A Discharging Experiment

Thanks to my friends on the QuiltArt list, I gathered the courage to discharge (bleach) a rayon shirt that I really liked, but was too bright for me. I prefer wearing muted colors, so wanted to overdye it. Here's the result of the bleaching step ... before and after pictures. (Excuse the rushed ironing job!) So far, no holes in the fabric ... I did use Anti-Clor after rinsing out the bleach, followed by a thorough hot-water wash with Synthrapol. Now I just need to overdye it ... maybe a coppery color.

This is a piece of rusted cotton ... an experiment. The fabric was soaked in a vinegar-water mixture, and placed between two pieces of sheet-metal, with some washers, nails, and "thingies" from the garage. I love this effect! 

A tiny piece made spontaneously from leftover batiks, while at a Retreat with friends in Livingston, TX. I just couldn't let those gorgeous fabrics go to waste. It is named 'Migrating Batiks" because of the flying geese border. 

Another silk painting from a later Ginny Eckley workshop .. thread painted but not yet quilted in this photo. 

This was a silk painting begun in a Ginny Eckley workshop, finally quilted. 

Book It!

I picked this up from Teri Springer's blog:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
5. Don't search around and look for the coolest book you can find. Do what's actually next to you.

"Still, at that age, few things can provoke more wonderment than a mirror."

-- from "West with the Night" by Beryl Markham

I'm also re-reading "The Last Ship" by William Brinkley.

Commit random acts of literacy! Read & Release at http://www.bookcrossing.com

YIKES!

I can't believe I quilted FIVE ... count 'em, FIVE ... little art quilts today. Not to say they are finished, by any means, but at least they are started and quilted. Now I get to do all the fun stuff, like painting, distressing, embellishing. One is a Tyvek piece, one is hand-painted silk, and the others are more traditional cotton. Since the lighting in my house isn't too great (OK, maybe it's my Old Eyes), I'll have to wait until morning to start playing with them.

Today is the 2nd day I've devoted totally to art quilting ... the most fun I've had in ages. Yesterday was spent mostly in preparation, and today was the (partial) payoff. How can 14 hours fly by so quickly?

Tomorrow I'm "supposed" to clean house ... but WAIT! I live alone, WHY do I have to clean house tomorrow? After coming off a 3-month desperate race to complete customer quilts in time to meet several deadlines, I finally have some breathing space. Maybe I'll just let the dishes stack up a little higher, and play again tomorrow.

A Little Progress is a Dangerous Thing

Here is how I spent my day, preparing to make art:
1. Searched for the Tyvek
2. Found some UFO's (UnFinished Objects) where I thought the Tyvek should be.
3. Spent a half-hour looking for backing fabrics for the UFO's.
4. Cut backing and batting for the UFO's.
5. Realized I could quilt them all at once on the longarm machine, if I used larger backing and batting, so I cut some more.
6. Having in the meantime lost the UFO's, found them again.
7. What to have for lunch? (Since I'm on the Jenny Craig diet, this was not as major a decision as it might have been.)
8. Still hungry, what can I have? A-HA! Yogurt!
9. Should I quilt the UFO's first, or paint the Tyvek?
10. Realized that I have no acrylic paints for the Tyvek, can I use fabric paints?
11. Cut small pieces of Tyvek, painstakingly painted them with fabric paints.
12. Searched for the heat gun, in the process finding my old iron and some great stamps that I thought I had lost.
13. Heat-stressed the painted Tyvek pieces, which promptly curled up into hard little bundles, un-stitchable, but possibly usable as lapel pins.
14. Painted some more Tyvek, larger pieces this time.
15. Heat-stressed them with the iron, not as dramatic and also not usable.
16. Searched again for acrylic paints, found some old Tumble Dyes that might work.
17. Shuffled out into the back yard in my oversized t-shirt/nightgown and sockless tennies, to spray the dyes on the Tyvek ... BIG piece this time. Pretty.
18. Heat-gunned the Tyvek, verrrrrry carefully, but still ended up with some holes. This piece might work as a small quilt top.
19. Searched for the cut backing and battings, which have gone missing.
20. Found them and loaded them on the longarm, placed the UFO's in line and ... no room for the Tyvek piece.
21. Gave up and went to bed ... "tomorrow is another day".

WHAT was I thinking?

Woke up this morning with a sudden urge to create a blog ... which I never thought I'd do. But since I've been inspired by some of my on-line QuiltArt friends (about whom more later), thought I'd take the plunge. Maybe it will help to break the artistic block I've been suffering for the last few months.

F-e-a-r ... fear of failure, fear that I have nothing to offer to the art world, fear that I'm really nothing more than a crafter. I'm a pretty good technician, can follow and execute instructions, but have a terrible time making myself experiment. Today is the day I change all that.

... we shall see.