A word for the year

On one of my email lists,, many members select a word for the year, to guide them in their art and life. The words are varied, and the discussions thought-provoking, and the idea is a lot more inspiring than a resolution.

So after a lot of thought, I decided on the word "Purposefully," as a guide to life.

Purposefully - "with a specific purpose or objective in mind."


The last couple of years, life has been a scramble, with our businesses, finding time for my art (and the business of art) and life in general. I feel like I've spent too much time reacting to things, rushing to do things at the last minute and generally not putting my time to good use.

That's especially tough for my art. It's terribly frustrating to have some time free, want to sew, and not know what to work on, or have to spend half my time digging out supplies or looking for something.

So, I want to do things purposefully. That means getting my studio organized - I've been working on that the last couple of weeks - so I can find things and have space to work. It means getting projects planned out so there's always something ready to work on. It means making time for the business stuff - getting business cards printed, ordering ink for the printer - before I need something for the next art show. It means getting a few handwork projects set up so I can work while watching TV or traveling. 

I don't want to take the fun out of my art - or my life. But with purposefully as my guide, I hope I can enjoy getting things done more, and have less stress in the process. We shall see!

More later.

Trash to Treasure

I'm a treasure hunter. Thrift stores, yard sales, friends clearing out their studios, are all great sources of treasures for my fiber art work and for decorating. And that's been especially true over the past few months, as I've been decorating a vacation rental unit.

Leftover blocks and fabric combine with found tablecloths(right).

 

 

Last weekend our Fiber Guild celebrated Roc Day, or St. Distaff's Day, the day women traditionally returned to their spinning and weaving, after Christmas activities were over. Part of the meeting was a Trash to Treasure exchange. While I forgot to bring the bag of yard I'd hoped to rehome, I did bring home a treasure, a stack of six-inch quilt blocks in blues and yellows, along with some coordinating fabric. They coordinated perfectly with a pair of yellow tablecloths I found a couple of weeks ago.

I wanted to make valances and half-curtains for the kitchen windows in the rental, but there wasn't enough fabric in the tablecloths. But with the addition of the quilt blocks, I had a plan.

I divided the quilt blocks, 11 for the smaller window, 16 for the larger, arranged them to create a pattern, and sewed into a strip. Here's how to make a row of quilt blocks into a simple, lined valance (or curtain).

Sew the blocks into a row. Measure the quilt blocks (mine were 6 inches) and add 3.5 inches for the rod pocket (for standard curtain rods, more if yours is larger). If you want a border at the bottom, decide on the border size and add it twice. For my 6 inch blocks, I cut coordinating fabric at 12 inches.

With right sides together, stitch the row of blocks to the coordinating fabric along both sides, creating a tube. Turn right side out, then turn under one-fourth inch on the raw edges and stitch it down, keeping the tube open.

Finished valances

Lay out the tube with the blocks facing up, and arrange so 1.5 inches of the coordinating fabric shows at the top, for the rod pocket. Press. Stitch along the top edge of the blocks to create the rod pocket. Stitch closed the sides below the rod pocket. If desired, top stitch along the bottom edge, this is a great place to use decorative stitches.

Hang your valance.

Here are my valances installed. Once I get another pair of curtain rods, I'll use the tablecloths to make half curtains for the bottom, finishing this project.

I expect to have several more projects to share over the next few weeks, then I hope to get back to my own quilts, both art and traditional. More later.

Treadle On Cat Block Exchange

Happy New Year! Wow, it is embarrassing to see how long it has been since I've posted. But my New Year's resolution is to do more stuff worth posting and get it posted!

We're starting off the new year on the Treadle On email list with several block exchanges, and the one I'm hosting is cats. Here are the instructions for the two cat blocks that can be used for the exchange.

