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I have a simple philosophy about birthdays – the more the merrier! I love having birthdays. Not because I want gifts or parties, I just like knowing that I got to stay around for another year! On Sunday I will celebrate my 47th. I suspect that the only person that it might bother is my Mom. She probably never gave much thought to that time when her own children would start to reach 50! Her son-in-law will turn 50 in just a few weeks.
Two more work days until Craft Week! I haven't given the first thought to packing clothes - that part will be easy. Chris and I have been working on the grocery list for 2 days. Since I have the food allergies and he does the cooking, we also bring all of the food. it's the least we can do for the wonderful free lodgings! I've been working on my project lists for over a week and I think I have it all decided. Tonight I packed everything up and as long as two orders that I placed come in by Friday, I'll be good to go!
I packed everything else up so here's the list and evidence:
I didn't think I would do it but I finished quilting the Anti-Watercolor quilt last night! The Meandering Magic feathers went really quickly and it was great practice of the hump-and-bump feather technique. I don't have a photo yet but will post one when the binding is done. The quilting really doesn't show up well - but that was the original plan anyway. I found a dark teal fabric in my stash last night that will work well for the binding. I'll get the quilt trimmed and the binding cut tonight and add this to my list of projects for Craft Week!
Yesterday was also the day that the first issue of Fibre & Stitch was published. I downloaded it last night but didn't print and start looking at it until this morning. Wow! Great job Sue and your wonderful editors! I haven't made it past page 20 yet because there is so much information to absorb. If you've been on the fence about subscribing to this magazine - go for it, it's really well done and full of information.
Tomorrow I'll post my project list for Craft Week. Chris has decided to join us this year - usually he just cooks all of our meals ahead of time and sends them along. this year he's coming to cook for us and to do some fishing and R&R on his own. He's threatening to bring a white board to keep track of my lists. Funny boy. He needs to behave - his 50th birthday is only a couple of weeks away!
Look at this great wrapfolio that Sue B sent to me! This will be my dye diary.
Pardon me while I head off to my dye room to transfer my notes into this book......
Today I made two new batches of soap. I've made both of these before but I made modifications to the recipes. So don't try them yourself until you see me post a results update in a few weeks. With these recipes I also calculated the approximate cost per bar.
***Updated: December 2007 - the Cocoa Butter recipe worked out great. I like the changes and will make this one again. I haven't tried the Basic soap yet.
***Updated March 2008 - the Basic Soap recipe has a terrific lather. I think I need to give it a sexier name so people will be enticed to make it!
Cocoa Butter Soap (2 lbs. = about 10 bars) - $12.50/batch
8 oz. Coconut Oil
5 oz. Olive Oil
8 oz. Palm Oil
5 oz. Cocoa Butter
5 oz. Jojoba Oil
1 oz. Castor Oil
4.2 oz. Lye
12 oz. distilled water
Basic Soap (2 lbs.) $6.75/batch
8.5 oz. Coconut Oil
15 oz. Palm Oil
4 oz. Sweet Almond Oil
3.5 oz. Olive Oil
1 oz. Castor Oil
4.6 oz. Lye
12 oz. Distilled Water
I just had to post again today so that, for once, I could show everything on my list marked off! This rarely happens. In addition to this, I cut foundations for some string blocks and dyed dark red fabric to use as the centers of the strings. It will be another Craft Week project.
Make a new batch of soap (the Jojoba Avocado bar is getting good initial reviews although I have not tried it yet.) I actually made two batches. I wanted to make Cocoa Butter soap but accidentally measured out the fats for another soap. So I made both! The recipes will be in a separate post.
Load the Anti-Watercolor Quilt for quilting ( you can see it in this post). I am going to quilt this one with all-over feather meander a la Meandering Magic. I did it and even got one pass of quilting done. Need proof? Here it is. If I get this quilted this week - a real possibility - I could take it to Craft Week to bind. That would be cool.
