"I Went to Mood"

I am a big fan of Project Runway. Since day 1, guess my desire to be in the fashion world at an early age has stayed with me. I'm also from New York so the fabric store Mood, featured on Project Runway and located in the garment district in NY was a must see for me on a recent trip there.

 Well, this was my idea of Heaven. I have been in larger fabric stores but this was like none I've ever seen...SO MUCH FABRIC....EVERYWHERE.

 There are 3 floors including a home decor floor.

 Several large button walls....

 along with trims and laces.

 I was dizzy with happiness and impossible to wipe the smile off my face. My husband was the "husband of the year"being extremely patient as I walked down the aisles, touching the rolls and him taking lots of pictures for me.

 So if you're familiar with the show, designers are given a short time to sketch and come up with an idea.

 Then it's on to Mood for fabric. They are usually given a budget and around 30 mins to shop.

 Seriously  ?!!...30 mins...!

 There was so much fabric all on rolls and piled on top of each other. It was hard to see everything that was available.

 I thought I might bring back some quilting fabric and they did have cotton, but on rolls and geared more towards clothing.

 They also had leather pelts, fake fur...etc.

 and a classroom where they offer classes free if you buy fabric there.

And of course the famous dog Swatch who hangs out in the store all day long and is as sweet as can be. I did buy some dress goods as I still enjoy making clothing at times and I love woolens so woolens it was - not that unique I must say... but to me they were spectacular because I went to Mood!
As the designers would say..."Thank you Mood"

Fiber Junkies Nov, 2016 (Queen for a Day)

Fiber Junkies met at my home yesterday and what fun it was. John (hubby) bumped into Gen on the way out wearing the same vest so had to get a picture.

 With only 6 members, it's easy to become a close knit group. We started a while back to celebrate important mlestone birthdays. Mary's was last April but due to family issues with 2 of our members, it had to be postponed. We also choose a theme that's meaningful to the birthday girl.

 Mary is our wonderful beader and we had great fun coming up with beading ideas. Mary emailed us to tell us she would be late - the day of....soooo We were so happy as we could then set up our surprise and have it ready when she arrived. We usually sneak off into the kitchen and do it bit by bit hoping not to be caught. The table was set with a natural colored silk noil fabric to go home with Mary for dyeing, napkins with beaded rings, a cake with beaded edge trim and beads on the table.

When she walked in, she received her crown, sceptor and beautiful scarf with"bead queen on board"

 Next, into the studio to make use of all the wonderful tools Denny brought for her Acouquilt and many die cuts. Actually she had a suitcase full ....so a huge thanks to Denny for her generous and sharing spirit.

 It was very exciting and so fast and easy to do. We were all able to do many, many cuts.

For applique shapes, it's best to put a fusing on the back. With the Acouquilt, you can layer up to 8 fabrics including the fusing, lay them on the die, cover them with a thin plastic board and run through the machine.

 and voila!

 We all kind of staked out places to work...oops...what is that wine glass doing there?

 Onto to lunch.

 Next, into the family room for some show and tell. Mary has been making some darling fabric/felted bowls. The fabric has been further embellished with many surface design techniques we worked on at earlier FJ meetings.

 This is one of Gen's pieces from the last meeting when we did transfer dyes - really came out nice and colorful.

 Denny showed us an Ohio Star she recently finished and I think one of the prettiest I've ever seen. I love her choice and arrangement of fabrics, makes me think I might want to do one.

 Here is another one of Denny's memory quilts made of T-shirts from her husband. What makes this so appealing is that each block was bordered with a patchwork of fabrics adding so much more color and interest to the piece.

 Here is one of Val's luscious scarves she made in an eco-printing class she recently took.

and screened with "bead queen on board".
What a day! and what a group!....love them all!

SAFF - Southeast Animal Fiber Fair

The Southeast Animal Fiber Fair makes its way to Asheville every fall where they take over the buildings in the Ag center which are huge. You know you are in for a day of wonderful things to see, feel and buy. 

 If you are a knitter or a weaver, even better as most everything deals with rovings and yarn.

 I don't do either although I've always had a secret desire to knit, well.... I can knit a little and know how to make a simple scarf but that's the extent of it. I still love the hustle and bustle of these kind of events....

 and all the color, color everywhere...

 and the piles of curly rovings.

 This vendor was here last year and does the most magnificent Santas, this one is life size!

 Shelves of floss, yarn and every kind of fiber you can think of...

 and buckets where you can just reach in and touch - sooo soft.

 And speaking of soft, this sweet little French angora rabbit was at the fair for everyone to see and pet. He seemed to be quite calm with all the attention he was getting. I've always loved fur. My mother told me once, when I was a little girl - every Christmas I would get a new fur animal and I would have the fur worn off by the next Christmas...

Well, I couldn't bring that sweet little bunny home so I did the next best thing, brought home the most adorable teddy for my granddaughter; this little teddy is made of baby alpaca. You can't imagine how soft it is. I can only hope it makes it to my little Audrey  ( - :

Disperse Dyes for Dyeing and Printing - Pt. 2

Fiber Junkies met in Oct at Gen's house to continue to work on the technique of dyeing and printing with disperse dyes.  The first meeting was to prepare/paint the papers, the second meeting do the transfer. 

 You can see how easy it is - lay the painted paper face down, iron with high heat. Even if you fabric is not real heat tolerant, you do have the paper in between to serve as a buffer.

Whatever was painted on the paper appears on the fabric. 

Mary also tried blended wool (upper left) worked well

Here is one of Denny's masks on left and how she uses it on right. Denny is great at layering and layering. It's kind of addictive once you start. You can keep adding more and more color or patterning without changing the hand of the fabric.

I loved working with sheers, the upper right started with a background, a butterfly was added and then a tree on top of that (on right). The imagery and color is more subtle so it's hard to over do something.

 And a sheer.

 Some wonderful samples of our days accomplishments.

 Kate brought some curtain samples from a decorators book. They were fun to work with as they has the cardboard border all around giving them stability.

 Here's Gen modeling the last fashion in hat wear.

Gen showed us a neat tool for machine quilting - on left you can barely see it as it's clear. It has a slit going down through the middle which is where you sew and can move it in an direction so the line is continuous. You need a special foot to use this tool. Gen is sewing on her right, loves this tool especially good for those of us who can't sew a straight line.  Well I'm in!!

 And Denny's happy and latest quilt she showed us during lunch. It's sewn with long strips and appliqued flowers on top.

 Mary's latest piece is exquisite, created with old linens and lace and a theme of "silver dollars" as I've always called them - also a money plant.

Such a happy day.