9/27/09

More Art Paper

Got a lot of handwork done this week.

Also used some of the paper from last weekend to alter the covers of two notebooks...


I think they came out well....

Also made more art paper, which I have photographed and now will print on material...
here is just some of the ones I did this week...I think they are exciting!





9/20/09

Artist Book

Yesterday's workshop with Lisa Renner was awesome!

We spent the morning creating art paper and then used two of the pieces we made to make the covers for an Artist Book.  Here Lisa (on left) is showing some of the books she has made, with Katina acting as Vanna...









This is my result and I am very pleased!



Even the paper I made for the inside of the covers was way cool!



And the signatures are sewn in, so it was a wonderful bookbinding experience.

I was so inspired with some of the techniques I learned yesterday, that I took this 'plain' piece of handdyed material
and spruced it up to this...

great change, huh?  I can hardly wait to stitch on it.

I could also see making art paper, photographing it and then printing on cloth to have my own unique material...like these I took of not only the paper I made yesterday, but the ones I also made today.

I think they will make for some great fabric pieces!

9/13/09

Happy Birthday,Dave!

Dave is having a good birthday - a personal chocolate cake, ice cream and fresh berries - followed by an afternoon of BBC's "Playing Shakespeare" - a wonderful series of Master classes with members of the Royal Shakespeare Company (including Patrick Stewart, long before ST days; David Suchet, long before his stint as a detective; and Judy Dench ).



It's a great afternoon to stay inside and do handwork; the rain sounds wonderful on the skylights.
This little fellow stopped by on the back door - Dave said it must be hard to be a flutterby in this type of weather, getting hit by raindrops that weigh more than you do!

9/9/09

Dye Lesson


Nice long weekend - books got read, painting got progressed, movies got watched, Chinese delivery got eaten and power naps got taken!

Also did some more container dyeing - good and bad...
A silk shawl began like this
went to this
and turned out like this
Beautiful!  I love scrunching up fabric in containers and have it come out so varigated and wonderful.
But the 3 yards of bamboo fabric?
Started like this
But came out like this after the rinse!!!!

Can you say WRONG TYPE OF DYE?????  I can.
And if I had wanted sky material, I couldn't have done it to save my life.

Oh well - I'll keep a yard of it like this and redo the rest.  Next time, with the right type of dye!

9/4/09

Joys of the Guild


I'm glad I made the extra trip yesterday...since Dave is out of town, I had to go home after work and take care of the dog before turning around and going back for the Dallas Quilt Guild meeting (an hour home, but only 30 minutes back....)...and I'm so glad I did - I met up with my fiber arts posse (we managed to score an entire row, so I guess we looked kind of like a gang).

The best part of any of these meetings is the "Bring and Brag" section before the program starts because you get to see what your fellow fiber artists have been up to...

We got to see the three winners of the Covers for Kids - Lu won third (that's the top of her head behind the one on the far right) - Congratulations, Lu!
We got to see the results from a workshop of "new quilters"...some of them had never even sat at a sewing machine before...I think they did a fabulous job!
Someone brought a very old quilt that someone in her family gave her to "practice" her quilting on...she said "I don't think so..." and brought it to share with us just as it is...how fabulous...


Someone else brought a small string quilt made from blocks by her students in a class - and donated it to the Covers for Kids project...



Sara shared her quilt top made from her new fabric line, as well as one of her quilts that will be featured in a new book that will be coming out soon..
But the room was packed because we were all there to hear David Taylor talk about his journey into quilting...he was extremely entertaining and his quilts are obsessively overwhelming (you can see his quilts at http://www.davidtaylorquilts.com/).

Here he is with his Seasons series..

the leaves?  individually cut 1/8" squares...
did I mention obsessive?

 
One of my favories is his Christmas Chickadee (which you can own for $18,000...)

awesome, huh?

now check out the back...

that's the quilting you are looking at...Can you say OMG?

I had a great time...but I think I'll stick to my abstracts for now.