Studio Tour Coming Up!

I've been working hard getting more work ready for the tour, I hope you will be able to join up and see all the wonderful work from so many talented artists! I'll post more pictures of my work through the week.
Here's some information, if you would like it as a PDF, with all the addresses, just leave a comment or email me!
Don't forget, its next weekend, Nov. 30th and Dec. 1st, 12 noon-4:30. I'll have the apple cider warmed up for you!

New Work for the Oak Bay Artist Studio Tour!

I've been busy working towards my first Artist Studio Tour, finishing pieces, quilting, dyeing, mounting work on canvas and much, much more! It has been fun and creative work, but my main problem is that I'm not sure how much work to produce? I'm hoping to sell lots and have some pieces in reserve to put on the walls as others sell.....but how much?
Maybe you can give me some advice!

This is work that I've finished in the last week or so, I'm enjoying mounting them on canvas board, I like the look when they are hanging. What do you think?

So the first piece shows just the base fabric. It was a piece of soy wax resist linen, that I waxed and dyes, then waxed and dyes some more. It took several processes to get the depth of colour I wanted.

Then I traced, fused and cut shapes that echoed the design in the linen. I backed the linen with iron-on fusible interfacing to give it more stability.

Then lots of quilting with multi-coloured poly thread, trimming and mounting on board. I found a good YouTube video for finishing the corners nicely:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccaNqgje5lY

The next piece I made from fabric I had dyed on a wine bottle (more about that in another blog post) then cut, fused and stitched the cardinal tree and berries.

 

Finally, I used fabric that I had applied soy wax and dye on a pole, after washing, I screen printed the crows on and quilted bird foot prints.

Remembrance

They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old,

Today we especially remember:
Arland Kenneth Scott
Elvin Curtis Purney
     who did not return

And those who served:
Keith Gordon Purney
Harold Purney
Henry Mark

In the going down of the sun, and in the morning we will remember them.

Essentials Book List

Like I promised, I've reassessed my Essentials Book List and found a couple books I wanted to add and a couple that were either dated or had been replaced by newer or better works. So, print off a copy for handy reference!

Quilt Design

Piecing: Expanding the Basics by Ruth McDowell
Contemporary Quilts, and Creative Quilts by Sandra Meech
Digital Essentials by Gloria Hansen
Thread Work Unraveled by Sarah Ann Smith

Journey to Inspired Art Quilting by Jean Wells

Pattern Motifs-a Sourcebook by Graham Leslie McCallum

The Quilters Book of Design by Ann Johnston

Adventures in Design by Joen Wolfrom

Surface Design

Complex Cloth by Jane Dunnewold

Color by Accident and Color by Design by Ann Johnston

Finding Your Own Visual Language by Jane Dunnewold w/ Claire Benn and Leslie Morgan

Any books by Maggie Grey and/or Valerie Campbell-Harding

Surface Designers Handbook by Holly Brackman

Mixed Media Masterclass by Sherril Kahn

Soy Wax Inspirations by Susan Purney Mark (absolutely!)

The Printed Fabric Bee

So, its the first BIG REVEAL today! Are you excited to see all the wonderful fabric that Lynn Krawczyk got from the other bees? I sure am!
First, I'll show you how I made my fabric for Lynn. She had requested:

I'm choosing ORANGE CIRCLES. And for fabric size I'd like a rectangular shape - 10" x 14" (just under the 144 square inches but I'm good with it.)About the only thing I don't like color wise is pastels. I like neutrals (greys, browns, blacks) and strong vibrant colors. I'm a contrast junkie. And for the record? Light red qualifies as pink. I do like the 70s color vibe of brown, green, orange, gold. If that horrifies you, though, feel free to flee from it.

I began by dyeing a 1/2 yard of PFD. I used an orange with some bronze in the dye bath:

I sewed the fabric into a tube and put it on a PVC pipe with a rubber band at each end to hold it in place. I painted on some soy wax to keep the orange colour and then painted on an MX dye from Dharma Trading called Caffeine Buzz! 

I let that batch and also stamped soy wax circles on another 1/2 yard that I'd dyed. I thought that might be my back up plan! Here are the two fabrics together:

The next step was to use some of my Thermofax screens and print multiple circles on the yardage with black paint:

Finally I screen printed an image of tiny dots within a circle shape in deep mauve. Its a little difficult to see them:

 

Finally, I put it in  an envelope and sent it on its way!

Now, all the "bees" put a little something extra in their packages....... so that maybe you can join in the fun! You could win a 6" square from each of us and have some creative time with our fabrics. Here's what you need to do: 
Hop on over to Lynn's blog:  http://smudgedtextilesstudio.com/blog/ and leave a note for her in the comments section. You can visit our Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/theprintedfabricbee and get more information and news! Be sure to "like" us....