Notes from Studio B

Sixty five days to 65, day #19

2012-01-27T12:20:00.002-07:00

3" square, french knots, I really like this one!

Sixty five days to 65, day #18

2012-01-26T18:58:00.002-07:00

6" square, appliqued circle, embrodery

Sixty five days to 65, day #17

2012-01-25T18:17:00.003-07:00

3" square , fused silk circle and beads

My sewing machine got to come home today! I'll be busy tomorrow.

Sixty five days to 65, day #16

2012-01-24T13:25:00.002-07:00

3" square, a very imperfect appliqued circle, embroidery stitches

Sixty five days to 65, day #15

2012-01-23T15:30:00.002-07:00

6" square, appliqued circle, embroidery

Sixty five days to 65, day #14

2012-01-22T15:41:00.002-07:00

3" square, appliquéd circle, beads

All seven from this past week.

Sixty five days to 65, day #13

2012-01-21T16:36:00.002-07:00

9"square, appliqued silk noil circle, embroidery

Sixty five days to 65, day #12

2012-01-20T14:36:00.002-07:00

3" square, chain stitch embroidery

Sixty five days to 65, day #11

2012-01-19T15:30:00.003-07:00

6"square, appliqued circles, buttonhole stitch and beads

Sixty five days to 65, day #10

2012-01-18T15:34:00.002-07:00

3" square, fly stitch and french knots

Sixty five days to 65, day #9

2012-01-17T16:51:00.003-07:00

3" square, appliqued circle, buttonhole stitch

Sixty five days to 65, day #8

2012-01-16T15:43:00.002-07:00

6" square, appliquéd silk circle, pearl cotton stitching

One project moving forward and one stalled

2012-01-16T12:02:00.002-07:00

My "Sixty five days to 65" project is moving right along and I'm really enjoying working on each piece. I start each one with a general idea of what I'm going to do and so far none of them have turned out like my original idea. Each one has been turning into it's own little composition, I'm just going with the flow. This is how the first seven look together, when I post them individually they all look the same size, as you can see, they aren't.

This is the start of today's.

My gigantic circle project is temporarily on hold - my sewing machine decided it was tired of what I was doing and is making some very disturbing noises. The noise started at 4:30 on Sat. afternoon, my repair guy is 1 1/2 hours away and works 10 -5 Tue - Sat. So tomorrow I'll take it in to Boise and hope that he can get it fixed soon. I have the background almost three quarters done, but it will just have to sit and wait till the machine is better.

Sixty five days to 65, day #7

2012-01-15T18:57:00.002-07:00

9" square, appliqued circle, embroidery

Sixty five days to 65, day #6

2012-01-14T20:59:00.002-07:00

9" square, appliqued circle, blanket stitch and french knots

Sixty five days to 65, day #5

2012-01-13T16:58:00.002-07:00

6' square, running stitch and stem stitch

Sixty five days to 65, day #4

2012-01-12T16:58:00.001-07:00

3" square, appliqued circle, lazy daisy embroidery stitches in pearl cotton and rayon.

Sixty five days to 65, day #3

2012-01-11T18:55:00.002-07:00

6" square, running stitch in pearl cotton

Sixty five days to 65, day #2

2012-01-10T16:33:00.002-07:00

6" square, appliqued circle and running stitch circles

Sixty five days to 65, day #1

2012-01-09T16:50:00.002-07:00

I had a busy day today so it's just a 3" square with a red silk circle and blanket stitch.

I'm ready to start!

2012-01-08T16:20:00.002-07:00

Tomorrow will be the first day of my "Sixty five days to 65" project. I've got squares cut, more than I'll need, some circles cut and all my threads and beads together.

I'll be appliqueing and/or embroidering a circle on each of the squares, one each day. I've cut three sizes of squares, 9", 6" and 3" so that I can play around with them and fit them all together at the end. I'll try and post daily so that you can see what I've done, plus I'll feel obligated to actually do it!

I've done one more sample for my big circle - this one is medium size, 41"sq.

New projects

2011-12-31T10:19:00.003-07:00

I've had an idea in my head for awhile and have made some samples, this week I jumped in and started a big project. The first three images are of my samples. I'm collaging fabric onto batting, heavily stitching it, washing it and then putting a big circle of paint on top. The first picture is a close up of the white sample.

The next is the black sample.

This is the two samples, both are about 16" square.

My plan is to make a white background about 80" square. I've decided to do it in quarters and then before washing, stitch the quarters together. I'm working on the first quarter and have already gone thru about a thousand yards of thread, and I think it still needs more stitching. It's a good thing that Joann's has thread 50% off - I'm stocking up! This is part of what I'm currently stitching.

My other project will start January 9, but I'm getting everything together so I'll be ready. I'm going to be 65 on the 14th of March, so I'm doing an appliqued and/or embroidered circle for the 65 days leading up to my birthday. This is the start of my collection of materials to use.

I'll be cutting out squares in three different sizes, 9",6" and 3", and each day I will do a circle on one of the squares. Then at the end I will assemble them into a quilt. Today I was noticing my bead collection so I may be adding beads also. I'm only using materials that I already have and I plan on each circle being different. I also plan on posting each one here as I do them. So look forward to Sixty five days to 65.

I'd like to wish everyone a very Happy New Year and thanks for stopping by.

A new camera

2011-12-27T13:17:00.002-07:00

This is the camera that I've been using for the past 5 years, daily for the past 2+ years.

It has been a wonderful camera, small so that I can carry it everywhere and until a few days before Christmas, very reliable. But it's getting a bit worn from being carried around all the time(the bottom left corner should read Stylus 740) and I wanted more zoom. So I asked for a new one for Christmas, one with more zoom but still small enough to carry around. My little Olympus must have sensed it was being replaced because a few days before Christmas it started taking psychedelic pictures.

While I loved the special effects I got - even my office looks good under a psychedelic influence, I really need a camera to take ordinary pictures. After I got my new one, the old one settled down and is now taking normal pictures. It even took a picture of it's replacement. Meet my new Nikon coolpix s9100.

It's still small enough to carry around and has lots of zoom - I'm in love. Santa did very well.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T07:16:00.000-07:00

Merry Christmas everyone!

Rubbing Plate Roundup

2011-12-24T10:11:00.002-07:00

Earlier this year Shelley Stokes, purveyor of all things paintstik related, asked if anyone had an unusual use for rubbing plates. She was writing a book about using rubbing plates which are normally used with paintstiks to create rubbings on fabric. I've used rubbing plates to add texture to a screen full of thickened dye when I do deconstructive/breakdown screen printing. I did some samples for her, took a few pictures, wrote up how I did it and sent it off to her. She included it in the book along with several other very interesting techniques. There are twelve different techniques included in the book, some of the others uses are, texturing clay, foil applications, embossing metal, flexible acrylic sculptures gelatin prints and paper castings.

My copy of the book arrived a few days ago, along with some goodies that Shelly very generously provided to the contributors of the book. I spent an evening reading through all the different ways to use the rubbing plates and now I'm ready to play!
Shelley has a talent for writing and illustrating very clear directions. I always recommended her first book "Paintstiks on Fabric" when I was vending and doing demos, it was how I learned to use paintstiks. I highly recommend this book also, not because I'm a contributer, but because it shows so many great ways to use those rubbing plates that I have stacked up!

You can get the book here.

My wrist and shoulder are healing, I'm no longer wearing the brace, but still have to be careful of what I do. I did get my Christmas postcards made. I did a very simple wreath using a thermofax screen of circles, stitching and then an added stamp of a bow.

A creative repurpose

2011-12-09T10:43:00.003-07:00

I found out yesterday that I've also done a bit of muscle and ligament damage to my left shoulder when I fell. Apparently since I was walking very fast when I fell the velocity of the fall jammed my arm bone and shoulder causing the damage. I was given some exercises to do to regain full motion of the arm. One of the exercises uses a 5 lb. weight, I don't have any weights so went looking thru the house to find a substitute. The perfect substitute was in my studio on a windowsill.

I bought this iron at a yard sale a few years ago. The ball holds kerosine and there is a burner in the body of the iron to heat the sole plate. It's very rusted and unusable until now! The handle is easy for me to grip with the brace on my wrist and it weighs 4.75 lbs. , close enough for me.

