Friday, February 15, 2008

I'm flying


Woohoo! I got my first commission and I am flying high. It is based on my Midnight At the Oasis quilt; I wanted to do something similar anyway so now someone is actually going to pay me to do it.
In the meantime, I have been working on my Rhapsody quilt and have almost gotten the whole center stitched. Here is the photo:
The fabrics are all hand dyed. I have about half of the rest of it stitched as well. Blanket stitches are boring so I will be working on other things in between.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

I don't even drink the stuff!


After getting bored doing nothing but blanket stitches I decided I needed some real play time, but, I hate wasting fabric. I was intrigued by Anne Copeland's http://fiberartsconnsocal.org/blog/
challenge of using coffee filters and figured this would be a good way to play and not feel bad if I had to toss the whole lot. I actually had no intention of participating in this challenge. I had to dig for the filters because I don't drink coffee and I buy loose tea.
So I painted up a storm, got some practice with my rubbing plates and Paintstiks, played with my new stamps, and tried out some foiling. I had such a blast and liked the results that I decided to see what I could do with these samples. I used some hand dyes I had done a few months ago for the background, backing and borders. I was pleased with the results and made the decision to take part in the challenge. The only downside that I found was that the piece will not take abuse well. You cannot fold it and if you bend it too much, the paper will tear. Maybe someone has a suggestion to make it sturdier? It's titled And the Circles Go Round and Round.

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Just playing

I have been playing with some of the toys I bought at the various shows I have been to in the past several months. I just had not gotten to try many of them so in the last couple of days I have been painting paper and fabric, stenciling, trying out the rubbing plates, stamping, foiling using Misty Fuse and foiling using glue. All in all I have been having a blast. I am working on a fun project and now need to quilt it. YUCK. When I finish it, I will post a picture.

Picture here is a reject from a different project but I decided to play with it anyway. Orange circle in the middle is a commercial fabric but everything else is one of my "creations". I am not sure where I am going with this, if anywhere but it is kind of fun. I think I will call it Arizona Sunset.