A Visit from an Internet Friend

A long time internet friend was in the Boise area and I finally got to meet her. Kathleen Loomis and I were both doing daily pictures about six years ago when we became internet friends, so it was really nice to finally meet her and spend a good part of Saturday with her. Lisa drove her out to Weiser and we spent a couple of hours in my studios and had lunch. We did a lot of sharing of artwork and talking. Kathy showed us her delightful travel stitching, long strips of linen with highlights of her trips depicted in stitch.

After lunch we went back towards Boise and spent some time at Kathleen's studio. What an enjoyable day, it's so much fun when you meet a kindred spirit for the first time and you get along like you've been friends forever.

Part of our discussion involved my "Hands" project that I had put in time out. Both Kathy and Lisa had some good suggestions on what to do about the black hole. I got excited about it again and spent some time on Sunday enlarging a tracing of my hand, then cutting out three of them to use as patterns for some stitching.

My plan is to stitch around the hands in the primary colors, using #3 pearl cotton. I've ordered the colors I need and they should be here by the middle of the week. The white hands will be going away, but I think the heavy colored thread will add enough interest. I really do want to get this done, I've been working on it for over a year. You can read more about it here.

For a change of pace, I played around with some of my rusty bits and different types of tea.

The tea stained the fabric the color, and the tannin in the tea made the grey/black marks when it came in contact with the rust. Here are the  pieces afterwards.

The top two have some possibilities, but they may also just end up as samples in a pile somewhere.

The Weekly Leaf
I got out my TAP(transfer artist paper) and printed a leaf, cut it out and ironed it to my fabric.

Above is the leaf I used and the transfer ready to stitch. I like the subtle changes in the color of the leaf on the fabric.

Week #40

Daily Stitching updates

Gelli prints #271-277

Shades of Orange #198-204

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

Slow week

Not much happening in the studio this week, I was busy with Dr.'s appointments and getting things ready for my husbands birthday party/sausage fest. The Dr.'s appointments included an MRI of my left knee that has been getting progressively more painful, the results showed a complex tear in my meniscus. There will be a surgery in my future, but I don't see the Orthopedic doc until next week so I don't know when.

I have been getting a few things accomplished in the evenings while sitting in my big comfy chair.

There's a table hidden underneath this.  I'm working on another pair of socks, a sweater and next weeks leaf.

The Weekly Leaf

This week I got out leaves that I had printed on TAP(Transfer Artist Paper) quite a while ago, the others that were on the sheet were used last year.

Without reading the directions, I put them face down and ironed them to the fabric. I'm not sure if I didn't iron long enough or if the prints don't transfer s well when they are old, but I only got partial prints. The rest stayed on the paper.

I decided that I actually like the partials and will probably use the paper parts in a mixed media application in the future. I liked stitching through the partials better than the perfect prints.

Week #39

Daily Stitching updates

Silk Fragments #265-#271

Sari Ribbon #193-#199

linked to "Off the Wall Friday"

The Weekly Leaf and Line Dance done!

Hard to believe it's the end of the year already, but I've run out of squares for Line Dance and just did week 52 of the Weekly Leaf, so it must be.

The Weekly Leaf
A few weeks ago, before the snow covered everything , I found a bunch of willow leaves.

Out came the Gelli plate and the Jacquard textile paint and I got three prints.

 first and second print from the Gelli plate

print made with paint left on leaf

I used the last print, the one done directly with the leaf and added lots of stitching.

Week #52

Here are all 52 of them.

This year I'm going to attach them to a quilted natural silk noil background. In the picture above they are just placed on the fabric, I haven't quilted it yet. 

I have loved doing these. I have used at least fifteen different surface design techniques to get the image onto the fabric. They include; several different methods with a Gelli plate, stencils, masks, thermofax/screen prints, drawing, tracing, rubbings, stamps, soy wax, discharge, color magnet, Solarfast, solvent transfer, TAP, stitched shibori, and painted wonder under. I've kept the stitching simple using these basic stitches; stem stitch, backstitch, french knots, chain stitch and straight stitches. You can see each one by clicking on The Weekly Leaf page link in the header above.

Daily Stitching updates.

Line Dance #358-#365

All sewn together

 A closer look.

The Daily Paper #286-#293

I have 72 more of these to do (and 72 days to my birthday).

Next post I'll show you what I'm starting on for the new year.

Happy New Year!

Linked to "Off the Wall Friday"

TAP

The Weekly Leaf

For this weeks leaf I'm revisiting the leaves that I printed on TAP(Transfer Artist Paper).

leaves on the left, TAP on the right

I'm using the ones in the upper left corner of the paper. 

Here they've been ironed onto my fabric and are ready to stitch.

Week #51

Daily stitching updates.

Line Dance #350-#357, only eight more to go!

The Daily Paper #278-#285

I hope you enjoy this Holiday Season and thank you for visiting.

Linked to "Off the Wall Friday"