The Last Hurrah

     I have finished fabric dyeing for the summer of 2011. Oh,what a great feeling that is to say! At least until I get home from Vermont , unpack and sort it all and see what I didn’t dye to fill out my stash. So, I will feel absolutely amazing and kind of like superwoman -until I get home. I think the final count is 250 yards since May-craziness.

    This past week I dyed reds. And then an old friend from my Connecticut days,  Lynne, came to spend a few days doing some dyeing and surface design with me. And it wasn’t just some, it was many yards of beautiful fabric that we created.

  
    It was a hot day on Monday but our pieces dried nicely on the line. Lynne just didn’t stop and created lots of small pieces of fabric and I think her favorite technique was monoprinting using parchment paper.

Lynne’s beautiful hand dyed fabrics. My favorites were her top fabrics-  deep rich overdyes.

    I love these pieces that I clamped but should have used a higher concentration of dye to make the prints darker. Always learning something new each time I process a fabric.

Just playing ended up creating nice texture.

Using up the dyes on the last of my white cotton floss.

After many loads of laundry , caffeine, ice cream and lots of conversation, we created oodles of fabric to use the next year. Not much cooking got done but lots of fabric dyeing. Oh and my dog escaped to kill  the neighbor’s chicken(not good). There is always a dog adventure whenever Lynne comes!

     Lucy, my Bernese rarely chases anything…but I guess the chicken lost.

     Thanks for coming Lynne. Next time, no dog adventures. We both will  need a good nap after we iron all this fabric.

     Be creative, my friends. I can hardly wait to return to actual sewing again.

Jumping Off My Lilly Pad

    I have been floating around in this pond of fabric dyeing all summer and am almost done  with my 200 meter goal for the summer. So I decided it was time to take a break from the dyeing and try one of the new techniques from my last workshop.  ( And thanks to some wise words from a friend.)

     Deconstructed screen printing was it yesterday. So  I jumped in and tried working with some screens I had prepared last week. I didn’t read a thing from my notes but just jumped right in. I knew I didn’t have the right print surface prepared but just tacked my fabric down with some clamps. It actually worked ok, but the clamps didn’t allow me to print off the side of the surface. It was kind of gooey but fun to see how the screen broke down with repeated sweeps of the squeegee and print paste.

I had brought two screens with me. They were varnished with polyurethane so didn’t need taping. I did forget to tape in a well though.

First draw through. Nice marks aren’t they?

 First screen after the washout. Much lighter than I thought  it would be.  Next time I can be bolder or I can add color to this.

Second screen after the washout.

Close ups of some of the more interesting areas. Really nice prints . I need to remember a few more things next time and make an official printing surface but this was a great first try and a technique I look forward to using again.

I only have about 30 more meters left to finish up of fabric dyeing here in Vermont. My friend is coming next week and we will spend two days doing surface design techniques. I made a list of all I wanted to do and it is long.

Jumping off the lily pad from the pond I was in to something new definitely helped push me forward. (Thanks friend for your wise words.)

Be creative, my friends.

One

     If one would be thinking too much about how nice it would be to have one’s own style or voice and not yet have it, one might be discouraged and create no art.

    If one would be thinking too much about what one read recently about one’s work looking too much like another’s work or in a specific style that too recognizable , one might not make any work because it didn’t feel like what they were making was very original.

     If one felt they weren’t making any progress, then one might not make time to work or make it a priority.

    If one thought that dyeing alot of fabric to work with was plenty of work, one would not make any art. She already did enough for the day.

    If it was too hot and there was too much company last week, so what a perfect excuse to make no art.

    Just excuses, aren’t they?  Being much more honest with myself, I find it hard to return to making things after I have had a break. Much easier to keep something going. I don’t care who my work looks like right now because I just need to keep going and keep creating. I looked back at some famous ones earlier works and they all look the same. I hope never to criticize others who are working through it in the early phases of their work-no matter who they work with, how they work with and what they work with.