Friday night and Saturday were incredibly productive. The best part was Mom and my Aunt visiting to pick up the quilt. We went to my favorite LQS and I only bought the one piece of fabric that I went there for! I was tempted but maintained control. Here's how I'm doing on my list...
The Art Nouveau Self Portrait postcard saga is finally over!
You're asking yourself - what's the "self portrait"???? My intention was to reflect my creative self (too many ideas - the leaves and too few completed projects - the flowers) and I found this image in 4000 Flower and Plant Motifs. Today while Mom was visiting we decided that the process of making this card really reflected my personality - anal, obsessive and close to the edge of insanity!
Here's how I made this little piece of insanity (15 times). I scanned the image from the book and used Photoshop to clean up the edges (that took about 3 hours). I explained how I selected the colors here. I printed 15 copies of the image on fabric and then colored them with Prismacolor pencils. That probably took about 2 hours for each card. Next I sealed the color with textile medium as explained here. Finally I stitched around all of the black lines (about 30 minutes each), fused the backing on and serged the edges - about 1 hour all together. And here they are done - 25 days late! To my fellow swappers, these will finally be in the mail to you Monday.
Here are the other cards that I have received in the self portrait swap:
Continue reading "The postcards are done!!!!!!..and I've received some too.." »
Ahhhh...the weekend is here! Made even better because it's marks only 5 more work days until my vacation. Vacation this time is "craft week". Remember I went to my friend Anne's river house in late July? We also try to do a week there once a year as a craft and sewing week. For the first couple of years we primarily did fabric dyeing but this year we are doing lots of stuff! Chris will be going with us this time and will be the official Cabana Boy. When not out on Anne's Dad fishing or kayaking in the river, his "craft" will be making lunch and dinner. Kim will also join us for the Labor Day weekend. It will be a blast. So, if you have been reading my blog for more than a day, you know that I must over plan the week or else it just will not be successful! I have two big goals for this weekend and next week - 1) get some lingering projects done before we leave for the river and 2) plan and pack for the river week. Oh, Labor Day weekend is also my birthday (#47) so I have to plan my "party" as well. More on that later.
Starting with the lingering projects and "chores":
And my Mom is coming tomorrow to pick up her quilt and we will "need" to make a trip to the LQS too.
For Craft Week:
I am pulling together my usual 2 weeks work of projects for a one week event! Here's the list so far:
I pulled this out when I did the WIP inventory the WIP Confession that Judy L prompted in her "Confessions is Good for the Soul" post. Let me tell you, confession is NOT good for the soul. But it did bring this project back to the forefront. I have about half of the 4" blocks made and last night I printed off the remainder of the foundations. So this project is packed and ready to go. This project is good mindless sewing so I can yak and sew at the same time. Wonder if there would be any value in doing a tutorial on foundation piecing? I have a couple of other projects that I am considering taking but I think this list will be quite long enough! I'd really like to do some Heartstrings style blocks because it would be another really easy project but it runs the risk of becoming a UFO. Hey Mary, what if I make some blocks and maybe send them to you???? I have a packed bin of strings that really needs some breathing room.
I am still plugging away at the "Art Nouveau Self Portrait" postcards. The motif is from a clip art book, printed on fabric and colored with Prismacolor pencils. The coloring process to DAYS! Next was sealing with textile medium. I tried all three of these and even mixed a couple of them together. I wound up using the Delta Ceramcoat for the green and pink areas and used the JoSonja for the blue - the JoSonja was easiest to apply in the detail areas around the motif. I mixed all of them with PearlEx powder - I was trying to get a stained glass look. We'll see how it all turns out when they are done. 1 down, 14 to go. the green fabric above is one of my new hand dyed fabrics that I am using for the backing.
I came home from work today and Chris had built me this batting rack for Willie's room. Previously I stored my batting on poles set in christmas tree stands - not particularly stable. I like this much better!
