Today we are having more of the gorgeous sunny, breezy, low-humidity weather that is so rare in the South in July. I decided to embellish the piece with Shiva paint sticks to bring out the gold of the fabric and some of the quilted motifs.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Wednesday Work-in-Progress: Zen Garden
Today we are having more of the gorgeous sunny, breezy, low-humidity weather that is so rare in the South in July. I decided to embellish the piece with Shiva paint sticks to bring out the gold of the fabric and some of the quilted motifs.
Charity Quilt Kit Assembly
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Pleased that everything worked great after the months of inactivity, I decided to do some freehand quilting on an interesting piece of oriental fabric, about the size of a fat quarter. I am thinking of adding fabric paint, beading, and/or other embellishment.
Heading out today with my friend Jean to prepare some quilt kids for one of our guild charities, Quilts on Wheels. The fabric is stored in a place called The Flower Cottage. It is on the campus of the state mental institution in Raleigh, which is actually one of the most lovely, tree-lined, grassy real estate in our capital city. Not sure how the guild got hooked up with them, but I have heard it is very nice. I'll take my camera!
Monday, July 6, 2009
When we arrived at the cabin, I was thrilled that some nasturtium seeds that I planted among the plastic flowers in our window boxes had bloomed and were trailing. I watered them ASAP. Little did I know, there was a nest of baby wrens in one of the boxes, hiding under the foliage.
I did not drown them, but Mama Wren was mighty glad when we left and she could feed her babies without so many people close at hand. We had our son Dave, his wife Emily, and four of their college friends all staying at our place.
Inside, I hung up one of my Collage Mania pieces that were recently framed. I decided to leave it in the horizontal orientation. It is next to my little kitchen sink area.
We had not one, but two days of floating down the New River on tubes. It is so much fun, and what a bonus to see some of the most beautiful picture-perfect postcard scenery as we drifted. One of our college friends and his son joined us on the float on Saturday.
The past few years, we have experienced thunderstorms and even hail last year by the time we reached our pick-up point. This year, no rain at all until all the fun was over and it was time to leave on Sunday. It makes it easier to leave when it is raining. Even in the rain, I hate to see it go.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Wednesday Works-in-Progress: Kid's Quilts and more Painted Fabric
Shiva paint sticks on maroon dyed fabric. The patterned ones have the paint applied over rubbing plates.
Turquoise and green Shiva Paint stick on purple fabric.
Blue and green paints on upholstery fabric, with blue stamps.
Remember my neighbor's cat that thinks it lives at my house? Now they have a kitten that thinks he lives here. He was definitely checking out all the activity on the porch. Those are Tsukineko inks and Fantastix applicators.
I experimented with some glue resist designs. I used Elmer's gel glue, but it is the kind with glitters. It looked pretty drying in the sun!
That's it! Have a wonderful rest of the week. And Happy Birthday, America!
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Painting Fabric
I gathered up my stuff and spent the afternoon on the screen porch, where I paint on a glass table that wipes up easily. All of these pieces were painted with Setacolor transparent paints. Some of them are sun-printed. Just apply paint, place some leaves, flowers, pasta or whatever on top, and let them dry flat in the sun.
I used those one inch sponge daubers for most of the paint application. I pick them up when they are on sale at Michael's at twelve for a dollar. This one is printed with seashells and pasta.
Leaves from thyme. It smells nice!
Marigold leaves, ageratum blossoms, daylily stamens
The scarlet pieces are not sun-printed. These mostly resulted because I can't stand to leave paint on the palette, so I keep extra muslin on hand to use it up. I actually wiped the paint palette with the mult-colored piece.
I also transformed a piece of ugly hand-dyed fabric with Shiva paint sticks. That one is still curing.
While I was painting, the mail arrived with a timely DVD: Painting Fabric for Wholecoth Quilts with Judy Coates Perez. It was on sale from Interweave Press.
I stopped my slap-dash paint slopping to watch a true artist achieve lovely results with fabric paint. You get a template with the outline of the painting with the DVD. I could not get it to download from the Internet, but Interweave very helpfully e-mailed the template to me this morning.
I also received a lovely gift in the mail. You may remember the group comfort quilt that I made with other members of my Pamela Allen art quilt online class. There were twelve blocks, and the recipient made us each a 2010 photo calendar with the blocks from her quilt. It's in Norwegian, but she sent a little translation dictionary. I am thrilled with it! Here is Sherryl Buchler's block.
And here is Pamela Allen's.
What a lovely thank-you gift! In case you are wondering about the eighth column: no, Norway does not have eight days a week like the early Beatles suggested. The last column tells you what week of the year it is. I have never seen that feature on a calendar. Now, I will just have to get used to the week starting on Monday next year! The two weekend dates are in red, so that will help me get my mind around the change.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Weekend at Home
A glass of Grand Marnier reflects the colors of the sky.
Our house is bright white, but the setting sun gave it a pink glow.



