Jewelry Re-Design

Today my art quilt bee met at Beautimous Beads in Cary, NC.  We had visited there back in August after going to the art quilt exhibit Narrative Threads at the Page-Walker house.  This time, we arranged time for a Jewelry Re-Design/Re-Cycle session.  We all brought old, unwanted, or broken jewelry or beads, and made them into something new.

Bridgette and the other employee at the school were our consultants and experts on putting our projects together.  We sat at a big table in the store and worked on bead mats.

Here are Roberta and Toni hard at work.  (Isn't that a stunning beaded piece Roberta is wearing?  She added the beads to a piece of felt.)

 

We have a new member, Marion, who I met for the first time today.  She is the one that comes after me in the Surface Design Round Robin challenge.  I handed both my fabric and Toni's off to her.

 

I went through my jewelry drawer and pulled out all my beaded necklaces that were broken in some way.  Some were missing clasps, or needed jump rings or crimping.  I spent most of my time re-stringing the necklace on the right, that had completely come apart and was missing some beads.  The store staff fixed everything else for very minimal fees, between $1.00 and $3.00 per necklace.

 

I also found a chain in my drawer that did not have a pendant or anything, so I purchased this little owl pin/pendant.  I must like it, because I also included a picture of it on my blog after my last trip to Beautimous Beads.

 

 

Here is the new bracelet that Roberta put together after taking the charms off an old necklace.

 

 

And here is our Toni, looking radiant with her hair recently grown back following chemo.  It is now a beautiful silver color!

 

 

Ruth-Ellen was there, too, but must have been avoiding the camera!

 

After I finished with my bead projects, I went to visit my Aunt Billie, who is back home in Cary after being in a nursing home for six months.  She looked so happy to be in her own home with her daughter, Erin, and her frisky cat, Thor.  I did not get his picture, but Thor was trying very hard to play with my newly repaired jewelry as I took them out to show them off!

 

It was a nice day.

 

Tomorrow I take my first class at this year's Art of the Carolinas at the North Raleigh Hilton.  I have signed up for two watercolor painting classes with Tom Jones.  I hope my results are as good as last year's.  This is the painting that I did in one of Tom's classes last year.  It is now hanging in my husband's office.

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surface Design Round Robin: Round 1

I completed Round One today of the Surface Design Round Robin for the Anything Art quilt bee. 

I received Toni's yard of plain white fabric.  I decided to do sun printing in a rainbow of colors.  Here is the final piece.

I used Lemon Yellow, Buttercup, Fuchsia, and Cobalt Blue Pebeo Setacolor Transparent paints.  You wet the fabric, dilute the paints with water, and apply them to the fabric with a sponge brush. 

The fun begins when you add objects to "print" on to the fabric, and set it all in the sun to dry.  I added more paint around the objects, such as leaves, flowers, and stencils.

After it dried, I added more colors to areas that were not vibrant.  I tried to print again, but noticed that the wet paint on the dried, heat set paint did not allow the sun printing to occur.

I love the look of this fabric.  I wonder what the next four or five participants will do to it!

Tomorrow we will meet, and I am passing along my yard of white fabric to Marion.  I made a journal for the participants to record their processes or comments.

The cover is made from a piece of fabric paper that I made some time ago.  Fabric paper is muslin that you coat with diluted white glue and collage with various tissues or papers.  On this one, I stitched the word "JOY" in zigzag on the sewing machine.

 

 

Here is the inside back cover.  It is a piece of painted paper.  I keep a Rubbermaid box of painted papers and paper towels.  I made a bookmark, too.

 

 

Here is the back cover.

 

 

After I finished painting Toni's fabric, I had several new painted paper towels and pieces of muslin that I used as wipe or mop cloths.

 

 

These will come in handy for another project some day.

Today I braved the cold, gloomy weather to vote.  I had to wait outside for about fifteen minutes.  A little boy was accompanying his mother to the polls, and obviously had been told that they were voting for the President.  He started to walk in the doors, but his mother directed him to go the end of the line with her.  He said, "But I want to go in there and meet the President!"


