Off to Glendale Quilt Show

Leave for the Glendale Quilt Show tomorrow, and a two-day class with Barbara Olson called, "Responding to the Surface." I painted some fabrics yesterday with Pro-Fab Textile Paint from ProChem. Turned out nice, but I think I still want to hand-dye something for the class. No pictures today...I should have some after the weekend!

The Photo that finally righted itself!

The Sanding Tables
March 8, 2007

Ok, it's a long story, but I tried to no avail last night to insert this photo--right-side up! It refused to cooperate, I tried re-rotating, I re-loaded it at least five times--nothing worked! This morning I have been trying again--no luck. Then, I saw on my new Picasa program a button that said, "Blog This." Hmmm...I wonder if this would work (you'd have to know that the photo looked correct in Picasa, but not when it went to Blogger). As you can see, I've been supremely successful! I wanted to make sure to get a photo of some of the workers who were sanding and varnishing last Saturday!

New VISIONS Home

March 7, 2007

New Quilt Visions Home--San Diego

Last Sunday, I drove down to San Diego to help with the community build for the new home of the Contemporary Quilt Organization, Quilt Visions. I helped sand wooden planks which will be used in the ceiling of the new museum space. There was a great crew working inside, outside, and even at home preparing food to bring to serve the workers for lunch! What an organized group! Here's a photo of work in progress inside the space (this room will be the gallery, but there is additional space for classes and an office):

Future Quilt Visions Gallery room

If you go to their web page www.quiltvisions.org, and click on "Learn More," it will take you to a page which offers you a wide array of informative options. The NTC (Naval Training Center) Promenade is just going to be a wonderful, wonderful destination point--you will want to visit and spend time there!

If you live in the LA/Orange County/San Diego area, please consider lending a hand to their community build project. The first exhibit is slated for, I believe, the third week in April 2007--that's only six weeks away! To volunteer, e-mail: visions@quiltvisions.org. I highly recommend investing of your time and energy for a facility that will be home to such a prestigious fiber art organization.

Where have the last two weeks gone?

March 7, 2007

Amazing that almost two weeks have passed since my last entry! What have I been doing?

Here's a little pictorial explanation:

This is a photo taken of one of my father's paint pallettes. I think it could be an amazing piece of fiber art! I love the colors and the shapes. I like it best vertically (counterclockwise), but for some reason, it continues to load to the blog in a horizontal format.

Last week I played around with a bleach pen on some black cotton fabric--just some geometric shapes. I left the bleach on for maybe five minutes initially,then rinsed. No real dramatic change, just a dark brown. Then, I decided to re-bleach the piece, and left the bleach on closer to an hour. I checked the underside of the cotton every fifteen minutes, until I was satisfied. Today I actually took at Pigma pen to the shapes (not shown) to see how that would look--not bad!

These photos (below) are from a painted piece I did using a plastic template with all square shapes! I tried some Setacolor, but it was so transparent, it didn't work well. I took my Lumieres, and echoed the square shapes--much better. What DID look good is a mixture of the Setacolor and Lumiere--see far right row. I also used a word stamper (like the date stamper), and that seemed to work well as long as there was not too much paint on the rubber.

This coming week I will be back to the sewing machine! I'm excited, since it seems too much time has gone by since actually creating something.

Next week is the Glendale Quilt Show, and my class "Responding to the Surface" with Barbara Olson. I'm excited to try something new.

Last Art Quilt Class and Shrinky Dinks

February 24, 2007

Jane LaFazio and me

Well, hard to believe that six weeks of my Art Quilt class with Jane LaFazio have come and gone! That was way too fast! Thanks, Jane for a great class! We had a fun group, and I knew every Friday I was guaranteed some good laughs with these ladies!

Didn't get a finished piece done, but had a lot laid out to discuss--the hand-dyeds, the heat-distorted pieces, etc. After everyone shared, we got to play with Jane's new "Shrinky Dink Oven!" We used colored pencils to draw whatever we wanted onto the Shrinky Dink plastic sheets, and then we cut it out and "baked" it in the oven! Here is my experience:

Colored and cut out shapes ready to bake!

Pieces are laid onto an index card and put in the oven

Pieces begin to curl and shrink

Finished work (all in about three minutes)!

Today I spent the morning working in my sewing room--taking things off the design wall, cleaning up, pressing fabric, etc. I'm ready to start something new! Actually, I made a list of all the smaller projects that have been started in the classes I've taken since January. I 'm going to choose several to take to completion, in some form or fashion. Some just need a border, others need quilting, and some need to have "the works!" My next class is not until mid-March at the Glendale Quilt Guild Show, so I've got some three weeks to re-group and do some sewing.

