Rusted Fabric Experiment

I love this piece of fabric! I have wanted to try rust dying for a while and the other day I was rummaging through my husbands shop and found a few chains and bolts that were good candidates for the experiment. I took a piece of PFD fabric wet it and wrung it out. Then I soaked it in vinegar and wrung it again. I then wrapped the rusty objects in the fabric and put the whole thing in a plastic garbage bag, squished the air out and tightly closed it. I let this set for about 2 1/2 days. I then rinsed it in salt water (I read somewhere that that stops the rusting process) and let the fabric dry. Finally I ran it through the washer, dried it and ironed it. I really thought that the color would fade when I washed this and was amazed how it did not. I will definitely do this again.

Georgia Quilts - It's Actually a Winner!

Last weekend was the first Georgia Quilts Quilt Show. My quilt 'Peak Performance' took 3ard place in the large wall category. This quilt was started over a year ago when I hand painted the background and then added the foliage and foreground with various fabrics. For some reason I really didn't like the results and let this be a UFO for around 10 months. I finally added borders and extended the scene into the border.

I attempted to finish this several times with no luck. Just when I was ready to cut the piece up I found out about this show and was determined to finish. I free motion quilted the leaves on the border and then was disappointed that they did not show so I painted them with soft pastels and highlights of gold fabric paint. This still is not one of my favorite pieces but I guess that it was worth finishing.

What I did this weekend.......

As I mentioned earlier I have been in a rut as to what to work on next so I decided that I would do a small piece from start to finish over the weekend. First, I looked through some photos that I took last year in Louisiana and did a sketch. Then I painted sky, water and trees on a couple of scrapes of PFD fabric. I then added the grass fabric in the foreground. It's from my stash but I did cut it up to get the look I wanted. After quilting I thought it still needed something so I painted in the bird and added trees to the grassie area. The grass and trees are heavily thread painted to give the piece more interest. Finished size is 12 x16 and I think I will mount this to matt board and frame it. It felt good to get something done!

Loot From Fabrics.com Warehouse Sale

Late Friday night I got an email telling me about this sale. I was really torn about going since the last thing I need is more fabric! After going back and forth with myself I decided to set my alarm and go on Sat. morning. I mean I only live 15 min. away and that is with a drive-thru stop at Micky D's to get some really needed coffee...... I have never bought fabric from this website since for me part of the fun of fabric buying is the actual touch and feel of the stuff. I really did restrain myself and this is what I got.....9 lbs for $36 with the pieces ranging is size from 1/2 to 3 yards. So much for not needing any more fabric........

Quilts off to New Hampshire

Two of my quilts have been juried into the 'A Quilters Gathering' quilt show that will be held in Bedford, New Hampshire on Nov 6-9. The one pictured here is called Daydreaming and is about 17" x 17". The other is Flight Into Fantasy and is featured on the right. Daydreaming won a 3ard place in MN and Flight Into Fantasy won 1st places in Indiana and Georgia and a 3ard place in Utah. Wish me luck!!

Quilting Arts Magazine Oct-Nov - Suzanne's Quilt

Check out page 79 of this issue and see the 'Going Green' piece of my good friend Suzanne Balis Freed! Suzanne has been a quilter for a long time starting with the traditional route. She has saved thread blobs (those bits of string that come off the fabric when you wash it) for years and her piece is made up entirely from these leftovers. Congrats Suzanne for getting into THE magazine for art quilters!

Georgia Quilt Show

October 16-18 is the date for the new Georgia Quilt Show and it will be held at the Gwinnett Center in Duluth. My piece 'Peak Performance' was juried in and will debut at the show. I need to take a new picture and will post one soon. The Atlanta area has not had a major quilt show in that past and they hope that this will be an annual event. Please stop by if you are in the area.

What to work on next.........

I have finally caught up with my quilts.....well at least the ones that had deadlines attached. I had put myself in a position where I really felt that I had over committed and fell relieved to have gotten some of the weight off my shoulders. Of course I have UFOs but these are things that have no deadlines or I am not sure if they deserve finishing.

Now the big question......what to do next?????? I have been down in my studio a couple of times this week and made some half hearted efforts to start something new but nothing has clicked. Sometimes I get in the trap of 'so many ideas so little time' that I can't get started on anything. Time to take a minute and look at what I have and what is important to me at this time. What idea can I turn into a project that I can be passionate about and dive into completely? What do you do when you are in this position?

Mono printing - Try This at Home

I was playing with paint the other day and tried mono printing. The first picture is of an acetate (what you use on an overhead projector) that I spooned Lumiere metallic paints onto. The second picture is the result of putting a piece of black fabric over the painted acetate and lightly pressing the fabric into the paint. The third picture is another print from the same acetate and you can see that it printed a little lighter. If you try this make sure and protect your work surface since it can get a little messy if you aren't careful. This was really fun and I like the results. I have a project in mind for one of the prints so watch this space.

Some Great Quilt Shops

I just got back from a trip to Indiana and Ohio and had the chance to stop at a couple of quilt shops. The first one is Quilt Quarters just north of Indianapolis on Route 31 about 2 miles north of I465. Lots of fabric and other stuff so stop by if you are in the area.

The second one is the Quilterie in Celina Ohio which is in Mercer County. This shop was a little smaller but also had a great fabric selection especially if you love more traditional quilts.

Sad news for Fiber On a Whim in Sandy Springs GA which is a great place for art quilters. They announced today that they will be closing their brick an mortar part of their business on October 14.

Double Happy Dance!!!!!

I just found out yesterday that my journal quilt, "Flight Over Greenland" was one of the 48 selected for the Quiltart Elements exhibit in Houston. I can't show the whole quilt since it will debut at the show but this picture is just a little tease.

I also received a 'fat' envelope from the International Quilt Association and my quilt "Birthday Wishes" was accepted as a finalist in the judged competition. The 'Quilts - A World Of Beauty' show will be in Houston the last week of October. I will be going to the show with 2 of my quilting friends and it will really be exciting to see my work at the show.

Lesson Learned on Original Art

I wanted to share this lesson from my original entry into the 2009 Quilting Arts Calender contest. I spent many hours creating this piece. The sky is hand painted with Setacolor paints, the tree leaves are a doily my mom crocheted, the branches and trunk are painted warm and natural, the sign post is thread painted, the grass is an old sweater of my daughters, the fence is the top from a pair of my granddaughters socks and the house is a piece of needlepoint I did from a kit over 30 years ago and never finished.

All sounds well and good until I showed this to my friend Suzanne who is also a fiber artist. She asked if I had though about the rules of the competition that said the piece must be original art. Also was the issue of copyrite with the needlepoint. Of course I had not considered either of these but took this photo and emailed it to QA for their opinion. The piece was disqualified because the needlepoint was from a kit and not original artwork. So my lesson is read all rules of any competition carefully and be extra careful about using anything in your art (even if it is over 30 years old) that may bring up copyrite questions.