FIBER JUNKIES DEC. HOLIDAY MEETING

December wraps up another fun and educational year for the Fiber Junkies.  It's the first holiday party with new member Susan Webb Lee and the return of Denny Webster after an extended recovery period after her spinal fusion.  Sadly, it's also the first full year without our dear friend Val, a founding member of the Fiber Junkies who passed away last January.

 Show and tell was sparse this month.....I guess everyone was busy with Thanksgiving activities and getting prepared for Christmas.  However, Gen was able to find time to knit this adorable doggie sweater....cable stitching and all...can you believe it?!?

 Kate organized a small holiday project this month....fabric covered Styrofoam to resemble pine cones.

 She was inspired by this You tube video

Supplies are few.....sequin pins, Styrofoam eggs, and 1" fabric squares, sides folded to make a point at the top.

Gen (left) and Kate wearing cute holiday sweaters.

 Susan quickly got the hang of attaching the tiny fabric pieces to create this colorful pine cone.

 A sample of completed and nearly completed pine cones.

 Of course feasting is always a part of our gatherings, but none as yummy as a luncheon of all appetizers!!   As seen from top to bottom (and there was more not yet added to the table) -  artichoke/spinach bread bowl, mini meatballs, tortilla turkey/cheese/spinach roll ups, and delicious stuffed dates.

 Denny treats us every year with this spectacular and very realistic Yule Log made by a bakery in the Greenville, SC area.

You can see we weren't the least bit shy about digging into this yummy treat!

Our Jan. and Feb. 2021 dates are already in our calendars as we embark on year # 13 of Fiber Junkies.

FIBER JUNKIES INDIGO DYEING DAY

The Fiber Junkies had to cancel our scheduled indigo dyeing meeting two months ago due to bad weather.  But this week the weather gods cooperated....

I had previously folded, clamped, tied, and labeled my fabrics as did most of our other members, so in a blink of an eye we were raring to go.

Organized as always, Judy had color coded buckets of water for each of us to do a 30 min. soak of our fabric.  After which we placed them on the grass to drain of excess water to avoid diluting the indigo pot.

 Our hero Judy also prepared two buckets of indigo dye.  We left our fabrics in the buckets for about 15 minutes. 

 Next, they were hung from the 2 clotheslines Judy had strung with beautiful views of her many gardens.

 Of course the bundles could have stayed tied while they dried but none of us had the patience for that and soon we started the reveal process.  Kate used some Plexiglas shapes as resists with wonderful results.

 Because I had quite a bit of Liberty of London Lawn fabric - solid pink, I decided to overdye it as I really dislike that color.  Unfortunately, some of my pink fabrics retained far too much pink for my taste....

.....but after a quick dip in and out of the indigo dye bucket....this is how it turned out.

Come back tomorrow to see more of our results.....

Linking to:  Nina-Marie's Off The Wall Friday & Sarah's Whoop, Whoop Friday.

FIBER JUNKIES - JUNE MEETING

Our activity for this meeting was to be indigo dyeing.  However, the weather wasn't cooperating so at the last minute Kate suggested a somewhat similar nifty technique.  The idea is to use shibori type folding methods as we would have with the indigo but instead use paint/dye on the edges of the folds to create interesting patterns.

 Judy our host and hero of the day scrambled and got all the supplies ready for the fun day in her studio.

 Judy is well known for her surface design pieces which she taught for many years on the national quilting highway circuit and in her books.  We are grateful for her generosity......this is just part of the supplies she had organized for us to use.

 I had prepared this pink (I really, really, dislike pink) Liberty of London Lawn fabric scrunched on a PVC pipe to indigo dye.  But I brought it anyway to see what would happen if I painted it instead.

 So often I come home from our FJ play dates with hunks of fabric dyed/painted in all different colors, nothing coordinates and they end up lingering on the shelf.  So my new goal was to use the same paint colors to try to create a more useful collection by the end of the day.

 Here are a few more of my folded pieces.  NOTE......90% of what I was using were failed pieces from previous 'experiments'......worth trying to see if they could be rescued.

 Here's another small piece 'flag' folded, using Dye-na-Flow.

As you can see now that they are washed and pressed......there's nothing usable here. I should have used solid white fabric as Gen did....she her winners below.

And here are Sue's super results......

 But despite my disappointing results......it was such a fun day....with great pals and a technique I'm sure we will play with again.

