Can I whine? If you don't want to hear it - close this window!

Ever have one of those days?
I have two out of three dye custom jobs coming back because they aren't right. So they will get redone. DH might not understand.
My computer decided to have a hissy fit and took an hour to boot.
Windows (are you surprised?) backup didn't work - another wasted half hour.
Took the trash to the curb and found that the #%&^%@ groundhog has returned.
Sorting years of non-filed paperwork has pushed my stress level to the red zone.
I was going to post a picture of a steam explosion and that's beyond me today.
Got a call from the Realtor who hasn't been able to sell the mill in the past 3 years.
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OK, I will calm down. I know none of this is really important or even that bad, But "golly" some days . . .
http://i.imgur.com/fkrCCfd.png to see how I really feel!
Thanks for looking - whine over!

Illumination! Colored Discharge Printing with vat dyes and Formosul

The nice weather has allowed some outside discharge work. I pulled some existing fabrics out of the van to work with; I think they have been improved. All three pieces utilized screens made with house paint.
First is a piece of muslin that was dyed with turquoise, fuchsia and I think, navy, then stenciled with fabric paints. I used a screen painted on the lightest weight (25 gm) Lutradur. The design is inspired by “Big Iris, by Philip Taaffe, 1985”. If you look at the picture enlarged, you’ll see the random non-woven fibrous structure of the Lutradur.
Second is a piece of snow- dyed fabric that I printed with a screen created with bubble wrap.  Easier and more predictable than printing with the wrap itself, as well as tidier.
Third is a piece of Radiance cotton-silk sateen, dyed blue with acid dyes. The first picture shows a major learning experience. Just above and to the left of center is a dark slit that shows how silk isn’t happy with prolonged periods of high pH and high temperature, especially when followed by a normal cycle machine wash. When I do this again with silk, I will only process the fabric one time!! This one had two cycles through the pressure cooker. The last picture shows a larger view of the fabric. The blue-violet areas were screened while the black circles were directly applied. Because of the density of the circles, you can see the halo really well.
The directions from Pro Chemical that I followed are found here. They advise that it is an intermediate to advanced technique. For a simpler approximation, try deColourant. I cleaned a screen with water squeegeed through onto a floor mop-up towel. It discharged by just hanging in the sun, the way deColourant does.
As always, thanks for looking. These fabrics will be on the website soon!

Life After the Latest Quilt Show

It’s Monday afternoon after the West Virginia Quilt Festival and we've been home about a day. Laundry is done, suitcases unpacked. Still have to move the booth stuff in, once the road-weariness has had a chance to abate. (And if my language is a little stuffy or odd, that's a side effect of fatigue.)

Recently, I've been getting emails from Alyson Stanfield of www.ArtBizCoach.com. In her video series, 6 Tips for Improving Your Art Business, she speaks about creating ‘ecstatic encounters’ between people and your art. I've seen two such encounters at shows this year – customers who were visibly moved by a piece of my fabric. That's really gratifying and awe-inspiring. And it's the kind of feedback that makes me keep going back to shows.

That said, all the ego-enhancing experiences I've had at shows over the years don’t impact the bottom line. But, lest you think I’m planning on throwing in the towel (which is often how I feel when I get home), I’m considering how to get more buck for my bang. Another vendor who was at the show selling hand-dyed fabrics also sold commercial fabric, which accounted for 85% of her sales. And she did four times what I did in sales. What do you think: would adding select bolts of commercial fabric dilute my brand? Or enhance it?

Finally, I was thrilled to see the Dare to Dance Art Quilt Challenge hanging at the show. Here’s a picture of me with the book and some of the quilts, including mine, of course!

My Fast Friday Quilt

Hi all - I just posted a quilt to the Fast Friday Challenge blog. The challenge this month was to use purple, and the requirements were:
Technique:  use the colour wheel to create a specific colour arrangement ,(i.e.complementary. analogous, split complement etc.) one  that must include the colour purple.  Tell us a bit of how you decided which colours to use, and how the symbolism associated with the colour purple influenced your choice.
Here's a link: http://tinyurl.com/k3fbphn or go to www.fastfridayquilts.blogspot.com and scroll down to find the Challenge 93 label in the right panel. Here's a detail:

Thanks for looking!

My ‘300 Words’ Essay–Update

Almost two years ago, in July, 2012, I submitted an essay to Quilters’ Newsletter for their 300 Words About Quilting column. It was published in the February/March 2013 issue of the magazine, available here. At the time I wrote, I  had made 172 blocks, with 84 to go. Now I have just 27 to go, and all of them are prepared. I’ve also done an initial layout, but that will doubtless change. I’m really excited! I’ve posted the essay on my pages, at right, along with a picture of the finished blocks. I’m really excited! (Said that before? Too bad!)

I'm a guest blogger!

Check out my post on making a stencil-screen at http://purrfectspots.blogspot.com/2014/04/welcome-my-guest-blogger-lisa-reber.html. A detail is below. Thanks!

Budget pressing tool

A recent post by Jennifer Houlden here led me to post the following. Don't get me wrong - I love-love-love Clover tools. But if you don't have one, or are on a tight budget, here's an alternative:

I've sanded the pressing surfaces at left and right to make them extra smooth. Not an original idea - it came from a guild speaker. Thank you, whoever you were!