Summer in the City Charm Quilt

I found the charm pack fabrics for this little quilt a couple of years ago and it has been hanging out in my cabinet, waiting its turn to be put together. Yesterday it got its turn and it was worth the wait! It measures 12.5" x 12.5" and is a great size for the following: Doll Quilt, Tabletop Quilt, Placemat (great for if you are single!), Vintage Decor item, and just to have fun quilt! If you are interested in purchasing this quilt, you can find it in my ArtFire studio, Studio Jules.

Small Projects

This past Saturday I participated in a workshop put on by the Dallas Area Fiber Artists group. Lisa Renner was the guest instructor and boy did we have fun! It was a great way to let loose and experiment with inks, dyes, spray paints, rubber cement, gesso, stencils and rubber stamps. We learned a lot about layering color and had a great time encouraging each other. This is a great group, I'm so glad I finally decided to make the drive to Dallas once a month to join this group. It is well worth the drive!
Here are some pictures of my "Painterly Book" that I made. After I got home and embellished it some more, it just looked too flat. I added the fibers to the front, back and topped off my pen. I also added fabric to the pockets and the front and back. I just have to add fabric!

I couldn't resist making a little Art Quilt out of the scraps from my workshop with Frieda Anderson and Quilting Adventures. I just wanted a small quilt to explode with color with a few hidden items. A few of the men my husband works with proudly graduated from Texas A&M, and my brother and his kids proudly attended and attend The Univ. of Texas. Being the great sister that I am, I hid a longhorn in the quilt, and loving my garden the way I do, I also planted a flower in one of the corners. This little quilt will be in my ArtFire Studio if you are interested in it!

Two Belles and a Bead on ArtFire

There is an awesome shop on ArtFire ~ 2 Belles and a Bead. I just looked through all the jewelry and it is awesome! I may have started my Christmas list!
Two Belles and a Bead is just one of the wonderful ArtFire shops that is part of Texas ArtFire!
Enjoy!

Mexican Sunflower in Batik

Finished! This is the first quilt in my Sunflower Series. The pattern was made from a photograph I took of one of the Mexican Sunflowers in my garden. I decided to create this quilt in batiks, the next one will be in hand painted fabrics. My goal with these two quilts is to show the difference between using the batik and hand painted fabrics and to use a new technique on each quilt.
The next two pictures show the detail of thread painting (my favorite way to quilt) in the leaves and petals. I used the thread to create the detail and movement of the leaves and petals. I really like to extend the movement outside the lines and into the background. Somehow it helps create the flow of the flower into the background.
I did minimal quilting in the background of the quilt. I wanted the sunflower to keep the focus, so I used the horizontal lines of the fabric and quilted with matching thread.
My new technique on this quilt was the use of hand painted cheesecloth in the center and then beading the seeds into and on the center of the quilt. This was a fun process. I hadn't used cheesecloth before. I first selected a brown batik looking fabric (my brown batiks are limited, so I had to punt). Next I hand painted some cheesecloth with different browns, bronze, and copper paints. While the cheesecloth was drying I created free motion embroidered circles on the center piece of fabric. I didn't put circles all over the fabric; I wanted to leave room for more circles after I laid the cheesecloth down. After the cheesecloth was dry I manipulated it by stretching and scrunching the cloth to make vacant and dense areas. Then it was time to free motion embroider around it and hand stitch the beads under the dense areas. Taking my time, I let my eye and follow the lights and dark areas of the fabric create the areas that were beaded.

Two New Shops on Artfire!

There are two new shops on ArtFire that have joined the Shops with Less Than 10 Sales Quild.

Bean's Boutique has great jewelry and some of her things are perfect for Halloween and the upcoming Fall! She has earrings and necklaces for all ages!

Made for Me by Oaklie has beautiful knit scaves. Very stylish and awesome colors!

Don't forget, Christmas is just a couple of months away, so start shopping now with Bean's Boutique, Made for Me by Oaklie and StudioJules!

Final Two Days of My Birthday Sale

Today and tomorrow are the last two days of my Birthday Month Sale on Artfire! All Fat Quarter Bundles and Fabric by the Yard 50% off! All purchases are 10% off and Yes! that includes the Fat Quarter Bundles and Fabric by the Yard! Perfect two days to start your Christmas shopping! I've even modified my shipping charges for multiple items!And don’t forget, if you are on Facebook, you can access StudioJules via my ArtFire Kiosk!

