Wednesday, October 28, 2009

One Word Wednesday

Knobbly

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

One Word Wednesday

Journey

Monday, October 19, 2009

Teaching in Toronto



I got back yesterday from a great teaching time at the Creative Festival in Toronto. I taught Shattered Angles and my Simple Stained Glass quilt. I was there teaching for Country Concessions and Darlene put my names in lights! this is about as close to a marquee on Broadway as I'll ever get!

Mother and daughter team of Cynthia and Linda had fun in my class, Linda chose to work in greens and came back to see me the following day, having bought another 20 or so green fat quarters. I think she's planning on a king size quilt! Hurrah!



Sylvia chose to work in bright crayon colours and I know her quilt is going to sparkle!


Many thanks to everyone who made my visit such fun!

I also ran into Heather McArthur with Quilters Connection magazine (sorry I don't have a picture). Heather has started Canada's first magazine devoted to quilting and I'm thrilled for her. Visit her website at:

http://www.quiltersconnection.ca/index.php
and sign up for her newsletter!

I also saw Tricia Sherman from http://www.greatcanadianshophop.com/
I had coffe and a quick visit with Jean Boyd with her booth, see her website: http://www.patternsbyjeanboyd.com/

Jean also has a blog where she posts a great new picture every day!
http://jeanboyduppercanadaquiltworks.blogspot.com/

Sunday, October 18, 2009

What Is It?

Another try to identify a mystery picture...post your guesses in the comments and I'll announce the winner on Wednesday Oct. 21st.
I haven't altered the picture in any way!

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

One Word Wednesday

Fuzzy!

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Deconstructed Screen Printing

Last week I taught a class on Deconstructed Screen Printing where we apply thickened dye to the backs of the screens, let it dry and then print with print paste through the screen. As the dried dye softens and releases from the screen we get exciting organic images that are always a little surprising.
Maya is preparing her fabric by pinning it to the print table. There is one piece at the front that she has been working on.

Then, success! You can see the back of the screen with the dye residue and what it has left on the fabric.

Ruth is screening through some lace, she had good success with that idea.

In the afternoon I taught the students to put soy wax on the screens and use thickened dye to screen their designs onto the fabric. I love the image that Ruth created. I think they look like cute little meerkat faces!

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

One Word Wednesday

Whimsy!

Friday, October 2, 2009

Don't Throw It Out!

In my spare time (ha!) I've been working on a new series of quilts that have old, vintage or "repurposed" textiles in them. I have one from old hankies that I'm hand quilting right now. Another one that is in the "collecting" stage that will be made from old men's shirts or is that men's old shirts?
And this one below is a vintage tablecloth with some holes. My intention is to make five pieced blocks that complement the printed roses and set them between the tablecloth blocks once I've cut them up. The tricky part is that the best size for the printed roses is a 13" square. Luckily I have Electric Quilt and I used it to size the pieced blocks. I made one block with too dark a background so its been rejected.
Not quite sure what kind of border treatment I'll use tho.....and I'll have a couple of rose blocks left over for a more contemporary piece, perhaps they'll get into the dye pot!


Thursday, October 1, 2009

New Work

I've been working on some dyed fabrics that I thought were pretty dull and boring and I think I've livened them up to a point where they could be used in something. They were each dyed, some with indigo, screen printed, stamped and written on. I like images that are only partial, suggestive of age or something hidden behind.
They are fat quarter size ( I seem to ahve a lot of FQ sitting around from teaching demos and its time to give them some new life.
What do you think?