crazy quilt class

I know, this picture is really dark, the lighting in this room can be pretty dim sometimes. Anyway, here is the beginning of my project for my other Sharon B class on encrusted crazy quiting. I look forward to embellishing it, because it doesn't do much for me right now.

sharon b's class

I am taking a class from Joggles by Sharon B -- Personal Library of Stitches. Only problem is, I am also taking another class by her, Encrusted Crazy Quilting, and got some of my materials mixed up! The above sampler is done on calico rather than the linen that I purchased for this class. No wonder I couldn't figure out how everyone could do such straight lines! Ah well, at least I got practice with new stitches.

One more

Ok, these should be the last ones for today. The top two are experiements with model magic being pressed into stamps and then drying for 24 hours. After that, I painted them with Koh-I-Noor watercolors and Twinkling H2Os watercolors. I think I liked the twinkling ones better because the Koh-I-Noor were very intense in color and hard to tone down. I spread Treasure Gold over each of them to bring out the texture. Its funny, I used to hate Treasure Gold, because I had such a hard time getting enough on my finger to rub on a project. Recently, I realized that the Treasure Gold I was using was dried out and that it worked much better when it was still soft! The bottom picture are fragments of handmade paper I made back in January. I used Stewart Gill paints for most of them and embossed them. After that, I rubbed Treasure Gold on most of them. On one, I did a layer of black patinating wax, let it sit before wiping most of it off, and then added the gold.
All little experiements I hope to turn into something bigger one day!

Energy coming back

Ok, I made it through the last post, so time to push myself some more.



Ok, first pic is my attempt at following ideas from a book by Jenny Rolfe on machine embroidered bags. Now, I didn't want to make a bag, but rather a book cover for a blank journal I have. However, when I laid the pieces on the backing and Wunderunder, they did not come out as straight as Jenny's. I have to finish embroidering it, but this was my first attempt at free machine and unfortunately, I had to take a lot of breaks because the needle and thread were not making friends with each other.
Second pic is what was supposed to be the beginning of an awesome piece inspired by Maggie Grey, but looks no where near what I wanted. Maggie showed a technique in one of her books in which she spread Xpandaprint on a piece of chiffon and pulled a tool through it designed to leave lines (like taking a credit card and cutting notches in the end and dragging it through). I did it for two pieces and I am not even showing the first one, because I dislike it so much. The lines are too defined and look juvenile. The second piece was more of a mop up from the leftover Xpandaprint and I liked that one better. When the paint it dried and you heat it, it it supposed to contort into these lovely valleys and hills, but mine looked nowhere near as good as Maggie's. I painted them with Dye-Na-Flow paints and I admit, they did look better once painted, I just have to think of how I will use them.
The last one was my playing with light copper ArtEmboss sheets. I heated most of the pieces, but did try painting a few with Adriondack alcohol inks first and then after they were heated. I thought I would really like the painting on the metal, because I had never been able to find the spirit soluble dyes that Maggie suggested to use in Paper Metal Stitch and when I saw her do an article on the technique with the inks, I thought now I would have results like hers. But the colors were too bold and brash for me, so I wiped down many of those and went with just the rainbow heated look. I embossed some and am thinking of using some of the strips in some type of weaving.

Creative Funk

I have been in such a funk lately, I can't seem to snap out of it. I was all excited to post some photos of work that I did while I had a week off, but then the blog site wouldn't let me post anything that day and I haven't had any ambition since. Anyway, here are some photos of one project I was working on back in the beginning of October:



I have most of Maggie Grey's books and I wanted to actually try using some of her techniques rather than just drooling over them as eye candy. So, I took a piece of cotton velvet and painted with with greens, blues and violets in Dye-Na-Flow paints and let it dry overnight. Unfortunately, I didn't have the best quality fabric, because the thing continues to shed all over, but I digress. Anyway, I bonded Wunderunder to it and put a lilac chiffon scarf on top, which I then distressed with a heat gun to make a lacy texture. Then I added some silver transfoil to it. It was pretty, but I was afraid the thing was going to fall apart on me. I embellished with my babylock and that made me feel like it was a little more attached. I also embellished some green and purple scraps of wool for a different texture. Also, I saw a technique about crocheting single crochet strands and couching them to fabric. I used some odds and ends yarn I had to make different colors strands and added them to the piece. Now, the strands were just sticking up from the piece. So, I started doing free motion embroidery around it. Now, this was only my second attempt doing free motion, so I know it looks like a beginner did it. I haven't finished the piece yet, but I am feeling good about the way it is starting to look more cohesive. I plan to add some handstitching, but I am signed up to take two classes on stitches from Joggles.com, so I want to practice before I put it on the piece. Now, what wil I do with the fabric piece once its done? I have no idea, but at least I had fun experimenting with new techniques.

