A Play Day

Yesterday I got together with friends Bonnie Ouellette and Ann Hanewald. Bonnie had us over to her house where she had already mixed dyes for us to play with.

Ann and I have been wanting to dye silk scarves but weren't really interested in going with dye made for silk. Bonnie uses Procyon dyes for cotton fabric and we have been reading on the Art Digest about using Procyon dyes on silk. You have to soak the silk in white vinegar for 30 minutes, ring out and add dye to a baggie.

You then place the baggie in the microwave and steam. We set the time for 2 minutes and, with the exception of the green dye, the dye set in that amount of time. Don't know why the green took longer.

Bonnie and Ann waiting for the silk to steam.

It was so good to get out of the studio and do something other than work on classes. I want to do some stamping on a few of the scarves to see how that works. Back to working on classes for now.

Hang In There With Me

I'm busy writing information for a new class that I will be teaching in Nov. I am spending almost all day on the computer. That makes posting not very appealing at night when I usually do this. Hopefully I'll be creating soon.

Finally A New Post

It's been a while since I've had time to post. I was on vacation last week and had a very relaxing time. I've been very busy since then but most of what I'm doing is preparing for two big classes that are coming up.

I'm teaching a long weekend class for the Quilters of South Carolina Fall Retreat. The class is "Fabricating Faces" and I prepare the pattern for each person's portrait. I always go over this part in my class but time doesn't usually allow me to spend much time on that part. This looks to be a fun class.

QSC Fall Retreat is held at White Oak Baptist Conference Center. It's a perfect place for this type of retreat. Hotel, food, class rooms and an auditorium for night meetings. The retreat is Oct 20-23.

In Nov. I'm teaching at J. C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC. The class is Nov. 6-12 and is called "Personal Places: Portraits in the landscape. When I found out last week that I had won a ribbon at the IQA Show in Houston I decided that I really wanted to go to receive the ribbon in person. When I made that decision to go I knew that all my projects would have to be put aside and I would have to have everything ready to go to Campbell before I left for Houston.

I've spend the day working in PSE 8 getting photos ready for that class and emailed to the group. For some reason I always think that I haven't accomplished anything when I spend the day doing computer work. I hope to share some of these blended photos but am waiting for my students to give me the Okay. During lunch I broke a tooth eating, of all things, a toasted cheese sandwich. So I'm off tomorrow morning to see how many trips to the dentist that will take.

I'm So Excited and I Just Can't Help It.

"Ohm" I got a phone call from Crystal in Houston today to tell me my entry "Ohm" was a winner in the IQA Show in Nov. I am still shaking. Tuesday we left to go on vacation to Hilton Head, SC. We didn't get here until about 5:00. As I was putting our clothes away my cell phone rang. When I answer it I was disconnected. Didn't think anything about it but later decided I should check my recent calls in case it was one of our children trying to reach us. The phone number was listed and it said Houston, TX. I had a little heart flutter but decided that it must have been a wrong number. The next day I carried my phone with me all day but once again missed a phone call from TX. About this time I say Marie Elkins post on Art Digest saying she had gotten a call from Crystal at Houston telling her she was one of the top eight winners in the show. So I was really getting excited that perhaps Crystal was calling me to tell me that I was a winner in something. We do all dream about this right? Today she called again and I actually got to speak to her. She told me that I was cash winner but she couldn't tell me what place. I am still shaking. This is beyond my wildest dreams. I hadn't planned to go to Houston this year because I start teaching a week long class on that Sunday. I'm going to have to get very organized and get my stuff ready because I AM GOING TO HOUSTON. For some reason blogger wouldn't let me use paragraphs in my post. Sorry, that makes it difficult to read.

A Tribute

Doll by Betsy Dunkle

HiFiber Art Group Meeting: Fun, Fun, Fun

At the beginning of the year Bonnie O, Judy R, and myself took on the task of scheduling the months meetings for HiFiber 2011. Some months we had demos that resulted in a finished project. Some months we just had instructions that were to learn a new technique with no project. Judy, Bonnie and I rode to Paducah, KY together in Dec. to see the Everychanging River exhibit at the Quilt Museum. While there I purchased "Mixed-Media self-portraits" by Cate Coulacos Prato. This book inspired us to propose a challenge where we drew names of another member to make a portrait, rather than do a self-portrait. The challenge was wide open. It could be realist, abstract, representational or just something that represented that person's life. We met today for the unveiling.

This piece was done by Beatrix R. shone on the left of Donna B. shown on the right. Beatriz chose to abstract Donna's image as most of Donna's work is abstract. Very nicely done and while abstract you can certainly tell who she is.

There were two of our members who were unable to be at this meeting but they sent their portraits. This piece was made by Sandra R for Dianne G. Sandra used symbols of Dianne's life and art work but in the center she placed a flap with Dianne's portrait printed on fabric.

