Now that the weather is feeling more fall-like, I have been staying indoors, and trying to get something accomplished. I finally have had a few days in a row where I have felt able to do more than surf the web.
I'm sure no one else has ever ended up with an ugly fabric when dyeing it :) Here is a piece I ran across that I decided to see if I could do something with. It is a dingy blue-green. I spent a day last week playing with paint in my greenhouse again. I had to do a bit of tidying before I could paint, but I was able to get in a bit of "play time".
Here is the greenhouse ready for play. The plants did quite well this summer in the pond. I do miss being able to see the back yard, now that the plastic is on the wall again for the winter. The right photo is a piece of the ugly fabric wet, and on a paint board, ready for paint.
Left is a piece painted with Super Sparkle and blue, right is painted with orange, yellow, and a bit of green and blue, along with some metallic copper. I love the shimmer that the metallics and Super Sparkle give to the fabric. These will probably be able to be used much easier now they've had their "face lifts".
I have been collecting used dryer sheets for a while, and finally decided to paint a few. This photo shows a few of them on a paint board. (I think I need to do some board cleaning- they are getting a bit of a pant build-up on them) The upper left piece is a shimmery organza painted blue. I used metallic and Super Sparkle paints on the dryer sheets, and tryed to do an assortment of colors.
Here is a group of dryer sheets that have been heat set, and pressed flat. Wonder Under release paper or parchment paper is needed on both sides while using the iron to be sure they don't melt. You can see how sheer they are. I really like how they turned out. I have been thinking of using the orange ones for fall leaves. Now more ideas can start forming in my cluttered my brain.
This is a small quilt I made for the Stay at Home Challenge on the Quiltart list for those of us not able to go to Quilt Festival in Houston. We were to make small pieces 9"x12" in size or less for the The "Priority: Alzheimer's Quilts" project
These quilts will be auctioned off, with the proceeds going to Alzheimer's research.
At first I had no idea what I was going to do, but then I began to think how I have been feeling lately, and some ideas began to form. I have been dealing with some bad fibro flares lately, and some days I can't remember friend's names, or find the words I want to say. It feels like my brain has chunks missing. That gave me the idea of making quilts with pieces missing to represent the memory loss from Alzheimers that so many people have to deal with. I feel lucky that my memory losses are temporary, and can't imagine knowing it would never get better.
Missing Pieces and Butterflies is made of pieces of my painted fabrics, a couple partial sunprints, and commercial fabrics. It is satin stitch seamed with some of the pieces missing, leaving holes. The Echinacea flowers are photos printed onto cotton fabric, cut out and appliqued, with a couple petals missing from one flower. The butterflies were added to show there is hope. I backed the holes of this quilt with a painted dryer sheet in blues and greens.
I will be sending these two out this week, and in a month or so, they should be put up for auction or sold some other way with the full profit going to Alzheimer's research.
Here is a real prize that I found this summer. I had been looking for over a year for "silk" oak leaves that looked close to the real thing. I finally found this bush of them, and now it has been stripped of it's leaves for quilts.
This is the first quilt that I made using the leaves from above. I made this for this past Fast Friday Fabric Challenge. Each month we are given guidelines for a quilt to be made in a week. This month, we were to make a quilt using something as embellishment, to show movement. Now that fall is really here, the first thing I thought of was the Oak leaves I had, and the fall winds that blow the leaves around outdoors. I began with a piece of fabric sunprinted with oak leaves, cut apart and arranged, using a metallic gold-flecked ivory fabric as a background.
I couched a yarn with the colors in the fabric over the edges of the sunprinted fabric pieces. I used a variegated thread in fall colors for the free motion quilting around the sunprint leaves and to add the veins. There are also wobbly curved lines quilted in with clear thread. The quilt edges are bound with the yarn used around the sunprints. I then added the "silk" Oak leaves over the top, as if they were swirling in the wind. I only stitched the veins in the leaves, and let some of them drift off the edges. The photos show the quilt on a pre-stretched artist canvas. The quilt is 11"x14" in size, on a 16"x20" canvas. I am trying to decide just how to mount it. I don't know if I will leave the canvas white, or cover it with a colored fabric.
The lower photo shows a few more leaves laid on the canvas bordering the quilt. I am not sure if I will add the extra leaves or not.
If anyone has any ideas, feel free to add a comment.
Now off to work, getting ready for my next show.
I am a former textile artist and new pattern designer with a degree in horticulture, wishing to share my love of nature, flowers and gardens with everyone through my photos, sunprinted fabrics, and now pattern designs. Chronic Lyme Disease has caused major changes to the direction my life. I have to limit the amount of time spent digging in my gardens, and quilting has become more difficult. I discovered pattern design as a way to get art back into my life. I now use my gardens and photos to inspire designs that can be used on fabrics and print on demand items.