A slight bump in my plans

2011-12-07T15:34:00.002-07:00

Thats my left wrist in that big black contraption. Yesterday I fell while taking my morning walk, tripping over the sidewalk in the dark. The wrist is not broken just bent, bruised, swollen and sprained. Luckily it was very cold out and I had on several layers of clothes to pad my fall. I was more concerned about my knee and right hand as I walked home, but knew I had a problem when I got home and couldn't open the door with my left hand. The rest of me is a bit sore today but okay.

I'm discovering all the things I can't do, like finish the fingerless gloves I was knitting for the texting teenagers on my Christmas list. Oh well, they may get them late. I have been able to do a bit of hand stitching and a whole lot of reading.

Scrappy Christmas Quilt Top

2011-11-21T10:23:00.002-07:00

The quilt top is all pieced, amazing how quickly it went together after sitting around for over a decade! Of course part of the reason it went together so fast is that sewing is my way of procrastinating. I will have a house full for Thanksgiving weekend and haven't started cleaning or baking or any of the stuff that really needs to be done. I guess I'd better start.

Christmas blocks and more black & white

2011-11-20T15:47:00.003-07:00

When I lived in Reno I was a member of the Truckee Meadows Quilt Guild and every Christmas we did a Christmas block exchange. I participated in the exchange from 1990 to 1999 and tucked the blocks away because I had no idea what to do with a bunch of miss matched blocks. I pulled them out this week and am in the process of putting them together. These are the nine blocks, all of them are 12" finished size.

These are parts that I have been making over the last couple of days to add to the blocks.

I have them about a third of the way done and I promise to show you what I've done with them real soon.

I'm also working on yet another black and white circle idea, this one has a pieced and quilted white background that I then squirted paint on. Here's a peek at it.

Quilting, knitting and sewing

2011-11-11T13:06:00.005-07:00

It's been a few weeks since I've posted so I thought I'd give you a peek at what I've been doing.

Adding hand stitches to a quilted piece

Working on my sweater, that's sleeve #1 almost finished on the needles. the back and front are done.

I've cut up, rearranged, and sewn together several of the mono printed circles I did in March 2010.

And made a dozen gift card wallets for Christmas.

Autumn leaves, red and some stitching

2011-10-23T11:09:00.004-06:00

I really like the changing of the seasons, especially autumn leaves. I pick up leaves on my daily walks and put them in a large book to press them. After they're flat I photo copy them, on paper usually but sometimes also on to fabric. I never use them, just keep them. Here are some from this mornings walk.

This one I picked up because of the wonderful patterning.

Generally it's color that attracts me, especially red. We don't have quite the color of a New England autumn, but we have our fair share of trees that put on a show for me.

Speaking of red, Kathy Loomis and I are doing another photo collaboration for the next 2 weeks. This week the theme was my choice and I chose red. You can check out our pictures all week here and here.

I've also been stitching up more white pieces and dyeing them - here's a couple of the latest ones.

Fiber and dye experiment

2011-10-06T14:30:00.001-06:00

I've been playing with some ideas that involve stitching different fibers and fabrics and then dyeing them with a dye color that I know will split and dye each type of fiber a different color. I also wanted some texture so most of the fabrics were not pre-washed before stitching. I stitched various pieces of silk, cotton and rayon fabrics to cotton batting with both cotton and silk threads, everything was white or off white to start with.

I dyed the piece with golden brown dye (Dharma's #113 procion mx) that I knew would look much redder on the silk. Here's the results. I'm not sure where this experimenting will lead, but I'm quite pleased with the results.

I also finished up the t-shirt quilt for my grand daughter and will be delivering it soon. Don has baked a batch of cookies so he'll have something to deliver also.

Where have I been???

2011-09-20T15:22:00.002-06:00

It has come to my attention that it's been almost a month since I've posted. While I have been busy, I haven't been that busy. Shortly after my last post in August we took a trip to Tacoma with some friends and we stayed at my sons house. The purpose of the trip was to go to the Pacific West Quilt Show (at least it was for the female members of the group). We spent most of an afternoon there and enjoyed wondering around looking at the quilts and vendors. The guys spent the day on a charter boat fishing in the sound. While there we also went to the Tacoma Art museum and the Glass Museum. Here's a couple of pictures that were taken on the Chihuly bridge, a pedestrian bridge that goes over the freeway to the Glass museum.

A few days after returning home from Tacoma we left on another trip, this time to visit friends in Montana. We had a great time relaxing on the ranch and the drives to and from were spectacular. The only down side was the forest fires in the area. In the photo below there is another mountain range lurking behind that veil of smoke.

Since returning from that trip, I put together a slide presentation and talk for the Boise Basin Quilters. I was their guest speaker last Thursday evening. My new presentation is called "From White to Wow", and I show step by step how I dye and print some of my fabric.

My other project has been assembling a t-shirt quilt for a grand daughter who has gone off to college and left a bag of t-shirts from her high school sports activities in a garbage bag marked Grandma Linda. It's ready to be quilted and when finished I'll have to take another trip to deliver it!

The pieces that I last showed on my design wall have been taken down and tucked away. Now I have this pile of silk on my table and have been playing with several different ideas to use them in an abstract fall themed quilt.

A peek at my designs wall

2011-08-24T17:57:00.002-06:00

I'm getting ready to take a little trip and this is what I left in Studio A (the sewing studio) on the design wall.

On the left is a piece that I think may be about ready for quilting, I've been working on it off and on for awhile. The center pieced part is made of scraps of my first years worth of hand dyeing fabrics, from the early 90's, I couldn't part with them and so finally used them. The other two pieces I dyed this week with some leftover dyes just to use them up. I like both of these pieces but have no idea what I'll do with them, something for me to think about while I'm gone.

Idaho Senior Games

2011-08-15T06:41:00.002-06:00

On Saturday my friend Barbara Huck and I went to Boise and participated in the 5k walk at the Idaho Senior Games. I came in first place overall!!! and won a $25 gift card to a running store. We both got gold medals for being first in our age groups, here we are showing off our medals.

That's Barb on the left and me on the right. We plan on doing this every year and since I'm 5 years older we will always be in different age categories. We were both very inspired by the competitors in the 80 -84 age group. Afterward we celebrated by first going to a Quilt shop and then out to lunch. After lunch we met up with Barb's husband Bill, and they went on to compete in the Table Tennis Tournament and they both won medals!

Garden bounty

2011-08-07T13:44:00.002-06:00

I love summer's fresh vegetables and fruit! This is what my garden gave me this morning.

Yesterday a neighbor gave us a dozen ears of fresh corn and a huge bunch of freshly pulled onions and a friend shared blackberries and freshly caught brook trout. I love it all!!

I've been busy in the studio, but don't have much to show. I've made and quilted six small quilts that I've donated to Project Linus and St. Lukes Childrens Cancer Center. I have two more to quilt. The pile below is the six finished quilts, one waiting to be quilted and a quilt on the bottom that needs repair.

Last week I taught a very fun creative group of women my method of pole wrapped shibori,a few other resist techniques and some dye painting. Unfortunately my camera was in the house and I never took a picture!

At the same time as the class in the backyard studio, the house was having central air installed and insulation being put in. We have a house that was built in stages, the first part around 1904, the last part 1940 and then various updates and changes since then. Since we bought the house in 2005 we've replaced all the windows(23 of them), remodeled the kitchen,and done various cosmetic changes. This summer when we went to start up the old swamp cooler it was obvious that it wasn't going to last much longer, so we figured it was a good time to install central air. While the air system was being installed we discovered that some areas of the house had no insulation at all, therefore we had insulation installed. Now with the new ductwork for the air on the second floor we will also have heat in all four bedrooms! Winter will be much warmer and summer is now pretty cool.

Encausticamp

2011-07-22T12:47:00.006-06:00

Last week I drove over to Salem, OR and spent a wonderful three days learning about encaustics. I don't even know how to start explaining all that I experienced and learned. Fortunately others have written about it much more eloquently than I can. Start off by going to Trish Baldwin's blog, Trish organized this whole experience and did a fabulous job. Also check out Roxane's blog and Jess's blog

My first class was with Michelle Belto, who taught us how to use encaustics with handmade paper. Many years ago I use to make paper so I was very excited about this class. We spent the morning making paper,then in the afternoon used paper that Michelle had prepared for us ahead of time and started applying wax and color, also torching it. Here are two of the pieces I did in that class.