Isn't the duct tape border around the carpet nice? That was my own special designer touch!
I've only had it for almost a year but I'm glad that Mom let me quilt it. (Well, I forced her actually.) I an trying to learn with the quilts that I quilt now and this one was better than any class. You can spend hours in classes but until you practice the classes are a waste of time. In this lesson I:
Other details:
The tension on the machine was perfect. The only problem I had was a user error in part of one border.
So here goes - the final photos.....
That embarrassing post from yesterday wasn't all of it! I forgot about the Cathredal Window quilt and I have two quilt tops and a box of blocks from my Great-Grandmother's WIP! Do her WIPs count?
Judy posted all of her WIPs on her blog today and challenged others to do the same. Egads! I have a few. But in the spirit of openess here goes:
Before I go into the tag I am happy to report that I finished the center section of my Mom's quilt Wednesday night! It's about 70% done!
I've been tagged by Carla and Randi for the 4 thigns meme. So here it goes....
4 things you may not know about me:
1. I went to college to be an architect, I graduated as an accountant.
2. I have three brothers and I am fortunate that I was raised to be “one of the boys”. Because of that I don’t carry around a lot of “girl baggage”. The college all-femal dorm was a huge culture shock.
3. I don’t like going to the movie theater. I can’t sit still that long and there’s usually some tall person in front of me. I see the movies only when they show up on TV.
4. My husband and I dated 3 times in 6 years before we got married. We had to be really sure!
4 Jobs I have had:
shampoo girl
waitress
consultant
risk manager
4 Movies I could watch over and over:
The Big Chill
Breakfast at Tiffanys
Pride and Prejudice or any other Jane Austin movie – new or old
Any movie starring Cary Grant
4 TV Shows I watch:
The Closer
Special Report with Britt Hume
Reality shows (American Idol, Design Star, Project Runway, Hells Kitchen)
South Park
4 Hobbies:
Quilting and sewing
Bird Watching
Reading (listening actually)
Soap and Lotion making.
4 Places I have lived
Bassett, VA (as in Bassett Furniture)
Virginia Beach ,VA – 3 times, thanks to the US Navy
Charlotte, NC
Washington, DC
4 Favorite Foods
Dark Chocolate
Dark Chocolate
Dark Chocolate
Dark Chocolate
4 Places I would rather be
Anywhere with a lower mold count
4 Websites I visit daily:
My Google Reader to check in on the near 300 blog subscriptions
Bulletin boards (MQ Resource and Artisan’s Square)
Wikipedia
climateaudit.org
4 people I tag to play this:
Ladies, no pressure! Ignore the tag if you aren't interested.
I only labeled this WIP Wednesday because I've made a habit of WIP Wednesday posts. The reality is that I have the same WIPS as last week! Mom's quilt and the Self Portrait postcards. I'm making progress on both but I'm sure not posting any more photos of them! So for today I thought I'd share a few fun blogs that aren't necessarily sewing/quilting related.
Fabric Dyeing 101 has a lot of great information on fabric dyeing. It's basically a free book on the subject.
On My Desk is a fun site where artist share photos of their work spaces.
Colour Lovers is a great site where people share color palettes. Someone sent me this site as a response to my first color article - I wish I could find the message so I could give proper credit. It's a cool site!
My Recycled Bags posts patterns and ideas for bags made from recycled materials - often from recycled plastic grocery bags and cassette tapes. Don't miss the Cassette Tape Barbie Halter Dress! No, I haven't made anything from this site but it entertains me.
Thanks so much to everyone who read through my first missive on color and very special thanks to everyone who took the time to comment and share your insight into color theory and for providing more book recommendations. I did buy a couple of additional books from your recommendations. I’ve been doing a little more reading and just have a little more to say about the color wheels before I move on to using and selecting colors. Please don’t think that I obsess over color selection for my quilts. I don’t! I work intuitively like most of you do but I do find that knowing a little about color and color interaction helps me to solve some of my design dilemmas. It also helps when trying to analyze art produced by someone else, including commercially produced prints and fabrics.
