Flour-resist Dye/Painting

I did some flour-resist dyeing yesterday. I will take a pic when I get home (the batteries are just re-charging ) it was fun to do and we had a hilarious moment when one of the cats hopped onto the table and began to lick the flour paste off the fabric! I live in a circus!

This is after the flour paste has dried. I dyed it first, and am now over-painting it. I had already begun, when I realised I had forgotten to take a pic. Below is a pic of the overpainting which now has to be left to dry, while we all hope the cats don't decide to leap onto the table and then prance around everywhere else with little green feet.

Footnote: It's wholewheat flour paste. I tried to sift out the bran, but didn't really succeed. I ran out of cake flour and the wholewheat was so old, I figured I may as well use it up, rather than throw it out.
Below: Part of the flour resist stuff peeled off:

Machine Quilting

I am currently on the learning curve of machine quilting and finding it very steep! I am quilting the full-size leaf quilt and finding it quite a chore, but I know it is simply a matter of practicing and putting in the hours to get better at it. But yesterday, as I was working on it, I found that I kept getting up and putting it off. I do this a lot when something is not going well. Of course, that was breaking my rhythm and making it go worse, but the tension of holding the quilting steady is also not something one can sustain for very long. How does one do it???? I really, really want to learn this.

Feeling that my world is coming apart...

... I went and bought myself a bit of glue.

Well, okay, a LOT of glue. It takes a lot to stick MY world together.

They bring these value packs out about once a year, though not every year, at back-to-school time. They are amazingly cheap: R12.99 for a pack of three glue sticks or clear glue tubes, which normally sell for about R7 or R8 each. They are fantastic for all the craft projects we do throughout the year, so I try to get enough to last for the year until the next time I see them.

Perhaps I could glue a few brain cells together too. That would be enormously useful.

My Quilting’s in the Ditch

That’s right, I have Quilter’s Block.

I don’t even know what to say. I’ve just dried up. We’ve just finished a clinical study and I feel quite, quite depleted. I’ve caught up the sleep, but somehow my soul hasn’t caught up.

I’ve been sewing a dress for my daughter for a dance at her school on Saturday and I’m NO dressmaker so this has been an anxious task. I did warn her I wasn't good at it, but she said she had lots of confidence in me... so I let myself get talked into it.

And then I opened my large mouth last year and said I would make something quilty for my brother. :) That has proved to be far more difficult than it sounds. It was fine up until the point at which I asked my brother what sort of thing he would like. General style, general colour. So he said that he likes minimalist, beiges, browns...

!!!

I am a confirmed colour freak. Bright, bold, lots of colours. I have trouble limiting myself. And I simply do not EVEN KNOW HOW to do minimalist. I've never understood the point of minimalist. O help.

This has been sent as a challenge to me...

... and I am stumped.

A Happy Event :)

We're thrilled to announce the birth of 5 gorgeous kittens to Cassie on Tuesday 16 January. We were all there for the birth and everything went very smoothly. Instinct is an amazing thing and all 6 knew exactly what to do. Here's a picture of the furry black pile. One kitten is all black and the rest are black (mostly) with small patches of white.

And next we have another of the quilt inspectors, hard at work, inspecting another work, which I've got stuck with the quilting of. (I'm sure that is a very bad sentence!) Um, this is how art is made - how mundane! Oi, Abby, how will I get people to take me seriously, when you treat my work as a comfy place to lie???

... and while we're on the topic of cats on my stuff, here's a picture of Cassie, taken while I was making lariats. Could there be a more uncomfortable place to go and lie than right on top of all my knobbly beads?

*What is it* about cats that they feel compelled to lie right on top of stuff?

Random decoration

When I can't think of anything to make and have no ideas, I just make some decoration that I can use in some future work. I have no plans for this, but I'm sure I'll be happy to have it one day...
I've been tired lately, too busy at my day job to have any energy left for new ideas for art, so have just been doing busy-work to keep my hands going, while my mind numbs out in front of the TV.

Fabric postcards

At last I have got to posting these pictures. These were quick and fun to make and I can see myself making more.
( I feel I should apologise for the poor quality of the photos. I am really not a very good photographer and I know I should just RTFM and get to grips with the settings and the know-how, but..... there always seems to be something else to do.)

Well, whaddya know....

You Are An ISFP

The Artist You are a gifted artist or musician (though your talents may be dormant right now).You enjoy spending your free time in nature, and you are good with animals and children.Simply put, you enjoy bueaty in all its forms and live for the simple pleasures in life.Gentle, sensitive, and compassionate - you are good at recognizing people's unspoken needs. You would make a good veterinarian, pediatrician, or composer.

