Friday Morning I had a good start on my layouts. Still an overwhelming amount of fabrics to choose from;
some I like, some not-so-much. I start the tweaking process and doing some adding and subtracting of elements and fabrics or papers.

Today is a short day in that we have to have the room ready for the “all classes walk-through” by 4:30 pm and we are used to working into the wee hours. We also have to get all packed up and be ready for the Small Quilt Auction at 5:30 and the end of session Banquet at 7 pm. Gee, we will have to finish up the week with fun and food - poor us

But, to my everlasting surprise,
I finish all three pieces in time.

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Graduation!

Here are some detail shots (click to super-size). Nothing was safe in this room, here is the morning paper after it had been “transformed” with batik, dye and paint (left), then a detail of panel 1 showing an Angelina bead (right).

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Better shots of the three finished panels.

I feel like I learned a lot this week. I opened my eyes, then opened my eyes again (as Granny Weatherwax would say (from the Wee Free Men books by Terry Pratchett, my hero)). There is more to making fabric than just technique and that is doubly so for making art.

I came home to my vegetable and herb gardens having been overrun with weeds due to our very warm and wet week. Weeding is good right now, I can think and assimilate while I yank the little buggers up!

Deb H

Thursday’s class was a bit more intense, not in the way it had been; making fabrics and using new or improved techniques, but putting it all together in a composition. Looking at all of the fabrics and papers I have been making (with no real thought as to the final goal), I see I have a lot of very busy materials to work with. This will be a challenge!

To start, I cleared a space on my board and started pinning fabrics together to see if they even looked good (click on photos to bigmafy).

There was a lot of this.

And a lot more.

It’s truly amazing how much time you can spend just putting fabrics together.

Then ideas started to come. I decided on a three panel piece to explore the three ideas I had (sort of) forming. Three similar ideas - my first series!

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I got a rough idea of what I wanted for my first panel,
this one is all fabrics.

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Panel B’s first audition, this one is fabrics and paper.

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And the final panel is all paper (except for one tiny square) .

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By this time the day was over and my brain hurt.
But it will be a good start for tomorrow, the final day of class. The pressure is on!

One also needs to reflect on how it would be so great to do this every day, all year. Then I realize how tired I am after four days of this kind of intensity and drag my self upstairs to bed!

Deb H

I’m really Jazzed! My quilt, Moonlight Sonata, has made it on the front of another Post Card mailing for one of the exhibits on it’s 2 year tour.

And the company it’s keeping! The piece above mine is called Allegria by Cathryn Amidei and it’s the most awesome Jacquard weaving. This is in the New Fibers 2008 exhibit which I’ve just been to see at Eastern Michigan - Wow!

The Bonifas Art Center must be a great place as it’s even offering fiber art workshops, including an Art Quilts 101 by Kathie Briggs. So, if your in the northern part of Michigan - go see it! Just click on the image to biggy-ize it for reading.

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Monday I went to my spinning group (Friends of the Fleece in Imlay City, Michigan) and continued spinning on my yummy teal fleeced I dye and mentioned in an earlier post. It will be plied with the bright colors roving (dyed by me) that I finished spinning a couple of months ago. Don’t you think they will look great plied up?

I’m getting eager to see it happen. Of course, spinning is one of those luxuries I allow myself about two hours a month so….

Also at Monday’s spinning meeting, Kay S showed us wire knitting with beads. Here are some of her samples (click to big-ma-fy). Pretty cool! I think I could get a little hooked. Here is (left to right) Kay S, Mary D, and Carol E at our meeting.

First, she had us thread about 100 beads on some wire. I used a 26 gauge, teal colored wire and a mix of purple, size 11 Japanese seed beads. Then we simply cast-on five stitches and knit garter stitch, sliding 2 beads up the wire at every row turn. Notice I blithely said “simply”; wire is stiff, it had a small learning curve but “it’s doable” (to quote Mac in Entrapment). I diligently knit away until I had it long enough. Actually, until I ran out of beads! I have discovered you can fine tune the fit by stretching the knitting in either direction. It’s wire, it stays where you put it! I added a clasp and Finished!

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I thought it was fun, so started another

And lastly, I’m always looking for something new to torture into a use it was never intended for.

