Saturday, August 30, 2014

Story Cloth Get Together at Artistic Artifacts


Today, I met with Barbara, Susan and Jane for a Story Cloth get together. It's been a few months since our last session of Fabric Painting, Printing, and Stitching to Tell a Story with Cloth. We all wanted to see the finished story cloths and spend some time together. And...since we were meeting at Artistic Artifacts...do a bit of shopping afterwards.

Barbara was the first to show us her final wall piece inspired by the movie, Midnight's Children, an adaptation of Salman Rushdie's novel.


For an explanation of her process and how stitching freely had her connecting to her own childhood see her blog,  Papillon Creative (posts on Telling a Story on Cloth Parts 1-3).

Barbara also brought along some of her stitching experiments and explorations. She is enjoying stitching freely with no final intention. She talked about how her stitched lines are like journeys.


Susan brought in her pieces with the mysterious figures. She talked about relationships and communication. How the word "circle" is a constant in our vocabulary...inner circles, circle of friends... This became a theme in this piece.


The tea bag paper piece is also moving toward completion. The group was impressed by the subtle stitching in white thread surrounding the figures.


A new piece is in the works. We can't wait to see where this one is heading.


Susan also brought in her finished piece from, Patching, Stitching, Weaving: Creating Healing Cloth.


I was particularly interested in seeing Jane's piece. By the last class, she'd printed the moles and gotten the design laid out but there was still stitching to do.


What a delightful piece! Jane decided to stuff the moles to make them pop more from the background and her dense stitching and little details were just wonderful. We all loved the barking dog!


To see some of these pieces in process see: Story Cloth: An Update and Rich Stories.

After our meeting we spent an hour looking at all the amazing supplies at Artistic Artifacts. If you live in the Washington, DC area and you've never been to this shop...it's a must see! If you don't live nearby, you can order many supplies online.

All three of us picked out hand-dyed fabric packets that included vintage lace and crocheted doilies. We decided for our next get together, we'd work on a story (or a stitched piece) that incorporated some of the fabrics we purchased. I also got some other colorful goodies!


Judy Gula, the owner of Artistic Artifacts, invited me to do some demos at the store's open house on December 6th. She's hoping that she might have some copies of my book, Fabric Printing at Home, by then. In any case, I'll be back there at the very end of January for an official book signing, demos and a two-day workshop. Stay tuned.

If you have an interest in the Story Cloth class, I'll be teaching it as a 7-session Wednesday evening class at The Art League School, starting on September 17. Click here for more info.


Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Inspirational Words: Sneak Peak


Here's a sneak peak of the direction I'm taking for the next piece of fabric for The Printed Fabric Bee. Lynda Heines is the Queen this month and her theme is, Inspirational Words.

I chose to work with one of my favorite Adinkra symbols...the ram's horns. I enjoy doing slightly different takes on the symmetrical spiral design each time I make one. You can probably guess that this design symbolizes strength.

Back to the studio. Have to get the fabric off by the end of the week.

Sunday, August 24, 2014

Thinking about Martha



I've been thinking a lot about my friend, Martha, this week.

She passed away two years ago today.

Whenever I see sunflowers in full bloom, I think of her.


Those large "glorious" blooms...

Missing you, my friend.

Thursday, August 21, 2014

Searching for Roy G Biv III: PINK!!! Update #5

Staunton, Virginia bouquet.

This is the first month we are moving beyond Roy G Biv. It's time for PINK!

Personally, I'm not the biggest fan of PINK but I do have a favorite PINK teapot and...we still have our vintage Formica counters (also PINK). So for some fun, I photographed the one on the other.


My Nanny Schein (my Mom's mom) had a tea cup collection which I inherited. My grandmother was not shy about PINK...she had a PINK kitchen!


It occurred to me that there is PINK in my everyday life...all those PINK Speedball Speedy Carve blocks that I enjoy carving and printing.


