March moon

The super moon of this past month has been some inspiration to me -- also the Kemshall's book "The Painted Quilt"--one of their techniques is to paint on the paper side of wonder-under or other iron on paper-backed fusing material, then cut it out and iron onto your fabric. I tried painting some silvery and white paint on some wonder under, then cut out a circle and ironed on to some dark hand-dyed fabric.

I like how it turned out, I've already started quilting the background since taking this picture Tuesday.
Here's my progress on the Judy Niemeyer quilt pattern Total Eclipse.

You're supposed to sew all the separate circles, then lay them out and sew together. Seems like it's taking forever, but it's been less than 2 weeks since I started it. Boring and tedious to sew, but seems to be ok for those nights after work when you don't feel like doing anything too exciting or creative.

Baby Shibori

Dyed some little newborn and 3-6 month onesies yesterday.

This will be good practice for my first grandbaby (expected in September)!

Workshop w/Shibori Girl

I've been enrolled in an on-line workshop with Shiborigirl, today was the first time I've had to do anything with the first lesson. This is dyeing on silk with Colorhues dyes, which are totally different than procion mx dyes. The colors bond almost instantly, and you only have to dip them in the color for a few seconds.

The green & yellow one wasn't folded tightly enough, the design didn't show up too well in the middle portion. The other blue/orange one looks like fried eggs!

I finally figured out how tightly to clamp the fabric for this orange one and the pink/yellow one.

The green & blue one looks like a mess, the piece I used was a full scarf and obviously I didn't clamp or fold it tightly enough. But I'm sure I can find some way to use this piece, even if I overdye it with turquoise.

Last call (not for alcohol!):

One Last Call for Entry:
The Professional Art Quilters Alliance-South (PAQA-South)announces its eighth Annual Juried Exhibition of Innovative Quilts: ARTQUILTSmovement - See http://www.artquiltersouth.org/

Exhibit Opens: May 20, 2011
Postmark Deadline for entry: March 19, 2011
Entry Fee: $15 for PAQA-South members, $25 for non-members for up to three works submitted.
Size Limitations: No larger than 40 inches wide and 60 inches high.
Contact: AQtransitions@gmail.com with questions.

New York Beauty & Judy Niemeyer pattern

It's been a while since I've posted anything! I've been busy, though, working on a baby quilt for my co-worker (her shower is a week from tomorrow). Still have to wash it and dry it to fluff it up a bit.

Also working on the endless NY Beauty blocks, this is what I go back to when I don't know what else to work on. The contrast in some of the blocks isn't showing up too well in this picture--for some reason all my pics today are dark.

And I've had a Judy Niemeyer pattern for at least 2 years now, and yesterday I attended a class on sewing one of these. It was taught by a certified Judy Niemeyer instructor, and I'm so glad I went to it. We had to cut everything out before the class, which took about 3-4 hours. That was the worst part, sewing is easy now that I have all thousands of pieces ready.

It just looks like I'm making a huge mess, I'm really making some progress.