Day Three Quilting Adventures with Frieda Anderson

Today was our last day with Frieda Anderson and it was a complete joy. Frieda is a wonderful teacher and quilter and I feel blessed to be able to spend the past three days with her and the wonderful group of women who joined me with Quilting Adventures.
Frieda did a wonderful job of explaining and showing us how to start, progress and complete our machine quilting. I will admit, machine quilting has not been my area of expertise in the past, but from this day forward, it will improve! It was refreshing to listen and watch and then execute what we were learning today. Heck, I have needles that are self threading in my stash and had no idea what they were or what to use them for! Now I do and they are now my favorite notion!

Frieda, thank you, thank you, thank you for the wonderful learning experience and encouragement on stepping out of the box with fusing, quilting and sharing your beautiful hand dyed fabrics.
To all my new Quilting Adventure Friends, I hope you all arrived home safely and are ready to practice...practice...practice, and fuse...fuse...fuse. The time we spent together was so enjoyable and I love making new quilting friends! Mona, I hope you feel better!
To Barbara and Alice (Quilting Adventures), I will treasure the conversations and the encouragement that each of you shared and gave me. I admire your drive to allow us to learn under the best teachers in the quilting world. I'll be back!!!
To my blog followers, if you want a great group of ladies to retreat with, Quilting Adventures is the best! I promise, if you go on your own or with a friend, you will go home with a lot of knowledge, fabric and friends!
Happy Quilting!

Day Two Quilting Adventures with Frieda Anderson

Today was a great day. Freida had us put away the projects from yesterday and design our own project from the pictures we brought. Last night we had to complete some sketches from our pictures. I did two tree sketches that I really like, but to be able to complete the process in a day, I selected the easier one, duh.... Anyway, when I started placing the fabrics for the sky, I really liked the way it was developing, so I lost the idea for the ground and just did a beautiful blue, green, tan and purple fused background. It is always hard for me to start of selecting fabrics, I always end up changing my mind 100 times. This one turned out way different than I first expected.
After I was real happy with very excited about the background it was time to audition the tree fabric. This was just as hard as the background, but once I layed down the brown and turquoise fabric, I was pretty sold on it. This is one of Frieda hand dyed pieces and it is just beautiful, it actually looks like leather with turqouise layed on it. I just love to hold it!


The pink fabric you see in the corner is the fabric I picked to be the oak leaves of the tree. I'm anxious to finish this piece after I get home. It is really going to be stunning in my entry way!
Tomorrow will be our last day, Frieda is going to have us quilting all day and learning her techniques for beautiful and fluid quilting. Today she gave us a slide show of her studio and quilting examples.
It was a great time today. This group of ladies are the best. We have ladies here this week that are doctors, lawyers, CPA's, retired and fiber artists. All very supportive, genuine and challenging themselves to use the right side of the their brain!

Day One with Quilting Adventures and Frieda Anderson

Sunday and yesterday were great. Getting to know Frieda Anderson and meet the other ladies who came to the annual Fall Quilting Adventures has been a blast. Sunday we had a gathering to get acquainted and show what we have been working on and/or have finished from the last workshop. Then we had a "get to know" session with Frieda and saw a lot of her quilts and hand dyed fabrics, beautiful colors! Yesterday we had our first full day of creating a tree quilt. This picture above is how mine turned out. I love the vibrant colors. It is all hand dyed cotton except for the tree trunk, stems and roots ~ that is hand dyed silk. All of the hand dyed fabric I used today was from Frieda's stash (kit) that she handed out for us to use. We all opted to skip our break yesterday afternoon and continue working. Here are some pictures of our group.




We had homework for today. We had to create a few sketchs to create our own tree quilt today. We'll also be using our own fabrics...and what we want to buy from Frieda!

Busy Week

I am having a busy, busy week. I leave Saturday for Boerne, Texas. I am going to a workshop put on by Quilting Adventures out of Kerrville, Texas. Frieda Anderson is going to be the instructor for the three day workshop. I'm really excited to spend three days with other quilters and study under a quilter that loves color as much as I do!
This week has been full of appointments, errands and trying to get organized to pack my "supply list" and my clothes! My husband is going join me after the workshop is over with and spend an extra few days in Boerne, a little vacation at the end of summer.
One of the errands I did today was mail two boxes of fabric off to IBOL. I think this is an awesome ministry this serviceman is doing. Allowing us to touch people in such a special way! I love to touch fabric, and now I get to let my fabric touch others in another part of this awesome world. If you want info on IBOL see my previous post for the links.
Well, I've had the exterminator out today and the Sears repairman to stop the squeek in the washing machine. Now I'm off to get organized and pack some fabric to take to Boerne!
I'll blog some pictures next week from the workshop. Happy stitching!

Iraqi Bundles of Love

I was reading through some of the blogs that I follow and found a link to Iraqi Bundles of Love. This is an awesome act to send a bundle of sewing items over to Iraq to used. On the website is a FAQ section and how to make your bundle. The deadline to send items is coming close, September 7, 2009. Join me is sending a bundle to this selfless soilder to distribute to people in Iraq. OBOL is also on Facebook!

