Virtual Retreat - Join Anytime

[wendy w.]

A new car brrmm brrmm, hope you find a good bargain.

Luann delicious tubs of fabric. It's fun to see your art quilt evolve. I'd never have thought of doing the foam that way, very creative.

[Lois B.]

Rosemary, it's either/or depending on the situation. And, sometimes it's three steps forward which is especially wonderful when this sequence occurs a few times back to back. Hoping for better times ahead for you.

LuAnn, Be sure to show us the next step of your dye experience "ala Alex & Ricky". I need to enjoy this technique vicariously.

[Susan S.]

LuAnne, your art quilt is coming along nicely. Very interesting technique to make bubbles. Seeing your tubs of fabric batching reminded me I want to fold and dye some fabric like Ricky did. Will be looking forward to seeing your finished fabric!

Rosemary, best of luck car shopping. Just make sure you do not buy a car that has been in the flooded areas. The Red River flooded at record levels. It had not been that high in at least 70 years! It had just started getting back down and then we got all this rain the last few days. I am so thankful I live on high ground.

Susan

[Susan S.]

I had less than expected results with the dyeing. Everything turned out quite pastel. It could be that my dye mixtures are getting old, my ph up product wasn't doing a good job, or most likely, I just did NOT put enough dye into the fabric. You need to squish it into all the layers, and Ricky squeezed out the excess at the end. But I think I would put my yellows on and let them saturate at their own pace for fifteen minutes, then come back in with the red and blue sides. Let everything mingle and get acquainted for another fifteen minutes. Then do the black along the edges. And perhaps Wait another fifteen minutes before doing that squeeze out. I think this might end up as an experiment. The fabric can get numbered and I can have the "formula" written out, along with time amounts to follow. Now I could do all of this,,, but will I? Hmmmm,,,

Linda Schmidt is the instructor for the 'Elements in Fabric" class I'm taking over on The Academy of Quilting website. Www.Academyofquilting.com
It's been very interesting so far. Last night I started my 'forest fire' piece. I made it larger and it was much easier. Also, I'm not cutting up the background piece, folding over an edge, and tucking rocks and stuff in behind each wave. This time it's layers and much more intuitive for me. I may make a water one without cutting the backing up. Just make slits into it and tuck stuff in? Hmmmm,,,

Oh the mind has too many thoughts to do them all.
It was 85*F, 82%humidty at 8:30 this morning! That makes it feel like 96*F , toooooo hot for me to go outside. Well I will take water to my four potted plants on the porches. But that's all.

Have a safe and blessed day,
Luann

[ANNE E.]

Rosemary,
I had loads of magazines and I had looked at them so many times then I thought .....am I ever going to make anything from them.......no!
So I took them to a local charity shop and they were pleased to take them.
And I have never missed them.
Sorry to hear about your car ....hope you get a good deal on the next one.
Anne

[Geneva C.]

Hello all....

I've not been able to sew at all as I've been taking care of my mother. She was in the emergency room this morning, so now she is home with me.

However, I keep walking into the sewing room to just look at the quilt I am working on. It makes me feel good!

And.... I just saw the results of the National Quilting Association show in Little Rock Arkansas. I won 3rd place in Art-Innovative! I've shown the quilt to you all before but here is "The Doors". It's about 21" x 27".









It is always nice to be recognized by your peers. This was a fun quilt to make and really stretched me.

It's a nice day here in Eastern Washington. Sunny, in the high 80's and very dry.

Have a good day everyone!

geneva

[Lorna B.]

Congratulations, Geneva! What a wonderful achievement. Well deserved.

Rosemary, Looking forward to seeing pictures of your sewing room with all the improvements. So exciting! Not so good news about the car though. Bad timing.

Lorna

[Lorna B.]

