Indigo!

A couple of weeks ago I had a play day with Lynda of Bloom, Bake, Create fame. We had been planning for some time to try out indigo dyeing.  I finally had a day free!  Here are my cotton cloth prints.

I also tried three kinds of silk scarves in the vat but did not leave them in long enough. I attempted to re-dye them the next day in the vat, but it had oxidized too much. I then over-dyed them with a procion dye which actually turned out similar to the indigo dyeing.

On the left, silk chiffon (yummm!), then a silk crepe, and a silk habatoi.

A productive day!

Dyeing, Dyeing, and More Dyeing….

A few weeks ago I spent a day doing some dyeing.  I realized that my stacks of hand dyed fabrics to sell was getting mighty low.  So I spent a day dyeing and then hours of ironing to get them ready to sell.  I love the palette of colors I ended up with…butterscotch, curry, terra cotta, olive in light and dark, and indigo blue.  I decided to dye in such a way that I could get a piece with lighter value in the same tub as the the darker ones.

They look so yummy all stacked up together!

Today, I have started at it again. I sold a few yards at the show, but I still needed to beef up my stash as I will be setting up to sell to some fantastic quilters coming to New Harmony from Kentucky.  I have sold to these gals before at the farmer’s market and believe me, they like fabric!  So I am getting ready for them.  One slight problem…my stash of Pure Threads by James Thompson is on the very low side.  I have been pulling out every piece of white or off white cotton I can find in my house, since I can’t get any bolts of it here on time.  I have now dyed my Pimatex cotton (that I usually paint skies on) and yesterday I purchased quilt backing cotton and dyed it too as well as a cheaper natural muslin. I have some heavier weight sateen type cotton that I could dye too…not sure why I bought that in a wide width…

The first batch is now rinsed, washed, and dried, but there is more to go…and then there’s all that ironing….

The Month Of May – Part 2

In the last post, I was telling you about the last day at Tan-Tara resort at the Missouri Fiber Artists (MoFA) conference.

After Annie gave her presentation and we checked out her quilts, the style show was next.  I took photos of almost everyone’s garment because they were all so wonderful, but there’s quite a few to post, so I will post a few here and if you are interested in seeing the rest, you need to join Facebook, Like the Missouri Fiber Artists page, and I’ll have the rest of them posted in an album…eventually!

These gals can sew and not only can they sew, they are in to making their own cloth using surface design.  The garments and ideas represented in the fashion show were awe-inspiring.

I can’t tell you who made this. It all went too fast. This is a fiber student doing the modeling.

This is Carlene Fullerton doing the modeling. I think Sharon Kilfoyle is the creator of this smashing silk piece.

Carlene again modeling a gorgeous jacket.

I thought this little orange jacket was quite creative.

And the winner for Best of Show is….

The wedding dress…made entirely of white plastic bags! One of the students made this.

Stay tuned…Part 3 is coming.

Just Stuff

I have been pretty busy since the last time I blogged here.  January always brings with it the really well intentioned plan that I will actually get my tax information together early for a change…NOT.  Here it is February 13 and it hasn’t happened yet.  And now I’m in the throes of…wait for it…spring cleaning (yeh, I know it’s early, but…) and getting ready for two shows in a couple of weeks.  So there you have it…I do not have time to pull those tax records together.

I have been…pulling down my solo show on Jan. 29, then determining which pieces would go into a juried show (if I get in).  All that paperwork has to be turned in.  The Illinois Artisan shop always has a big quilt event during the Paducah quilt show…sometimes I get stuff in to them and sometimes I don’t. This year I filled out their paperwork and decided what will go there, along with a couple of scarves for their wearable exhibit.  There has been online work too getting photos and info onto websites of groups I belong to.  Check out missourifiberartists.com.  I recently got some of my work catalogued on that site.

Fading Glory, deconstructed screen printing, photo transfer

I did some work with rusting…I layered a few layers of cloth on both sides of a rusted piece of metal and wet it with vinegar.  It doesn’t take long to get an image.

I am going to start working on small pieces of art and these will be part of a series.

Someone has been giving us fresh potatoes and I am having a hard time keeping up with using them.  I found a recipe for Hasselback potatoes online and I thought they looked pretty yummy.

Hasselback potatoes before cooking...

They are sliced not quite all the way through, sliced garlic clove is inserted between the slices, then add some salt and butter and drizzle olive oil over the top.  Bake in the oven.  I can think of some other herbs that would be good on them too.

after cooking....yum!

Birthday party to attend this past weekend and a fund raiser on Sunday afternoon, I was privileged to be invited to set up a small table to sell items.

Tomorrow I am shampooing the carpet. ;=)

At The Gallery Part 2

Here’s a couple more pieces of my exhibit that have not been seen on my blog before.