Evil Toys

Article A: Examine the current bane of my existence in these two toys:




Now, I know I shouldn't complain. I'm very lucky to have a rigid hettle loom and a new drum carder. But these things are seriously trying every ounce of my patience. The first time I warped my loom, I had the help of Bob and Patrick, my friends at Winderwood Farm. So I thought I'd take 45 minutes on Friday night and whip that together and be well on my way weaving by Saturday morning. But the loom decided to teach me humility by having the warping peg fly off the windowsill I had it attached to and then refusing to have any even tension. Needless to say, my loving boyfriend Joe was not happy at being woken up late Friday night to hold my warp threads as I slowly wound them on. Then, in my cranky mood, he thought it would be good for him to give me advice on how to do it. Ah, men.
And then there's the drum carder. Sunday was going to be an easy morning of playing with some scrap fibers and making beautiful bats like my friends at Winderwood make. And of course, the drum carder laughed at me when I cranked it too fast and fibers refused to blend.
So now you know why I have not posted anything lately. Lots of creative ideas, but the tools and I are still getting used to each other. I'm thinking of buying them chocolate to appease them--that usually works for me.

Response to post on transfer paints

I kept meaning to do this, but forgot. Someone asked me when I posted my transfer paint pieces if I had a source for the paints in the U.S. I did get mine from Ario, but I found that even though they are overseas, they were very fast in delivery and the currency exchange was not a big deal. If anyone does know of a U.S. source, please leave me a comment so others can know!

Fabulous Fiber Fest Finish!

What a weekend! Anyone that is a fiber enthusiast will appreciate the fun of attending a fiber fest! Its wonderful, because you're encouraged to be totally tactile with what you're buying and there are so many things to touch and feel. The Genesee Valley Fiber Festival is always around this time of year and we had decent weather today, although yesterday was quite wet and damp. I helped out at the Winderwood Farm tent and I must say, I highly recommend people to visit their website on ebay (its on my "Websites I Recommend"). Not only do they have an amazing selection of fiber, but for anyone that does silk fusion--be prepared to spend money! They have silk dyed in every color of the rainbow: its gorgeous and high quality. Here are some pictures from their tent:


The guild also does a skein and garment competition, so here is a picture with some of the beautiful entries for that:


And to have fiber, it helps to have animals. These llamas, cashgoras, and shetland sheep are available for kids and adults alike to pet and get familiar with:




This is the booth of Spinning Bunny, another website I recommend. She has some wonderful colorways of fiber and silk and she's ever so friendly and helpful to poor people like me that get stuck working on a pattern for knitting and come close to throwing it out the window!


I finally followed suit of so many of the creative blogs I love and made a padfolio based on Sue Bleiweiss' directions on the Fibre & Stitch page. This was done with silk fusion in a hope to sell it at the show, but alas, no takers...

Fiber Fest

Oh My Goodness!!!! I have been incredibly busy helping friends prepare for the Genesee Valley Fiber Festival we have in our region these past couple of days and have had no time to post anything! It should all be over on Sunday evening, so I should be back after that. Never realized how draining it is preparing and selling hundreds of fibers!

Opinion on silk fusion

Well, I did this silk fusion book over the weekend, but now I'm debating if it needs a little pizzazz. The first photo is how it looks now, but I'm debating if I should attach this bright little diamond I have placed on it in the second photo for a focal point. Anyone have any thoughts?

