One Project Complete

I was able to finish my Image to Fabric Sheet Transfer project...then I went shopping for more art supplies! I'm fairly pleased with the way this turned out, I just wished I had ramped up the color little more so it didn't look so cloudy, but for the end project, this may be just perfect. I've added the sketch that will be the main part of an art quilt I am going to create later this year. I want to take my classes at the Houston Quilt Show first and use some of the techniques I'm going to learn. Anyway, here it is. The saying at the top says "Keys, Keys, Everywhere Keys...Marie Held a lot of Keys...But Who Really Held the Key to Marie?"...If you knew Marie, you would understand...

Technique Day!

Today is a beautiful day! A cold front moved into North Texas and it is only going to be in the 90's today!!!! What a change from our triple digit heat. Knowing that we are going to have beautiful sunshine today I really want to get out and paint fabric. My trust worthy husband and son are cleaning and sealing the concrete area for my paint station in the back yard. I am so looking forward to this!! (can you tell?) Anyway, I thought I would work on through some of the techniques that I need to catch-up on with my online group (we're using Fabric Art Workshop by Susan Stein). The first lesson I started on this morning is scanning and printing on fabric cotton and organza. When Jeff's aunt died earlier this year and we cleaned out her house, I came home with a load of keys she had from her Real Estate days. I've scanned them in and have put some of my hand painted fabric behind them for color. I just didn't like the white background, I have to have color! The first two pictures have the white background. As you can see I controlled the color temperature and saturation to make the image black and white.

These next images have the hand painted fabric behind them and I have tweeked the color temp and saturation to make the background pop and and fall flat.

It's Still HOT Outside and I'm Thinking Up Some HOT Ideas!

It's still Hot in Texas and I know there are going to be a lot more days of triple digits. But no matter what the weather is like, I wake up almost every morning saying, "Okay, what can I play with today in my studio?" Mornings are my best creative time, I wake up and the house is quiet and nothing has interfered with my clear head. The last several days I've been making notes and sketches for a series of quilts that I want to create...I'm not giving any details yet....but they will be very different from what I have done in the past and I'm really going to push myself out of my "comfort zone" to try some new techniques and materials.
This week we have company, so I won't be able to get into my studio until later in the week, so until then...

It's HOT in Texas!

You know summer is really rolling in Texas when we have triple digits for several days in a row during the first part of July, it is HOT in Texas!!!!!
Speaking of summer, my friends Sue and Terri with "Two Creative Studios" are running a "Summer Giveaway Event". To sign up for their giveaway, just sign up for their newsletter! I'll make it real easy for you, click "here" and you will link right to their page to sign up for their newsletter. Sue and Terri have a great website with online classes and projects. Sue just put a free project on how to do Soy Wax Batik. She must have been reading my mind on how to get started with this! Thanks Sue!!!!
I hope you all have a great summer, I'm going to spend the next week kissing and playing with my five month old twin granddaughter's while they are here!
Have a beautiful day!

Final Day of Free Shipping!

Today is the last day of my Grand Opening FREE SHIPPING Special in my ArtFire studio, Studio Jules. If there is an item you have been watching, today is the day to make your purchase and get FREE SHIPPING!

My next project is going to be an angel quilt. I haven't decided if it is going to be a Garden Angel or a Fiber Art Angel, ideas for both are going through my head and landing on my sketch pad. I have made a vow to myself that with each quilt I will learn a new technique and use it in the quilt. I have some pretty awesome books using different techniques, so we'll see what happens! I'll blog about the techniques as I get to them.

Until then, enjoy the rest of you weekend!

Happy Fourth of July!

I love holiday weekends, relaxing with the family and watching Fire Works! But business comes first sometimes. I am almost finished cleaning and reorganizing my studio. I'll post pictures when I'm done. I want to get finished and play with the grandgirls!
I extended my Grand Opening Free Shipping through the Holiday Weekend, my Present to you for the Nations Birthday! I have just posted more bookmarks, fabric and hankie blanks.
Okay, need to get busy and finish cleaning this room! My reorganization looks great and it is going to be so much easier to work in here now!

Re-Grouping and Prioritizing

Spending the last two days painting fabric with the grandgirls and trying out a couple of new techniques has been fun. But by the end of the day yesterday I was frazzled and needed to re-think some of my objectives. I have a lot and I mean a lot of new ideas in my head for purses, journals and art quilts. Yesterday I was getting myself confused on what my objective and priorities are.

So, today I'm going to spend it re-grouping and organize my thoughts and projects. This will be good. I have a busy month coming up with our daughter, her husband and their twins coming in town in two weeks, along with the SIL's family. Since they are going to be in town, we planned a family reunion for my husband's side of the family.

