Fiber Day

Last Saturday was Fiber Day at the Southern Highlands Craft Guild. During the year, they sponsor educational opportunities at the Folk Art Center in Asheville - one of them being Fiber Day;  Saturday being the demos and Sunday the fashion show featuring garments and accessories made by Southern Highland Guild members. It's always great fun to attend and also be part of.  I try and do marbling with the kids...that weekend is always my daughter's birthday weekend so it involves a bit of juggling. This year I juggled well and did both. 

 The demos at Fiber Day are very varied with lots of hands on - especially for the kids.  Kathy Spencer does wonderful needlefelting, starting with a base fabric, adding rovings and using a felting machine, does some magical and very colorful things.

She often uses felted leaves as part of her quilts.  Kathy also did a huge spider web with leaves scattered throughout - quite amazing.

Georgia Bonesteel was also one of the demonstrators showing her wonderful piecing techniques

Sandra Adair does beautiful tapestries....this is a commissioned piece she is working on.

Martine House, a lady of many talents is doing something with adults. Her beautiful work is hanging behind her.

Laura Spreitzer was most impressive with her knitting skills - making very detailed clothes for Barbie - yup....that Barbie....  I've always thought anyone who can make doll clothes that small has the patience of a saint...The little girls thought they were very cool.

Charlie Patricolo is known for her crazy, adorable one of a kind dolls...She was demonstrating some wonderful techniques.

The Blue Ridge Spinners were there with their looms showing how fiber is spun into yarn.

There was some beautiful lacework and tatting being demonstrated.

This picture is blurry but I HAD to include this Monkey Doll....brings back memories when we used to make them in my Home Ec Classes....There were just so many sewing machines to go around and often students had nothing to do so we had lots of projects to fill in the gap - the most popular was the monkey doll made from Sears Roebuck socks.

Connie Brown had a table of all kinds of buttons, trims and fabrics for kids to stop by and make pictures - they loved the great assortment and an excuse for getting their hands mucky.

Here is the marbling table and my little-est artist.  She's only 4, totally adorable and looking quite serious while waiting for her print to be picked up.

This fun couple stopped and chatted and I noticed all the badges on their fronts and just as many on their back. Everywhere they go they get a badge but the coolest part is they are mounted on his old army shirt from The Korean War -  He made it into a vest and his wifes had to be cut a bit smaller but also from his old shirt. He told me, that's the very last of army gear.

The highlight...without even trying is the animals outside. This baby was so adorable and sweet and let all the children pet her. Some of the animals participated in the sheep sheering.

There were also goats, alpacas and above the fluffy French Angora rabbit...
Just a great day for everyone. I'm linked to Nina Marie Sayres blog.

More Silkscreens including I'm a Geat!

That's right - a Geat....not a geek.  My husband is into geneology and getting ready explore his own family ancestry and some of mine. My dad's family was from Sweden and when looking into their birthplace, we discovered that Sweden was divided - the southern end was Geatland and people from that area were Geats. The northern part was Sweden and eventually, it all became Sweden, but my family was born in Geatland. 

 So upon seeing this map, I decided to make it into a silkscreen - for personal use only. I had never heard of Geatland and thought it an interesting story.

 I also wanted more screens with writing, so I found more of my grandmother's writing - this one for Carrott Pudding...carrot spelled with 2 ts. My son asked me (grinning)...if you use this on a quilt, do you think people will buy it just to get the recipe....hmmm...

 And a screen from a drawing my son did - totally love this drawing and wonder how it will work into one of my quilts.

 This next picture is an ancestor which I scanned into photoshop and using filters

 was able to make an interesting screen...not filled in solid but I like it this way...gives it a more aged look.

 This last one is my favorite, the picture is around 90 years old; it's of my mother in law when she was a toddler. I scanned it into Photoshop, made it into a line drawing, did a little filling in here and there

 and here's the finished screen.

 I always screen the image on a heavier piece of clear plastic and keep it in the folder with the screen.  I can lay the plastic over fabric or a quilt to see how it will work before screening.
As always, til next time...
I'm linked to Nina Maries blog.

New Silkscreens

Yesterday was a perfect day for indoor projects - rainy and cold outside, almost felt like the beginning of winter. I had a number of silk screens I was itching to make. They take very little time with a Thermofax machine but then I go back and tape around the edges as the screen film is thin and needs the support of duct tape. I also make an image on the outside of the folder it's stored in and an image on clear plastic so I can preview them on top of quilts. 

 This is actually a remake of one I use so much, I wore it out.  The image is a picture I took on the Blue Ridge Parkway years back.

