Thanks for the surprise Karren

Decided to try discharge on turquoise Procion MX. Got this piece dyed yesterday and today I folded it and stitched circles in it following the directions in Karren Brito's Shibori book. Then I immersed it in 50% bleach solution - the bathroom exhaust fan and Darth Vader mask in use. Left it in a relatively long time - probably 10 minutes. Anyway, there was a general lightening, I think, but where the cotton quilting thread was left the bleach soaked in a lot. So, even though this looks like white fabric that was stitched and then dyed, it was largely turquoise that was bleached. Very fine detail - the circles are 4" if I remember the template size correctly.

Now I just have to figure out what next. With the detail, I suspect beads will figure into it, or the next one, somehow.

Snow hanging from the rafters

Wow - close to a month since my last post. Lots of good excuses - you know the story. So anyway, after the Christmas last minute projects were done, I got started on a piece of art cloth which I have entered in the 'Never Static' show. The juror is Jane Dunnewold -- nothing like aiming high from the start.

At left is a picture of the cloth in progress. I think it's attractive; anyway I like it a lot more than a lot of the art quilts I see. It isn't going to challenge anyone, I suspect, but I like it. I feel rather like I should apologize for it, but I'm not gonna.

There's a lot I've learned already in working on it -- especially the importance of keeping the stencil clean, and marking the front of the fabric at the start. I discharged several of the snowflakes before stencilling on paint, and because the fabric was wet, I couldn't tell which side was up. Naturally, the back has several discharge snowflakes on it.

The next thing I learned was about curing paint properly. Yes, it was pressed, just not long enough. So when I gave it another neutralizing rinse for the bleach, you know what happened.

The next picture shows it hanging from the rafters preparatory to taking pictures for the juried show. Some brilliant person on the Complex Cloth forum suggested using grey felt for the print table so it could be used as a photo backdrop as well. That works great! Just need a better camera sometime . . .

One good thing I tried on this cloth is the use of gel medium. The white snowflakes are a very small amount of white Jacquard paint mixed with about six times as much medium. I haven't yet tried just white paint alone, but the mixture has a lot more density than the other paints do, both in terms of value and thickness / texture. It also globbed off on adjacent fabric the most because of not being cured properly. I probably won't re-make the whole piece, but it has crossed my mind.

Enough for now - gotta find pleater needles to replace all the ones I broke. That piece of cloth has been pleated and dyed three times so far, and I probably have eight hours into it to date. Picture another time.

Pleater - neat & neater

Sorry, just felt the need to rhyme. Anyhow, it's amazing how much better the pleater works at 5 PM than 10 PM. Got the first scrap test done, and it is awesome. Heather might never get it back! (Thanks so much for the loan!) I do have it until the end of January - maybe I'll have money and she'll want to sell it then?

Enough for now - gotta go pleat something!

Progress, I hope

Well, it’s now been two weeks since posting here. At least I have some dyed goods to show off. I also made some bead necklaces that my sister bought, but no pics of those.

The textiles include dyed broadcloth, cheesecloth (first picture) and muslin, painted sheers plus some green cheesecloth that is in the midst of an appliqué block under construction. The orange and blue (third picture) is for the commission – I hope they like it! The other items are for sale – I planned to deliver them to the appliqué classes at Ladyfingers on the 9th & 10th, but the weather and other problems interfered. I was also going to get alum in bulk to try marbling, since I found I have good fabric paints, but that shop (Echo Hill Country Store) was completely parked up on Saturday. The first experiments will end up with grocery store stuff.

Picked up more sheers to paint today – JoAnn has them half off this week! Just standard white and ivory fabric, not sparkly stuff like the blue. The detail (second picture) shows a couple starfish – they were printed with a Goyutaku rubber mold from Dick Blick – neat stuff, and not stinky like the not-so-recently dead creatures would be. When I got it, it had been handles so much that it was grey - they're very tactile objects. Some dish soap and spray cleaner took care of the hand prints, and gave it surface tension again.

The green cheesecloth and detail is in the appliqué block – the reverse shows the all-over stitching I used to tack it down. If you try this at home, use a rubber eraser to manipulate the cheesecloth, and also do prepared edge appliqué on top, *not* needle-turn. I also made up a sample using machine stitching to hold down the cheesecloth, which will probably get used for foliage. Both work.

On the job front, had two offers I turned down - they both wanted someone for less money than I'd like (until I'm desperate) as well as starting tomorrow, which is tough when it's two weeks before Christmas. Plus I have an interview for a 'real' job Wednesday afternoon, and I DON'T want to mess that up!

Here's the cheesecloth in the appliqué under construction. The left picture shows the back side, and the right picture shows the front in detail.

Well, that’s it for tonight, but better than nothing! Let me know what you think – thanks!

Oops - it's been a little while, or happy domesticity

Well, there are a few things in the works.

On the job front - sent resumes out today on 5 jobs, and still waiting to hear about 2 with agencies. These I first heard about on the 18th, but either they are filled, or last week was a complete waste as far as the agencies go. I'm guessing & hoping the latter. Have another one to send to at my alma mater, Muhlenberg College. I'm not really a poster child for them, but maybe they'll interview me anyway.

Sewing-wise - the local babylock dealer came up with an owner's manual for my old machine and made me a copy. Huzzah! Sandy said she can pick it up for me - Thanks!

Blog-wise - Well, I'm here anyhow. Got a look at Melanie Testa's blog and website today - click the link at right for a look. Neat stuff, and a nice lady.

Quilting-wise - Have our little group Thursday, so there's a deadline. Will photograph when the machine quilting is done. Outside chance tonight, though it will be better if bound.

DippyDyes-wise (ooh! a rhyme!) - Did decent sales in the shops for November, including the two yards in the picture with Dudley below, but largely by going to Jane Townswick's class and pushing it. She gave me her upcoming schedule, so she doesn't seem to mind. She's getting the work to date on the new designs out to Martingale, the publisher and they'll let her know if they want a book proposal. Jane has been unable to hand stitch for 11 months - I'd go nuts! She's teaching at Applique by the Bay the end of this week, and at the Elly Sienkiewicz Applique Academy in February. And I'm going! Click here for her teacher bio on the ESAA page. She's interested in some hand-dyes for the background for her next quilt, so I'll be making up samples. My best customer!

Happy domesticity: besides applying for jobs, I made pumpkin bread and muffins (cupcakes, really), did two loads of wash, got all the non-dyeing ironing caught up and probably other important stuff that has slipped my mind. Still have a couple missions, then off to machine quilt.

Guess that does it for tonight. Thanks for visiting.

A busy week

On the job front - had a good interview that went nowhere. Got a call from the former employer - rather peculiar but as I said when asked "How are you doing?" "Calmer, which is good; unemployed, which isn't." Calm. Dyeing helps! Selling dyed goods also helped.

Have gotten lots done on the studio and am finally moving in! Now where am I going to keep all the stuff? The first two pictures show the two sides of the space after mopping the floor, the last picture shows the return of the fabric bins.

Guess it wasn't the right job

Well, turns out that the temp job I went to today was "filled from within" when I got there. Guess it was the wrong job or the wrong time. It did free me to apply to another 3 places, though.

Tomorrow will be household chores then more dyeing! Here's a couple things I've been doing lately, draped over the supplies waiting to go to the studio. All cotton - the right hand one is Hoffmann black batik stitch resisted and discharged. Plus the Dudley Budley in the foreground. He's 5 1/2 and getting grey! Dinner's done - thanks for looking!