What's" Your Personality Type?

Wage slavery

I should not complain about my job; it enables me to do my art AND have elctricity, eat, pay school fees etc, but since Jan 2 we've been getting ready for a trial which begins tomorrow, which means very little *real work* has been done. And this is all I have time to blog for now. Perhaps this weekend, I will have some pictures. (I did catch the fabric postcard craze, after I posted about it, and made 7 little cards, which I'll try to post pics of).

Fabric Postcards

I have not yet got caught up in this craze, but an article from quilting.about.com on Fabric Postcards has just made me itch to try it. I think it is the small size that appeals to me - I can imagine doing several of these in a series, quite quickly and they would look lovely all hanging together. It could be an art form all on its own.

Why, o why do I have to stay at work all day???

Sigh

I KNOW I will miss my dear offspring when they fly from the nest, but I've realised there will be an upside - I will find my stuff where I left it last, viz. the battery charger needed to recharge the batteries for my camera! Digital cameras seem to devour batteries, so I invested in rechargables, which are GREAT, except when your teen daughter goes to the coast on holiday with her friend, *taking the battery charger with her!* Grrr. I love you, my love, but please don't do this...

So, no photies of what I have been doing. Not that I've done all that much, as we've been covering school books and buying and organising stationery in preparation for the new school year. Now is the time to buy extra glue sticks and pens and glues for all my own art projects during the year, as they all sell at special prices. This is fun, too- I really enjoy my fabric and stationery and bead fetishes! I wanted to take pics of all the packets of stationery goodies, but, alas...

Hilarious cat website

Stuff On My Cat

Cat lovers will recognise the facial expressions, the body poses and the LOOKS! Several pictures just made me crack up laughing. No animal cruelty involved! Just toooo funny :)

Fun has been had...!

Happy New Year to the innumerable numbers of readers of this blog! (Um, that is a joke at my own expense. I think I have perhaps two readers; my two brothers, and I'm sure even they do not read it that often! Still, that is not too much of a problem, since gathering readers is not the prime purpose here.)

I have felt uninspired to work on any quilt projects in the last few days. This was the last week of my vacation (I go back to work tomorrow) and I've been wanting to try some things in beading, so I got out all my beads (really, I have an obscene amount {grin}) and had fun just playing!

These are handbag charms (very 'in' at the moment) or can also be used as keyrings.

And these are lariats, or long rope necklaces. The idea is that you bead a long rope, which is then draped around your neck in various ways. I've wanted to make these for a VERY long time and to have some to wear as my own homemade jewellery and I've been collecting beads for about 20 years, so I'm thrilled to be doing it at last. I had made 3, but my dear daughter liked the orange one so much she borrowed it to wear to a New Years Party, so it was not here for the photo! They're ultra simple to make and look very extravagant. You just string beads on and tie knots between groups of beads to keep them from sliding up and down. These are about 2 metres long, so you can tie them in various ways.

I plan to try and sell the handbag charms (to feed my addiction for beads!), but keep the lariats.

I'm working on...

... this quilt, I loosely called Pebble Path, although that's just a working title.

I'm not very keen on Christmas and try, as far as possible, to avoid it. Today my girls have gone with their dad and his family, which is wonderful, as they all have a rollicking good time (waving to them all - have a good one!) and I can sit at home and quilt, to which I really hope no-one takes offence - (it's not that I don't wish to see you!)

So I am sitting in the lounge today, with the following view out of the window (isn't it great??)

(please excuse the strings dangling in the middle, which I should have untied - those are kitty toys!)
... and here is what is in the machine:
To those who are celebrating today: may your day and year ahead be filled with all you wish for! And I certainly WILL join you in wishing for peace on earth....

Just finished this

This piece is called "All that glitters (- is made in China)"
The quilting shows rows of textile workers sitting at their sewing machines - both the workers in China and the ones in South Africa who have lost their jobs because of all the cheap Chinese imports. You can't see the quilting here, but you can see it in the previous post on marking quilting patterns.

Pieces of Me 2

I cannot seem to solve the problem of why Blogger won't let me post this picture in the previous post on this topic, but I'm tired of struggling with it, so here is the pic in a separate post.

How to transfer quilt patterns?

I found a great way!

I've been working on a piece (pics coming soon as it's almost finished) and wanted a particular repetitive quilt pattern in specific areas of the quilt. I can't do them free-hand as they need to be uniform enough to be recognisable, so they had to be marked onto the quilt somehow.