Okay, with all that said, I'm off to find all my different note pads, post it notes and journal pads of ideas and sketches....

Painting Fabric with the Grandgirls

Yesterday my daughter-in-law, Amanda, and I painted t-shirts in my studio with my grandgirls. Nickola and Betty had a lot of fun, well Betty lost interest after one shirt and was ready for a nap. Nickola could have painted and painted and painted.

Amanda is a great artist, I love the shirt she painted. After we shut down the studio last night and the kids were asleep, she headed back to my studio and started painting some onsies for Husdon and the grandtwins in California.
It is so much fun to introduce being creative and free thinking with the girls. Nickola is very creative. She had done the hand print method at Pre-School this year, so she had fun with that. I think I'll let her do some more again today, but I need to get busy and prep the fabric for her.
I was up early this morning and I'm painting some PFD (Fabric Ready to Dye) scraps to make purses and journal covers with. Right now the rock salt is curing on the paint. I'm also painting some ladies hankies. Their looking pretty sweet!
I'm trying some different techniques today with the paints. I'll let you know later what I did and how they turned out. Till then, have a sunshine day!

Fabric Beads - I'm Having Too Much Fun!

I'm making bookmarks to put out in my ArtFire Studio. I'm also going through some of the techniques in "Fabric Art Workshop" by Susan Stein. One of the techniques is making Fabric Beads. So much fun! And a great way to use up some of the scraps in my Scrap Bin. I hate throwing away fabric and thread when I'm working on a project and this gives me a great way to "Be Green"! The first picture shows some netting that is leftover from a project with varigated threads laid on it. The next pictures are of the beads after I have heat set them. I'm going to dust them with a light spray of polyurethane to seal them and give them a little bit of shine. After I get that done, my bookmarks will be complete and those pictures will be in my next blog post.
Until next time, have a Fabtastic Day!

One of My Finds in Santa Fe

While we were in Santa Fe, walking around and looking in Antique Stores and such, I found this great looking leaves on a "Clearance Rack". I thought they would make great rubbings with my Artist's PaintStik's. So yesterday I pulled out some of my left over hand painted fabric and started rubbing. I love it! You can see the veining in the pictures. I'm going to use this sample on some bookmarks that I'm making to add to my ArtFire Studio.

Studio Jules Grand Opening!

Studio Jules is open for business on ArtFire! Just got back from Santa Fe, NM yesterday and have been working fast and furious this afternoon to post Fabric by the Yard, Measuring Tapes and Fat Quarter Bundles into my Studio. Take a peek and let me know what you think!

Last Day in Santa Fe!

Today is our last day in Santa Fe! Yesterday we went to Taos, we took the scenic drive up and I took several pictures of the snow that was on top of the mountains. Can you believe snow in June! Being from Texas, it's unheard of! Anyway, I wanted to go to LaLana Wool in Taos. What a wonderful shop! They had great purses and clothing that were hand dyed and woven. What I was really excited about was the raw wool, wool blends and silk they have, raw and dyed. I bought some of both! I was amazed with the colors and varieties of wool and silk. Some of the skeins were not just dyed once, some had multiple color blends. I bought one that is a yellow/green and indigo blend. It is gorgeous and totally different from what I usually buy color wise. They even had wool straight off the sheep! I could still smell the sheep! I have been around sheep before when I was very young; I forgot how soft and oily the wool can be. It brought back wonderful memories of being at a friend’s house and going out to see the sheep. One of the finds I bought there were these little snippets of dyed wool that you can buy by the ounce. I bought several colors and can’t wait to use them!

Anyway, back to my finds in Taos. This wonderful little shop also carries flower deadheads to use for creating your own dyes. The sales lady told me of the wonderful bookstore in the Plaza and so I ventured there next and bought several books on creating my own home dyes with flowers and plants. After I read through them some more I give you a review of the books.

So, go to their website and see what they have. I haven’t even touched the surface on telling you about the wonderful inventory they have. The Saleswoman that helped me was wonderful and wrote in detail on my sales ticket what I bought so I will know what to reorder from home!

Off to site see some more!!!!
Jules

Georgia O'Keeffe

Today we went to the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, NM. I'm inspired! I left saying, okay, I'm ready to go home, go to my studio and paint. I stood there reading her quotes, looking at her paintings, oil and watercolor, and telling my husband "That's how I feel. That's how I want to paint." So after I kick off the Grand Opening of Studio Jules, on Artfire, June 15th, watch for my paintings on cotton and silk. I've got ideas bouncing around in my head that are just eager to jump out on to some type fabric!!!

