The rest of the week

The next class I taught at CraftSummer was a combination Dyeing and Machine Quilting class. Before the class started I polled the group to find out if there was more interest in one technique over the other. If most of the class wanted to spend more time dyeing then I could adjust the segments. But they all said they were interested in both segments equally. OK, so we would spend 2 1/2 days dyeing and machine quilt until Friday afternoon.

Each student received 10 meters of fabric and 3 colors of dye. I had prepared samples to demonstrate each of the exercises I had planned and as I pulled them out, the class could hardly contain themselves. They were eager to get going.




Into the second day, when it became apparent that 10 meters was not nearly enough fabric, they were able to purchase another 5 meters. And they brought in t-shirts, tote bags, aprons, cotton duck, and threads.



I told them that they had to put their last fabric in to batch no later than Wednesday noon. Then they cleaned up the dye materials and pulled out sewing machines, ready to begin machine quilting.



This segment of the class turned out to be more of a challenge than I had anticipated. The abilities ranged from experienced machine quilter to not having touched a sewing machine in a very long time. We had some problems with incorrect sewing feet, sewing machines that couldn't do free motion work, and unfamiliarity with the machine in use. (That would be me since I borrowed a machine and was always forgetting to lower the presser foot. The machine let me sew but would leave a lovely lacey tangle on the backside.)







But they all perservered and everybody discovered new skills and new stitches and cool techniques. It was amazing how much their free motion skills improved just over the course of 2 days. By Friday morning they were ready to work on the small quilt I had them bring to class.

Michelle, Shara, Jeanie, and Carole are concentrating on their form. The table and chair heights were uncomfortable and we had to remember to take frequent breaks.

Meg and Mel stitch away.

Michele demonstrates the eyeball technique for threading a machine.

Don't know what Shara is doing, but it's got her undivided attention.

Mel zipped through all the exercises, then quilted an entire piece on Friday morning. Working with metallics presented a little challenge. I told her she needed to slow down a little with metallic thread and that was difficult since she normally quilts at about 90 miles an hour.


Meg is demonstrating the proper tongue position.

I was so proud of all of them. They accomplished a great deal in 5 days of class. I would like to think it's because I'm such a fabulous teacher but it's probably due more to their interest and eagerness to learn.

I arrived home Friday night and have mostly unpacked. Now it's time to get back into my normal routine. June was extremely hectic and I haven't done any of my own work since early May, it seems. Been concentrating on class preps and other stuff.

Thermofax Screenprinting Class

From Friday night to Sunday afternoon my thermofax printing students worked like they were driven. Many of them had no idea what this was going to be like, not being familiar with a thermofax machine. Some had screenprinting experience and remembered how difficult and time consuming it was to make a screen. I spent the Friday evening class explaining what a thermofax was, talked about kinds of images it could make, what might work and what might not work. Each student received about 8 linear feet of screen, enough to make approximately 10 full size screens. At least that's what I figured.

By the end of the evening, each student had made at least one screen and we were ready to build our printing areas with a cotton batt, fabric stretched over top, and fastened with duct tape. Saturday morning everybody arrived ready to print. After a short demonstration on screening technique, they were off and screening. We had some technical difficulties in getting the copy machine and the thermofax machine to play well together, but that was solved, more or less. At this point I could have left and I don't think they would have noticed. They were so busy! And that thing about 10 screens....little did I realize how resourceful this bunch was. The screen pieces kept getting smaller and smaller as nobody was willing to let any unused screen go to waste. I was concerned that they might have trouble with paint running off the edges, but that didn't seem to be a problem.

By Sunday afternoon the walls were covered not only with fabric but also tote bags, aprons, pillow covers, and t-shirts. Wow!










Remember those old Spirograph toys? Time to dig them out of the attic and use them for screen designs!


They made us take a break for a class picture. But as soon as this was taken, they all rushed back inside to make more prints. What a great group!

I'll have pictures from the Dyeing class real soon. They are just as enthusiastic as the screenprinting gang and making just as big a mess.

Quilt National and other stuff

The people at Quilt National have published an article explaining why they disqualified a work by Amy Orr from this year's QN. She violated the rule on prior publication by signing a release that allowed her work to be published, and it was. They are also investigating the publication of the piece of Nancy Erickson's that appears in the SAQA Portfolio, which was also prior to QN. The closing sentence on the article: "It undermines the integrity of the artists and the exhibition if the published rules are not applied equitably to each participant. "

I agree wholeheartedly with that statement. If you are going to have rules, then everybody must follow them. On the other hand, if you have rules that become increasingly impossible to enforce, and when the un-enforcement reflects poorly on the organization, and when the enforcement makes the organization look disorganized, perhaps it's time to eliminate the rule.