Bear with me as I talk just a little more about color wheels and color systems. Edith Anderson Feisner, in her books Colour and Color Studies has some of the best information on color systems. Most of today’s information comes from her books.
There are 3 types of color systems:
· Subtractive systems represent the process of mixing colors together – as in the Pigment wheel and the Process (Ives) wheel. In a subtractive system you are absorbing light. The more color added the less light reflected. All of the colors mixed together make black.
· Additive systems represent the process of mixing colored light. The more light added the lighter the color. The primaries are red, green and blue. Mixing all of the colors together makes white.
· The Partitive system is based on colors relationships to each other. This is system a new concept to me but in studying this, I believe that it might actually be the most applicable to quilting and fiber art.
So where do the color wheels from the previous post fit into these systems?
The Primary and Process wheels are subtractive systems. The Munsell wheel is Partitive and the Light and Visual wheels are Additive. Feisner makes the point that just one system or wheel may not satisfy all needs. Joen Wolfrom says that the Process wheel is the right wheel for textile artists because it is the wheel used by manufacturers that print fabrics. Feisner says that painters and dyers use the Subtractive wheels (Primary and Process) to create colors (paints, inks an dyes) but that they use a Partitive wheel to create color reactions in the design. She contends that all art media use Partitive color in the media but that the materials used can be either additive or subtractive. She also says that specifically the Munsell partitive wheel is used in fabric manufacturing and interior design.
That makes sense to me! I’ve never been able to reconcile that putting fabrics next to each other is the same as mixing dye colors. I’ve also found that in the little bit of dyeing and fabric painting that I have done that I really need the primaries from both the Process (yellow, cyan, magenta) and Primary wheels (red, yellow, blue) to mix the target colors that I want. I have more faith in Feisner’s books than I do in any of the color books written for quilters because she is a university professor teaching color theory and the books are college text books.
The Munsell wheel is a ten to twenty step wheel with 5 primaries: yellow, red, green, blue and purple. Looking at the wheel it appears to be a merger of the Process and Primary wheels and that makes sense to me too. Munsell also built a color tree that represents value (lightness or darkness) and relative purity of the colors. He developed a code for each color on the tree. His color system was the one adopted by the US Bureau of Standards as the acceptable language of color. My next step will be to do some experiments with my Dye-na flo paints (I have the process and pigment primaries) and see if I can make my own Process, Pigment and Munsell color wheels.
I’m not going to talk much about the Additive systems but I do think it’s important to understand them. After all, once you photograph your work you need to be able to accurately edit those photos for publication. You have to know to change the red and green colors to alter the yellow image. But that’s a photo editing class and I don’t know much of anything about that yet! Maybe later.
Yippee! I finished all of the ruler work on Mom's quilt! Of course I couldn't go through the night with out one error. I got happy with the scissors and cut the batting about 1/2" short!! Doh! I stitched it back together and got the ruler work done in the border too. I have 3 passes of the tiny wishbone stitching left to do but that shouldn't take too long. If things go well (crossed fingers) I might get this puppy finished this weekend!
But now back to the colored pencils and the self-portrait postcards. These things are going to kill me......
All in all it was a great weekend! I got to visit with my Goddaughter as she used our house as a hotel while she attended a wedding nearby. I haven't seen her in a year so it was wonderful to see her again. On the sewing/fiber front I got LOTS done! I made good progress on the center section of Mom's quilt and made good progress on the Art Nouveau self portrait postcards. Of course the best part of the weekend was diving into the fabric dyes.
Im my last soap making post I mentioned some advice that I received from my new lye vendor. Today i adjusted one of my favorite recipes to add the steric acid and castor oil that she recommened. Here's the recipe. We'll see in about 3 weeks if it works. Don't try this recipe at home unless I have posted a note about the results!
