News & Updates for remainder of 2011

Sherry Baldwin's Wall Hanging

•  Marti Ownby will quilt any cuddle quilt for the guild if you supply the top and the backing
• The Dye Workshop is October 1 at 9:30.  See blog for details.
• Sherry Baldwin’s wall hangings will be for sale Sunday October 9 downtown across from UTC at the First Christian Church’s craft fair.  Stop by if you are downtown on Sunday!
• Ginny Minninger will teach the next topic, Bindings and Borders, during the October 17^th Meeting
• The November meeting is a wrap-up of the techniques from Fearless Design taught this year.
• Challenge of sorts for November (but not really):  Bring something you made that was inspired by one of the Fearless Design programs this year.  It can be anything, including homework. 
• Yearly dinner will be Monday December 5^th at the Mount Vernon restaurant.  Bring anything handmade (or made by someone’s hands) for the exchange.
• There were several beautiful cuddle quilts turned in during the September meeting, as shown in the photos below.  Examples of the August homework were also displayed along with some crafty beadwork on a beautiful blue summer-weight sweater.

Surface Design—so many choices!

This program was so good and so detailed, that it can’t be adequately described in words!  We learned the ins-and-outs of applying foil to the surface of fabric, as shown in the photos below.  The technique seemed relatively simple and forgiving once the glue was applied through a stencil and aged.  If the foil doesn’t cover the fabric the first time, then just apply it again, or even better, apply a different colored foil.  

How about metallic paints that give a similar look to foil?  These can be squeegeed through a silk screen which can be found at quilting and sewing expos and online.  Or you may want to apply a bleach product and then apply the paint in order to maintain a true color.  There are so many options.

 Perhaps the most fun is using paintsticks for surface design.  These are typically Shiva Oil Paintsticks, which are about $6 a piece, and there are several tutorials online of how to combine these with quilting (www.harmonyhanddyes.com/InstructShiva.html, mybrainonquilts.blogspot.com/2008/01/shiva-paintstik-tutorial.html).  You can use the paintsticks with rubbing plates or stencils, or even make your own stencils.  Several books describe the use of these, including Paintsticks on Fabric.  Cristy’s purple jacket and quilt are both made using paintsticks, which apparently are still quite useful after 10 years.

Dye Workshop Saturday October 1, 2011

DYE WORKSHOP  9:30-2:00
On the heels of last year’s wildy successful dye workshop, you are invited to join hosts Vista Mahan and Karen Sperry for some fulfilling hours of fabric dyeing.  Making quilts is even more fun if you can tell people you hand-dyed the fabric in your quilt!  If you are interested and haven’t yet asked Vista to expect you, please contact her.

If you haven’t done this before, here is what to expect:

The dyes and dye preparation (urea solutions, soda ash dye activator solutions) are costly and there will be 20 or more dye colors to choose from, so a $30 fee for this workshop is requested to cover the materials costs.  Vista and Karen will set up tables in her large garage area which will be used as our workstations, and they will instruct us on the best method for making a desired hand-dyed look, as well as showing off their beautiful hand-dyed cottons and silks.

Here’s what you need to know if you are attending the workshop:

Cost: $30

Time:  9:30-2:00

Bring with you:

1. Many Gallon Ziploc type baggies, at least one for each fat quarter
2. Rubber gloves or exam gloves
3. One or 2 plastic dish pans
4. Plastic pail
5. Plastic measuring cups (can’t be used for food later)
6. Partial roll of paper towels
7. Small notebook if you want to take notes
8. Optional: Rubber bands, glass marbles, clothes pins
9. White 100% cotton fabric, silk or rayon

Cotton, silk, and/or rayon fabric to make 20-28 fat quarters:

• Bring 7-9 yards of your own fabric.  (Dyes won’t take to synthetics.)
• YOU MUST WASH YOUR FABRIC IN HOT WATER AND TIDE, CHEER, ETC. before the workshop to remove any sizing or finishing treatment.
• After washing and drying, cut or tear your fabric into fat quarters, 1/3 yard, ½ yard sections or some combination of each size.

Bring a Sandwich & Drink for Lunch or Pizza can be ordered in Lafayette

Examples of Innovative Piecing and Threadwork

As we work towards the finale of our Fearless Design-inspired lesson plan for the year, we are able to go home after each meeting and return with new experiments, new ideas, and new ways to critique our work.  The Threadwork Program started off with a Show & Tell of beautiful examples of innovative piecing techniques learned during the previous program.Threadwork is like doing a pencil drawing and using shading to create depth.   It is the tiny detail that creates interest, as in the photo to the right where an innovative piecing technique using earthy tones of fabric is combined with exquisite surface detail using threadwork and other surface techniques.A classic example of threadwork is the Crazy Quilt, originating in the Victorian era.  Portrait "paintings" made with threadwork are shown in the photos below, as well as landscape "paintings".  Examples of beautiful and unusual yarns couched with thread are evident in the photo of the red quilt, below.

 

Surface Design Program

Did you know that you can do practically anything to the surface of fabric that you can do to paper?  You've seen Nancy Zieman on TV using oil pastels to highlight her landscape quilts, but we are going to take it a step further.  Our surface design program is a hands-on demonstration, so bring some fabric of your own.  Paintsticks, rubber plates, foil, and crystals will be provided, and after a little instruction, you get to play!