Barb - unfortunately without the Mot certificate the cops can nick you for not having a street legal car very easily, just not worth the risk! However DH went hunting on the net and has found a cheapish little runabout for me a Peugot 206 (sp?) which he has been to see and reckons is sound & with 12 months Mot, so we go & pick that up tomorrow. :woohoo:

Last night & this morning did some serious sorting and tidying and I can now get to my sewing machine :woohoo: :kiss: :woohoo: So I have spent quite a bit of time this afternoon having me a 'sewing fix'. I am working on a scrappy top for Lilian Hedley, who is collecting quilts to send over to Nepal, via her dentist, who comes from there. She was sent a couple of packets of 200 x 2" x 2" ready cuts and a bag of samples (approx. 1.5" sq). Lillian doesn't piece that small, so I offered to piece them larger for her . Got a good plan in my head for what I will do with them and have made great progress on it.

I also rediscovered some books along the way :whistle: that I am looking forward to going through again.

PS I now have some where to hang my Veggie Chicken Pie.... :P

[Lorna B.]

Geneva, congratulations on your prize for your art quilt.

[Lorna B.]

Geneva,
Congratulations on your art quilt.

And I finally put those fabrics out and took two pictures







And here's a comparison for size on the 'elements' pieces




And a bit closer on the fire




Off to knit for a bit,,
Luann

[Judith A.]

Geneva,
Congratulations!!! I am not surprised that you won. "Doors" is very well-designed quilt.

Judith

[Judith A.]

Luann - Linda Schmidt is a member in my quilt guild. She is an amazing and prolific quilter. I have seen her doing hand work on a project during a meeting.

I took a fabric painting workshop offered by my guild last Sunday and learned lots of techniques for different effects. Now, if I can't find the right color or print of fabric, I can make my own! I'll take some photos of my samples and post them in a bit.

Kathy

[Judith A.]

Luann,
You may be a little disappointed with the pastel ones, but I think they are beautiful. I think they would be wonderful background fabrics for art quilts.

I know that the stated shelf life for Procion dyes is 1 year. I have some dyes that are several years old. I emailed Ann Johnson asking her asking how long Procion dyes last. She said she has some that are several years old that still work. It depends on the particular dye and how it is stored. Keeps longer stored in a cool, dry, dark environment.
I read that when you open one, you need to be quick about closing the lid, to keep moisture out.

Another tip I read is that a Procion dye that is too old may look bright when it comes out of the dyebath and is batching, but IF you have to keep rinsing and rinsing it, and the dye keeps coming out, it may be too old. Of course, there are other reasons the dye keeps coming out - not enough soda ash, or wrong water temperature. I guess the only way to know for sure is to test it.

Judith

[Judith A.]

Kathy,
What a treat - belonging to the same quilt guild as Linda Schmidt!

My guild meeting was this morning. We had another big thunderstorm yesterday and the power went out. I could not sew. Thankfully it went back on in time for me to get a shower before the guild meeting. I am sure those around me appreciated that!

Judith

[Judith A.]

Here are my fabric painting class samples:



Upper right is a monoprint - I brayered paint on a rubber printing plate then removed some of the paint with a rubber stamp, then placed fabric on the paint and gently rubbed. The fabric below that one is the second printing since there was still some paint left on the rubber plate. Middle top - paint was first splattered onto fabric using a tooth brush flicked with my thumb, when that was dry I placed a rubber stamp under the fabric and rubbed the fabric with a solid paint stick, much like people take rubbings of gravestones. Upper right, scrunched and pleated Saran plastic wrap around some cardboard, dabbed it in some paint and stamped it on the fabric. The vertical lines work well as a grass image, but the overall pattern is nice, too. Lower middle - brushed paint on a corn cob and rolled on the fabric; then I cut the corn and dabbed yellow paint in the middle and pink paint on the kernels to produce a flower image. Lower right - first layer was paint sponged on the fabric, then when that was dry, I stenciled the fern image on top.



For this one I scrunched up the fabric and using a very wet sponge dabbed the paint all over. If I had added more water, the paint would have soaked through and distributed more evenly, but this is a nice effect as well.

Very fun and messy class. The paints used were Versatex Screen Printing Inks for Fabric.

Kathy