New Works by LINT Opening

The opening for LINTs New Works show at the Grovewood Gallery in Asheville, NC was exciting and very festive. It's always exciting to see your work or that of your friends in a gallery setting with great light, perfect walls and people to "ooohhh and ahhh".....not always the case in everyday life ....but on Saturday.... at the Grovewood Gallery, this was the way it was.

Here's a tour of some of the wonderful pieces you'll see if you make it to the show and I hope you do....Jen Swearingtons "Come Home".

Jude Stueckers "Honeybee".

Norma Bradley's "Celebration"....

Sondra Dorn's "Ferns in Forest"

Kathy Spencers very colorful piece...I always photograph the name after the quilt and this photo came out blurry so couldn't post the name..It's a wonderful piece with a great story.

Susan Lee's "Silent and Sunless and Deep"....

Bernie Rowell's "Building Bridges"....

Suzanne Gernandts wonderful woven piece...again couldn't get the name.

Vicki Essigs woven piece - untitled and that's a real Cicada wing she incorporated into the weaving.

Peggy DeBells piece....very unique... a must see in person

Janice Maddox's "Tyger, Tyger"....

and Diana Dinardis's wonderful piece...

There are more pieces to see at the show...so many wonderful and unique surface design techniques as well as interesting machine work. The show will hang until December 31...hope you can stop by.

New Works by LINT

The Grovewood Gallery located behind the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, NC is hosting an exhibit of New Works by LINT - Ladies in New Textiles. The grounds are beautiful and the walk up to the gallery is worth the trip alone.
The buildings in this small complex, including a museum and artist's studios have an old world charm, covered with ivy and surrounded by art in every form.

Giant sculptures along the way....

An amazing and very musical wind forest created by artist Lyman Whitaker....

The wind chimes are wonderful to listen to....

Along with animals you are "not allowed to feed".....

And funny faces to spook you from behind the trees...

And then this beautiful wooden door that invites you to enter....

an exhibit by LINT. LINT stands for Ladies in New Textiles; the group consists of 13 fiber artists who meet monthly to share their work, plan exhibits, brainstorm and generally show support for each other. The opening for this exhibit is Saturday, November 7 from 11 - 3.

It was great fun hanging....

and measuring to make sure everything was perfectly straight.....

And now...a sneak preview of what you'll see. Sondra Dorns beautiful "Forest with Vines".

And this wonderful piece by Susan Webb Lee....

And Norma Bradley who does amazing things with sheers....

and my piece "Morning's Glory"

Hope you can stop by ....if not for the opening then sometime until Dec 31. The gallery is part of the Grovewood shop which houses beautiful art items for sale and next door is a wonderful little restaurant....a good place to bring holiday company.

Fiber Arts Alliance

The Fiber Arts Alliance of Asheville, NC met yesterday in downtown Asheville. The program for the day was books as an artform, designing and making them. I've always loved books, both reading and collecting them but never realized the amount of possibilities this artform offers. Jan Sapp did a very interesting program with lots of samples, great information and materials for anyone who wanted to participate in making a small book. She is an excellent instructor and will be teaching this at AB Tech in Asheville. Here is one of the many samples she shared with the group.
and the inside......was very clever.

My pal Mary Stori took some great pictures and a wonderful write-up on the meeting...so check her blog for some great details. In the meantime, I'll concentrate on the wonderful...as always....show and tell. McKenna Linn is a charter member of the group....moved to Florida awhile back...(sad....) and missed us so much, she moved back (yeaaahhh). We are so happy to have her back with us...a most talented and lovely lady. She was mentioning how her work has reflected where she lives. The next few pieces are her Florida pieces - very tropical and brightly colored.

And a detail....

I love this wonderful collage of tropical subject matter.

And can this gal stitch!....wow, beautiful work....

This next piece is by Veronica VonZwehl...don't know if you remember her work from the Asheville Quilt Guild Quilt Show - "Birch Trees"...Yup...the same gal. She does amazing work!

Julie Bagamary created this wonderful piece for her son...see more of Julies work on her blog.

