Let the Games Begin (9th Annual PTA Retreat)

Wow. - this is the 9th year of our PTA retreat, it doesn't seem possible - something our PTA-er Mary started 9 years ago. When she first mentioned it to us, we were a little skeptical not knowing the whys and wherefores, but we warmed to the idea very quickly.  Now here we are 9 years later marking this as one of our favorite times each year. WE DO HAVE FUN!

Those of you familiar with my blog know we use a community room during the day for sewing, talking, laughing and eating (of course). Heaven forbid we go too long without food.  This is our community table of food. We have a separate food table for the house we stay in.

First morning, it's lots of hellos and hugs like we haven't seen each other in years when in fact it was only last week. We carve out our spot and pull out all our fabric, projects etc. for the next 3 days.

Mary acquired this wonderful drying rack from Georgia which she uses when working with strips of fabric - how clever and HOW ORGANIZED!

Lots of new projects started as well as some being finished up, even some from last years retreat.

Our "resident piecer" - Kate who is not only good but fast, started this the first day....

and voila! finished by the end of the day and more to come.

This is a piece that Georgia was finishing up very bright and tropical.

Linda has taken to knitting like a bear to honey. She claims all she has to bring to retreat is a ball of yarn and a change of clothes. She definitely wins the prize for having the least amount of stuff, but her socks are yummy...this was my favorite with the lime green accent.

Leigh Anne and Janice were working on the same pattern which I loved. The blocks were all assembled first and laid down spontaneously...no special order. The colors in this piece were lovely. I also loved the one Janice was working on but the picture was blurred unfortunately.

Dort has been working on family "mottos" for all the different members of her family. This is her family who came from Washington so the backdrop is perfect. Dort is so talented...will sit there and sketch and before you know it, it's cut out of fabric and down on the drawing board. The picture depicts Dort and her siblings growing up.

Barbara is working on several projects - this one is crazy churndash. I loved the "wonki-ness" of this block and Barbara gave us a quick demo on how to do it.

Marine who was a guest at our retreat finished up this lovely piece - all points perfect.

This is Mary's piece still in the works, it's going to be BIG. It will go on a big, high wall in her home. She's trying to decide whether to add red or not.

This is another of Georgias in the finishing up stage...

and as I promised Kates second piece...."second day...second piece" and yes there was a third day piece also. I love this one - very fresh and happy which is very typical of Kate's quilts.

And our crazy, wonderful group taking a break. Til next time.

Acid Dyeing on Silk

I love acid dyeing which only works on silk but gives the most brilliant color. It requires the use of an acid instead of soda ash which is the fixative when using a procion mx dye. You can use white vinegar or citric acid crystals. The silk needs to be boiled or heavily steamed - no batching. The dye completely exhausts itself leaving the water clear at the end of the process and no dye run off when rinsing either. In order to get the multicolored look, you have to steam it, applying several colors first and then placing the silk in a studio designated steamer. The drawback to this is often the steam from a rice steamer is not hot enough to get good color. I then switched to boiling the silk using a hotplate in my studio but then limiting myself to one color.

The scarf on the left was first scrunched inside a stocking and boiled. The parts of the scarf exposed to the stocking or outside had the deepest color. I still wasn't happy. I then came upon the idea to use multi colors on the scarf and use steam but a "hotter" steam like from a big pot of boiling water. The scarf on the right was done in this manner - so much better.

So I was off and running with this new approach and liking the results. This is a bright red and fuchsia with a touch of orange.

I love this next color combo of purple and hot pink and deep purple.

This might be my favorite as it's more subtle. It's lilac and charcoal and the 2 colors melting together really did well. I often make samples along with my scarves so I can remember for the next time what was successful and what was not.

Sometimes some colors don't have enough pizazz and need a little help. The scarf on the right was dyed using 2 different colors in the same color way. Although pretty, maybe not too exciting. I overdyed it by scrunching it inside a stocking and placing it in a boiling dye bath for a short time. I scrunched it very tight so only the tips of the silk touching the stocking would get additional color - I like the effect it produced. (on left)

Now here are all my babies waiting for the next step of color lifting and screening.

The stamping is a little tedious and not much fun - both for the discharging and adding color part...so I thought, why can't I make these images into a silk screen - much more fun to do.

I made images and copied them using a laser copier so I could make them into a silk screen.

So much better.

First I used sodium alginate to thicken some discharge paste and screened it through a silk screen, let it dry and ironed it to discharge the color. I love the way the discharge image is multi-colored depending on what part of the scarf you are doing.

Using the same screen (cleaned) I did another image using Lumiere textile paint which is quite thick and screens well. I also included some new images of pine needles and other leaves, so I'm a happy camper and time to deliver them to the Folk Art Center. 

Painted Irises

I've been working on pieces for the upcoming exhibit at the NC Arboretum. Some of the work originated as samples for various workshops I've taught. One such workshop was silk painting which I taught for years at the Spruill Center for the Arts in Atlanta, GA. It was a basic, entry level of silk painting where students learned both the watercolor wash technique as well as using a resist.

The watercolor technique uses a wash of paint applied to the surface. Silk paint is very watery and knows no boundaries. Sprinkling salt on the surface while it is still wet creates a beautiful effect. The salt will pull the paint towards itself creating "traveling" lines. Using different size salt grains also affects the results. Table salt which has a fine granule, creates a more narrow line; kosher or sea salt which has larger granules will create the effect you see above.

The darker dots indicate where the salt was and the paint accumulated in that area. I love this technique as it creates such an interesting but not overwhelming background.

Several colors were used to create the background making it more interesting. The silk paint was watered down to make it more subtle.

