Back Again

Okay, so I haven't been the best blogger in the world, but I'm starting fresh and plan to write more often. I don't know why I have a hard time making myself do this, fear? self-consciousness? I don't know, but I'm working on it.

It was such a busy week and lots of fun, too.

On Tuesday, my art quilt group, the Quilting Arts Alliance, met at the Lyndon House to play with paint and resists.

Above, there's Anita, Diane and Nancy. Frances also came to watch. It's just so much fun to get together with good people and laugh and experiment and play. I could do this for a living!

Nancy and I both used some fabric that I had dyed, was not happy with so then I bleached it, washed it in anti-clor, dyed again, bleached again, dyed again and finally gave up on it. I call it my butt-ugly fabric. I think surface design play can only  help it. It's unfinished, but here it is:

Nancy was a bit more selective in what she wanted to do to her piece of butt-ugly fabric:

Anita had done some prep work ahead of time, and she was just painting away:

It was great! It was fun! and I tried gel glue, soy wax, potato dextrin and used the little binder rings. Whenever I get my piece finished, I'll post again.

But that was only Tuesday. On Thursday, I taught my first ever art quilt class. I made a cute and happy sunflower in 3 versions: easy, easier and easiest. So I called my class, "Easy and Easier Art Quilt."

The class was held at the Dragonfly Quilt Shop in Watkinsville. I had four students--three quilters and one who does heirloom sewing. It was so much fun and everyone brought their own tweek to the quilt. It went so well, I can't wait to teach again! Here are my students with their quilt tops in various stages of completion:

From left to right: Janie, Anita, Holley and Linda. They were great ladies and a whole lot of fun. And the best part of any class I teach is that I learned as much from them as they did for me. All around, a great day!

And now to Saturday. Nancy came over and we played again. This time we did deconstructed screen printing. It's so much fun and always a surprise as to how things turn out. We were a little disappointed in the outcomes, and just didn't work as well as we expected. I'm not sure if it was because I added liquid dye to the print paste instead of powder, or if the print paste was too old. We did learn some things though and do have a little bit to show for our efforts. These are Nancy's:

And here are mine. The first one is a monoprint that I made after setting up the screen for printing:

The last one was done when the screen print was almost exhausted, so I added a little chartreuse paint to the mix.

As usual, I'm not sure what I'll do with these. I'll hang them in my studio until an idea comes to mind.

After all the playing I did this week, I was ready to get back into my studio to sew. Currently I'm working on a small piece for my second art quilt group, Fiber Frenzy. The challenge for April is "Go Green." I went to my local grocery store and asked permission to take photos in their produce department. The photo I got with the most interesting shapes and highlights was of jallapeno peppers. After cropping and manipulating a bit, this is what I'll be doing:

Wish me luck and tune in next time to see what I've done with the jallapenos!