Transfer dyes

I finally got off my duff and decided to start using the wonderful transfer dyes that I ordered. I used the article by Margaret Roberts in Fibre & Stitch to get my creative juices going. Her ideas on how to manipulate the paper to get patterns is wonderful! The first two pictures, I did a background and then cut up pieces of my other work and layered it on. I love the technique that Margaret uses in which she crumples the paper and then paints on the tops of the little hills to achieve a marbled effect--you can see the ghostly image on some of them. A couple of the pieces I did not layer because they were so pretty on their own and so, I would just do a second transfer and then layer on it. The green and purple piece I did on Lutradur. The piece with circles toward the end is from during a rubbing with my transfer crayons on an Indian wooden block, but I think I'm going to need to add something else to it, since it looks kind of blah.

Fiber Arts Cruise Book

I finally finished the book I started on my Fabulous Fiber Arts and Creative Embroidery Cruise to Alaska, hosted by Quilting Arts. The class was taught by Beryl Taylor and Patricia Bolton and the cover is made with fabric from Beryl's fabric paper technique (see the first issue of Cloth Paper Scissors). I had most of the cover done on the trip, but I finally got around with filling the watercolor pages with words, pictures, stamping, and things to fill the pockets I created. The fabric paper was backed with felt and the edge was covered with strips of sheer ribbon, handstitched and tiny beads added. The Canada goose picture was a transfer done on habatoi silk--I loved this technique, because I never get all the paper off with tranfers, but it didn't matter, because you flip it to the other side of the silk and you get a clear (although backwards) image, with just enough of that ghostly distortion.

No time

Ah, I was so thinking that this blog would help me get my act together and really work more diligently on my projects, if only out of an obligation to post. However, last night was a perfect example of why that does not often happen as I plan. I am a social worker and I work in the domestic violence field, so my days are often long and unpredictable. I have several job titles right now, including Supervising Case Manager at the shelter I work at, Prevention/Education Services Coordinator in which I do presentations to students (elementary through college) and community members, Outreach Cooredinator in which I try to make sure we distribute any materials to agencies and doctor's offices that let people know about our services, and the Family Safety Advocate. The last one is the hardest, but most rewarding. I work with our local Department of Social Services. They will identify a family that is currently experiencing domestic violence or still being impacted by it from the past and I work with them in their home. Sometime I do couples counseling, sometimes its anger management, sometimes its education of post-traumatic stress disorder, and sometimes its working with kids whose behavior has changed due to the domestic violence. I like the work, but sometimes I come home and simply have no energy, even to do mindless things like knitting or spinning. Well, I guess I can only hope things will slow down toward the end of the week so I can try to get stuff done again, wish me luck!

Oops!

This is why you should preview your post first, I did two of the same pic! Here's a pic of the stole I'm working on, see description in previous post. I swear, I'll get this posting a pic thing eventually!

Intro

Hello everyone!
I admit, I am the last person I ever thought would start a blog, mainly because I always pictured them in the context of how I saw the teens I work with use them as a "Dear Diary" format that often led to a lot of drama and hurt feelings in the real world. And then I started looking at the other blogs of amazing artists and realized, this could also be used as a wonderful tool! My goal is to use this blog to talk about things I am working on to talk my thoughts out on what I'm working on and hopefully get feedback on some other things to do or try! So above here are some pics of things I am working on currently.
The blue knitted thing was supposed to be half of a stole, but unfortunately, I spun the yarn too thick and I also had the stitches on too small of needles, so they got squished together. So I still have to do the second half (now the same way to match), but it will be too small for a stole and a really thick scarf, so I'm not sure what I'll do. Definitely not the lacy pattern I had in mind when I looked at the pattern photo, but that's mainly user error!
The ball of yarn I just recently spun, isn't it gorgeous? Its a blend of llama, wool and mohair and was dyed by Black North Fiber in Hilton, NY. I love the combination of blue, ochre, and sienna brown. And its so soft! I just have to figure out what to do with it. I had to spin it woolen and I am still getting used to this (as opposed to worsted), so its definitely not even.
And then there's my embellisher experiments! I just got one a few weeks ago after going on the Fiber Arts Cruise held by Quilting Arts in July, its such a fun toy! However, both of these pieces need something. I tried free motion stitching on sewing machine, but my machine really is not equipped to do it and it didn't work at all. So I am going to add some hand stitching and then post them again, hoping they will look much better.
Ok, those are the current projects I'm working on or have completed. Any feedback or questions, let me know!