Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Fiber Junkies

I'm part of a small fiber group - Fiber Junkies. Our meetings always include a lesson/demo/hands-on type of thing, sharing of work, and input from each other. It's a wonderfully productive and talented group. The "show and tell" is always inspiring. Mary S did this wonderful piece for her son and his wife. She used mostly batiks and a touch of red - love that red!
Mary also shared her latest beaded piece - amazing in person! And how lucky for us that this was our lesson for the meeting.
Mary stitched circles with her eyelet stitch to give some subtle texture to the background. Each set of threads were pulled to the back (hundreds) and tied off - a tedious job but it adds so much to the piece.
Carol S always has so much to share. She made this journal using a technique from the book - Alabama Studio Style. It's a very interesting and spontaneous look.

I perused the book very quickly and looks like it has lots of good information and visuals.
Carol also showed us another journal she made incorporating rusted fabrics - doilies, cottons, silks together for an antique look.

The insides are wonderful to see, things I wouldn't think of to use, such as old papers, receipts and calendars. Carol finds many of these treasures at antique stores. You can write in some of the blank areas or put a small piece of paper on the page to write on.
I love this next page - a trip back in time. I have tons of old magazines I've picked up at antique stores for the purpose of printing them on fabric - to then be cut apart and pieced together. Here's another great use for them.
Carol also showed us birds she painted. She mentioned that by incorporating a little bit of the background color into the bird (or vice versa) gives the finished piece a more cohesive look - good tip!
And more birds she painted
which she then scanned and printed on fabric.


Patsy brought one of her beautiful pieces - love the combination of colors. Patsy dyes all her fabric and her machine quilting is to die for!
Here's a detail of the quilting and beads Patsy added.
And of course, saving the best for last - our lesson for the day, beading. Mary taught us the basics and I was amazed how much there is to learn. It's not just a case of threading a needle and sewing on a bead. There's so much to consider like thread, needle, knot, type of bead - my mind was reeling. This was our basic sampler, but we hope to add more down the road. Mary is a wonderful, thorough and very organized teacher!
What a great day!

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