process.

Here are some photos of the embroidery process I used to create the fleas.   I am changing the way I do this because I feel that these lose the feeling of hand made with how sewn they are. its very difficult to see the stitches in photo but its also difficult to see them in life since they are pretty dense, the next batch will be looser and have more of a hand quality.

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losing power

Yesterday was my “day off” I was supposed to do nothing but clean and decompress. the day itself was great very low key good cooking for a good lunch and some quality outdoors time after some desperately needed house cleaning. I even made two little coffe cup sleeves so I dont have to keep getting those paper ones, I always tell myslef that I will save them and reuse them next time but they got ruined in my bag or I just plain forget. so now I am in business with my very own totally reusable and cute cup sleeve. to make this all I did was use one of those cardboard ones as a template, cute out, add in some fusible interfacing, sew it up turn it right side out and put the ends together. viola a wonderful reusable cute coffee cup sleeve. YAY!

so after this wonderful day we had a crazy storm. from what I understand the entire city of Savannah was without power for about 9 hours… driving home was very surreal. Zack and I had a blast sitting on the porch swing and lounging in the house in candle light. I think that these times are great it forces you to just sit in your head and basically meditate.

snack making by candle light

this little thing doesnt typicaly look scary but last night with the fire reflecting on him he was a bit frightening

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screen printing with dyes

I am just starting a project using an H dye and sodium alginate mixture for printing. I made screens by rubbing an item with wax in this case I used doilies my grandmother made.to simplify it greatly all you have to do is….. 1. build a screen 2. find something that has a lot of texture like lace 3. place screen on top of item and rub really well with wax; I used a candle. 4. pour a bit of ink, dye or whatever you are using for printing on one end of screen. 5. squeegee across getting it as even as possible. sometimes the unevenness is interesting, I guess in the end it all depends on what you are making.here are some photos of what I worked on.

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the collaborative quilt project

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Collaborative quilt on a mission  Photo by Charlie RibbensPublished: Friday, February 8, 2008A collaborative quilt made by fibers students is displayed in shopSCAD. Tickets for a drawing, in which the quilt will be given away, can be purchased for $1 or with a donation of art supplies. Tickets can be purchased at shopSCAD or at the fibers department’s Open Studio, Feb. 22, 5:30-8:30 p.m., Gordon Hall, 439 E. Broad St. Proceeds, including the art supplies, will be given to Union Mission’s Growing Hope Artisan’s Cooperative.SCAD students and faculty as well as community members contributed by creating 42 quilt squares, which the fibers department assembled to make the top of the quilt. Each person was given a swatch of identical fabric to use in their 10-inch square to allow continuity between the pieces, but the design of each square was the decision of the contributor. Alumna Jen Jenkins (M.F.A., fibers, 2006) quilted the squares together.

 

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my non journaly “journal quilts”

I have been really pressed for time and My friend Karin and I promised each other that we would do weekly journal quilts. I have been quilting for other projects and found it difficult to take the minimal time to make a couple of these. so here are two small quilted projects that I have done in the last two weeks since we decided to start this. the first is a pillow I gave my dear friend Dorothy for her thirtieth birthday.  the fabrics used are….  raw silk, rayon, bamboo, cotton velveteen and a cotton bamboo blend.  I used this fun birdy print for the reverse to make her heart feel better from missing her birds that live in Boston.

this next mini quilt is a cover for my history of fabric (otherwise known as the worst ten weeks of tie dye) notebook. all of the fabrics are natural dyes including logwood, tumeric, and an onion skin sun-dye bath, cochineal, and tea

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project 3 update

I have now made most of my samples into mini quilts. As I said in the earlier post this series is about loss of sane mind… inappropriate thought prosesses.

here are updated photos, they arent in the best lighting so I will re-update that once I have the series completed and the sunlight to take acceptable photos. Its really hard to see the quilting in these hopefully that will be more apparent in better lighting.

the next few photos are the reverse sides of these quilts in the same order

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portraiture

Zack and I shared the same idea for “the best valentines day gift ever”. Our very good friend (and new neighbor) Kim Reed painted these beautiful portraits of our girls on the top secret request of both of us!    Thanks Kimmie.  She does custom portraits, if your interested you can check out her site here… milkmadeart.com

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I am alive

I have been terrible with writing lately. I started two dye classes so all I have been doing is making dye samples. So I thought that I would finally post at least a few photos of these samples. I promise that soon I will post fun stuff, more than ‘just samples’.

these beautiful colors were made with natural dye stuff.. logwood created the wonderful greys, onion skins both red and sweet made the yellows to brown and that bright pink you see is cochineal

these samples are all MX dyes. the left are different types of shibori.

these next few are all H dyes. the book shown in the last two photos took about 20 hours to make. there are over 200 dye smples in it. that was a brutal weekend

today I heard about an amazing wesite to buy yardage of 100%organic cotton dyed with all natural dyes. The colors are beautiful. heres the site.. ten fold organics

also if you are int he market for a fantastic natural dye book I just got a copy of Natural Dyes by Linda Rudkin and it is an awesome book. super detailed, great photos and many types of dye. Its a must have for anyone interested in natural dyeing.

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Handmade is fun!

 so I have been making most of the holiday gifts this year. I have actually really enjoyed it. Sometimes when I commit myself to making a gift I get frustrated and lose interest in finishing. this year I have been positive, I think that its the simplicity of the projects that has really helped. that and the new sewing machine. For right now I can only share a couple items. but these are pretty cute.

this first photo is of a mini quilt I made for my grandmother. the photo is of my aunt pushing my mom around the yard. I am still trying to decide on a binding.

next are some marble magnets. I bought little tins to put them in. I think they are so cute. I am totally addicted to making them.

this last set is of more wheezy and abby appliqued tops. another hoodie and a dress shirt. for my older nephew.

lastly this is one of my two squares for a collaborative quilt project I am participating in. I will post photos of it as we start piecing it together. It will be auctioned off with all proceeds donated to a local homeless shelter.

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appliqued tops for children

I was trying to think of a gift for my nephew that already has too many toys. I wanted something that he would be excited about. So I made these ultra simple appliques. Jacob LOVES my girls so I thought he would be excited to see them more often. The transfer ‘paper’ I used isnt my favorite but hes three and will grow out of these before they they need to retire. these little appliques take hardly any time to do (once you have your image) and are an easy way to make a personalized gift they will love. I got the shirt and the hoodie at target both were under ten dollars. Have you done this? I want to see other versions. maybe different ways to jazz these up.

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