Sweet Leaf Notebook

Winter

2012-01-22T15:36:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, I needed a break from cleaning and reorganizing my creative space, so I went cross-country skiing at Menominee Park on Lake Winnebago. It was a beautiful, bright clear crisp day! Enjoy the pictures.

I actually had a chemical hand warmer in my camera bag so that the battery would not die from the cold. It worked like 2 charms!

These are ice shoves. For those of you who don't live near a lake that freezes, ice shoves are frozen chunks that get pushed ashore. Wave action continues even while the lake is in the process of freezing and thawing. I thought they looked kind of monolithic (even though there are 2 or 3 here). And I liked the stripes on the ice behind it ... I'm always on the lookout for pattern, textures and colors.

A little more color to the sky as I finished up my late afternoon ski.

Little Things

2012-01-15T20:24:00.000-06:00

"My Thoughts Are With You."

Fabric Postcard. Techniques : Raw-edge fusible applique with Threadpainting.
I've been wanting to do a postcard of this scene for quite some time.

My mom put this handy little tool in my Christmas stocking. It's great for placing small and fickle pieces too delicate for fingers.

I also finished 2 new quarter-size journals this weekend. The covers for these comes from a "sop cloth" in my wet studio. A sop cloth is what you use to wipe up spills, or wipe out the last bit of color from the dye pots. Some people call them serendipity fabrics. You never quite know what you're going to get. It must have been red, purple and black that day : a nice combination.

This one is for my friend Rolanda, who requested another journal to take on her 2-month tour of India and South-East Asia this summer. This kind of tie-dye totally fits her personality, too. It has 2 extra signatures in it (over the usual 3). I hope she likes it. ;-)

This one is for me. I'm planning to use it as a "creative calisthenics" journal, with serendipity collages and ink-splats. More on that later --when I actually get my workspace cleared enough to do some of these. I also needed a quarter-size journal of my very own, to use as a model for making more. I sold the last one I had at the craft sale in December. I picked up some embellishment at the local liquidator store : a heart with wings. I'm curious as to how long it will stay on the cover. So consider it a test.

So Many Options for a Creative and Inspired 2012

2012-01-02T17:50:00.004-06:00

There are so many options for cultivating a Creative Life in 2012. Here are just a handful that I am considering. Did I mention most of them are FREE?

Sketchbook Challenge 2012 Welcome Message
I did this challenge in 2011, and surprised myself in a number of ways!
I started out thinking the sketchbook would be a separate medium, but there were a number of things that started out as sketches on paper, where I thought they would remain on paper. Several of then eventually moved into another dimension and became journal quilts. I also stretched my wings and started doing some water color pieces, too. I'd like to do more watercolor in the coming year. I like having a theme to flavor a whole month of creativity.

Book of Days 2012 : Journal Art & Memory Keeping with Effie Wild
This looks like it will be much more than just making stuff, involving Spirit as well. Cool!

Free-Motion Quilting Challenge 2012
This will feature some of the greats of FMQ like Diane Gaudinski, Ann Fahl, and Leah Day. The organizer is careful to note that it's not an online class, but another outlet to learn and share more about FMQ from some of the greats. They will also feature regular exercises, monthly challenges and prizes. Good thing I just re-vamped my sewing area to accommodate easier FMQ!

Creative Jump Start 2012 Summit
The first tutorial was on warmups to get your creativity going. Simple stuff! Great stuff! I can't wait to get started ... I'm realizing I need to make a space for paper arts in my "studio."

Fabulous Surfaces - Lessons to accompany Lynda Monk's new book
Not yet posted, but I'm waiting for it!

Candied Fabrics is offering a "work-at-your-own-pace" online dyeing class beginning in February :
Although I've been dyeing fabric for several years, now, I am interested in making the 2-66 swatch color boards, aka "The Candiotic Table of Elemental Color."    Having an actual class might just be the impetus I need to make such a hands-on color study happen! Recipes for re-producable color results is also a bonus!

Candy Glendening has also appeared on Quilting Arts, so she might look familiar to you.

Not sure what pricing will be yet, but these online classes are usually pretty reasonable.   It seems to average about $10 per online lesson. There will be some kind of early bird pricing.

Photo Shop Essentials - Lessons with Kim Klassen
I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to take her Beyond Textures class, but that would be like running before learning to walk. I really need to wait for the basic class in Photoshop Elements. She gives away a free texture every Tuesday--beautiful layers that you can use in your own work --- if only I knew what to do with them!   Baby steps. I have to start at the beginning.    What I really want to do is use some of my photographs as silhouettes against some of my National Geographic-Citrasolve backgrounds. There has to be an easier way to deal with layers, and I do believe Kim Klassen holds the key to those mysteries!

Journal Quilts Challenge
I'd like to continue with a monthly journal quilt as I did in 2011, but since Three Creative Studios is no more, I wonder if I'll have the push to to actually make it happen on my own?

Quilting Arts
This magazine is chock-full of articles, ideas and inspiration. And don't forget the accompanying tv show! I have to start taking notes on the things I want to try ...

Of course, then there's the usual dyeing, quilting and mess-making that I like to play with. I don't know that I'll be able to keep up and participate in all of these opportunities in 2012, but it goes to show that the horizon looks very bright for a Creative Life!

Journal Quilts 2011 Review

2012-01-02T12:28:00.000-06:00

One of my goals in 2011 was to participate in 3 Creative Studios Journal Quilt Challenge. Vicki Welsh of 3CS made it so easy to participate. No rules other than the ones we set for ourselves. My goal was to do 1 journal quilt per month, and to use some of my own hand dyed fabric.

Mission accomplished!

Winter Solstice : A Comparative Quilt Study

2012-01-01T09:44:00.002-06:00

Michele's Winter Solstice Quilt

Holly's Winter Solstice Quilt

My Mother (Holly) and my Aunt Rosita were the ones who got me into quilting almost 10 years ago. They have a fantastic quilt shop in Antigo where they could take classes to learn all these new techniques--like raw-edge applique. They even picked out a "new" sewing machine for me at this shop (A Husqvarna Viking Rose -- which I still use). My mom was able to take a class to learn "scribble" applique. I live too far away to take the class, so she gave me the shortened version, and I took the patterns and played on my own.

Even though it's the same McKenna Ryan pattern, we both made different color choices, embellishment and quilting choices, so that they really look like different quilts. The maker's personality can come through. That's why Quilting is so popular : It's versatile!

Enjoy this comparative study of the two Winter Solstice Quilts :

Michele's Encounter Block

Holly's Encounter Block

Detail of Holly's Encounter Block

Michele's 3 Bears

Holly's 3 Bears (Sorry--I cut off the 3rd bear in the photo.)

Michele's Old Tree / Holly's Old Tree

Michele's Starry Night Block

Holly's Starry Night Block

Michele's Cabin Block / Holly's Cabin Block

Detail of Michele's Cabin in the Woods.

Michele's Wolf Moon Block

Holly's Wolf Moon Block

Michele's 3 Chickadees Block

Holly's 3 Chickadees Block

Michele's Corner Chickadees / Holly's Corner Chickadees

Detail of border quilting with the embroidery unit on Michele's Quilt.

The Beauty and Variety of Quilting is Amazing!

Winter Solstice Quilt

2012-01-01T09:03:00.001-06:00

I finished this quilt back in 2005. I was still a new quilter, and the techniques of raw edge applique and free-motion stitching were new concepts for me. The separate blocks broke the total project down into manageable chunks--It was kind of addicting when I started it. I remember staying up late at night --way past my usual bed-time--just to work on these blocks. I could't wait to see how they turned out! This is a McKenna Ryan pattern from the early 2000s ... It doesn't seem to be available anymore, or I'd provide a link.

I remember learning to free-motion stitch and feeling like the world had opened wide for me with that new knowledge. There were a lot of firsts for me on this quilt :

* raw-edge applique
* free-motion embroidery
* free-motion quilting

* beadwork

* using the embroidery unit on my sewing machine (that turned out to also be the last time I used it)
* printing to fabric (There's a poem on the back ...)

* altering a given pattern. The original had Father Christmas carrying skis on his back. I changed it to a load of wood.

When it was finished and hung, I remember laying down on the couch so I could look at it, mesmerized in a kind of meditation. Even though I had worked every inch of it up close, it seemed to take on another life at a distance. I LOVE when that happens!

And now, when I look at it, I'm still amazed and fascinated with it. Now I also see it as an accurate record of my skill set at that time. If I were to do it again now, I would do more embellishment, more free-motion embroidery. I'd really color in the spaces more, add more texture, secure those beads better. That was also when I didn't really see the need to square up a quilt top before adding borders, and binding. It's a constant reminder of how far I've come! Cheers!

One More for Trashed

2012-01-01T08:36:00.000-06:00

Our dog, Purty, found this trashed baseball in the park next to our house. It must have gotten chopped up in a lawn mower. I thought it had some interesting textures, and it fit the December theme beautifully!

One last contribution for the Trash, Ruin & Decay December Sketchbook Challenge Theme.

More on the Theme of Trash, Ruin and Decay

2011-12-18T11:04:00.000-06:00

Remember last week, when I showed how to make "Composed Fabric" out of recycled scraps and cast-offs? Now, I have a whole sheet of that composed fabric. But what to do with it? It can be very unfocused and overwhelming in the full sheet.

One option is to cut it up. The one at the top is an ATC size, about the size of a playing card. I attached it to the cover of my 2012 Sketchbook Challenge sketchbook. The red one below is on the cover of the 2011 sketchbook. Yeah--all year, it's been a plain cover--until now! Just a splash of color does wonders for a blank canvas.

My blogging friend Vicki Welsh at Field Trips in Fibers shows how to make Christmas Ornaments with a similar collage technique.

Sketchbook Challenge : Trash, Ruin, Decay

2011-12-18T10:32:00.000-06:00

For me, this is a "juicy" theme for the month, because there's so much trash, ruin, and decay around ... And if you look closely, you'll see some wonderful textures and character in that old junk.

These are some pictures from a walk in my Dad's woods. It's an old junk pile, back when people had their own trash piles on their land ... This barrell is looking very good for future rust-dyes.

Looks like moss, doesn't it? I think it's an old carpet. Definately not of the natural world.

The theme got me thinking of Grappa and Gramma Smitmajer's first date more than 60 years ago ... Grappa took her to the town dump so Grappa could shoot rats. He was a "manly man" in those days. Isn't that romantic? Sheesh!

Here's a picture of Grappa's Bus when they were getting ready for the farm auction :

It was parked next to the machine shed for years and years. He was always "saving it" and getting it ready for hunting / camping trips. But I don't think it ever left his yard. A tornado came through in the early 1980s and planted the roof of the machine shed on top of it, and there it sat for another 30 years. Grappa just didn't have the energy or the heart to clean it up. I was amazed that someone actually purchased it at the auction, and dragged it away.

As further inspiration for this trash and ruined theme, I offer Ransom Brigg's "A Most Peculiar Trip : Searching for Miss Peregrine:"

I just read his novel, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, and finding this video was kind of a eureka moment. It fit in so nicely with the theme. Enjoy!

Sketchbook Challenge : Ordinary Things

2011-12-08T16:32:00.005-06:00

I worked on a couple of sketches today. This hearkens back to Jane Lafazio's Ordinary Things Sketchbook Challenge Theme from last summer. This is the new "cabbage" mug I bought at the Arts & Crafts Sale last Saturday :

Both sketches were done with pencil, Sharpie fine line marker, and water color crayons.

Recipe for Sweet Leaf Composed Fabric

2011-12-07T15:14:00.012-06:00

I demonstrated this technique at my local quilt guild's School House Demo night a few months ago. I thought it was time I actually wrote it up.

Ingredients :

Base Fabric
Scraps from trimming and sizing up blocks (bits otherwise considered “too small to save”).
Strings from squaring up fabric.
Thread tails and other scraps. Schnibbles (that tangled mess after washing cut fabric)
Yarns.
Old thread.
Candy wrappers or foil.
Paper scraps.
You can even “shred” larger scraps if you need more of a particular color.

Basically, anything you can sew through will work.

I keep a cup next to my sewing machine to catch the thread tails, and clippings. When it gets too full, it all goes into a zip-lock bag for later use. Usually, if I'm working on a project the colors are loosely coordinated, so it all kind of works out. If I were anyone other than my grandfather's progeny, I would throw this stuff out as trash, but in his words, "It's good yet!" Some people call these scraps "ort" as in ort-work (as opposed to artwork).

The Basic Technique

1) Lay out a base fabric. It can be anything, ugly or not. It will be covered up with scraps and snippets anyway. Muslin will also work. This piece is about 18 in x 24 in--the size of the cutting mat underneath.

2) Sprinkle the snippets, scraps, yarns, threads, lace, whatever, onto the base fabric. Arrange them however you please.