Updated December 2007 - This soap is awesome!! It's a little harder than my original recipe (which I wanted) but still has terrific lather.
Coconut Oil 9.5 oz.
Shea Butter 6 oz.
Olive Oil 8 oz.
Palm Oil 7 oz.
Castor Oil 1 oz.
Stearic Acid .5 oz.
Lye 4.54 oz.
water 12.1 oz.
I got all of the dye supplies I ordered so I jumped right in last night. I did do some fun pieces which I will show in a post later. But you know I can't do anythng with a carefree approach - I have to turn it into a study! Fabric dyeing will be no different. One of the things I wanted to figure out is what fabric is best for dyeing - and I mean the best fabric for me. Dharma Trading has fabric sample packs so I ordered 3 of the cotton set to see the difference between the types of fabrics. I wanted three because I wanted to dye with each primary to see if fabrics took any of the colors differently. I actually used both the pigment and the process primaries. The "red" is half pigment red and half process red - same for the other colors.
I used a strong dye and dyed about 23 different fabrics from sheer Harem Cloth to heavy Cotton Duck. I also included a sample from an inexpensive ($2.99) cotton that I bought at my local Hancock's Fabrics. I bought a lot of this fabric recently to use for my initial practice - fortunately it performed very well in the dye test! Kona costs about $6 a yard at my LQS. I wanted to see if it was $3 better than the less expensive stuff. It will be nice to have these samples for reference in the future.
In the next photo I have placed the samples of the fabrics that I consider acceptable for quilting on my design wall. I left the image very large so that you can see the detail - if you are interested. I also left the color correction card in the photo so you can do any adjustments on your screen.
I have never seen a doe with three fawns. I got this photo snapped just before the dog chased them and the doe across the yard.
Thanks to everyone who posted a comment to my first Color Theory post. I don't believe there is a right or wrong color wheel to use. I agree with several of you that said that we usually follow the wheel that we were first taught to use. I'm not sure what I've ever intended to do with any color theory knowledge that I've been gathering. I simply find the subject fascinating. I also find that if I write it down as I learn it I have a better chance to retaining some of the information. I'll keep posting as I study but don't ever assume that I really think I know what I am talking about! I always welcome your comments to set me straight on my information.
Thanks to you I also picked up a couple of new books for my color theory library:
Color Studies by Edith Anderson Feisner and Color Choices by Stephen Quiller. They both look very interesting.
This weekend I am going to do some fabric dyeing but I will just some fun experimental dyeing from Color by Accident by Ann Johnston. That's the first book that we used for our fabric dyeing a couple of years ago. But I think I will do some painting with my new Dye-na-flow paints. I have the primaries for both the process and pigment color wheels and black and white. I think I will try to mix the colors to paint both wheels along with shades and tints.
My order of lye came in the mail today also so I can make soap again! The package also came with a brochure warning about the dangers of running a meth lab....good to know that information!
Just a quick list of what I'm working on:
And for the weekend:
It hit 103 here in Richmond today - it is miserably hot and humid. I will leave the house only twice this week - yesterday and tomorrow. One benefit of working at home is that I get to watch nature activies around the house. Here's one I can't believe....
You all know that I make soap (how-to here and here). I now finally have 3 other people to make soap for. Making just for myself doesn't create enough need - making soap for 4 people is perfect, it's just enough so that I can try new recipes and make soap often enough. This weekend I ran out of lye so I sent Chris out to buy more. After 4 stops he discovered that it's not available anymore! Eek!
So, on to the internet to do some research. I found out that Red Devil stopped making the pure lye that soap makers prefer but several on-line soap supplies are now carrying lye. My usual supplier doesn't carry it but I found this supplier that does. I talked to the owner yesterday and she was very nice and shared a lot of good information. She told me to add some castor oil to the soap to make it lather more and to use some steric acid to make the bars harder. I have been using beeswax to make harder bars. When I get my new supplies I will formulate some new recipies.