 This next image was from a Dover copyrite free coloring book. I really liked the image.

 And more trees with the image on clear plastic to the right.

 Looks like the same group of trees, a different angle.

 And more of the same; I do take lots of pictures of trees which I use so much, nice to have a variety.

These were tombstones in a cemetery; I took the picture years ago.  I do like cemeteries with old tombstones and crumbling rocks. I thought these were wonderful.  It was a challenge to get them to this point to make a silk screen.
More to come soon.

Small Studies - Leaf 2

I really like doing these small pieces, especially when time is limited and I want some instant gratification. I created this small piece a little while back... but never got to posting it.  

I started with some hand dyed fabric.

Using my favorite leaf stamp, I stamped on silk organza which had been painted with Dye-na-Flow.

I loosely cut it out and finished the edge with a wood burning tool which gives that nice, dark edge to the leaf.

Using some marbled fabric from my stash, I combined it with very bright colors.

I used some metallic couching thread on some of the edges to add a little sparkle.  The transparent leaves were placed on top and stitched in place using a monofilament thread.  The stitching was done using the natural vein lines of the leaf.

Stamping was done on the yellow fabric to add some zing and the whole piece was placed in a pre-cut mat. It's quite a small piece but with the addition of the mat, it really has some presence. This piece has been shared on Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday.

A Walk Through the Garden and Other Places

Every year we make our yearly trek to Painter's Nursery, a huge nursery in Old Fort, NC.  It opens for 5 months of the year - the rest of the time is spent getting ready for the season. We always go for the heirloom tomatoes, hard to find but wind up buying far more than a few tomato plants. To a gardener, this place is Paradise.

 There are rows and rows of everything imaginable.

 The color is amazing.

 There are also outside gardens and tents with plants; we didn't even make it to the tents this year.

 So back home, everything is blooming, I'm sneezing but also loving the bright green "new growth" and gorgeous color.

 Our cherry tree is one of my favorite things.

 My son is an artist and loves garden art.  He found these logs, drilled out parts of them and planted grass in them - I love them.

 And some beautiful tulips - love the multi-colors.

 We are on 3 acres; my husband and son being gardeners would fill up every inch of dirt if I gave the okay. This garden is in the back, one of the prettiest because of all the spring flowers.

 There's even a little house my husband built to set in the middle.

And to save the best til last - our Bluebird house once again has a new family in it. It will be the first of several this year. We love watching them - no babies yet, but plenty of activity going on.
Happy Spring.

I'm Not Even as Smart as a Third Grader

My good friend Norma has been doing a special program for the third graders at Black Mountain Primary in Black Mountain, NC. Norma is an accomplished fiber artist but also very knowledgeable in Japanese culture and the art of flower arranging known as Ikebana. The 2 week program involved learning about Japan, their culture, quilts, costume and will end with an official tea ceremony. I was invited to come and spend a morning, meeting the kids and showing them some quilts.  What a great morning with such cute little people. They had such enthusiasm, energy and lots of smart genes. They were working on so many things and seemed to love every aspect of this wonderful unit.

A group quilt made up of individual blocks was sewn together - still more blocks to sew on but almost there.

They were very proud of their accomplishment.

They also worked on individual blocks which they will get to take home.

They used lots of wonderful color and many of the images found on Japanese quilts such as kites and flowers.

There were 3 group quilts in progress - children were asked to create images for these as well.

One of their favorite things was making yo-yos and used on this piece. Norma will finish the quilts with batting, backing and a binding.  Their imaginations and spontaneity were such fun to watch and be a part of.

There were also examples of Japanese kimonas, shoes and hats.

One little girl modeled for us - she looked adorable in this authentic kimona - a gift given to Norma.

I brought a number of quilts to show. One little boy asked me why it was so small and couldn't be used as a blanket which gave us the opportunity to talk about art quilts. The quilt is called "Japanese Beetles" and tells the story of when my cousin and I were young and given the job of removing all the beetles from the rose bushes.  We kept them in a jar and fed them rose petals and leaves. Unbeknownst to my mom and grandma (who shared the rose garden), we let them go each evening as we didn't want anything to happen to them...and would start the process all over the next day.

I also brought my "Shibori Tea Party" which was appropriate as it used the Japanese technique of Shibori to create the fabric used along the edge and made into teabags. I thought to bring a piece of PVC pipe, muslin and string to quickly show them how to wrap and create Shibori.

The kids thought it was cool that there was real tea inside the organza bags.  The quilts made by the Black Mountain Primary school will be on display at the NC Arboretum and the Black Mountain Center for the Arts.
It was a fun day and so much fun to hang out with such great kids.