The next day was making a book of images using encaustic taught by Bridgette Guerzon Mills. As I learned to transfer my images(all from my photos or drawings) to the encaustic medium my head just started swimming with ideas. I have thousands of photographs and this is the first process that really felt like the right way to use some of them. This is the accordian folded book that I made.

The last day was the class with Trish Baldwin, oh my, oh my!!! We played not only with the wax but with tar, plaster, pan pastels, stencils, torches, heat guns, oils and probably a few things I've forgotten. I loved this class!! The picture below was taken during class of some of what I had worked on that day. Most were just samples so I could try them and then remember them.

This is my favorite piece from the three days. It's a cradled wood panel with plaster which was allowed to dry, then the piece was torched so that the uncovered wood would burn, then I added multiple layers of wax and color.

I came home wanting to change one end of Studio B into an encaustic studio, but it will have to wait at least until after next Wednesday because I'm teaching a dye class and we are going to need all the space.

Joy in the garden

2011-07-01T14:53:00.003-06:00

I made a little banner to hang on the fence in my garden area that simply says "joy". That's what my backyard and garden bring me daily.

This is today's harvest, or at least what made it inside the house. Grazing in the garden is one of my favorite things and it's even healthy eating!

I have done some playing in the studio; some deconstructive/breakdown screen printing.

Mostly I've just been enjoying the wonderful weather, going to the pool for water aerobics, and just put-zing around, which brings me joy also.

1st Place and a rejection

2011-06-25T09:18:00.003-06:00

My "Autumn Leaf" quilt (aka, the big leaf) came home from the NQA show yesterday with a great big 1st place art/innovative ribbon on it!!! I was very pleased, especially since I had gotten an e-mail earlier in the week telling me that it had not been accepted in the Pacific West Quilt show. So that's 2 rejections and a 1st place for the same quilt.

I've been MIA from the studio for the past 2 weeks, last week because we were having a wonderful time with all my kids and grandkids and this week I've been volunteering at the annual fiddle festival. I'm ready to get back into the studio, I have a few ideas percolating and I'm ready to jump in.

A new jacket

2011-06-11T16:13:00.003-06:00

Earlier this week I decided I needed a new light weight jacket to take with me on a trip this coming week. So I knew I had a 3 + yard piece of rayon already soda ash soaked, ready for dye. My print paste was rather runny, so my first step was to mix some with teal dye, put it into a syringe and squirt it over the fabric.

The next day I thickened up the print paste, mixed up some aquamarine and chartreuse and started printing.

The finished fabric.

The finished jacket( I won't be wearing it with my black t-shirt and pink jeans).

Contemplation

2011-06-05T07:04:00.004-06:00

All I have to show for the past week is this.

My friend Barbara is going to be a Grandma for the first time, so "spike the dinosaur" will be slipped into a package of goodies being sent to Germany.

The weather has finally gotten warmer so I've been enjoying the outside, pulling weeds, planting flowers,watching the birds at the feeders and just sitting outside contemplating everything around me. I've been in a bit of a contemplative mood lately trying to figure out what to do next. I've been thinking about doing more mono prints, but I keep wondering what am I going to do with all this fabric. I still have thirty mono prints that I did a year ago last March. I'm still trying to figure out what to do with all of them. I did use one, #31 and it is in SAQA's Beyond Comfort show.

When I was vending I had no problem creating way to much fabric because I would put any I wasn't going to use myself in the booth and sell it. Now it stacks up in the studio. But I still have this drive to create more, just to see what I can do. I don't make small samples, I work big - at least a yard, sometimes two or three yards. So it adds up fast!

I'm doing a collaboration with Kathy Loomis on my daily photo blog. Last week we did architectural details and this week we are doing rivers. Check out her blog also.

An acceptance and two quilts done

2011-05-28T10:49:00.002-06:00

Eighteen Moons was accepted into the Deep spaces show. The second piece I had entered "Amoeba Nebula" was not accepted so I'll have to find somewhere else to enter that one.

I finished quilting both of the quilts made from the blocks I was given, here they are side by side.

I'm really quite pleased with how they turned out, especially after almost six years of trying to figure out what to do with them.

Color!

2011-05-23T09:56:00.002-06:00

The napkins and place mats that I dyed.

Another top done

2011-05-21T16:25:00.003-06:00

I finished the quilt top made from the second group of gift blocks. A couple of the blocks didn't fit in so they are pieced into the backing. I've got both quilts layered and ready to quilt. I'll probably do some very simple quilting, stitch in the ditch most likely.

I've also dyed the one set of napkins and place mats - very bright intense colors. Here they are in the dye, they're in the dryer now. The fabric really sucked up the dye so I've got some very bright linens now.

This morning my favorite nursery had an herb seminar, quite informative and fun. Of course I came home with several new herbs and a pot to put them in. So I've spent most of the afternoon planting and playing outside in the garden, I'm so happy it's finally gotten warm enough to do it.

Tessellation update

2011-05-17T09:41:00.002-06:00

Kay, the author of the tessellation tutorial , commented yesterday about finding the whole tutorial on her blog by going over to the side and clicking on the Tessellation link. Not only can you see the whole step by step directions, you can also see students work. She has done a great job explaining it clearly.

I happen to know that my learning method is very visual, I look at pictures and then try to figure things out for myself. So when I saw the picture of tessellation's that looked like leaves(I love leaves) I just jumped in. Now that I've gone back thru Kay's instructions I'm going to have to make a new shape and do another. Thank you Kay.

Tessellation's and more blocks

2011-05-15T14:31:00.003-06:00

While blog hopping yesterday I came across a tutorial on tessellation and gave it a try. I'm not great at reading and following directions, but I did look at the pictures and remembered enough to figure it out. You can go here if you'd like to give it a try. This is what I ended up with.

I also got out the remainder of the blocks I was given in 2005 and am trying to figure out how to get them to work together.

This piece below will be the back of the darker color set from yesterdays post. I had some of the little four patch blocks and some odd strips leftover, just enough to add to the backing fabric to make it wide enough.

Below is the last of the blocks, it got setting triangles added to it and hangs in my studio. It's a piece of a vintage linen that has an L on it. My friend Gayle dyed it and added beads to it. She collects and uses vintage linens all the time, you can see some on her blog.

I like to collect vintage linens also, sometimes I dye them but usually I just collect them. Recently I went to a local estate sale with $20 in my pocket and came home with this pile.

Most have never been used, many still have the labels on them. There are several tablecloths, hand towels and napkins. My favorite is a complete set of eight place mats and napkins that have never been used. I'm planning on dying them in a rainbow of colors and using them.

Two weeks have slipped by

2011-05-14T14:45:00.004-06:00

Time sure does slip away. I had a delightful gift for Mothers day - my daughter bought tickets for Don and I to fly to Washington to spend Mothers day with them and my oldest son. We left here early Friday and returned on Sunday afternoon, we did our actual celebratory dinner on Saturday night. Wonderful Indian food. I was also given a 2 yard piece of mudcloth that my daughter had purchased in Tunisia last December.

When we moved here from Reno five years ago, I was given a large collection of quilt blocks from the members of the quilt guild I belonged to. The blocks were all different; different sizes, colors and patterns. I had asked for blocks of any size in red, gold, purple plus some black and white. I discovered that there are many interpretations of that - I was no where near specific enough. My plan had been to use them in a quilt for one of three twin beds in a spare bedroom, that didn't happen. I did use several of them to make pillows for a day bed. I dug the rest of those blocks out recently, divided them into two groups - light background and dark background. The twelve dark background ones are now a quilt top. The finished size is 45 x 60, a good size to snuggle in on a cold evening.

The blocks ranged in size from 6" to 12", so I made lots of four patches with borders around them to add to the original twelve blocks. I turned each of the blocks into a 15"sq with the addition of the blocks I made. I'm quite happy with the way it came out. Can you pick out the original twelve blocks?
The following picture is of the daybed with the pillows made from some of the blocks. There's a trundle bed underneath, if you look close on the bottom left a part of it's quilt is sticking out.

This is the other quilt in that room.

and the yard sale rocker that has a little quiltlet to cover it's strange color.

Now I have a pile of blocks with both white and muslin backgrounds- I'm thinking of doing a similar process to put them together.