And here is our own Cherize...who is learning how to spin. She does not have access to a wheel so is doing a method of "drop-spinning". Weavers, please forgive me as I probably have the term wrong...am doing this from memory. But it was so interesting the way the roving is hooked over something on top of the yarn holder and wound into a manageable yarn. What tickles me more is the way so many of our creative selves will make use of every moment and resource to make something wonderful out of something ordinary.....Watching Cherize do this with such intensity and still be part of the bookmaking lesson just tickled me to pieces.....you go girl!

It was a great meeting and last but not least....want to say....Anita...We Missed You...Get Well Soon!!!!

Quotes and Quilts

I used to live in Marietta, GA and was part of several fiber art groups. Occasionally someone went out of town and would bring back a small treat ....a fat quarter, some new thread, a new trinket of sorts...... It was great fun and always a wonderful surprise; these "treats" came to be known as a "Happy". One of my favorite "Happys" was this wonderful little book with handmade paper. I wanted to save it for something special..... didn't use it for a while. After finding scraps of paper here and there filled with quotes, I thought my book to be the perfect place to hold them...so it became my book of quotes. I was reading my friend Carol Sloans blog about her quotes and it inspired me to hunt down my own....stashed away on a shelf somewhere and here it is.....
I stamp on the pages to "prettify" them ....and then add the quotes. They are from everywhere. Sometimes a movie will have a wonderful line (so many from The Hours)...I write it down (in the dark, in the theatre...) and it winds up here...sometimes it's just something one of my friends have said (very cool friends who say very profound things)...winds up here. I like using quotes to write on fabric. Sometimes it becomes a silk screen and sometimes I'll just write it. My handwriting is terrible but I don't mind the way it looks on fabric.

My dear friend and very accomplished artist - Barbara Butler made this wonderful quilt many years ago. She used quotes she'ld been saving for over 30 years. I loved the fact that as you looked at it, many reflected the "sign of the times" One quote was "Peace"....definitely the 60s.

The first time my daughter saw this, she stood and admired.... for 20 minutes...totally intrigued..... reading every quote.

It's a wonderful piece and a great way to use quotes or any other kind of writing. It's also a great idea for a scrap quilt.

I love the "Mr Rogers" quote from Mr. Rogers Neighborhood.

If you're wanting to write on fabric, choose something made for fabric, textiles etc. so that it's permanent. I use a Pigma pen. It also helps to back the fabric with freezer paper while writing to prevent shifting.

Have a great weekend and a spooky and wonderful Halloween...and don't forget to set your clocks back...What are you going to do with that extra hour?

Morning's Glory Quilt

Years ago I took a weeklong workshop with David Walker - a fiber artist "extraordinaire". He told us that whenever he finished a quilt, he would light lots of candles in his studio, turn off the lights (except for one on his quilt), open a great bottle of wine, put on his favorite music and enjoy the moment and what he had accomplished. I've always loved that; wish I could say I do the same...not as easy with people and pets around...about all I can manage is the wine. I did finish my quilt today and it does feel good. So here are some details.....
While previewing it on the wall, my son said it needed more sparkle and I agree. The only way to incorporate it in the quilt at this point was through the quilting. I didn't want the whole thing quilted with metallic...just a touch here and there.
I used a mylar (flat shiny thread) which can be wicked to use but it was cooperating this time around. There is nothing better for giving glitz than a mylar, so much reflection.

I also used a couching thread - Candlelight by YLI in the bobbin and sewed from the back of the quilt. You can see the heavier threadwork.

I used a very subdued "non-descript" color to quilt the other areas. I didn't want the quilting to be too dominant.

The extra threadwork on the flowers and leaves gave it more dimension which it needed.

More threadwork on the leaves and fabric curls.

I dyed the fabric for the back and used the same mylar in the bobbin so the back would be sparkly also.

I used to be a designer for the Fairfield Fashion Show. The show itself had many wonderful sponsors who gave us great products to use for our creations. As a result, I've built up an enormous thread collection including many decorative threads. Mylars are hard to use on the top of the machine because they break easily but work very well in the bobbin.....so to use up these threads, I started to put them in the bobbin. Before I realized it, so many quilts had a "sparkly" back to them and I liked the look.

So now I use them all the time on the back. I will say, it was a bear to sew those parts that used mylar on top and bottom.

I faced the quilt as I wanted the edges to be plain - without a binding. I used a clothing construction technique to face the quilts.

and here is the finished piece.

