TWO FAILS

 Two nearly total fails back to back!  Maybe I should just keep the results to myself......still it's always fun to explore new avenues

The first one:  My thoughtful DIL gifted me an "Indigo Paint Kit" she purchased at SFMOMA after visiting one of their exhibits.  I've indigo dyed many times, but was curious about this little kit because it was for 'Indigo Paint'.  The instructions did not require the fabric to be soaked in soda ash, so I'm thinking okay powdered paint....because it had a small packet of indigo colored granules.

Foolish me, it was such a small amount that surely I wouldn't need a lot of room to work.  I'm a careful tidy person, right?    Gulp....no matter what I did, the powder would not dissolve. It was gritty, slimy, goopy mess that would not work as "paint" applied to fabric with a brush as the instructions implied.

In the process of dealing with fabric, paint, stirrer stick, brush, & plastic drop cloth, all having to be carried to the garbage & my laundry tub, somehow stains appeared in my carpeted studio.  NOTHING I tried worked to make them totally disappear.  

Talk about disappointment!  Bummer......  We had noticed that the paper bag it came in was stained at the top....not sure if that had anything to do with it...the powder appeared dry and should have dissolved.  

Onward I say........because I was looking forward to working with a "pour kit" a friend had given me.  Come back tomorrow and see that disappointing project...but at least I did this one in the garage!!!

GREEN AND GOLD LOVE IS IN THE AIR

 NFL training camp has begun......so we pause fiber posting today and move to the Green and Gold. I'm told Green Bay is hopping with visitors from all over the country enjoying the pre-season atmosphere.

One of most heartwarming events is seeing kids lined up with their bikes/scooters, hoping one of the players will walk over and choose their mode of transportation to take them along the road to the practice field.  The kids walk along side, holding the players helmet.  What a thrill for some young child.  LOVE IT!!!

And look at this adorable interview with some of the kids......how's this for total happiness.....

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DMgFZXsSdo9/

2ND CHANCES

The disappointing gelli printings that I over-printed have now been trimmed and ready to be married to blank folded cards.......Love when fabrics gets a 2nd chance!!

GELLI PRINTS CALLING ME

Printed just 3 days ago and I've already dug into the new batch of gelli printed fabric. Love the ginkgo leaves.

Here are some notecards and gift tags in the making. The last photo features mono printing using the tops of small plastic cups and the edge of a hotel room key.  After reassessing some of my fabric gelli prints, I decided they needed a redo.....

GELLI PRINTING WITH FRIENDS

 My passion for gelli printing has rubbed off....two pals recently purchased plates so we had a little instruction play date.  Both created successful prints (on fabric....we after all are quilters!!) 

I suggested working with foliage in addition to having fun with texture materials. Printable leaf options around our home with only 2 year old plantings was slim. Thankfully both friends brought great options. See some of our results below.

Love how the lace was used to print over Elvis fabric.

These two were created by printing twice....once with foliage and second as a ghost print.

Leaves on painted background in preparation to print on fabric.

Top two pieces were mono printed on felted wool, blue piece below them was ice-dyed felted wool that was overprinted using the gelli plate.  Remaining were gelli printed cottons. 

HAND APPLIQUE

 Though much of my work has featured machine appliqué, I still love getting back to tradition.  And that means hand appliqué.

PART 2 - LOOKING FORWARD

 The quilt world has brought incredible experiences, challenges, accomplishments,  places I visited, and people I've met that are the stuff of dreams.  My needle became a magic carpet that took me all over the world.

The very, very most treasured bonus is the lifetime of loving and talented friends that developed.  As I mentioned in Part 1 of this saga.......I received a box of fabric from my extremely talented SC friend Denny Webster (https://www.dennywebster.com/).   She was a member of the original Fiber Junkies..........6 of us who met once a month to explore different surface design techniques.  You can find years and years worth of posts documenting what we learned on this my personal blog.  Some of which  was shared in Post 1 came from 2018, however there's a ton more if you want to do a deep dive in the archives.

Denny's surprise got me traveling down memory lane as I unpacked the box full of mostly Japanese and Liberty of London fabrics.  When my dear friend Helen passed away, I was entrusted with disposing of her vast collection which was then passed along to many of my friends.  Time has moved along and Denny's style has developed into new challenges, so some of that fabric has come back to me now.

It's an opportunity to share it with some of my new West Coast friends........  Friends are so important.........cherish them no matter if they are close or far away.  

LOOKING BACK

I began writing this post after receiving a surprise box of fabrics from my VERY talented pal Denny Webster.  Because of the contents another story needed to be told again.

Here's Part 1

My dear friend Helen, whose health was failing, entrusted me to find homes for some of her exquisite Dutch Wax quilts.  She did a great deal of traveling and had a VAST collection of unique fabrics and using her excellent skills, turned them into stunning quilts.  Here's a look at one of the 5 quilts that I was able to facilitate placement in the International Quilt Study Center and Museum in Nebraska. They had recently acquired one of my pieces so fortunately I had a contact there.

Sadly, my dear friend passed away and to my surprise I was gifted ALL of her quilts, fabric, materials.  When I say ALL.......I mean it.  It was all packed up in Illinois where she had lived and arrived in our NC driveway in April 2018.  