I've been struggling with this issue for a long time and none of the solutions I have found in books have been good enough. I've been through innumerbale vanishing pens and pencils which most often either vanish too quickly or not at all, and when they do work, don't show on either light or dark fabrics (and my work has been VERY variegated) etc. etc.

A while ago I hit on the idea of tracing the design onto tissue paper (tears easily), pinning it on and sewing on the lines. This worked well, except that tearing off the paper tended to leave tiny bits which had to be scraped off with fingernails - better than marking the fabric, but still not the greatest.

Yesterday I had a brainwave, while at work watching someone wrap a bowl of Xmas biscuits with cellophane. Cellophane! It's transparent and tears beautifully. I was tired when I got home and had a bad headache but just had to try it. I only had some red cellophane in the house, but it worked like a bomb. I drew a template and traced it onto the cello with a permanent marker in rows. I then cut out the rows and pinned them onto the quilt and then free-motioned over the lines. I think I might just have solved this issue for myself!

The bottom row shows the cellophane after the pattern has been sewn and before it is torn off. The middle row shows the cello just pinned to the quilt, and the top row is after it has been sewn and torn off.

It tears neatly along the stitching line and doesn't pull the stitches and doesn't tend to tear into little bits the way paper does, as it is not fibrous.

I'm so chuffed! I found this all by my widdle self. Next purchase: some clear cellophane!

A Blog of Note

VERY cool pics :)

Small things

My memory card arrived today. My camera has 24 photos of internal memory and since I was used to film containing 24 exposures that was all I needed for the first little while. But I am now becoming a hardcore addict and felt I needed more memory! I was advised to get more than I needed (thanks Jorgen!).... so I gulped and bought 1 Gb, which seems excessive to me now, but I guess I will find a use for it. My camera can do movies, so maybe.....?

S-l-o-w!

This is a slow medium. It sometimes frustrates me. At other times I love it, love that I can take it around with me, to tea-time at work and just sit and plod along on it. I love sitting on the couch with a good movie on, and making slow progress.

But it does mean that I get bored with one thing taking so long to complete. My answer is to have several projects going at once.... like around 12 to 15. So here's an oldie I blogged about earlier, with a bit more progress:

MandelBrot resurfaces

Very Zen

My therapist had this little Zen garden - absolutely gorgeous.

Pieces of Me

I had the good fortune this past year to be in (psycho-) therapy. I say 'good fortune', because therapy is expensive and my medical aid cover exhausts after about 9 sessions. Our local psych hospital trains psych interns and I was able to get a place with an intern for a year. As it happened, we just hit it off and it turned out to be an excellent match. I was able to get so much done and I feel very, very fortunate.

As a thank-you, I gave her this quilt entitled "Pieces of Me".

Still busy quilting, having Escape Hatch'ed the quilt sandwich.

Left: The Ankh (Egyptian symbol of the soul)

Actual colours below. The strong sun tends to bleach the colours when you take pics, but it does show up the quilting detail quite nicely.

Below is the final product (which I will post as soon as Blogger lets me...grr)
Edit 20 Dec - it just won't. I'll try in a separate post.

A lampshade

During a few days of feeling a bit uninspired about working on any pieces, I picked up this old lampshade frame and decided to cover it. Some time ago I had started the wire-and-bead crochet below, and had meant to repaint the frame, but didn't have the paint. I decided it would look even better covered with coiled copper wire, of which I had plenty (cheap at the local electrical supplies shop). I don't think I have enough crochet, so will need to do some more.


Here is what I currently have and below I am holding it as it will be "sewn" (with thinner copper wire) onto the frame. It will look quite nice and best of all, will have cost very little. I found some marked down lampstands of beautifully turned wood at the same electrical supply shop and bought them without lampshades. So once the first is done, perhaps I'll feel encouraged enough to make another :)

I'll post a pic when it is done.



Edit 19 Dec 2006 - and here it is:

Books

I've once again been shopping at Kalahari :) I have spent way too much money there, but these virtual shops are irresistible!
I've posted Amazon.com links here as they tend to have more information about the books than Kalahari does. (I always look up the books on both sites to read as much as I can about it before I buy it, as I have to buy them unseen.)
Uncommon Threads - Gayle Pritchard. Just published in November 2006. My, how small the world has become :). I was interested in reading the history of the art quilt movement, and although it is American history, it's still interesting to see the developments and how they happened.