Even candy bar wrappers are fair game. I rip these into smaller pieces. I like the metallic blue of these Ghirardelli milk chocolate bars.

Foil bits add bling.

See : Isn't that better?

3) Cover with a layer of tulle netting. In this case, I used black because it tends to disappear, but try tulle in different colors for different effects. Organza or other sheers would also work :

4) Pin baste the quilt sandwich :

You could use fusible in the layers to hold it all together here, if you so desired. The pin-basting method works fine for me, so I leave out the fusible.

5) Free-motion stitch all the layers together :

This becomes a meditation. It's also great practice for free-motion stitching. You can't really see the stitches, so it's a great time to practice without worrying so much about the results. For a piece this size, I used just over 1 full bobbin of thread. You can really burn through thread with this technique. It's perfectly ok to use threads you'd just like to use up--as long as it works in your machine and doesn't give you breakage problems, use it. If it is breaking on you, spool it off and add it to your composed fabric collage!

Here's the back. Remember that horrible base fabric? It's still here and put to much better use!

Voila! I have a groovy background for ATCs, fabric post cards, blog banners, journal covers, textured applique, art quilt backgrounds, or anything else you might want to do with it.

Detail.
Options : You can put a layer of Modge-Podge over the top. That will fill in the holes of the tulle and really make it disappear. It also gives it a plasticy-synthetic feel that will add to it's durability.

I like looking these because I can see all the bits and pieces and scraps from past projects. It's kind of a scrapbook of the things I've made. A memory book in fiber and stitch.

Paying Homage :
Nellie Durand over at Nellie's Needles is a master of Ort Work. Please stop by her blog to see the wonder ways she uses these bits and scraps in her work. Her Lake-scapes and Prairie-scapes are breathtaking!

Sue Bleiweiss also offers a Fiber Art Collage Art Cards Tutorial with a similar technique.

Have fun with your recycling trash into treasure!

Siblings Thread Sketches 2 and 3

2011-12-06T16:42:00.003-06:00

I finished up 2 more thread sketches. These will be Christmas presents.
Ma and Mande : Do you have a preference?

Artist Showcase : A Few of My Favorite Things

2011-12-06T15:54:00.006-06:00

At the UU Art and Craft Sale, last week, I bought a few things myself.
This little "cabbage" mug makes me happy! I love the shape and the color, and the Potter was careful to point out the owl face at the base of the handle. It was made by Marie Sawall of Willow Tree Pottery.

Marie also wanted to show me the Sweet Leaf Notebook journal she had purchased from me a few years ago. She had it along that day, dog-eared and filled with her original songs. Cool! I love to see people using my journals!

Warm Wollen Mittens by Kathy Beyer
This is my weakness. With winters in Wisconsin, these keep my hands toasty warm! And the way these sell (like hotcakes), there are far fewer people saying they are allergic to wool these days!

Dreamcatcher by Debra Morningstar, with sweet grass and willow grown on her own prairie, and feathers collected on her daily walks on the land. A-ho!

This is a Christmas gift for a tiny young woman from Japan. Full of good intentions for her present and future! Thank you, Debra for your so positive spirit, and your music. She'll love it!

Another Dyeing Day

2011-12-06T15:07:00.007-06:00

Melissa at Fabric Dyeing 101 just published a book encapsulating all the great info and color recipes on her blog. You can't beat the price at $2.99 for a digital copy. Go see ...

This weekend, I decided to give Melissa's color recipes for brown and neutrals another go-round.

A few weeks ago, I got this lovely set (above), but I wanted to try for some deeper colors. So this time, I did a few things differently ...

For the base concentrates, I used Scarlet (Red), Sun Yellow and Cerulean Blue (Last time it was Sky Blue). Also, this time, I used twice as much dye per cup. Indeed, the colors are deeper ...

This time, I'm also keeping better records with swatches and mixing recipes.
The fabric is Dharma's economy bleached muslin.

I also did a set of yellow gradations parfait style (meaning I threw all these into the same jar together). I'm not a huge fan of yellow, hence I have very little in my stash. But now I have an idea ...

With the extra dye concentrate, I mixed up some purples that looked really promising in the parfait jar. Unfortunately, most of the darker blue washed down the drain, leaving me with pink.

I suspect these will be thrown into the re-dye pile to lessen the buble-gum effect.

I also used some of the extra brown dye to do some "don't-bother-me" neutrals parfait style :

29 Ways to be Creative

2011-11-30T18:48:00.002-06:00

29 WAYS TO STAY CREATIVE from TO-FU on Vimeo.

The hardest one for me : Clean your workspace. Things just pile up from other projects, to the point where I can't start anything new. This is an important one to keep up with. Maybe I need to schedule time for the clean-up. Not the same time as my make-stuff time.

Fabulous Surfaces by Lynda Monk

2011-11-30T07:21:00.003-06:00

I just got this book in the mail from the UK. Lynda Monk's new Fabulous Surfaces book!
It was about $18 plus shipping US ($24 total?).

She'll be offering free online lessons in January 2012 to those who have the book. Goodie! Goodie!
In the meantime, I can collect the materials, and dream about what I want to make! Lots of tissue paper this time ...

Check out her blog for some of her other fabulous surfaces : Purple Missus.

More New Journals : Leather

2011-11-26T18:16:00.006-06:00

"First, Catch Your Springbok"
Leather Journal, 1/4-size; 4 signatures
This is my favorite journal of the season!

Golden Trout Leather Journal; 1/4-size

Black Leather Journal with Fluer-de-Lis Button Closure

More New Journals : Composed Fabric

2011-11-26T18:08:00.007-06:00

Detail of the closure.
This button is one of the treasures I found at Bigsby's a few weeks ago.

All three of these journals are made of "composed fabric" using scraps, thread tails, yarns and other junk that would otherwise be thrown away.

New Journals

2011-11-26T17:53:00.007-06:00

Here are some of the new journals I'll have for sale next Saturday at the Holiday Craft Sale in Appleton. Stop by if you are in the area.

Holiday Craft Sale

on Saturday December 3, 2011
9 am - 2:00 pm
at The Fox Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
2600 East Phillip Ln.
Appleton, WI.

Lunch and sweets will also be available.
It's a great bunch of local artisans. Join us!

This one has an old leather button for a closure. It looked so much like a pine cone, that I couldn't resist pairing it with this particular journal.

This one was difficult to photograph. I used a piece of heavy black paper used to stuff a package. I added some gold paint and other embellishments. The blue brand mark doesn't appear so visible in real life.

Thanks to Doug Johnson, Art Professor at UW-River Falls

2011-11-25T09:26:00.008-06:00

Professor Emeritus, Doug Johnson. Photo from here in 2008.

I have to give this guy credit. I took two classes with him while I was in my early college years at UW-River Falls around 1990. His Art 100 was not just the usual art appreciation class where you look at lots of slides of great art and discuss. He actually had us all purchase Craypas and good paper so we could MAKE some art of our own in all the styles we were studying. I had no idea how liberating that would be! In high school, I had creative and talented friends who were in all the Art classes, but I was on the college prep track, so no time for art classes. Sigh! Thank goodness Art 100 was REQUIRED in college. And thank goodness, I took Doug Johnson's class that pushed us beyond merely appreciating art.

Dog in the style of Nabi (circa 1990).

Doug Johnson encouraged us to really press in the color with our pieces. None of that wishy-washy pastel stuff. We had to be "committed" to the piece. He didn't want to see any of the white paper showing through. ;-)

My last spring semester in River Falls, I took a sculpture class (I had learned the year before that it was impossible to take heavy and serious classes in spring--Try writing a paper on nuclear war while the apple trees are blooming, and you're in love! The two are not compatible!) Anyway, the creative classes took an investment of time, but not memorization--it was a different kind of learning where we really got INSIDE of the lessons-- for which I am grateful.

I don't know that he ever made it big with his art. He was the kind of guy who--if he dropped a pottery sculpture on the way in to the gallery, and if he liked the way it broke apart on the floor, he'd fence it off and make it a display. Now that's rolling with the punches!

Doug Johnson made me promise I would take more art classes, even if it wasn't my major. He saw some potential in me. Now, it's 20 years later. I doubt he'd even remember me. I would like to say "Thank you for the encouragement in those early years." I have taken more classes and made more art since then. "Making stuff" has become an important part of my life.

You made a difference in my creative life, Professor Johnson. Thank you! Happy Thanksgiving!

I forgot to mention that this is in honor of Story Corps National Day of Listening where you Thank a Teacher.

Sewing Cradle - Or "What the Heck IS a Sewing Cradle?"

2011-11-20T14:39:00.005-06:00

Sweetie made me a sewing cradle for book binding. ;-)
I can't believe I have NOT had one up until now.

Instructions for making one of your own are available here from TJ Book Arts.

I was facing a pile of paper signatures, all needing to be punched with holes so they could be bound into my hand-made journals. Lots of stress on my body to this by hand, and I was not looking forward to it.

But with the new sewing cradle, I was able to punch all these holes in less than 20 minutes. AND I was not in pain afterwards! I was to amazed with this simple little tool!

Here's how it works :

Lay the paper signature to be punched in the cradle. Be sure everything is lined up properly.

Add the template where the holes are pre-measured and already punched. This acts as a guide so you don't have to measure and mark every single signature set. Another handy innovation!

Line everything up, and use the awl to punch the holes through the template, and through the paper signature (10 pages of paper). The cradle holds everything steady, and prevents you from poking holes that are too big. The wood has a different feel from the paper when you punch it, so you know when to stop.

It works just as well for punching the holes through the covers as well :

Holes punched, and ready to bind the paper signatures.

I just like the way the paper lined up from the side. Kind of reminds me of the vaulted ceilings in churches ...

Stay tuned ... I'll be posting the new journals shortly.

If you're in the area, I'll be selling my hand-made journals at a Holiday Craft Sale

on Saturday December 3, 2011
9 am - 2:00 pm
at The Fox Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
2600 East Phillip Ln.
Appleton, WI.

Lunch and sweets will also be available. It's a great bunch of local artisans. Join us!

Beauty by Mail

2011-11-20T14:09:00.004-06:00

I love getting things in the mail--especially when it's a pretty as this! Northern Lights!

On Friday, I received this beautiful fabric post card in the mail. It's made by Monika Kinner-Whalen of My Sweet Prairie in Canada. Back in September, Monika offered a tutorial on thread sketching for 3 Creative Studios' Technique of the Month.

As a reward for participating in the challenge, my name was thrown into the hat for this lovely prize. ;-) I'm very happy with this little gem!

November Dyeing Day

2011-11-09T18:54:00.004-06:00

Inspired by the moody gray November skies (which I love!), I dyed a set of gradations with black as the base. This is the darkest one. Yeah, I know--It's hard to get a true black, but then gray is what I was actually after! I was after a more watercolor-snow dye look. On Sunday when I dyed these, we didn't have snow. We do now! Hurray!

Here's the whole set of gray gradations. That black on the bottom is the black flannel on my design board. I didn't dye it that dark. Some of these were thrown into a parfait dye, but at this point, I can't really tell which ones were the gradations, and which were the parfait sets. They were all variants of black and gray. Melissa's Recipe for Gray Gradations. These will make some wonderful backgrounds ...

This set of browns were made entirely from mixing concentrates of Scarlet - Yellow - Cerulean Blue from Melissa's color recipes for Browns and Neutrals. The ones she shows are much deeper in saturation. I'm perfectly happy with how mine came out, and I might do some more experimenting ... My dyes are a few years old now, so they may have lost some of their umph in the meantime.

ATCs

2011-11-09T18:46:00.004-06:00

Artist Trading Cards made from "Composed Fabric."
Sorry--I like these two too much to trade just yet.

But I'll send the red ones below anywhere in the world, as long as you have some to trade in return. Just leave a comment saying you want to exchange ATCs, and we'll make the connection. I don't get enough snail mail anymore. ;-)

Left to Right : 24 - 25 - 26

Left to Right : 27 - 28

Buttons at Bigsby's

2011-11-09T06:51:00.008-06:00

Look, Ma! This is how I spent my Birthday money. Ooooh! Ahhhhh! Purty!

$43 worth of buttons that fit in the palm of my hand. I feel a little like Jack and the Beanstalk ... Was it really worth it? or just a bunch of worthless beans? To me, it was worth it! Aren't they gorgeous? These buttons are destined to become closures on some of my hand-made journals. Thankfully, I only need 1 per journal--not a dozen for a sweater. Next time, I'll have to bring in the journal covers, and more perfectly match the button to the cover. I just picked out the ones I liked on this day.

On Friday, my husband and I went to Milwaukee I had a Library meeting in town for work. My local Art Quilt group has been talking about Bigsby's Sewing Center in Milwaukee ... I missed the field trip a while back, so Bigsby's was one of my destinations in Milwaukee.