Unpacking and finding homes for all of it took months.  The entire upstairs of our home turned into a quilt shop.  All quality supplies....no big box fabrics for her stash!

To this day I'm still privileged to be creating work from some of her collection of fabrics.  Visit again tomorrow to learn why I'm retelling this story.

IF YOU LOVE PASTA......

As some of you know, I ran a little cooking school YEARS ago, awarded one of the ten best Chicago area cooking schools by Chicago Magazine (Sept. 1978). My focus has shifted to quilt making but I still LOVE to cook and hope this 'off fiber' subject interests you.

 WOW.....This was my 3rd attempt making  Spaghetti all'assassina.  It's a strange way to make spaghetti served with a red sauce and we love it. The link for the recipe is above.

Instead of cooking the pasta in a big pot of water, draining then covering it with your favorite red sauce, the spaghetti is basically cooked IN THE SAUCE.  Weird, yes and a bit putzy to prepare...worth it.

This time I altered the recipe a bit and 'the husband' liked it even better.  #1. Instead of tomato purée......(because I couldn't find it where I shop) I used two jars of Marina sauce...garlic/basil.  #2. I exchanged chicken broth (Swanson box stuff) rather than the water.   #3.  I cut back on the amount of red pepper flakes ('the husband' can not tolerate really spicy flavoring anymore). However, with these changes the flavor still developed nicely.  

The view you see is at the end of the first cook down after the introduction of the first half of the sauce.  I woke up this morning thinking of it.....breakfast anyone?!?

Let me know what you think...DO NOT let the cooking method scare you.....it's just an amazingly delicious change for your pasta night.  We paired it with another fav.....Neuekse's smoked Jalapeno cheddar brats.  (NOT very spicy at all) Normally we would heat them on the grill but this time I popped two in the red sauce as it was simmering....PERFECT.  They ship anywhere and you haven't had bacon till you've had theirs.

Spaghetti all'assassina

NEW INVENTORY LARGE COMPOSITION BOOKCOVERS

 I've been in my happy place creating composition book covers using a wide range of interesting fabrics with emphasis on gelli printing and Japanese themes.

The prices range from $15 - $20, line ruled book included.  They can be purchased now for yourself or gift giving.  If you are local stop by to select your choices.  Shipping is also available.  More photos upon request, but here are some to tempt you....some photos show the front and back.  Each one is created with care and quality construction.

    

    

    

   

 Double posting today.....I'd been having trouble getting my photos to load on my blog.....finally figured out what was wrong.....and since I have now finished my latest tree piece.....here it is.

Now available with free shipping.

 

5 TREES  -  28.5” x 17”

Gelli printed grunge style trees on cotton, raw edge appliquéd, commercial batik background, densely machine quilted, hand embroidered, faced edges with hanging sleeve attached.

GROWING

My trees are growing...........................

BE MORE FLEXIBLE

Just because you want to use a specific piece or style of fabric, doesn't mean it will work! Continual reminders like this are still necessary despite my 40+ years of creating original art quilts.

I WANTED to use one of my beautiful ice-dyed fabrics as a background for a new art quilt that will feature some of my newly made 'grunge' gelli printed fabric. You can clearly see another option was going to show off these gelli prints more clearly. Okay, just do it!!!

Quilting on the appropriate background fabric has begun! 

"THE TWINS"

 It's been my habit to share mostly quilt/fiber related art on my blog and Facebook page.  It acts like a journal for me to document my projects and development of  techniques.  I'm grateful others find it interesting enough to follow along.....thank you.

Today it's more personal...........of thoughts floating in my mind, especially at the beginning of April each year and July 2nd and the urge to speak out loud (or rather via a keyboard)..  ****No quilting remarks today so hit delete if you wish.

We were always referred to as "THE TWINS".........not necessarily Nancy and Mary................but just "The Twins".  The pictures here show you why.  It's now been 23 years since your shining star became visible from above.  Oh the memories.......

The summer we spent 2 days in a row sitting through back to back showings of "Bye Bye Birdie"........and sang that song over and over as we swam in Cedar Lake, the day I drove you to the hospital after you broke your leg, the time you talked me into practicing your developing hairdresser skills by streaking my hair and turning me into a skunk!  And the biggest shock of all, when Dr. Parker of the City of Hope Hospital informed us DNA tests confirmed we are identical twins, rather than fraternal as we had grown up believing.  As he said, "The DNA does not lie".  

Think of you most of all today Nancy......my twin.

GELLI PLATE RABBIT HOLE

 I've gone down a rabbit hole! I'm so smitten with Gelli printing on fabric, mostly trying to understand and learn to be more intentional, though results are generally still happy surprises.

It was high time that I used some of the growing pile, printed only on fabric...no paper. I've used pieces in art quilts but wanted to find other uses. Here are two large composition sized book covers that are stitched/pieced/appliquéd - not collaged.

With another Artisan Faire coming up in the fall my goal is to grow that inventory of products. The last two books I've shared here are made using deconstructed screen printing and rusting on silk noil, plus digital photo transfer on fabric. *Available