Fiber Junkies - Pt. 2

Last post it was Fiber Junkies and fabric painting. Back to the results from that meeting, we all had some great pieces of fabric.

 I had shown the beginnings of this piece in the last post; I wrapped it on PVC and sprayed with Createx air brush colors which are permanent on fabric. I then went back and brushed a little Lumiere textile paint on some of the "peaks" which added some sparkle.

 I unwrapped it and it probably was enough but I couldn't leave well enough alone....so....

while it was still pleated and unwrapped, I laid our favorite circle stencil over some of the areas and lightly sprayed with paint. A bit busy, but I like it.

 This was another piece that was very subtle and needed a pop;  I used a bit of the turquoise metallic Createx and added a tad bit of color in a few of the areas.

 And another very subtle piece. One of the stencils I really liked was a brick pattern which can create a nice background pattern. I used a fine mist of black to pop it.

 Our show and tell during lunch is always fun and inspiring. Kate and Denny took a class in creating a collage using paper. They provided a drawing or photo for inspiration, blew it up to around 14 x 17 and then working on a canvas board, re-created it in paper. Kate has a second home at Folly beach and derives much inspiration from this area. This piece was wonderful in person; the shading she created using tiny slivers of paper was time consuming and incredible, but it paid off. It's a beautiful piece of art.

 Val, our amazing artist member/friend created this fabric at a previous meeting, went back and stenciled trees on top.

 Gen is into journaling and working in paper. She's making many wonderful background pieces to collage on top.

 This one was my favorite of the Wright Brothers. Gen had recently read their biography and was very impressed with their love for family and their ingenuity - made this journal page all the more special.

 And another page from Gen.

 Mary recently did a series using wool she created through many processes. The piece on the far right  I've shown before and the middle one of cat tails. They're all wonderful and work well together.

 And another piece from Mary created from Indigo fabric she created at one of our Junkie meetings. She used leaves from her yard as stamps for the surface. The entire piece has seed stitching to give it texture.

 Denny created this wonderful shawl in our vat dye discharge class we all took in July.

 She then overdyed it in purples and fuchsias which was gorgeous. This picture doesn't do it justice. I loved what she did in our workshop but love this even more.

And another wonderful piece from Denny using vat dyes and overdyeing. Everything happens so fast, so much passing of things and oohing and ahhing, such wonderful fun.
Til next time...

Fiber Junkies - Painting Fabric

Always a fun day when us Fiber Junkies get together. We are always anxious to get started after our morning coffee. We are creatures of habit and although our tables, which Val so graciously sets up for us have never been designated, we always go to the same one. Today we are painting - paper or fabric!

 Here's Gen ready to go; today she was planning to work in paper to add to her journal.

 My favorite squirt bottle is the "I Can't Believe it's not Butter" ones. I love to recycle and these work so well with paint. A variety of paints were used after being thinned. I had a lot of the Createx air brush colors I have used for marbling and wanted to use some of them up. They thin well without losing the intensity of their pigment.

 Our drying rack and drop cloths - all set up on the driveway. It's a hot day today so drying should go quickly.

 Mary was off to a great start by resisting off areas using blue painters tape and spraying the fabric; she used short spurts so it was more mottled and not solid.

 Many of us resorted to the use of stencils which proved to be great fun and very successful. The before with the stencil on the left and the after on the right.

 Denny was using Vat dyes sensitive to light. She bundled this piece and painted the dye on - hard to tell the color until it started to develop in the sun.....

 which took literally seconds. It was fun to watch it happen so quickly.

 Denny unfolded it some more to let the underneath areas get some sun. The fun thing about this is you can go back and add more paint anytime and put in sun.

 Denny also painted this piece with vat dyes and added

 

this resist on top. The resist was an image printed on a transparency and the sun did develop the color through the clear areas of the transparency. I was surprised; I had done this before with light sensitive paints and transparencies and they didn't work, this was a nice surprise. I got caught up in the days happenings and never did a final picture but it turned out great.

 I was working with PVC , wrapping and spraying - results revealed later on.

 Every meeting seems to bring forth a favorite tool we all gravitate towards, this time it was a circle stencil that Gen had brought. We were practically waiting in line to get our hands on this. What a pretty effect it made by laying it down and spraying gently.

