Author Archives: Colleen Kole

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

With a name like Colleen, you have already figured out that I am Irish. I remember growing up and smelling corn beef and cabbage cooking on March 17th. My dad always did a better job of cooking it than my mom( no offense at all to mom’s cooking) and he loved to take his time making it. Unfortunately, I haven’t carried that tradition on. I just don’t like the corned beef. But, I love all things green and the shamrocks are very cute but hard to come by. And someday, I would love to travel to Ireland and see where my relatives and ancestors came from. So, in the spirit of the day and in keeping with my Irish heritage, I had to at least wish you a Happy St. Patrick’s day!

And what are those things on- my silk I have unwrapped ! Remember how I wrapped up one piece of silk in onion skins and vinegar and the other in crushed frozen flower petals-about two weeks ago? Well the flower color only lightly dyed it light pink which I am sure will be gone when I rinse it. But the onion piece was very surprising. Look at this little heart that I found.

Even if it rinses out, it made me smile this morning. I need to decide if I just want to rinse it in clear water or add alum-the book says it may produce olive green … on a green day maybe I’ll try it.

So Happy St Patrick’s Day and Happy Sewing, my friends!

Just a Monday

I did end up finishing all five of the baby quilts last week- technically, 4 quilts and one double recieving blanket. They looked pretty by the window as the sun peeked out late this afternoon. They will be delivered next week at our guild meeting. I can’t believe I was done a week ahead of time. Not because I was organized but because I put the meeting date on the calendar wrong.:) Oh silly me.

I did start another top today. However, it just didn’t end up the way I wanted it to be.

So, I think I will piece it together and use it as a base for something different or just cut it up! I have wanted to try two things. One to quilt something heavily on the machine and then go back and hand sew heavy thread -almost embroidery weight onto the finished piece. Or -if I am really brave- to machine quilt it and then paint it. Either way, I would only lose a day of sewing if I don’t like it. I know – just want to keep trying things. Sooner or later something will work for me. It’s just Monday.

A Special End to the Week

I have had a great day and all of it was rather unplanned. I unexpectedly caught up with a friend Gail that I met at a workshop a few years ago. I was reading my e-mails and there popped up an e-mail from Gail. I decided to call her and we had great conversation. As much as I appreciate blogs and e-mails, it was a real treat to have a conversation with her. She had another piece accepted ! This time it will be a piece at Fiber TwentyTen in April.

I spoke with her as I was driving to have lunch with my daughter Erin who is madly studying away at college. (She had a cold and was desperate for some cookies and cold medicine.) Another great conversation and unexpected time that I shared with her. She had too much homework to come home this weekend but it will be great to have her home next weekend for spring break.

   And the third unexpected treat I had this past week was a trip to a local fiber arts exhibit. I have been dying to find a way into this building. It was renovated last year with a grant- a “green” grant and I have always enjoyed the architecture of this previous orphanage. You can read about it here at ICCF website-they provide affordable housing for low income families. This was an amazing building and everything has been renovated back to original splendor. I was drooling over the woodwork. Wow.
   Back to the exhibit- Fabric of Our Lives is a textile arts exhibit from the private collection of Roberta Green Ahmanson. And what a private collection it was of quilts, lace, molas, cloth sculptures, and Hmong embroidery. I was allowed to take pictures but most of it was in window shadow boxes and I kept getting a glare off the glass. I think if you click on the website you have a much better representation of this wonderful art. If you live locally, run to this exhibit before it is gone . It is easily accessible as it has an elevator within the building.

This was my favorite- a large piece from Julie Caprara. If I show you too much, you won’t go! This was a treat and privilege to see. Run, girls, run! Go be spontaneous and get in the car to see this exhibit.

Yes, I am finishing baby quilts and I think i might end up with 5!

Happy Sewing, my friends!

A Week of Baby Quilts

I love babies. I love holding them in the middle of the night and in the middle of the day. I love happy babies and screaming babies. Some people are baby people and some are not. My husband-is not a baby person.He doesn’t even like holding babies unless they are content and sleeping. Luckily, I did like babies and never minded that I did the majority of our kids care.

I ,also, love making baby quilts-small and achievable sweet things. March is the month our guild donates baby quilts to one of the local hospitals for their neo-natal unit. So this week, I will see how many I can make.
They become another addictive thing to make.

I think I need to make something for a little boy next. I have plenty in my stash of commercial fabrics to pick something other than flowers!