Here's the recipe that I used this weekend:
***Updated September 9, 2007 - this soap recipe is wonderful! It has a very thick and soft lather and is very moisturizing.***
Jojoba Avocado Bar
2 oz avocado oil
8 oz. coconut oil
2 oz. jojoba oil
5 oz. olive oil
12 oz. palm oil
1 oz. beeswax
4.06 oz. lye
10 oz. water
Fair warning - this is a long post!
Continue reading "Article 1 - Color Theory - The Color Wheel" »
My next postcard challenge is from my Stitcher's Guild exchange group. The theme is "art nouveau self portrait". Some day I will get Gail back for this one! 
The first thing I know is that it will not be a self portrait in the traditional sense - I don't do body parts in art. I don't know why but I don't like people, faces or other body parts in my art - purchased or made. So I decided that I needed an image to reflect some part of my persona. I have a few clip art books but found my image in 4000 Flower & Plant Motifs. It has an Art Nouveau section. (I believe there are 3 book in this series by Graham Leslie McCallum and they are chock full of great images.) After I found my image I wanted to select a good color palette so I turned to one of my other favorite books, Living Colors by Margaret Walch and Augustine Hope.
Living Colors has a history of art in images and color palettes. There are 80 different color swatch cards. I selected Tiffany's Stained Glass as my color palette and matched colored pencils to the swatch card. I have my image and my colors so off I go to see if I can make something of it!
Special thanks to Terri for heading me in the right direction on my approach. I had been noodling how to use fabric to do this thing but I saw her post yesterday and realized that I needed to head more toward painting as my method.
Finally, a note to Mom - I quilted 3 more hours on your quilt today! I'm closing in on completing the center section.
I took your advice and removed the last two narrow blue borders and added to final wide blue border. I think it turned out just fine! I will not be able to quilt this soon so I'm calling this project "done" for a while! Thanks to Judy for another fun project!
Here are the last two postcards in the "splash" swap.
Here's my "splash" postcard for the Quilting Adventures postcard club swap.
This one was a bit of a challenge. If you are interested, here's how I made it:
Here are the postcards that I have received for the Quilting Adventures "splash" postcard theme. I think these are all great interpretations of the theme.
Back in April I posted about the 3 dogs that visit us on a regular basis. We don't know the owners but "out here in the country" leash laws aren't exactly serious and some dogs roam. These have been roaming for years and have been regular visiting friends for a long time. My husband would really like to have a dog of his own but with my allergies, that's not an option. So these dogs, Stanley, Girlie and Buddy (our names for them) are the next best thing. Buddy is the oldest and the sentimental favorite. We will not discuss how pitiful our lives are to have stray dogs as occasional pets!
Even my family and friends know these dogs and how much we love them. My youngest brother is married to Carol - a real artist. (The best thing my brother ever did was marry her. I'm not kidding.) She is so talented and we are all in awe. She has done some beautiful bird paintings for my Mom and today we got our very own artwork from her! She took the photo of Buddy from my blog and did this!
Thanks Carol - you made our day week! Can't wait to get it framed and on the wall.
Another post with no photos – sorry! I haven’t actually accomplished anything concrete since returning from the river this weekend but I have been “working”. I am participating in 2 postcard swaps and both are late! The first is with the theme “splash” and that’s the one I’ve been developing this week. Thank goodness for the Photoshop Elements class at joggles.com! My card starts with some free clipart and a good dose of filters on Elements. I’ll start putting the whole thing together tonight.
I’ve also been having a lot of fun meeting back up with my on-line longarm quilting buddies at the new MQResources bulletin board. It’s a really nice set up. You don’t have to own a longarm to join in – just be a machine quilter. Check it out!
If all goes to plan, I’ll have lots of share with you this weekend.
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