Quilting Arts Alliance

Yesterday we had our monthly Quilting Arts Alliance meeting at the Lyndon House in Athens, GA. We always have wonderful show-n-tell items, like Paula's lovely quilts...


...and her class project from a trip to the Chicago International Quilt Festival...


Mary Ann brought her beautiful book covers, purses, etc. which will be for sale at the downtown craft fair in Athens on Saturday (May 1)...

Mary Ann even used the technique we learned a few months ago for making fabric beads!

Those are two orange fabric beads being used as closures for this book cover. Aren't these colors lovely together?

At the same meeting yesterday I gave a program on Altering Fabrics with Paint and More.


We had two long counter tops full of paints, inks, markers, foils, and more.

It's a big art weekend in the Athens, GA area; Southworks Art Festival is May 1 & 2 in downtown Watkinsville (our member Nancy, at the back of this photo, has a photograph entered into this national jurried show and pieces in the OCAF artist's booth) and there's a craft fair downtown on the corner of Pulaski and W. Clayton Sts. Come on down for a fun weekend!

This Week in Digest Form

Well, yes, I have been doing some sewing this week. I put together most of the quilt from the last post and plan to finish that tonight. Plus I did a little gardening, a little teaching, a little cooking and some other sewing. There were no great leaps and bounds, but it was a productive week.

We ended the week with a short trip to lovely western North Carolina...

The river through Cherokee, NC is beautiful and, as usual there were some fishermen enjoying some early morning sport. In the summer this river is full if kids and fishermen...all trying to avoid each other and enjoy the shallow lovely river that runs through town.

Our veggie gardens are looking healthy and we got some good rain yesterday to perk things up and fill the rain barrel...

Happy Earth Week!

Fun Day

This day started with helping a new quilter; Jane was actually doing quite well on her own, but needed a few tips and tricks to feel more comfortable with her sewing and results.

This afternoon I sewed some of these blocks together for a quilt for Jim, our ever-helpful medical adviser. Jim is our good friend who also happens to be a retired surgical nurse. He's getting a batik quilt in dark guy colors which I hope will look great in the blue living room on his black leather couch. Here's the layout so far...

To end the day, the Red Sox are playing while I sew. How much better can this day get?

Well, the team could win.

New Technique

In preparation for a demo-program I'm giving to the Tara Guild of Clayton County, GA on Monday, I found a wonderful book with a new and very easy technique for adding color and design to fabric!

This book is by Sherrill Kahn and it's about using permanent ink markers like Sharpie or Bic Mark It (found in office supply stores) and Copic markers (found in art supply stores), to color, among other things, fabric.

Nothing new, right? Well check this out...

Here's my line drawing on a piece of fabric (it doesn't have to be white fabric)...and look what happens to it with Sherrill's technique...

Oooooh! Now you want to know how that happened, right? Well, this change came from a light spray of rubbing alcohol. Here's another example...

I started with plain white fabric and added some Sharpie marks:

Then I spritzed with the alcohol. and got this...

which wasn't exactly what I was looking for, so I added more Sharpie marks to the fabric to fill in the white areas; spritzed again and here's the finished piece...


This is definitely a usable piece. The more I spritz, the more diluted the color becomes and the more filled in the areas are. If you like to see your lines, just go easy on the spritzing.

Here's an added bonus: if you place card stock under your work before spritzing, the ink will bleed onto it and give a wonderful watercolor design on paper.

Sherrill has many more techniques in the book including other ways of applying the rubbing alcohol, applying the marker design, and other materials that take marker designs (wood, plastic, metal, clay and paper). She also describes how to heat set the fabric for washing.

If you live in Athens, you are welcome to flip through my copy of this book. If you'd like to order a copy of your own through me, you can contact me through my website contact address. Go to www.headyfiberarts.com and click on the Contact page. The price will be $11.00 plus shipping, no handling fee.

And The Winner Is....

Drum roll please....and the winner of the anniversary prize pack is...

Dale Ann!

Congratulations!

Dale, please go to my website, www.headyfiberarts.com where you can use that contact e-mail link to send your mailing address to me.

Thank you everyone for your lovely comments and for participating in the Anita Heady Fiber Arts anniversary giveaway.

Happy Easter and Anniversary Giveaway!

Today, April 4th, besides being Easter, is also the 2nd anniversary of my business, Anita Heady Fiber Arts. It is also my lovely late grandmother's 110th birthday. Bonne Fête Mémère!

In honor of this big day I'm having a giveaway...leave a comment on this blog between now and Thursday, April 8th to have a chance to win the prizes above: Clover self-threading needles, Collins crystal head pins, a handmade-by-me wool pincushion, a Sulky transfer pen, and the book Strip Easy by Christiane Meunier.

Don't forget to check back on Friday to see if you've won and to send your address to me.

Happy Spring!

Spring!

Today was a day to shop yard sales and to garden. Here in the deep south, no one has a clue what a "Tag Sale" is ...selling tags? No, selling items with tags on them, a.k.a. yard sale.

We met lots of nice folks and found some cool things...



This was a 50's (?) tablecloth for $4.00; so cool.

How about this $1.00 vintage quilt. It's not in perfect condition, but it's lovely and has a very simple and interesting pattern. I cut off the parts that aren't perfect and add a new binding.

I haven't found any particular style for our master bathroom that interests me, but this $1.00 piece of art decided it for me...simple Asian style; very zen-like.


And, oooooh, I love getting Chico's clothing for $8.00. This brown denim jacket with matching slacks and red floral embroidery is wonderful. Click on the image to see the great buttons.


Bridal Wreath shrub in bloom

Phlox in bloom

The Band...Bill likes to create yard art; this is called The Band with the red headed step child.

I planted the tomato plants, oregano, sage and mint for tea.

It's 8:20 pm and the sky just got dark in the last 10 minutes. We're at the far western end of the US eastern time zone, so even in early April we have bright skies until 8:00pm.