 The paint left on top of the stencil - more concentrated, was quickly flipped over and used as a stamp giving a positive and negative to the piece. This is a piece Mary is working on; she went back and added just a tad of black to make it pop.

 This is one of Gen's lovely papers.

 This was one of Kates and made using our other favorite stencil that Val provided.

 I had some dyed pieces that needed help. This started with circles and turquoise metallic Createx paint.

It seemed a little strong so I went over it with a brick like stencil and some cream colored paint to tone it down, more to follow and some beautiful show and tell during lunch.

A Gardening We Will Go

Well, we started off the season with a bang and always great fun deciding on what to plant each year.

We've used lots of perennials in the past as ultimately they are easier but have switched to annuals for color all summer long.

Our grass is still green and not crunchy brown as it is now.

Lots of day lilies...

and yard art - thanks to my son who loves designing gardens.

And around to the back, we have some pretty gardens...

doing well when first planted.

And around our bird feeder, some really unique looking - Zoey Zinnias.

Our pride and joy - an asiatic lily hybrid - gorgeous!

Our veggie garden was huge this year as John added 3 more raised beds making a total of 9 - what to do with all this food that comes in at the same time.

Raised beds are the way to go with such great soil; everything becomes monstrous in size - almost like mutants, BUT THEN.... the word got out and in came the....

BUNNIES...that grew very quickly

AND DEER.

The Simmons "ALL YOU CAN EAT BUFFET" was open for business, whether we liked it or not There went our beets and some other crops. Our tomatoes did wonderful for the first couple of weeks and the the "late blight" hit hard killing all the plants...SIGH...my favorite part of the garden. These were among the few tomatos we got...

So I am so looking forward to the fall, getting out of this heat and brown crunchy grass and bad tomatos. Sept 1 marks the time for me. I know it's not truly fall yet, but in my mind, I start thinking that way - putting out decorations and

getting ready for lots of fires. I'm counting the days.
Tomorrow is Fiber Junkies with my tons of fun friends who love to play together and get messy and messy we intend to get - will keep you posted.

Nutmeg Forest

Well, what to do with all my deconstructive screen printed fabric...so interesting but so busy. It's hard to use pieces together.

I've had this nutmeg colored fabric, created with "nutmeg" mx dye and bronze which work well together.  I often struggle with this part but after fiddling around for a while, I did put this combination together.

The bronze fabric was done using mushrooms, gathered on a morning walk and placed underneath a blank screen and squeegeed with thickened dye. Once dry, the dye was released with print paste mix and printed on fabric. It's a favorite technique of mine because of the element of surprise, but also it's often so busy.

The bottom half of the piece uses a lot of nutmeg and bronze colored dyes. Some of the imagery was created by using discharge paste through a screen with writing (left) -  actually a page from my mother's autograph book from the 1930s and a metal coiled ring used for cleaning brushes.

It really did need more of a focal point so a quick and easy screen I often use is one of a tree. I use my own photography to make the screen. This tree you'll probably recognize as it's been used so often but I love the shape of it and the versatility - you can having it coming in from the right or left side depending on how you flip it. Making a screen with a thermofax, the screen itself is bound with duct tape and flat. I store them in manilla folders. They are easy to flip and use either side to give you a mirror image effect. I also go back and highlight trees with paint to give the branches more "roundness" and dimension.

And the finished piece - "Nutmeg Forest". Still have a pile more of this fabric but I'm making a dent!

What's Pink, Purple and Sparkly all Over?

I've been busy doing non-quilting type projects but working with fabric none the less. My

granddaughter turned 3 yesterday and her celebration is this weekend. I've been making some things for her, one of which is a princess dress. She loves pink and purple and of course sparkles. The fabric is the slippery, hard to work with kind of fabric I don't enjoy, but colors she loves.

 So here is the net, the sparkly and faux satin...

 and the pattern, lower right. It's adorable. I took her measurements and made this without any fittings so I hope it works.

The finished sparkly dress heading off to Atlanta tomorrow for the big celebration. I can't wait to see my big girl - great fun! Have a wonderful weekend.
Til next time...