QN's goal is to have a 'premier exhibition of new work'. As part of this rule, there is a cutoff date of about 2 years for when the work must be made. I think this is sufficient enough to guarantee new work; in actuality I would bet that most work entered in QN is made in the few months prior to the entry deadline. Who is going to hold back a good piece of work for two years waiting to enter it in QN? Do other prestigious shows have the same kind of prohibition against prior publication? I'm not familiar enough with the general art world to know for sure, but I'll bet not.

It seems to be important in the quilt world because people who go to quilt shows don't want to see the same pieces exhibited again and again. My rebuttal is that Quilt National is supposed to be better than the 'weekend' quiltshows and also, how many people who enter QN would enter those same quilts in a weekend pole and drape show where everything hangs inches from its neighbor?

And other stuff: I'm off for a week of teaching at CraftSummer at Miami University. I sure hope I've got all my supplies and my lesson plans work out and all the equipment works. Makes me quite anxious and gives me sleepless nights.

More printing

Here is my design board with some of the fabric I've made these past few days. I have several more pieces batching, letting the dye set. I have screens already prepared for printing first thing tomorrow, which (I can't believe it) is our last day. Although I'm pretty wiped out and probably couldn't take too many more days of such intense work.

Yesterday afternoon we took time off and toured the various fabric shows. The QSDS Invitational is at the Cultural Arts Center. This is the show in which I have three pieces and I was delighted to see that one of my quilts greets the visitors as they come in through the front door.



After another show in Columbus and one in Lancaster, we went to Quilt National. As usual, I saw some pieces that I thought were quite impressive, some that were nice, and some that were head scratchers (and taking up space where my piece should have been). The first Quilt National I saw, back in 1993, I wasn't familiar with any of the artists. Now, I know quite a few of them personally. At least I'm hanging out in the right crowd.

One of the rules of entering a piece in Quilt National is that it cannot have been published or displayed in any show prior to QN. Several people have been disqualified even after being juried in for violating this rule. I heard that one work was pulled from this year's show because it was displayed on somebody else's web site, without the artist's knowledge. And yet Nancy Erickson's The Black Wolf, which is in QN, was published in the SAQA PAM Portfolio, published in the fall of 2006. Obviously, this has escaped the notice of the organizers of Quilt National. I feel it's grossly unfair for the rules to be applied so arbitrarily.

Deconstructed screenprinting

Day 1 of deconstructed screen printing with Kerr Grabowski. This is more fun than should be legal. We start with thickened dye and spread it onto a screen. The idea is to have something interesting underneath the screen and the thickened dye will retain an image of that. Then we let the thickened dye dry. Next we began screening over the dry thickened dye with more thickener. What happens is that the original dye transfers to the cloth and as we continued screening, the image breaks down. Got that?



This is one of the fabrics. It's much easier to understand the process when you see it demonstrated. My explanation is overly simplified. If you want to see and learn, buy Kerr's DVD.



These are two more screens that are ready for printing. They both have thickened dye and are ready to go first thing tomorrow.



It's really, really hot here and we're doing a lot of work outside under a tent. Actually it's more like a sauna. After bending over a table all day and sweating like pigs, a few of my classmates took a break.

Silk painting

Day 1 of Christine Zoller's silk painting class. This is tons of fun. First we built a frame to hold the silk scarf. After attaching the scarf we used gutta to draw a design on the silk. Then silk paint to fill in the shapes on the scarf. I chose a design that I have used in my quilts in the past, figuring I didn't want to spend a lot of time figuring out what to draw. Some of the shapes had salt sprinkled on and it makes a great design in the paint. For the border I dabbed on various colors of paint then dabbed water on which makes the paint migrate with interesting effects.





For this piece I laid the scarf directly on the table, spread paint, then sprinkled with salt and let dry. It's going to be a background for more design.




On the border of the first scarf some pieces of salt accidentally fell onto the paint and made it spread and since I really liked what that looked like, decided to do an entire scarf that way. With two yellows, two browns, a bronzey gold, and a red I dabbed paint on, then dabbed water, then sprinkled salt. This is still in the process of drying but it looks pretty cool already.



More exciting stuff tomorrow.

All my bags are packed....