As I mentioned above, Studio Jules will have its Grand Opening on June 15th! As a Grand Opening Special there will be Free Shipping! Right now all I have in my Studio are fabrics and notions. I have some Handmade items in the wings ready to complete before I can put them in the Studio. Going through all of the art galleries in Santa Fe, I've journaled several ideas of items I want to start making, so keep on the watch of new arrivals in Studio Jules! Well, okay, I'm sure I'll be telling you all about them here on the blog as they are being created...you got me there!

Sorting and Organizing

Today I'm sorting through fabric, notions, trim....whatever else I find in my studio. I'm getting ready to post items on ArtFire. As soon as "Studio Jules" is up and running I'll put my link out for you to follow. The reason I'm sorting and organizing is because I'm in the midst of remodeling my Studio. It used to be a media room and I desperately need a window. Since the window is going where I have all of my thread racks (and I have a lot of thread!), I need to a new home for my thread. I also have fabric and trim that I brought home from cleaning out Aunt Marie’s house and need to organize all of these treasures. With all of this remodeling and cleaning out I decided to open an Artfire account and sell some of the fabric and trim I’m not going to use. So watch my Blog for the Grand Opening of "Studio Jules" on ArtFire!

Journal Complete

For some reason I forgot to post the picture of the completed Journal. I love it! I'm using this journal to keep track of things I want/need to accomplish in the Studio, plus any art quilt ideas I have. I'll call this my "Traveling Journal".
Hey, the sun is out, it's a beautiful day, I hope you are going to get out an enjoy the day that God made!

Journals in the Making

My afternoon time ran short today, so I decided to use come of the scrap batiks I have. I hate to throw away scraps and have a huge bin full of them. Some of the scraps already have Misty Fuse or WonderUnder on the back of the fabric, so it's ready to use! I hadn't used my stamps and Paintstiks in a while, so I thought I would paint some flowers on the front and then just doodle on the inside a back of the journal.


To protect the flowers I used Misty Fuse and adhered a blue piece of chiffon to the top. On the insides and back I used my Fabrico markers and a Bic Whiteout pen to doodle.

I found these great little recycled paper journals at Target. For Mother's Day I adhered some of my hand painted fabric to the front and back and then taped pictures of the grand kids to the pages for my mom, sister and DIL. They loved them and loved that I used my fabric!
Next I'm going to cover my sketch book. I'm going to try some different techniques for this tho. Hey, have a great weekend and I'll be back at you soon!

New Item on my Links!

Hey, I just found this really great blog and website - KC Willis, Lipstick Ranch, she has a Collage Camp! It is a great site and they have even done an episode about her on HGTV. She is doing a $300 give away right now. So check out my links to go to her site. If you want to join in the fun to her give-away click on the picture and it will take you to the page to add the picture to your blog, website and/or Facebook. So link up and enter to win! I have!

Qult Labels Finished!

This is the sweet miniature quilt I made three years ago for a church auction. One of my friends bought it and I just now made the label for it and put it on! Time flies!
I finished the labels for the quilts I made my little Hudson too. Glad to get those "little things" off my "To Do" list.
Now that I have my errands run, labels stitched on quilts and laundry in the works, I'm going to cover a couple of sketch pads and journals. I need a fun, learning project today. Reward myself for my weekly accomplishments!
I'll show you the results when I'm done! Have a sunshine day!
J

Good Morning!

It is a beautiful day! I hope wherever you are the weather is beautiful too! I love Spring and the mornings filled with sunshine. It really energizes me to accomplish something wonderful. Today I'm starting off with my Pilate's session, last private lesson, back to group Pilate's next week. My daughter-in-law is joining me today, she hasn't done Pilate's before and wants to see what it is like.
On to accomplishing something wonderful today...I started quilt labels yesterday for the three quilts I made for our precious grandson Hudson. I also made a label for a miniature quilt I made three years ago and donated to a church silent auction. A friend of mine won the quilt and brought it over last week for me to put the label on. So, today I will finish the labels and stitch them on the quilts.
After I finish stitching the labels I'm going to start organizing items to put on Artfire and/or Etsy. I have a lot of fabric that I have collected over the year that I just don't think I will every use. Plus, I have a lot of vintage patterns and items that I brought home from when we cleaned out Aunt Marie's house.
Next week I want to make some new bags. Quiting Arts has put a free e-book on their site with 7 quilted bag patterns. I downloaded it the other day and can't wait to make some of these bags. I always seem to want to make a new purse/bag when we go on vacation and since we are going to Santa Fe this year, I need something Southwestern! Plus the e-book has a great pattern for a shopping bag! I always leave my shopping bags in the car and remember after I am halfway through the grocery store! Then I walk out with 7 plastic bags to recycle! Maybe if I make a few bags I'll remember to take those cute things in!
Need to run to Pilate's! Have a sunshine day!