Bigsby's, has a whole WALL of those fantastic and expensive ('highly prized") buttons sold individually and displayed in tubes. After letting things "mash-up" in my brain for a few hours, it got me thinking of Diana Trout's Grid exercise from the Sketchbook Challenge. The buttons displayed this way are all laid out on a grid ...

These will be a nice library of designs and patterns for future projects.

But now ... Back to more buttons. ;-) Enjoy!

3CS Technique of the Month - Stamp Carving

2011-10-31T17:10:00.005-05:00

This little border will be incorporated into the Baba Yaga Quilt.

The 3CS Technique-of-the-Month is Stamp Carving with Lisa Filion. This tutorial shows the tools and the blocks and gives a really good demo of how to do it.

Here are the skulls I carved into some kind of stamp carving block from Dick Blick. The skull on the right was the first one I tried, but the material crumbled away too much. So I kept it simple for try #2 on the left. Much better results.

Stamped on paper.

Baba Yaga's Cottage

2011-10-31T17:00:00.005-05:00

A special Halloween treat! Yes, you are seeing correctly. That cottage is walking around on chicken legs. That is one of the iconic symbols of Baba Yaga!

I have long been a fan of Baba Yaga. But I wasn't always a fan. Indeed, there was a time I tried to avoid her like the plague. But she kept coming around, and would not be denied. "Consider the uses of adversity," says Baba Yaga. I've met a few Baba Yagas in real life, and finally come to terms with them many years later. Now I can appreciate her very important lessons.

Read more about Baba Yaga at some of these sites :

The Vasalisa Project - Bare Bones a Digital Fairy Tale by Joellyn Rock
A modern telling of this old tale. If you don't know the story, or happen to own the storybooks above, you can get the full tale here--online.

Baba Yaga and the Wise Doll
I love this version for a number of reasons, not the least of which is Baba Yaga's toads wearing jeweled vests and collars! If you don't own it, try you local public library, in the Children's section. This little girl even looks like me at that age.

Baba Yaga and Vasalisa the Brave
Another beautifully illustrated children's storybook. Try your local public library.

Vasalisa the Wise - Chapter from Clarisa Pinkola Estes' The Women Who Run with Wolves. This article explains the lessons of Baba Yaga briefly, but do read the original chapter by Estes if you can. It is well worth it--It literally changed my life so many years ago! This is one of my all-time favorite books--ever. I re-read this chapter this week, and it still rings true for me.

PHOTO [little doll sitting stop Baba's house in my sewing room]

I drew the sketch a few years ago. I've transferred it from one Sweet Leaf Notebook to another--all with the intention of making it real one day, presumably with fusible web and applique.

Last month, the 3 Creative Studios Technique-of-the-Month was Thread Sketching with Monika Kinner-Whalen. Someone posted one with white thread on a black background -- like Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings :

A light went on in my head, and this long-stuck image leaped into a new life as a thread sketch!

It's not quite finished yet, but I couldn't resist posting what I have so far on Halloween Night!

This actually works for the Sketchbook Challenge November Theme : Imaginary Animals. Baba Yaga's house runs around on chicken legs. It must hae been a wild ride for Baba Yaga and any of her guests!

Cranes at Sunset

2011-10-29T18:51:00.008-05:00

This is another one of the National Geographic Citrasolv backgrounds. For the cranes, I used a mask from the stencil from this quilt and digitized it. Then in SeaShore 3, I played with the alpha layers and put them together.

Here it is on another one of the NG Citrasolv backgrounds. It kind of looks like the mud from the marsh is pulling them back down.

Siblings Thread Sketch : Sketchbook Challenge - View

2011-10-16T09:56:00.009-05:00

Thread Sketch on Hand-dyed Fabric
Size : 9-1/2 x 8-1/2 in.

I did another (much simpler) thread sketch based on this photo my sister took of her kids in Japan this past Spring :

She took this picture after the earthquake in March 2010. The kids were walking in the middle of the street in Ginza during a celebration where kids were allowed to walk in the streets. Having lived through that terrible earthquake, tsunami, and the ensuing nuclear scare, it literally changed their View of life. You can read about my sister's thoughts on it here and here, if you are so inclined. Although many foreigners left Japan at that time, my sister decided to stay.

Here's the initial sketch.

Notes on the Making :
Stitching through the Golden Threads tracing paper worked fine in this sketch as it was not so densely stitched as Elephant Reunion.

I went over all the lines at least twice. I added the heart to frame the kids. They really are heading into the future shaped by this experience. Even though they are too small to remember much, they know the world is different. The Japanese People know the world is different. Not unlike 9-11 after my son was born.

I see the Heart as a Blessing or Protection for them on their journey, so far from family in WI.

Since it is small enough, I decided against any background filler quilting for this one.
For their shadows, I just used a black Sharpie marker to fill in the shapes. I didn't want it to get heavy or distorted with stitch.

Red Barn Quilt No. 2 : Raspberry Cordial Quilt Top

2011-10-16T09:49:00.005-05:00

One more project progressed at Quilt Camp last week. I had so many leftover blocks from Unca Ray's Red Barn Quilt, that I decided to make a smaller one for myself. ;-)

Someone at Quilt Camp said it reminded her of chocolate-covered cherries. While these colors may evoke that for her, I have a difficult history with Maraschino cherries. Thus, I had to give it some other name. Hence : Raspberry Cordial.

It needed some filling out, so I added the brown borders. I also did something a little different with the top border ... So I'd easily be able to find the top. (Does it really matter?)

Now, as soon as I can get some more black Hobbs batting, I'll be able to start on the quilting. This one will be small enough to do at home, rather than renting time on the Tin Lizzie. I'm planning to use the same quilting pattern, only this time, I'll trace the pattern to Golden Threads quilting paper, pin baste it, and stitch over the lines.

Elephant Reunion : Sketchbook Challenge

2011-10-09T18:11:00.004-05:00

To see what this sketch developed into, read more here.

Elephant Reunion : 3CS Journal Quilt Challenege - Technique of the Month

2011-10-09T16:56:00.007-05:00

Elephant Reunion
Thread Sketch on hand-dyed fabric
Size is about 9 x 12 inches.

Notes on the Making :

The language of friendship is not words but meanings.
~Henry David Thoreau

I started with this picture of 2 elephants showing their affection for each other. It's really a very moving story that I had seen on Nature about an elephant who was kicked out of the circus due to an injury . A small zoo in Alabama picked her up, but for 25 years, she never saw another elephant. Recently, they moved her to an elephant sanctuary in Tennessee where she could be with other elephants. She actually KNEW one of the elephants there from her days in the Circus and they had a heartfelt reunion. They say elephants never forget ... ;-)

First aired in 2000 "The Urban Elephant" brought viewers the touching story of Shirley and Jenny, two crippled elephants reunited at the Elephant Sanctuary in Howenwald, Tennessee.
To learn more about the Elephant Santuary visit here:
The Elephant Sanctuary : Hohenwald Tennessee

Thanks to A Brit in Tennessee for reminding me of this story! I was so moved by their reunion, that I wanted to do a thread sketch to honor their long-time friendship and affection for each other.

On Friday morning (before Quilt Camp), I used my light box, and worked up a sketch based on the Elephant image above.

On Friday evening (at Quilt Camp), I transferred the sketch to Golden Threads quilt tracing paper. You can see it pin-basted to the fabric and batting, which works as stabilizer. I tend not to include the backing fabric at this stage, as the backs can get pretty tangled and ugly after all this thread work.

Drawing out the design twice is actually a great help to getting the design into my brain BEFORE I start to stitch.

After a brief warm-up, I started in on the stitching, with simple black thread (regular cotton on top, and a lighter polyester in the bobbin suitable for embroidery). I don't want so much thread build-up on the backside. Whereas a thicker thread on top helps to cover more ground, and fill in the shapes better, faster.

The background fabric is a piece I snow-dyed way back in February 2009--It said so right in the corner. ;-) It's good to keep such notes!

It took about 7 hours on Friday to make this little quiltie. That includes starting with the sketch and stitching time. I actually had it done by 11 pm!

Lessons Learned : I spent an inordinate amount of time picking out the bits of quilt paper. This method works great in other situations, but not so good here with the dense stitching. Perhaps water-soluble stabilizer might have been a better choice (? I've had trouble getting all the stabilizer out without it becoming al-gummo, so not sure that is the answer.) Perhaps simply drawing the sketch onto the fabric would have worked, too?

Detail of one of the elephants.
If you look closely, you can see some of the tracing paper ... Still need to add a few little beads for the sparkle in their eyes.

The binding is a simple envelope, so the backing in relatively "clean."
I am very pleased with how this turned out!

Read more about Thread Sketching as The Technique-of-the-Month on the 3 Creative Studios Blog. I'll definitely be doing more of this!

October Star Fish Fabric Post Card

2011-10-09T16:46:00.003-05:00

I made this little postcard as a warm-up to The Elephant Reunion thread sketched journal quilt.

Detail of the free-motion stitching.

Notes on the making of it :
I layered the following from the bottom up : Stiffy (similar to Timtex) +fusible +orange fabric +black fabric on top. I fused it, then flipped it over, and drews a rough looking star on the Stiffy side, then I stitched over it from the Stiffy side.

Then I flipped it over and cut out the black top layer from INSIDE the newly stitched star shape. Then I stitched a slight zigzag over the black edges of the star to secure and stabilize them.

Then I free-motion stitched swirls ans circles over the orange star.

Finally, I fused a piece of muslin to the Stiffy side, then did a short satin stitch around the edges.

It's mail worthy now!

Dispatches from Quilt Camp - Lake Lucerne 2011

2011-10-09T16:24:00.010-05:00

I started out Friday evening working on this little "October Star" fabric post card as a warm-up for this thread sketch.

Read more about the October Star fabric postcard.
Read more about The Elephant Reunion.

On Saturday, I worked on quilting the Tea Leaves quilt. Remember this one?

This is the basic motif I put on each leaf. My original idea needed some modification to make it work as a continuous line from one block to the next. When I figured that out, things moved right along!

Here is a larger view from the back. I still need to do the borders, but it's coming along nicely!
After pin-basting it all, I used the walking foot to lay down the grid with stitch-in-the-ditch. After that, I knew things would be relatively stable to do the swirls on the diagonals. Now to figure out what to put on the borders ...

And finally, some mindless sewing. These simple blocks will eventually be sewn into a stacked coins quilt.

On Sunday, I worked on this bit of chaos, inspired by the fall color ... more on that later.

Here's the whole group of us at The Quilt Retreat at Lake Lucerne Camp. 22 people attended this year. Many of us (but not all) are members of The Lakeside Quilt Guild in Oshkosh. And I'm not the youngest anymore!

This little critter also came to visit. I thought he was kind of pretty with the browns and the stripes.

Preparations for Quilt Camp : Tea Leaves

2011-10-07T09:46:00.007-05:00

I'm getting ready for quilt camp today ... I know I'm packing way too much stuff, but I never know what I'll feel like doing, or what I'll need to do it ...

My main objective for the weekend is to quilt the Tea Leaves quilt above. It's not a huge quilt, so it's do-able on my domestic sewing machine. That's always easier at Quilt Camp because I have more room and less clutter to shift the quilt under the machine.

This is the general idea for quilting The Tea Leaves quilt.

That kind of work can be meditative, or exhausting. So I'm bringing a number of other project packs to work on including a couple of journal quilts I'm hoping to get a good start on--maybe I'll even finish one of them? Think thread-sketching ...

In the packing, I came across this Vanilla Tea which is complete comfort food for me. It's no longer available for sale, so these are the last 3 tea bags I have of it. What a treat that will be for a 4 pm pick-me-up each day!

Utility Threads

2011-10-04T17:13:00.005-05:00

A few weeks ago, I stopped at Nancy's Notions in Beaver Dam, WI, for some utility threads : black pre-wound bobbins. I was on a mission.

Thinner polyester for thread painting/free-motion embroidery.

Cotton for piecing and quilting.

I can use them in my Husqvarna Viking sewing machine if I pull off the paper side walls, first. They are wound so well, that they easily hold their shape without the paper side walls. I had no end of problems when I first tried using them as is--until my sewing machine maintenance person shared this little secret : Rip off those paper side walls. That was the key!

The pre-wound bobbins save me a lot of time and wear and tear on my machine--or at least that's my perception. I hate breaking stride to re-wind a bobbin in the middle of a project. A few years ago, I bought SuperBobs from the Superior Threads stand at the big quilt show in Chicago. Gray, cream, and black. Black is what I tend to run out of, so that's what I stocked up on.

More "Utility Threads:"

I realize a post about black bobbin threads is pretty darn dry, so I thought I'd throw up a little color ... Here are a couple pictures from my dye apron. Random color ...

Cheers!

