Goodbye 2014... A Look at this Past Year

I really can't believe that today is the last day of 2014....where did the year go? I decided to take a look back...

The year started on a sad note with the passing of my Dad. The family got together to spend a few days celebrating the great man that he was. Miss ya Daddo.

I did a lot of teaching this year including:

SOHO (Space of Her Own): A stenciled pillowcase project with a group of ten young girls and their mentors.

Arlington Quilters Unlimited: A Power Point lecture on Kitchen Resists and a workshop, Experiments in Printing on Fabric.

Tuesday Quilters: A day full of printing with fruits and vegetables.

New classes:
Patching, Stitching, Weaving: Creating Healing Cloth

Fabric Painting, Printing, and Stitching to Tell a Story with Cloth

A year of printing fabrics for The Printed Fabric Bee:

The continued search for Roy G Biv (the colors of the rainbow and beyond).

And the re-boot (after a short hiatus) of Julie B Booth Surface Design News.

Trips to:

Staunton and Charlottesville, Virginia for an early 30th Anniversary celebration.

Virginia Beach, Virginia to visit my "soul sister", Laura.

Summer road trip with my Mom to Sag Harbor, NY and Kittery, ME (to see my bros)

Charleston, South Carolina with my hubby.

And the launch of my new book: Fabric Printing at Home!!!

Hope you all have a happy, healthy and creative 2015!!

A Second Look

The great thing about spending time sorting through things in the studio is that you find projects put aside and fabrics that you thought were only samples but with a second look, could be more.

I'm looking at old projects and realizing I still have the urge to work on them.

There's the abandoned Peace Alphabet from A Letter A Week 2013. I started stitching on it again recently. The individual prints are so small and portable that I can pick one up for even just a few moments of stitching.

Two hamsa hands using blue glue get resist. Now I see the potential for cutting them away from the white fabric and appliqueing them to colorful background fabrics. I'm imagining lots of stitching and possible bead embellishments.

Here's my favorite Adinkra symbol....for strength. I made this as a sample for my Patching, Stitching Weaving: Creating Healing Cloth workshop to show students how to work with reverse applique. I'm thinking about turning it into a small wall hanging.

From the sampler stash using techniques from my new book, Fabric Printing at Home:
Flowers and hearts...I have an idea for a story cloth using at least one of the flowers. The hearts with some embellishment could become some special Valentine's Day gifts.

These monoprints have lots of potential.

I'm going to applique some stenciled flowers I made to one of the prints. With the addition of some stitching, it will become a colorful flower garden. And be turned into a sample for my workshop coming up at Artistic Artifacts.

Sorting and cleaning and finding hidden treasures!

A Little Gift

I sent a little gift off this past week...

I purchased two beautiful little ceramic cups from ceramic artist, Joan Ulrich.

I then looked in my stash of scraps and "sampler" fabrics. I found a piece that had two flowers printed on one side.

And an interesting design printed on the other.

I folded and stitched the edges.

Voila! A little mat for the cups.

It was fun and relaxing to stitch a little functional piece.

Searching for Roy G Biv III: Blogger's Choice Update #5

I love farmers' markets...especially discovering them during travels. There's something about the sensuous shapes and sumptuous colors of fruits and vegetables brought to market. So for my Roy G Biv Blogger's Choice I decided to go for a color cornucopia!

And the flowers:

What is your Blogger's Choice this month? Post up to five photos of your Blogger's Choice color (or colors) and leave a comment here or at Jennifer Coyne Qudeen's blog. We will link to your blog post for another colorful blog hop! I'll be posting updates until Saturday midnight Eastern USA time.

Jennifer's choice...Rust, of course! She found it in every nook and cranny.

Mary Ann at Blue Sky Dreaming offers a wonderful selection of her favorite mixed-media pieces.

Sharmon Davidson has gorgeous grays. I love the weathered wood, clouds and snowscape!

Margaret of Charlton Stitcher has a rich selection of colors from the second half of 2014. Love the terracotta and the black and white!

Eric of Cerulean posted some of his favorites...I love the subtle color palettes.

Maya of Million Little Stitches gives us a taste of gold and some insight into Indians love of gold. I love the ornate temples.