Last night a group of high school friends and I went to Dream Dinners. One of the friends has a husband in Iraq, and we decided to treat her to some fun and some meals! I came home with eleven meals ready to go with minimal effort! We had our first tonight, and it was so easy!

Dream Dinners night

Does this mean I have more time to work on art?

Silk Organza Art Quilt Class Project

February 22, 2007

It's a work in progress all right! Here are some of the components of what is to evolve as my last Art Quilt Class project with Jane LaFazio!

Various hand-dyed fabrics: silk organza, silk dupioni, cheesecloth. A few rows of knitted boucle'.

Hand-dyed cheesecloth and cotton pearl thread, along with a heat-distorted crocheted metallic eyelash yarn.

Jane gave each student a half-yard of silk organza to work with. I decided to hand-dye most of it. Our local art store had a sale on the little 2 oz. jars of Procion MX the other day, so I bought a jar each of gold, bronze, rust and black (see top photo for results). I had hoped for a more mottled look, but I think the organza and the cheesecloth were just so highly absorbant, that it didn't take much to dye them full-strength! I'm still learning here!

Additionally, I used some black PRO-Fab textile paint to stamp bubble wrap to the silk dupioni. Hmmm...not sure what I'll do with that, or if I will stamp some other things to the silk, etc. As you can see, this is totally a work in progress! AND, I have less than 24 hours to "Make it work," as Tim Gunn (Project Runway) says! (By the way, I've been recording all of the shows from the previous seasons--Bravo cable channel has been running them back-to-back on Wednesday afternoons). So, I will be off now to "Make it work!" I don't want to go to our last class empty-handed!

Before I go...here's a photo of how Jane used some "Lutradur." I would like to incorporate this--once I find my piece of it (it must be hiding behind all the Timtex and Pellon stuff I bought last week!). Jane hand-dipped the Lutradur in acrylic paint, and let it dry. She then stitched the Lutradur to fabric in a grid shape. Jane then used a heat gun to burn away the Lutradur to show the fabric beneath! Love this!

Ok, enough inspiration! Time to get to work!

"Making Faces" Workshop with Ann Turley

February 22, 2007

Last Saturday I decided to take a "just for fun" class! While researching classes, instructors and guild-offered workshops last month, I came upon one by Ann Turley called, "Making Faces." It sounded like pure, whimsical fun--just what I needed!

Ann Turley, class sample, and me

Our first assignment was to brainstorm at least ten words we would use to describe ourselves. Then, we had to pick a background fabric and two fabrics for our face. Ann provided a kit we purchased in class, which included directions, several face-shaped templates and various types of noses, ears, lips, noses and some fun accessories. We used fusibles to adhere our faces/parts, and then we were to satin stitch each of the pieces. It was fun watching each person's face take shape! Here are some other classmates' faces:

Below is my almost-finished face! I'm really happy with it! Ann showed us how to use a heat gun to melt/distort various sheer fabrics and other textiles. I had some gold sheer with me, and I cut a big piece, distorted it with the heat gun, then cut it up to look like blonde-flowing hair! Now, I'm still working on attaching the hair! Trying to figure the best way to make it look good! I decided to make a part on top by folding back one layer of the hair to one side, and another to the other side. My big question now, will be how to attach the last layer so it looks good (how to stitch the top row?). Any suggestions out there?

My Face

Any suggestions on how to attach the last row of hair on top for the best-looking results? Here's a close up:

Tomorrow is my last Art Quilt class with Jane LaFazio. The past six weeks have flown by! It has been a good experience to experiment with various different techniques! Our last project is to work with a half-yard of silk organza Jane provided! We can do whatever we want with it. My youngest has been home sick the past two days, so it's slow going here!

Almost forgot...Ann gave us some "Tyvek" to play with! I had heard the buzz about Tyvek on various quilt art boards, but had never tried it... Got home, used my heat gun to melt/distort from the opposite side (paper side or outside of the envelope). Then, I used some Jacquard Lumiere paints to paint the "rocks" (as Ann calls them). I applied a bit more heat to the same areas, and this is what I got:

Tyvek (material in certain mailing envelopes) distorted with heat gun

Art Show

February 15,2007

Last night, before a family Valentine's dinner at a local Mexican restaurant, we all attended our youngest son's Gustav Klimt-inspired art exhibit! Every week when I would pick him up from class, he wouldn't say too much about what they had done--short descriptions (when, of course, I was looking for a beautifully-painted verbal picture!). Well, we were very pleasantly surprised at the outcome--great artistry for an 11-year-old boy! Here's a photo of one of his finished piece, and a close-up of the skirting:

