PTA - April Meeting

It was nearly a full house at Judy's for our April PTA (Professional Textile Artists) meeting.  Show and Tell was fairly active this month, though I have few photos to share as it was difficult to get quality photos of every one's work.

I love this little colorful piece Kate made.  It's cleverly mounted on a cloth covered frame to provide a greater impact.

Cathy is the only one of us with underage children still living at home.  We all got a hoot with her description about how long these blue and yellow patches were on her design wall......years, and years, and year.  

Mary Berry brought a stunning piece.  This Baltimore Album quilt was hand appliqued and hand quilted......you just don't see hand work like this anymore.

Detail

After lunch, the group got busy tackling the 12 community quilt kits that Kate, Judy, and I made at one of our Fiber Junkies meetings. Usually the FJ's experiment with surface design and dyeing methods, but for a time this winter there were only 3 of us, so our time was spent culling our stash!

We had 3 machines, two iron stations, and lots and lots of loud chatter, laughter, and general enthusiasm.  Judy has a gigantic studio with lots of light.....which allowed for all this muti-tasking.

As patches were stitched, those not sewing or pressing spent time arranging them into blocks and ultimately when each block was totally pieced.....

........they went on Judy's huge design wall.  Each was checked for correct orientation, color placement, and then the rows were labeled and pinned together.

Here Georgia Bonesteel is claiming space for the quilt she had been working on.......

You simply can not believe how our generally very 'unmatchy - matchy' prints actually blended so well together.

From years and years of hosting my quilting cruises.....the majority being in the Caribbean.....I had tons of theme based fabrics to share.  Many are in this quilt but you'd have to look really close to pick one out from a distance.

This precious pastel quilt is still waiting for one more block.

All the quilts will be donated to the guild for their community quilt program.  We  PTAer's make a great team!!

THE COLORS OF NATURE QUILT EXHIBIT

The quilts are made, the paperwork is done, the hanging supplies have been purchased, and the staging to pack the car is all set.  

After the success of our first 3 person show in 2014, Judy Simmons, Kate Weston, and I are are thrilled to be again given the entire upper floor display area for our new exhibit "The Colors of Nature", at the North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville.  It will run from April 21 - July 5th.  

We hope you will enjoy the show if you are in the area.

My quilt 'Trio' is featured in the Arboretum's website. To see it and learn more details click here.

FULL MOON - NEW FELT WORK

Prolonged studio time has been abbreviated as I waited for this nasty virus to disappear.  But for the last week, I've been doing short stints on this new piece.

It was inspired by a piece of recently ice-dyed felted wool.  I loved the results and almost immediately imagined how a full moon would help enhance the night sky.  I decided to marry the background with silhouette images, which have been a favorite subject of mine lately.  A lone hoot owl oversees the scene.

FULL MOON  19" X 15"

Available here

Artist hand-dyed & felted wool, hand appliqued Ultra-Suede motifs,

and hand embroidered.

Do take the time to visit these links to see the creative work of other artists,
Sarah's Whoop, Whoop Friday, Nina-Marie's Off The Wall Friday,  Crazy Mom Sews

NEW WOOLFELT COLLECTION

You all probably know that I'm a huge fan of National Nonwovens Woolfelt.  A new collection, "Once Upon A Woolfelt Collection" will premier at spring market. To learn about all their Woolfelt colorways and to place orders click here.

 Here's a sneak preview.  It's 35% wool - 65% rayon.  

I'm a sucker for their 'heather' collections...and with new colors such as 'Pixie Pink' and 'Leaping Lizards'......I can't wait to dig into this packet!!

WHO ME??

Even though the string quilt didn't work out as a wall quilt, Sooty, our adopted black lab thinks it's swell. 

 I'm NOT a fan of allowing dogs on the furniture....but darn if they don't sneak up anyway when one's back is turned. At least now the denim fabric is somewhat protected while she makes herself at home!

When caught....Sooty behaves in the following manner.  She plants her butt firmly in place, refuses to look directly at you, acting in total denial that this is NOT her domain.

GOING TO THE DOGS

Not even spending the time to get a decent photo of this mess will make it better. 

