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.

More This ‘N That

Woohoo!  I feel like I actually got something done today.  I got a sample bag made, and it went pretty fast.  This is the Runaround Bag by Lazy Girl Designs, made, of course, in my hand dyed fabrics.  One fabric has paintstik designs on it.  I didn’t have a 12 inch zipper to match the fabrics, so making do with the yellow one I did have.  I think it looks just fine…it makes  a yellow stripe.

Front…

Back….with a heart embroidery stitch used as topstitching…

How about some antique buttons added…?

This is a cute pattern and makes up fast.  The finished bag measures 7 1/2″ x 9″. I have patterns for sale.

I am planning what shows I will be attending this fall and what I need to have done as far as samples.  This bag is one sample I wanted to make up.

On another note, I was juried into the annual Working Together exhibit to be on display at the Evansville museum from July 11 to August 28.  This is an Arts Council exhibit. I have shown this piece in another post on this blog.  It is …But Words Will Never Hurt Me (Sticks and Stones). I am happy it will be in this exhibit.

Rust dyed cotton sateen, discharge dyed sateen, screenprinting, stamping, stenciling, cotton thread, handwriting.

Where Does The Time Go?

Where does the day go?  I got up at 6:30 this morning, didn’t get dressed and immediately went to the sewing machine to finish the quilting on my new Words piece.  Some days I do that.  I stay in my pajamas. I planned on working on this art piece yesterday…but my husband has been rained out of the field since Sunday afternoon and so I never got to touch the quilt.  After he went to bed last night I worked on it, then got the quilting and squaring up done this morning.  I am still adding paint highlights to it, but here is a sneak peak.

It is called “Sticks and Stones…but Words Will Never Hurt Me”.  This is my second one.  Rusted cotton sateen, screened designs with procion dyes, handwriting, stamping, and painting.

Oh yeah, Facebook and Twitter now “demand” my time too.  My Twitter name is Katheeann if anyone wants to follow me. I spend too much time checking them since I am new to them.  I always do that with something new…play with it a lot.  I also got a good deal on a new Sony camera yesterday…I’ll probably play with it a lot too.

After the quilting is finished, now I can move the sewing machine back to my messy workroom.  I set the machine up on the kitchen table to quilt anything larger than a tablerunner because I don’t have the table room in my “studio”.  Now I can clean off the table so my husband doesn’t go crazy.  Not that we eat there…we eat in the living room in front of the tv.  The kitchen table is not needed for much of anything.

I need a whole day to clean up and possibly organize my sewing room.  Maybe tomorrow?  Unless I have to mow grass or go to town or clean the house.

Holidays Are Here Again!

Well, the holidays are back…they do this every year!  I feel like I haven’t gotten much done this week, except for cooking and planning to cook and purchasing food to cook.  Early this morning I did manage to get my rust dyed scarves individually photographed and listed in my Etsy shop.  But that’s about it. I’m making my list and checking it twice…candied sweet potatoes, cranberry/strawberry jello, homemade rolls (2 bags of them, white and wheat), pumpkin roll with cream cheese filling, cheese balls, one for each family, and crackers to go with them.  We’ll be traveling tomorrow to find the rest of the meal.

I want to wish everyone a very happy Thanksgiving!

“Model” wearing the crepe de chine scarf.

Rust Dyed Silk Scarves

I finished three different rusted scarves this week.

That’s silk satin on the left. Notice how it really took the rust.  Crepe de chine in the center and flat crepe on the right. Now that my new order is here, next week I can get started making some art scarves…as well as cooking for Thanksgiving.

Today’s Work…

First, rust dyeing some scarves.  I just started these this morning. I will be doing more, but am waiting patiently (?) on my order from Dharma.  These are: one silk satin, one silk crepe, and one silk flat crepe.  It will be interesting to see the differences.  Pictures coming later.

Sewing on Rust Dyed Cloth…

I quilted “But Words Will Never Hurt Me” quite easily (see closeups below). I used 100% cotton batting and a hand dyed cotton backing. I usually use a needle made for quilting by Schmetz or a Microtex needle; these are sharp needles. Not having many Microtex needles, I used a size 11 quilting needle. The quilting part went fine. I ran into trouble when I went to sew the folded binding down. On the Bernina, the thread kept breaking. OK..change needles. The thread still broke and the needle seemed to have trouble going through the cloth, even stopping entirely. This has not happened to me before. I had broken two needles previously, so I thought perhaps the timing was off. It pieced two pieces of cloth together with no problem, so that’s not it. I put the Bernina away and got out the Featherweight to see if there was any difference. It too would sew a couple of inches and then stop and the needle would not pierce the fabric. I posted a Help email to the quiltart list and got several suggestions… use larger needles, use a different thread, use a Microtex 14 or topstitch needle. Walmart had no topstitch needles and I only had a Microtex 12. And I live an hour from any quilt shop.

You know how sometimes when you wake up in the a.m. with something on your mind, a problem you are trying to solve? I woke up the next morning planning my next move. I decided to make the binding a single layer instead of a folded binding. I had a Microtex 12 needle and polyester sewing thread. It worked wonderfully. This information will not be interesting to anyone except those looking for a way to sew through rust dyed fabric! The rust dyed cotton sateen did seem very dense and I don’t know if the rust did that or what. I have heard of people who have trouble sewing through dense areas of rust, but that was not the case with my quilt; it quilted just fine through the densely rusted areas, and the binding had no dense areas of rust.

It’s been a learning experience.

In other news, my friend SuznQuilts left for Houston market this morning at 3 a.m. She and friend, Nestlings By Robin will drive the whole day. I wish her good success. I stayed home this year. The 15 hour drive is long.

Rust Dyeing….

Woohoo! How fun is this?! My first piece of rust dyed fabric, “dyed” on James Thompson’s cotton sateen. I can see this will be just the beginning…tee hee hee.