Sticks and Stones #3

Rust dyed cotton sateen, silk screening, stenciling, applique, hand writing, paint, ink, dyes, stitching with polyester thread.

Sticks and Stones #4

Rust dyed feed sack, discharge dyed cotton sateen, silk screened, stenciled and stamped, paint, dyes and automatic dish washing liquid and other discharging products, hand writing, inks, stitching with polyester thread.

Dyeing Classes

On the 12th I taught basic dyeing and discharging classes with a few gals from the Raintree quilt guild.  Here are some of their stunning results with discharging.

Catching Up

On Friday, February 11th, after 3 attempts to go, I finally made it to Form, Not Function at the Carnegie in New Albany, IN. A friend and I first visited Jane Dunnewold’s wonderful exhibit, Etudes: A Daily Practice on display in Louisville, KY at the Hite Art Institute. We enjoyed that very much, then went to New Albany to find the Mexican restaurant, which had moved, before we went to Form Not Function.  I love Jane’s work. It was an awesome day and I really should do that more often. It just reminded me that I don’t get out enough!

Back to life at home….my husband and I went out to eat at an awesome Mexican restaurant the next night in Marion.  Can you tell I like Mexican? Here’s what I got…Don Sol’s Fajitas.

The salsa was excellent and there was enough food to take home for lunch on Sunday!  The restaurant is Don Sol’s in Marion, IL.  If you are in the area try it!

Last week I painted dryer sheets.

This week I ironed them.

This week I painted sky fabrics.

And dyed all of these things.

Cotton and rayon circular scarves, jumbo cotton rick rack and a bunch of onesies.  Walmart now sells organic cotton onesies made by Faded Glory.  They are so nice and soft.

Well, that’s my week so far.  I have more to do before the Bloomington, IN quilt show next week.

Curry

I love curry powder…actually I love lemon curry powder the best.  It has a little lighter taste than regular curry.  I buy it at the Green Earth health food store when I get to Edwardsville.  I don’t know where else to buy it, but you can get it in the bulk section there.  I don’t use it in a lot of things, but when I want  it, I like having it on hand.  I was filling a small spice jar with it the other day and decided the color was so yummy I had to take a photo.

Now, compare that with this piece of cloth dyed with Curry dye.  Are they close to the same color?  It’s yummy too.  There is also Amethyst on this cloth.  I bought the Curry dye powder this year and now it’s at the top of my favorite list.

I am going to have to do something awesome with this piece of cotton.  As for the lemon curry powder (the stuff you can eat), try it in your chicken salad the next time you make it, along with dried cranberries or fresh grapes and slivered almonds. It makes a delicious salad.

Week In Review

It’s been a strange week. I slightly twisted my ankle last Saturday, but no pain and swelling showed up til Sunday afternoon.  And it swelled up really good by Monday.  I hobbled around the house determined not to let time be a’ wastin’…

I kept ice on it a lot, but also spent time at my sewing machine.  I had printed a huge piece of cloth a while back and decided to make these…those of you who read my blog will recognize the cloth…I love these…

Since I sold my first set of screen printed throw pillows last Saturday, I am now highly motivated to keep going, so I sewed up a few more covers, after cutting lots of fabric for the backs.

It’s too hot to be outside printing since we don’t seem to be able to move past 100 plus degree days. But I have lots of indoor work to be done as long as I can keep supplied with everything I need.  In my “weakened state” I made a request  on Facebook to see if anyone was going to Walmart. Could they check on zippers for me please?  One of my friends did go there but they didn’t have any of the polyester zippers I needed for my bags. So I placed an order with Brewer which I needed to do anyway, but wasn’t ready to do it this early.  I ordered a bunch of zippers, but they only had one box of the Cloister Brown and I needed many.  Sigh.  But the three zippers I got are enough to hold me at this moment.  I am making bags which are liners for a basket purse.  My friend Kay is a basketweaver and we are teaming up on this project.  I think the liners might help her sell the baskets better.  She did sell a purse and liner last Saturday. Woohoo! She has two big shows next month, so I gotta get busy.

And then there’s my own work…I am giving thought to creating hand dyed cotton napkins with matching table runners.  This is for the Select Collection event to be held in November.  The theme is home and wearables.  I dyed some shibori designs on fat quarters.  Table napkins, anyone?

Kay likes them and thinks they would be great as napkins.  What do you think?

Progress!

Working out in the patio yesterday, I dyed 10 of these…Sweet little onesies for sweet little babies.

Between Monday and Tuesday, I finished 8 new silk scarves and have 3 more waiting to finish.  I need some time to decide how to finish them.  I want to do more wax designs.  There is only one in this group using my new “BIG sponge” stamp. I love the BIG sponge.