Hand Dyes are Heaven

Last week Bill made a wonderful display piece which I'll use when I have a booth or area in which to sell my work. It's on a small hill in our yard in the photo, so it looks tilted here. The bottom of the stand is the base of a tall fan. The top is PVC pipe into which he drilled holes for dowels. The fabric is pinned on with clothespins, and it can hold 24 lengths of fabric or more. Isn't it beautiful?

Bill has another idea brewing...he'll use a small white night stand, which is currently unused and in our garage and will add a T-pipe to the back which can hold fabrics like the one above but on a smaller scale. The night stand has a drawer for small items and a flat area for a basket or two. Voila! a compact art/craft display. That's my man!

The new Quilting Arts Alliance

This is a photo from the first meeting of the Quilting Arts Alliance in Athens. We met this week at the main Athens-Clarke County library on Baxter St. for an organizational meeting. There were six of us this time, with more promised to join us next month. Gloria, Sylvia, Diane and Marilyn are in the photo. Suzanne and I were also there. We decided to have a Shiva Paintstik demo next month (I'll do the demo) and made a list of other programs we'd be interested in having. Diane will also give an upcoming program for us. Here's to a good year!

Demonstrations

It was a busy weekend at the Lyndon House Arts Center in Athens, GA. On Saturday morning the LH had its Gypsy Artist's Market on the lawn, and in the afternoon we demonstrated quiltmaking at the Art Expo. Each group who meets at the LH was asked to supply members who would demonstrate their art.

Mary (left) hand beaded a piece and marked a quilt for demo. She also brought her beautiful hand-quilted and appliqued quilt which received a lot of attention.

Diane (center) worked on a new tote bag project which had a beautiful Lumiere painted front.

Terri (right) sold her colorful tie-dyed t-shirts, showed her beaded art piece and hand appliqued a block.

We were so busy talking and enjoying the afternoon as visitors browsed and watched that I nearly forgot about my camera! Bill made a wonderful display rack for my hand-dyed fabrics--it looked like a rainbow clothesline...and I forgot to take a photo of it! Oy. I'll have to put it together again this week for a photo op. It's just too beautiful to ignore.

That's my display board, in the far left-hand corner of the photo, with the projects I demonstrated. The Quilt Guild's quilt assembly display is on the countertop. Fun was had by all!

Using Tiny Scraps

This week I had an opportunity to help teach three art classes at Monsignor Donovan Catholic High School in Athens, GA. Their teacher, Miss Bridges, and I decided to teach the teens how to embellish on fabric using Shiva Paintstiks. The students stenciled with commercial stencils, made some of their own, and then made torn paper mountains for stenciling. They also made rubbings using rubbing plates and stamps. Because Paintstiks are oil based they can be pretty messy...and a lot of creative fun.

Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of the students' work, but suffice it to say that Miss Bridges' classes did a fine job!

Today I'm working on pieces that are similar to those in the last blog. I'm using up scraps that came from the 9-patch and string pieced blocks and I'm making a tiny Chinese Coin piece. By sewing together some of the smaller scrap pieces, I'll be able to make another small wall hanging. Now I have to figure out how to put them together in a cohesive layout.

TTYL

The best laid plans...

The best laid plans...sometimes change. I had planned to combine the string piece blocks with the 9-patch blocks, but they looked like a floral explosion together. Instead, the 9-patch blocks work quite well with the hand-dyed fabric, and I have 12, 3" string blocks which are the start of another small quilt. Not a bad compromise.

I would never have put these colors together myself (black, blush peach, fuchsia, and purple), but Kaffe Fassett had it right...they are beautiful together!

Still working on my online class for Dreamweaver (website building and manipulation) so that I can update my site all by myself. I'm having to dig out those college brain cells, but, surprise, surprise, they still work pretty well.

Tomorrow I'm announcing the start of a new Quilting Arts Alliance (or Art Quilt Alliance) group in Athens. We've all been talking about it (haha) for a year, so I'm jumping in and will announce the first meeting at the Cotton Patch Quilt Guild meeting tomorrow night. It will be based on the philosophy of the Fiber Arts Alliance in Asheville, NC. Basically, we all have groups in which we volunteer, take jobs, create for charity, etc. which are worthy of our time, but this group will be a once-a-month, low-stress group for art/contemporary quilters, hopefully with only three or four jobs: meeting leader, note taker, membership list keeper, leader for group shows. In this way, we'll be able to enjoy our time together and have an open forum for sharing information and ideas.

Best laid plans...hum. I hope I'm not the only one who wants it this way, haha. We'll find out.

TTYL

The Bry Quilt

Our son flew back to his Army base in Germany last weekend, but on the way to the airport we stopped in at an art show and fair where my quilt was hanging. It was the first quilt art piece this show had ever hung, so I was pleased. This is a photo of Bry, ever the tough guy (no smiling allowed) next to the quilt with his photo.

Look for this quilt if you visit the Houston Int'l. Quilt Festival this year. It will have the honor of hanging in the Quilts of Valor Foundation booth for the duration of the show. Sure wish I could go!

TTYL

Holiday Market Items

I'm hard at work making items to sell at the OCAF, http://www.myocaf.org/, Holiday Market in December, so hopefully my booth will be juried in, haha. I should know by the end of September. Anyway, here are some items I've made in the last two days. They will eventually be potholders. I'll sandwich and quilt them all at once in the next week or so.

With the leftover fabric from these fat quarters I made 3" 9-patch blocks that will become a small wall quilt or table art. This grouping is what I have so far. I'll also look into sewing them on point, but the "missing" blocks will be simple string blocks with similar colors and fabrics for a dramatic look. More on this piece later.

Like a good Athens, GA resident (who's really a yankee, but loves the south), my football weekend chant is "Go Dawgs!"

TTYL