   Here in MI we don’t see much sun in the winter months. But I read yesterday that this is the longest stretch of sunny days we have had in a year. The sun looks so great shining in the windows. No wonder we are all smiling again.

   Off to see one of my favorite babies this morning.

Happy Sewing, my friends.

A Walk in the Woods

I am enjoying seeing the patches of grass that are starting to peek through the melting snow. The sunshine, brighter blue skies and longer days definitely made my weekend! I was at a soccer tournament this weekend and realized I better stock up my bag that I bring for the long car rides with some hand stitching. The soccer season is just beginning.

When I visit Vermont, one of my favorite things to do is to take a walk in our neighbors woods. It is actually cross country ski trails but you can walk for miles and always find your way back home. I especially like to go right after the snow has fallen.

The texture of the trees and snow always intrigues me.

Peaceful….I just don’t know what I would do if I ran into a large animal…

So after being inspired by the greens and blues of this walk, I created this piece.

A Winter Walk in the Woods- 36×32

I haven’t done the binding yet. I must dye the deep navy blue again and am waiting for some pfd fabric I ordered. Maybe I will put a visible binding on it. What do you think? I heavily quilted it with the lines being less than 1/4 inch. And I quilted each block separately which added some time to it. Heavy quilting also added some wave so I wet blocked it. It did help. I think I need to flat bind it because it is not a perfect square!

I like this piece because it captured what I wanted to represent visually from my walk. I know from an art perspective it isn’t a great composition but I do like it. And I will take that today.

Now I must move on to spring colors. Happy sewing, my friends.

Sources of Inspiration and Scavenger Hunting

I have been putting in lots of hours of machine quilting hoping to have a piece ready for a quilt show deadline. But in my quest to make it better than my usual machine quilting, I missed the deadline. I am ok with that-for now. I will save this piece for my quilt guild show. I am also trying to do a little closer spacing than I would normally do. Just working on those 2010 goals I set for myself. My eyes are tired and I know after this week I need a new pair of glasses.

After a long afternoon of driving and car problems yesterday, I just needed a little more than usual of filling up the inspiration tank. So, in case you might need a little more, here’s to some wonderful bloggers and artists.

1. Be*mused– She has been blogging for 5 years! I am in awe of that. My current goal is just to make it to post 100. There are some nice pictures of the Tokyo Quilt Show here. What a treat it would be to go there. A dream actually.

2.Scoutie Girl-This is a huge resource for anything handmade featuring new designers.

3.dottie angel– just too much fun and I love the puppy post. Go back a few days to see how cute he is. How creative is this. The banner is what I would like to perfect!

4.-Subversive stitch Lots of good info

5. Sharon Schamber’s network– click on free stuff within her network and if you are new to this you will learn soem good stuff. I also appreciate her basting method and might try it next time. Great tutorial on how to make your own ironing surface.

Ok now go have some fun and be inspired. If I finish my piece this weekend, I owe you a post!

Happy sewing, my friends!

Missing the Olympics

I really missed watching the Olympics last night. I would sit down with the kids and just do a little hand sewing each night. Just loved snuggling on the couch with the two kids and it was amazing how we all scattered so quickly last night finding other things to do. Have to think of something else.

I have been trying to play catch up to my online class I have been taking with Melanie Testa at Joggles. We are making a small book which is filled with different techniques and stitches. Time-consuming but she is a great teacher and has plenty of notes to explain things. I need to figure out how to post these on their forum.

Different from what I have been doing but fun to play.

This was a piece of fabric I had stamped last month. Glad to use it for something fun like this.

I also purchased this amazing resource that Robin Ferrier from Simply Robin suggested recently. (She’s published this month in Art Quilting Studio magazine. Don’t forget to get your copy!) I, too, have been thinking of trying dyeing with natural products. But the processing with mordants seemed not worth the hassle. This book, EcoColour by Indie Flint does a great job of explaining natural dyes and is an great resource. I was so inspired that I rolled up a bit of onion skins, silk and sprayed it with vinegar and put it away in a bag for a month. I know, that’s a long time.

Then, I froze some flowers-only had a bunch of light colored tulip leaves- squeezed them into warm water and placed them in another vinegar solution. (Daffodils are toxic-good list of toxic plants, too.) I didn’t used cotton but silk. I chopped up a silk scarf blank that was put away.