This string foundation pieced project began at our 2016 PTA retreat.  It was supposed to be huge....destined for a large stairwell wall.  It's been a problem child from day one for so many reasons:  boring without the white sashing but when that was added, the planned finished size wouldn't fit my hanging device.  So I decided to make it smaller and use for a lap quilt.

The seams got very bulky given all the strips and muslin foundation. Pressing toward the white sashing allowed too much nasty shadowing and pressing toward the blocks distored the narrow sashing.

Stupidly I continued and basted it using a thin poly batting to avoid the weight of cotton.  What a mess.....I don't care what the label on the package said....it's NOT thin.  I continued anyway.....should have just eliminated the batting!!!  

It got worse.....I'm still regretting the purchase of the Janome 8900.  Despite my best efforts I can not get this thing to do what I want!!!  I quilted the sashing in the ditch, using the Accufeed system.....adjusting and adjusting to find the perfect tension.  I never did.   And now that those areas are all quilted.....the white strips look gathered!!  

My stupid continued as I started quilting diagonally through the center of each block.  While I had no thread breakage previously, now the invisible thread broke just before every intersection.  I'm SOOOOOOO done.  I'll rip out the three diagonal lines I stitched allowing each block to look like a beach ball.  And for the first time in my life I'll add the binding all by machine and call it DONE! 

Perhaps if I'd have been feeling better I'd have had more patience to correct my poor decisions as they came up.  Unfortunately my upper respiratory bug has lingered, making me realize I should have just been watching trash TV instead of trying to sew!

This piece is definitely going to the dogs.....our black lab rescue dog Sooty.

FOR THE DOGS

54" x 62"

You may want to check out these links of the SUCCESSFUL work of others this week :  Sarah's Whoop, Whoop Friday, Crazy Mom Sews, and Nina-Marie's Off The Wall Friday.

REMEMBERING

My twin sister and I learned we were identical twins, not fraternal as we were always led to believe, based on the DNA testing done prior to her bone marrow transplant, of which I was the donor.  Really, we simply couldn't believe it!!  We looked quite similar but not identical.

As I take a closer look at old photos, it's such a surprise to see just how often we were dressed alike! And what a goof I was.....my sister quietly on the right as I clowned on the left.

Birthdays aren't the same without you Nancy.......

Mary Theobald Stori           Nancy Theobald Willmas  

Mary Theobald Stori       Nancy Theobald Willmas  

Chuck Theobald (center)          

FOLLY BEACH DYEING MARATHON - PART 3

As I mentioned, much of what I dyed was not solid white commercial PFD fabric.

I wish I'd have retained a 'before' photo of this failed ice-dyed piece. The Marimekko print began life as a garment bag, used for one of my Fairfield Fashion Show Garments....way back when.

The decision to over-dye seemed wise. Unfortunately, these results weren't to my liking either.  Gulp, the piece was supposed to be put in the green/blue ice-dye pan....but instead it ended in the jewel tone one. Yuck!

Fiber Junkie member Denny gifted us boxes of Twice Fresh....a powdered chlorine bleach. I randomly sprinkled it onto the very damp fabric and rolled it up.  It sat in the sun for 4 or 5 hours.

As as often happens.....fabric backs can surprise and become the favorite. See how the bleach provided little sparks on the fabric?  (left-back  right-front)

The last day is always such a rush as we process the final pans that batched overnight; rinsing, washing, but no time for line drying given the nearly 6 hour drive home. Naturally, there's a lot of other clean up involved as well....as you dyers know well.  

So when I arrived home early that evening, I hung the still damp pieces on my antique drying rack.  I'd over-dyed a lot of wool and prefer to line dry them.

Kate spotted a brand new designer sheet at a thrift sale for $1.00.......which she shared with us.  Is this not amazing?!?

She also gave me some silk noil....my stash is depleted so I was thrilled.....and even happier after seeing these results.  It was dyed using our new window screen method.

This is a vintage linen table runner.....cut in half and ice-dyed using different colors.

I also dyed numerous pieces of gauze.  This one was initially ice-dyed but hadn't been properly arranged, leaving big areas undyed.  So, it was redyed in the microwave using some liquid mixed dyes.  

