Pink Peep

One of my favorite peeps is Kay.  Even though I have never met her in person,  I communicate with her fairly often.  She is hysterically funny, and yet, down to earth.  I love her sense of humor.  And I love that we can call each other up and laugh about ourselves and each other.  Oh yeah, we are both quilters too.

Kay loves pink.  And polka dots.  And especially pink polka dots.  And pink.  All things pink.

So not long ago (gosh has it been that long ago?) Kay was talking about getting her hair “tipped”.  Yeah.  go ahead and google that.  I had to.  Really.  I am so NOT a girly girl.  So of course she got it done in pink.  No shit.  She really did.  God I love her.  She is not just spunky and cute and fun, she is brave and gutsy.  She did it.  She posted photos of it.

Here is my favorite one I snagged.  (ok, so today I finally got around to asking her if I could use it.  She said sure, as long as….. well, I wont tell you what she said I could not do with it.  I promise Kay, I won’t do that.)

So, I love portrait quilts.  Always have.  When I saw this photo, I knew I wanted to do it in a quilt.  But my skills….. umm…… were kind of lacking.  I have done portraits my own way, with no instruction, no book to go by, no real knowledge.  Doing it my typical fly by the seat of my pants kind of way.  It sorta works, but I finally broke down and bought this DVD by Maria Elkins.  It was SO worth the money.  Extremely well done.

I watched the DVD once, last week.  I have been itching to do a portrait all week.

Yesterday, I sat down and went thru photos.  I made FIVE patterns for portrait quilts yesterday.  With 7 different people in them.  Wow, I impressed myself!

And today I got as far as getting the first one put together, and machine ready…. ready to quilt.  That has to wait for another day.

I can hardly wait to do another.

Playing with Texture Magic

I bought some Texture Magic at MQX in April.  I finally got around to trying it a couple of weeks ago.

Texture Magic is a product sold by Superior Threads.  It looks and feels like lining fabrics.  After you quilt it, you steam it to make it shrink 30% in each direction.  The shrinkage creates more texture.

I used batting between the Texture Magic and cotton fabric, but the directions say you can do it with no batting.  I will  try that another time.  I  need to play and experiment more to figure out if I want the quilting lines to be closer or not.  I also want to try straight lines and a grid.   It will depend on the project as to what effect I am after.

So this is a little tutorial on what I did.

I basted it on the top of batting and backing on my longarm.  You can make a similar sandwich (with or without batting) and baste or pin together.

Then I quilted it on my longarm.  You can use a sewing machine, longarm or even by hand.  The key is to have fairly dense quilting to get more texture.

Here is the other side:

Then I steamed it.  You steam it on the Texture Magic side.  I used my 35 year old Steamstress that still works well.  I love that thing!  I doubt you are lucky enough to have an old Steamstress, so use a regular iron that steams well.

You can literally see it shrink before you eyes.  (hmm, maybe I should wrap my body in it and steam away the pounds)

Here it is all steamed and shrunk:

And the fabric side:

See the Magic???

I can see lots of possibilities for this product.  Purses, tote bags, or vests.  I dont ever make those kinds of things, so I will use some on a pillow for my first project.

Let me know what you use Texture Magic for.  And please share any tips along the way.

Washington Post…. Uncertainty

My quilt, Uncertainty, was mentioned in the Washington Post today.

The article is about the controversy with Mark Lipinsiki’s Quilter’s Home Magazine and JoAnn’s Fabric not carrying the latest issue with shocking quilts.

Anyway, if you are interested, the article is here:

Fat Tuesday

In honor of Fat Tuesday….

one of my tributes to New Orleans …..

“Masquerade”

Snow Dyed fabric 2

Not sure what I will do with this fabric, but probably put it in some art quilts.  And the red is going to be a back for next year’s show quilt I think.

These are all the ones I did yesterday.

The blue one is Steve’s favorite.  The last one is my favorite.

And here is my OBW in progress.  Not sure if I will add some cubes to it…. or just make it into a regular hex star SnW (stack n whack).  Have to look at it awhile and let it talk to me.    I love this fabric, darn pretty, but it is so darn busy laid out this way.  But then, all OBWs are busy, right?

Snow Dyeing Tutorial

I had been wanting to try some snow dyeing of fabric, so gave it a shot on Monday.  I had never done this before, only read about it.  I have no idea if this is the RIGHT way…it is just MY way.

Here is what I did:

Using plain, prewashed pieces of muslin (because I always have lots of bolt ends from Steve’s business), I soaked it in soda ash water first.  Then put it in the bottom of individual buckets.

Mixed my dyes:

Went outside, scooped snow into each bucket.  Completely covering the wet fabric with about 4″ of snow.

Poured dye on top of snow:

Oh heck, lets add some more colors.  I put 3 colors in each bucket.  But you could choose less or more.

Steve thought it looked like snowcones.  I wouldnt let him taste it though.

Then I set the buckets next to the fireplace for oh…… about 3 hours.  A couple of times I poked down thru the snow with a straw, but I dont know that it helped the process along.

I dumped the excess snow and dye down the sink, then rinsed the fabric in water till most of the excess dye came out.

Wash in washing machine with synthrapol.  Dry in dryer.  Iron.

Voila’ !

I am surely no expert at dyeing fabrics.  I dont measure exactly, nor do I keep recipes and journals and charts like so many serious fabric dyers.  Nope, I keep it simple, fun and relaxing.

All of my dyeing supplies come from Dharma.

Questions?  Feel free to ask.  And if you click on the picture, it will enlarge it.

Any suggestions on how to use these pretty fabrics now?  Art quilt?  Pieced quilt?  Something else?  I am open to all options.

“Uncertainty” published

In December, I was interviewed by Jake Finch, of Quilter’s Home Magazine for an article about controversial quilts.  That article is now published in the March issue.  It hit the newstands this week.

