WET FELTING = EXERCISE FOR UPPER ARMS?!?

Sales of my felted bowls/baskets at Woolworth's Walk in downtown Asheville have been encouraging! 

 So, out came my felting supplies.......

...... New materials inspired new directions. Son/DIL gifted me two skeins of wool that I've been wanting to incorporate into wet-felted bowls.  They purchased it at Hidden Villa, a nearby (Los Altos, CA) farm where they buy their eggs and meat.  It's also a great place for children to visit.

Don't you just love driftwood??  A friend asked if I might have any use for these pieces which I believe came from the shores of Lake Superior. The largest piece is only about 7" long and I'm thinking 'handles' for larger bowls.....stay tuned.

Here's the first small bowl featuring the wool yarn as an embellishment....happily it felted very easily.

I expect to be binging on Netflix with wet soapy hands for the next couple of days!

DUTCH WAX FABRIC

 In a recent post here, I referred to the difficulty I had finding the right fabric to feature in this block.

 Once I uncovered the Dutch Wax fabric lurking in my stash I 'thought' I was up and running.  However I wasn't happy with how that fabric worked using the original planned setting.  Not only were some of the blocks remade to relocate the placement of the sashings, I also decided more blocks were needed.

 Ultimately I opted to create a wider quilt.  My work generally measures longer than wide.  Yet since I sell my work, it seemed like a good idea to also offer some work that would fit nicely over a small couch or low cabinet/table.  

I struggled with how to finish the edges, but thanks to input from members of the Professional Textile Artists group the answer became clear. A traditional narrow binding is highlighted with a very narrow flange.  My attempts to get a good photo of this quilt have been fruitless....below is the best I've managed so far!

SWAYING PALM FRONDS - 50.5" x 38" 

AVAILABLE HERE

Authentic Dutch Wax cotton, machine stitched.

Follow these links to see what other artists have created this week:  Nina-Marie's Off The Wall Friday, Sarah's Whoop Whoop Friday, Crazy Mom Quilts

BEST SHOW AND TELL FOR LAST

I saved the best show and tell for last......this is a 'talking spoon'.....made and gifted to me from Mary Berry.  Years ago our PTA (Professional Textile Artists) group started using a 'talking spoon' when the high constant pitch of all of us talking at once required containment. It allowed the holder of the spoon to speak without interruption.  And sometimes it actually worked!!

Thank you Mary......we will all be using it wisely.....grinning........

EYE CANDY - PTA JUNE MEETING

This month The Professional Textile Artists group met at Marene's home. 

 .........where we enjoyed this awesome view.

 Marene comes by her interest in quilting quite honestly. Her show and tell included a number of vintage family quilts.

 What fun it would be to closely pour over all these charming cotton prints!

 Stunning, yes!?!?

 Detail

 We were pretty sure this was a kit quilt......I personally love its simplicity.

 Gen continues to create the most eye-popping cards using alcohol inks.

 This one is nearly the same color as the hexie quilt Mary B. is hand stitching!!

 Barbara never leaves home without her knitting.....such tiny, tiny stitches...

 Judy accomplished some practical sewing recently, using some upholstery type fabric samples that Georgia Bonesteel was gifted and shared with our group.  There must be at least 25 place mats.....all so charming and different.

I'm remiss by not having a photo of the right side of this fabric pin.....yet this is the view that might interest you the most.  Look at this clever magnet system that is used to attach the pin to a garment.  What an improvement over those dull pointed pins we normally see that make big holes in our clothing!

ANATOMY OF A QUILT

Two fiber buddies attending our annual small group retreat back in April were working on the same pattern that looked like an intriguing option for some of the Asian fabrics that were gifted to me.

 Leighe Anne made this one featuring large blocks.

 Janice's piece used a scaled back size block.

 They had a pattern....I did not....but by looking at their pieces I made my own size version.  This watery iris print isn't the Asian fabric I intended to use....but thought it'd be a good choice.  After making two blocks...it felt very blaaaa....  

 Thinking a larger scale print would be better, I dug out the initial fabric I had intended to use.  Unfortunately, not a single piece in the stack was large enough to complete a small wall quilt.  No, the pinkish wasn't a choice.....it was intended to give me a better idea of how this style of fabric would work.  Nope...still not happy.

 I have quite a collection of interesting authentic batiks, block prints etc., many gifts from our son who often travels worldwide for business and pleasure. This 6 yard piece of Dutch Super Wax, printed in Holland had been lurking in my 'specialty' fabric bin.

Though my immediate instinct was to start cutting blocks since I was pretty sure this was going to be 'the fabric' for the blocks....but because it was quite stiff and embedded with goo from the tape that held all the folded fabric together it had to be washed.  There were 3 labels on it and I never could get that sticky glue off!

So......here's my current choice for the feature fabric.  Stay tuned.....

