Now how did you do that?

I have a dear friend ask me for more detail on how I did the piece below. Here is a step by step for the next little piece I am working on.

 

Use a picture or drawing, trace the front outlines of what you want to stitch.

Use a good pen that will bleed to the back. trace again to get a clean outline. If you want to make multiple images, make copies, reduce or enlarge your image.

 Fuse the fabric to the front of a stiff base like pellon.

 

 Attach the copy to the back of the Pellon.

 

 I just pin mine in place.

So now you have Pellon sandwich,
your fabric on the front,

Pellon in the middle and your copy on the back.

 

 Stitch through the paper copy and pull off the copy on the back.

 

 And what you are seeing is basically bobbin work

and because you flipped the image and then stitched

from the back it is in the proper orientation.

 

I learned this technique from Danny Mansmith (no kidding Mansmith, I love the name)

 

http://dannymansmith.wordpress.com/  Please visit him!

 

Hugs till next time.

Unity in Passions

I finely got off my butt and did a piece to the readers challenge for Quilting Arts Magazine. This was a “Hands” challenge. It was the perfect opportunity to try out a new technique I learned from the blog of Danny Mansmith, a very talented artist from Seattle Washington. He works from his original drawing but it could be done from anything. I took a photograph of my hands. He did not have instruction for this but you can follow his pictures. Outline the image you wish to stich, use a sharpie as you want it to bleed to the back. Flip your photograph over and trace it again so the line is easy to see. You can either work from this or make copies if you want to stitch more than one of the items. I used a very stiff interfacing and fused white Kona cotton to one side. Place that face down and pin you drawing/photograph whit the back facing you and stitch. Color was added with Inktence Water-soluble Pencils As you were stitching from the back and the fabric is facing down everything will come out correct. But keep in mind you are going to see the bobbin thread so be sure you have the correct color in it. I matched my bobbin thread to my top in case I had any tension issues.

The crumpled fabric was achieved by moving the fabric as use fused it to the base.

I sent it off yesterday, which was two days late to enter the challenge, but you never know maybe they will consider it for the challenge. I have already started the next piece for the next challenge so I am not late for that one. One aspect will be Danny’s technique.

 

More Dyeing, This is getting to be a habbit!

I am planning on making soy wax resist dyed scarves for my group at work. As none of them look at my blog, I will give y'all a snick peek. I am purchasing the ready to dye scarves from Dharma Trading Co. The test you will see below is cotton. I have been doing a little research and I can dye silk using the same process. Dharma also carries silk scarves for a few pennies more. Best guess is I am going to be making 40-50 of these for work, friends, and family. You will also see below fabric I was just playing with. I liked the circle so much I had to make some fabric with the same design.

The Frame I build, Got the PVC pipe idea from a picture on the Dharma Trading Co. website.

 

Materials

Ready to dye.

Close up

Circle Fabric

 Just playing with a brush.

Dyed

Little scrap left over, just playing around.

I'm Still Dyeing Here!

As promised, I got out in the garage today and did all the same treatments with black dye. Just like the article said, all other color other then red, blue and yellow are made up of many other colors. Look closely at the pictures below you can see the red and yellow clearly and not I did not just add those. I would have been happy if no other colors come out.  This has been such fun! I can myself doing this for a long while. I am beginning to see why artist love to make their own fabrics. And I really can't wait to cut them up. Now if I did not have three other projects going I need to finish but then again the UFO pile is looking like it need something new one top, LOL. I don't normally make my images so large but I want you to see the colors.

 Sprinkled

 

 Sprinkled

 

 Crunched

 

Hanging to run the dye.

Hanging Dried

 

Crunched Dried

 

Just Sprinkled

 

 

I'm Dyeing Here

I want to show off some new fabrics I made…..Yes, made.  I was going to take a class in Plano on fabric dyeing and it was canceled after I had made all kinds of plans to get up there and book a hotel and… Fabric dyeing is something I have always wanted to do and have done some in my art quits with Rit Dye, but the professional us powered concentrated dyes. So I did some reading and ordered some dye from Dharma Trading Co.(http://www.dharmatrading.com/) along with tools to do some soy wax resist. As luck would have it the latest issue of Quilting Art had an article of dyeing with powdered dyes and it seemed easy enough.  It was so fun and easy, I asked over a good friend and we set to trying the three ways they suggested. This weekend I want to try drying using the same processing with two colors and just black. I will post the results.

The Bible

 

 Great Close-up
 

 Lay it flat and sprinkle the dye on
 

Bunch it up (Crunched)
 

 Good close up
 

Sprinkle it on then hang it and spray with a soda ask solution.

You can see I used just Red, Blue and Yellow. I want to play with mixing the dye....FUN FUN FUN!

Birthday Surprise

When I walked into work today this is what I found. I have great friends at work!

The Binder Machine

You know how hard it is when you are binding a quilt to keep the binding straight and not get entangled in everything. I have designed this little gadget. Anyone what to order one, LOL.

I WON! and won and won and won and won.

On April 19 and 20, 2013 my local quilt guilt, Kingwood Area Quilt Guild, had it's bi-annual quilt show and auction. When I inquired how many quilts had been entered in February I was told only a few. So I enter as many as I could get together, 14, to make sure we had a full show. Never again, that many, I don’t care if I ever sew on another rod sleeve on a quilt! I was hoping I would win a Honorable Mention at best, we have some great artist in our guild. Well I must be one of them I won 5 ribbons, two with the help of my magnificent machine quilter, Margaret Erickson.

1st Place - Professional Machine Quilting

Honorable Mention - Professional Machine Quilting

3rd Place - Large Art Quilt AND

Best Original Design 

1st Place - Mixed Media Art Quilt

 

I could have cried the 1st time thay called my name. I only went to the awards presentation to show my support for my fellow quilts. I never expected to walk away with 5 ribbons. It is nice to be validated. I will have to start on the larger shows and see if I can't get my dreams started. Look what can happen when you put yourself (and your work) out there.

New work in the Spring

Working on a new piece, the idea came to me one day to I jotted it down on a post-it before I forgot it. Then it just rolled around my head for a few months.

in these fabrics.

Now you will just have to wait and see what comes out.

Organized

I have been meaning to put this up for a couple of months. I was over a dear friends place and saw how awesome her fabric was and asked how she did it. The secret is the 6 x 24 “ruler, which she could not believe I did not have. Now that I own it I sue it more than any other ruler.  

V-Day Gifts

I have found a great new product for paining on fabric, Winsor Newton's Artisan Water Mixable Oil Colour Starter Set. Who said oil and water don't mix. I got the idea for these gift for my co workers from Cloth Paper ScissorsJan./Feb 2013.

 

 

Then I am adding some rubbins with my new rubbing plates and Shiva's Artist's Paintsik.

Here is the work after just painting the hearts. And I found the trick is to purchase fabric that is dye ready, I ordered Kona as I love the weight of it. Even after washing reg. Kona all water based painted sit on the surface.

 

I will add more pictures later.

 

It Has Been Too Long!!!

I like to post my Christmas decoration here so I can remember what I did last year as well as so everyone can see them. So here are 2012 Chrictmas decoration.