I was still stumped on a name but had a thought..... when I walk in the morning (in the summer), first thing I see outside are the Morning Glories and they are glorious.....so Morning's Glory.

Birdhouses and Morning Glories

A while back I started a new piece inspired by a Bluebird house a neighbor gave me as a house warming gift. I love the weathered look and coupled with a vine like plant, thought it would make a pretty quilt. The working title is Birdhouses and Morning Glories...not much "pizazz" and am trying to come up with a better title.....
Any ideas??
Anyway....the picture of the birdhouse was to be part of the background, so thought it should be fairly subdued. I turned it into a Sepia print in Photoshop Elements.

I cropped the image and enlarged parts of it to make it into interesting design elements.

I wasn't concerned about direction...just wanted it to work into an interesting background.

So...all shapes and sizes were printed on fabric....wanted lots of choices for designing.

I liked the nail and strong wood grain in the part below....

I had some wonderful "granite" patterned fabric that worked really well with the digital imagery.

I like that the background is interesting without being overpowering.

I had printed some monoprints on the purchased fabric; it seemed to work well with the printed imagery (see below).

and the pieced background......

At this point I thought it needed a little "sparkling up" so scoured my big collection of couching threads and found this amazing little sparkle.

I set my machine for a narrow zig zag and threaded it with a monofilament on top. I laid the threads down along the narrow fabric strips and zig-zagged it in place.

The threadwork gives it a little more definition which I like and think is important.

A detail of the threadwork.....

I had already decided on a "greenish-blue" for the flower and dyed some mercerized cotton using procion mx dyes. I used Marine blue and a Chino brown ...the 2 together in the same fabric seem to give it more movement.

Nice (above) but not enough definition...so what to do? Think the flower needed more movement so I divided the flower into sections and cut each section taking into consideration a "light source" (another blog). I also thought the use of a textile paint along the edges would make it "pop"! Think it pops and additional threadwork will help.

So here are the 2 flowers side by side...a before and after (after is first)...so I guess it's after and before.

Next step was to pin everything in place, put on design wall and live with it for a while. It's always amazing to me to leave something up, go in and out of the room, looking at it everyday, how it often takes on a new perspective. Sometimes, something will click that I don't like...never saw it in the beginning but after looking at it everyday...it's glaring!...so for me it's important to take the time to "live with it" for a while.

I wanted a lot of movement so did fabric swirls and curls....I also wanted the flowers to meander around the birdhouse as that's how they are in the garden.

Next step is to fuse and sew the appliques down, then machine quilt. I've actually been doing that for a few days...almost done so will show you the results in the next post...

Boone, NC Revisited

My husband and I love to take short trips in the fall, taking advantage of the beautiful weather and color. Yesterday our destination was Boone, NC. I was there 2 weeks ago with my PTA group to see "12 Voices" at the Turgin Center for Visual Arts; I wanted John to see it also - so up to Boone we went. Our first stop was the Annex to the original Mast General store. Mast is our favorite store in Asheville, this one in Valle Crucis is the oldest one - over 100 years old. It's great fun to see, like taking a trip back in time.
I love all the "penny" candy in barrels...not a penny anymore but so much fun to get a bucket and pick and choose from a great variety.

There is an entrance in the back of Mast General with a sitting area and wonderful old, rusted signs.

And shelves loaded with jams and jellies....

I love this old Coke machine...still in use and very different than the ones we have today.

And the wonderful antiques along the ledge.

This wonderful piece holds all kinds of nuts and bolts and still sold the same way (loose) they were 100 years ago...No packages here!

And a genuine "sit and play a spell" station for checkers...

And remember these wonderful post office boxes with the little dials to create your own combination. My parents had one and here they're still in use.

Love this sewing cabinet....

And more antiques...

The floors were very uneven everywhere....so "watch you step".

These chairs in the shoe department really tickled me.

Our next stop was along the Blue Ridge Parkway to Moses Cone Craft Shop - one of 5 shops owned and operated by the Southern Highland Craft Guild. Members of the guild sell their work in these shops.

We drove home along the Blue Ridge Parkway which is always magical, especially this time of year. The views were breathtaking.

