Dallas Area Fiber Artists Exhibit at the Dallas Quilt Celebration

Friday kicks off the 2010 Dallas Quilt Celebration and the Dallas Area Fiber Artists have a wonderful exhibit showcasing the different works of our members. Today I helped with the setup of the exhibit and it is wonderful! I had taken my "Sunflower with a Passion for Color" quilt with me to add some beads to it if I had time while we were waiting for our group to submit their artwork. You know how it is, you always have to take something to work on or a book to read, no matter where you go or what you do! Anyway, we ended up needing a couple of extra pieces, so I added some more beads and then hung it up! I'm so excited! The other pieces I have in the show are my Old Alton Bridge, Mexican Sunflower and Sunflower Shawl. These call all be seen on my website or my gallery that is linked to my blog.
If you are in the Dallas area, it is worth the time to come to the show and see all the wonderful quilts and the DAFA exhibit!

Sunflower Shawl Finished!

This morning I got up early, in the mood to finish the Sunflower Shawl. I'm thrilled with the result of combining hand painting and thread painting. The thread painting isn't that noticeable, it's just enough to add definition and additional depth to the sunflowers. The handwriting in the background gives just enough movement so the sunflowers don't look like they are on a blank canvas. My thanks to my friend, Connie, for growing the actual flowers that I used as the subject for my shawl!

Click on the Sunflower pictures and you can see the detail of the thread painting.

Bright and Sunny Sunflower Day!!!

Well, I have two hours before Pilates, so I'm going to see if I can get the front and back together on the Sunflower Shawl. I have already attached the crocheted lace edge, now it is time to cut the inside fabric and sew the front and back together. This afternoon I'll do the decorative stitching on the sunflowers and leaves.
It is hard to be inside today, the weather is absolutely beautiful today and would be a wonderful day to paint fabric outside. My Mr. Wonderful and our son started working on my paint station yesterday. I'm so excited to have a corner of the yard just for my fabric painting. My dreams are coming true!

Taking a Break from the Pumpkins

I worked most of yesterday on stitching around the applique' of the Pumpkins yesterday. I completed 4 blocks, so that is 7 complete blocks and 5 more to go, plus the header. I know I'll get there!!!! I love the way it is turning out. It is going to wonderful to hang it in our foyer, above the stairs.
Since I feel accomplished with all my stitching yesterday, I decided to mix it up and paint today. I took this angel picture at a cemetery where some of my ancesters are buried in Texas. I'm going to enlarge it a bit and sketch it on a white T-Shirt and then watercolor. I have the vision in my head, so I hope it comes out the way my head it thinking. I'm also going to quote Hebrews 13:2 - "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." We have this verse on a plaque at our front door, and I think about it alot. Before I put this on the T-Shirt I'm going to test it out on PFD first. Can't wait to post the project!

Shawl Progress, Painting Day

It’s raining outside, so I’m in my studio painting the fabric for the back of my shawl. I decided to make it just a movement of the colors on the front. I like to make things simple and not get too extravagant sometimes so I ran the PFD (Prepared for Dying) fabric through the rinse cycle of the washing machine to get the fabric damp. Then I diluted the textile paint in spray bottles and started spraying. The colors were coming out a weaker than I wanted and I wanted a little more variation, so instead of adding more paint to the spray bottles, I got out my paint plates and lightly diluted some more of the paints and started sponging. I was able to control the movement of the colors into each other a little better and got the color depth that I wanted too. Now I have the fabric drying in my studio, partially hanging over a drying rack and partially over some organizing bins on my worktable, with the ceiling fan on high.

Looking through my stash of lace I found some crocheted scallops on old window valances. So I sponged them too. These will go on the short ends of the shawl.

Yesterday my husband and talked about creating a painting area for me in the backyard. We have this little section at the end of the patio, next to the side yard, that the former owners of the house had a hot tub sitting on. He is going to put a stainless steel table up for me to paint on there. That corner of the house gets the most wind on breezy days, so he is also going to put up a 4 foot fence to block the breeze, that way my paints won’t go everywhere like they have before and I’ll be able to have a little ledge to hang and store things while I’m painting. I’ll post pictures when it gets done. His “Honey Do List”, well when he gets a few things done, it seems that we add double the number of tasks for him to than what he just accomplished! What would I do without him! I definitely don’t want to find out.

Starting on the Words

Today I'm going to start writing on my shawl. We'll see how far I get, Betty is playing and Nickola is at school... I've chosen a collection of Bible verses and encouraging words to wrap myself in. I heat set the shawl yesterday and will heat set it again after I write the words. I'm going to use a fabric marker by Fabrico, the color is Sky Mist. I didn't want to use a color that would standout and take away from the main part of the shawl, but one to give a hint of movement in the background. I tested several different colors and brands before I decided on this one. I know I won't be done today, but hopefully I will get a good start. Tomorrow should be a good day to work on it also. Till then, have a great day!

I Get to Paint Today!

Well, yesterday didn't go the way I thought it would on Wednesday. Instead I was blessed with spending one on one time with granddaughter #2, Betty, all morning and then one on one time with granddaughter #1, Nickola, in the afternoon, when I picked her up from school. It was a beautiful day, Nickola and I bought flowers and planted them in the back yard. She's a good helper and very proud of her flower picks, I am too.
Today I am going to work on my Sunflower shawl. I need to do some additional work on the sunflowers and then I'll start on the background. I'm going to use a couple of different colors of blue and a few different techniques. We'll see what happens! I'm excited about this project!

The Quilt Studio Sign

Well, The Quilt Studio Sign is done, without any spelling mishaps! The only mishap that I have not is the "new" external hard drive we bought to house all of our photos decided to die after only one week. So, thank heaven for who ever invented digital camera's! I just took another one and here it is! Now I hope that our "computer dude" can "undelete" the pictures from our main computer that I deleted when I put them on the external hard drive.

This next picture is of the dress I made my little Nickola today. She's our oldest granddaughter and she loves to wear dresses. This dress is made from the "The Little Vintage Jumper" by Favorite Things. She just loves it, now if the Texas weather would get warm and stay warm, she can wear it! It suppose to be freezing again tonight, this is the time of year when the themometer rides one of the roller coasters at Six Flags!
I've cut out another dress for her that hopefully I will be able to finish tomorrow and then Wednesday we will wait for our new grandson to join our family!

Sunflower Shawl in Process

With shawls in style right now and I love wearing shawls, I decided to hand paint a shawl for myself and test out some of the mixed media I've been experimenting with. My friend, Connie had these awesome 10' sunflowers in her garden last year. When I saw them I knew there was an art quilt in the future. I have another idea in mind for the pictures, but this is the first one I am creating. The background is going to be different colors of blue with words written through it. Watch for the completed project later this spring!
The process I have already used is transferring the picture onto the fabric with an overhead projector. I'm using Jacquard Textile paints. The next process will be to use a resist so the blue for the background doesn't bleed into the sunflowers. I'll be testing on other fabric before I decide which resist I will use. I don't think I want any oops moments on this project! If you have any ideas for the best resist to use on a process like this, let me know.