Maple leaf finished

2011-04-30T10:44:00.004-06:00

"Maple Leaf" is done and ready to be turned in for the Art Guilds raffle. The picture not the greatest because it is leaning against a wall and I took the picture from an angle. Unfortunately I have no where to hang it to get a good picture ( I don't want to put a nail thru my design wall).

It has been mounted on a frame and finished on the back as though it had been professionally framed. This is a side view, you can see how the facing wraps around the frame.

I'll hand it over to the Art Guild at the meeting on Thursday, I think ticket sales start in June during the Fiddle Festival. The drawing for the winner will take place in November.

In my efforts to try and organize some of my stuff I pulled out a bag full of paper towels that I've used to mop up dye.

I love some of these but have never found a way to use them. So I tried a sample of one fused to a piece of muslin, backed with flannel and the stitched with pearl cotton.

I'm rather liking the way it looks and it seems to hold up well with the stitching. This sample will probably be made into a postcard and mailed to a young friend of mine.

Playing with Encaustic

2011-04-25T10:21:00.002-06:00

I've been curious about Encaustic work for a few years and I'm finally doing something about it. I had several Encaustic books and dvd's listed on my Amazon wish list and between Christmas and my birthday I got them all! I bought a small package of encaustic medium from Dharma Trading company, some small (6 x 6) support boards and made do with items already in the studio, the heat gun and hot pot. I approached it as a way of doing a collage and gathered "stuff" I thought I might use. Below are the two pieces I did. The one on the left needs more of something, but I think the right hand one is done.

After playing I realized that I probably really need a bit more hands on guidance and lots of practice. A few days later while bouncing around checking out blogs I found a link for an Encaustic camp; I'm now signed up and ready to go! It's July 13 - 17 in the Portland ,OR area. It's a good six hour drive, maybe a bit more from here in Idaho. I'm excited!!

I haven't done any quilting lately, but I did make a doll for my youngest Granddaughter. She will be two next week.

Still very cool here, several morning well below freezing, so getting a garden planted has been on hold. I'm so ready to get something in the ground. My tulips are just now starting to open so it's looking like spring.

I'm off to lunch with some creative friends today - so I know it will be a good day.

Is it Spring yet?

2011-04-14T09:48:00.003-06:00

This morning when I went out for my walk it was 26 degrees, I'm so ready for a bit warmer weather. Actually it has been in the high 50's during the day and we have had some fairly nice days to get out and about. Over the weekend we took a long drive up Brownlee Reservoir on the Idaho side and back home down the Oregon side. Saw some beautiful scenery and took photos from the passengers side.

Yesterday we went out with friends to a "secret" spot along the Snake River to pick wild asparagus. There's not much ready yet but we did pick enough for a few meals. It's one of my favorite flavors of spring.

I did pull a few books out of the bookcase last week, gave a few to a friend, have some more ready to be donated and still have way to many in the bookcase. I decided that it was more fun to go thru fabric scraps and use them, so that's what I did. I made one top that eventually I'll quilt and donate, probably to Project Linus or a local group that collects quilts for children with cancer.

This one was made from leftovers of a quilt that I donated last year to a local breast cancer fundraiser. The yellow fabric is a piece of antique drapery sample that I've had for many years. Feels good to finally use it.

I'm doing some hand stitching around the piecing on this one.

Leaf skeleton

2011-04-04T14:23:00.003-06:00

I have this fascination with leaves, almost as serious as the one I have with circles. Last week I found a leaf skeleton while walking and have been taking pictures of it ever since. It's a rather large leaf, the picture below shows it on a piece of copy paper and it pretty much fills the page.

I've pressed it between books trying to get it really flat. I want to get some really good pictures of the leaf structure or veining, but because it is so delicate and won't lie completely flat I get shadowing. I've also tried to photocopy it an have the same problem. The shot below was a close up that I then cropped, so it is magnified quite a bit.

I would like to enlarge the image a lot more and make some thermofax screens, but I need a cleared,darker image for it to work well. I suppose I could sit down and draw what I see, but I'd rather have a good copy of the real thing. I'm open to any suggestions.

Of course part of the reason I'm obsessing over the leaf is that it is a great way to avoid what I really need to do; clean up my reading corner of the studio! At least find a place for the stack of books on the storage chest. There are many books in there that I know I'll never use again but I'm having trouble parting with them. I thought it might be good to donate them to the local library so that if I did want to read one again it would be available. Doesn't work that way at our library - any books donated end up in the annual library sale and get sold for about 50 cents each. There's also another bookcase out in Studio B, it's filled with books pertaining to surface deign.

There's also a used book store in town, the owner has an interesting payment arrangement. You get credit for books that you bring in to use on ones you purchase, but it's only a certain percentage of the cost. I've never quite figured it out and have never been able to use up the "credits" I have. So I think my plan may be to go thru what I have and offer them for sale here on the blog, see if anyone is even interested in what I have. That means I have to stop playing with my leaf and get that corner organized!

Acceptance

2011-04-02T15:26:00.002-06:00

The big leaf quilt(actually titled Autumn Leaf) has been accepted at the Denver National Quilt Festival, which is at the same time as the AQS show the end of this month. Then in June it will be going to the NQA show in Columbus ,OH.

I've finished quilting the not so big leaf and now have to get the facing on it so that I can mount it on stretcher bars. The art guild needs it by June to start selling raffle tickets during Fiddle week. The actual ticket drawing will be in November.

Then yesterday I felt the need to do something entirely different. I have several bundles of odd pieces of fabrics that I've put aside for such occasions. I used a group of silks yesterday and pieced them together in a rather freeform manner, then quilted it this morning. It's about 14" x 16".

I've finished the back of the sweater I'm knitting and started the front last night, but at the rate I'm knitting it will be ready for next winter.

Time flies between posts!

2011-03-26T12:39:00.002-06:00

I've been back home since Tuesday evening, but haven't been inspired to write. I sold some inventory at the show, traded a few pieces for a fabulous hand woven chenille scarf.

What looks like beads on one side are actually little loops of one of the threads.

Also got to visit with some friends at the show, some that drove a couple of hours to see the show(and me!), others that are also venders and the only time I see them is at shows. About halfway thru the day I knew I had made the right decision to stop vending, I was ready to leave.

We had a great visit with kids and grandkids, we really do need to get there more often.

It always takes me a day or two to get back to creating once I get home, this time was no exception. I have managed to do some quilting on the not so big leaf, the leaf itself is done and I'm now working on the background. But that's it for now.

Never say never!

2011-03-17T10:19:00.003-06:00

I've been spending time this week getting ready to vend at a quilt show, even though a year and a half ago I said I was never vending again! A few months ago I got the invitation to do the Winnemucca,NV quilt show. I was preparing to contact the vendor chair and let her know that I was no longer doing shows when Don said "why not do it, you have inventory". Plus it's only a few hours from a couple of our kids and their families, which we haven't visited in about 10 months. So tomorrow we head for Winnemucca to do a one day show, all my inventory will be at 25% off. I sold my booth setup after I did my last show and I no longer take credit cards, but I'll be there. So if you are in the area, come to Winnemucca. For those of you that have no idea where it is, you take interstate 80 to the middle of Nevada, or if your going from Idaho like I am, you take US95 south for 5hrs. Winnemucca is about 2 hours minimum from anywhere. But I've always had fun doing the show and the guild members are great!

After the show we get to go spend a few days with kids and grand kids. My reward for doing the show.

On another note, I made a case for my ipad.

the other side.

It's my birthday!!

2011-03-14T10:12:00.003-06:00

Todays my birthday and I'm in a celebratory mood! Last year I gave my self a birthday party, this year I'm stretching the celebration out. It started last Thursday when we went to Boise with friends. We went to the Apple Store and I bought an ipad for my birthday, it was $100 off because the ipad2's were coming out the next day. Oh I'm loving it, have downloaded some fun app's and am trying to learn all that it can do. We also went out to a great Brazilian restaurant for lunch, did some other shopping and had a great time. I also got a beautiful mango that by this morning was perfectly ripe, I devoured half and the rest of it went into a mango ,blackberry, banana smoothy. Yummo!

