I purchased this awesome piece of cloth the other day. I am supporting my local artist! A girl from Indiana made it. She has an etsy shop here. It is rust dyed and then overdyed. Isn’t it the coolest?! I haven’t done any rust dyeing myself yet and I doubt that I ever find a cool piece of rusting metal like this one. So it is now in my growing “collection”.
….Marilyn Davis! There were 243 total sheets. I counted them several times to be sure. A few of you were very close, but Marilyn’s estimate was 247 and she came the closest. Congratulations, Marilyn! I will be sending you a bundle of these painted dryer sheets as your prize. If you will send me your snail mail address, I will get these out to you pronto. My appreciation goes out to all of you who participated! I will be putting some bundles of these sheets in my etsy shop this week if you are interested in purchasing some.
Thanks to everyone who has made a guess. I plan to announce the winner and final total at 6 p.m. central time. 27 of you left a number. You still have time as of this writing if you haven’t posted one.
Here are some pictures of some of the individual sheets. You could lay these out flat and paint them and get more paint on them. For my use, I don’t want a block of color, but just a bit of color and transparency for layering. They can still have paint added to them as well as stamping, and I’m even wondering how they would take a gel medium photo transfer…hmmmm, I may have to try that!
…can one collect? I have been saving them for quite some time. I painted these this morning. If anyone wants to take a guess how many there are in this picture….when I iron them, I will count them and the person who gets closest to the actual number will get a prize! So leave your guess in the comment section. How many painted dryer sheets are in these 6 containers?
…And here are the fabrics all nice and ironed from yesterday’s dyeing spree.
I took serious inventory of the messy patio and did some major cleaning out there this morning. The shop vac picks up the dust, dead bugs and other fun things from the concrete floor. Of course, all the lawn chairs are stored there and have to be washed off. It’s looking better already even though I’m not done and it beckons me to spend some more time out there! With cooler mornings, I don’t mind that at all. I have a vast number of used dryer sheets that need to be painted and there is pimatex cotton on the way that will need painting when it arrives, as well as more dyeing. I am working on the fabrics for Rosa and Friends. It can be ordered from my website here.
Wow, what an awesome morning! After days of muggy, hot mornings, we have had a break in the weather and it is beautiful out today. I had been putting off doing some much needed dyeing; I was waiting for the cool front that was predicted to come through. This morning was glorious. I worked outside in my screened-in patio that is 19 feet long by something or other. I love being out here working when the weather is cool enough. I’m very fortunate to have this place. There is even a ceiling fan in it. Here is what it looks like. Please pay no attention to the mess.
So here’s what I got done this morning…buckets of luscious berries, brown, chartreuse and forest green.
Multi colors and my recipe of a special green. Yummm…
I have been reading Betty Edwards’ book, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, as I have mentioned in previous posts. She says that learning to draw is not so much about drawing, but about seeing. She writes extensively about how to turn off the left brain dominance and make a shift to the right brain creative mode. The exercises in the book are there to help make this happen. I find it interesting how one can start to “see” things even when they are not expecting it.
For instance, my husband and I made a trip home for the 4th of July. I was talking on the phone when he pulled into the parking lot of the Dairy Queen in McLeansboro. I thought he had to use the restroom and he never said anything to me as he exited the car. While I was waiting, I began to “see” the side of a building in front of me. I think my mind made the shift to the right brain. Wow! There were some awesome markings. I got my camera out and started snapping pictures. I found watermarks and pitmarks on the building. I just kept shooting anything I thought I might find interesting, because you just never know.
Here are the markings that caught my attention:
This building with the blue doors also intrigued me, so I took a few pics of it too.
I think it’s time to get a new Thermofax screen order ready. I am loving buildings.
For most of my adult life, I have been a bit of a photography bug. Perhaps that’s why I went to x-ray school…to take pictures! But I’ve traded all that in now for a more artistic and interesting picture-taking experience. I love my digital camera.