Sketchbook Challenge : Stacked Journals

2011-10-04T14:29:00.007-05:00

Over at The Sketchbook Challenge, Kelli Perkins encouraged us to literally stack our journals up and take a picture. It is pretty incredible to see what I've compiled in the last few years. All those secrets, all those plans and designs -- some of which have actually come to fruition. These journals are bursting with ideas!

From the Top Down :
Sketchbook Challenge 2011 (nearly full)
Sweet Leaf Notebook - Epic Series
Midnight Garden - Techniques Journal (full)
Sweet Leaf Notebook 2009-2010 (full)
Sweet Leaf Notebook 2011 -
Creative Cues Journal 2010 - Walnut Ink

I made all the journals above except the moleskin on the top of the stack.

Way back in January, I was wondering if I'd be able to fill up a whole journal in 1 year. Now, with 3 months left to go, and about a dozen blank pages left, I'm wondering if I'll have to start another one before the end of the year? That moleskin on the top is the Sketchbook Challenge Sketchbook.

Gypsy Dancer

2011-10-04T13:15:00.006-05:00

Gypsy Dances in the Flames of the Burning City

This looks like a simple collage, and in truth, I did try cutting out the silhouette of the dancer with the intention of gluing her down onto the page. But she had too many fine details, and the edges of the paper came out white. Not good.

On to the more complicated Plan B : I wanted to do it on my computer with graphics software.

The background image is from one of my National Geographic and Citrasolv experiments last summer. I always thought this image looked like a city on fire since you could still see a building in the top right corner. The ink dissolved and ran like flames as it dried ...

It called out for a dancer in the foreground ... so I got a stock image and learned about layers, and alpha channels, and (with my sweet husband's help) got these 2 images to work together. Not so simple as a quick cut and paste.

I used Seashore 3 for Mac. It's kind of a GIMP-lite. I'm not quite ready for GIMP yet.

Unfurl : September Sketchbook Challenge

2011-09-25T10:51:00.015-05:00

Like many other Sketchbook Challengers, my first response to this prompt was fern fronds unfurling. So I pulled up this picture that I just happened to take this picture last spring. ;-)

Photo by Art Wolfe from here.
This got me thinking about the symbolism of Maori culture. I'd seen an Art Wolfe Travels to the Edge episode on PBS in which he visited New Zealand and captured spectacular photos of Maori people, highlighting their beautiful tattoos. They also explained the symbolism of the unfurling fern frond being the symbol of all creation in Maori culture.

I guess PBS did their research, too, because that's the symbol for their Create channel.

Fern Fronds Unfurling. Done in the style of free-motion feathers.
Materials : Pencil, Neocolor 2, ink.

Ribbons Unfurling
Materials : Pencil, Neocolor 2, ink.
You can see some of the fern fronds from the previous page embossed thought the underside of this page.

Prayer Flags Unfurling
Materials : Pencil, Neocolor 2, ink.

A good explanation of Tibetan prayer flags explains that they are hung so that the WIND can carry the special blessings of these prayers around the world. The colors generally represent the following :
Blue - Sky
White - Clouds
Red - Fire
Green - Water
Yellow - Earth.

Inspiration photo from here.

Walnut Ink

2011-09-10T12:07:00.009-05:00

The first batch of walnut ink I started more than a month ago is finally ready to write with.
With my new glass dip pen, I was able to do this entire feather with a single dip in the ink pot. Real walnut ink works much better than the Tea Ink I played with in August.

Back in late July, the walnuts in the neighborhood started falling. So I collected a bagful. It's not the actual nut or nut shells you need for ink. It's the green husks like these. I left them in the garage to ripen and "age" for a few weeks. This is the basic recipe I used.

Then I sat out in the yard (wearing rubber gloves and an apron) and broke them up with a regular old hammer on a flat rock. In this batch, the actual nuts and shells were still soft and green, so they mashed down pretty easily with the rest of the brown matter.

I threw them in the pot as I smashed them on the rock. Then I added enough water to cover the solid matter, threw in a few rusty nails, and started simmering. I thought it would take a lot longer than an hour to simmer away 1/2 the liquids. But that was it--just an hour.

The spoon was stained a rich brown color. I used a brown paper shopping bag to protect the counter next to the stove. I was also surprised at how easy the cleanup was. Although the ink stains hands and skin, it washed off of the counters and sinks easily--while it was still wet.

Here you can get a better idea of the rich red-brown color the un-fermented ink has. This is what's left in the pot after straining out the solids and decanting the liquids into a jar so it can ferment in a dark cupboard for 1 month.

These are the solids left after the first batch of ink. I was able to go another 2 rounds with this batch of walnut husks. Each successive batch seems a little lighter than the previous one.

This is a small jar of the finished ink. It's so dark, it's difficult to get a good picture, but here it is. I shook it up so you could see some of the ink run down the glass. The bubbles leave a neat pattern, too!

The clove oil is a great suggestion, as the ripened walnut ink tends to smell like compost or manure. Definitely smells like something down on the farm.

I tried a second round with another batch of walnuts. This batch was more ripe--when I smashed the hulls off, the nuts were hard and easy to pick out. I just wanted the husks. When I started simmering this batch, I added a few Anise seeds to make it smell a little better.

Now what to do with all this brown gold?

Everyday Inspiration : Parkling Lot Pine Cones

2011-09-10T11:02:00.003-05:00

In my walk across the parking lost at work, I see some of these crushed pine cones.
They have their own beauty. Enjoy!

Piper Cub at Sunset Wall Hanging

2011-08-28T15:26:00.008-05:00

I finished this little wall hanging this afternoon to commemorate J's cross country flight from Rhode Island to Idaho to begin a new life as a wildlife pilot. She's living the dream!

The sheers play games with the flash, and make this difficult to photograph. In real life, the sunset colors are richer and deeper, not so washed out.

It started out a few weeks ago with this watercolor study in my sketchbook (just after J had passed through Oshkosh on her historic cross-country flight). I wasn't thinking that it would actually become a quilt, but sometimes these things take on a life of their own ... lucky for J!

I started out with this piece of hand-painted Skye Dye from a class with Mickey Lawler in 2008. This makes the piece about fat-quarter size.

The next step was to layer it with this sunset-colored sheer. I wasn't sure how this would work out since the sheer felt pretty synthetic ..

Next step is to layer with the batting and stitch-stitch-stitch. I got to use some of my new Sulky Blendable threads. I used the walking foot to stitch gentle arcs across the face of the sky. I knew the sheers would be slippery, and wanted assurance that things would go together well. This worked!

Next, I made freezer paper stencils to cut out the silhouettes of the mountains and the Piper Cub out of wool felt. These were appliqued down by machine. Add a backing and a proper binding and Viola! Almost ready to gift ...

J--It may be another week before I get this in the mail to you. I'm kind of a slacker when it comes to affixing lables and hanging pockets.

Detail of the Mountains and Sunset Sky.

This is the backing fabric and binding, in case you're wondering what that wild border could be. Wink!

This is J and her Piper Cub on her stop in WI this summer. Yes, I got a ride!

Playing with Red Barn Scraps

2011-08-21T09:29:00.005-05:00

With some of the scraps from Unca Ray's Red Barn Quilt, I made a cover for this portable sewing kit. It's really a re-purposed box of matches. This is the sewing kit I keep in my Quilt Guild Bag. This way, I'm always prepared in case they give us some kind of small project to do on Guild night. The safety pin marks to top of the box--so I don't open it up-side-down by accident.

I also made this small journal quilt using more scraps from Unca Ray's Red Barn Quilt. The Rooster is a silhouette made from some black landscape cloth (It seems very similar to Lutradur, and is available locally for much less $$) along with a layer of bronze-sparkly tulle. There's a lot of reflection in this picture, so I took another one below.

I traced the outline of the rooster onto Quilting paper. Then layered it (from the bottom up : batting, red patchwork, black landscape cloth, sparkly tulle, quilt paper), and sewed it. Then I clipped carefully around the rooster; Free-motion quilted the rest of the background, added a backing and finished it with some yarn on the edges. It's 9-1/2 x 9 in.

Sketchbook Challenge : Fire Flies : Summer Wonders

2011-08-16T19:22:00.004-05:00

These Fire Flies are done with Neocolor 2 Watercolor Crayons.

Remember catching fireflies when you were a kid, and putting them in a jar, thinking they'd be your lantern? They were never quite the same contained in that jar as they were flying free. We've seen a few around here this summer.

On J's cross country trek in her plane, she hopped from small airport to small airport. Many nights she slept under the wing of her plane. One night she said the fireflies were dancing in a field of soy beans in the midwest. I couldn't figure out how to render that scene, so I opted for the above. Maybe someday I'll figure it out ...

Sketchbook Challenge : Ordinary Objects

2011-08-16T18:04:00.006-05:00

Piper Cub at Sunset
The original was done in gouache watercolors on some heavy watercolor paper (What a difference that makes!). I'm going to give the original to my best buddy J (Shhh! Don't tell her ...) since this is a silhouette of her plane, a Piper Cub.

This summer, she flew across the country, from Rhode Island to Idaho, to start her dream job as a wildlife biologist, tracking animals with radio collars (among many other things). She did stop to see me in WI. ;-)

Although seeing one of these little planes, and even flying in one, is a rare treat for most of us, this is an everyday thing for her. See how I'm shoe-horning it into the August Sketchbook Challenge theme : Everyday Objects?

Rust-Dyed and Printed Messenger Bag

2011-08-11T19:14:00.006-05:00

My friend J. was visiting at the end of July, on her way to ID to start her dream job as a wildlife biologist flying her own plane, tracking animals with radio collars (among many other things!). She will be paid to do what she loves best -- Fly! You can tell how proud I am of her--and I'm not even her mother! ;-)

She left her "Iron Bitch Pilot" messenger bag for me to rust dye. She designed the IBP patch for a group of female pilots she likes to hang out with. They realized they liked to talk about flying WITHOUT men around, and the IBP was born.

This is the bag soaked in vinegar solution, wrapped around rusty objects and left to marinate in the sun for several days. It's always a surprise to see what you'll get!

This is a favorite rusty trivet that I had hoped would leave an imprint on the front of the bag ... It left some rusty streaks but no visible outlines. So I moved on to Plan B and used some fabric paint to make the impressions :

I know J will add her own marks to this bag as well. I'll be mailing it off to her on Saturday. ;-)

Writing in Style

2011-08-08T20:56:00.008-05:00

I just ordered this lovely glass dip pen from Shakespeare's Den. I saw some beautiful glass pens at the Ren Faire a few weeks ago, where I got to try them out. They have scores in the tip that hold the ink so you can write more than a few letters at a time before having to re-dip. Smart engineering!

This summer, I'm exploring some homemade ink recipes. One recipe is just a strong black tea with gum Arabic. It makes a convincing and very simple, nice smelling brown ink.

But so far, I am not at all impressed with the goose feather I cut Shakespeare-in-Love style, nor the cheap calligraphy nibs. Seems like these both worked a lot better when I was a kid writing secret messages in invisible ink ... Oh yeah, did you know that lemon juice and milk make a great invisible ink that appears when you heat the paper in a candle flame?

In a week, I should have more writing samples with my elegant new glass pen! And another ink recipe to report on. The walnuts have been falling to the ground, and I've been collecting them for just this occasion! Tonight, I put a pot on the stove to simmer and reduce to a fine brown writing ink. They need to cool, be strained and left to sit for a month ...

Eureka! Unca Ray's Red Barn Quilt is Done!

2011-08-08T20:34:00.017-05:00

This is just half of the quilt.

At the thrift store last week, I found some Red Barn coffee mugs. Of course, I had to get them and make them part of the gift. ;-) These reds are more true to the actual colors of the quilt. I love this picture of Ray's hand with the coffee mug. He always has a cup or coffee! Or a beer ...

First look ...

He likes it!

Me and Unca Ray with his new quilt.

I like it so much I told him I just might keep it! Actually, I have enough blocks left over to make a smaller (lap size?) quilt. I'll have to start putting that together ...

Notes on the Making of The Red Barn Quilt
The pattern is by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr. The "Band Together" pattern appeared in the Feb 2010 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting.

The Quilting Pantograph is "Wind Water" Pantograph by Kathie James. It looks kind of like flames rolling over the rich reds and browns. It just makes me think of Christmas at Fanny & Alexander's grandmother's house in Sweden. ;-)

Here's a shot of the quilting from the back where you can see it a little better. The colors in the photo have been enhanced to highlight the stitching. I did the quilting on the Tin Lizzie at It's Sew Rite, here in Oshkosh. It only took 3.5 hours. It sure beats 3-1/2 months of weekends to finish it!

