I've settled in on The Daily Paper.

The Daily Paper #5 - #11

Line Dance #77 - #83

This weeks leaf is another one that has been stenciled with paintstiks.

The Weekly Leaf #12

Here's a shot of all twelve.

Linked to "Off the Wall Friday"

A new start

On Friday I started  a new daily stitching project and I'm still working it out. I knew that I wanted to incorporate some of the paper collections that I have sitting around here, my dilemma was which ones and how. I've settled on using the pile of very colorful paper towels that had been used to clean up after dying fabric. This is most of the pile.

 My next dilemma was how to use them. I started by tearing some pieces up and fusing them to some white fabric, then adding stitching. I don't have enough of the white fabric (a cotton sheeting) for the whole year so I thought I'd add in some of the leftover background pieces form my 365 Red Circles. While stitching on day two I decided that I would like some of the squares to be all paper. I cut some 4" shares out of the paper towels and fused them to a light weight muslin and discarded the idea of using leftovers from a previous project. So here's the first four days worth, the picture was taken this morning in terrible light.

This is where I am with it now, it may change again, but it's starting to feel comfortable. The end product will be very colorful. Now I need a name for it, I'm think Paper Trail, but am open to suggestions.

Line Dance #74 - #76

The weekly leaf.
This week the leaf has been stenciled with paintstiks and a stencil from Cedar Canyon Textiles .

Week #11

Linked to "Off the Wall Friday"

Indigo and Rust finished

Today is my birthday which means yesterday I finished "Indigo and Rust" and today I start a new project.

Indigo and Rust #362 - #365

And the finished piece.

"Indigo and Rust"

3/14/13 to 3/13/14

This week I also finished knitting my yearly pair of socks.

Daily stitching

Line Dance #69 - #73

Next post I'll tell you about my new stitching project, I think I'm still figuring it out, but I do have one stitched for today.

I'm also the guest blogger on And then we set it on fire blog today. Some wonderful posts about hand stitching, all month long, so go check it out.

Linked to "Off the Wall Friday"

Stenciled Leaf Quilt Done

The stenciled leaf quilt that I've been working on sporadicly is finally finished. I quilted it and then never got around to trimming it and putting the binding on, well now I have.

Leaves, 60" x 45"

This weekend I've been working on and finished a poster for my master gardeners class I'm taking. Everyone in the class has to do a poster and then a presentation of it this coming week. We could choose any topic, I chose edible flowers. Looks a bit amateurish to me, but it's done. Don told me that it looked great, so I'll trust him.

The Weekly Leaf, #10

This week I used the Gelli plate again, along with some masks(the cut out part of a stencil) that are from Green Pepper Press

Here's the first print, taken with the masks on the plate.

The second print, taken with the mask removed from the plate.

The finished piece.

Daily Stitching Projects

Indigo and Rust #356 - #361

Line Dance #63 - #68

Friends

 Yesterday my friends Lisa and Kathleen came over and spent several hours sharing and eating. This is the first time we have been able to get together this year so we had lots to share. They are both incredible artists and had wonderful new work to show. I always feel so inspired after spending time with them.

Today I spent the afternoon with another group of friends, we all met at Curves several years ago. We used to share and do show and tell early in the morning at Curves. Then our local Curves closed, so we've been getting together once a month so that we could share what we've been doing. There are five of us, we take turns hosting and we all really look forward to our get togethers - at least I know I do.

I feel so fortunate to have all these women in my life, they have definitely enriched it. Thank you.

This month I will be doing some guest posts on the "and then we set it on fire" blog.  Beata is a regular on the blog and has invited several of us to join her this month to explore hand stitching. My posts will be on the 14th and the 28th, but be sure to check out the blog all month long.

The Weekly Leaf #9

This week I used a hand carved stamp.

Daily Stitching

Indigo and Rust #349 - #355, only ten more to go.

Line dance #56 & #57

The first three rows

#58- #62

Monthly project
Mom and Me #3

Linked to "Off the Wall Friday"