I am ready to go. I shipped 4 boxes on Monday and they arrived yesterday at Miami U, all ready for the end of the month. Then I did all the things necessary to close up the house for a week: stop the mail, stop the newspapers (including the stupid Examiner which comes free and the mail deliverer makes a point of aiming for my flower garden), book the cat sitter, do the laundry, water everything, fill out entry forms for two events, and pack for QSDS. This is what I'm taking:



Doesn't seem to be much in comparison to previous years. Since I'm not doing any sewing I don't need my machine nor all the accessories. One box of fabric plus supplies for dyeing, painting, and screenprinting. And since I shipped my only roll of masking tape I have to stop off and buy another one. You would think I would have more than one roll hanging around, but apparently not.

Martha and I are leaving this afternoon and driving halfway, staying outside Pittsburgh. Tomorrow we'll go into the city and see Fiberart International, then drive the rest of the way to Columbus. So we should arrive sometime in the mid afternoon - it's an easy 4 hours from Pittsburgh, although it's the more boring part of the drive. Once we cross over the Ohio River everything flattens out and the scenery is less interesting. At least to somebody who likes mountains. Or, sort of mountains, what we have on the East Coast can't compare to the Rockies, but they are still inspiring to me.

I will have my computer with me and there is wi-fi access at the hotel, so I plan to post what's happening. I'm doing silk painting with Christine Zoller and deconstructed screen printing with Kerr Grabowski, a class I've wanted to take for a long time. It will be tons of fun!

Packing

Time flies. I'm always amazed (and a little distressed) when I see how much time has passed since I previously posted. I've been packing for classes and it's been rather confusing. Next week I leave for QSDS where I'm taking a silk painting class and a deconstructive screen printing class. When I get back home from that I have 6 days and then I go to Miami University in Ohio for CraftSummer where I'm teaching 3 classes: thermofax screenprinting, dyeing, and machine quilting. What was I thinking? I need to ship my supplies to Ohio next week because waiting until I get back from QSDS is pushing it a little. So now I have boxes all over my studio and I'm going through supply lists and trying to keep my head straight, especially since there are alot of things that I will need in both places.

And then yesterday I decided that it would be fun to have some extra t-shirts to dye or print in those classes so I put in an order to Dharma Trading for t-shirts for me, onesies for new granddaughter, cute little dresses for the other 2 granddaughters, and camoflage t-shirts for my grandson. Dharma has already shipped and the box will be here on Monday.

And in addition to all the above, I need to prepare a design and order 43 t-shirts for our tri-ennial family reunion. My husband is the oldest of nine children and we have been going on family reunions once every three years since we moved out East from Chicago. The first time was in 1973, when my son was 3 months old, and there were only about 12 people. Now we're up to 43. And we've lost the original generation, but have added one at the other end. So we have the 9 children (with 8 spouses), 18 grandchildren (with 2 spouses and 1 significant other), and 5 great grandchildren. Although I guess that needs to be moved up a level to siblings, children, and grandchildren. One of the highlights of the week is a family picture where we all wear our t-shirts. One picture is a regular pose but then we do a "crazy picture" where everybody does something wacky. People spend the entire week thinking about their crazy selves. So here we are:

This is 1992.

1995. I couldn't find the crazy version.

1998. This is the last picture with my father-in-law. He died in 2000.

2001. My mother-in-law died within a month of this picture.

2004. Two more children have been born since this reunion.

I wonder what this year's picture will be like????

As to art....haven't had a chance to stitch for weeks. Arghh!

Dyeing

Thanks for all the congrats on my new granddaughter. I have all of the joy and none of the discomfort. And Nellie, you sure keep me on my toes! I've been busy dyeing fabric samples for my upcoming class at CraftSummer at Miami U in Ohio. I wanted to demonstrate to the class how doing the steps in different order can result in different markings on the final product.

So here was the plan: Use the exact same dye solution, same size pieces of fabric, same size container, same amount of liquid (except that some fabrics were pre-wetted), same overall batch time. What varied: Wet or dry, and timing.
Fabric A was presoaked in soda ash and used wet.
Fabric B was presoaked in soda ash and allowed to dry.
Fabric C was dampened, the dye solution added, and the soda ash added immediately.
Fabric D was the same as C but I waited 10 minutes after adding the dye solution before adding the soda ash.
Fabric E used dry fabric, added the dye solution, added soda ash immediately.
Fabric F same as E except I waited 10 minutes before adding the soda ash.

Here is the result:

I was somewhat dismayed to realize that there was not very much difference in the fabrics. I think there were two contributing factors. First, I manipulated the fabric when I added the dye solutions and I manipulated it again after adding the soda ash. This resulted in a more even distribution. Second problem, I used blue and yellow for the dye solution and they strike nearly at the same rate. Back to the drawing board.