Batting : Hobbs 80/20 BLACK batting. Since the colors of the top were so dark, I didn't want bearding to be an issue. I tried to order 2 black poly batts online, but they were both unavailable. Who knew black batts would ever be so popular or difficult to find? Unca Ray wanted a light quilt, not so densely quilted. He didn't want to feel like he was sleeping under a carpet. (I remember those heavy moving blankets we slept under at Grappa Eddie's house! Sheesh!)

Threads : I used a vareigated red to brown thread by Guterman (Col. 9959 : Berry Berry). It blended really well for quilting.
Black cotton by Connecting Threads for piecing.

A Dover of Ducks

2011-07-24T15:58:00.007-05:00

Today's entry covers some experiments in putting the duck image on fabric.

It all started with this picture that I took on a bike ride out to a park near our house. The water suggested using some pole-wrapped indigo Shibori-dyed fabric that I made a while back. The traditional Shibori pattern is called Rain, as shown in the samples below.

I played with the image in Seashore. Basically turning it black and white and playing with the contrast.

From there, I traced this silhouette on my light box. This is the working image that I used for all the following transfer methods.

Method 1 : Foam Stamp

The first method involved making a foam stamp.

Some of the paint that got on the background of the stamp printed to the fabric, making the print look "dirty." I think it would have been better if the foam had been thicker, or mounted to a block of wood. This worked ok, but I wanted to experiment a little more ...

Method 2 : Freezer Paper Stencil and Fabric Paint

Next, I tried a freezer paper stencil with fabric paint.

This worked beautifully! A nice clear and sharp image. I only regret that I wasn't able to keep the beautiful curved tail feathers in the original. This is still my favorite method of this day's experimenting.

Method 3 : Citrasolv Image Transfer

Next, I printed one of the ducks on our HP Laserjet printer and used Citrasolv to transfer the toner to the fabric above. Here's a tutorial on how to do it, explained by Lyric Kinard.

This worked all right, too. The resulting image is kind of ghostly, more like The Loch Ness Monster pictures. I always have to do a practice Citrasolv transfer, because I always wind up using too much Citrasolv the first time around. With a little practice, this is also a workable method.

So there you have it, 3 methods of image transfer.

Results of Thermofax Play Day

2011-07-24T15:56:00.007-05:00

It turns out that Lynda's "free" Thermofax machine needed some repairs. But since she had the screen film, she wanted to try it with a lamination iron (think of a big flat-bed iron). We tried everything we could think of (changing the temperature, time in the iron, fresh Xerox copies), but we couldn't get that to work either.

Finally, she pulled out some old screens she had and we pushed some prints through ... She will see about getting her Thermofax repaired, or reconditioned. If it can't be fixed, I know there are venders out there who are willing and able to take my images and burn them for me. Either way, someday I'll have my own screens ... I can be patient. ;-)

The gold was an official screen print ink. It's thicker than I thought it would be, but that makes sense as you don't want runny paint or ink bleeding past the stencil. With the second screen (berries), I layered blue and red versions on top. These were a color concentrate mixed with a print base. While it was still wet, it looked pretty neat -- like neural pathways all tangled up. But the red and blue disappeared as it dried. Lynda says I needed an opacifier, either as it's own layer or mixed with the color and print base to make them show up on black. If you look closely, you can see a shadow of them underneath the gold. It looked great on the white print board we were working on, as it bled through the black fabric. Learning how to make an official print board was worth going over to Lynda's for the day. She is so knowledgeable about anything I can think to ask her. ;-)

Images from her old thermofax screens - gold leaves and berries ... This made me want to try making some skeleton leaves of my own, so I collected some leaves and have them soaking in a solution of bleach and water :

I'll let you know how it turns out.

Thermofax Preparations

2011-07-18T20:17:00.009-05:00

On Saturday, my friend Lynda and I are planning a day to play with Thermofax and screen printing. She inherited some kind of Thermofax and a thousand frames. We just need to do some experimenting to figure out how it works. In the meantime, I am developing suitable images for our play day.

Would you believe the feather above started out as the sun-printed feather below? I played with it in Picasa and Seashore to get the black and white image above. Although I would not be able to give you the recipe--I was not taking notes. Just playing!

This one is modified from one of my many tree bark pictures. I think the secret to this one was the Edges filter in Seashore. Or was it the Threshold filter?

This was a picture of a tree I took on a bike ride last yesterday evening.

Here's the only slightly modified original (and yes the sky really was pink and blue) :

I have about 65 images I've been playing with, trying to make them suitable for Thermofax. Stay tuned and see what we are able to accomplish on Saturday!

Cranes at Sunset : 3CS Journal Quilt for July

2011-07-17T14:54:00.009-05:00

Here is the completed Cranes at Sunset Journal Quilt. Without actually measuring, I can tell you it is slightly smaller than a fat-quarter. It is essentially a whole-cloth quilt.

It could also count for the Sketchbook Challenge whose theme for July is Element. This captures the elements of Air and Fire.

Here's a detail shot of the stitching and cranes.

Here's how I made it from start to finish :

One of my self-imposed requirements for the 3CS Journal Quilt Challenge is that I have to use some of my own hand-dyed fabric. This sunset piece is from a weekend Skye Dyes workshop I took with Mickey Lawlor in 2008 (or so). This piece has been a long time in the gestation phase!

I knew I wanted cranes flying in their typical formation, because it would fit so nicely in the bright area of the sunset. We do see cranes in Wisconsin. ;-) This picture shows the "used" freezer paper stencil I made to get the birds on there. I thought the stenciled birds would look sharper and cleaner than birds stuck on with fusible applique. These are just a little too small to futz with fusible. A little black fabric paint worked marvelously through the stencil. Frankly, I was surprised and delighted at how easy it was. I knew I only had one shot at it. The freezer paper can be lightly ironed to the fabric so it stays in place and prevents leaks. Works great!

Here are the results at the stenciled stage :

Since this is a whole-cloth quilt, there was no piecing to be done. I made my quilt sandwich. This time I used a recycled mattress pad for the batting. My preferred batt is Hobbs 80/20. I love the antique look it lends to quilts. However, if it hangs in a wall-hanging, sometimes it can sag after a while. So I wanted to use a poly batt, and this is what I had at hand this weekend. It seems to have worked out fine.

The next step was to choose free-motion quilting patterns. So I sat down with Leah Day's 365 Days of Free-Motion Quilting and studied the patterns. Ever since I discovered Leah's project, I've always meant to sit down and practice each pattern as she posted them, but that never really happened ... This worked out well, though : Having a project in mind, and being able to find the designs that would work.

When I found designs I liked, I practiced them on paper before going to the sewing machine. There were some of the possibilities for the setting sun (hot) areas. I was going for the shape and motion to echo the flying birds.

You can see what I wound up stitching is not exactly like Leah's patterns, however, it was still a great inspiration to look through her pattern library. Check it out!

Here's the swirling spiral pattern I used for the dark part of the sky. I thought it had a moodier feel, so I went with this one. Again, the actual pattern as stitched in my little quilt is not perfectly the same as Leah's model, but again, it was great inspiration. Thank you, Leah, for doing your Free Motion Quilting Project!

This afternoon I finished up the binding, with sweat running down my face, and my back. We don't have air conditioning, so I'm really glad it's finished, and I can go to a cooler part of the house to blog about it!

Tea Cup Pin Cushion

2011-07-17T10:42:00.004-05:00

This is Gramma Pickles' (Violet Smitmajer) wedding china, the china she received as a gift more than 60 years ago at her wedding. Grappa was so frugal that he never ever allowed her to take it out of the box and actually use it. Gramma gave me the china when she moved out of the old homestead a few years ago. That year we hosted Thanksgiving at our house, and I made sure Gramma got the first plate of food on her own China. She finally got to eat off of it. ;-)

This weekend, I bought a "new" old set of china at a neighborhood rummage sale. The "new" china pattern is more to my liking and personality. I decided I could give up Gramma's China, even though it's a family heirloom.

I decided I could keep a few of the teacups from Gramma's set if I turned them into pin cushions for the sewers in the family, Gramma included. These were so easy to make! I used one of the plates to make the circle. It turns out to be just the right size proportionately! Here's the basic tutorial I used. You can get a lot more complicate with extra buttons and ribbons, but I kept it simple.

Thread Lust

2011-07-16T16:07:00.005-05:00

I purchased this Sulky Blendables Threadbox at Overstock.com this week. YUM!

Doing those little journal quilts, I'm realizing I don't have the stash of threads I would like. I bought some varigated sets in rayon a while back, but the colors just don't seem to go with anything at all. The rayon now, only a few years old, breaks easily. The colors they tended to throw together in the early days of varigated threads just seemed to clash. This set look more practical. I can't wait to see these new threads in real life!

Beer Soap

2011-07-04T10:49:00.013-05:00

At my mom's house a few weeks ago, she had a bar of "beer soap" in her bathroom. It didn't smell at all like beer. I was intrigued, so I found a beer soap recipe and gave it a try.

Growing up in my family, we were always given sips of wine and beer when we were kids. Don't think of it as child abuse. It was the culture with German and Irish ancestry. Remember, I'm in Wisconsin, after all, where there's a tavern on very corner! In my family, we learned to drink responsibly; and I learned to dislike beer in a hurry. How's that for inoculation against alcoholism?

I'm realizing now that not all beers are created equal. We picked up a single bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale, a nice dark beer in a big bottle. It smelled like beer, but when I tried a sip, it did NOT leave the usual bitter, icky aftertaste. I was pleasantly surprised. There's a whole new world of flavor out there! I might even drink a whole tea cup some day. [Wink!] Most of this bottle is going into the soap, after it goes good and flat.

Notes on amendments I made to the recipe :
1) I substituted Safflower Oil for Sunflower Oil
2) Substituted Wheat Germ Oil for Castor Oil (The saponification factor was comparable.)
3) I did not have the citrus essential oils, so I left them out. I also wanted to know what this soap would smell like WITHOUT any additional scents. With the honey, I'm expecting some carmelization.

At 4 weeks, it still smelled like beer. I was disappointed and ready to give it all up as an experiment gone wrong. Now at 5 weeks, I'm starting to smell some sweetness. It really does take this long for the saponification process to complete.

Red Barn Table Runner

2011-07-04T10:07:00.005-05:00

I made this table runner with some extra blocks from the Unca Ray Quilt. In June, I met a woman from Racine County who restored her family's barn. She even has one of those painted wooden quilts on the side. I know she'll appreciate this little gift out of the blue.

Read more about Racine County Quilts on Barns here.

Meanwhile, the quilt top for Unca Ray is all squared up with zippers attached and ready for the Tin Lizzie. I even have the quilting motif/panto picked out. I still need to pick up a black poly batting, and reserve a Saturday on the long arm. It always amazes me that it can take a full day of preparation just to get ready for the long arm. But it's all worth it! I get a lot more done in a shorter time on the long arm, without wrestling with a big quilt to get it under the needle.

Unca Ray is having cataract surgery this summer, so when this quilt is done, he'll be seeing it with brand new eyes, so to speak.

Pathways : Sketchbook Challenge

2011-06-16T21:08:00.007-05:00

My new laptop is an Apple with a non-Windows operating system, which means I can't use Paint.net on it. So I've been playing with some alternative image manipulation software. Today, it's Seaside 3. These started out as pictures of windfall helicopter seeds (Do you realize that every one of those millions of seeds is different? Some have this lovely curve, others are rail straight ... they are like snowflakes in that way.)

Anyway, I wanted to bring out the "pathways" and veining in the wing. I was just playing around and not taking any notes, so I don't think I could recreate these effects deliberately--yet. I'm just getting comfortable with the software.

This one looks like an old etching.

I think I used the Sepia filter on this one. This is my favorite one so far.

This one is one of the original photos where the veining stands out nicely. No special effects needed.

This is one of the first pictures I took of these seeds. The veining shows up pretty well, but the background is way too busy. So that was lesson #1 : Use a neutral background.

Marsh Sunset : June Journal Quilt

2011-06-12T16:16:00.004-05:00

This journal quilt is made from some of the leftover fabrics from this quilt.
When I lived in Madison, WI, I used to drive out to Cherokee Marsh several times a week to watch the best light show in town! Even now when I go back, I try to make the pilgrimage to Cherokee. Sigh!

The Techniques:
After the basic background block came together, I made a freezer paper stencil and painted on black fabric paint for the heron silhouette.
Then I made my quilt sandwich and stitched an outline of the sun. I used a different free-motion pattern inside the sun (Pebbles) vs. outside the sun (Water). I needed a clear demarcation of where to stitch each pattern, as well as a trough for the beadwork to come later. Once the freemotion work was done, things were a bit wonky, so I spritzed it with water and steamed it back into shape. I like Hobbs 80/20 batting because it crinkles up so nicely after it;s washed, or spritzed. It gives it an antique look. That's also when some of the lines on the bird appeared. I tried stitching through the paint, but my machine and the thread put up all manner of protest, until I gave up on that idea.