Art Quilts - Lark Books. A GREAT buy. Large and thick with colour pictures of 400 quilts. Awesome. I bought this one some time back and often just sit and page through sections again or leave it open on a page and just gaze.

Gaudynski's Machine Quilting Guidebook - Diane Gaudynski
I'm about half-way through reading this and it is a great How-To book. I'm wanting to work on my machine quilting skills and as usual it is a case of practising and practising and making all the mistakes. But this practising is great fun so it's going well. I'm making LOTS of mistakes :))
Diane Gaudinski really seems to know what she is talking about and I'm finding it very useful having guidelines to follow.
Contemporary Quilts - I have only glanced in this book so far. It seems to be English. I can't find it on Amazon as the book is at home and I can't see the author from the above pic! Will search some more.

Colouring with Thread - Ann Fahl (sorry, but I cannot resist correcting the spelling of 'Colouring'!) This looks VERY promising. I think it was the 'no-drawing' phrase that drew me, if you'll excuse the pun :)

Some time, no blog

Work has been busy, and I've just been a bit dull and uninspired. Plus we have a new cat: (with green-eye, which is the feline version of red-eye)

... who has needed some attention to settle in (as have the two resident cats who are very rattled, especially as my tenants have acquired a cute medium-sized puppy who is often in the backyard.)

Super-aptly (and quite co-incidentally) she is a PATCHWORK cat (tortoiseshell/white) and has really pretty markings, huge ears, and a very, very cute face! Okay, I am biased. Reminds me of a cat quote: "People say that with cats, training is much more difficult than with dogs. It's not. Mine had me trained in two days."

But I have been plugging away at some items so there will be a few new things to show.

My girls will be going off on holiday with their dad later this week, so I plan to arm myself with a pile of DVDs (wish I could find talking books!) and settle into my studio/lounge and happily stitch some days away, and perhaps quilt some of the tops that are piling up around me.

New beady shoes

Edit 17 Dec 2006: MORE beady shoes: :)

My feet are dressed for this summer! (I'm not a big shoe fan, so it's unusual for me to have several pairs of shoes I really wear and love. Most are obligatory-wear eg work shoes and shoes I can wear with my uniform etc) I feel very shoe-rich now!
Below are my all-time favourite pair of shoes, which may help explain why I am not a big shoe fan. My feet are possibly my best feature at this stage of my life!
(Okay, perhaps that was more than you needed to know. This is, after all, a quilting blog!)

Tread Lightly

(I know I haven't written anything about this. I don't feel I have had a peaceful moment by the computer to sit and type it out. This post will be modified when I do find that moment.)

Thought for the day

I read somewhere that fishes cry
every time their kinsfolk die.
What is sea, and what is ocean?
Little drops of fish emotion.

- Author unknown

Inspiration for future work

Two pictures I plan to use as inspiration for future work. The first is a fractal image and the second a photo I took of a protea that grows outside the 1820 Settler's museum.

A fruitful weekend

This is what I've been working on over the last three days. The background is pieced and there will be numerous things fused on top of the background. I'm really pleased with the way this is turning out and it may even end up looking as good as I've envisaged, which is really, um... unusual. I've had a lot of fun using my hand-dyes and hand-painteds.

Another reason I like living in South Africa

I've just returned from a trip to our local fruit and veg shop and after I had unpacked, I just *had* to take a picture of the bounty. :) After I returned from a trip to Toronto some time ago, it struck me how lucky with are with all the fruit that we have access to. Not so much because there is a lot of fruit available (there was even more fruit available in Toronto, and these days fruit is flown eveywhere) but because it is so CHEAP here, that we can afford to buy so much of it.

Butterflies in Houston?

A butterfly flaps its wings in the Amazon and the knock-on effect causes a tornado halfway across the world ... or how does it go?

Well, when tons and tons of American quilters get together in Houston, the ripples can be felt even way over here in South Africa. I found a nice website, courtesy of Deborah (thanks!) with lots of pictures of quilts here.

What is quite exciting to me is that I recognise some of the quilts! - from having browsed the Web and seen the quilts on the person's website or blog. I also recognise quite a few of the quilt artists names.

Some of the very traditional quilts don't do much for me, but there is enough TOTALLY AWESOME stuff there that my mouth just hangs open. I WISH I could do this sort of thing. Wow, it is *very* inspiring.

Headaches again

I'm so sick of these headaches, I could cry. What else can I say...

I'll just try and bury myself in work, and at least that'll get done - maybe I'll be finished by the time the headaches let up; won't THAT be nice.