Since last weeks post I've entered the big leaf quilt in 2 more shows. I also have someone here in town that wants to buy it, so I'm feeling much better. I've been working on the not so big leaf quilt and yesterday I started quilting it. This is how it looked before quilting.

Today I'm also starting an online photoshop elements class. I've had the software on my computer for over a year and only use it to resize photos, so it's time to learn something new.

I'm off to celebrate my day, having lunch with a friend and then ??? I'll find something to do!

Rejection and starting something new

2011-03-07T14:48:00.003-07:00

I've been feeling a bit down since I rolled out of bed this morning, most likely because I had trouble getting to sleep last night and this morning was looking like another rainy grey day. So I putzed around getting some errands done and was about to get to work in the studio when the mail came with a letter from AQS. It was a thin one, which means that the big leaf quilt was rejected.

So I threw away the letter(I never keep rejection letters), made a bag of popcorn and ate it. Then I had some of my favorite very dark chocolate, Lindts 85% dark, which is always on hand. Still feeling a bit bummed I remembered that Don had bought me my favorite chips awhile ago and I had hidden them away. Hidden no longer!

I'm not much of a chip person, but I love these. I ate most of the bag!
Can't say I feel any better ,but I am full. Does this mean I'm an emotional eater????

I did finish the hand stitching and machine quilting on the piece I showed last week. I was trying for a nebula, but it looks like amoebas. The title is the Amoeba Nebula. I'm having a difficult time getting a good picture of it.

I've got a new project in the works. The art guild has decided that I should do the art work for this years raffle, which has always been a painting. I'm making another big leaf, only not as big. I've got it drawn out and should get into the studio and do some work on it. It will be about 28" x 42" and made with fabric leftover from the first one. After it's quilted it will be mounted on stretcher bars so that it hangs like a painting. The leaf shape is just a bit different from the last one.

Now I need to find another show to enter the big leaf in, I've usually had good luck with rebounds. Whenever a quilt gets rejected I try and find another show to enter it in right away.

New projects

2011-02-28T10:17:00.003-07:00

A few weeks ago I showed a piece of fabric that I had stitched and was ready to dye, you can see it here. I dyed it with navy dye, which on silk broadcloth comes out violet. Below you can see how it looked after I had taken out all the stitched resist. I didn't remember to take the picture until I started adding more stitching, that's the touch of yellow in the middle.

I've been stitching over the resisted marks with different colors of threads, and I'm about 2/3's of the way done. I plan on machine stitching the background.

That should keep me busy for a while.

I've also started another knitting project, a sweater. The owner of the yarn shop that guided me thru the socks, told me when I finished them I would be able to knit anything. So I jumped right in with a sweater!

"18 Moons" finished

2011-02-21T07:23:00.005-07:00

Yesterday I finished stitching my indigo moons piece. It's all stitched by hand with pearl cotton, the blue thread is also indigo dyed.

I plan on entering this in a show called Deep Spaces, which requires a size of 18 x 45 in a vertical orientation. I usually don't care to work to a specific size and theme, but this one worked out well. I've also got another piece dyed with some stitched resist patterning that I'm also considering trying to finish to enter in the same show.

Stitching with crochet thread

2011-02-17T15:26:00.002-07:00

My Mom used to crochet doilies and edging for pillowcases back in the 50's. I have a few of her doilies and some other very worn linens that she had done. When she died I brought a few of her things home with me; one of them was a plastic baggie with old crochet threads that she had saved. I've had them now for over six years, got them out a couple of months ago and have been looking at them in the studio everyday. Today I decided it was time to play with them and used them to do some funky hand embroidery on some hand dyed silk broadcloth.

I bet if they still make this, it costs a lot more.

This is my collection, some are Coats and Clark, some Star and a few Lily brand. A few of them say tatting and crochet thread on the label.

My Mom also taught me to embroider way back in the 50's, she would not be happy with my irregular blanket stitch - she was a bit of a perfectionist. I, on the other hand , prefer things a bit imperfect!

What I've been doing.

2011-02-10T12:58:00.003-07:00

I'm not a big football fan, but I do watch the Super Bowl, mainly to see the commercials. So it always helps if I have something to keep me busy while I watch. This year I stitched concentric wavy circles on a half yard of silk, then gathered the stitching up and now it's ready to dye.

When I started this I had an idea of what I wanted to do, now I don't think it will work. Most people would do a sample first to see what is going to happen - not me, I've got four hours of work in this piece and no idea of what will happen next. Once I get it dyed I'll let you know.

I finished quilting the yellow quilt that I pieced from a bag of fabric swatches, just have about half of the binding left to sew down.

I've also got some valentines ready to go in the mail this afternoon.

Socks!!

2011-02-04T11:19:00.001-07:00

I finished knitting my first pair of socks! They even fit!

A couple more pieces finished

2011-02-01T16:46:00.002-07:00

I just came back from the post office where I mailed my SAQA auction piece. I'm done way ahead of time, the auction is not till much later in the year. The piece I made is another one of my black and white circle pieces. This one is white lutrador that has been etched with a heat tool, then fused to black silk. The piece was then stitched by hand with black pearl cotton. There is also a companion piece in the works to go with this(maybe next years donation?). The companion is the negative image of this one, white lutrador with a black silk circle.

A couple of weeks ago I also mailed off a small (8X8) piece for SAQA's "This is a Quilt" trunk show. It was also a white circle on black, bit the circle was screen printed with white sand on black silk noil. Also hand stitched with black pearl cotton. I forgot to take a picture before I mailed it.

I also finished another small quilt (15 x 18). This one is some fabric I rusted, stitched the background by hand and then beaded it. I actually did most of the work last summer, it just needed a few more beads and the binding.

Mono Printing

2011-01-26T16:45:00.004-07:00

Laura had a question on my last post about mono prints, so I thought I'd write about how I do mine. Mono prints are a single one of a kind print. I have a salvaged window that is about 24" x 30" that I use for most of my prints. I use either fabric paint, versatex printing ink is my favorite or thickened dye. With a gloved hand I scoop up some paint with my fingers and start smearing it around on the glass until I'm satisfied with what I see. Then I take my piece of cloth and carefully lay it over the smeared paint, then I use a brayer to go over the whole thing. Then carefully pick the fabric up off the glass and put aside to dry. Generally I'm not happy with my first piece, it takes some playing around to get the right amount of paint on the glass, but you have to work quickly before the paint dries.

The picture below is of four mono prints done with thickened dye. I had the dye in squeeze bottles and squirted it on and used various tools to smear the dye around.

For pieces bigger than my glass piece, I use vinyl. I bought several yards at JoAnn's and I keep it rolled on a cardboard tube.

There are several other ways of doing mono prints, but this is my favorite way. There's no right or wrong way of doing it - just do what works for you.

On another note; my other blogwas nominated for an award today. So I had to nominate three other blogs for the same honor, so go check it out.

New work

2011-01-20T09:21:00.003-07:00

I'm a member of SDA(Surface Design Association) and there will be a members show at the upcoming convention in June. I've known about this for over a year, but had trouble coming up with something for the theme "Merge and Flow". Finally last week I decided to do some mono prints and my fourth piece was just what I wanted. The size requirement is 12" x 28"either vertical or horizontal. I thought my piece was going to be horizontal but after doing the stitching I decided definitely vertical and the title is "Waterfall".

As you can see I'm back in black and white mode. This was done with black textile paint on white cotton, layered with flannel and hand stitched with pearl cotton. The deadline for entry is Feb. 1, so I even have time leftover!

Fist Full of Threads winner

2011-01-10T11:11:00.003-07:00

These are the threads I won. Laura Wasilowski has been giving away a fist full of threads every Tuesday as a way to celebrate her soon to be published book. Check out Artfabrik on Tuesday, leave a comment and you have a chance of winning also.

I pulled out a piece of fabric I had painted quite awhile ago and got inspired to do something with it. This is a close up of the stitching and brushstrokes.

Here is the whole thing. I'm thinking of calling it "Swoosh". The edges still need finishing, probably a facing instead of binding.

New year, new directions

2011-01-06T14:35:00.004-07:00

Explore is my theme for the New Year. I've made 2 separate lists of things to explore, one is places, the other is art supplies. The places list is posted on our refrigerator and lists places that are within a couple hundred miles of home that we talk about going to visit but never seem to do it. It's been on the refrigerator since Sunday and Don hasn't noticed it yet, I'm waiting to see how long it takes.
List #2 includes art supplies that I've purchased and never used. I've purchased many sketchbooks over the years, but never really use them, so I've signed up for some free online courses given by Strathmore. Below is my first page from lesson one.