The parkway in the late afternoon is my favorite time - there are deep shadows on the mountains.

I can see why they are called the "Blue Ridge" Mountains.

Some wonderful rock formations along the way...will put these in Photoshop to play with.

And even some icicles...wow, keeps getting better and better.

And the color....of course, the color.

Such a magical day...and today back to work in my studio.

Silkscreens and Transparencies

A while back, in the middle of designing a quilt, I had a brainstorm - to use an image screened onto a transparent piece of plastic to lay over the quilt. This gave me a good feel as to how the image would work and where to place it. It was a great time saver and confidence booster; it is scary to screen an image onto a quilt because it's so permanent...no turning back kind of thing....gulp!!
When I make a screen using my Thermofax, I finish the edge with duct tape, and print the image on the outside of a folder. I now take it one step further and make an image on plastic to use as a designing tool....this is stored in the folder also. It's a great time saver to have it already done and wonderful for the designing process.

I buy the plastic at a chain sewing store. It's on a roll and sold by the yard. I think it's 4mm weight but not positive. It's a nice weight to work with.

I lay it over a piece of fabric or part of the quilt itself to see how it'll work.

This is one of my favorite designs as I love the movement...haven't used it yet.

Previewing it over fabric....

This next fabric is too busy for the intricate nature of the design.

This is a feather I found on a morning walk...made into a wonderful screen.

And here it is over a piece of fabric.

This technique can also be used for stamping. Stamp the image on a piece of heavier plastic; lay it on top of your quilt for a preview. I love silk screening and stamping but always hold my breath waiting to see how the image works with the quilt...this takes the guess out of it.

Goodbye Mr. Stripey

By August, I'm ready for summer to be over with the beautiful fall upon us and the holidays just around the corner. But I'm never ready to say goodbye to the beautiful flowers and veggies that are the best part of summer.
I've just heard that a frost is coming in so I've picked our last tomatoes......and this is it so I'll savor every bite...it has to last until next year. This year we tried some different types of tomatoes. My son's school had a sale in the horticulture department; we bought many varieties including some heirlooms, we had never tried before. We fell in love with "Mr Stripey" a great name for a tomato. It's the one in front, very yellow-orange when ripe and has stripes on the bottom. When used in a salad, it looks like you've added peaches instead of tomatoes. The flavor is beyond good. I'm very psychological about things like this. I like tomatoes to be red, potatoes to be white etc. It's hard to get enthused when they're a color I don't picture them to be. So Mr. Stripey appears on the vine and I think, will this be as good as a real tomato? Well very real it was and I highly recommend you add this to your list of tomatoes if you grow your own......
My son also picked a bouquet of Dahlias ...probably the last ones, and I'm really enjoying them.

And the beautiful Coleus which will not last much longer....

So Goodbye to Mr. Stripey and all the wonderful colors and tastes of summer...hope to see lots more of you next year!

Potato Dextrin Resist

I love creating fabric and have always been fascinated by resists. I love the "crackled" look which traditional hot wax batik will produce but don't like working with hot wax. A good alternative is the corn or potato starches. It's a finer looking crackle but still a neat effect.
Pro Chemical sells the potato and corn dextrin for this technique.
The first step is to make the starch by mixing potato dextrin and water into a thickened paste....directions on package. Set this aside or refrigerate until ready to use. It can be refrigerated for a limited time; see package for details.
Using a piece of insulation board - around 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick, pin the fabric down tight. I pin every 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch. As the paste is applied and allowed to dry, it shrinks and cracks.

Placing the pins at an angle with the top of the pin going outward and the bottom of the pin going in, stretches the fabric more tightly.

Next step is to apply the paste. It was an experiment of sorts to see how thick to apply it; I found the thicker areas to be more crackled. A thin layer will allow you to see the fabric underneath; a thicker layer will conceal the fabric. Allow the paste to dry thoroughly....like overnight. You will see it starting to crack as it dries.

Next step was to apply the color to "fill" in the cracked areas. You can use a thickened dye (preferred) or a fabric paint such as Set a Color. A dye will leave the fabric soft to the touch, a paint will alter the hand of the fabric. I like using a procion dye thickened with sodium alginate. In order for the dye to be permanent, it must have soda ash (the mordant for mx) in it. Next photo is fabric covered with potato dextrin solution....