Closeup of Dianne's piece.

Bonnie O. on the left, my portrait, me on the right. I was so sure that someone else had my name that I didn't realize that this was me. Bonnie portrayal of me was inspired by some of my art work. "Ohm" shows me in a yoga pose, "Love" was another piece of mine. My classes are called Fabricating Nature, thus the Nature Girl. Then there was Hollie our little dog of eighteen years. I love it!

Closeup of my portrait.

And then it was my turn! I got Bonnie's name. I have to confess that I rigged the drawing so that I would end up with her name. Bonnie has a reputation of having her daughter take nude photos of her backside when they go on vacations together. That was the photo I received of Bonnie. So I decided to make her a doll.

Me on the left and Bonnie on the right.

I had the most fun making this doll. Bonnie is really into fish and fishing so I made her a pair of fish earrings. She has a tattoo on her leg of a fish and I was able to apply that by using TAP transfer paper, My friend made her a pair of glass and they are placed on her forehead. She is placed on a large B platform. Fun!

closeup of piece made by Donna B. for Heidi W.

Heidi W. on the left with Donna B. on the right. Donna wanted to portray Heidi as a busy person, a colorful person and a prolific quilter. The image she used in all the solid color pieces show Heidi as if she is blurred. Very nice piece.

This piece was made by Penny L. for Beatrix R. Penny sent it in because she wasn't able to make it to this meeting. Penny wrote a whole page explaining why she chose this piece for Beatrix, I wasn't able to hear most of as it was being read, but it is a beautiful piece. Hopefully I will have more info later.

Closeup of Beatrix R, piece made by Penny L.

Heidi W. on the left with Judy R. on the right. I think it's pretty obvious here who the maker and who the subject is. Heidi did a wonderful thread painting of this portrait of Judy.

Closeup of Judy. This is a very impressive piece and Heidi says it was easy. Yeah right! There were two more portraits that I'm not showing on the blog because they weren't able to be at the meeting. We will save them for the Oct. meeting. More fun to come.

Fast Friday Fabric Challenge part 2

After pondering the images for a while I decided that I needed to print some more images. I decided to print four, since I could get them all on a sheet of fabric, and then decide how many I wanted to use. I chose this image and enhanced it PSE.

After printing my images it's now time to look for a background. Three years ago I went with my friend, Ann to QBL in NY. there was a wonderful vender there selling hand dyed cotton sateen. I often get the pieces out that I purchased but have yet to use them. I knew I would find the perfect use for these some day.

This is the original configuration. But there was something bothering me. It always helps to discuss my pieces with someone who's opinion I respect. I called my friend Ann and asked her to look at a photo I had just emailed her. One of the things that bothered Ann was the order in which I had the images displayed. That wasn't what I was seeing but after she brought my attention to the area I agreed with her. Still the top left image and the bottom right image seemed to be just a smidgen to light. I place two layers of tulle over them and voila, I liked it.

This is the finished image, now to get it quilted.

Fast Friday Fabric Challenge: Aug/Sept

Challenge #60: Mood/Atmosphere

The challenge for this months FFFC was to use color to create an atmosphere and mood. For a change from our normal fiber only, we could choose a different medium than fabric if that appealed to you. Paper art, photography, mixed media, painting, drawing or whatever else. The challenge was created by A. Carol Grant a long time member of FFFC.

"Sanctuary" 37" x 45"


This is what I've been working on all week. The project started out to be a study for a piece of which I wanted to make a large wall hanging. My original idea didn't pan out and this piece morphed from a 13" x 18" to 37" x 45".

I'm going to map out where I started and give a little info of how I arrived at the final design.

Heron

Ibis










I took these photographs at a Bird Rookery on Harbor Island, SC. I played with them in PSE and this is the blended photograph that I came up with.

I am really pleased with the outcome of the blending and enhancement of these two photos I made in PSE. I really had another idea for this piece and still may give it a try later but for now I'm happy using it in "Sanctuary".

I printed this photo on two 13" x 18" pieces of fabric. One was silk and the other cotton sateen. I printed them on my Epson Workforce 1100. They came out beautifully.



When I decided that I wasn't going to be able to accomplish my original idea I started playing a little. I printed out another piece on 13" x 18" organza and at some point during the printing process I think I hit the stop button. The printer spit out a partially printed piece. That turned out to be the single Ibis.

This gave me an idea so my next printed piece on organza was the original Ibis photo.

This is a long post so will finish at a later date. Hope you will be back.

And The Winner Is?

Congratulations,Linda Robertus. Winner of Masters Art Quilts Vol 2. Please email me your address so I can pass it on to Lark Publishing.