Next came the painting of the design. Since the paint is so loose, you have to use a "resist" which creates a barrier and keeps the paint within the lines of the design. The design was lightly traced onto the silk. A water soluble silk paint resist was applied to all the lines. I used a little squirt bottle to create a thin line. After it dried, it was time to apply the paint. Silk paint can be a strange animal and tricky to use. You have to work with it quickly as it dries fast creating hard edges. This makes it difficult to blend with another color .

The piece was layered and quilted with a rayon decorative thread in a fairly simple design. The piece was mounted onto stretcher bars which is a favorite method for me as it looks very polished.

The back was also finished to cover all the staples etc. used to pull the piece to the back. I used picture frame wire and eye hooks for hanging.

And the finished piece  - "Painted Irises" which will work well for the arboretum as they really like nature themed pieces. 

Handy Hubby

 My husband John has been a woodworker for many, many years. I remember the first thing he made for our first apartment - a set of bookcases out of plywood. I thought they were the cat's meow. Now when I look back...not so much but it was the beginning of his love affair with wood.  He has made much of the furniture in our home and seems to have a never-ending list of projects. His next is a new dining room table for our daughter for her big "40" birthday - wow, am I that old to have a daughter turning 40!!

Well, I have a new Bernina much bigger than others I've had; the tables he made for them don't fit this big baby, so I placed my order for another one. John loves to work in hardwoods. This was suppose to be a quick and easy, strictly functional piece. He chose Hard (sugar) Maple which is very hard and has a beautiful grain. 

 He designs it so the table drops down to allow the machine to set into it and be flush with the top of the table. It's a great design idea and so gentle on the shoulders; I'm at a perfect angle.

The grain is so interesting. He purposely used this beautiful piece in a very obvious place on the table.

It's a wonderful setup and is flush against another table giving me more room when working on a larger piece. I must say I'm lucky to have this great new table and even luckier to have such a sweet hubby to make these things for me. Thanks John!

Solitude

I have been busy creating pieces for an upcoming exhibit I'm doing with 2 friends at the NC Arboretum. Kate, Mary and I have done an exhibit there before; they give us the entire second floor to fill with our work. It's great fun and a wonderful opportunity to show and sell our work. The arboretum being nature orientated prefer that we exhibit things nature related - easy for the 3 of us as we all have done many pieces around that theme. I've been making some smaller pieces in a 9 x 12 size and using a pre-stretched canvas as a mounting board.

 My inspiration for the piece was a photograph featuring beautiful skies and sheer leaves in front. I always use my own photographs when printing on fabric...making it more personal and also to avoid any copyright issues. I took the above photograph on one of my travels. I needed to make it into a portrait orientation. I also knew that printing this photo would give me an 8 1/2 x 11 size which would be way too small.

 I needed to cut the photo in half after putting it in photoshop and making it a vertical orientation by unchecking the "constrain proportions" box allowing me to adjust the sides to any size. With some photos, doing this can distort the image but with nature, it usually works just fine.

 I was able to print each half of the photo into 8 1/2 by 11 prints, making it large enough to mount onto an 9 x 12 canvas and wrap around to the back.

The 2 halves were joined together by fusing a small strip of fusible web (around 1 ") along the top edge of the bottom photo, laying it over the top photo and fuse into place. It would be very obvious if you did a straight cut and then fused. It's better to cut along an uneven edge - in this case, the tree and building silhouette. Up close, you cannot see where the 2 pieces were joined which was my goal.

Next came the leaves to use as overlays. I had several options and made samples to see what created the most pleasing effect. I was working with organza which is very sheer with lots of body. The first sample was a silkscreen with a dark gray/black paint. It was way too heavy.

I 

I loved the leaf and screened it on paper and then removed a lot of the dark areas using white out. From that new print, I was able to make another silkscreen which has a lighter look. After screening this onto organza, they were cut out. I liked the new look but thought they still might be too heavy.

 Throughout the process, I used a padded surface. Since organza is so sheer, much of the paint seeps through to the padding to create some really great images and fabric.

 My next option was to print these leaves onto organza using an inkjet printer. Inkjet images are much softer than a silkscreen which uses paint.

 I think I like this look better. The images were cut out and the edges burned with a wood burning tool giving a nice look to the edge which is obvious in the finished piece.

A branch was machine embroidered onto the surface. The leaves were attached using a monofilament thread stitching down the vein lines. I look at this piece and the first thing that comes to mind is a quiet, peaceful place hence the name  ...."Solitude".

"Snowin and Sewin"

I don't imagine anyone needs a reminder of the big storm - a crazy amount of snow and wind but a perfect time to hunker down and do some sewing as long as there was power.......AND power there was, so all was good.

 I do like snow and to have 1 or 2 snowfalls a season is just fine. It is so pretty and as long as you don't have to go anywhere, it works for me.

 We have some nice size hills, the kids were out sledding and I watched from inside. We gave our new kitten (13 pounds) a taste of his first snow and he wasn't quite sure what to make of it.

 The sky was beautiful that night, meanwhile back in the studio I decided I needed a no brainer - to sew for the sake of just sewing. I've been anxious to use up scraps and thought I would put together this little scrappy quilt.

 I started to see a pattern of this Kokopelli running through the quilt. By the way, I could not for the life of me remember his name so I googled "little man with arched back playing the flute" and up popped Kokopelli - you can find most anything on the internet.

I also started to see the gold was really needed to pop and the dark brown batik really made the gold work more effectively so scraps were replaced and rearranged.

So it has some sashing and borders and now it just needs to be quilted. It's a fairly small piece so it should go fast. I think I'll call it either "Snowed In" or "Kokopelli's Maze"....think Snowed In will always remind me of this huge snow storm.......Til next time.