Reclining Cat

background

cut 4 inch strip

cut 3.5 inch strip

from 4 inch, cut 5.5 inch piece

from 3.5 inch, cut 1.5 inch piece

from 3.5 inch, cut 1.75 inch piece, cut in half for two 1.75 inch squares (save one for next block)

cat

cut 5 inch strip

cut 3.5 inch strip

cut 1.5 inch strip

from 5 inch cut 8.5 inch piece (body)

from 3.5 inch, cut 3 inch piece (head)

from 1.5 inch, cut two 1.5 inch squares (ears)

Assembly

Place the two 1.5 inch squares of cat fabric (ears) on ends of 3.5 x 1.5 background. Draw diagonal lines ending in two upper corners. Stitch along diagonal lines. Press open, then trim excess from back.

Place the 1.75 inch square of background fabric on the top left corner of the 5 x 8.5 inch piece (body). Draw diagonal line and stitch on diagonal line. Press open, then trim extra from back.

Stitch the ears piece to the top of the 3.5 x 3 inch piece (head).

Stitch the head to the 4 x 5.5 inch piece of background.

Stitch the top section to the body section.

Press

Sitting cat

Background

Cut 3.5 inch strip

Cut 1.5 inch strip

From 3.5 inch, cut one 1.5 inch piece

cut two 3.5 inch squares

From 1.5 inch strip, cut two 8.5 inch pieces

Cat fabric

Cut 3.5 inch strip

Cut 1.5 inch strip

From 3.5 inch, cut one 5.5 inch piece (side)

Cut one 7.5 inch piece (body and head)

from 1.5 inch strip, cut two 1.5 inch squares (ears)

Assembly

Place the two 1.5 inch squares of cat fabric (ears) on ends of 3.5 x 1.5 background. Draw diagonal lines ending in two upper corners. Stitch along diagonal lines. Press open, then trim excess from back.

Stitch the ear piece across the 3.5 end of head/body piece.

Draw diagonal line on one 3.5 inch square of background. Place over 3.5 x 5.5 (side) and stitch diagonal line (from lower left to upper right) Press open and trim excess from back.

Stitch 3.5 background to top of side/background piece.

Stitch side/background to body/ears.

Stitch 1.5 inch strips on either side.

Press

For the Treadle On exchange, the cats are to be made with small print fabrics (calico cats!) and jewel-tone Kona Cotton backgrounds. Blocks may be reversed/mirror-image if desired. Sets are 10 blocks, with maximum of three sets. Each set should be different fabrics. Use either, or both designs, blocks returned will be a mix of whatever is received.

Drawing a quilt

Someone on a quilting group asked about drawing with Derwent Inktense™ pencils, and when I looked for my post about them, I realized I'd never written one. This is one of the many techniques/tools I have tried out and loved, but haven't had time to go in-depth with (yet!)

"Serenity" 2010, thread-sketched with watercolor pencil shading.

I got the Inktense™ pencils, which are a watercolor pencil with very concentrated pigment, quite a while ago.
This little quilt I called "Serenity" was one of the first pieces I did using the pencils. For this one, I thread-sketched the scene, then used the pencils, with just a little water, to fill in the shading on the beach, palm tree and water.
I hadn't done much with them since then, until last fall I bought the Derwent Inktense™ Blocks, which look like pastels, but are concentrated blocks of watercolor. They are a little messier to handle, and easy to break, but give big, bold strokes of color.
To draw on fabric, I use bleached muslin which has been washed and dried without any fabric softener, and press it onto freezer paper to give a firm base. 

Derwent Inktense™ watercolor pencils and blocks

For one of my first play days with the pencils and blocks, I just drew random seashells, along with a few other motifs. I experimented with dampening the fabric first, with a brush or spray bottle, leaving it dry and dampening after I drew. I was happiest with the results when I drew on dry fabric, then used a brush to very lightly brush fabric medium on. It took a little practice brushing with the shading of the sketch, so it blended colors rather than smearing them.
Too much fabric medium can result in bleeding, as I found out.

