Copper Shibori Finshed

I actually finished this last week but thought I would wait until today to show it so that it could be part of "Off the Wall Friday".  Go on over and see what creative things others are doing.

Here is it is with the copper squares sewn on.

They were remarkably easy to sew through, requiting no special needle or thread. My friend, Andrea, had given me some copper scraps to practice on and after trying a few different stitches I thought that this straight stitch was the best.  I bought these squares at the Houston IQA show a couple of years ago.  I looked up their schedule on their website and see that they will be at Houston again this year.  Their website for Willypilly Design has a lot to offer and shows their complete line of metal and shell offerings.

If you look at the left side of the quilt you will see some very small copper square sewn down.  These are 3/4 inch square and were cut from the scrap that Andrea gave me.

I purchased these real copper sequins and this variegated ribbon when I went to the garment district in NYC a couple of weeks ago.  I thought they would be perfect on the quilt and I sewed a few on and decided they were superfluous so I took them off.  I didn't do anything with the ribbon, even though it was a perfect match.

Now on to my next project, something entirely different . Stay tuned.

Wordless Wednesday

The rest of the dyeing worship results

Jamie and Chris brought the results of their dyeing to Friday's meeting.

Chris's one color gradation.  Plenty of nice sky fabric here.

Chris's two color mix

Jamie's two color, Bright Blue and Sun Yellow.

Jamie's one color, Grass Green

They, too, agreed that it was so much fun and wanted to do more.

Finished !

I showed you this quilt awhile ago before and after quilting and now it has had its final addition.  Painting!  I gave the whole quilt a once-over-lightly with wall paint, pale aqua and yellowish green. It measures 30' x 30". I'm looking for a title.

Detail of the quilting, which really show up with the painting.

In case you didn't see what the pre-painted version was, here it is. Now you know why I made it so bright

And just in case you don't like the front, here is the back.  I dye-painted a bunch of fabrics several years ago and was unhappy with the results, but it makes great quilt backs and shows off the quilting.  See below.

Detail of quilting on the back.

I'm linking up again with "Off the Wall Friday". Go see what everyone else is doing and leave some comments. We all love comments, including me.

Dyeing Workshop Results

A couple of Fridays ago  I gave a workshop for some of my FiberWorks group on hand dyeing.  Last Friday three of the participants brought their finished products.  We were all so pleased with the results.



Nike's one color gradation, using Rusty Brown is on top.  For her two color mix she used Loden and Orange. I would have known that these were Nike's even if she hadn't told me because she favors these colors so much.

 Gwen's one color gradation is on the left, Strong Purple.  The two color on the right used Mulberry and Scarlet.  The Scarlet is the bottom one in the pile,  beautiful, but not what I would call Scarlet.

Barbara's two color on top used Fuchsia and Basic Brown. I was curious to see how these would turn out and I really like the mid-tones she achieved. Her one color gradation on the bottom was Cotton Black, which looked quite green in person.

Beth couldn't be at the meeting, but she emailed me photos of hers,  On top is her one color, Apple Green and her two color below that uses Deep Yellow and Peacock Blue.

Not everyone who took the workshop was there last week, but they promised to bring them to the next meeting this Friday.  I'll show you some more next week.

FANE in New York Gallery

Last Saturday several members of our FANE group met in NewYork City at the exhibit of our Kimonos at the City Quilter Art Quilt Gallery. These were the same kimonos that were exhibited at the Northern Star Quilter's Guild show last May and I blogged about them and showed all of them here.

This was the view from outside, drawing us in with peeks of the art inside

 The quilts were mostly hung flat against the wall, as opposed to being on stands as  they were in May.  I was wondering how they would look this way and  was pleasantly surprised.

Some of the pieces had a different design on the other side and they were hung on stands, such as this one.

                                               This is mine, "Indigo Shibori".

My three companions and I made a day of it and visited a few places in the garment district.  Here we are getting ready to go inside M & J Trimming.  What a treasure trove!

We thought that if you couldn't find it here, it doesn't exit. This was just a section of two walls.  The place was huge.  I wish that I needed some buttons or trim, but it sure was fun to browse.

We also went to Tinsel Treasures. They are in the process of moving so it was quite messy, but oh, what goodies!  We hit a couple of bead stores, too, but didn't take pictures.

Pop on over to Cindy's blog and see what she wrote.

Final Decision

I took my quilt to my critique group yesterday and those copper squares got moved around every which way and although it is my quilt and I can do anything I want, I did agree with everyone's final decision.  We not only moved the squares to a different spot on the quilt, but we turned the quilt upside down.

I thought I was all set with this design, but when I looked at it again. I really liked that light section in the middle of the bottom better on the top.  I thought it was a better balance with it on top.

So I flipped it around again back to its original orientation and moved to squares to the other side.  I think this is it!  What do you think?
Now I need some copper to practice sewing on.  Michael's and Home Depot did not have any.  I may have to go to a roofing store.