    I did stitch last night. I am back in my own barn today making my own marks on fabric.

    Be creative, my friends and keep moving ahead. And don’t think too much while  you do it because you might end up being your own worst enemy !

If I Had My Own Store




     If I had my own store, I would have one that looked exactly like a new store I visited this weekend in Burlington called Nido.  It was in a beautiful  second floor setting  of an old building with exposed brick walls in the heart of Burlington city.

    The brick walls set off the crisp racks of fabric and this was one of a kind fabric from Ink and Spindle, Japanese fabrics , Denise Schmydt fabrics , fabric packs and , of course, cotton solids. Despite being in an old building, it was light, bright and airy.  Everything was displayed so nicely. Too bad I spent most of my money at the Vermont Quilt Festival because I could have spent a lot on the cotton voiles  and yarns from local Vermont artists. Beautiful yarns.

     A few solid wooden tables were off to the right for classes and it was all part of the same space as the shop. What a great way for newcomers to catch the excitement of a class.

     Best of all,  no sewing machine sales. I loved that  the owner ( I think) wasn’t thinking about what machine she might like me to buy.  Just what I came in there for.  Fabric or yarn.

   If you are ever in the area, stop and see Nido. Otherwise , check them out on their website. They were eager to please and often, you just don’t find that anymore!

    Be creative, my friends! As I stitch away, I am daydreaming of what I would want if I had my own store….and not the hours I would have to work to keep it going. 


    

     
   

Summer Meadows

     I spent an inordinate amount of time waiting for things here in Vermont this past week. As my daughter reminded me-we are on “Vermont time” not real time. Which means when you are waiting on a repair person who is coming in the morning, 7pm at night is just on time. He made it the day he said he would.

    So I waited for people and waited even longer for fabric that was due last week. I only needed to dye two yards of navy blue to finish a piece I am working on now. Not done yet. So, I did some therapy strips and just chilled.

Summer Meadows, 9×12

 I love the colors of the meadows and wildflowers here. Along with the sunshine. No different than the flowers in Michigan, but I think I just am able to take time and enjoy them. This piece should have been much larger but I made just a few too many cuts….so tiny it is.

    Found a few more stray pieces to dye  some gentle colors.

Tried to overdye some browns and blacks but still couldn’t get deep dark brown or black. I am not sure what went wrong here. Also. played with some thermofax screens and one silkscreen.

And for one or two of you missing mountains, a hazy mountain shot on a ninety degree day earlier this week. Yes, I am high up in the mountains.

Enjoy your summer and be creative, my friends!

Up, Up and Away

     I am back to work this week. The two lovely children in the last post were acting a little …not very grateful. So this mom decided it was an “on your own” day yesterday. Meaning, they must find something to entertain themselves and not me entertaining them. 🙂 So, I took the day and worked on piecing another top. Almost there. So you will actually see art this week.

    We went to the annual balloon festival this past weekend. I haven’t been in a few years so it was fun to be outdoors and enjoy it.

They all had quilt patterns on them, didn’t they? I liked the one on the left the best. I kept thinking of how much work they do for such a short flight.  But they sure looked like they were having fun.

What are you working on this week?

Enjoy the summer, my friends!

Summertime in Vermont

     I am very relaxed and sinking into the summertime.

Enjoying smiles on the girl after a week of hard work getting cows ready to show in a 4-H dairy show. Meet the Supreme Grand Champion Pesto.

Watching the beautiful architecture of barns made long ago.

Taking pictures wherever we go.

Enjoying summer with not much to show for my art life this week. Stitching by night. I did order 150 meters of fabric to dye and was all prepared for a marathon dyeing week-except they shipped it to the wrong address back at home. So, I took it as a week to enjoy time with the kids and animals here in Vermont.

Enjoy summertime, my friends!

