Another set of strips and blocks … and a pebble or two!
Oh, where, where have all the days gone in between September 20th (my last blog) and today? It seems that it was yesterday that I blogged for the last time!. I cannot believe how fast this year is going …
The past few weeks have been busy at work, and at home preparing for the classes I am teaching in Houston. I teach 4 classes, and do a Demo for Open Studios, plus two demos for Wonderfil Threads during Market. That’s a lot of samples and stuff to put together.
On Saturday I finally went to the UPS store to send the box with the kits to Houston. It is a big box … and it weighs a ton! But, it’s all gone, plus the box I sent directly from the US with all the paints and pencils that I need… I do hope that the two boxes will be there when I arrive on Saturday October 26!
I am still trying to wrap my head around what I am going to do to the two pieces I have been working on for a while now. I am still not sold on any idea; I keep looking at them and know that one of these days something is going to pop into my head.
In the meantime, I have not been idle. When I was in Birmingham in August, I gave Laura Kemshall a CD with images to print on fabric at Fingerprints. Last week I received the fabric and was thrilled! Now… after spending all that money (it was not cheap!), I’d better put it to good use.
In preparation for that, I had dyed a lot of fabrics in greys, as I want to recreate the feeling of pebbles on the beach.
In case you are wondering, I also used some Sage green dye and some Golden dye so that’s some of the coloration you see. The other variations on the greys are different dyes. One of them, amazingly enough, when I added the soda ash, turned pink! The darker colors were obtained with some of the blacks.
I took the opportunity of a dye day and also dyed some silk velvet and skeins of thread so I now I have some for embellishment, and because they were all dyed with the same dyes and at the same time, it all matches. Ah, I added, some cheese cloth at the last minute, just laid it on top of the other fabrics and smooshed it all together (don’t have a photo of it, although it is lovely).
Below are some of the photos I had printed on fabric:
These two photos were taken in Halifax last April, when I went to teach for CQA. Don’t you love all those grey pebbles? Look at all those different textures, and slight color variations … This is what I’ve done with it:
Those are some of the pebbles I’ve made so far. IThe dark eloongated one on top is silk velvet. I have about 25 more to go (prepared and ready for hand work) and probably a few dozen more to go still, depending on what I do with them and how big the work is. Lots of pebbles, but they are nice to have to make when you are watching TV! Here’s the sample of what I am contemplating doing with them:
The two light grey pebbles were made by sliding a “pebble” made of a layer of stiff Timtex (or similar) with a layer of batting on top glued to it in between the two layers of fabric (the grey and an ugly orangey underneath that you can’t see), and then taking stab stitches through both layers of fabric to anchor the pebbles in place. The three other pebbles were appliqued on top. I was experimenting so I decided to add lots of french knots in between with a thicker tembroidery thread to mimic the feel of all the sand and the bits and pieces you find in between the rocks.
And below, some of the strips and wonky squares I am putting together to add. I am not sure where it will all end up, and how it will look in the end, but it’s been a lot of fun to work with it. I’ll keep you posted as to progress. I might play with one of the smaller prints this weekend (it’s Thanksgiving so we have an extra day), when I take a break from making samples and step outs for the classes.
So this is all I have to share for now. Send me a comment or two and let me know what you are up to this weekend. In the meantime, keep making time for creative endeavours, and above all, keep quilting.
I will blog soon.
Ana