TREES IN SILHOUETTE

5 hours here, 3 hours there, over and over again.....eventually a project gets born. 

 As I mentioned recently, a friend's fabulous scenic photos inspired me to dig out this dyed painted fabric....it was just waiting for the right idea!

 The paper templates turned into fractured tree images.

 Next came lots and lots of machine stitching to provide texture, each tree section is heavily stitched.  The background is closely machine quilted. I thought the piece was complete, but then I had another idea.....

TREES IN SILHOUETTE 33" X 18.5"

Available here

Dye-painted cotton, applique, machine stitched.

Follow these links to see what other artists have been up to this week:  Nina-Marie's Off The Wall Friday, Sarah's Whoop Whoop Friday, and Crazy Mom Quilts.

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IT'S FOR THE DOGS

Besides all the rain we've been getting, it had been hot....well....not Florida hot....but unusally warm for our comfortable mountains.  Normally, if we turn our A/C on more than twice a year....it's a record!

 'The husband' has taken to treating our dog with a frozen treat after their afternoon walk to cool her down.  Black dog on black asphalt.....need I say more?

Those prepared frozen goodies are $$ and calorie filled....even our rescue dog needs to watch her weight.  So I set about making our own.  There are lots of recipes available online but after previewing many, I chose two ingredients...low fat peanut butter and no fat, no sodium chicken stock.

 Using about 3 parts stock to 1 part peanut butter.....it was whirled in a food processor until well mixed.  Small plastic cups with lids (found inexpensively online) fit into a muffin tin nicely to keep everything level and in place during the freezing process. Once frozen, the cups are stored in a large plastic bag in the freezer.

Sooty LOVES her treats!

UNITED WE STAND AND REMEMBER

UNITED WE STAND  44" X 28"  ©  MARY STORI

Visit Mary's gallery shop (embellished quilt section) for more details.

FIBER JUNKIES - MAY MEETING

We were all so looking forward to our first 2017 FJ gathering at Val's house....where we are treated with our own tables/space to work in her garage studio.  Val graciously hosts us from Spring to Fall, and we literally take over her house as well.....

Unfortunately, we've experienced a prolonged spell of rain and coolish weather, requiring us to nix our plans for deconstructive screen printing, fearing the screens wouldn't dry in a timely manner.

 But heavens.....that doesn't stop the FJ's from playing with thickened dyes.  We all kinda just did our own thing....mostly mono-printing, stamping, and fabric painting.  Denny had brought this textured roller that I FELL in love with....it gives the appearance of strings wrapped around the hard rubber cylinder.

Instead of beginning with soda ash treated white fabric, I brought a stack of previously dyed (in various manners) fabrics that I wasn't keen about.  Denny's adage of 'if you don't like it.....add more', was my motto for the day.

Instead of working with so many different dye colors....which often yields fabrics that may be wonderful, but don't seem to coordinate with anything else I own, I decided to work exclusively (we'll almost anyway) with Indigo dye.

Here's a scrap of felted wool that had gotten lightly stained so it was getting a do-over.  Roadside foliage was placed directly onto the wool.

 It was covered with a silk screen and the dye was pressed through. Unfortunately it didn't penetrate as evenly or well as it should have....look, the foliage hardly appears discolored.

Here is the result.....not wonderful. Which actually became my theme for the day......not wonderful results.

 The next attempt was a previously rejected dyed cotton piece.  Yee gads!

But here it is after batching and washing.....fairly usable.

Another mess that was worked using leaves and a fern stamp.  I didn't like the way the stamped fern looked, so in an attempt to 'fix' it....I got mud.

BUT...you never know....after batching and washing....I was surprised.  Both these pieces are similar in color....neither are good enough to work as whole pieces, but will most certainly get cut up and incorporated into future work.

 Lot's of stamping went on.....this nice piece is Judy's.

 Denny, always the innovator of our group.....smeared thickened dye onto plastic and then printed white fabric.  Great idea to generate textured backgrounds. 

 Kate was using some of our 'group collection' of resists....dabbing paints on and around them.

 Val used a rubber scrapper, applying paint in a landscape orientation.  She ALWAYS makes it look so easy.....and has developed her own unique signature to her designs.

 Judy had great success printing ferns.  She applied paint to a fern, placed it on the fabric and covered with Plexiglas.  The image transferred from the pressure of running a hard rubber roller over the surface.

 Denny, (as I said...the master of layering designs) used stencils, resists, and a polka dot roller for this piece.

Kate too was using some of her 'failed' previously deconstructed screen printed fabric.  I love what she's done here; printing a fern and using the edge of a credit card to depict more foliage.

We all went home with transformed fabric....some real successes, others candidates for another 'do-over'.  Deconstructed screen printing is on our agenda for June....and we can't wait!!!

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