Finally Finished Fireworks on the Fourth

     It was a picture perfect day here in Vermont. Enjoyed the great outdoors and stayed away from crowds with the exception of fireworks in the mountains. Walk, bike, read, relax, barbecue and stitch. What more could you ask for?

Kind of hazy but a great breeze and sun.

Fireworks are really hard to capture. Just when your lens focuses, they are gone.

Fireworks 2011, 17×24 

This isn’t a piece I like but just a piece that needed to be finished. So, I could finally finish something! And move on. The fabric reminded me of fireworks and I had fun adding some big stitch to it. ( I am really tired of these neons so you will be as relieved as I am that I am moving on.)

    And if you put the fun back into it, it sure goes quickly. Which leads me to the question, why would I be finishing things I really didn’t want to do?

    Be creative, my friends and make something you enjoy doing.

Fabric Dyeing Days:#6

     I was weeding the garden this week and really was struck by the purples right now.

I spotted this columbine under the trees and almost missed him in my hurry to finish weeding. I guess I do need to slow down.

My ferns are finally filling in.

Definitely a week of purple flowers. Could I make a gentle purple-more natural?

I think I did it and it is nice and gentle.

Started on the oranges and wanted more of an orange red so will try to do another batch. All out of fabric and will need to order some more.

Very pretty and a beautiful start to fabric dyeing here in Vermont inspired by the colors here. Now if I can get them ironed I will feel like it was a productive work week. Our friends are coming this weekend and we hope to go canoeing.

Be inspired by summer colors out there.

Finding Out More About Myself

     I signed up and took part in two workshops at the Vermont Quilt Festival: Small Silk  works by Sonya Lee Barrington and Introduction to Long arm Quilting by Debbie Brown. Both are excellent teachers with an eye for detail and great skill in making you feel at ease in a workshop and getting the information to you in a clear manner.

   The first class was a day long workshop and I took it primarily to see how to work with silks. I had dyed a bunch this past winter and before I cut into the silks , I wanted to know what I was doing.  Sonya makes beautiful pieces large and small, purses and many of her pieces are framed very nicely. The packet of dupioni silks were gorgeous that we used for the class kit and the instructions well written.

     I was a diligent student opening the packet and piecing things together as the pattern indicated but by about 1 pm, I could do no more. I am now officially an improvisational piecer.  I can’t use a pattern anymore. I don’t want to use a pattern is more accurate.  There was not a scrap of my brain that wanted to use a pattern.  I think she thought I was crazy when I spent the last hour just piecing randomly as everyone was dealing with tiny one inch pieces which fit so nicely together. 

It doesn’t look a thing like the pattern above, does it? I couldn’t do it. 
I do appreciate and admire people who can use a pattern. I am too far gone I guess !  I learned how to do a Y seam, how to fuse pellon 880 f to make the silk easier to handle while sewing but most importantly I learned something about myself as a studio artist : I don’t want to -use a pattern and I am not at all about precision anymore. A sketch- yes, a pattern- no.  I am not sure why this was such a revelation to me but it was.

    Then on Saturday, I took an intro to long arm quilting workshop . I had it in the back of my mind that maybe this was a route I wanted to take. 
      Buy a long arm machine( money is a slight issue- 😉 and be a quicker worker producing oodles of artwork. Oh where do I dream these things up? Now, I tried a big machine for about ten minutes. I knew right then and there, it is not what I want to do either. Too big for me. I don’t want to have to add another tool  to learn to use, maintain or justify. It just wasn’t me-right now. 

     I spent I think about 100 dollars to learn these things about myself.  I could feel really guilty about that. But I figure it was much less than a semester at a local art college taking a 4 credit class that would have cost a lot more and been more painful to finish. Or a huge expensive sewing machine…

     Oh the things I am learning about myself thorough this whole process!!!

     Thanks for listening to this very long post .  Slow down and enjoy the journey. I think I need to. It was a relief to eliminate some things and not wonder if I was missing something. 🙂

      Slow down and enjoy the journey, my friends.