Gustav Klimt-inspired art

Close-up of skirting

As you can see they learned and executed a number of various techniques! Beautiful! Now, I've got to figure out how to get him to print on my fabrics!! :)

Now, on to the post script of the Trials and Tribulations of Fabric Dyeing! I went on to Round Two of the Mottled Browns! All was well as I pulled my second batch (if you'll remember the first batch went military green after rinsing), and began rinsing. Well, I got tired of rinsing and rinsing and so I did the soak. Instructions said to pour warm water with some dish soap detergent, with no bleach, into a bucket. So, I did this and ran to do some other things. Came back, and it was military green again! I think I'm meant to do something with this color!! I was so bummed! Well, I saved the dyes, and I put in a swatch of cheesecloth into each of the five quart-sized tubs. I rinsed in only cold water, and nothing else! Wha-La! They are BROWN in color (2nd generation/lighter, but BROWN!). So, in all my sleuthing, it must be the warmer water (all my other fabrics with red dye were fine). Below are photos from Round One and Round Two, and the cheesecloth in the middle!

Well, now, off to finish my Art Quilt class homework assignment due in the morning! I will post pictures when I'm done. I think I'm finally back in commission here!

Happy Valentine's Day!

February 14, 2007

Happy Valentine's Day!

Is it already February? Time is flying!

Have been busy these last three weeks, and I apologize for not getting more up on the blog. Here are a few tidbits I've worked on in the art quilt class with Jane La Fazio. Our assignment was to work in a journal-quilt size with wool. The first piece was my first go at it, and it is still in need of some finishing touches. The second piece needs another round of stitching to the sun/moon (your choice!), and a border.

#1

#2
My favorite of the two would be the second one (directly above). I actually would move a few things over to the left, or add a couple taller pieces on the left to balance it out--somehow it ended up with the one piece too much in the middle. I enjoyed working with the felt, and using the hand and machine stitching on it.

Last week in class we worked with soap erasers (I hear you can buy them at Dick Blick Art Supply). We used an X-acto knife to cut a stencil shape into it. Then, we stamped onto freezer paper. We then cut out the design, and used it as a stencil for the Shiva paintsticks we were using. So, the eraser acted not only as a stamp, which could be stamped directly onto fabric with inks, but also as a guide for cutting a custom stencil! 2-in-1! Fun trick!

This week's assignment is very different! We are using Timtex/Peltex (latter has fusible on it) to build a 3D house! Most of the samples in class were whimsical in nature. I'm going to take mine to a different place, and try and replicate our home lost in the Old Fires of 2003. I'm starting this morning, and need to be finished by Friday morning. I made a sample last Friday right after I got home, so I feel pretty comfortable using the materials. Happened to have the perfect fabric for it, so I think I'm ready to go! I will post a photo later today, after my youngest son's ipod nano is done charging (it says I cannot "disconnect" it from the computer! I have no clue what will happen if I violate the rule, and I'm not willing to find out!). The above Timtex link is to the Timtex Store--a fun website showing a lot of different uses for Timtex (fabric bowls, is a great example!). By the way, I found Peltex at Wal-Mart for 50% less than the local quilting store! I couldn't believe it (From $10/yd to $5/yd!).

Tonight we are off to my youngest son's Art Exhibit (he's 11) at the local Art Supply store. They have been working for five weeks ala Gustav Klimt style--monoprinting, sketching, etc. Will be fun to see what they did! After the show, it's a Valentine's dinner out with the family!

Here's our sweet Kuc, who will be celebrating her (and our) first Valentine's without our dear Sassy (was taken by a coyote in October).

Our kitty "Kuc"

(pron. Kutch in Latvian)

Kuc and Sassy

Time to re-group!

Our beautiful beach--a great place to re-group!

January 24, 2007

Time to re-group! A lot to process from the various classes I've taken. I want to experiment, and spend some time just letting things "gel." Today I will work on my first assignment in my "Art Quilting" class with Jane LaFazio at the Oceanside Museum of Art. We are to complete a small landscape quilt (8 1/2 x 11) for Friday. I'm going to go "play" today, and fine-tune my initial composition.