To avoid extensive pinning, (time consuming), you can hoop it like in the picture below.

And now to apply the dye.... It is applied thick enough so you don't see the fabric underneath.

The dye needs time to react with the fabric. In order to do so, the fabric must be moist; cover it with plastic to prevent drying and leave overnight.

Now for the fun part....to remove the dye and see the results. I rinse in a laundry tub first to remove excess dye, then wash in cold water, then hot water with synthrapol. I wash the fabric until water is clear. And the results....very subtle but interesting I think.....

There's a flour resist technique which I'm anxious to try. I may do so this week which is supposed to be rainy and therefore good studio days...here in Asheville, NC.

Craggy Gardens, NC

John (hubby) and I do a lot of short trips in the fall; we love the weather and of course the beautiful fall foliage. Recently we ventured up the Blue Ridge Parkway which is a national treasure; it runs from Virginia to Georgia. It's a 2 lane well paved country road; it meanders over and through the tops of the Blue Ridge mountains. It's slow going along this route, but the scenery will take your breath away. It runs through Asheville, NC so we can pick it up easily. Even trips to the mall will tempt me to take this route, I never tire of it. Our destination for this day was Craggy Gardens where the spookiest and craggiest of trees live. I see how it got its name.

I'm always fascinated by these trees and must have a hundred pictures already.

Love this next one with the peeling bark....

They have a "lacey look" I think....

And with everything I photograph, there's always the potential for a quilt.

Onto even more spookier territory...the deep dark forests...love it!

And the beautiful views along the way...you could see forever...it seems!

And the Asheville Water Reservoir - a speck in the distance.

I love the colorful berries in the foreground....

Such a perfect day ...

Our Adventure in Boone, NC

My PTA group planned a trip to Boone, NC to see a fiber art exhibit at the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts. We were off and running in 3 cars and arrived in Boone around 11 am - just in time for lunch!
and the second half of the group minus Janice (the top of her head can be seen).

We drove to the Turchin Center where this very nice lady offered to take our group picture...don't think she realized how many cameras were involved....click, click, click, click, click... She was a good sport.

The exhibit "12 Voices", sponsored by SAQA (Studio Art Quilts Associates) is a traveling exhibit featuring the works of 12 fiber artists and members of SAQA. Each artist submitted 4-5 pieces for the exhibit. My only disappointment was that I hoped to see all the works, not realizing that each gallery due to space limitations could only display just so many. None the less, it was still wonderful and inspiring. Some of the featured artists included Linda Colsh, Joan Schulze, Judith Content, Susan Shie, Clare Plug, Angela Moll and others. There was "no photography" but you could purchase a book of the exhibit (see below) featuring all the works, the artists and a short synopsis of how they work. I've poured over the book many times since yesterday and it's wonderful, beautiful photography and an interesting look into the personalities of these incredibly talented women. The show was hung beautifully, paying careful attention to those pieces with great "back" interest, allowing them to hang in a freestanding manner. One could walk around these pieces with a view from all angles. For more information on this exhibit and their traveling schedule go to the SAQA website. For info on Turchin Center, click here.

After the exhibit ( I hated to leave) we ventured downtown....a charming college town with the usual hustle and bustle of student life.

And then onto Cathy's condo for beautiful views.....

interesting table tops (don't you love the leaves)

and LOTS of yummies .....(which Linda found right away)

We had our usual Show and Tell which is always inspiring. Mary Stori made a small piece for Connie having to do with a Pelican story Connie shared with us a while back. Mary is great for doing this...listening carefully to our stories and then surprising someone with a small and very personal piece she has created to depict that story...so now we are all trying to think of our best stories to casually drop in Mary's presence in hopes of getting one of her fantastic pieces.

Here is the wonderful piece and notice the beading on the edge!

And another one of Mary's pieces ...completely beaded!

and a detail - how amazing is this!

Kate Weston did this next piece for a challenge for the Quilters of South Carolina conference this weekend. Kate marbled her own fabric and did a great job. The first step in marbling is to drop the paint which makes the "stones" pattern. This can be raked into another pattern or printed as is. Kate took a stylus and ran it through the stones (circles) to make the indent at the top and pulling out at the bottom to make the point at the bottom of the heart. I think it's fantastic. The binding still needs stitching but I'm so glad she brought it to share.

