Screen printing

I finally did some deconstructed screen printing this weekend. Here are some of the pieces I made. For more information on the process, check And Then We Set It On Fire.

:

Busy week

A picture of my daughter's dog, who jumped into the baby crib to try it out while we were putting in the bumper pads I made. I think she might have a slight problem when the baby is born...

My daughter Erin (in the middle) with two of my nieces, Karin (left) and Megan (right). Taken right before the start of her baby shower last Saturday in Middletown, NY.

It was a great shower, she got enough stuff for quadruplets, and I got to see my sisters, sister-in-law, and lots of nieces. Back to work on Wednesday, and trying to catch up with everything that had to be done while I was away.

And here is my round robin fabric that Beth from Maine sent me, it's almost ready to be sent on to the next person on the list, Jenny. I boiled out the batik wax this morning before work, but it was still wet when I left home at 7:15.

I also made an embellished screen for deconstructed screen printing using some of my lunaria seed pods. Can't wait to get home tonight to see how it all turns out, as this is my first time playing with this stuff! Screenprinting is the technique of the month on And Then We Set It On Fire and this is the first time I've had to try it out.

Shibori Obsession

Here's some of the work I did yesterday using the techniques I learned at the Jan Myers Newbury workshop. I just love how these turned out!!

Shibori Workshop & Quilt Symposium

Yesterday I went to Raleigh for a Jan Myers Newbury workshop, A Pole and a Piece of Fabric at the NC Quilt Symposium. It was a six-hour workshop, most of which was held in a laundry room at Peace College. Here's a bunch of wrapped poles sitting in dye buckets.

Jan at the sink. She was a very laid back, very informative teacher. If I could afford it, I would have taken a longer class with her today, too!

Some quilts from the quilt show, which I went through really quickly at lunchtime--it was pretty crowded so I didn't stay long...

These three quilts caught my eye, the colors and quilting.

There were lots and lots of traditional quilts, but it's funny, I only took pictures of a few very colorful, very similar quilts. Hmmm...

Baby shower next week

Baby things are occupying my "spare" time lately--I finished up a blanket last night, just posting the back of it, as it's a surprise for my daughter and I don't want her to see the front.

Nearly a whole month has gone by

Here is the piece I think might be going into the round robin organized by Judith of Quilt Or Dye. I cut some freezer paper into strips and ironed onto a fat quarter, then painted with pebeo setacolor paint in chartreuse. I'm not sure if it's too graphic for a round robin, but I'll get the piece back eventually and want to make sure it's something I can use.

And of course, baby things are occupying my mind and time these days, trying to get everything done and in the mail before a shower coming up in early June--

A baby quilt in progress.
And bumper pads for the crib, these were harder than I thought they'd be to figure out!


And don't forget to enter the giveaway on And Then We Set It On Fire -- in honor of our 100+ followers, each of us is giving away a fat quarter.

I won a prize!

Just for posting some pictures on the 3 Creative Studios flickr group last month, I was selected to win a random prize. It was two patterns all the way from Australia from Brenda Gael Smith of Serendipity Patchwork & Quilting. Brenda hosted a shibori workshop and presented four great tutorials. Check them out here.

We had some rain last weekend, which has been a rare occurrence here in central North Carolina, and the flowers all looked great afterwards. Peonies are ready to bloom--

And the silver dollar plant will have lots of seeds this year--

Coral bells are looking better than they have since I planted them about 3 years ago--

I got this book at the library a couple of weeks ago, and have been attempting the cathedral windows pattern. I had tried the cathedral window pattern way back in the 1970s, but did it all by hand then, this book has directions for hand and machine work. Will post something as soon as I get far enough long so that it actually looks like something.

Nice weekend

Well, except for the tornadoes flying through central NC on Saturday, it was a good weekend. On Saturday I tried a new shibori technique that was presented in the Shibori Girl on-line workshop I'm taking. I used the rubbermaid sink protector I had previously used for batiking, and pushed the fabric through the holes with a skewer. This is a good way to get a consistent pattern on a piece of fabric.

Here's what it looked like from the back:

I tied off the tips, then dipped it into some dyes.

I forgot to take a picture of the finished piece, as I was trying to hurry and take pictures this morning at 7 am before leaving for work--it did turn out nicely.

I also tried the parfait dyeing again. I had two yellow-ish pieces that I had stamped some things onto (carved the stamps with speedball cutter) but wasn't thrilled with. So I parfaited them with fuchsia and some khaki.


And baby blankets are all done! Here is front and back sides of one.

And just the fronts of two others ready to go:

Baby quilts

The latest projects I've been working on, baby quilts.

Spring is here

Some flowers are blooming in my backyard -- but I haven't been able to mow my 2 foot tall lawn yet. Got my mower back from it's annual service the other day, but yesterday it rained almost all day. In my neighborhood, people don't mow on Sundays, it's a southern thing I guess, but I might have to break out my Yankee hat today and mow if the sun comes out.

Did some parfait dyeing last week on some stitched and wrapped shibori pieces. Here they are out of the jar I used to dye them in.





And a baby quilt I've been working on, still have a little quilting, then hope to do the binding and finish it today.