I appreciate living in a free country where we have the opportunity to vote!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whacky Ladies Bee Meeting

I have missed several recent meetings of my local quilt bee, The Whacky Ladies, so I was glad to be able to attend last Thursday night.  We met at Mary's house, which is only a couple of miles from my house.

Here is some of our Show-and-Tell.

Sharon made this quilt using squares of fabric from a panel, to which she added several borders.

 

Carolyn has started putting together the large red and white blocks from her Block of the Month project from Wish Upon a Quilt.

 

 

 

She is doing another BOM using black, tan, and gold fabrics in batiks.

 

 

Marilyn showed us her festive quilt top in Christmas fabrics and colors.

 

 

Mary also had a Christmas quilt, with trees and cardinals.

 

 

Since we were at Mary's house, she showed us her "napping quilt."

 

 

And here is another Warm Wishes quilt (slightly out of focus, sorry!)

 

 

Lori made a purse from her own original pattern.

 

 

Here is a pinwheel quilt.  I think it was made by Paula.

 

And this is Paula holding a Nine-Patch Pizazz quilt, which I think was made by Mary.  I love the rich colors.

 

I showed my recently returned Round Robin quilt that had been lost for years.  What a surprise when the person who had it found me on Facebook and mailed it to me!

 

 

I also showed the Re-Vision quilt from Cyberbee that I was supposed to have finished over a year ago.  The beautiful top was made by Mary Corcoran.  I have chosen a beautiful hand-dye by Ricky Tims to add a final border.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Surface Embellishment Round Robin

Today was our first pretty day since Hurricane Sandy hovered over the east coast.  My prayers go out to those who lost their loved ones or their homes in this amazing storm.  From winds to floods to snowstorms to fires, this was one mighty wreaker of havoc.  All we got here in Central North Carolina was some rain, lots of wind, and cold.  There was enough snow in the mountains to close down Appalachian State University in Boone.

So, today I started working on a new challenge.  My Anything Art bee has started a round robin Surface Design challenge.  Each participant starts with a yard of plain white fabric, and sends it to the next person on the rotation.  She can include a journal to describe what processes and materials are used.  I suggested that each person photograph the fabric when she has done her part.  I think this will be super fun and will yield some very unique layered fabrics!

 

After the days of gray weather, I decided to get right down to it with some bright colors.  First I wet the fabric and sponged on Setacolor Transparent paint in yellows, blue, and fuchsia.  I worked on a piece of poster-sized foam board covered with a garbage bag. 

 

 

A yard is a lot of fabric to hand-paint.  I ended up doubling the fabric over itself to print some of the color on bare areas.  Then I carried the whole thing out to the driveway.  Darn!  The sun was hidden behind clouds by the time I got out there.  I went ahead and put down some stencils, leaves, and flowers to try printing. 

 

Then the wind picked up, and I started putting down rocks to hold the fabric in place.  I could already see that the objects were printing. despite the hidden sunlight.

I got out some latex gloves to wear during all this, but of course did not put them on before painting.   I am going to my quilt bee tonight, and will have to get busy removing paint from my fingernails.

 

Might do some more printing before this is finished.  I like to add more paint with a sponge brush over the objects once they are in place.  Can't wait to see how this turns out!

And it was SO much fun to do some fabric design again!

 

 

Autumn in Asheville

Last Friday we headed west to Asheville, North Carolina.  Charlie's sister and her family live there, and we traveled for the induction of our nephew, Andy, as an Eagle Scout. 

The weather was quite pretty the first two days.  Lee's neighborhood goes all out for Halloween decorations.  Lee had her lamppost all lit up.

 

They have recently done some remodeling.  We got to go with them to pick up their new custom-made stained glass window.  It is perfect in the triangular space in their new entrance.  It features mountains and sky, and a family emblem.

 

 

 

Here are all the McBrayers and Logans after Andy's Eagle ceremony.

