Creative Friday

Periodically my FiberWorks group will have a little workshop at one of our Friday meetings where a member will share some special skill or talent. We have covered ice-dyeing (Andrea), Geli plates (Paula), zip-lock bag fabric dyeing (me), paper art (Gwen), two types of Kumihimo (Barbara), and needle felting (Carolyn and Paula).

Last summer Paula and I spent five glorious days at a Shibori workshop with Jan Meyers-Newbury and today we gave a mini (two hour) workshop/demonstration of some of the techniques we learned.
Paula came up with the brilliant idea of having everyone do a mini pole scrunch in a tennis ball can. We sat them in red Solo cups to stabilize the cans, filled with two cups of soda ash/salt solution and some navy blue dye.  Members took home the fabric in the cans to batch and wash out later.

We showed several ways to fold and clamp and had an array of clamping supplies for them to use.  Here they are busy at work. These were put into zip-lock bags, again with two cups of soda ash solution and navy blue dye, also to be taken home to batch and then wash.

We briefly demonstrated how to pole wrap on larger poles on the diagonal, straight, folded, string wrapped, rope scrunched and others.  We showed examples of some of what we had done in class.  Stitched resist was also covered with examples shown and brief explanations.

Beth was so kind to let us use her big unfinished basement.  It was great spot to work, with large sliding glass doors to let in light.  She had plenty of plastic covered tables, extra lamps and a nice deep sink.  And we had a delicious spread of goodies upstairs to enjoy before and after the workshop. This is the second time she had hosted us for a messy workshop.  Thank you, Beth!

I think everyone enjoyed it and many were excited to go home and try some on their own.  They promised to bring their finished works to the next meeting.



Paula also had some very exciting Show and Tell.  She is so very talented.  She bought these plain canvas shoes at Walmart's for a pittance and turned them into masterpieces that she is shipping to family members today.  Aren't they fabulous?!

Hand painted.  My size, but alas, she had to ship them off.

Marks made with a Sharpie

Another fabulous design

These are child sized and she used the wrong end of a paint brush to make the dots with acrylic paint.

Very Variegated

If given the choice when picking plants, I will almost always choose the one with variegated leaves.  I just think they are so much more interesting.

I'm also fond of variegated threads and often use them in my quilting.

Sulky rayons

Superior  Threads Rainbows, which change color every inch. 

Quilt Blocking

I have finished quilting SW 5, Big Green.  Actually I finished a few days ago, but was waiting for the time to block it.  The full quilt will measure 64" wide by 48" high, but I quilted it in two sections, something I often do on a big quilt.  To me this is a big quilt. After my disastrous results in quilting a smaller prototype in free motion, I decided to quilt these sections in big swooping, undulating curves going from the upper left hand corner to the lower right hand corner.  Even though I was using a "walking foot" or "even-feed" foot, and even though I used a needle-down position, it was challenging. Every time I had to stop sewing and rearrange the fabric, I took the chance of the machine doing a little hop to the right, thus breaking that smooth line that I was hoping to achieve.  If  you look very closely at the quilt, you will see a few, but overall I love the look. I used the same technique on my SAQA Auction Quilt

What I was not prepared for was the distortion I got. Not only does this quilt have to lay flat, it is imperative that it is squared up because my quilt is based on blocks, so I used Kathy Loomis's method of blocking a quilt on my design wall.  She does hers in sections because her design wall is not big enough.  My design wall is 7 feet wide by 8 feet high, so I had plenty of room, although I did one piece at a time.

I drew a straight line on the wall, which is white felt over wall board, not very pinnable, so I pinned just to the felt. I drew lines on the felt for the top, sides, and the bottom of the quilt, using my big level, to be sure the lines were at  right angles. Then I spritzed the quilt quite liberally with a water bottle and tugged the quilt into shape, smoothing and pinning as I went, matching those drawn lines. Lots of tugging and smoothing and spraying and pinning and repinning.

What started out as a wavy parallelogram ended up as a perfect rectangle that is perfectly flat. It took about an hour, I think, but well worth the time.

I used to block my quilts on the floor with a steam iron, but this method is so much better.

This is my one Quilt National entry so I can't show it to you.  Even if it's only on my blog, someone may like it and put it on Pinterest or some other public place on the web.  This has to be new work that has never been seen. Anywhere!

But I can show you a few sneak peaks of the quilting. I used a variegated thread, Rainbow by Superior

I'm still not sure if I will sew the sections together or treat it as two quilts that will hang side by side and call it a diptych.

Pretty in Pink

Although I rarely wear pink or use it in my work, I love it in my garden. I usually mix it with a little purple- blue, as in my scaevola plants (blue fan flower) or blue salvia, and a little touch of yellow or white, but mostly my flowers are pink, all shades of pink.

Senorita Cleome

Lantana

Peony

Alstroemeria 

Geraium

New Guinea Impatiens

Coral Bells

New Guinea Impatiens

Sedum, Brilliance

Hydrangea  This picture was taken last year.  It has been a very bad year for Hydrangea because of our very cold, very long winter, so I don't know if I will get all these glorious blooms this year.  It's a small plant, but usually blooms all summer. Nobody's hydrangeas look good this year.

Knock-out Roses

Peony

Spirea

Wax leaf Begonia

Luscious Lime

If you know me at all you know my penchant for lime green.  My wardrobe is full of it, I often use it in my quilts and I find myself drawn to plants that have lime green leaves.

Detail from SW 5, Big Green

Detail from Emerald City

Detail from Verdant

Royal Purple

I wish I could say that these glorious flowers are in my garden, but they are in my neighborhood.  I just had to stop and take some photos. 

Regal Irises

Stately Giant Allium