Monthly Archives: March 2012

A Really Lovely Workshop with Lyric Kinard

     I spent the last two days at a workshop sponsored by our West Michigan Quilt Guild. We bring in a teacher every two months and this month we had the real treat of hosting Lyric Kinard. I remember mentioning this in my last post and someone commented that Lyric is just lovely and that is exactly how I would describe her.

     I took the first class which was Surface Design sampler platter: thermofax printing, using textile paints with carved erasers , citrosolve photo transfers  onto fabric, using grey gel and foil, wonder under and foil, wonder under and ….many techniques to create a small journal cover.

Lyric Kinard and surface design

Lyric starting out the day with a carved eraser stamping demonstration. It definitely was a taste of the various techniques and I made lots of little samples to remember them. The next day was the” Bead It Like You Mean It “class. She has a new DVD out about various beading techniques which I purchased but didn’t watch yet.

Lyric Kinard -beading demonstration

 I really appreciated how she uses a small camera to display the beading demonstrations.

Lyric using the overhead screen 

Lyric’s box of cabuchons 

She had a beautiful box of cabochons to attach  with beading. Oh so pretty .

Lyric Kinard’s beading sampler

Lyric Kinard’s work displayed for class

 She  also gave a marvelous lecture on the elements of art and it passed by so quickly with all the beautiful quilts she used to illustrate her lecture. 

    I really appreciated her calm professionalism and her absolutely wonderful teaching demeanor. I walked away calm and confident to try new things and use all of her beading techniques. So it was a treat and a privilege. Lyric was lovely and no wonder she was awarded 2011 Teacher of the Year by the Professional Quilter Magazine.
    

Obsessive Stitching: Mokume

     One of the reasons that I wanted to try working with an indigo vat was for this reason: obsessive stitching to use as a resist can really be beautiful.

 I drew a pattern lightly on a piece of fabric and stitched under the lines. I used Coats and Clark embroidery thread.

 Once I finished stitching,  I wet the fabric and pulled all the lines tightly and tied them  in a knot.

I dipped it  in my indigo pot and this pot was the one containing the Pro Chem  pre-reduced indigo crystals. I used about three dips manipulating under the water . I let it oxidize to blue. I rinsed and started taking out the stitching. Yes, you read it right in that you remove the hours of stitching you put in. And you will be left with this gorgeous patterning . Some of my threads are still there.

That is beautiful texture to be cut up and used in another stitched piece which will be stitched again in the quilting phase.

It makes me fall in love all over again with stitching. Patience and the beauty of the stitch.

I Have No Excuse…

     I have no excuse other than the weather has been way too nice to be inside. I am soaking up all this abnormally warm and sunny weather the past week. And my daughter has been home from college on spring break.

I watched as they chopped down two huge trees in our yard last week. They were absolutely hollow inside so I am glad they didn’t fall during a storm into my neighbor’s yard. Sad to see them go though.

I finished machine quilting a really old piece last week from my work basket. This was the one my dog ate the edge of the border when it was laying on my ironing board. I can’t decide which way to hang this one so haven’t attached the sleeve yet.

Loving Lucy,  36×43, 2012, Colleen Kole

Finished though and that’s a great way to start the week. I am helping out this week at our local guild workshop for West Michigan Quilt Guild and the teacher is Lyric Kinard.  I can’t wait to meet her and see what she has to share with us.

Dyeing Blue This Week

     I started two indigo vats this past week-one with the pre-reduced indigo from ProChem and one with the natural indigo in  a lime-fructose-indigo vat. It was easier than I thought it would be and the warm weather helped me jump outdoors and jump into fabric dyeing.

Silk Habotai with natural indigo

Cotton with natural indigo

Pre-reduced indigo with silk 

     It was interesting to see the variety of values between the vats and the different types of fabric I used. The pre-reduced indigo resulted the very dark blue fabrics.  It is a stark difference between the two and I think I enjoy the lighter blues. I used silk, bamboo/cotton blend and cotton to try with this batch. The only assignment was to start the vats and do test swatches which I have done and now labeled for future use this summer.

    I also am continuing on my series but ran out of navy blue for one of my pieces. So out came the  Procion navy blue and few pieces of cotton for the fabric dyeing I needed. I am ready to move on to brighter spring colors to use up what I have already dyed.  Fabric dyeing is time consuming but I didn’t want to waste the 75 degree weather here this week which has been unexpected and pleasant.

