I won something!

Opened my email this morning, and found an email from Rossie (Fresh Modern Quilts) saying that I had won a giveaway on her blog (http://r0ssie.blogspot.com/2010/11/thanksgiving-is-coming.html)

I won a thermofax screen and paint from Lynn Krawczyk (see her website at http://www.fibraartysta.com/) I had been checking these out on her website and etsy shop, so I'm very excited about winning--can't wait to try it out.

Weekend Flops

Not a productive weekend, at all. Everything I tried to do seemed doomed to failure! I guess it was just one of those things, it WILL get better.

Tried leaf printing by rolling up leave in a piece of fabric, then simmering the bundle in water and some alum. Results are less than fantastic, aren't they? If anyone has any secrets on how this can work out better, please share!


Last Thursday I took the day off and went to a workshop in Winston-Salem with Roxann Lessa. I thought the class covered "How to Make a Pattern from a Photograph" but it actually was "How to Make a Quilt from her Pattern that she already made from a Photograph".

Her photo is below with the blue flower.


And this is my interpretation of her flower picture. The yellow & white are done with fabric textile paint. Not much else to say about this, is there?


Finally, one of my co-workers gave me some fabric to make her two pillows. The fabric isn't exactly my style, so I made the back of the pillows with her fabric, and made the front with my own stash fabrics.

Distortion & Shrinkage

In her book Stitching to Dye in Quilt Art, C. June Barnes has some really intriguing techniques. You basically start with a white or light colored background, some wool felt, and some white cotton thread. I made this sample over the weekend to see how complicated the process was, and it was actually pretty easy.

I started with a piece of grey fabric I had, and a piece of wool/rayon blend felt (bought at Joann Fabrics). Since I wanted to create a pop-up, dimensional thing like in the book, I took some interfacing and made a circle, then sewed "channels" into it with dissolving thread (thanks, Jenny!) in the top and regular thread in the bottom. When my channels were sewed, I inserted a piece of strapping (the kind like a package gets wrapped in--very hard and stiff)--you could also use plastic coffee stirrers or pieces of craft foam.

I also cut out a circle of craft foam for the middles, and sewed around them, forgot to mention that earlier!

All you do is put the wool felt underneath, and that acts as your batting. Here is are the wheelie-things with some free motion quilting started.

Once you get it all quilted, you have to wash it in your washing machine in hot water. I chickened out, though, and put it in my bathtub and ran hot water over it and let it soak for a while. It really shrank up quite a bit, but I think the agitation of the washer would have been better. After shrinking, you direct dye it with Procion MX dyes--again, I did this in my bathtub because it was "cold" outside. The dye doesn't migrate at all because the felting underneath absorbs so much of it, which was VERY different than other dyeing I've done.

This technique was so cool to try, and now that I've done it once, I'm braver, and think I will try it again this weekend! Link to her book on amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Stitching-Dye-Quilt-Art-Distortion/dp/0713490705

Not a UFO anymore

This Darned Quilt is finally done, it took me forever because I just haven't felt like doing anything when I get home from work lately. Maybe because it's already dark?

Close ups showing the stitching:

(Ignore the date, please)