Because I renewed my subscription in December, I wont get this issue in the mail as I had thought.  I am waiting for my son and another friend to send me copies.

The REAL controversy is that JoAnn fabrics has decided to not carry this issue of the magazine.  They think it is too controversial, too risque’.  They have already heard from me.  I was polite, but honestly, I think they are making a mistake.  We spend alot of personal and business dollars there….. and it makes me rethink how much I will spend there in the future.  I can just as easily buy online.  I am not boycotting the store, just thinking I dont need to spend as much there as I normally would.  Think they care?  I seriously doubt it.

Anyway, if you want to read more about the issues, go to Mark Lipinski’s blog to read what he has to say.

What I have to say is I am SO FRICKEN PROUD to be in the company of these other artists.    I am beyond excited….. and I havent even read the article!

Here are the other artists and links to their work:

God of Our Silent Tears and Southern Heritage/Southern Shame by Gwendolyn Magee

I Remain by Randall Cook

Jesus Get Your Gun by Shawn Quinlin

Helping Hand by Mary Beth Bellah

The L Word by Diane Johns  (I couldnt find a link for this one, sorry)

And even though most of you have seen it before, here is my quilt, “Uncertainty”, along with the artist’s statement that helps explain it.

The Yoni Quilt Challenge was a challenge for QuiltArt list members.
For those that dont know, Yoni is a Hindu word for vagina.

Now for those that know me well….. well, let’s just say they were shocked that I would consider participating in this challenge. My sister asked “well, why not your ELBOW??” which is the same thing everyone pretty much wanted to know. The true challenge for me was the subject, initially. Once I got past that, it was easy. Maybe it was timing…. as my Mom died in August of last year. So, here is what I did.

Artist Statement for “Uncertainty”:
Dimensions: 19” wide X 20” high

Uncertainty

Uncertainty about
Finances
Jobs
Decisions
Relationships
Loves
Life

Uncertainty makes me want to crawl in a hole.
Crawl back to my Mother’s arms.
Crawl back inside her Yoni.
Mother’s love is the one constant in life.

Uncertainty about
Finances
Jobs
Decisions
Relationships
Loves
Life

My Mother is gone.
Uncertainty is the one constant in life.

GAM 12-7-06

Materials and Techniques Used: commercial fabrics, Quilter’s Dream batting, Aleene’s Tacky Glue, Prismacolor watercolor pencils, Liquitex fabric medium, PermaCore and MaxiLok threads. Raw edge appliqué, watercolor drawing on fabric, machine quilting on Gammill Classic.

“Orange You Glad I’m Different?”

I am taking a class on color and design at MQResources. One of the assignments was to make a colorwheel.

My friends always tease me about being different. I view the world
differently than lots of folks I guess. Good, or bad, that’s the way
I came to this world.

My color wheel reflects that. I purposely have yellow at 9 oclock
rather than 12. It somehow makes sense to me there. We had to choose
a shape for the colors, and could use black or white for the
background. I have always been intrigued by Kokopelli, and decided to
use him as my “shape”. I used both black and white for my background.

I also love to celebrate diversity…. and dancing to a different
drummer. Or flutist. “Orange You Glad I’m Different?”

Trunk shows

I bet some people who read my blog dont know that I do trunk shows.  What?  What is that?

A trunk show is kind of like grown up quilter’s show and tell.  I schlepp all my crap fine art quilts (and a few traditional ones too) to wherever I am invited, and show them.  I also tell about my journey down this quilting/artistic road.  Hopefully, by the time I am finished, they have learned something….. or been inspired…. or at least felt that it was worth it to pay me the little fee I ask.  (heck it will barely cover gas expenses now)

Tonite I will speak at the meeting of the River’s Bend Quilters in Chicora, PA.  We have never been to Chicora, so we are looking forward to this evening’s jaunt.  Steve is going too, he is the night time driver.  He stays home sometimes, it all depends on what we are each doing that day.  Quilt groups are always delightful.  Fun, interesting and interested people.  It should be a relaxed, nice evening.

Tomorrow I will speak at the Mother Daughter Banquet at Faith Presbyterian Church in Hermitage, PA.  I havent been there either.  Ive been to Hermitage lots of times, but not to that church.  I am really looking forward to speaking there because it is a different kind of audience, with a variety of ages.  Picture it…… Gayle speaking from the pulpit.  What a visual!  I would have Steve take photos….. but he isn’t going.  You will just have to suffer with your self made images.

So today was pack the suitcases day.  I dont have a trunk to make it a legitimate trunk show.  Should I call it a suitcase show?  Guess not.

Recharging

It wasn’t planned, but today was a day for recharging our batteries.

After several hours in town buying groceries and running errands, we both were tired.  We had had a busy busy quilty week and I think we both needed a day of down time.

We ate lunch while watching a travel channel show about the Colorado River and then I was ready for a nap.  I made a pot of coffee instead and went to the studio to start my postcards for the May exchange.  I got about half of them done.  I also did a few “May Flowers” quilted art postcards for doorprizes for the next 2 trunk show speaking engagements.  Those events are Monday and Tuesday of this coming week, so it was about time I got that done, huh?

I came into the living room about 6pm and couldnt see Steve.  Oh, but I could hear him!  He was upstairs “fiddling” with his new steel guitar.  It was music to my ears.  He was figuring out what all it needed and how to tune it.  I have not EVER seen him this happy and relaxed.  He had been up there playing for the 2 hours I had been sewing.

We really need to do this more often.  Recharging batteries is so important.  How do you recharge your batteries??

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Here is a quilt I finished this week:

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This is a picture I took from our bedroom today.  (bedroom is upstairs)  It was storming and the sky looked like the world had a gray wool hat on it!