For the second trial, I used fuchsia and yellow to make orange. Nothing strikes faster than fuchsia. And I resisted the temptation to manipulate the fabric. I poured on the color and I poured on the soda ash and I kept my hands to myself. So using the same procedure as in A through F above, this is the result:

A very noticeable difference. The fuchsia practically sits in place where it first hits the fabric which gives the yellow a change to migrate and be noticeable. I don't like those large areas on E and F where the color is sort of flat. Those were the dry fabrics to begin with. The pieces presoaked in soda ash resulted in the most distinct separation of color. Where the dye had time to migrate the markings are less distinct.

I've been tagged by Lisa for a 7 meme (I have to tell 7 things about myself and then tag 7 others). I have to think about this for a little bit before posting.

One more thing - since HGTV's Simply Quilts bit the dust it seems they've made the the videos available online from their website but also from the Yahoo.com website. I had 5 minutes and 37 seconds of fame several years ago and now that segment is available at Yahoo

I really hate watching myself because it sounds so stupid to me but there it is for all the world to see.

Happy Day!

I made a little change to my profile. As of yesterday I have 4 grandchildren. My daughter delivered her second child and second girl yesterday afternoon. Mom, Dad, Big Sister and New Baby are all doing well and Grandma and Grandpa are bursting their buttons with pride. Hooray!

Threads Anonymous?

After rearranging my thread drawers to accommodate my extravagant purchase of 30wt rayons in March, I realized that my cotton thread drawers were underfilled. I already have a bunch of the King Tut from Superior Threads and the heavyweight cotton from Valdani Threads, but I was lacking in light weight threads. I used to order the Tanne thread from Madiera but they don't make it anymore. I wanted 2 ply 50 wt thread. Both Valdani and Superior carry 50 wt thread, but I wasn't certain that Valdani's was thin enough. Since I already had some of the Superior MasterPiece and knew what it's like, I went with that.




And I also ordered a few more King Tut to round out my collection. I hope this fills my thread lust because even at wholesale prices I've spent an obscene amount of money on thread. It makes for a very strange line item on my tax return.

I've posted five new pieces that I've done so far this year on my website. They all use an abundance of thread. Even so, it will be quite a while before I run out.

Fun time

Yesterday Martha and I went to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. Unfortunately I forgot my camera and so did Martha so the I don't have any fun pictures. It's always interesting to visit another subculture and realize that they are just as immersed in theirs as we are in ours. And it's also interesting to note where we intersect. Dyeing wool and dyeing cotton aren't very far apart, just variations on a process. Anyhow, everywhere we walked there was wool in all its stages: walking around on the sheep, being shorn, piled up all matted with stuff, cleaned, wool roving, spun wool, dyed wool, and sweaters, shawls, and scarves. I might have missed a few stages because I'm not familiar with all that goes into processing wool.

I liked watching the people spinning yarn. The spinning wheels varied from beautifully designed and crafted floor models to what looked like spinning tops. There were groups of women arranged in a circle with their spinning wheels whirring away while they chatted. Just like other groups of women sitting in a circle keeping their hands busy with some other craft.

One woman was spinning yarn from her angora rabbit. She had this pile of fur in her lap from which she would pluck a handful and add it to her spinning. Except that the pile of fur was actually the rabbit. He was perfectly happy to just sit in her lap and have her pull out his fur. She told us that angora rabbits molt four times a year and this plucking process must be done or else they will lick and swallow the fur and it will sit in their stomachs and they will die. Anyhow, she said that when she was finished with this rabbit, all its fur would be gone and ready for the next coat to grow in. Sounds a little bit like indentured servitude to me, being so attached to a non-postponeable process.

There were tons of fairgrounds-type food booths with all kinds of enticing smells, but since I'm just coming off of a very nasty GI virus, I had to avoid all that stuff and stick to my plain old PBJ sandwich. I bought a mouse pad with the Sheep and Wool logo, a set of directions for knitting a purse and then felting it, and a book on some simple shibori dyeing techniques. No yarn. It was beautiful, but I was able to resist.

Mice

I went into my studio storage closet to pull out a batt for the piece I'm working on. Imagine my disgust when I saw mouse droppings in the bag. And chewed out areas. I guess the mouse mommies like their nests lined with nice, soft, white cotton. They very daintily pulled the cotton off and left the scrim. And left their very undainty calling cards all over the rest of the batt.