 

 

My own personal Eagle Scout husband again participated in the ceremony.  It was fun to all be together for a happy occasion.

 

We left Sunday afternoon soon after the reception was over.  As everyone in the world knows by now, there is a perfect storm brewing along the east coast, with Hurricane Sandy crashing up the shoreline.  It was pouring down rain and cold by the time we left Asheville.

 

 

The weather actually cleared a little once we got out of the mountains, but it is windy, cold, and rainy today.  It looks like most of the leaves will be blown off the trees before they even reach their full color.

 

 

This is a good day to stay in and do some sewing therapy.  A package was waiting in the mailbox with some oceany background fabric I ordered for my future grand-daughter's baby quilt.

 

I am trying to come up with some kind of ocean scene with mermaids.  So far I have some sketches of fish and other sea creatures, but no real idea how I am going to put this together.  It's much easier when you have a pattern or even an idea.

Hope everyone stays safe over the next few days, especially those near the path of the storm.  Our mountains have snow today, but the worst of the storm seems heading for our neighbors to the north.  Good luck everyone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm So Organized, It's Scary!

Don't know if I have shown any photos of my third floor studio areas since all the painting and organizing.  There are two finished attic rooms, each with two closets, that I have taken over for my sewing, fabric, and painting.  Most of the time they are not exactly places to show off, featuring lots of works in progress- on the tables, floors, spilling out the door and down the steps. 

No more!

This wall has a tiny door to more storage space under the eaves.  I have my boxes of half yard or more fabric, and some other fabric-related containers here.  That's my cool Sony Ipod dock on top.

 

 

On the wall next to that one is my Janome sewing table, pegboards of notions, more containers, and the ironing board to the left.

 

 

I re-organized the plastic drawers next to the sewing table, and even made labels from some of my painted papers.

 

 

The first closet has more plastic drawers with my fabric scraps sorted by color, miscellaneous other supplies, and my bolts of batting that used to be stored on the rod under my Gammill.  Since my Gammill is on loan to another quilter until we move, I had to find a place for the batting.

 

 

Let's move to the other room, which mostly contains paints, papers, and supplies for journaling and mixed media.  I think when last seen, this large work table was covered with projects and my "stuff."  Not now...and the walls are painted a soft beige called "String of Pearls."

 

See that painting of hollyhocks?  I did not want to put a nail in my freshly-painted walls, so I used those Command strips to hang the framed picture on the wall.  A few days later it fell down, breaking the frame, and tearing the paint off the walls where the adhesive ripped it.  Not what they are cracked up to be!

 

 

I have a triple dresser on the next wall.  I have some quirky labels identifying the contents of the drawers.  Mysterious contents such as "Collage Fodder."

 

The painting on that wall is still hanging, but I see it needs straightening!  That old wooden chair used to be in my husband's grandparents' kitchen.  We used a set of those for our kitchen chairs when we were first married...and for the next thirteen years!  I think it is soon destined to be a potted plant container.

 

 

I have had this wooden bookcase in this room for years.  It usually had so many books and supplies in it, on it, and around it, that you could not even stand in front of it.  Now it is cleared out and neatly organized, with room for more.  I donated a lot of my books to the public library, the Capital Quilters Guild silent auction, and Goodwill.

 

 

 

I still like to peek in this closet and see my colorful bins of art supplies.

 

 

Now, do I want to start using some of this stuff and risk making a mess again?  LOL- I have hardly done anything since the summer.  I do have a few more pages in my Moleskine journal done, so I will have to take some pictures soon.

 

I continue to be captivated by the afternoon light this time of year.  Now that the leaves are changing here in the Raleigh area, it is almost too beautiful in the golden afternoon.

 

 

 

 

My gardens are still hanging on, and I hope the flowers will last a few more weeks.  Here are some flowers near our garden pond in front.

 

And the knock-out roses are still pretty.  They were a great investment, and very little care compared to regular tea roses which must be sprayed constantly for black mold here in the south.