Kate covered the outside wide border with a gauze type fabric which subdued the marbling and gave it incredible texture. What a clever idea!

What a wonderful day, my mind is still spinning with inspiration from the exhibit and time spent with good friends.

Silk Fusion and Angelina

The Fiber Arts Alliance group in Asheville, NC had a very inspiring meeting this month. Our own Deb Brown did the program demonstrating how to work with Angelina fibers and making silk fusion. Being a lover of silk, the silk fusion intrigued me the most. Deb started with silk rovings; a roving is a cleaned strand of fiber from which threads and yarns are made. They take color beautifully as you can see in the picture below.
A piece of wax paper or plastic was laid down first....followed by a piece of tulle. The fibers came next and in no particular order but you can place them wherever you want; it's fun to mix several colors together.

I was surprised to see that the rovings were around 1" high...I thought it was wayyyy high until Deb started working with them.

The rovings were covered with a piece of tulle.

A mixture of 3 parts water to 1 part textile medium was then dripped over the top until the rovings were wet. Textile medium can be found in craft stores in the craft paint section. It's the binder found in fabric paint which allows them to bond permanently to fabric when heat set. You can add textile medium to craft paints to turn them into "fabric paint".

Wet rovings were then smoothed over.....

At this point glitter and other types of small glitz can be added to the surface.

Smoothing out the glitter makes it prettier.

The final step...to lightly sponge over the top to remove the excess medium.

And let dry before removing the tulle.

This is a piece of finished silk fusion. It can be cut into shapes, stitched by hand or machine and while wet, molded into shapes. It's very versatile and interesting.

On to Angelina fibers....so many colors to choose from. Angelina fibers will melt to each other but not to anything else. You can incorporate threads and other bits of glitz into the fibers but only if they are "trapped" between the layers.

Spread a Teflon sheet down and lay some Angelina fibers on top, not as heavy as the silk rovings - a little bit goes a long way. Cover the fibers with a teflon sheet and using a dry iron, move iron over sheet and only for a few seconds - that's all it takes!

My favorite technique using these fibers was to place them over a hard rubber stamp like you see below. There are some stamps specifically made to withstand the heat of an iron.

After the fibers were placed on the stamp....

An iron was applied (using a Teflon sheet in between) and what great results.

Deb shared her notebook of techniques with us....what a great idea!

And...Jeanne Theodore shared her beautiful piece that incorporates Angelina Fibers. The name of the piece is "Aurora Borealis".

A great meeting as always....

If Walls Could Talk I

I have lots of pictures and documents, many of which are over 100 years old and luckily were passed down to me. How lucky for me that my family were "savers". I've enjoyed playing with and manipulating these photos and documents in my photo editing program. After taking a weeklong workshop with Pat Mink, I became interested with a technique she taught us for layering photos together. With this technique I started layering pictures of people (many of them ancestors) on top of old walls, windows, rock surfaces etc. I liked the "ghost-like" image that appeared. I've often thought when being in an older place, what stories it could conjure up - if only walls could talk.....and the idea of a series was born. This first piece features a picture of my grandmother at the age of 17 (and around the time she was married). It's always been one of my favorite photos. Ethel Layla (don't you love the name) was born in the late 1800s. I layered her photo over a rock wall with a doorway of sorts. I like the effect as it's very subtle and you have to look carefully to see her face.
A detail.....

Most of the fabric I create myself; this part was dyed and silk screened with trees...which I love. I don't know if my grandmother loved trees as I do but she was a wonderful gardener.

This part features writing printed from a silk screen. The screen was made using a page from my mother's autograph book from the 1930s. I use this screen a lot; next to it is a screen of Thistles.

More screen printing details and a stamp using words. There's also a bit of hand embroidery - cross stitch, something I haven't done in a while.

I use this next screen a lot also....I like the use of words and script in my work. This is a page from my other grandmothers cookbook done in her writing. It's just a recipe for apple cake but I love the idea that she wrote it......think it adds interest and a personal touch.

I have about 5 other fabric prints ready to go ....am anxious to see how they'll turn out.