Other items on my list include encaustics,needle felting, acrylics and watercolor. Both lists have lots of space to add things on as the year progresses.

I've also finished piecing the top from sample swatches, it's twin size, the picture only shows about half of it.

I have a pile off leftover pieces that will make there way into a future quilt.

The end of another year

2010-12-31T11:25:00.002-07:00

The year is just about over and I've spent the last week finishing up some things and starting others. I did get the facing, sleeve and label on the big leaf. Took some pictures of it and entered it in the Paducah show. I haven't entered anything there in many years, but this one seemed to be a good fit. So now I get to wait to see if the jurors also think so.

I took a few days away from my mindless sewing, but have gotten enough strips sewn together for a twin size quilt. This picture is of a few of the strips, I do have leftovers for another project.

I've also played with my needle felting machine. I have a project floating around in my head that requires a trip to the store before I can do it. This piece is some cheesecloth and yarns on felt. I do like the needle felting machine and keep thinking I should do some samples, but that's not the way I work, I just want to jump in and make something.

I also started the hand stitching on a larger indigo piece, I did do a smaller one out of the leftovers from this piece a couple of months ago. This has been hanging around waiting for me to get to it.

My friend Dan sent me the following :

My Wishes For You in 2011

12 Months of Happiness,
52 Weeks of Fun,
365 Days of Success,
8760 Hours of Good Health,
52600 Minutes of Good Luck,
3153600 Seconds of Joy
...and that’s all!

Happy New Year

Mindless sewing and christmas music

2010-12-24T10:18:00.003-07:00

Latlely I've had the urge to just sit and sew, what I refer to as mindless sewing. So when I came across a bag of batik samples that I've had tucked away for many years I knew it was the perfect time to use them. I thought there were probably about 100-200 pieces in the bag.

As I looked them over I decided that golden yellow would be the perfect addition. I had 1/2 yard, cut it into 1 1/4 " strips and began sewing the samples to the strips

The 1/2 yard did exactly 196 pieces. I had a pile leftover, they seemed to be multiplying. I dyed several more yards of golden yellow and one yard of strips later I finally finished the pile. There were 588 pieces in that gallon plastic bag. It took a couple of hours of pressing to get them ready to sew again.

I've started sewing them together in pairs. Then those will be sewn together until I have long strips, which will be sewn together with golden yellow between strips.

I'm really enjoying doing this and part of it is the music I'm listening to. I love classical music and listen to our local public radio station(Boise State Radio) frequently. While I've been doing this sewing I've been listening to some marvelous Christmas music, not the current commercial choices. The Christmas music will be over before the sewing is done, but I've made a good start on a quilt. A quilt that will probably go to a grand daughter that graduates in June, from both high school and community college at the same time.

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas.

Snow dyeing

2010-12-20T10:50:00.003-07:00

Snow dyeing has been a hot topic for the past few winters on a list I'm on, but in the past I've never succumb to the lure of another way to apply dye. Well, we've had lots of snow and there were some dyes leftover from the Thanksgiving tie dyeing festival with granddaughters,so I jumped in and did some snow dyeing. Here are the results.

I may have to do some more!

Christmas Presents

2010-12-18T12:51:00.003-07:00

For many years I made Christmas presents, especially for grandchildren, but as they've gotten older and live farther away I've pretty much stopped. This year I made only two of the gifts, the first was over Thanksgiving weekend and was a request for fleece pj bottoms. The second is for my youngest granddaughter and is the sock creature seen below.

I got a new toy for Christmas.

I have talked myself out of a needle felting machine for several years, so this year Santa ordered one for me. I've been collecting roving for awhile, so now I'm ready to play.

Don also got his present early. He got a snow blower and got to use it this morning on our new layer of snow.

My Twin and Christmas postcards

2010-12-11T16:30:00.002-07:00

For the last three days my "twin" Kathy Loomis has been doing wonderful posts comparing our photos from our respective daily photo blogs, check them out at Art with a Needle

This morning I decided that if I was going to send out my usual hand made Christmas cards I'd better get them made!! So I pulled out a small quilt in greens that I made about 12 years ago.

I cut it up. I have timtex, misty fuse and wonder under, so everything I needed was on hand. This is my pile of parts, ready for the assembly line.

The backing and tree trunk fused to the 4 x 6 timtex, ready for the tree.

The "trees" cut from the quilt and a red garland stitched on each.

The finished postcards, waiting for address and stamps.

I still have parts of the quilt left so I'll have to come up with something creative to do with it.

Finishing up some projects

2010-12-09T16:44:00.004-07:00

I've been trying to get some of my projects done. I've finished my "This is not a Sketchbook" for the sketchbook project and have it ready to mail. The quilting is done on my big leaf quilt, I've just got to trim it ,do the facing, label and sleeve and it will be done.

My sock is progressing, I'm now turning the heel so this one is over half done, only one more to go.

In other news; my on line friend Kathy Loomis has been doing daily photos for almost a year and today she did a post comparing some of my photos with her photos. She has also interviewed me about my daily photo project and will be posting that soon. You can check her posts at Art With a Needle and mine at Thru Linda eyes

Let it Snow

2010-12-01T08:34:00.003-07:00

It started snowing very lightly yesterday morning, it's still snowing this morning. I took the photos above from various windows in the house. I should go out and help shovel, but my rational is that I shoveled yesterday so that it would be easier today for Don. The weather reports are saying that it's suppose to warm up this afternoon and start raining, we'll really have a mess then.

I've done a year of photos on my daily photo blog, so you need to go check it out. Pick your favorite photo from the past year, leave a comment by Sunday Dec. 5 and I will send you a 5x7 print of the photo.

More good news & knitting

2010-11-18T18:46:00.003-07:00

I got an email yesterday that "Mono print #31" has also been juried into SAQA's "Beyond Comfort" exhibit that will debut next Aug. at the Festival of Quilts, in Birmingham, England. So my quilt gets to do some traveling without me!

I've never been much of a knitter, mainly very big needles and big yarn or fabric cut into 1/2" bias strips. Yet, I've always thought it would be cool to know how to knit socks. So yesterday I got some instruction and started my first pair of socks. I learned how to start at the toe(the hardest part) and work up. So far I have one toe done and I'm really enjoying the process.

I really like the cool variegated yarn also. Time to get some knitting done!

Good news

2010-11-11T09:06:00.004-07:00

I got an email yesterday that my "Mono-print #31" was accepted into the "Form not Function", show at the Carnegie Center in New Albany,IN. This was one of the mono prints that I did for the month of March, the last one and the only very large one. The other 30 prints are each on a 20" square of linen, this one is 52" square. The logistics of doing a mono print this large are interesting and I was so happy when I was able to get a clean print on my first try.

It's completely hand stitched with pearl cotton.

Other good news, the two mounted and framed leaf prints in my last post have sold.

Indigo circles done

2010-11-04T14:11:00.002-06:00

I finished the stitching on my small indigo circles piece and mounted it on foam core. It's now hanging on the gallery wall at Weiser Classic Candies, a local business that the art guild hangs work in.

I also hung a few other pieces. A pair of mounted and framed leaf prints.

A small stitched piece that was attached to canvas board with gel medium, matted and framed.

A framed 8 x 10 photo of a red door.

And lastly a framed 8 x 10 photo of one of my favorite sunrise pictures.

We hang new work about every two months. This is the first time I've done framed work and my photos. I'm planning on doing more of the photos. Speaking of photos in about 25 days I'll have reached a full year of posting my daily photos and am trying to think of a way to commemorate the occasion. If you have any ideas let me know.

Back in the studio

2010-10-25T16:33:00.006-06:00

It took me a couple of days to actually get in the studio to do some work after our trip, but I'm now working on two things. I finally started quilting the big leaf quilt. Slow progress but at least it's getting done.

I take breaks from machine stitching and do hand stitching. I've started stitching on some of the indigo pieces I dyed last spring. This is a small piece (13" x 15"), put together from the scraps of a larger piece. The larger piece is 18" x 45" and I haven't started stitching it yet.

