something new

Back in August I had a giveaway of a couple of test pieces done with what I can only describe as the direct print method. I've added a new page called "A little piece of my Art"  (there's a link on the side bar too) and I'll be adding new items as time goes on.

It's a pretty simple and I encourage other fiber artists to give it a go. Put the work right side down on the (recently cleaned) glass of a high quality, color printer first, making sure the piece is  absolutely spotless or you'll be marveling over images of cooties, lint  and pet hair. Take your StickyBuddy with you to the copy joint.

(The staffer at my local Fedex/Kinkos was a great help steering me to the "queen" of her machines once I explained my purpose to her.)

I pulled a test print on plain paper to make sure of the color quality and then used a card stock weight semi-gloss finished paper for the actual prints.

The level of detail captured this way cannot be reproduced digitally. The hardest part is the cropping. With only an 11x17 inch print surface it's tricky to position the work on the glass deciding what to keep in the frame and what's to be left waiting in the wings.

fall for real

I just brought all my houseplants in from the deck where they have been flourishing all summer. There's no freeze in the works but why risk it. It's cold, windy and damp for the first time in memory -  a perfect day to spend curled up in the chair stitching with good company and a fun movie on. I'm staying with the challenge of combining hand and machine stitching on this large piece. 

Yesterday I finished off a single sized quilt...no batting but a pieced top backed with an old flannel blanket. Once it was done I realized that it looked like an old flannel blanket back there so I put the whole thing into the washer with some navy/intense/boysenberry dye, let it stew til cold and then soda ash into the second go round..that's it folded up on the table..in the background, bits and pieces for another pieced top, gathering forces.

fiber frenzy

The reason behind this frenzy of organizational activity, you ask? Aside from not being able to turn around or find anything, A gift! A boon!

A box arrived the other day with 33 pounds of fibrous glory inside - a trove of premium commercial cotton prints from my dear St.A.

She buys the cloth for the love of it and commands me to be creative...mission accepted my friend!

I hardly know where to start but the beautiful collections from Japan are already set aside  in the "do not touch...yet" pile and you know I'll have to start pulling the strings on those little bundles of batik fat quarters just to see what I have been missing.

I've covered the shelves with bits and lengths of heavy vinyl wallpaper that was rescued from some restaurant renovation years ago. It's interesting stuff but I never had enough of it to make sense of the pattern.  So very functional - I came close to chucking the whole many times and now I'm so glad I didn't.

The floor! the floor! I can see it! a beautiful dark navy blue carpeting..badly in need of a thorough vacuuming!

That dark pile in the foreground is the cloth I dyed yesterday..but for one span of ocean blue, all murky and in need of further work.

Time to test drive that new FM foot that arrived the other day.

a good day's work before noon

TADA!  tomorrow I'll cover the wood with a layer of this slickey restaurant wallpaper that fell into my clutches and then get everything loaded back up..
OR I could hang out the Opium Den sign and rent out the shelves to four dragon-chasers...just close the doors and turn off the lights. Can you tell by the crazy that it's FRIDAY!?!!

I have a squadron of flags stewing in the dye - everything bagged up on black plastic to take advantage of the sun's heat and earlier, buzzed around a the print joint this morning and took about 20 Fabulous (if I must say so myself) prints of the pieces that just came home from the latest show..I'll scan a few and drop them into the store later.

Now, it's off to the Whine & CYA mine for the afternoon.