Just Added

I just added several more items to my Etsy Shop. You can click on the link to the right to see them.

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Anita

Transfers

Today was "Transfers" day for our Quilting Arts Alliance group. We tried several different transfer methods for applying text or imagery to fabric and other objects.

Mary Ann showed us how to use a transparency sheet to trace a photo and then apply that tracing to fabric.


Do you like my light box? It's a plastic box with a square acrylic ruler on top and a small, battery-operated light inside.

Frances taught us how she uses Golden Threads Quilting Paper to transfer her quilting design to a quilt by drawing her design on the paper, pinning it to a section of the quilt, and then stitching over the lines.


We also tried a transfer pen by drawing a shape on paper and then pressing the image to fabric.


Lyric Kinard's method of using CitriSolve on a photocopy to transfer the image worked great.

The photocopy is on the right, and the transfer is on the left.

We also worked with some gel medium to transfer magazine images to fabric. If mine turns out well I'll show it later.

Last, but not least, we played with TAP, Transfer Artist Paper, on which we printed an image and then applied it to fabric. This little Van Gogh image looks great on fabric. I may use it to make a pocket.

Fun afternoon!

The Tiara Case

We just got back from a short trip to Florida where Ann and I went to A & E Pharmacy in Pensacola for a look-see at their fabrics. I've written about A & E before here--it's a wonderful Five & Dime that's half pharmacy and half craft and fabric (huge) store.

One of its best oddities is "The Tiara Case". How often do you see a tiara case, really? It's the only one I've ever seen...


There are actually crowns in there too--all in the good name of Mardi Gras and the many such balls and parties during Mardi Gras season in Pensacola.

Cool.

Too Little Time

There are just too many wonderful arts and crafts to try and too little time. On Saturday the wonderful Tracy Young taught a small group of us how to carve and then use blocks for printing. Here's a sampling of our work...

As you can see on the left, mine were the most simplistic: two leaves and (I'm very proud of it...) my new hallmark. That's my AH mark in green at the top right.

Last week I purchased a lovely knitting bag from Cambridge Lane. Marybeth designed the bag which has a special pocket for yarn and a deep middle to hold knitting needles. There's a loop on the bag to hook it while knitting and a nice, long, across-the-chest strap to keep my hands free.

Progress

Voila, the next batch of dyed wool...


I'm finally sewing garments again and I happily discovered that cutting out patterns is much easier using rotary cutters.


Using the 28mm rotary cutter as a pivot point, I used my left hand to turn the piece as I cut. So easy!


I fused these pattern pieces to Pellon Quilter's Grid on Point which gives the tissue pattern some stability. The Grid comes with fusible on one side and a grid on the other, and it's transparent enough to be able to cut patterns on the wrong side too. It's also very easy to pin through. This method is so much easier than transferring to a non-woven pattern fabric.

Yesterday's Dyed Wool

Yesterday's dye pot yields today's wool yarns and rovings...


The dye color was a combination of sun yellow and a drop of bright blue to get a color that was close to lime green. On the piece below, I started with a tan wool, so the outcome was more like chartreuse.


On creamy white wool the lime is true and the color is variegated...



The lime was a little darker on the white yarn...


This multi-colored yarn, over dyed with lime, will make a fine compliment to the lime yarn.


Finally, the pink & brown yarn, as well as a blue, white, and sea green yarn became this new color of variegated lime green...


These colors will be wonderful in wool pincushions!

Fabric Letters

Shirley taught us a simple system for cutting out fabric letters to apply to quilts and other fiber art at yesterday's Quilting Arts Alliance meeting. Below is the banner she made for me last year...

Women on a Mission

This week Mary Ann, Marybeth and I drove up to Asheville, NC to visit the Fiber Arts Alliance and to visit some other Asheville destinations. It takes over 6.5 hours of driving when we make it a day trip, so we had our events lined up. It was wonderful to see the ladies at the FAA again. Sadly we couldn't stay for the program.

We visited Waechter's Fine Fabrics (pronounced Wockters) twice that day, once for "recon" and the second time to purchase. We all had projects in mind for garment sewing. Here's what I'll be working on...


The tunic on the left and the slacks on the right are the first order of business.

I found this wonderful batik rayon to match the green linen I hand dyed recently. Linen is for the slacks.


This lovely piece, designed by Valorie Wells, is for this tunic, I think...

I've been looking for laminated cotton ever since I heard about it, and finally found it at Waechter's. Laminated cotton is wonderful for lunch bags, baby items, aprons, table cloths, etc. Here's the piece I bought...


We visited several other places including Mr. K's Used Bookstore where we turned in books for credit. I found this jem...


The downtown shops were closing soon, but we did walk through the Grove Arcade, a beautifully restored historic building in downtown Asheville. The first floor houses retail shops including a yarn store, NC crafts store, vegetable stand and more.

There were many more places we wanted to visit, but time ran out. Our last stop was at a delicious Thai restaurant just outside the Grove Arcade.

We love you Asheville, and we'll be back soon!

Inspiration

Yesterday was "Inspiration Day" as I visited the newly reopened and remodeled Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia with a friend. Here are some of my favorites:

This was the first piece we saw, and it was my overall favorite; painted by Gary Hudson. The title is Pi Kuan, which means "wall meditation". It is about 10 feet wide.

Here's a photo of the detail


This piece looks very much like my husband's rust dyed fabric. Amazing.

There were three Frank Lloyd Wright stained glass windows...


And some wonderful Georgia O'Keeffe paintings...


...and several Renoir pieces which were wonderful.

This was the best corner...


...and I loved this fella...

...whose marker read "House paint on tin". So cool.