This is Warm and Natural (I'm sure they would be delighted to know that theirs is the preferred batt for mouse nests). Looking at the label, which says it doesn't need to be prewashed (but in this case it does), I found directions for washing the batt. Has to be done by hand; I imagine that the washing machine does an even better job of removing the cotton from the scrim. It has to be wrung out by hand but at least I could put it in the dryer. So the majority of the batt was saved and I have repositioned my other batts in what I hope is a more inaccessible space. And set a trap, baited with cat food kibble. Why use kibble? Because I've seen the little mice run out from under the cupboard, straight to the cat food bowl, steal a piece of kibble, then run back. Obviously, my cat is not viewed as much of a threat.

Slide film

Some time ago I posted about ordering some slide film and thinking it might be the last time I did that. (At least I think I did; I can't find that post.) Well, it wasn't the last time because I just ordered more yesterday. Some places, but not very many anymore, still want slides, and it's nice to have a hard copy record, instead of 1s and 0s on a hard drive. I know that lots of people are getting slides made from their digital images but it's far more cost effective to just shoot the slide film. For about $13 I get 36 slides, full frame and details. Getting them made from digital, I would only have a couple of each for that amount, figuring $2.50 for the 1st slide of an image, $1 each after that, and $5 shipping.

I am proficient enough at shooting slides that they come out well. For only a few extra minutes of effort, I get alot more. This appeals to my miserly side.


I posted a short while back about a piece that was having problems. I wasn't sure I could save it. Here it is after some additions of paint splatterings and markings. I think it's improved. The question is, how much? What do you all think?

1-It still sucks; maybe you ought to cut it up or something.
2-Somewhat improved; maybe this could be a donation to some worthy cause.
3-It's fabulous and I want to buy it.

Wha' happend?

On Monday I posted results of my fabric painting weekend. This was one of the pieces. On Monday I ironed everything to set the paint. Yesterday I decided to wash the fabrics because some of them were very stiff.


Below is the piece after washing. Quite a difference. It's not just a bad picture, it really lost that much color. The rest of the fabrics retained their color. All I can think is that there was a lot of gelatin transferred to the fabric because we were in the hot sun and it was getting soft and the color was mostly in the gelatin. Which all washed out. Hmph. Well, at least the fabric is soft.


And I'm sure I will find a use for it.

Fabric Weekend

Yesterday was a wonderful spring weekend. We had a play day with painting fabric and it was so hot we had to move the tables into the shade. Not used to that hot sun and we had to protect our tender skin. I made up a gelatin plate to print with and also did some sun printing. Results:


Gelatin plate printing. I really like the overlap look and how the edges move into each other.



Another gelatin plate print. I used a storm drain cover from the hardware store to make the impression in the gelatin.


And another gelatin plate print. Some storm drain covers, but mostly this is the texture from the paint roller and the texture on the gelatin, put there when I tried to wipe off the top and roughed up some of the gelatin.


This is a sun print. Wet fabric painted green with more green dribbled on and with lots of grass strewn about on top of that.




Back to a gelatin plate. The texture here is from paint brush strokes.



This started with a furnace filter placed under the fabric and red paint rolled over top. You can see the furnace filter circle shapes in the upper right hand corner. Then gold paint smudged over top of that, and finally red paint from a syringe scribbled over all.



I've had this cabbage hanging around in the refrigerator for a while, never really intending to eat it but saving it for the cool design the ribs make. The leaf is underneath the fabric and the paint rolled gently over top.



My bottle of copper metallic paint split open, I guess the heat from the sun caused it to expand, and there was paint all over the bottom of the bin. I used a piece of fabric to wipe it up, then doused the whole piece in a very wet yellow paint. Very cool.

One more thing

My donation to the SAQA One Foot Square auction has been posted on their web site.

Work in Progress

It's not true that I have deserted the blogging world even though my lack of posts recently would indicate that. Here's proof:



Granted, this is an incredibly bad picture, but it is pretty close to reality. This is the piece that had the paint that was chipping off. I washed it (because I had nothing to lose) and that loose paint all went away. Along with all the interest. This piece lacks something, or several somethings. I'm going to throw some more paint at it in an attempt to revive it, but I fear that it's not going to be enough. An additional possibility is to use more paint to soften up that hard line between the pink and yellow area. And/or I can cut the whole thing up into sections and make some small pieces.

I've already nearly completed the next piece in this series using the same fabrics that I did for the above piece. They are all painted, not dyed, and I used various surface design techniques such as salt spatter, shibori around a pvc pipe, and crumpling. This second piece looks far better, partly because the accent paint is still there to accent. And the pinks and yellows are overall somewhat brighter.

The weather here sucks. It's cold and raining. Things are turning green, trees and flowers and blooming and it's too cold to be outside to really enjoy it. I'm still waiting for hummingbirds to show up in my yard. They've been sighted as far north as Massachusetts and I'm feeling left out.