Fresh New Day...and Last Night Was Fun!!!

I felt very accomplished last night after finishing the Pumpkin Quilt top. After dinner we spent some time sitting on the patio watching Nickola ride her new bicycle, then we decided to let her ride down the side walk a bit and take a family walk. Betty got to ride on the tricycle while her Daddy pushed her. The other fun event last night was the turtle we found next to one of our outside air conditioning units. Jeff set him free behind our fence (there is a gate) to make his own way to the pond behind us. Some how, I see a small art quilt out of one of the turtle pictures I took....I love the moss that is attached to his shell!

Pumpkin Quilt Top Complete!

Finally!!!!! I love the way this turned out. I didn't want to use the same fabric for the sashings and borders. The border fabric is one of my favorite fabrics in my stash. Now, I have to quilt this huge quilt, it is roughly 71"x74". I guess this will be one of my summer projects!!!
Off to do some things around the house, or I may relax with a movie or show that I taped, or do some Pilate's/Yoga to stretch out. My shoulders are achy from sitting over the sewing machine for the past several days....See ya'!

Pumpkin Quilt Top

I'm determined to finish this quilt top today. It is going slower than I thought it would. Today I'm picking out the rows I sewed together yesterday. The blocks didn't line up correctly, so I'm going to have to do some adjustments today...I think this is the last of the large quilts I am going to do. Smaller Art Quilts are calling me!!!!

Pumpkin Quilt Day

Well, I've been to Pilate's already this morning and feel great! :) I have one block and the header block to finish up today on the Pumpkin Quilt. As long as there are no major distractions I should be able to get these done today and start working on the sashing!

Pumpkin Quilt Progress

This morning started off with 8 blocks stitched out, let's see how many I can get finished today! I feel charged up since I finished the Sunflower Shawl yesterday.

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!

Angel T-Shirt Finished!

I actually got a project started and finished in one day!!! Oh, this feels good! I tried out several different methods of painting.

Picture #1 is of the angel statue picture laid out to trace on transparency film.

Picture #2 shows my test fabric on top of the clear transparency, ready to trace.

Picture #3 I used my Fabrico Markers to paint this one. It is more than I really want on the t-shirt, but at least I got to practice my highlighting and shading.

Picture #4 is Luminere Metallic Silver on the body and dress and Luminere Metallic Gold on the wings.

Picture #5 is the Sand Fabrico Marker on the wings with Luminere Metallic Gold on top of the Sand. The body and dress have Fabrico Cool Grey Marker with Luminere Metallic Silver on top of the Grey.

Picture #6 is a combination of the Fabrico markers (color Sand) on the wings, then topped it with Luminere Metallic Gold. The dress is painted with the Luminere Metallic Silver and the flowers are painted with Fabrico Markers (colors Wisteria and Peony Purple).

Picture #7 is the last test I did and was very happy with. It is a just the angel bust with Fabrico Sand and Luminere Metallic Gold on the wings and Luminere Mettallic Silver on the body and dress.

The last picture is of the completed t-shirt using the method of picture #7. I also wrote out Hebrews 13:2 on the right side of the shirt ~ "Be Not Forgetful to Entertain Strangers for Thereby Some Have Entertained ANGELS Unaware." One of my favorite verses.

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!

Where Has the Time Gone?

Where has the time gone? I've been busy with getting ready for Mother's Day and haven't been in the studio to be productive in days. We had a wonderful gathering here Saturday of family and friends. Mr. Wonderful was incharge of the menu and cooking, he did a wonderful job. Hope everyone out there had a wonderful day too. Hopefully this afternoon I'll be in the studio to continue on the Pumpkin Quilt, or maybe I'll sketch an angel for a T-shirt...haven't decided yet.......

Back to the Pumpkins

Well, I'm 80% done with the sunflower shawl. My Sky Mist marker is getting weak, so I have ordered more and will finish the front of the shawl when they arrive. The back and lace for the edges are finished and just waiting on the front to be completed. So...today I'm going to work on the pumpkins...since I didn't get to them a week or so ago.
Last week Nickola (granddaughter #1) and I hung my hummingbird feeder and last night she came running into the house to tell me that while she and PawPaw were grilling a hummingbird zoomed by to go to the feeder. She was so excited! I was too. We did a high five and I told her how great it is that the hummingbird found the feeder she helped put out! Her smile and excitement were precious.

Last year we had two hummingbirds fighting over the feeder, and it was right at our familyroom window, so we were able watch them all the time. When we would sit on the patio they would zoom by us and didn't really care how close we were. I took this picture last year when the hummingbird was just sitting looking into our familyroom while we watched TV. It was amazing. I was able to even go outside and take pictures without him (or her) caring a bit that I was only a few feet away.

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.