My Mothers' Name was Alice

My mothers' name was Alice. Thinking of her reminds me of a wonderful movie from years ago; It's still on TV sometimes around Mother's Day - "I Remember Mama" - about a Swedish family who had migrated to the US and  living in New York in the 1930s. The story is simple, everyday life involving 3 children, parents, aunts and uncles, but the message it sends is heartwarming. The mother and main character played by Irene Dunne has incredible emotional strength and "moxie" - the kind of mom many haved wished for or have been lucky enough to have. I fit into the latter.  

 My mom was a single parent and I was an only child so we leaned on each other a lot. It was 24 years ago today that my mom passed away from breast cancer. She was 71 and left us too soon. She gave me with a lifetime of wonderful memories and I miss her still. I think of all the things I would say if I could have her back for just one day.

 She loved, loved to sew and started on her sewing journey at a very young age. It continued throughout her life. One of my fondest memories was sitting next to her, watching her use the machine and wishing I could be sitting there. The spark for my love of sewing had begun.

 Although there was nothing she couldn't make, to my knowledge this yoyo quilt is the only quilt she ever made.  She started it when she was 10, don't know when it was finished.

 I pulled it out the other day thinking I need to mend this and then keep it out. How lucky I am to have this.

 There is some deterioration of some of the yoyos and I know I can take the yellow yoyos from the border to replace the worn ones here and there. But that would mess up the border; I've never attempted anything like this and don't know if one adds a new vintage looking fabric or works with what is there. I guess it's a matter of personal choice but right now I don't have a clue.

 My mom gave me a love for so many things but my love of sewing has brought me so much joy and opportunities over my lifetime, for that I'm forever grateful.

My mothers' name was Alice - a beautiful lady both inside and out. Thank you for everything.

Silly Things

I use a lot of deconstructive screenprinted fabric and love the process. If you're unfamiliar with the technique, it goes something like this. You place thin objects, under 1/4" thick under a blank silk screen. You squeegee a thickened dye over the screen which takes on the outline of the different shapes underneath. After the dye dries, you use a clear print paste and squeegee over the top, loosening the dye which is released to a piece of soda ash treated fabric underneath. The most interesting fabric happens and you never know what you'll get (like in a box of chocolates!).

A local craft store had all their Halloween decorations reduced way down I thought...why not, they're less then 1/4" thick, made of soft foam so they should hold up to water. What a fun image to use in deconstructive screen printing. So I went home with some spider webs (Denny would be proud)

a 3-D haunted house which comes apart ...

to give me 2 houses...

and a 3-D tree which also comes apart.

I can't wait until we do deconstructive screen printing again. I think these will make some interesting prints. We usually do this in warmer weather so the screen will dry quickly, so it will be a while. I have plenty to keep me busy until then.

Llamas and Bunnies and Bears....Oh My

The Southeast Animal Fiber Fair took place this past weekend at the Ag Center in Asheville, NC. It is a huge facility with many buildings all of which I was told, used by this group. We recently had our Asheville Quilt Guild quilt show here. It's a perfect venue for this type of show with lots of room to stand back and take it all in. 

I attended this fair several years back and the thing that struck me the most was the incredible amount of color - everywhere!

This was a sock yarn wall. I would love socks in any of the colors here......well almost.

So many of the yarns were braided and variegated.

It was a heaven for anyone who knits, felts or works with rovings, yarn, pelts etc., it was hard to take it all in.

The displays were very unique...

and colorful.

Well of course I loved these little animals, quite expensive as they were all hand made and often used wonderful fleece like alpaca - so soft. At first I thought of my granddaughter, but these are for collectors.

An artist who made Santas with hand carved faces really caught my eye. The beards were made from  Alpaca fleece. Not only were they beautiful but many were life-size.

I'm always drawn to the animals and this French angora rabbit was getting pets from everyone.

My favorite (and kept in another tent) were the Alpacas.

They were very sweet and some had the longest eyelashes. Follow the red arrow - those wisps on his/her face are eyelashes!

They were very approachable and interesting to hear about the farms they lived on.