Three Day Birthday Sale at StudioJules!

Don't forget all Fabric by the Yard and Fat Quarter Bundles are marked down 50% at StudioJules on ArtFire! I wasn't able to offer this two days ago, on my actual birthday, but I can today....instead of 10% off EVERYTHING at StudioJules, for the next three (3) days, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I am offering 25% off of EVERYTHING. Yes, that means that all Fabric by the Yard and Fat Quarter Bundles are 50% off and an additonal 25% off!!!
What A Deal!!!! Get it now, it may not be here later!

ArtFire Guild Monthly Contest

I think I mentioned before that I am in a couple of guilds with some of the other shop owners on ArtFire. One of them is called the "Shops With Less Than (10) Sales". Monthly they have a contest called "Where's Waldo", where shoppers can go to the different shops and look for the "Waldo" item they have listed. The August contest starts tomorrow, Saturday, August 15, 2009. It's a fun thing to do and there is a prize for the winner. The rules of the game will be posted tomorrow on the guild blog. You must follow the guild blog for the hints. So, go to the guild blog for
"Shops With Less Than (10) Sales" and join in the fun!

Networking

Networking is the name of the game when you are trying to meet others in your industry, it's that way in the Fiber Art world too. This past month I've been busy joining some of the professional organizations for Fiber Artists such as SAQA, Surface Design Association, and Dallas Area Fiber Artists. I've also joined several guilds and online networking sites. ArtFire has several guilds that are available, so I've joined one named Texas Artfire and another one that supports ArtFire shops that have minimal sales.
Shops with Less Than 10 Sales is an active guild supporting each other with ideas, contests and promotions to generate sales and traffic to each others shops. Both of these guilds have blogs too. Shops With Less Thans 10 Sales promotes different artists each month on their blog, plus there is a monthly contest for customers. Click on the link I just gave you for the blog and read about Rosetree Creations and Braggin' Rights. These are great shops with unique and fun handmade items.
Texas ArtFire is for Texans with shops on ArtFire. One of the great features on their blog is a block posting the sales and promotions of the Texas ArtFire members.
When you are on my blog and want to see what these two groups are up to, just click on the links in my section of "Blogs that I Follow" and check them out. If you are one of my fellow artisans and are looking for guilds to join on ArtFire, join in with us and have some fun networking!

Fiber

As many of you know I love natural fibers. I found a great little shop on ArtFire that has beautiful hand dyed and hand spun fibers. Fiber Cycle has some awesome products made out of Bamboo, SW Merino/SeaCell, Rare Bread Wools and Silk. If you are in the market for fibers, this is a shop on ArtFire that you must visit! I've added it as one of my Markets on ArtFire! Hope you will too!

Sunflower Center Progress

I was able to make progress on one of my sunflower quilts today. The first attempt that I made for the center of this quilt didn't turn out, but the second one did! I grabbed some cheese cloth, my paints and latex gloves and started painting the cheesecloth. I set it outside to dry and then I heat set it before I started working with it. Then I selected a scrap piece of batik looking fabric and started making circles and added a few scrap pieces on tulle and chiffon and circled those in too for texture and color. The next step was disfiguring the cheese cloth and completing the circles for the sunflower center. I used my 10" hoop to hold the fabric and then layered the cheesecloth so I could manipulate it as I wanted to as I was stitching. The first layer of circles are a dark brown Sulky thread and the top thread is a variegated thread by YLI. I used the variegated in the bobbin and if it showed through, then that gave more texture and contrast!
When you zoom in on the pictures you can really see the cheesecloth and circles.

Hand Painted Fabric Day! Gotta Love the Burst of Color!

Yesterday was so much fun! I think I painted over 7 yards of fabric and I really didn't want to stop, but I had to get some other things done. I'm going to Blog these one at a time so I can tell you about each piece. When I started painting I was using foam paint brushes. At one point early on in the process I wanted to smooth out some of the brush strokes and like the feel of just using my hands, well I threw out the brushes and used my hands. So, these pieces are really handpainted! Being able to control the paint and the movement felt so good and led to some very interesting results.

This first piece is one of my favorites. My daughter-in-law says it belongs on a canvas and hung, as is. I think that is what I love about it so much, it is spontaneous, colorful and vibrant. It measures 1 yard and may be put into my Handmade items in StudioJules on ArtFire.


I decided to show these two pieces together because they are so similar. I painted them with my Sunflower Quilt Project in mind, knowing that I will need a variety of greens for the leaves. Each piece measures 1 yard and whichever piece I do not use, will be added to my Handmade items in StudioJules on ArtFire.

