ART 340 sampler

I'm auditing a textiles course this term (well, the Mondays because I can't go on the Wednesdays) and we've just completed a tiny sampler to practice some embroidery, beading and quilting. I played with some "chicken feet" fill a la Brenda Gael Smith, some big stitching with pearle cotton in the busy border, lots of echo quilting at different intervals, 4 different kinds of applique...

Next we're working on one of two bigger projects so I was busy last night knocking back the color on my background fabrics with some diluted bleach.

Snowman Thread Painting

This Snowman is a thread painting based on a piece of clip art. I worked on this at the recent quilt retreat and now he's on my office door. I like the marled effect on his scarf that came from using white thread in the bobbin and red on top. This technique is intended to be worked in a hoop with just dissolving stablizer, but I like to add in a used dryer sheet for a tiny bit of extra stability.

I want to take you to Rome

A couple years ago, my son said I want to take you to Rome. We did indeed go last summer and I was busy taking pictures of floors in places like Pompeii which inspired this quilt. Not yet done--a couple rows will be added when I get more of the dark batik fabric. I had fun using the green fabric as both a dark and a light in different blocks.

This top was completed at a recent retreat. It's for my mother-in-law's twin bed.

Tendonitis Woes

I'm in self-imposed non-sewing mode due to some, well, "quilting and keyboarding elbow". Certainly tennis had nothing to do with it.

I'm in the middle of a cool project and the studio is in pretty good shape so ...if wishes were stitches I'd be getting a lot done!

Thread Painting Experiment

Thanks to an article in the online Quilting Arts magazine (Vol 4 I think), I had fun experimenting with thread painting on hooped dissolvable stabelizer. I didn't have the thicker type so I doubled some medium thickness that I had on hand. Next time I might throw a layer of bridal illusion in between the layers.

The only part that didn't work out is that with so many thread spools lying around, I knocked some on the floor and the depicted dog chewed one up. Life masticating art!

Studio makeover step 2

Stage one of 'making the studio better' involved shelving. Things have improved, but some of the storage in my ironing area was still cheap and nasty, and I thought the use of space was far from optimal. Stage one also involved the decision to try to buy storage boxes and accessories in either black or white (or both) to give the room some sort of coordination and not compete with the fabric.

So as an early anniversary/birthday present, we purchased a couple of the 36 inch tall Closet Aid sort of cubical storage units and a 24" by 48" pine table top that will be covered to use as a big ironing surace with the storage units as its legs. I'm tall so the 38" height will be fine. I believe I'll have better access to my design wall, too.

I suspect that the storage units moving out of the room will be easy to redeploy in the basement. Win win.