Next it was time for the beadwork. I strung several sunset/fire colored beads onto a string, and then couched them down by hand. I'm getting more comfortable with that whole process.

It's the usual envelope binding with a machine-stitched cord to frame it.

Detail of the heron, beadwork, quilting and the yarn border.

In the Tornado's Path : Sketchbook Challenge : Pathways

2011-06-06T18:33:00.008-05:00

Materials : Neocolor 2 water color Crayons
Blending many colors is the key to richness in these pages. The Tornado is not just black, but gray and blue (several shades). I tend to keep the shapes simple, letting the colors add complexity.
I also used the hard tip of a paint brush (not the brush end) and "drew" scribbles on the white of the page, to add a lower spots where the crayons would not penetrate. You can see the scribbly swirls around the tornado column that resisted the color. (Leftover from last month's theme.)

May has been a particularly bad month for Tornadoes. Like everyone else in the Midwest, I feel it, too. I think most of us have had to go down to the basement, or hide under a desk at some time in our lives to let the storm pass. I must be working out some terrors with this one ...

This is the page just after I colored it with the Neocolor 2 watercolor crayons. Not so impressive at this stage, is it? Just a little water and the colors blend and deepen. I love these crayons!

Little Blue Bird : May Journal Quilt

2011-05-29T17:56:00.006-05:00

I finished the Little Blue Bird Journal Quilt this weekend.
The blue and purple background is one of my hand-dyes; so is the pink cheesecloth. The Little Blue bird was free-motion embroidery stitched in a workshop last fall with Karla Spinks.

He's been sitting on on design wall for the past few months in this state. I wasn't quite sure how to proceed. I knew I wanted a cloud of pink for spring blossoms on the tree, but I also wanted to be able to see the sky through those blossom-laden branches. So a solid piece of fabric wouldn't work ... It took me a while to figure out I could use the cheesecloth for that purpose. So I top-stitched the pink cheesecloth onto the batting topped with the background fabric.

In this picture, I had just stitched down the branches, using a piece of quilting paper for placement of the branches. Once it's stitched on, you can easily tear away the quilt paper. For the branches, I made a machine-stitched cord out of 4 pieces of textured yarns. Lots of color in these branches (black, purple, brown and green) all twisted together.

Next, I added the little blue bird with a simple applique stitch and invisible thread. When I first made him, I had also embroidered a branch for him to grasp. That had to go, so I cut it off and let him grasp the yarn branches instead. Since the yarn branches are kind-of 3D, I had to add a little extra batting under the rest of the bird to make his head stand at an even height with the parts on top of the branches.

Next came the little flowers. These were cut off of a silk flower probably gotten at a thrift store. I had pulled the flowers off months ago, and tried to dye them. But they must be synthetic, as they would not take the color. They are not stark white, they took the slightest hint of color. For the centers, I added gold and pink beads. Some of the flowers were folded over or crushed, so I let them stay that way.

Detail of Blue Bird and Flowers.

Here it is trimmed to size and squared up awaiting the backing. [It is square : The design wall is tilted, so it looks a little wonky.] For the journal quilts, I usually do a simple envelope binding.

This is the stitching from the front through the batting layer.

The final step was to add a twisted yarn as a border (which you can see in the photo at the top of this post). It just needed a little something else to finish it off properly.

NG with Citrasolv Set 3

2011-05-28T15:37:00.003-05:00

National Geographic (November 2008 issue) dissolved with Citrasolv.
Love this technique!

Macro In a Mason Jar : Pink Sparkles

2011-05-22T18:37:00.007-05:00

This is looking down into a large mason jar full of Christmas ornaments. I like pink splarkly things!

This is the side view. I actually use it as the base of a lamp--My favorite lamp!
Here are a few more views :

Sketchbook Challenge : Can't Resist This

2011-05-22T09:08:00.004-05:00

The Sketchbook Challenge theme for May is "Can't Resist This." This is based on a picture from The Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. I used a white crayon on white paper, with a blue water color wash. The paper was not designed for water color and it got kind of water-logged, so I decided to iron the page dry.--totally forgetting that it would also melt the wax crayon. LOL! The white disappeared, but it made a darker blue on the page.

Other things in my Sketchbook this month :

May Zentangle

The Red Dress. I saw a dress in a catalog, and decided it would be an easy shape to draw. Pen with NeoColor 2.

Dyeing with Spectra Bleeding Art Tissue

2011-05-08T12:08:00.007-05:00

After the success of using this special tissue paper to dye silk, I wanted to try it on this cotton "folding" sun hat from Dharma. They also have silk sun hats for dyeing. I thought the cotton would offer better UV sun protection, so I went with the cotton rather than the silk. But now I have some ideas adding color to a silk sun hat, too!

Dharma says that you can use Procion dyes on these hats, however, the soda-ash fixative will wreak havoc with the metal hoop in the rim. So they recommend alternative coloring methods (fabric paints, for example). This method requires water to make the dye transfer, so I expected some rusting.

This is the hat covered in the now-dry tissue paper.

This is the folded hat ready to go into the little carrying case, which I also dyed in this session. I've been looking for a hat like this to take on trips. We always do a lot of walking, and I need to be careful about getting too much sun. These fit the bill perfectly!

Results
My first impression was that the results seemed very faded and muted.

It looked like much of the color remained in the "spent" tissue.
Was it too cold in my basement wet studio? It actually looks much more striking as a sun-catcher than in regular light.

There is a slight bit of rust on the brim. Perhaps that could be used to advantage in another design?

The cheesecloth worked VERY well! Even the sop cloth (blue-green) took the color beautifully

The hat worked great working in the garden yesterday!

Inspired Surfaces : Out of the Cupboard Online Class

2011-05-08T10:09:00.001-05:00

Lynda Monk and Carol McFee at Fibre-in-Form are offering another luscious surface design class : Inspired Surfaces : Out of the Cupboard. That's something I just cannot resist!

They are offering a free taster with Lesson 1 - Chapter 1 if you are curious. The focus is on using items you probably already have in stock (Aluminum Foil, newspaper, muslin/calico, and white school glue). I guess, I'd better get to work!

Cost is a very reasonable $34 US or 20 British Pounds.

Citrasolv Backgrounds : Round 2

2011-05-08T09:14:00.000-05:00

Here is another round of Citrasolved National Geographic background pages.

I'm still amazed with these results! Enjoy!

How do I keep all these pages organized?
I seem to get about 45 usable pages from a single issue of NG. Many pages are 2-sided.
1) I put each page into a sheet protector, in a binder. I keep the issue cover so I know which issue these pages came from. They are usually so "transformed" with the Citrasolv dissolving the inks that you can't usually tell what the original image was.
2) Picassa helps me organize, view, and edit the digital versions so that I'll be able to use them in various ways -- like how about a new background for this blog?

3CS April Journal Quilt : Red Wing Black Bird (Mock II)

2011-05-01T17:23:00.001-05:00

This is the final installment (?) from the Red Wing Black Bird series that began as a simple sketch in my Sketchbook Challenge notebook. It later morphed into a paper collage, and finally grew into this full-fledged journal quilt.

Requirements : Use some of my hand dyed fabric.
* The green background was dyed in Feb 2009
* The green cheesecloth was dyed in Feb 2008

Size : about the size of a fat quarter

Notes : The cheesecloth is free-motion stitched to the wintergreen background fabric and batting. I just followed the crinkles and folds in the cheesecloth. My aim was to secure the cheesecloth down. My regular open-toe free-motion foot did not work at all with this cheesecloth. It kept catching on the strings. The open-toe zig-zag foot worked much better because it's sort of curled up at the front, like a ski; That way it's didn't catch. The real backing came later ... You can see how much I thread painted the grasses at the bottom. Unfortunately, they don't seem to show up much on the front-side. I am considering going over them with Neocolor 2 water-soluble crayons to make them stand out more ...

I liked the scrubby, ragged edge of the hand-dye and couldn't bear to trim it down when adding the backing fabric, so I managed to preserve that textured edge by attaching the back to the batting layer. It's a basic turned binding, envelope style.

The rock was made with a scrap from a pair of wool trousers that I managed to felt (by accident). Since I can't wear them anymore, I've discovered the fabric makes fantastic rocks. I just sort of crumbled it into a rock shape, pinned it in place and stitched it down. Then I added some yarns to add depth to the crevices. It's a great perch for this red-wing!

The bird is made from black felted wool. I started to attach the red/white patch on the wing by needle-felting, but soon realized that it would distort too much. So I went with Plan B : applique the wing at the shoulder and thread paint the red and white patch. That worked! The bird's wing is attached only on the shoulder side. The wing-tip can pull away from the bird body. In this picture you can see a slight shadow under the wing ...

If it had been a smaller quilt, the bird on the rock would have been enough of a focal point. But it looked like the bird was watching something in the sky--it needed something up there for balance ... but what? A dragon fly? A green marsh star? I considered beading something to put in the sky, but I knew that was likely to add years to finishing this piece. I am not a confident, nor an efficient beader. Plan B : Try to find a suitably hideous brooch at the thrift store. Enter this Emerald beauty found at the St. Vinny's in Madison, WI (They have really "good" junk there!) It's just the thing to balance this piece.

A Walk in the Woods ... for Texture Lovers

2011-04-26T10:02:00.000-05:00

I love the textures in this picture. Over the weekend, I took a walk in my dad's woods. There's an old rubbish heap. This is an old metal screen being reclaimed by the elements. Moss is breaking down the wooden frame.

I think this might have been a piece of old carpet left out in the woods. I don't think it's wool, or anything organic, but I like how it's aging in the woods. We don't have many sheep around these parts ...

And this chunk of wood is breaking down into little blocks, kind of like when the wood burns and falls into burning embers. It holds this shape for a while.

My favorite bark curls.

More bark.

Sticks ...

... and Stones

Sticks and Stones together.

Macro in a Mason Jar - Pineapple Rings

2011-04-21T19:26:00.001-05:00

Doesn't this throw you for a loop?

Back in January, I was intrigued with with the Macro in a Mason Jar challenge. It's taken me a while to come up with something so simple as stacked pineapple rings framed by the tablecloth.

Yes, I think I'll be doing more of these ...

Aniko Ferer's Portrait in Fabric Workshop

2011-04-21T19:12:00.001-05:00

On Sunday, I was in a day-long class sponsored by Darting Needles Quilt Guild in Appleton. With Aniko Feher's help and guidance, I got this far on "Nadiia."

This is Aniko's finished version of Nadiia. Beautiful! Be sure to check out her other quilts.

I still need to choose fabric for her hair, and a background, stich it all down, and quilt and finish it. I really like the eyes. Aniko showed us how to use water-color pencils to add highlights. Much easier than trying to do that with thread or applique.

On Monday, she taught a second day-long workshop on how to make your own patterns from photographs. Of course, now I wish I would have signed up for that one, too. I could have gotten a good start on a Maggie Portrait!

Aniko also sells coordinated fabric packs for portraits which helps take the guesswork out of the process. Now I'm interested again in dying skin tone gradations ...

Fancy French Trims

2011-04-21T19:09:00.000-05:00

I added this pretty French ribbon to the hood of my in-between coat (not a winter coat/not a summer jacket).

I bought the ribbon in Toulouse, France, 7 or 8 years ago. There's an amazing little shop there where you can buy gorgeous ribbons and buttons--La Droguerie (The Drug Store). It's an odd name considering that's not at all what they sell.

My friend, Francine accompanied me, bless her heart. I still don't speak French (though I am understanding more), so she brokered the transaction for me. All I had to do was point to all the pretty things I was willing to buy that day. Even now when we go back to visit, Francine asks me if I want to go to back to La Droguerie.

It was on this very street in Toulouse, that I swear I saw David Bowie stopped on a bicycle watching pigeons and smoking a cigarette. He's more petite in real life than I had ever imagined. It's too bad Google didn't get a picture of him there! Well, even if it wasn't David Bowie, it's a nice memory in my mind of Toulouse.

I got this ribbon at the same time.

This one is on my winter coat. I got this one done years ago!

Red-Wing Blackbird (Revisted)

2011-04-21T18:59:00.002-05:00

Does this look familiar?

I drew this in my sketchbook last week.

The version at the top of this post uses one of the National Geographic Citrasolv backgrounds in a collage. The marsh grasses are cut from a different piece of NG-CS paper.

This design is simple enough that it could develop into a journal quilt. Didn't someone say something about working in series? We'll see what develops ...

Layout for the Barn Red Quilt

2011-04-10T13:02:00.000-05:00

The initial layout for Unca Ray's Barn Red Quilt.
Some of those reds look a little pink on my computer screen. I assure you, they are not pink on the real thing!