This piece is bursting with color. I just love the intensity of the pink, orange, red and yellow. This piece measures 1 yard and will be added to my Handmade items in StudioJules on ArtFire.

I painted these two pieces with my current Sunflower Quilt Project in mind. These two pieces will supply the petals for the Hand Painted SunFlower Quilt. I used Rock Salt on these two pieces for a bit to get some extra movement and texture for the sunflower petals. These are half yard pieces.

This was one of the first pieces I started with yesterday, along with the two previous half yard pieces. I love the vibrant colors and how they burst out of the fabric. This piece measures 1 5/8 yards and will be added to my Handmade items in StudioJules.

I really love this piece and it will be staying in my stash. I have a quilt stirring in my brain with this one. The first process I did with this piece was pleating the fabric and then painted a medium green horizontally, so underneath all the bursts of color are green stripes. It is a half yard piece.

I'm calling this 1/2 yard piece "Red White and Blue, and Some More!" because I added in little bits of green, yellow and orange. Then I wet the fabric and smudged it a bit, the red bled through a bit and when it ran with the blue, purple arrived in the piece. The blue is really turquoise, and it works beautifully in this piece, I think a darker blue would have dulled the movement of the red.
I haven't decided if this piece is going on ArtFire or not. What do you think? My stash or yours?

Painting Fabric

Today I am actually going to be able to get outside and paint fabric in my new paint station! My wonderful husband and son created a paint station for me at the end of our backyard walkway, where a hot tub use to live (previous owners). I have a little fence with a shelf to place my paints and whatever on and two stainless steel tables! I'm so excited! Today I'm going to work on painting fabric for one of the sunflower quilts that I am creating and additional fabric for my stash. If time permits I will paint fabric to put on my ArtFire account to sell.

By the way, like my new banner? Yesterday I worked all morning on this one and the one for my ArtFire Studio and was having a terrible time getting the size right. Emailed the ArtFire banner to my son and he had it fixed in less than 5 minutes. What would I do without him! Thanks Ben!

My Birthday Sale at Studio Jules!

This is my Birthday Month, so I have decided to give YOU a Birthday Present. I have marked down the original price of all the “Fabric by the Yard” to $5 per yard and I have also marked all of the Fat Quarter Bundles to Half of the Original Price, that is $1 per Fat Quarter in each bundle!
In addition, I have marked down my entire Studio 10% for the entire month! Yes, that means the Fabric by the Yard and the Fat Quarter Bundles are an additional 10% off!

Enjoy my Birthday Present to You!

SAQA Silent Auction - September 10, 2009

SAQA has received 234 quilts for the 2009 auction. Here is the link to view the quilts SAQA 2009 Auction. Take a look at these quilts, they are inspiring, to say the least!

Birthday Sale at Studio Jules!

Today is my husband's birthday, so I'm celebrating by giving everyone 25% off their purchase at Studio Jules on ArtFire! If you been watching an item, this is the day to get it, this is a ONE DAY SALE!

New Books to Review

Today is one of those days when I just couldn't climb the stairs and work in my Studio. Without a window to let the sunshine in, well, I just needed daylight today...the window is coming, I just don't know when.
So, I have reorganized my Blog a little bit and have added a page to my Face Book for StudioJules. I'm going to post book reviews and such out there and I hope you will sign up as a "Fan" and let me know what books you are reading and using in your art.
The two books I have in front of me now are "Clothdolls for Textile Artists" by Ray Slater and "Stitch Dissolve Distort with Machine Embroidery" by Valerie Campbell-Harding & Maggie Grey.
I am looking through "Stitch Dissolve Distort with Machine Embroidery" for some ideas to use on the Sunflower Quilts I'm working on right now. The results should be very interesting!
The "Clothdolls for Textile Artists" book is one that I have been wanting for awhile, so I bought it when Interweave was running their last sale. I can't wait to dive into making some Angel Dolls with the techniques they have in this book.
If you have used either of these books let me know what your thoughts!

Sunflower Quilts

Okay, you know I'm addicted to Sunflowers...first it was the shawl, now I'm working on developing two quilts. The pictures above are of a sunflower in my garden, I love the size and the colors in these flowers. I saw some sunflower pictures on the Internet that had water dripping from the petals, so I sprayed water on these flowers and started snapping pictures! After I uploaded the pictures I enhanced the color temp and saturation. Now it is up to me to choose the fabrics! As you know I love batiks and I love my hand painted fabrics, so one quilt will be out of batiks and one out of hand painted fabrics. I am anxious to see the difference in texture and moods these fabrics will bring to the eye, along with some mixed media. Hope you enjoy the adventure with me!

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!