Wild and Crazy is finally fishished

The last couple of weeks have been more than frustrating. I finished the Wild and Crazy quilt and was very proud of it. Laid it out on the bed and thought it looked super; pillows excluded.

Then I washed and dried it to get rid of the cat hair and to puff it up. Oh Woe. The hand dyed red fabric (which had been previously washed) faded on to the narrow white strips making them a dull pinkish-grey.

There is no contrast between the “white” strips and the grey pieces. What I thought was going to be a great quilt was now a disappointing quilt. I tried to get over the disappointment but it was always in the back of my mind. A few days ago, I wondered if the strips could be painted. Not practical. Then I woke up two days ago and said, “Dots.”

So – by dipping a half inch wooden dowel into white fabric paint and touching it to the strip the quilt turned into this.

Detail:

Now, I think I’m happier with the quilt than I was in the beginning.

 

Printing on Fabric

Just when I think I’m getting smarter in PSE, I perform dumb, dumber, and dumbest things.

I’ve printed on fabric many times, but this time nothing goes right. Gets hung up in the printer, smudges of ink on the sides, etc., etc., etc. I had a small piece of hand dyed gray fabric to print on and messed it up.

See the big smudge on the right? And I had no more hand dyed gray. Once I use a hand dyed fabric, a commercial fabric just doesn’t do the job. What to do? Ah-Ha! I turned the above fabric over and scanned it and put it in PSE. Then I scanned my drawing of the trees on tracing paper and put that image into PSE  on a transparent background. Then – moved the trees onto of the scanned gray background and printed it on a paper backed silk purchased from Dharma Trading Co.

The background is a little lighter but I can live with it. And if you look very closely you can see the trees that were on the back.

I also wanted to use an image that I saw on the internet. I asked the photographer for permission but got no answer. So I altered the image by putting my head of “her” body. That wasn’t so hard, but every time I printed the image there was something wrong. Too green, too big, too small, too something, Took nine tries to get it right.

Wish I were really that slim.

Happy New Year 2012-Resolutions and Scrap Quilts

Happy New Year to everyone. May it be happy, healthy, and prosperous.

I’m terrible at keeping New Year’s resolutions but I can think I can do it this year. I’m trying to clean up my fabric stash and throw out what I’m sure I’ll never use. When I see some pieces I say to myself, “What was I thinking?” What you see here is only about 1/2 of the stash. The resolution is to make three large to large-ish scrap quilts.

 One  quilt will be from blocks given to me by my old quilt group in Florida, The Cover Lovers. One year we gave each other quilt blocks for Christmas. At the time none of them seemed to go together. Maybe they still don’t but my challenge is to make it happen. I have a couple of ideas but I’m open to any suggestions. Seeing the blocks in a photograph I can already see that some rearranging needs to be done.

The other two quilts will also be scrap quilts. One for a blue person and the other for a hot pink person. The blue has begun.

Happy New Year 2011

Happy New Year to everyone. Do you make resolutions? I usually try to make one. So – here’s mine for 2011:

DO MORE FIBER ART

A baby quilt 60″ x 48″. It started out as a pink quilt but the red quickly took over. Oh well, I have to listen to the fabric.

What’s really fun is that I’m helping my friend, Sally, make a baby quilt. It’s her first experience  quilting so she knows no rules. Sally is a photographer and she is going to incorporate pictures of butterflies, AND, she’s willing to try Improvisational Piecing. Hooray! She made a strip fabric out of all these fabrics. It’s gorgeous and she says she’s having fun. I certainly am. You want to know what’s one of the best things about helping Sally? We’re both left handed!! Silly I know, but we don’t have to keep turning things around or getting in each other’s way.

New Chair/Old Chair

The slipcover is done. Note, I changed my mind for the stripe fabric. I saw this one on sale and loved the colors. The lighter one might have been better, but considering how fast the fabric deteriorates on furniture around here it won’t be on there for more than a couple of years. The chair sits by an east slider/window so it get all the morning sun and the dog and three cats love sitting on new fabric. If I could find a market for cat fur, I’d be a millionair!

Do you see the front door in the upper left side? I etched the glass pattern. One of my better accomplishments. And do you see a corner of the couch on the extreme left side? That’s also a slip cover I made fairly recently. Now, I should make a new dress for myself. Probably red.

Slip Cover

This is a photography of David Hockney’s living room published in the June 1990 issue of Metropolitan Home. It’s been saved for these twenty years in my inspiration file and from the looks of the fold lines it’s also been carried around. I admire the use of several fabrics on the upholstered furniture and have always wanted to try it. Now’s my chance.

This old chair was purchased in a used furniture store about six years ago. I made a slip cover for it which you can see on the cushion and on the foot stool. The cover is now faded and dirty and it’s time for another one.

The flower print was found as three remnants in one store. Not enough to make the cover so I’m going to combine the stripe and solid with it ala Hockney!

While looking for some fresh cording, I came upon all this left over cording from other slipcover projects. Can you think of a good use for them besides trim for pillow edges? I’ll give a prize to the best suggestion by August 31.

More Inspiration

Sally gave me the Guatemalan or Mexican shawl ( not sure which it is). She says it’s old and she’s tired of it. Oh, my! In addition she also gave me the Spoonflower image of one of her orchids. I put one on top of the other and WOW! Then I happened to pick up the leftover “fried eggs” and WOW again. Something’s happening here. Gotta listen.  Thank you, Sally. Now, I have three potential art quilts stacked up. Must get my duff out of the yard and get back to work in the studio! Just looking at this pictures gives me some ideas on where to start. It seems to help if I photograph things and see them more compactly in a small format. This composition of fabrics looks much different in a small photo than standing over them on my work table. Why is that?