For someone that has always machine quilted, I'm continually surprised by how much I love hand stitching these pieces.

Road trip reflections

2010-10-17T12:41:00.004-06:00

We are back home after a 3 week, 6376 mile road trip. We had an enjoyable time, but won't be doing it again anytime soon! Here are a few highlights from our excursion.
Our first stop was to visit relatives in Horseheads,NY, a few miles from Corning. We went to the Corning Glass Museum and saw some fabulous contemporary glass. There was also some very old glass, but the contemporary work just took my breath away. While there I got to do a hands on glass piece, I actually blew the glass myself while an assistant did the rest of the work (the hot stuff). Below is a picture of my piece.

We then travelled on to Maine to visit our eldest granddaughter. She wasn't working while we were there,so she was our tour guide. I did have a lobster.

We went out to the ocean on the only rainy day of our trip. I was standing under my umbrella to take this picture of the Atlantic.

Our next destination was my hometown of Wallkill, NY. We visited my three brothers and some of their families. One morning my brother Don and I took a 6 mile walk along the rail trail. This is a trail on an old defunct railroad bed. A beautiful way to start the day, we shared the trail with several deer and other assorted wild life. Below is a shot from the trail

On our return trip home we saw the best fall colors of the whole trip in Pennsylvania. I showed some in my last post.

It really feels good to be home. We had a wonderful surprise when we got home,we still had tomatoes!!! This has been the most incredible year for tomatoes, I started picking in July and they are still going strong. Normally we have a killing frost by early October, but so far none this year. Below is what I picked from two plants this morning.

Today is being spent getting back to normal routines and doing laundry. Hopefully tomorrow I'll actually get into the studio to make something!!

Heading West

2010-10-11T18:41:00.003-06:00

We are now headed back west, today we crossed Pennsylvania. We've had some great visits with family, but it's time to get home. Of course it will take the rest of the week to get there. The pictures below were taken from the car today, the fall colors across PA were great.

A long road trip

2010-10-05T18:42:00.004-06:00

We've been on the road for over a week, we've gone from this view of Southern Idaho

to this view of Southern Maine.

We've driven over 3000 miles, have visited relatives in the Corning,NY area, are visiting our oldest granddaughter in Maine and later this week going to my hometown of Wallkill, NY to visit my brothers before driving back home to Idaho. Today we did some budget damage at LL Bean and tomorrow will head north to Arcadia National Park.

A new possibility

2010-09-24T10:39:00.002-06:00

My quilt "Seasons" is under consideration to be in a new book published by Lark on nature themed quilts. I won't know until next year if it makes the cut, but for now at least it's being looked at.

SAQA auction

2010-09-21T16:11:00.002-06:00

The SAQA auction started yesterday, lots of great quilts to bid on. Mine is about half way down the page here. The picture on the website is better than the one I took. There are two pages of quilts to bid on in this group, the other page is here. The bid amounts go down everyday at 2p.m. eastern time.

A few class pictures

2010-09-18T14:20:00.003-06:00

I had six very creative women here on Tuesday and Wednesday for a class and I even remembered to take a couple of pictures. The first two pictures were taken late afternoon on the first day, everyone was sitting and carving stamps. Here are Sue, Shirley, Gretchen and Rena, they chose to sit outside and enjoy the fabulous weather.

Here we have Kathy and Joann, sitting inside with more space to spread out.

Here they are excitedly going thru the fabrics that they've dyed and over dyed and that have just come out of the dryer.

We had a great time, they accomplished a lot and are planning on coming back again to learn more.

Fall is in the air

2010-09-11T14:26:00.003-06:00

I've noticed several trees in my neighborhood that are starting to change color. I love the colors of autumn, seeing the trees change, but it does seem too early.

I haven't done anything else to my big leaf quilt(speaking of autumn), but have finished up a few other projects and have been getting Studio B ready for the class that's coming next week. I've got all the fabrics ready, stamp making supplies ready and handouts done. I'm really looking forward to this group. I love teaching in my own studio, everything is there, I don't have to pack and haul supplies or drive anywhere and I get to sleep in my own bed. I'm going to try and remember to take pictures during class - I usually forget.

I did finish the quilting on this quilt.

I've also been sewing on beads to this piece. This one is olive hand dyed fabric that was rusted with a large circle design. I then hand stitched the background and am now working on beads.

Big leaf quilt, top done

2010-09-08T06:38:00.002-06:00

I replaced the pieces I wasn't happy with and am calling the top done. Now comes the hard work, doing all the stitching.

Big leaf quilt, more progress

2010-09-06T07:18:00.003-06:00

Almost there - I'm not happy with one of the pieces in the lower right side. The color doesn't flow right and I don't have a piece that does. So I'm dyeing another piece.

Here it is coming out of the orange dye bath. Since this picture was taken it has been removed from the pole, rinsed, washed, dried, put back on the pole, and is in a red dye bath.

I've cleaned up all the pieces I had left over and have them rolled in a box ready for the next time I want to use them. I've been really good about cleaning up as I go because next week I have a group coming here for a couple of days of class. Some of the group will be staying here with us in our extra spare bedrooms, so I've got to clean house also!!

Big leaf quilt progress

2010-09-01T17:02:00.002-06:00

I've been cutting up lots of fabric and pinning it to the background trying to get the flow of color right. Only a few more pieces to cut, but I think it needs to sit for awhile and I need to look at it with fresh eyes. There are a few pieces that may end up getting changed, but overall I'm satisfied with it. Let me know what you think.

New projects

2010-08-31T09:48:00.002-06:00

I've been working on a couple of new projects. The first one I forgot to take pictures as I went along, but it started out as a mono-printed circle, black on white. I cut it up and painted it with dye, gold, magenta, and aqua. Then put it together with black strips and now it's ready to quilt.

I've done several more pages in the "This is not a sketchbook" project. This is a pretty bad picture of two of the pages.

I'm also working on a larger quilt that I got the inspiration for last spring while coloring with my granddaughter. I've drawn it out full size, 4 ft. x 6 ft., and have traced it onto some old interfacing to use as a pattern. I'm normally not a pattern user, but I was having trouble figuring out how to do it. So this is my big leaf.

This is one of the pieces of fabric I'll be using.

These are a couple more.

The leaf will be created out of a large pile of pole wrapped shibori fabrics that I have done over the past few years. I've been saving them for just the right project, of course there's a lot more than I need so it will end up being several more projects in the end. I'll also probably decide that I don't have just the right color and end up doing more. But at least I'm getting started on it.

Time flies between posts!

2010-08-21T14:14:00.002-06:00

It has been awhile since I've posted, I've gotten things done, but I guess I haven't felt like writing about them.

I did paint dye on the stitched leaf, and I like the leaf, but now what? I like the process of stitching a resist, dyeing it, taking out the stitches, layering the piece with batting and backing, stitching again overall and then painting on dye. I'm having difficulty using the process to create a completed composition. The two that I've done are samples to figure out what I can do, now I want to create a satisfying piece of art with the technique and that's where I'm stymied. It's a very time consuming process so I'd really like to have a finished piece that I could enter into shows.

I did paint a piece of rayon with dye and then made this little topper. This was fun, quick and easy. The pattern is "A Little Something Jacket" from CNT.

I've also been stitching on a piece of rusted fabric that will also be beaded.

I worked on the stitching while we were camping. We went on our annual camping trip to pick huckleberries and blackberries.
The picture below was taken while we were picking blackberries along the Salmon river. Shortly after this picture was taken we went down to the river and waded in to cool off. We picked the huckleberries up on a mountain side where it was quite a bit cooler.

Since returning I've been making jam and freezing berries. We have eaten some also, while camping we had huckleberry pancakes for breakfast one morning and fresh brook trout for breakfast the next morning. Nothing like eating well when your out roughing it. Roughing it in a travel trailer that is, but it was a forest service camp area with no hookups, up a steep and winding dirt road.

Red and green leaves

2010-08-09T12:44:00.002-06:00

I've been doing background stitching on the leaf I showed last time. When the stitching is finished I'll paint dye over the whole piece.

I'm planning on using some muted greens, the picture below is my inspiration.

Every summer I plant the barrel that's next to my studio door with plants that have interesting leaves. This is how it looks this summer.

