More French knots, SAQA Auction,Indigo and some finished leaves

I've had a busy week which included a surprise visit and four day stay by my sister in law and her husband. They came to surprise Don for his birthday.

I've finished all the little leaf pieces and each is mounted on a canvas.

The second week of the SAQA Auction is in full swing and my piece is still available.

Today I had a wonderful group of creatives here to learn some shibori techniques with indigo. I managed to get one picture of them all together in front of a line of their work. The pieces that are being held haven't had time to oxidize yet, that's why they are green.

Weekly stitching
Signs Of Life:The five universal shapes
week #39
Lots more french knots

2017 Daily Stitching #2 days108-114

I'll be linking up to "Off the Wall Friday" and "Slow Sunday Stitching"

SAQA Auction and leaves

The annual SAQA Auction started this week, there's still time to get some great pieces from section 1.  My piece will be up next week in section 2.

I've done more of the eco /botanical printing this week, trying different mordants and papers and fabrics. This group was steaming last week when I posted.

Next up was some silk habitoi on the left and silk broadcloth on the right.

Then more on heavy watercolor paper.

A group on a lighter weight watercolor paper.

Then I used a few of the leaves I had leftover and did gelli prints.

I'll have lots of starting material for artwork this winter.

When I'm not printing I've been quilting.

And the small pieces too.

Weekly Stitching
Signs of Life:The five universal shapes
week #38
lots more french knots

2017 Daily Stitching #2

No french knots here this week

I'm now over half way done.

I'll be linking up to "Off the Wall Friday' and "Slow Sunday Stitching"

More leaf studies and a different type of leaf prints

I enjoyed making the little leaf studies so much last week that I made a few more. I got out a few of my hand carved stamps, some hand dyed fabric and did some prints.

Then pieced some borders and now I've got nine.

I've decided to stop making them and actually finish them. The three on the left now have embroidered leaves, but that's as far as I got.

I got a bit side tracked trying some eco printing/botanical printing. Even though I've dyed fabric for over twenty years, I've always avoided natural dying. My rational was I didn't need to add more chemicals to my studio. I finally succumbed to the allure of natural prints. Right now I'm working mainly on watercolor paper although a piece of silk noil did get tossed in. Here are yesterdays results.

The papers and silk were first soaked in an alum solution, the leaves were dipped in an iron solution and everything was bundled together and steamed for two hours. As I'm writing this I have another bundle steaming, this time the leaves were dipped into a copper solution, and more silk pieces were added. I'll know in about an hour how they turned out.

I keep trying to use up all my fabric and yet I signed up for a monthly mailing of sari silk fat quarters  from Darn Good Yarn. Today I got my first shipment and I'm quite pleased, not only did I get the four fat quarters but included was a sample of some sari yarn. Not that I needed any, I still have leftovers form the daily stitching I did a few years ago that used sari silk.

I have an idea floating around in my mind on how to use these, but it's not fully formed yet.

Weekly Stitching
Signs of Life:The five universal shapes
wk#37
more french knots

2017 Daily Stitching #2 days 94-100

French knots here also and more background

I'll be linking up with "Off the Wall Friday" and "Slow Sunday Stitching"

Some new work and a studio"helper"

This week I pulled out some leftover scraps from making our great grandsons quilt last year. The scraps were pretty small and I did add a few other fabrics to the mix, but with the thought of an overgrown landscape I came up with this.

Now how do I quilt it? It's 24 inches square so probably doesn't need much.

I still had a few small pieces left and remembered some leftover prints from the weekly leaf series so ended up making 3 smaller pieces.

These pieces will get some hand stitching on the leaves and will most likely be mounted onto canvas when finished.

Then there were a few blueprint scraps and this happened.

This will also get some hand stitching.

I belong to the local art guild and we have several new places to display artwork in town so these will be perfect for that. Here's the whole group on my design wall.

Missy, the new kitten that adopted us has decided to come my studio helper, which is okay when

 she is like this.

But not when she's doing this.

Weekly Stitching

Signs of Life: The five universal shapes

week #36

I did lots of french knots this week and but it really doesn't look like much.

2017 Daily Stitching #2 days#87-93

A few polkadots, triangles and background stitching.

I'll linking up to "Off the Wall Friday" and "Slow Sunday Stitching"