This is the last installment of the Search for Roy G Biv (the colors of the rainbow) for 2014. Jennifer and I will be starting another round of Roy (#4!) in January. Here is the calendar for 2015:

January 15: Red
February 19: Orange
March 19: Yellow
April 16: Green
May 21: Blue
June 18: Indigo
July 16: Violet
August 20: Brown
September 17: Metallic Gold
October 15: Gray
November 19: Pink
December17: Blogger's Choice

Thanks to all of you who participated this year!

Reminders...reminders! Roy and Fabric Printing at Home

December 15th is the day that Fabric Printing at Home makes its way out into the world!

Here are just a couple of reminders....

I was sorting fabrics this weekend and came upon some colorful scraps. They are just calling to me...collaging, appliqueing and stitching!

We are on the search for Mr. Roy G Biv again this week! It's our final installment for 2014 and it's a blogger's choice. Post up to 5 photos of a color of your choice on Thursday, December 18 and leave a comment here or on Jennifer Coyne Qudeen's blog. We'll link to your post for another colorful blog hop! Jennifer and I are now working out the schedule for Search #4 for 2015. Hope you'll continue to join in (and encourage others to take part).

And....(drum roll please!)...tomorrow my book, Fabric Printing at Home, is officially available for purchase!!! Thanks to those of you who pre-ordered and a to those of you planning to order (just click here to get to Quarry's bookstore. From there you can click on the icon for your favorite online bookseller or support a great local business and order from Artistic Artifacts.). If you'd like to read some reviews please feel free to click on the reviews under Book Reviews in the right-hand column of this blog. I'm really excited to share this book with you...full of techniques using items from your kitchen. I had so much fun experimenting and "what iffing" to come up with the projects. It's really a very family-friendly book. I have a number of pre-school teacher friends looking forward to trying some of the techniques in their classes. It also has a lot of great information for those of you already experienced in surface design on fabric techniques. For those of you who live locally to me, be sure to make a note of my upcoming book signing events.

All I can say is YIPPEE!!!

Tiny Stitches

Trying to steal time for some stitching during all the holiday and book launch craziness.

Tiny stitches to blend with the printing on this butterfly.

Not sure exactly where this is heading...but okay with that right now.

Open House Fun!

I spent Friday evening and Saturday afternoon demoing at two open house events. It was a great opportunity to show prospective students some of what I teach and to show off my new book, Fabric Printing at Home! I was also running some giveaways...and who doesn't love a great giveaway!

 I was so lucky to have my wonderful friend, Kathy S. helping out on Friday night at The Art League School Open House and Holiday Party (aka Artfete). What a super saleswoman she is! Her "job" was to talk to people about the special giveaways...one being offered by my publisher, Quarry Books and one by me. Quarry's giveaway was a really nice blank journal featuring collaged images from their line of books with a sticker about my book on it. They also had an opportunity to win some of Quarry's published books. My giveaway featured two different packets of hand printed fabrics. Folks had great fun picking out journals and ooing and ahing about the fabrics. Kathy gathered names and email addresses for my publisher's craft newsletter (Craftside) and also for Julie B Booth Surface Design News. By the end of the night, Kathy reached her goal of two completed sheets of information! (Yippee!)

I had great fun chatting with people, talking about and demonstrating printing techniques. I put out lots of fabric samples to entice people. Some of my students stopped by and many new prospective students who I hope to see in a future class. The highlight of my night was printing the "gatto" block with a pair of sweet  3-year-old identical twin boys who only spoke Italian. I gave each one of them their printed piece and they were beaming with lots of "grazie"s!

Saturday's open house at Artistic Artifacts was equally gratifying...if on a smaller scale. I continued the signups and giveaways. I met a number of interesting and generous teachers who shared their skills with customers (and with me) with take away projects. I focused on veggie printing and chatting up my upcoming class, Fabric Printing at Home: A Kitchen Sampler. I think that customers (and teachers and staff) got the biggest "kick" out of printing with corn-on-the-cob. I got so involved in the activities that I forgot to take photos!

All-in-all a very rewarding weekend!