Experiment update

2010-07-29T13:36:00.003-06:00

I've painted darker dye over the pastel piece from my last post. I'm still not happy with it, but since it was an experiment I'm calling it done. I do like the process and how it works, so I'm moving on to another experiment

This is the newest one, I drew a leaf, stitched it , gathered the threads and painted on dye.

This is how it looks after the stitching is taken out. This one I like and am trying to decide what to do next.

Art Cloth and my new experiment

2010-07-20T10:46:00.003-06:00

Dotti asked about Jane Dunnewold's new book and I gave a quick reply, the book deserves much more than a quick reply. I'm a big fan of Jane and the way she teaches, she covers everything and shares all that she knows. Safety issues, trouble shooting, all that she has learned from experience is in this book. I completed the Art cloth Mastery class in February, it took two years to do, she has managed to get it all in this book. I highly recommend it.

I've finished the stitched shibori piece that I stitched again after taking out the resist stitches. This is how it looked yesterday morning.

This is what it looked like after I painted the dye on and left it to batch overnight.

This is how it looks after washing out this morning.

It came out a bit more pastel than I wanted. I was going for a medium shade and was afraid to use to strong a dye mixture - now I know better, next one will be more intense. I like the texture that I got, I like the process, even though it is extremely labor intensive, so I'm trying to figure out how to use it for an art quilt.

A great summer

2010-07-16T10:48:00.003-06:00

I've been really enjoying my summer, my first full summer since "retiring" from vending at Quilt shows. I haven't even been to a quilt show in the past year! I sometimes miss the routine of daily production in the studio, but am much happier just dyeing and printing fabric when ever I want. The best part is doing what I want ,not what I hope will sell. When I was vending that was always on my mind, what will sell, what samples do I need to make to get something to sell. I don't miss that at all.

I will be teaching a class in Studio B on Monday evening July 26 from 6:30 - 9:30 p.m., on paintstiks. So if you happen to be in the Weiser, ID area and are interested let me know.

I've added more small pieces to my rust collection this summer. The photo below is stuff that I have found in the past 2 months, most of it from my garden area. I keep thinking about using some of it as embellishments on an art quilt. I have a rather large collection of rusty stuff and use a small part of it to rust fabric. For some reason I'm just attracted to it and keep picking it up.

I've also been working on my "This is not a sketchbook" project. These are some recent pages I've done.

I'm using scraps of fabric that have fusible on them already (I have a large box of them) and I have at least one circle in each composition. I like doing several at a time, so I'll do three or four pages several times a week.

My favorite thing I've been doing this summer is water aerobics. It's every afternoon at 5 p.m., the hottest time of the day and I'm in a nice cool pool. Today is suppose to be near 100 degrees so it is going to feel so good! The pool here is only open until the middle of August so I'm taking advantage of it while I can. Our instructors for the class are all about high school age, in fact all the employees at the pool are, that's why it closes when they go back to school.

My big bummer for the summer has been squash bugs. They have totally destroyed my squash plants that on Monday were looking very healthy. I had read somewhere to plant icicle radishes along with the squash to prevent a problem. I did that and things were looking good until the middle of this week. Oh well, I can buy squash at the fruit stand down the road a bit.

A road trip and a bit of stitching

2010-07-09T16:37:00.002-06:00

We've been gone all week having fun with grandchildren. We were in Reno, my 17 year old grand daughter that lives in Washington asked me to take her to see Joan Baez on the first stop of her new tour. So we met up in Reno, stayed with my youngest son and celebrated his 40th, and saw Joan Baez. It was a fabulous show, attendees were almost all boomers and one very excited 17 year old. Also hula hooped with my 5 year old grand daughter and spent lots of time with her and her year old sister. A fun trip.
I did a little bit more stitching on the silk piece that I plan to paint with dye, it's been a very slow process. I sure hope my idea works after all the time I'm putting into it. Below are a couple of pictures of my progress.

I'm here and stitching

2010-07-01T09:42:00.003-06:00

It's been awhile since I've posted. Last week was very busy, we had family visiting, some expected and others that weren't and it was Fiddle week here in Weiser so there was a lot to do. We went to several live performances and I "work" in one of the many volunteer positions available during the week. In general we had a very good time taking advantage of entertainment opportunities that we normally don't have.

I started doing my sketchbook project, small fabric collages fused into the book, my one rule I've set for myself is that each page has to have a circle. Below is the first page.

I also did some more stitched resist. This time I did circles and just put dye on the stitched part. Below you can see how they look with all the stitching gathered up and the dye painted on.

Then I took the stitching out and am now adding more stitching to the whole piece. I'm using some pre-washed flannel on the back. After it's all stitched I'll paint on more dye to color both the stitching and the fabric. I've never done it this way before so the whole thing is an experiment. This is how it looks now.

I'll keep you posted on the progress and results.

Bricks and rusted fabric

2010-06-16T16:18:00.002-06:00

Slowly the bricks are going down, but progress is being made. Some of them will have ground cover planted in them , others will get bark(I think).

A few days ago I cleaned my coffee pot with vinegar and didn't want to "waste" the used vinegar so I soaked some strips of rayon in it. Then the rayon got wrapped around some of my rusty stuff. The water that was put thru the coffee pot to get rid of the vinegar was used to make a really strong tea. After the fabric rusted for a day I poured the strong tea over parts of it to get a grey color mixed with the rust. The tannin in the tea reacts with the iron in the rust and creates a grey color. The results are below.

New projects

2010-06-07T14:40:00.003-06:00

In the past week I've become part of two different projects. The first one is The Sketchbook Project and I received my sketchbook in the mail today. The sketchbook has to be completed by the end of the year and then sent back in to become a part of The Brooklyn Art Library's permanent collection. There are several themes to choose from and since I'm not a sketchbook user I chose "This is not a Sketchbook". I plan on filling the pages with fabric and possibly some stitches. I've tried many times to keep a sketchbook but have never succeeded, so by using fabric and not thinking of it as a sketchbook I'm hoping to succeed with it.

The second one is online at ideas of inspiration. I've joined a group of creative souls that are given a theme twice a month as inspiration for a photo or project. The theme for the beginning of June was turquoise/teal. I had a few photos that fit the theme, so I posted those. I'm hoping that it will help jump start me when I'm stuck or getting bored with the photos I've been doing daily.

Both of these projects will force me to step out of my comfort zone and I'm looking forward to that.

My fiddle takes first place

2010-06-04T11:53:00.002-06:00

This picture was taken the day I turned the fiddle in. I got a call yesterday that it had taken first place. So Monday they've scheduled a time for a photo op with the newspaper. I may have won a prize, but have no idea what.

We have had rain everyday this week, everything is wet,wet, wet. This is quite unusual for us, normal for this time of year is dry and quite warm (80). It hasn't been very conducive to working with my bricks, in fact nothing has been done in the yard since last Sunday.

Bricks, diamonds and hand stitches

2010-05-30T15:26:00.002-06:00

This is the area where I'll be putting my pile of bricks, where all the weeds and crab grass used to be. I've been spending my mornings digging and am now ready to start laying bricks.

Then in the afternoon I've been spending time in the studio. The picture below is what I put on the design wall yesterday. It's the leftovers from the big green diamond quilt, plus a few additions.

It will be my blanket for yoga class. We need a blanket to cover ourselves in the winter when we lay on the floor because the building we use is very cool. I've been using an old quilt I made but it's more lap size and I'm tall and always have extremities hanging out. So this one is long and slender, made just my size.

This is what I should be working on.

It's a very large mono print that I'm doing some hand stitching on. My plan is to get it done and enter it into Quilt National. I can't show you the whole thing because of their entry rules. I must have needed a break from it because I kept finding excuses to go to the kitchen for a snack or to play with other fabric. So I gave in and played with fabric, I really don't need the snacks.

bricks

2010-05-25T12:39:00.003-06:00

The above pile of bricks was in front of the old Senior Center in town, they are now in front of my house. A new Senior center was built next door to the old one and the old one is being torn down so there's room for parking. I had a small project planned for my backyard, I only needed 68 bricks. Don decided that since these were very inexpensive he would use them in a project he had planned. So six truckloads of bricks later, and two very sore bodies, the bricks are at our house. We got 800 of them!!! They weigh 12 lbs. apiece and each one had to be put into the truck and then taken out of the truck. Now there's more work ahead getting them in place.