Band Together by Weeks Ringle and her husband Bill Kerr of Fun Quilts. The pattern was published in American Patchwork & Quilting in February 2010. This project turns out to be an excellent lesson in how far you can go with just 2 colors. Red is red, right? There are A LOT of reds out there in the world. And they all seem to go together!

Sketchbook Challenge : Red-Wing Blackbird - Harbinger of Spring

2011-04-10T12:32:00.000-05:00

Red-Wing Blackbird
Made with Neocolor II water-soluble crayons

This is the line drawing I started with. I usually do these on a loose piece of paper. When I get it to where I like it, I trace it in pencil, flip it over and burnish the image into my sketchbook. That's why the final piece is in reverse. I've also been gluing the outline drawings into the sketchook near the final piece. That way I have a record of how the piece developed.

This one is BEFORE adding the water to blend the colors.
It's amazing how a little water adds such vibrancy!

History : We have another red-wing blackbird pair nesting in a tree in our back yard.
That means, I'll have to watch my head in the back yard : If we get too close to their tree, they dive-bomb us. Good thing that only lasts for the nesting season!

WOW! : Citrasolv Backgrounds

2011-04-09T13:26:00.000-05:00

On The Sketchbook Challenge Blog, I found Diana Trout's How-to-do-it Video on using Citra Solv to create beautiful backgrounds for collage.

Here are my results :

You can click on the slideshow to see larger images. These all came from the April 2008 issue of National Geographic, in case you are interested in getting similar results. ;-)

I am so impressed with the results from this technique. I LOVE-LOVE-LOVE the results!

I'm not quite sure how I'm going to use these yet ... Collage? Not sure I want to invest in a new printer with the dye inks. 1 page would use up a lot of ink with this kind of saturated color. I wonder how a monoprint direct to fabric might work? It also makes me wish I knew more about PhotoShop and Layers. I've already got some ideas ...

As a follow-up on the process, this is a picture of a hole the Citra Solv and ink ate into the pink foam board to which I had pinned the pages to dry. It also allowed the wet ink to run interesting streaks. Next time, I'll cover the foam with a blotting paper (or something).

Sketchbook Challenge : Paper Curl Study

2011-04-07T08:40:00.001-05:00

A few months ago, I was opening the mail and this strip of paper peeled off one of the envelopes. It landed as this lovely little curl. Instead of just tossing it into the recycling, I took it upstairs to photograph it. Nice, huh?

I had every intention of actually putting pen/pencil to paper and sketching them out, but time got away from me. I did this outline drawing :

I also played with the images in Paint.net. Here are the results :

Pen and Ink filter in Paint.net

Oil Painting filter in Paint.net

Pencil Sketch filter in Paint.net

Sketchbook Challenge : First Steps for Branching Out / Out on a Limb

2011-04-07T08:11:00.000-05:00

This is what's up on my design wall at the moment. It's the "draft" version of my next journal quilt. No--it's not technically in my sketchbook, but a design wall can serve a similar (and different) purpose on the road to actualization.

I had started this months ago, even fused some flowers down, but it just didn't work. I guess I was waiting for this perfect prompt from Jane Davies! Already, I like it much better--even with this mixed media version. The branch is an ad torn from a newspaper.

I made the little blue bird last October in a thread-painting workshop with Karla Spinks. He's been looking for a home ever since!

The background and the foreground are hand dyes I did myself. My one requirement for these Journal Quilts is that I use some of my hand dyes.

Stay tuned to see how it develops!

Spilling Over : Fire Fall at Yosemite Journal Quilt and March Sketchbook Challenge

2011-04-03T12:04:00.000-05:00

This journal Quilt came before the sketch below. I was thinking about the magnificent "fire fall" at Horsetail Falls in Yosemite National Park. It's not lava, but a trick of the light. The water fall is seasonal, only when the snow melts, usually in February. If you can be there at just the right time while the sun sets, you can see an amazing light show :

The Fire Falls

After watching the PBS documentary on The National Parks, I was also remembering how the park officials used to stage a fire fall for tourists. They built a gi-normous bonfire, then pushed it over the cliff. It looked spectacular, but I have to say, I'm glad they don't do that anymore.

"Thousands of people from around the globe would line the meadows and

roads every evening to watch the spectacular event of fire falling more than

3,000 feet from Glacier Point to the valley floor. In fact, many came to

Yosemite just to experience the "Fire Falls." From 1872 to 1969, for almost

one hundred years, every summer, at exactly 9 p.m. a man would stand at

Camp Curry below and shout to the man at Glacier Point above "Let The

Fire Fall." At that instant, the man tending the Fire at Glacier Point would

shout his answer down, "The Fire Is Falling," and they would

immediately begin pushing the burning coals and fire over the cliff. It was a

spectacular display of falling, descending fire! Over 3,000 feet of brilliant,

flowing, glowing fire cascading down the sheer wall of Glacier Point."

A Spiritual Experience

In a recent TV documentary interview one of the 'old timers,' that called the fire down, emotionally said, "we always thought it was like a spiritual thing, like a church experience." With his voice breaking, he said “people were deeply touched. Each night when the event ended there would be deep silence, or almost reverence.” He said “people would be weeping everywhere. Then, after a minute or so, hesitantly, someone would break the silence with a weak applause. The applause would then escalate into a roar.” It was an awesome event, a momentous occasion. Everyone was blessed, the rich and famous as well as the more common folks. All races and colors of people from all over the world were somehow deeply touched by the Fire Falls. The old timer said “it riveted the people together.”

Enjoy these pictures!

Detail
The Making of Fire Fall
I started with the blue background fabric--a piece I dyed in 2009. One of my self-imposed requirements for these journal quilts is to use some of my own hand dyes. I thought this blue worked well for the sky ...

After choosing the base fabric, I started in on the cliffs. I'd been thinking about a mono-color collage, so I pulled out my bag of black scraps and started laying them out. Then I decided it needed more dimension to make the rock faces, so I pulled out the yarns and started building a composed fabric. My friend Lois (by way of Lynda) gave me a skein of silk from China. It has strands of copper in it. It doesn't show up well in the picture, but that little bit of sparkle adds to the piece. Once I had the cliffs "built," I covered it all with black tulle, and stitched it down to hold all those bits in place. The orange is the last bit of a striking Halloween fabric. The orange wave seemed appropriate for this piece.

The binding is a basic envelope treatment, turned right side out. I did that before the quilting--because it would not have worked afterwards. Turns out that quilting the sky pulled and shrunk things enough to pull it out of square. On a small piece like this, I don't think it's a problem.

For the quilting, I decided to use on of the Beyond Meandering designs I learned in the Chris Lynn Kirsch class at the Sewing Expo. The wave in the sky seemed like air currents. That's a fun filler pattern to stitch out.

Finally, I added the beads to the fire.

The sketchbook sketch came after the journal quilt. I wanted to document the process, so I glued the inspiration picture int my journal. Then I decided to draw a rough sketch in pencil. Then I colored it in with Neocolor 2 water-soluble crayons. Above you can see the BEFORE water version. Below is the AFTER water version to soften and blend the colors. I LOVE these crayons!

This rough sketch took all of 15 minutes start to finish. I remember how I would agonize over drawing anything back in January. How things that should be quick took 3 hours. Maybe that's the difference between doing it to start, or at the end. By now, I know the subject and drawing it is easier.

FVTC Sewing Expo 2011 Review

2011-03-27T17:28:00.000-05:00

Gorgeous Wooden buttons from Garner Creek Workshop. Brian Carney is the wood worker. These are destined as closures on new journals. This is the only thing I purchased at The 10th Fox Valley Technical College's Sewing Expo.

On Friday, March 25, I took an excellent day-long workshop lead by Chris Lynn Kirsch. It was called Beyond Meandering, and offered a number of free-motion filler designs. The picture shows just a small part of the quilt sandwich I filled up at the workshop. I've got some new favorites -- like the waves / punk waves (aka suns) and octopus flowers. Some designs I didn't think I would like, but they turned out to be easy and fun : squares and triangles. Some designs were old favorites of mine (stars, loop-di-loops). These are the ones I can do in my sleep, and needed to bust out of my comfort zone. This class moved me ahead in that respect. Chris Lynn Kirsh's motto is to have fun with it. If you choose a design you like to sew, you'll have fun and it will come out in the finished product. Not everything we make needs to be prize-winning. When I took my first free-motion quilting class a few years ago with Renee Shedivy, I felt like the whole universe opened up to me. I am so glad I took that step forward. It has been a whole new world--and not one that many quilters forge into.

I really appreciated having the time in class 1) to see new free-motion fillers and 2) to have the time to stitch them out and practice them. I love what Leah Day is doing with 365 Days of Free-motion Filler Designs, but I have to admit, I don't take the time to practice them. Maybe I should change that--now that I have a couple of quilt sandwiches ready to go! There's lots of inspiration out there ...

In the afternoon, we could bring quilt-tops and the class brainstormed possibilities for quilting these "blank slates." I brought in Black Jack and Red Spice and got some great ideas for what to do with them. I guess I"ll have to make an appointment for some time on the Tin Lizzie at It's Sew Rite!

Tip of the Year : Chris Lynn Kirsch recommended using Press'n Seal (I think you can find it with the plastic wrap in the grocery store) and kid's washable markers (Crayola) for auditioning quilting designs and marking quilts. She says you can see through it, and you can sew through it, too. It pulls right off like Golden Threads Quilt paper. I'll have to try try that ...

Chris also recommended a classic book on quilting by Lee Cleland, called Quilting Makes the Quilt. In this amazing book packed with pictures, the author makes the same quilt several times, just so we can see the differences in quilting--and what a difference the quilting makes! I borrowed a copy from my local public library, and have been studying it. This book is now on my Wish List to purchase. It's out of print, and available copies are expensive now.

On Saturday at the Sewing Expo, we go to 5 1-hour workshops interspersed with walking the vendor booths, the quilt show, and lunch .... It's a full, exhausting, and inspirational day. I attended 2 lectures by Weeks Ringle (I took a class with her last year and greatly enjoyed what an interesting person she is beyond quilting ...). Her first lecture was about auditioning fabric. Her basic message was not to be afraid to mix and match colors, scales, styles, fabric lines. A second lecture was about "Quilting with Contrast."

The last class of the day was called "Eat, Pray, Love to Sew" about the benefits of having a hobby, and friendships and taking care of ourselves by eating right and exercising. At one point, the speaker (a nurse) asked if anyone had entered the competition, and how different it feels to make a quilt for someone special vs. for a show. I entered 2 quilts into the Quilt Show (Cinnamon & Sugar and Millifiore). I have to admit that this show had grown over the years--and so has the competition. I won first place there in 2006 for The Oliver Quilt. I never enter a show expecting to win--It's always a surprise to be honored and recognized for my work. The pieces I entered in the show this year were made with someone in mind, not the show. Hence, there's a different focus and intensity. I'm happy with my work, even if the judges didn't seem to notice it. You have to put things into perspective --- Only a handful of people win the prizes, and there are a lot of talented people out there! It's such a great opportunity to see some amazing work ... ;-)

Sketchobook Challenge : Doodle

2011-03-27T17:21:00.001-05:00

This is a Zentangle-like Doodle that I started in February.

It's 8-1/2 x 5-1/2 in. It's a lot bigger than the usual Zentangle, which is probably why it takes me so long to finish one of these. I always seem to get to a point where I just lose steam and can't quite finish it--hence the white spaces that are left.

Sketchbook Challenge : Red Mittens

2011-03-27T17:13:00.000-05:00

I have to admit, I'm one of those people who loves Winter.
Here are my cozy warm red mittens, which I won't put away until May in Wisconsin.

Pencil, watercolor, Neocolor II, black pen, white crayon (resist).

Everyday Inspiration : Leaf

2011-03-27T17:05:00.000-05:00

Just a simple wet leaf on the pavement is enough to make me stop and take a breath. It's enough time to appreciate beauty. Enjoy!

Weathered Progression

2011-03-13T11:19:00.000-05:00

I was inspired by people doing erosion bundles. Walking across the parking lot into work one day, I saw this jumble of yarn on the sidewalk. I was still there when I walked out that evening.

The next morning, I decided to pick it up, take it home, and watch it change and weather over time in my own driveway ... This is what it looked like when I brought it home : a sorry looking wretch.

I never expected it to get all fluffy like this.

After this one, I lost track of it :

Spice Red Quilt Top is Complete

2011-03-07T19:40:00.001-06:00

The Spice Red Quilt Top is all together now ... It may be a while before I actually get it finished with binding and label.

The pattern : Annie's Wicked Easy Quilt Patten. This puppy goes together fast and it covers a lot of area with 16-inch finished blocks. Annie seems to have removed the pattern from her website, however, it's similar to (but different from) the Turning Twenty or Yellow Brick Road or Sweet Sixteen quilt patterns. [Please don't ask me for Annie's pattern. If Annie took it down, she must have a reason she no longer wants to make it available, and I will abide by her wishes. She now has a different Wickedly Easy Quilt pattern. The one I'm using is a different vintage.] It IS a fat-quarter friendly pattern.