Sketched motifs using the pencils and blocks

I really liked some of my seashells, and wanted to do something with them. So I heat-set them by pressing with a hot iron, then fused MistyFuse™ to the back, then cut them out. I laid out little scenes, using some of my handpainted fabric as background, and cutting seagrasses out of batiks and fusing everything down. Later I quilted and added embellishments.
I really like the pencils and blocks, just need to spend more time to learn more about what I can do with them.

Quilts in progress using the sketched motifs

More later!

Organizing Time

Hanging sweater shelves and a clear shoe hanger hold
balls and skeins of yarn.

I've hardly touched the sewing machine in the past few weeks, just too much going on. But I haven't completely given up time in the studio. I've been working on re-organizing so I can actually get some work done.
While I'm spending most of my time at our apartment near our businesses, most of my sewing and art supplies are at my house, where I have a large (and crowded) studio/sewing room. I'm constantly thinking of things I'd like to have here, and over the past few months my tiny guest/sewing room has about reached overflowing.
So, over the past few weeks I've been putting up new shelves and finding new organizing tools. Here's al little tour of what I've done so far.
I really like these over the door shoe racks for holding small stuff and keeping it visible. They work especially well for the fat quarters of hand-painted fabric I've been working on, and all the small balls of yarn I've collected.
I have one more major project, raising the guest bed on risers and stashing under-bed boxes with fabrics I don't use as often and other items.
More later.

Tall shelves hold stacked fabric, bins of cut pieces and
a couple of sewing machines at the bottom.

Another over-the-door shoe rack holds hand-painted
fabric, mostly fat quarters.

Another set of shelves holds books, fabric paints
and a couple more sewing machines.  

Inspiration by accident

I usually work in bright colors, but the piece I'm finishing right now is a little different, soft and monochrome, all because of some leftover paint.

Underwater piece in progress

A couple of weeks ago I was painting some fabric, using Setacolor and Dye-na-flo paints, and decided to try a version of snow dyeing, using the Dye-na-flo. Since we don't get snow here, I used a blender to chop ice for the "snow." I'd prepared a bucket with a couple of spacers and a can lid to leave room for the melting ice, then put in my fabric and the snow, then sprinkled with paint.

The melting colors looked beautiful, but when dry, the fabric turned out to be very light colored. Pretty, but not what I've seen from snow-dyeing with regular dye. It was an experiment, so no great concern.

I would probably have set the fabric aside with my other painted fabrics, if it hadn't been for the leftover paint/water mixture. It was a very pretty teal color and I hated to just dump it down the sink, so I grabbed some scraps of cotton quilt batting, and some cotton yarn and crochet thread, and dropped them in to soak for a while.

"snow" with paint

after the snow melted

The result was a very light green or blue green, depending on the material, and made me think of underwater scenes. They combined really well with the light blue fabric from the original snow painting experiment, for a couple of dreamy underwater scenes. They are not quite finished, so it's time for me to get off the computer and back into the studio to finish up. We have an art show next weekend and I have a couple of pieces to finish and frame.

And for my friends looking for more art quilt inspiration, check out this blog.

http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/

More later!

finished piece of fabric

leftover paint/water with cotton batting

dyed batting and yarn

New Year, new art

Dye-na-flo

My New Year's resolution is to take advantage of the time I have available for my art, and do more art. For the past year, work has dominated my time, and it looks like the upcoming year will be similar. But, I have some time, I just have to plan and use it for my art.

I've gotten started on that effort over the past few days by spending some time rearranging and organizing my sewing and art supplies. It's not beautiful, but now I have a better idea of where to find things.

So, today I decided to do something I haven't done in ages, and paint some fabric. Some day I'll have a space for real fabric dyeing, but for now, I'm happy with fabric painting using Setacolor and Dye-na-flo. So, I cleared off the kitchen table, set up a work area with a trash bag over a big piece of cardboard, and cut some fabric into fat quarters. I could only paint one at a time, but as each was fairly dry, I hung it up and moved on to another piece.

I finished up with five fat quarters and a few smaller pieces. Now I get the fun of coming up with a plan to use them.

Setacolor

 More later!

Setacolor