FIBER JUNKIES - APRIL

Along with coffee & some scrumptious goodies Denny brought.....we began with our usual show and tell while rapidly gasping over Denny's new direction working with collage.

 She finished adding 'goose poop' triangles (left overs from trimming half-square triangles) to this spiral collage.  Next she'll do her magic with major free motion quilting which will add more design while serving to hold all the glued raw edge pieces in place.

 When I said we gasped....I wasn't kidding.  Next Denny pulled out her project for this meeting.  Clever doesn't cover it!!!  She's collaged various surface design pieces to a plain cotton background...which included a lot of garment tissue paper pieces.  Then, she's drawn a dress form onto heavy plastic as her pattern....

 ....which was transferred to another piece of muslin.  Now her fun really begins....she's cutting scraps using her GO-Pro fitted with flower templates.  They are glued onto the muslin, overlapping as she goes. The shape will eventually be covered with bright happy flower shapes.....so 60's....., cut along the outside of the dress form sharpe and applied to her tissue paper covered background. Honestly we all could hardly work on our projects as we kept drifting over to Denny's work area to see how she was progressing.

 Judy came up with a novel idea after unearthing a polar bear fabric scene from her stash.  She's using a nearly transparent piece of pattern 'paper', somewhat like an interfacing to pin various colors/patterns of fabrics to help guide her as she auditions various fabrics for the trees she'll be adding. 

It was taking longer than she hoped but the work paid off as she found the right combo of fabrics that will be turned into trees.....providing the 3-D affect she desired.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo of Gen's small bird.....and dear Kate wasn't feeling well so she skipped the meeting.  I didn't accomplish a ton, but the decisions/designs shapes were made, which is often more time consuming than the making!!  Here's a peek:

 I brought a piece of National Non-wovens WoolFelt that I foiled during at recent FJ meeting (thanks to a stack of foil gifted to me by reader Princess Bubbles!).  

The sun material has some mottling and wonderful texture....it's dyed cotton batting!!  Gen dyed squares of batting in a whole range of colors a couple of years ago and gave them to me. (How many times do I have to rave about what great pals these gals are?!?)  Thought, because it's not a super sturdy material.....it needs to be used for just the right purposes....and it sure worked here.

My plan is to add rows of trees....then either machine or hand embroider branches.  Everything was cut before I departed for home.....hopefully I can find time to work on it this week.  We are in the midst of a big home project....and that has to come before any studio play time.  Stay tuned, won't you??  And thank you for visiting!!!

In the meantime, check out these blogs to see what others have been working on this week:  Nina-Marie's Off The Wall Friday, Sarah's Whoop Whoop Friday, Crazy Mom Quilts.

AN ITCH....

A month ago I experienced what I considered to be a complete failure of a little project. You can see my report here.  I'm a finisher, so it's rare for me to give up....and I thought I did!

Well, it got buried in a stack of 'stuff'....you know how that goes don't you??  Nearly forgotten.  However, like an itch that needs to be scratched, I couldn't quite leave it alone.

So I unearthed it, added a fabric backing and proceeded to outline the design with a narrow zig-zag stitch.  Next I mixed a clear drying gel and a thick matte medium and thickly covered the map paper/bike fabric to give it a faux encaustic appearance.

When researching this approach, suggestions were offered to add a bit of color (such as pale yellow) to better echo the look of bees wax.  Since I wanted to retain the colors as they were, I ignored that idea. 

This project taught me what not to do when combining such big pieces of paper and fabric....will I tackle another similar project?  Probably not, but it feels good not to have given up!

FIBER JUNKIES - MARCH MEETING

As usual we began our FJ gathering with coffee/goodies & show and tell.

 Denny and Kate have been taking classes from a local Greenville, SC batik artist who has adapted his own simplified methods to this wax/dye art form.  This is Denny's piece with goodness knows how many different layers.  The background light made for great viewing of the piece but unfortunately not such good picture taking.  In person it's breathtaking!!

 She's already drawn out another design for her next project.  Can't wait to see how it progresses.

 Gen is really into collage...this is a combo of paper and fabric.  The orange at the top of the piece is a dyed dryer sheet!

However, it's paper that's really grabbed Gen's interest....layers of various papers that she's altered with surface designs. 

She's made her own textured rollers from cardboard toilet tissue rolls and sticky foam sheets.  Other ideas she uses are string, rubber bands, and yarn.

Denny came prepared with two collage ideas....

......and two large bags filled with she called 'goose poop', (leftover bits from cutting half-square triangles) which she glued onto fabric traced with a spiral.  She used the tip of her finger to smear the 'Tacky Glue" onto the back of the fabric to hold it in place.  She was smiling the whole time, loving this mindless way of working. 

 You might notice the plastic overlay marked with her design.  This acted as an additional placement guide in case the markings on her fabric rubbed off.

We were all so impressed with this technique.  We know that Denny will consider this only to be the first layer...she's all about layering and is an expert at it.  Kate couldn't quite stretch the fabrics she brought to work with her chosen design, but she was geared up to finish it at home. I didn't get photos of anyone else's pieces because I'll admit to being too focused on my project.  It wasn't collage, I needed to spend the time sewing a sleeve to my latest large Japanese style wall quilt.

The enthusiasm and potential of what Denny and Gen were doing got us all so excited that we will continue with this technique theme for our next meeting.