It's so much fun up-cycling fabrics that may not otherwise have had a purpose.  I'm already thinking ahead to our next adventure and will be digging in my stash with a very critical eye.

FOLLY BEACH DYEING MARATHON - PART 2

The weather for our first day was picture perfect....not quite so the following day.

Since I was beginning to feel punk, knowing now it wasn't allergies....I spent a lot of time out of the cold and wind in the storage/mechanical closet which was more like a small room.  Here I'm measuring/mixing small amounts of dyes.

Inexpensive plastic storage tubs (lightly covered with plastic wrap) work great for microwave dyeing. A variety of fabrics were utilized.....silk noil, National Nonwoven's Woolfelt, and commercial cotton prints.  I did very little using commercial white PFD fabric.

This particular piece of fabric from my stash had been auditioned a dozen time for various projects and the color was just never right. Hey...so why not over-dye it?!?

I was thrilled with the result....just enough interesting color/texture was retained after it was dyed with Acqua Marine.

We make a good team....each is responsible for specific meals....this was our lunch ala Judy.  Chicken salad, egg salad, shrimp salad, along with olive topped cream cheese filled celery sticks on a bed of mixed greens. Displayed here on some of our dyed fabrics.

Unmasked.....Kate (left) and Judy (right) are bundled up as we enjoyed Kate's dock........

Just in time for this lovely sunset.....

Stay tuned for Part 3.

FOLLY BEACH DYEING MARATHON - PART 1

Three of us fiber pals have made numerous trips to Folly Beach where we spend several days either dyeing or painting fabric. I just returned with a large pile of treasures, great memories and a bad cold/cough that I initially mistook for allergies.

We do most of our dyeing outdoor, beneath Kate's house which overlooks an ever changing marsh and river.  

Each trip we add new procedures to make the process more convenient, comfortable, and efficient.  These foam pads are an example....

Judy (being the super organized gal she is) long ago made samples for each dye she owned.  What a help this has become for us when choosing dye color combinations. It sure beats wondering exactly what Terra Cotta, or Stormy Sea will look like.

 Ice dyeing was on our agenda this trip.  And to fill the void once the ice-dyed fabric was batching, we enjoyed microwave dyeing.  That's fast becoming my favorite....I love that immediate gratification. Our ice dye set-up had been to place a long wire shelf over several kitty litter pans.  We are very careful to always wear masks when working with the dye powder and generally remember to wear gloves too! 

I've shown the step-by-steps of ice-dyeing in previous posts, so I'll skip that explanation now.  It can be quite windy at this location so we now have plenty of clothes pins on hand to clip the black plastic to the containers which will batch overnight.

I didn't get a photo of another time saver we came up with.  Instead of soaking all of our fabrics, willy nilly, in multiple buckets of soda ash.....we now each have our own bucket.  This really speeds up the selection process for each different dye pan. (Dah...why hadn't we thought of this before?)

Another new method that will be great once we perfect it, is to replace the wire shelf with window screening.  It's so much easier to keep the fabric and ice in place. Notice the set-up in the foreground.  

However, after this experiment, we noticed the screening sagged a bit during batching. Clearly it needed to be more firmly clipped to the container.  BUT......after more discussion, I wondered out loud if we could put the screening in some empty frames that our Fiber Junkie pal Denny gifted us.  We will try that next time.

The screening method results were wonderful.  Look at how much color splitting these pieces have.

This was our 6th time dyeing together and we continued to have more 'ta-da' moments.  Our fabrics get all mixed together during the dyeing, rinsing, and washing tasks and we wast a lot of time looking for the identifiers after they dried. So, now we hang each person's fabric on their own line. 

Safety pins with colored beads record which fabric belongs to each of us. We will be adopting a different method in the future. This isn't unique to us, in fact I used it when resist dyeing in a Chad Hagan workshop.  We staple a small initialed piece of tyvek on each piece of fabric.  I did a lot of microwave dyeing and of course pins would be dangerous to use, as I suspect staples would be too, so I waited to add the tyvek after each piece was nuked.

Check back for Part 2......

And....check out these wonderful blogs to see the creativity of other fiber artists.  Sarah's Whoop, Whoop Friday, Crazy Mom Quilts, Nina-Marie's Off The Wall Friday.