 I used one of those blocks for my PINK flamingo fabric...


And others for this piece from my Joie de Vivre series.


I couldn't resist these PINK flamingos that I pass by whenever I go out for a neighborhood walk.


And I DID resist the yummy-smelling donuts being concocted in this bright PINK donut truck!


Where did you find PINK this month?

Post up to five PINK photos on your blog by Saturday midnight (Eastern USA time) and leave a comment here or on Jennifer Coyne Qudeen's blog. We'll link to your post to share your pretty in PINK photos!

Visit Jennifer's blog for vacation PINKS.
Maya at Million Little Stitches has another delightful collection--this month it's luscious PINKS.
Sharmon at True Adventures of an Art Addict has some beautiful floral PINK. Good luck finding that dress!
Margaret at Charlton Stitcher has some lovely gentle PINKS from the the Rococo Garden, in Painswick, Gloucestershire.
Mary Ann at Blue Sky Dreaming has some mixed-media PINKS.
Lisa at arzigogolare has some delicious PINKS.
Yarngoddess has some wonderful craft store PINKS.
Eric at Cerulean is sneaking in with some digital PINKS...thanks for joining us!

The Search continues through the end of the year:
September 18: Black
October 16: White
November 20: Brown
December 18: Blogger's Choice 






Saturday, August 16, 2014

Roy Reminder Brought to You by the Vienna Farmers' Market

A selection of colorful peppers.

It's a gorgeous Saturday...not a typical northern Virginia day in August. I decided to take a walk to the local farmers' market with my camera looking for some PINK for next Thursday's Search for Roy.

Now, I know that you are thinking...it's not ROY G BIVP but Jennifer Coyne Qudeen and I decided, Why stop with violet?! 

Well, not much PINK (and I'm saving it for Thursday) but lots of amazing color. I couldn't resist taking some photos as well as purchasing and lugging some fruits and veggies home to enjoy.

The "Roy" of Roy G Biv.
Mini eggplants!! I had to buy some of these!
I love the shapes and colors of heirloom tomatoes.

Hope you'll join Jennifer and me this coming Thursday, August 21 on our search for PINK. Post up to five PINK photos and leave a comment here or on Jennifer's blog so we can link back to your blog for a colorful blog hop!

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Pasta Play and Book Update

I've been arranging pasta patterns to make print blocks for the next newsletter.

I spent Sunday in the studio... playing with pasta! I'm preparing for the next issue of Julie B Booth Surface Design News. A couple of the blocks took quite a while to put together. I have a greater appreciation for mosaic and inlay work! I can't wait to see the fabric prints I can make with these pasta blocks. I'll post a preview right before I publish the newsletter.

On the book front... You might have noticed the book icon just to the right. It's a link to my page on the Quarry book shop.

The "working" cover for the book. The final cover design is in the works and will be ready soon.

From there, you can click on your favorite book seller to pre-order Fabric Printing at Home. I spent an hour on the phone last week with Quarry's marketing manager and will be talking with their social media specialist today. I'm learning A LOT! Apparently, pre-orders are what to strive for...so... I'm hoping that some of my blogging buddies out there will put in an order soon! (especially those of you who contributed to the gallery section of the book) :-)

Okay...enough shameless plugging for now. I'll be off to Old Town Alexandria this morning to meet with my F.I.N.E. buds. It will be great to see what they've been up to the last couple of months. And...even though it's raining, I'll be bringing my camera along in case I spy some PINK (Roy G Biv on August 20th).

Hope you all have some creative plans for today! I'll be back to gluing pasta this afternoon....


Saturday, August 2, 2014

Book Work


The second round of book pages for Fabric Printing at Home arrived about a week ago. I spent this week going through them.

My eyes and head hurt a bit from concentrating so hard. I really want to get everything right since I think this is my last chance to look at them.

It's exciting to see it all coming together. I can't believe it will be out in the world this fall!