Tagged : 7 Things ...

Dori at Fiber Fusing was kind enough to tag me for the 7 Things Meme.

Here are the Rules :

1) Link to the person who tagged you.

2) Post the rules on your blog.

3) Write 7 little known facts about you.

4)Tag 7 people at the end of your post and link to them.

5) Let each person know they've been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.

6) Let the tagger know when your entry is blogged.

As Dori said, it's quite a job to come up with 7 things that help explain who I am, but I've thought about it for a few weeks and I decided to write about 7 Things that Make Me Happy (in no particular order) :

1. My Big Black Dog, Maggie
   
2. My Family (CL and Oliver)
   
3. Ice Skating
   
4. Connecting with old friends (and meeting new ones)
   
5. Seeing people "on their path" with the "helping hands of the Universe" to help them along
   
6. Beautiful sunsets at Cherokee Marsh
   
7. Making stuff (hence the Sweet Leaf Blog)
   

Many of the blogs I read have already been tagged in one way or another. These are the bloggers I decided to tag :
1. Susan Italo at Wild Onion Studios
2. Vicki Welsh at Field Trips in Fiber
3. Rhonda at My Handbound Books
4. Hippopip
5. Nathalie at Creative Hours
6. Jacqueline at Jacqueline's Blog
7. Tracy at Tracy's Blog

Please stop by for a visit. This blogging community is a nice little world-wide network. Cheers!

Fiber-in-Form Class : More Samples Ink, Bleach, and Glitz

Fiber-in-Form : More Ink & Bleach Samples

Step 5 : Sample 11 : Ink, Bleach and Glitz - Final


Step 1 : Sample 11 - Step 1, scraps, odds, and ends couched down


Step 2 : Sample 11 - White-washed


Step 3 : Sample 11 - Inked


Step 4 : Sample 11 - very slightly brushed with bleach

[See 1st photo this entry]
Step 5 : Glitz added with Moon Shadow Inks and Paint Stiks

Fiber-in-Form Class : Ink and Bleach Samples

I finally have something to post for the Fiber-in-Form class! This is a sampling of the ink and bleach texture chapter ...

Samples 1-3 Couched, yarns, strings, etc.
Pretty homely stuff, huh? Hang on--this is only the beginning!

Step 2 : Samples 1-3, whitewashed

Step 3 : Samples 1-3, "Inked" with black and Bronze Dye (no salt, no soda)
some Moon Shadow Ink, too

Step 4 : Samples 1-3, brushed lightly with bleach



Step 5 : Samples 1-3, Glitz added with Moon Shadow Mists and Paint Stiks

Chenile edge for Post Cards

Grace asked how I edged the post cards in the last post. Sometimes, I don't have the patience, or thread to do a satin edge stitch around a pile of fabric postcards. Using a wider zig-zag to couch 2 strands of a twisted yarn like this around the border is my new gavorite method to edge post cards.

It's quicker, more texture, less time, less thread.

Northern Lights Post Cards

I'm still experimenting with ways to depict the Northern Lights in fiber and stitch. This series was done with various fibers trapped under tulle.

At the Wisconsin Spin-in a few weeks ago, I purchased some deliciously dyed mohair locks from Colorfield Farm. This is what I did with them :




I'm quite happy with the way these turned out. I love the sheen/shimmer/luster these locks have. The curl makes them appear to be in motion--like real auroras. On a small 4x6-in postcard size, this method works really well. I'm not so sure it would work on a larger scale. It's certainly worth doing more experiments.

It's also interesting to note that various colors of tulle offer different effects. Some colors virtually disappeared (which is what I was looking for). Other colors obscured the fibers beneath. It's worth having a stash of tulle in various colors as well. For the post cards above, I used forest green and black tulle.


This is a sample of soy silk with tencil trapped under black tulle. I thought this one would be really hard to photograph, but it turned out well. At certain angles, it appears to have too little contrast with the background. But the flash picked up the luster just fine. This fiber feels really nice, but it lacks body.

The two below are soy silk. I'm not thrilled with the colors--looks more like cotton candy than northern lights. But for an experiment, it served it's purpose ... I used a sparkly while bridal tulle on this one because the fiber was kind of flat by itself.

Kitchen Inspiration

Can you guess what this is?

My husband was doing dishes (a shared chore in our egalitarian household). He called me over to share this interesting and reproducible pattern. The cutting board was soaped up and a smaller plastic cutting board was pressed on top. When he pulled it off, this veined pattern appeared. Nice!

Now--what can I do with it?

Odds and Ends (Literally)

This journal is made from scraps left over after I finished my huge quilting bag a few years ago ... I love this fabric. And this is the last of it--so I turned it into a journal : Italian Countryside.



These postcards are leftover pieces of Faux leather, not big enough to make more journals. I wanted to see if this no-sew technique would work for postcards. It works beautifully! The letters are cut from something like ultra-suede (but not). M is my initial. G -- no reason, other than it's a pleasingly plump and interesting letter to work with.

Still More Journals

Fabric Journal No.18.



Fabric Journal No.19.



Fabric Journal No.20.




Fabric Journal No.21



Fabric Journal No.22.




Tissue Paper Journal No.25.

New Faux Leather Journals

Faux Leather Journal No.29 with cover flap. Cranberry with copper highlights. Paper-clay button.



Leather-bound journal. This is the first one like this I've tried. If I can find a good source of leather, I plan to make more.



Faux Leather Journal No.30. Purple with gold highlights.



Faux Leather Journal No.28



Faux Leather Journal No.26



Faux Leather Journal No.27