Linking to:  Nina-Marie's Off The Wall Friday, Sarah's Whoop, whoop Friday.

FIBER JUNKIES MAY MEETING

This month we concentrated on fugitive printing.....using water soluble crayons. Most of us got poor results and found the process tedious.  I won't go into detail about all the steps except to say designs are drawn on a silk screen...the crayon material is then dissolved by pushing it through the screen with a gel medium onto fabric or paper then heat set.

Rather here's some photos of our printed pieces...

 This was my first attempt.....the fabric most likely will be deep sixed.

 Several designs line drying....

 The highlight of the day......Susan realized she forgot to put fabric beneath her screen.....therefore the design on her screen (see below) got printed onto her kitchen towel that she used to protect the table and for padding.  Oh...do I spy an empty wine glass?!?  Hummmm......Honestly we laughed for a good long time over this 'oops.'

 Rather than drawing my own design I used one of Gen's many rubbing plates....

 .....and attempted to print it onto wool/felt......not very successfully I'd say.

 Judy is using a stencil for her design.

 Again, it was difficult to obtain consistent results.

This beautiful flower design is Gen's.....she printed it on paper.

Happily, I believe we are working with Indigo next month which is a favorite of mine.

FIBER JUNKIES MARCH MEETING - PART 1

This month was a very special meeting......

As usual we started off with coffee/goodies/gossip and show and tell.  Gen shared these wonderful layered painted and stamped papers she created on deli-paper.  She's smitten with creating journals and all paper art. Given her talents....the end results are always special.

DRUM ROLL ----  We celebrated Gen's 90th birthday.  I've said so often, we all want to be like Gen when we grow up.  She is skilled at most any sewing/craft category.  She can still probably run circles around all of us....always cheerful, generous, and a great friend!

9 candles - one for each decade....we should all be so fortunate!

 Even though our group was and always will be capped at 6 members....we decided early on to only celebrate BIG birthdays...those that end in 0.  This being a really, really big 0, we pulled out the stops with some gift giving.  Denny made a gift bag from one of her complex cloth creations. 

 ......and filled it with this awesome collection of gel pens......it even had a section of refills for the pens.  Gen was over the moon with this useful gift!

 Knowing Gen's love of paper, Kate gave her an exquisite journal...filled with lovely paper and the most beautiful cover made from handmade paper embedded with flowers.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo of each gift....but do want to share what I had made for her by Shutterfly. Gen loves puzzles.....so I had a 520 piece jigsaw puzzle made from a photo taken at Val's 70th birthday (center with blue sweater).  A bittersweet memory because Val passed away at the end of January, but we all agree it was the perfect photo. 

Part 2 coming up next.......

FIBER JUNKIES FEB. MEETING

Our Fiber Junkies gathering this month was held at Gen's house. We all have different styles and preferred interests, inspiring each other to grow artistically.

 Denny (left) and Kate (right) have been making Bonnie Hunter mystery quilts.  We all know that if 10 quilters made the same pattern, they'd all look different....this sure is a good example.  Same exact pattern, different fabric/color choices! 

 Kate has been digging into her impressively large stash and has made another striking donation quilt.  She loves to piece and is not only fast at that task...she's very accurate.....how nice she shares her talent with those in need. 

 Susan has been on a roll working on table runners.  She has a knack for working with unusual color and pattern combinations.  It's impressive to see what she can do working on this small scale. 

 Most of the group worked with gel plate printing designs.  Here's one Susan made.

 Denny did some overlay printing on previously altered fabric. She took this design from an old photo that had meaning to her, transferred it to a silk screen, and printed full and smaller sections of the motif using various colors of fabric paint.

 Here's a shot of Susan's gel plate....just simple washers and string provided great designs.  

 Judy used a brick stencil to over-print a previously altered piece of cloth.

Another gel plate that featured a great design prior to printing.

I spent much of my time working with iron-on clear vinyl to make some temporary silk screens.

                                                
Gen....smiling as always....had a novel project.  She got out her very large machine quilted sample book and in honor of upcoming Valentine's Day...she painted the hearts.

What a clever way to repurpose samples.....

Fiber Junkies meeting day is always one each of us look forward to every month....come back and see what we tackle in March.  Or click 'follow' to have posts delivered to you!

Linking to:  Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday, Sarah's Whoop Whoop Friday.