CD’s melt with a heat gun and the printing on the labels can give you some pretty cool textures. I’m not sure what use I will ever put it to, and you can tell by the scorch marks on the wood cutting board that you have to get it really hot - do this outside BTW, it’ hugely stinky and I’m sure, quite toxic. But, it was fun to torment the old free CD’s we all get so many of in the mail.

My biggest project for this week is getting ready to go to QSDS, I leave on Sunday for a 5 day workshop and I’m really excited about spending a week in such creatively charged company and atmosphere. I’m going to take my computer and if they still have wireless at the hotel, I’ll keep you posted. Meanwhile, I’m off to start collecting my supplies.

Deb H

I don’t have much to report on for last week’s artistic adventures. Our spring has been cool here but the warmer weather is surely just around the corner and since our “Frost Date” is (for the most part) Memorial Day, its time to get serious about the outdoor gardens. So I have spent most of my week prepping the vegetable and herb beds for my planned planting flurry this weekend.

Meanwhile, this round of sock classes (I’m teaching “Toe-Up, Two at a Time on One Needle Socks!” at Heritage Spinning and Weaving) is going pretty dang well. I’ve been very lucky with this last two classes as they have been “up to the challenge” and becoming sock knitting fiends. Here is my current class (from left to right); Linda, Carol, Suzanne, Diane, Pat, and Sue.

Don’t they just look like they are going to be producing mass quantities of hand knit socks in the very near future? BTW, Jane of my class that graduated in April has already brought in to show me her finished pair and they are beautiful, go Jane!

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I received a wonderful surprise in today’s mail. I have an art quilt in a traveling exhibit; Michigan Quilt Artist Invitational 2008, The Art of Music. I got a post card advertising the current exhibit and my quilt was one of the two quilts gracing the front. This is my first time to make it in print so I had to share.

And the back.

For better pictures of the quilt I have in the exhibit, I blogged about it last December.

And last but not least, it’s not just for sewing anymore… I saw this little gadget in a posh kitchen catalog and thought how it would be great for chopping up all my fresh herbs.

Then I thought, “this reminds me of something I already have”. I rummaged my sewing table and sure enough, I have 3 of these things so one could be spared.

OK, so the larger size would work better. I also have to take it all the way apart to clean it each time but, it works incredibly well and best — it was already paid for ;o)

Deb H

I’ve been keeping quite busy lately. I’m trying to paint my art supply room ( I hate painting) as it needs cleaning out and organizing very badly. I decided if I was going to rip it apart, I should paint it too - it is all white and y’all know how I feel about the absence of color - Ack!! Notice how I completely passed over the most disturbing part of that last sentence? A whole room that is just art supplies - very scary! So, by dribbles and drabs, I’ve been working on that. I also taught a new sock class recently which had to be written and was all about the options of toes; sock toes, it was fun!

And I’ve just started another of my Toe-Up, Two at a Time on One Needle Socks class. In fact, sock knitting must be hot because one filled up so I schedule another immediately following it and it’s full too. Cool beans!

But I’m also taking an online art class with Laura Cater-Woods. It’s called Idea to Image and it’s also an artist coaching group therapy class Laura is brilliant and has really helped me clear some cobwebs in my brain.

So, I’ve just started a new piece. I’ve decided to be brave and let you see the steps I’ve done so far. First, I want to keep this as non-objective as possible for a piece that actually has objects (I just learned a new term “non-objective art” is art with no recognizable objects in it; abstract). So, I’m trying to represent the theme of the work with just color - well, so far. Think — grape vine on a stucco wall. First blush at my idea was a water color.

Then, I added a sharp black, fine line to see if i like the contrast with soft color. I do.

Then I got out my fabric (silk noil). I decided that I’m a chicken and put in a few resist lines to represent the grape vine idea. The resist is Elmer’s Blue Gel School Glue - it works very well for this.

A better look at the resist.

Then I played with color!

It’s a bit more yellow than I planned but this is only the first layer of color. Since this is a wall piece, I don’t have to worry about how many layers I add and the fabric getting a stiff hand. If this was garment fabric, I would be very concerned but - I can explore this concept without that consideration.

Off to play some more!

Deb H