The first picture was taken in my studio.  This one was taken outside at the meeting yesterday.  It was such a glorious day that we sat outside on Barbara's deck surrounded by her beautiful flowers and spectacular view of her yard and brook.  I had Paula hold up the quilt for me to take a quick snap so that I could remember where the squares went.  Look at the difference from the first picture.  All the quilting just pops right out in this one.  Makes me think that photographing outside would be a good choice.  In my former house I had the back of the garage where I could hang my quilts for photography. I put two long nails through the siding and would put a dowel through the quilt sleeve and hang it.  It worked great and maybe I can try it here. There is one side of the house that is garden, porch and deck free.  I'll have to see what kind of lighting it gets.  I also remember having to deal with sunlight and/or wind when I photographed outside, but it's worth investigating.  Do any of you photograph your quilts outside?

Decisions, Decisions

I finished the quilting and have faced the "Pen Pal" quilt I showed you a couple of weeks ago.  Now it's time to sew on the copper squares.

I was going to sew them on "straight on", as in this picture.

Then my sister came to visit and suggested sewing them "on point" as in this picture.  I like them both, but am leaning toward the "on point".  What do you think?  I'm also looking for a name. All I can think of is "Copper Shibori".

I've linked up with "Off the Wall Friday".  Go see what everyone is up to.

Wordless Wednesday

Ninety!

This weekend my sister and I drove up to Casenovia, NY in the beautiful Finger Lakes region for the ninetieth  birthday of my cousin Jeanie.  Actually she is my mother's first cousin, so I don't know if that makes her a second cousin or a first cousin , once removed. It really doesn't matter, but I just wanted to show how fabulous 90 can be today.

That's the birthday girl flanked by my sister on the left and me on the right.  Doesn't she look great?  She is still a vibrant, vivacious, beautiful woman.  We have great longevity genes in our family on the maternal side.  I hope I do as well.

Dyeing Workshop

My FiberWorks group occasionally has a member share a skill.  In the past members have demonstrated Kumihimo braiding with fiber and then beads, ice dyeing and felting.  These were to be held at the Brookfield Craft Center, but alas, the Center has closed, much to our dismay.  I said that I would teach the dyeing in my garage, not the optimal place, but Beth graciously offered her huge unfinished basement.  It is a walkout with a big glass sliding door and two big windows, so the light was good and she supplemented it with plenty of overhead lights.
I am kicking myself that I didn't take pictures and neither did anyone else.  I meant to and so did Gwen, but we both got so busy that we just forgot, so allI can show is my samples.

Olive Green

Deep Purple

First we did a six-way single color gradation.  I use the zip-lock bag method ala Adriene Buffington's book, Hand-Dyed Fabrics Made Easy.  It is the book I used to teach myself to dye many years ago and it has been my bible.  I encouraged all the gals to buy it if they continue to dye and Gwen already did.  She has so many useful tips and her method really is so easy and not very messy.

Next I showed them how to do a two-color mix.  For my sample I used Sun Yellow and Turquoise.  Only Jamie chose this combination.  Everyone else did their own thing and I am anxious to see the results next week when all promised to bring them to the meeting.

Everyone agreed that it was fun day and even those who said they had no interest in fabric dyeing are hooked.

I am linking this blog to Nina-Marie's "Off the Wall Fridays", so go over and see what everyone else is doing.

Quebec City

We spent three nights in Quebec City, a perfectly charming place. The  lower city is modern and bustling and the old town at the top of the hills is delightful  We did a lot of walking up and down hills,  I had to give up my comfortable and stylish sandals for my ugly walking sneakers, but at least my feet stopped hurting.

The famous Chateau Frontenac, now a part of the Fairmont chain, is most impressive.  It's been there forever (well a very long time) and is very pricey.  We didn't stay there but walked thru the lobby and shops.

The streets in the old town are narrow and twisty and full of boutiques and restaurants.  We did our best to help out with the Canadian economy. The exchange was almost even with a 3 cents advantage for the USA, but some stores still charged a small fee for using US dollars.  Some did not.  You always got change in Canadian money, so we made sure that we spent it all.  Serious purchases were charged.

As I said about Montreal, flowers and gardens were everywhere.  This park was across from the train station. See the picture below.

And this is the train station.  There is only one train that runs there now,  It is mostly restaurants and shops. This was about halfway between upper town and lower town.

We spent our last full day on the Isle of Orleans, a small island right outside the city in the St. Lawrence River.  It was charming personified.  Most of the houses had these bright red painted tin roofs, and had sumptuous gardens and decorations. Many of them were stone, as this one was.

Lots of gingerbread, and hanging baskets,

We were told not to miss the strawberries and we found out why.  There were fields and fields of them all over the island, one half of it mostly devoted to agriculture.  We bought a basket to eat in the car and they were among the best I've ever had.  So sweet and bright red all the way thru, not like the supermarket varieties we usually get hat home.

There were many wineries and we stopped at a couple to sample their wares and we each bought some to take home.  The views were quite impressive, too.

We had lunch here on the island and it was only one of the many fabulous meals we had on the trip.

Right off the island, on the way back to Quebec City, we stopped at these falls.  They say they are higher than Niagara Falls.

This was the only glitch in the whole trip.  We had an hour and a half wait to get to customs at the US border. We had seen signs (in French, of course) about a "Attente de duex heures" and thought that we must have misinterpreted it.  Nope, they were right, but at least it wasn't the declared two hour wait.
Once thru that it was a spectacular ride thru the green green state of Vermont, then on to Mass and finally home to CT, but it was a long day, mostly in  the car.

So I'm home for awhile, trying to get some studio time in.  Come back to see what I've been up to.