The Llamas were not as friendly - a little larger and not at all approachable.
It was a fun day, almost makes me want to take up knitting but I know I have not ONE OUNCE of talent for it, so I will stick with fabric. There was a vendor who was selling flat folds of woolens so I did get some tartan plaid yardage and some wonderful hand made soap. I came home a happy camper.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween - hope it's lots of fun. I've always loved Halloween but here in this subdivision, we never get any little trick or treaters - not in 9 years which is a disappointment for me. Our subdivision is small with large lots, well no fun in that for the kids. It's too far to go between houses for candy. In my old neighborhood, the houses were close to each other and we got 150 little trick or treaters every year. Living next door to an executive for Mars Candy helped a lot. The Terrys dropped 15 - 20 candybars in each childs' bag.

 BUT we still we decorate - buy the pumpkins..

 and the beautiful mums...

 and interesting gourds...

 and our favorite candy so we can eat the leftovers...

and read our favorite Halloween book which was my daughter's favorite and over 37 years old.
We will turn on the outside lights and have the bowl of candy ready!  We will order pizza, turn on a scary movie and wait for the doorbell to ring....and finally....after a long time....give in to the fact that once again, we'll be having LOTS of candy for dessert! Hope your Halloween is wonderful, safe and full of little trick or treaters!

Fiber Junkies - Do What You Want

We met on Monday at Vals for our last outdoor meeting of the season. It was a cold and rainy day but lots of great things happening in Vals garage. We planned to do fugitive materials, something we've done before, but it turned into a do what you want which usually translates as "saving an ugly piece of fabric". I brought a bunch of new stencils and masks I wanted to try. If you've ever purchased on Amazon, you click on "put in shopping cart" and then along the bottom comes this message - "If you like this, you might also like this'...Wellllll heck, you know I will.... soooo... in goes something else until it's out of control, which mine was. Solution - split the order in 2, spread them out - end of guilt!

This was one of the masks which was used over a piece of fabric I liked....

and it turned out fine. I may go back with paint sticks and do some shading.

This was a deconstructive piece - over sprayed with paint using sequin waste. It's still very busy but I like the added color, now what to do with it.

I loved this piece of wool Mary had already screened with circles, made with looseleaf paper reinforcements - remember those? She then went back and did some screening using letters from a stencil Gen had brought.

This was an old rusted piece that used a very subtle stencil of random dots. It didn't need that much so the stencil was a good fit for this.

This was one of Vals exquisite pieces. Val was making masks out of freezer paper that she could iron on and fill in the negative areas with paint sticks.

This was a stencil Kate was using over one of her "needs more" pieces.

and the results.

This piece I really like. Last month Kate used a silk screen and thickened dyes to create the boughs. She thought it needed more and added a gentle blending of gold from a paintstick; it was just what it needed.

Gen used a very interesting "crackle" pattern stencil on top of her already pretty fabric but the added patterning made it pop.

This felted piece from Mary and the ones below all came out really nice. - I see beading in their future.

Kate had a piece of circle fabric from the month before. She had a thought to do some Shibori on it and folded it - 3 sets of hands used - 2 sets to hold and 1 to paint the edges...

Nice - sometimes it does take a village.

Our Show and Tell was small but always inspiring. Gen had been working with Citra-Solve and  created some interesting effects with magazines.

This is Gen's clean up cloth from last time. It's amazing.

Mary brought a luscious new piece made with beads. She gave me the go ahead to show it even though it hasn't appeared on her blog yet but keep a watch as I'm sure she'll have lots of details.

That's all for now!

A New Piece - Ruins I

I've had a lot of company for the last 3 weeks - my daughter and granddaughter, followed by friends from Seattle and last but not least - my sister in law and her hubby. It was great fun to say the least but studio time was not happening - making it that much more fun when I got back to it. This little piece was something I finished right before everyone came. It is based loosely on a technique I learned from a Wen Redmond DVD. I've always loved layering, especially using sheers.

 I started with a pre-stretched canvas.

 The back of the canvas is stapled and left intact.

 The center of the canvas is removed - it doesn't have to be a perfect job as it's covered up.

 Next, came the layer which would serve as a base and placed on the bottom of the canvas in the cut out area. I chose a very colorful picture which I printed on fabric. This was of an old ruin we came across while in Ireland last year. It was very bright and I thought would be effective with a sheer layer on top. I did layer it with a thin layer of batting and backing and then quilted it. The quilting really doesn't show that much but if you use a glitzy thread in some areas, you do get a wink of it as you look at the picture.

 A layer of organza was printed with another image and laid on the top of the canvas, leaving some space in between. The edges were finished with a darker fabric and brought around to the back....

 which was finished by hand and a picture frame wire attached for hanging.

And the finished piece - "Ruins I".