Friday, July 30, 2010

Dyed Dresses




I had two little girls over yesterday. One had a cute bright pink dress on it with a large blue stain in the front. Her mother commented that she would not be able to wear it to school in the fall. So I offered to dye it for her. Upon hearing this the other little girl, who was wearing a gorgeous yellow dress, asked if hers could be dyed as well. The mother grudgingly consented and here are the results.

I chose a purple dye bath, as I knew I needed something dark to cover up the stain on the pink dress, yet wanted to have a nice contrast with the yellow dress too. I used elastics on both and scrunched them into a wide mouth vase to achieve the marbling effect. I am pleased with both and hope the little girls will be too.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Law of the Garbage Truck

I have 2 new pieces of felted cloth to show you, but haven't got a pic yet and I am enjoying a relaxing evening so it will have to wait till tomorrow. In the meantime I have a lovely little story to entertain you with.

My friend Linda H, whom I sat on the Canadian Quilting Association with as Regional Representatives a few years ago, posted this on her blog. She gave me permission to put it on mine. Enjoy!

The Law of the Garbage Truck

One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off to the airport. We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded, and missed the other car by mere inches! The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. I mean he was really friendly! So I asked " Why did you do that? That guy almost ruined your car and sent us both to the hospital!" This is when the taxi driver taught me what I now call "The Law of the Garbage Truck".
He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up they need a place to dump it, and sometimes they'll dump it on you,. Don't take it personally! Just smile, wave, wish them well and move on. Don't take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home or on the streets.
The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks take over their day. Life's too short to wake up in the morning with regrets. So - love the people who treat you right and pray for the ones who don't.

Monday, July 26, 2010

Shibori and Beyond




First let me welcome Angela as a new Follower. Great to have you join us!

I have been doing a bit of dyeing fabric in this great weather. It is fun, as they dry so fast outside, so you don't have long to wait to see the results.

One is an arashi shibori technique that I came across. This was my second attempt at this one. It consists of wrapping fabric around a pipe and scrunching it down. The first time I think I had too much fabric on my pipe and I used dye paint and it didn't penetrate all the way through.

This time, I still used a bit too much fabric on the pipe but soaked it in a dye bath and that worked better. I also threw in a piece of fabric all scrunched up at the bottom of the bath and it turned out terrific. I always have trouble getting the right colour to show up on the camera, but trust me when I say it is an intense hue.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Clay Beads


Here are the beads I promised. They are made from Sculpey III, a brand of polymer clay. I watched a couple of Youtube videos and decided to try it out.

The beads turned out better than I expected. I was trying to use colours that I didn't really care for, like the mauve. Now I wished I had used some of my favourite colours as I would wear the pendants. I do like the black and white ones.

I think I am going to try and coat them in some type of varnish/gloss/ gel to give them a bit of a shine. Does anyone know what will work on clay?

I didn't have any of the tools they called for, but I found an x-acto knife worked quite well for cutting. I only had an old cutting board to roll the clay out on, but see that I need something much smoother, so will look for some old plexiglass to work on.

Overall, I will use these on my art quilts and will probably end up making some funky bracelets and pendants for wear.

As always, please leave a comment.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

More Felting



First let me welcome stubbornishZACK to my blog. Thank you for joining and hope you enjoy the ride!

I have been continuing on my felting series and have 2 more to add. I am tossing about turning them into an article of clothing, quilted of course. But for now, I continue to work on each piece. I am currently embroidering an orange one.

Tonight I took a little break from felting and pulled out my new sculpey pack. I found a great tute on youtube on making beads and gave it a try. I will post those near the end of the week. I was pleasantly surprised how well it turned out.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Paper Necklace


I did it, a paper beaded necklace. This was #3 to try on my summer list of new things to do. It actually turned out pretty well. There are definitely things I would do differently next time. Like get the whole necklace made and then soak it in the varethane. It was a little difficult taking the beads off the wire to restring after it had the coating on it. I did try the fabric beads, and like the method where you fuse the back of them and just roll them then heat with an iron to set. It seemed to make them a lot neater.

I will use these on an art quilt, they definitely add a unique twist on embellishing.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Just For Me



This is what I got as a present for helping out a friend.... 'Stay Calm and Sew On'.

I think it is very good advice when trying to finish up a project for a deadline or on those days when things just don't go smoothly.

Thanks bead girl!

Saturday, July 10, 2010

More Feltwork



I seem to need a break from quilting, I think it's a summer thing. I find myself wanting to try new techniques.

Therefore I decided to explore all the things I want to try but don't.

I made a list of them:

1. polymer clay beads
2. felting
3. paper and fabric beads
4. using a bleach pen on my hand dyed fabric

This is what I am going to do this summer, give this list a whirl. I will see if I like them and can use them in my art quilts.

The last few posts, have been my experimentation with felting. I have included my 2 newest pieces here. I followed Janeville's tutorial to get started.

At the moment, Houston TX and I are not getting along.

I wonder why someone can hire a personal trainer to get into shape, but not hire a personal quilt consultant to get into shows?

Monday, July 5, 2010

Felted and Threadwork





I follow this fabulous blog by Laura Wasilowski and she posts embroidery stitches every Thursday. You can check out her blog here.

I decided to practice some of the stitches that I would like to use in my art quilts. I made these 2 pieces in the past week. You can see the previous post where it was just felted and now the threadwork is done on both.

It looks like I am starting my first series of felted pieces. My first series for that matter!

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Fiber Work


I have been following a few blogs and they have been doing some small handwork with felting and embroidery.

I don't have a felting machine, but do have a little hand felter. I had purchased a mixed bag of wool roving at a convention last year and have yarn on hand, so I gave it a go. This is my first piece.

I have another one done and am working on doing some heavy embroidery on both.