Creative Day!

Yesterday I had a creative day with my small quilt group, the Rosie quilters. We met at a middle school where one of the members of my group teaches. It's a wonderful space since there are lot's of sinks and counter tops and outlets and tables...We could really spread out. She also had a few DVD's that we could watch on the drop down screen. Thank you Kathy!

Some of the members were trying silk screen printing for the first time. They had a DVD by Jane Dunnewald to learn how. Loved the results and want to try that sometime too. I didn't have time to gather what I would need to do the printing for this time.


I made some fabric paper for an exchange. I need to send 5 half sheets of paper and will get 5 half sheets in return. I'm not sure this is my strong suit. If I understand the exchange right we are creating just the base paper fabric for someone else to use how they see fit. I kept wanting to add more, but I tried to keep it basic. I think it may have been better if I stuck to one color per sheet. I don't know, really. I've never done this before. I may add a little more ink to them yet. So far I'm not impressed with myself and I hope whoever gets them won't be too disappointed.


Soy wax batik was something else we tried. We did this once before and I really liked the results. My sister found a couple of old kitchen tools at a garage sale last summer and gave them to me. Thanks Jo! We all loved using these.

I pressed them down with the flat surface but others were rolling along the edge creating a series of dots.

All in all it was a fun day filled with laughter and friendship.
Have a creative day
Janet

Dyeing scarves!

Hello,

Still getting ready for the spring fling sale.  Today I'm dyeing scarves.  I have quite a few. I figure if they don't sale I'll have gifts to give for awhile!  I'm using some soy wax batik, procion dyes, jacquard paints, and rust dye.  Might do some stamping too.  I'm just having fun playing with these different techniques.

My husbands eyes lit up when he saw the new electric skillet on the counter this morning.  Poor man thought I was going to cook!  I bought an inexpensive skillet to use for melting wax.  I do cook but I'm not always as creative any more, especially when I have a deadline.  And probably too often my cooking skills resort to a phone call for take out.  This is what the counter in our kitchen looked like by the time he left for work.  And here is my new skillet. I used the soy wax on five of my six cotton scarves.  Each one is a little different.  It will be fun to see how they turn out.  I plan to dye them and than overdye them.  Also planning to overdye the cotton scarf I already rust dyed.  I have 12 each of two sizes of silk scarves.  I took six of each and am dyeing those with procion dyes.  Than I plan to use the soy wax and dye them once more.  They will be well dyed at any rate.  Here are some photos of my waxed fabrics and my silk scarves in the dye. Have a creative day! Janet

Fabric over dyeing

                                                       
Yesterday I finished over-dyeing my soy wax batik fabrics plus a few shibori dyed fabrics that I wanted to finish. I haven't decided yet if I am pleased with all of the results but I had a lot of  fun working on these.  The shibori fabrics I have had ready to paint since late summer, early fall.  We were making trips from our house to the h
omes of relatives.  Tying the fabric for shibori was an easy relaxing way to spend the time in the car.  I think I will make a habit of leaving fabric ready to tie or stitch near my tv.  When I stop to watch a show I can also create some new fabrics.  

 know I like this first one with the green edges and the yellow dots.  If you look at it the right way(from either end) it looks like a field of yellow flowers.  I will have to experiment more with refining this technique. The next two cloths are some I did in a shibori dyeing class taught by Marjorie McWilliams at Quilt University online.  The lighter colored parts were white and I overdyed them both.  Not sure I like the blue and reddish one as well since I added the overdye.  Before with the white it was almost a patriotic fabric, now the blue has a slight greenish tint.  I have one other shibori fabric I am working on right now.  I'm trying to make a butterfly.  I'll let you know if it turns out.

   The next photos are my soy waxed batiks I showed you in an earlier post.  Now they are finished.  Not sure what I will make with them yet.  I'll have to think about it for awhile, I'll hang them on my design board one at a time until something comes to me.  I also threw some cheesecloth into the dyes to use with my embellisher.  Not sure they will work but they did end up bright colored.  Have a great day! Janet

  

Soy Wax Batik, learningfa(fiber arts)

     My first post told of my adventures with The Rosie Quilters (my small group).  The seven of us gathered at the school where one is a (let's see if I can get the title right) Family and Consumer Science teacher.  We had a big classroom with lot's of tables and outlets to plug in our electric skillets.  It was perfect.  We had a good time and each learned from the other as we went along.  None of us had done this before.  Yesterday I spent some time dyeing my soy wax batik fabrics and washing out the wax.  I haven't done any dyeing since early last summer so I had to do a little refresher first but I think they are looking pretty good.  The two fabrics I painted while at the school on Saturday have crisper design patterns than the two I brought home to dye.  I lost wax along the way.  I don't know if it was just the cold that made it crack and fall off or if you should always do the batik immediately but that's what happened to mine.  I like them in spite of losing a little of the design.  I plan to spend one more day with these fabrics before I call them finished as I want to color in the white.  I'm thinking maybe yellow with the purple but I'm not sure.  I haven't decided what to add to the raspberry colored fabric yet.

I have been anxiously and not very patiently waiting for my class on how to make a blog.  The class is this Saturday.  As you can see I jumped the gun and started my blog early.  I have many questions though and can't wait to learn the answers.  I feel fortunate to have found the yahoo group hosted by Shirley Patterson called learningfa, for learning fiber arts.  It is kind of a cooperative as people in the group take turns teaching each other skills that we have.  I originally signed up because I was interested in the thread painting taught by Shirley, she does amazing work and you will find a link to her blog here on my site.  She truly is a wonderful person who has taught me many things in the short time I have been a member of this group.  Chris will be teaching our blog class and she has one hundred students!  I will periodically post things I have learned to do on this site.  Here is a postcard I used my new thread painting skills to create. 

Today is a class day for me.  I received three classes along with my embellisher so I am going to take one of those.  Tonight I have a class called My Bernina Does That!  I will learn about a few new feet and what they can do.  Sounds like fun.  I'm also working on some postcards for a couple of exchanges and a landscape challenge that Shirley gave us to do.  I'm hoping to re-create Split Rock Falls in northern Minnesota.  I'll keep you posted. Janet