The presentation for All That Jazz went very well at Sew Tech. As I probed the class coordinator about what the session was to be about, I was told it was supposed to be inspirational. Apparently people can sign up and prepay for the year to attend these monthly sessions. I had planned to briefly introduce myself and my quilting and dyeing history. I showed some of my fabrics, dyed, screened, stamped with soy wax, etc. I wanted to show my progression to making fiber art. I shared with them ideas and techniques. The ladies were quite interested and enthusiastic (that’s my kind of crowd!). I showed them art pieces and quilts made from my hand dyed cloth. Since I had just finished a sample (Rosa and Friends..see previous posts), I showed it too. They were very enthusiastic about it and I did sell the first kit. I then did a demo showing them how they could cut multiple fused applique pieces without having to trace each piece over and over on the fusible. They like that idea too. Then I shared my class samples with them. These are from classes that I have taught at the shop over the years and some that are upcoming. I feel some of the patterns that I teach are timeless and fun for everyone, no matter how long the pattern has been out. Some of my very favorites are the Bull’s Eye quilt by Country Threads, Yellow Brick Road by Atkinson Designs, 4 Patch Posy by H.D. Designs and Star Crazies by Buggy Barn, as well as all of SuznQuilts’ quilt-as-you-go lap throws that are quick and easy. There are always new young quilters coming into the shop and I like to introduce them to fun and quick quilt patterns. The ladies were choosing which classes they wanted to take and they were getting excited. It was fun…and it always is when you have people excited about quilting. In the classes I teach, the girls are always excited about the project and looking forward to a day out and getting to learn and make something new. That’s what keeps this business interesting…the people! Have a great quilting week…I know I will!
“Leafed”
Yesterday was my husband’s birthday. He turned 49 and I made him a New York cheesecake. I haven’t made one of those in years…too much fat! Even though I used the 1/3 less fat cheese and low fat sour cream it’s still a lot of fat. Then I quilted the Rosa and Friends sample and put binding on. Well, that part is over. Now I just have to get fabrics dyed for the kits. I was going to dye on Tuesday, but a water main was broken and we had no water all day.
On Saturday I am doing a presentation called All That Jazz at Sew Tech. They asked me to do a trunk show as well as show quilts for classes that I teach and my hand dyed fabrics. I will also do a small demonstration of a technique. I plan to visit Dick Blick and Joann’s while I am in Evansville.
Not much else going on as I have lately been spending so much time on this sample. I have to get in gear and start working on pieces that I want to put in the textile exhibit next month. I have less than a month to go before everything is to be delivered to the gallery.
Some pulls from a soy wax screen. I love using soy wax! These were printed on the back of fabrics that had gesso and paint applied. The white areas are from the gesso.
I got my husband to hold this up outside last night so that I could get a pretty good picture of it. He didn’t want to be in the pic.
There’s a story behind this quilt….I have been an election judge for 5 or more years now. My precinct might have 300 or so voters. Of that number 150 or so might vote, especially in the primaries. It’s a verrrryyyyyy llllooooonnnnngnggggg day! We open the polls at 6 a.m. and close them at 7 p.m. and then there’s more work. I might get home by 9 or a little before. You know those pictures you see on television of people in lines at the polls….that’s not us! There’s not much to do all day except visit, read, and eat. I decided not to waste that time. I had a lot of old hand dyes. By old, I mean they were the ones dyed on less expensive (aka cheaper) muslin. They were the ones I did in my early days of dyeing. I decided to use them all up in a quilt. I chose a simple block. Every time I worked an election, I would take my pieces ready to sew and hand pieced every block. It was a lot of fun and filled in the time so well. When I used up the fabrics I sewed the blocks together on the machine into this colorful quilt top. Now I just have to decide how I want to quilt it….I am thinking big funky flowers and some wavy lines….and what my next project will be for future election days. Of course, we could be busy at the one coming in November!
Art Journal---A Creative Journey 