I added a couple pictures from the Sandi Cummings workshop down in my previous post about her class, and below are some photos of my first fabric-dyeing experience! Everything went extremely well, sans a small glitch with my gradation assignment... Upon pulling each of the five fat quarters out of their soaking, they all looked gorgeous! Then, my beautiful browns, started to change to a military green upon soaking in the Synthrapol! I was so disappointed! Now, working with Marjie (my online teacher, who is awesome!), I'm trying to figure out what happened! She doesn't think it's the Synthropol. So, later this week, I'll try again, and see what happens. She has promised to stand on her head, and take a picture for our class gallery if I am right! I'm making no promises of anything if I'm wrong! So here are a few photos:

I've staked my claim to the kitchen!

The results of Lesson One: Solids!

Lesson Two: Mottled Colors--Soaking

Results of Lessons Two and Three

Last photo a bit out of focus (sorry). Lesson Two is on the left: secondary colors, including purple, orange and green. The colors are perfect (this screen doesn't show the purple accurately). The five fabrics on the right side are Lesson Three--gradations. The lightest color actually is a pretty beige color (why didn't it change?). The other four, though, turned the military green! Should have been beautiful browns! I WILL try again!

Quilt University--Cotton Dyeing Basics

January 20, 2007

Well, what a day! I finally got to Lesson One of four lessons in my online Quilt University class with Marjie McWilliams! Having never dyed fabric, I was understandably nervous! I decided to work downstairs, so I covered everything with plastic! That took a good while. Once I got started, though, it was a lot of fun, especially to see all the changes that would take place when adding the salt, the soda ash, etc. I also made all sorts of mixtures of different colors with the remaining basic colors--what fun! Tomorrow (while I still have my plastic everywhere) I will plan to do Lesson Two (mottled fabrics--can't wait!), and hopefully Lesson Three--that way I can be caught up! Once I find more camera batteries, I'll take photos and post them soon!

Need to go rinse the last of the fabrics!

First Day of Art Quilt Class at Oceanside Museum

January 19, 2007

Today was my first day of a six-week Art Quilt class with Jane LaFazio. This class was pretty much the only class I could find in my general area.

Today we did introductions--so many funny stories! We had a demo on "Landscape Quilts." Basically, taking all sorts of fabrics--anything goes--and, creating a landscape. We will work in 8 1/2" x 11" format for now, but again, we are free to do whatever we want! Jane really wants us to just feel free to create--love that! I must admit, I also love that there is a tiny bit of structure, as in: an assignment! We will all show our finished/work-in-progress next week.

Yesterday I drove to Road to California in Ontario, CA. I had read Thursday was the day to go--less people, and more stuff to buy. I think everyone heard that comment, as it was packed! You could barely walk the aisles. Great show--lots and lots of amazing quilts to see! I took some photos I will post next time. It was fun to see the $100,000 winning quilt up close! How do these ladies stipple SO tiny?? Amazing! I didn't spend too much money. Only bought some black and white fabric (always love to have fun and different blacks and whites), and some wool for my Art Quilt class above (next week we work with wool in a quilt).

A sampling of some of the black and white fabrics I bought

Tomorrow I start dyeing fabric for Lessons 1 and 2 of my Quilt University class--Cotton Dyeing Basics. I've read my instructions at least three times, I have double-checked my supply list, and I'm good to go! A bit nervous about all the dye powder warnings, but I will take all the precautions! Can't wait to see the results! Will post those soon.

This week has gone by so fast! Next week I will get to start creating and sewing again!

Gearing Up for the Week Ahead

Having been gone the last few days, it's hard to get back in the groove! I'm excited to get started again, so in my typical fashion, I'm cleaning my itsy-bitsy studio (extra room), and getting re-organized! Now I have lots of new fabric paints and dyes to add to my shelves! On that order I went to Lowe's this morning and had six new shelves cut to size to put in my two existing bookshelves. Once I get things back in order, I can get to work on projects started in Sandi Cummings' classes and in Rayna Gillman's classes. I need to start my Quilt U Cotton Dyeing class also--my order arrived!

Thursday I will drive up to Ontario for "Road to California." I plan to just view the exhibits and, of course, visit the vendors! The classes I would like to have taken were full months and months ago! Will have lunch with a school friend, too--can't wait!

Friday I start my six-week Art Quilts class with Jane LaFazio in Oceanside. It will be great to just have a place to get together on a weekly basis, get inspired, and create! Fun, fun, fun!

Rayna Gillman Workshop--Santa Barbara

January 14, 2007

Just returned from beautiful Santa Barbara and two fabulous workshops with Rayna Gillman--"Printing with Found Objects" and "Jump-Starting the Art Quilt."