The batiks I used are the Red Spice set from Hancock's of Paducah.

To Pre-Wash or Not?

2011-02-26T21:34:00.000-06:00

For Unca Ray's Barn Red Quilt, I purchased 2 sets of 1/4-yard cuts ("Seeing Red") from Keepsake Quilting. I had a particular quilt pattern in mind and I really appreciate the coordinated fabrics they offer.

In each set, they include a sheet advising buyers to pre-wash their fabrics. I used to do that religiously, but stopped in recent years. In this case, I was thinking that the red might run (though that's silly in this case--it's a dark quilt, so why should it matter?)

Hindsight is 20/20, right? Now that' I have pre-washed these 1/2 yard cuts, I'm having second thoughts. Here's why :
1) These are relatively small cuts. By the time I trim the unravelled bits, the 1/4 yard is essentially 1 inch shorter than when I started.
2) The sizing is now gone, which would have helped generate a crisp clean cut.
3) I'm planning a dark quilt with black batting. Who cares if the reds bleed? It wouldn't matter in this case.

I will recycle the trimmings above in composed fabric. And I could have saved myself some time and effort by not pre-washing these smaller cut fabrics.

Larger pieces, I will continue to pre-wash. But at some point, it just doesn't make sense. Does it? What do you think?

Complex Cloth : Flour Paste Resist adds Crackle Patterning

2011-02-26T21:02:00.000-06:00

This is one fab in the process of soaking / rinsing out the flour paste resist. It's laying on the sink in my wet studio--a toasty 48 degrees down there!

I've been working on this project for a couple of months now. Last fall, Quilting Arts published a series of articles on resists from the kitchen. Jane Dunnewold also explains the technique in her Art Cloth / Complex Cloth books.

I mixed up 2 cups cold water with 2 cups flour (according to p. 117 of Jane Dunnewold's Art Cloth book). Then I spread it on several pieces of fabric I wanted to treat with crackles. The flour paste went on smoothly enough. I made sure not to spread it too thick. It dried for 2-3 weeks before I could get back to it.

This is one of the fabrics. They curled up like tofu skins after they dried. For this one, I tried to write a poem into the paste before it dried. I further crunched and distressed the dry paste on the fabric to make more cracks where the paint would seep through.

This is the same piece with purple acrylic paint applied over the dried flour paste.

I made up a batch of print paste, but it never really thickened up as much as it needed to in order to be effective. Here's where a teacher on site would have been helpful to tell me to add another Tablespoon of sodium alganate to thicken it up. I'd left it to sit over night hoping it would thicken, but it never really did--and I was running out of time! I only have the weekends to experiment and make messes like this. When I mixed in the dye, and began to paint it over the dry floured fabric, it immediately soaked through to the other side. No resist effect at all. That was when I switched to the acrylic paints with much better results :

You can barely make out the text I'd written into the flour paste. This was a piece of rusted fabric that I had over-dyed with Turqouise. Some of the turquoise seems to be fading with successive washings and treatments. I think it's just about done, though. Just 1 or 2 more layers to go!

Here are a few more shots. This one is with black acrylic paint :

Can you tell, I'm trying to re-create turquoise with these?

With purple acrylic paint :

The Sop Cloth from this season of dying.

Rhonda's Lizard

2011-02-26T14:54:00.000-06:00

Rhonda [Last Name?] is a wonderfully talented and versatile quilter who always attends this winter quilt retreat. Seeing what she's working on (and finished since last time) is one of the things I most look forward to about Quit Camp. This time, she finished up this giant Lizard. She has such an incredible sense of color and texture. Her stuff is mesmerizing, the kind of thing you can stare at for hours and still discover new things. Look closely at the Lizard's skin ... I'm always wondering what she'll do next!

I keep encouraging her to start a blog of her own, because I truly believe her work should be seen, enjoyed, and marveled at. [Consider this entry yet another nudge in that direction, Rhonda!]

That's Rhonda behind the Lizard. She gave me permission to post her Lizard on Sweet Leaf Notebook as long as she didn't have to be in the picture. Enjoy!

Back from Winter Quilt Camp 2011

2011-02-26T14:15:00.000-06:00

I worked on this Oceanica panel. I fell in love with this line of fabrics by Julie Paschkis for In the Beginning Fabrics. I saw the kit (panel with supporting fabrics and pattern) at The Fabric Quarter in California, and just couldn't pass it up. They don't seem to carry it any more. I purchased it last October, thinking these lovelies would disappear fast. You'd be able to re-create it with the fabrics and this pattern. The top is done. It still needs to be quilted ... I'll let that simmer a while.

Project 2 : I got the reds cut and strip sets sewn for Unca Ray's Barn Red Quilt. I had in mind the barn reds coupled with a dark gray, weathered barn wood colored fabric. However, everyone I consulted on color pushed me towards this earthy brown. Since it's not what I originally had in mind, I'm not quite sure I like it or not. I also need to remember that this quilt is not for me, but for my Unca Ray who will like the earthy browns.

In the photo above, that one polka dot strip looks pink. I assure you, it's not pink in real life. More of a brick brown. I wouldn't put pink a man's quilt!

This is the pattern :

Band Together by Weeks Ringle and her husband Bill Kerr of Fun Quilts. The pattern was published in American Patchwork & Quilting in February 2010.

Sunset over frozen Mission Lake, in Hatley, WI. Waypost Camp. Sara, the camp Director is great! Not only did she take excellent care of us, she even quilted with us for a few hours.

Dinner on Saturday night : Chicken stuffed with spinach and mushrooms. It was delicious! I'll see if I can find the recipe ... The food is real, made fresh for us. Not poured out of freezer boxes. Another reason I appreciate Sara's hospitality.

We had to leave early on Sunday morning due to another winter storm that dropped 10 inches of snow on us later that day. Sarah said we were welcome to spend another night there, if we so desired.

For those of you who don't consider yourselves political, you may want to tune out now. I will say that things got a little tense last weekend. I was there with my mom, and 4 teachers from my old high school. My Dad is also a retired teacher, and my mom a Public Health Nurse. These are some of the very people who will be affected by our union-busting governor's bogus budget repair bill. If you've heard about the protests in Wisconsin, this is what it's about. Gov'r wants to kill collective bargaining for public employees. Of course, we're all concerned. It's an assault on the middle class. These are people who work hard for their money, and spend money in their local economies, and pay taxes. Several of the teachers are married to policeman or fireman, 2 groups pardoned from the union-busting bill this time around. Though we were on retreat, we were all waiting to hear if there had been any progress on the protests or the governor being willing to negotiate. Have you ever heard of a politician NOT willing to compromise? That's who we got for Governor in WI. And now 1 week later, we're still waiting for a resolution ... Life will never be the same if this goes through. Think of it this way : If their disposable incomes disappear, so will the quilt shops and restaraunts and the local businesses they support. This is not a pro-business plan.

One woman at the table across from us said, "I don't consider myself to be political, but even I can tell this plan is just plain wrong!"

Sketchbook Challenge - Opposites : Black Dog on a Frozen Lake

2011-02-13T10:22:00.000-06:00

I did two versions.
Materials : watercolor, gouache, pencil on watercolor paper

Materials : watercolor, gouache, pencil on 65 lb cardstock
I did this one second, so I had a better idea of how to push the pigment around to make her fur look more like fur., so I think I like this one better.

This project really helped me get a feel for each type of watercolor paint--transparent vs. the opaque. The watercolor paper really does have more body to it and is suitable for the medium. The cardstock does all right, but I think I'm hooked on the watercolor paper now!

This is the original photo from 2008, taken by my husband on an "ice walk" on frozen Lake Winnebago, just a few blocks from our house. I know--you'd expect the ice to be white, but it really depends on the time of day. This was as twilight, hence the pink and blue. This is my lovely 2nd-hand Newfie again. She looks so noble in this portrait! For a few years, now, I've been trying to figure out to to turn this particular picture into a quilt ... Maggie is so black, it's difficult to get a good picture without her looking like dark puddle. This one kind of looks like those old silhouettes contrasting the light and dark. Hence, that made it suitable for this month's theme : Opposites.

Here's the outline tracing I worked with.

Follow this link to read more about the February Sketchbook Challenge Theme : Opposites.

Sketchbook Challenge : Stacked Journalling a la Judi Hurwitt

2011-02-06T19:14:00.001-06:00

I've been playing around with Stacked Words, a la Judi Hurwitt. Once I got over what words to use ... they really are not readable in this application, so the words themselves are not all that important. I used place names and just stacked them up. This is one of sketchbook pages where I was playing with this technique. I learned that using a mix of words added interest and variety to the scribble. Once I got going with it, I did 6 or 7 pages of these jumbles. I got into a rhythm and went with it.

I can some of these being enlarged and used as a screen-printing screen or thermofax screen.

Red Peppers Reclining : Sketchbook Challenge

2011-02-06T19:10:00.001-06:00

Water color pencils and black pen.

Kid Art : Oliver's Chameleon

2011-02-06T18:44:00.001-06:00

Because everyone needs some Kid Art.

This Chameleon was done by my 10-year old kid in the last month, or so. I hung it in my sewing room. One of my favorites of his!

Jan 2011 Snow Dyes

2011-02-06T18:24:00.000-06:00

This is a picture of the whole 1-yard piece. I used wine and New Black on mercerized cotton.

Here is the last bit of snow before it melted through the fabric. The fabric is sitting on a screen stretched over a bin. On the left, I used Havanna Brown and Black Cherry squirted on the snow in a plaid pattern. On the right, I used Wine and New black squirted on the snow in overlapping circles.

Here's a detail of the havanna brown and black cherry. I figured the havanna brown would split into some interesting colors when I did the dye fractionations study.

I threw a couple crumbled fabrics in the bin underneath to see what color I'd get from the drips down effect. Not bad. I was surprised to see more black on the fabrics in the catch bin down below.

Kilt Green in a separate bucket.

Winter Berries

2011-01-26T17:59:00.001-06:00

"In the middle of winter I at last discovered that there was in me an invincible summer."
-- Albert Camus

These are the berries I see out the dining room window under the bird feeder. The birds don't like these little beauties. In the summer, I'd rip them up as pesky weeds. But in the depths of winter, they are a welcome burst of color in a world of white.

Ok, so I haven't really been sketching all that much, but I have been taking a pile of pictures, with great intentions ... until I realized THIS IS my sketchbook. Enjoy!

I love my digital camera that allows me to capture these moments!

Midnight Watchman : January Journal Quilt

2011-01-23T11:29:00.001-06:00

Here's my entry for the 3CS Journal Quilts Challenge. A few years ago, I had a hollyhock in the garden that was this dark. No kidding! I think it was called Midnight Watchman in the seed catalogs. I loved it!

This one is actually postcard size. It's been sitting in my studio for more than a year, just waiting to be finished with something. I added the beads this weekend. It's made from some leftover burnout velvet, along with the red leaf that came from a spray of fake flowers. Lots of rich texture that is difficult to photograph.

I stitched it to the flap of this messenger bag. It was a freebie with a company logo on the flap, so I covered that up with the new postcard. I'm using this bag, now to hold my art supplies (pencils, brushes, erasers, Neocolor crayans ...) for the Sketchbook Challenge. This keeps everything together, and makes the kit more mobile.

Sketchbook Challenge : Highly Prized

2011-01-22T11:35:00.001-06:00

This is my 2nd-hand Newfie, Maggie. She is highly prized to me.
Methods : Photograph manipulated in Paint.Net
Pencil sketch filter
Sepia (above) and Black/white (below)

Maggie was laying on the snow on a winter day, so there was great contrast and not much going on in the background.

Read more about Maggie and her story here. These days, she's a normal, happy and joyful dog. Every day, I tell her how happy I am that she decided to stay with us. She is my pride and joy!

Dye Fractions

2011-01-16T14:31:00.000-06:00

This weekend, I started putting together a new Dye Notebook, as recommended by Jane Dunnewold in her recently published book Art Cloth.

In this exercise, we're looking for the hidden colors in pre-mixed dyes. Basically, you tap a tiny bit of dye onto some damp fabric and let the colors separate. At present, I have about 50 colors in stock. You don't really think about a wine red actually having blue in it--but it's there. Or black having red and green in it. I know I could mix all these colors myself with red-yellow-blue, but I'm waiting for Vicki Welsh to write her book of dye recipes! (Hint! Hint!) It takes a lot of experimenting to get just the right colors, and sometimes purchasing a good pre-mixed green or purple is worth it!

This should be very useful for Snow Dyeing as it gives me a better idea of how the colors might break out and calibrate in the snow dye process.