I’ll see what happens. I am sure, just as in using Procion Dyes, there is going to be a huge learning curve. I am all over the place this month , aren’t I? Sure did cure the winter blahs though. Now I have so many ideas in my little head that I can’t stop!

Working away on some machine quilting today. Happy sewing, my friends.

The Results Are In

Never got around to snow dyeing on Wednesday. I came to my senses and realized I just had a little bit of time to see what would happen with those little plexiglass cut-outs. And the reason I hauled out the dye to begin with was that I needed some more navy blue for a background I am working on. But- there wasn’t much pfd fabric left in my stash. I tried a 50 percent cotton/ linen blend from Kaufman that I had.

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The piece on the left is a fat quarter of velvet. So pretty. The others aren’t quite dark enough for what I needed.

These are the pieces that I used c-clamps on with the plexiglass cut-outs. I only had a few c-clamps. Not enough to make a big batch but something I will definitely do this summer when I can make more of a mess. Then, I had tried wrapping a piece of plastic pipe. Of course, without reading about how to do this.

Nice result on the one end. I just didn’t have the pipe placed in the right kind of container nor did I even come close to the true technique. Another technique to put on my list for summer.

I added a little sunshine to the day in the form of one of my quilt tops from vacation and machine stitched away. Bright colors definitely help on a snowy day!

Vermont Sunshine and Wildflowers
14×16

I heavily quilted this one just to work on fine machine quilting. I now truly appreciate those machine quilters that do lots of fine line work-this is truly an art. It reminded me to schedule an eye doctor appointment.

I love the fine lines! Now what else to do with them?

Happy Sewing, my friends!

Something New

I always love quilters. They are so nice and always friendly. I met another art quilter and she came over to look at some of my notes to try to decide what class she would like to take in the future. She also asked to look at my finished quilts from last year. Always fun to have someone appreciate your work. Thanks Elizabeth for coming!
But I have a confession. Ok I admit it. I have the winter blahs. Nothing in particular is exciting me. Maybe there is nothing exciting to do. And it’s snowing again. Other than meeting Elizabeth, I did little or nothing yesterday -or nothing exceptionally productive let’s say. Which is really not like me. So, in effort to jump over this boring place I am in-I am going to try something new today.

I purchased these little plexiglass cut-outs from a wonderful seller Rossie and they arrived back when I was on vacation. She even included a great set of instructions with them. I am going to sandwich them between clamps and and pop them in some dye. While I am at the process of using up a little bit of dye I have mixed up, I will try some other things too-clamping some washers and wrapping a plastic pole.

And if I have any left, I will pop some more pieces in plastic bins for snow dyeing. If I can’t beat the snow blahs, maybe I should go play in it. I am investigating cold freeze dyeing with natural products.My husband just shook his head when he pulled out a big bag of frozen flower petals last night when he was digging for ice cream. But bless his heart, he didn’t even say -what next?

Happy sewing, my friends.

West Michigan Fiber Arts Group

I belong to a group that meets on a monthly basis called the West Michigan Fiber Arts Group. It meets ly at a local sewing store and consists of about thirty people. We have been working through the book by Jane Davila and Elin Waterson called Artists at Play this past year. Lots of fun show and tell each month and also we have been working through all the techniques in the book. The group is led by our own artist Beth Williams, a very talented fiber artist.

We are having a small show during the month of March at the the Lakeshore Sewing Center in Wyoming. The theme is Artists at Play. It has been a good experience to prepare for a formal gallery show or other type show as we have had to develop an artist’s statement and work within a specific size-18×18. With that being said-you have to know there is some strange happening with my piece:).

I wanted to mount mine on a canvas. (Why do I try all these new things when there is some risk involved with the outcome? Gotta love a challenge!) So I painted my canvas before vacation. And of course, going on vacation I thought it would be dry by the time I got back. Plenty of time. It wasn’t dry on Friday night-and it was due on Mon. What’s a girl to do? I got out the hair dryer! Voila-it’s dry. I don’t know it that I should have done that. I used oil paints on the canvas because I wanted the texture but should have factored in a long dry time in the winter.

Missing the Mark
14×18

Lots of fun things to play with but just couldn’t make it work- thus missing the mark. Had fun though. That sometimes happens,doesn’t it? I had plenty of time to do this but should have stuck with a method I was more comfortable with for this piece. Ah-the joy of learning!