Thursday evening I attended the Coastal Quilters quilting guild meeting, where Rayna presented a slide show of her journey as a fiber artist. She had us laughing with her great stories of her"Flat Robbins" (not "Round Robbins"), where she added to her own work each week, and her early contemporary pieces always needing to be "askew" in order to qualify as an art quilt! It was great to see the evolution of her work.

Friday morning our class met at the Goleta Community Center--a great, older building with lots of character and huge rooms! Each of us had what seemed to be an eight-foot long table to ourselves--we got to really spread out! Two tables faced each other, and so we each had a "tablemate." Mine was Jeanne, and she was a great inspiration to me. Jeanne began quilting only three years ago, and she is already producing beautiful work, and being juried into shows! Thanks, Jeanne for being a great neighbor--I enjoyed getting to know you! Here's a photo of Jeanne:



Rayna started the day by showing us how to print with found objects on the fabric we brought from home. We were to first layer our fabric with "texture," and then embellish from there. The sky was the limit! It was great to see everyone's work, and also to see how different "found objects" printed. Here's my very first printed piece of fabric:

After this printing session, Rayna showed us how to use a silkscreen to print fabric. We used all sorts of things from tape to thermofaxes--it was great to see even more great options in printing.

Here are a few more of my first printed pieces:

After washing all our tools, several of us went out to the restaurant, Left at Albuquerque, in downtown on State Street. While it was freezing cold and windy outside, it was nice and warm inside! What a great time we had talking fiber art and having some good laughs--you gals are too fun!

Saturday morning we all returned ready for "Jump-Start your Art Quilt." We discussed idea generation, and ways to do that. Based on that discussion, we jumped into several different projects. I had not worked in this particular way, so it was absolutely awesome for me to see that in 30 minutes I could complete a basic design based on a theme. How cool is that! I was hooked! A couple times I made two pieces in the allotted time (15 minutes each!), and it proved to me that much can be done in a day! Here are a couple pieces from various exercises:

Overall, I'm SO glad I went to this workshop. It was perfect for me, and has certainly expanded my thinking once again. This is what is so exciting about this year for me--to just keep expanding my knowledge and thought base. By next year I hope to have more of my own voice, once I learn how to translate everything in my brain onto fabric!

Rayna--you were a great teacher, and I'm thankful you encouraged us to explore, urged us to go with some of our first gut reactions, and to just have fun! Thanks for a wonderful experience!

New Year's Goals and Sandi Cummings Workshop

January 6, 2007

My first workshop of the New Year, and the first workshop toward achieving my goal this year, was with Sandi Cummings .

My goal this year is to learn as much as I can about quilting/fiber art/surface design as possible. My plan is to study with as many fiber artists/teachers as I can, in order to learn techniques needed to design and construct fiber art quilts. Since I'm new to quilting overall, I have to play "catch-up" in a very serious way. I don't want to take 10 years to learn what I can learn in one year. I've basically catalogued all the techniques I believe will be important in the design and construction of art quilts, and have looked at numerous art quilters websites to see if they will be teaching in my area. With those schedules, I've mapped out a whole variety of classes teaching various techniques!

This past Sunday and Monday I went to Poway, CA near San Diego for two workshops with Sandi through the Friendship Quilters Guild of San Diego (super nice and friendly group!). Sandi taught "Freeform Units with Inserted Strips" on Sunday, and "Double your Fun" on Monday. Both classes were excellent, and using her techniques, it was clear that the design possibilities are truly endless! Sandi was very patient, gracious and helpful (as a newbie, this was very appreciated!). A couple samples below:

Last week, I signed up for a Quilt University class! I've never taken a class online, so I'm excited to see how it works. The class is "Cotton Dyeing Basics" with Marjie McWilliams . Since I signed up right before it started, I'm still waiting for my supplies to arrive, but fortunately it is not a problem, since I have until mid-February to complete all my lessons! So far, the class discussion board is in full swing, and Marjie has been faithfully answering questions and reviewing other students' work online! Believe it or not, there are students in my class from Taiwan, Sweden, Australia, Belgium and more! Amazing how we are all in one class together!

Tomorrow I leave for Santa Barbara to take a workshop with Rayna Gillman . Rayna and will be teaching two days. The first day will be "Printing with Found Objects" (on fabric), and "Jump-Starting the Art Quilt." This will be a perfect complement to the hand-dyed fabric class! Rayna has been extremely helpful pre-class, answering several e-mails with questions about supplies and the like. I'm looking forward to meeting her and learning from her--her art cloths and quilts are wonderful!