Bamboo/cotton with Procion Teal Blue

 Back to work on my blue lines next week.

I can’t get a few of my pictures to load so on that note -off to guitar lessons with my son.

A Treat For You

     Have you heard of Radka Donnell,  Nora Lee Condra or Grace Earl? I stumbled upon this documentary which was made in 1980 and just loved it. Hope you enjoy it: Quilts in Women’s Lives-it’s about 15 minutes long but you will be inspired. I loved Grace’s sewing organization and her design wall!

    I have been working in blue this week and will share tomorrow.

A Peek at Last Week

       I definitely went into class withdrawal last week on my series. But as I did some uploading of photos, I realized that I kept working away for the whole week.

     I went to a demonstration day at our local sewing store given by the group I belong to- Lakeshore Fiber Arts group. We meet monthly to learn new techniques and review what we have worked on the past month. A few of the members gave demonstrations on surface design techniques and it was very well attended.

I also started an indigo vat down my basement using natural indigo, fructose and picking lime for the online class (called a 1-2-3 vat) I am doing given by Glennis Dolce at Shibori Girl studios.  I was just going to be an observer this time and wait until summer.  But thought I would just work a little each week in case I had questions so summer I can start a vat and keep it going in the sun.

Bad lighting in the basement but  this is really a nice range of light blue on linen, silk and a bamboo-cotton blend.

  I spent a day sewing with a friend on my baby quilts for our annual March drive for the NICU at our local hospital.  It is nice to have two of them done for the meeting and fun to catch up with a friend who is very busy. Thanks Betsy!

 

     And finally, for the week’s work, I was machine quilting an old piece deemed worthy of finishing. I think about ten more hours of work left. And the new week has begun with this piece under my machine.

Settling In and 4 Minutes of Dreaming

     I was really tired for a few days after I had finished my class work. The adrenaline must be wearing off. I kept going though and have weeded through my work basket and purged a few projects that really never need to be finished. They truly were just experiments or class exercises. That was a good feeling. My studio was all  sparkly clean on Saturday and ready to go.

     I am machine quilting an oldie deemed worthy of finishing and hope to have it finished  in a few days.

      I also started a 1-2-3 lime fructose indigo vat.  I love blue.  I know -what am I doing now? After a long weekend of pondering what to do with my current class schedule, I decided to proceed as I scheduled. And paid for.  I had joined in on the on line class of dyeing indigo with Glennis Dolce before Christmas.  I may not fully participate and save some of the info for summer.  But as I was mixing it up tonight, I realized that I really missed my little  Rooflines motif the past few days. And figuring out that I missed what had been working on just was even more confirmation that working in a series is what  I want to do. And then I wasn’t a bit tired anymore. Just ready to go back to work.

     I won’t stop with surface design work but will contain it. How would you like to go to school here? What a beautiful video of a beautiful place! Enjoy and dream.

Just Beginning

     I finished uploading my last assignment for my class yesterday. I was actually finished with it earlier in the week but procrastinated on it I guess because I just wasn’t ready for it to be over with.

     I set a S-T-R-E-C-H goal  for myself this time:  I  wanted to entirely finish the piece right down to the sleeve and label.  I had a huge cloud following me around. It was the cloud of unfinished projects and I was building up this huge barrier inside my head that these pieces would not get done. Ok, enough of that so the stretch goal.

    The last assignment was to simplify or elaborate our design. I chose elaboration and …fell flat.  I didn’t like how I overworked the motif.  If I look at my motif which I tried to increase the complexity of it by adding more lines, it is just too much, too busy. If  I cover up the lower strip on the right purple motif or “house”,  I like it better. So next piece I make I will eliminate that angled strip and see if that helps.
Rooflines # 6,  36×36, Colleen Kole, 2012
      When I put it up on the wall to photograph it, I saw what was wrong with it and when I wrote my self critique, it no longer felt like a failed assignment but another learning experience. And I set up parameters for the next piece. I love the phrase”the next piece”.  I know I  learned many things but the “next piece ” gives you freedom to try new things and not be afraid to fail.   I felt fantastic that I met my stretch goal for the week which was to finish the piece and have no anxiety about machine quilting the other pieces.
Finished!
      It was truly a gift to take this class. I highly recommend  Lisa Call as a teacher and the online experience was better than I thought possible.  I am finished with class but just beginning to find joy in working in a series.