Meet Me at The Muse...Book Signing, Demos and Print-A-Bag Fun!

Here are some samples of the "make and take" book/goodie bag project I'll be offering this Saturday at The Muse.

I spent yesterday in the studio prepping for this Saturday's event at The Muse in Frederick, Maryland. I had fun carving and printing with veggies, designing some Day of the Dead freezer paper stencils and creating a series of festive goodie bags!

Day of the Dead bag design #1: Skull is created with freezer paper stencils. Flowers are carved from turnip slices.

Day of the Dead bag design #2: Pink skull created with a freezer paper stencil. Details on skull printed with carved carrots.

Mola Cat bag design: Masking tape mask to create the blue background then textured with a carved carrot. Cat carved out of Speedball Speedy Carve.

I used masking tape to divide up the printing areas, then painted the exposed areas and printed with hot glue on cardboard blocks.

A quick and easy design using a carved cross-section of a carrot.

I'll be at The Muse signing copies of my book, Fabric Printing at Home, demoing a number of printing techniques and offering the opportunity for the first twenty guests to create their own make and take Halloween goodie/book bag (which coincidentally is the perfect size in which to carry a copy of my book!)

A perfect fit!

If you happen to live nearby...I hope you'll stop by and say "Hi" and maybe have a go at printing up your own bag!

Saturday, October 24  1:00 PM - 4:00 PM
The Muse
19 North Market Street
Frederick, MD 21701
(301) 663-3632

September Stitch-In

Some of Ann's nature dyed fabrics including cotton scrim.

A very "intimate" Stitch- In this month...just Ann Z. and me! But, it doesn't seem to matter how small the group...I still get so much out of the sharing and idea bouncing.

Even Ann's purse from Guatemala was wonderful to look at!

Ann Z. just came back from visiting her artist sister in Beverly, Massachusetts. Apparently, Ann's sister is very into gardening and the two of them had a great time doing some natural dyeing (including onion skins and beets). I love the colors of Ann's swatches...so subtle yet beautiful. Ironically, one of the books I'd brought in to show Ann was all about that! It's called Natural Processes in Textile Art: From Rust Dyeing to Found Objects by Alice Fox. It's a really gorgeous book by Batsford and I can't wait to have a bit of time to dive in and try a few things! (BTW my good friend, Jennifer Coyne Qudeen aka Rust Junkie...is featured in this book! Congrats, Jennifer!)

Buffalo Boy

Ann also brought in Buffalo Boy from the Healing Cloth workshop. She is making some progress and has decided to use a heavy but flexible interfacing for the body instead of the original layers of acrylic felt. She's considering adding buttons to the shoulders so that the arms can move (hope that you do that Ann!). For those of you who don't know the back story about Buffalo Boy, Ann is making him for her foster great grandson who is having a lot of emotional difficulties. Ann says that he is starting to do better and I'm sure he'll be really excited to get his "super hero". Go here to read more about this.

Some more lines stitched...just ran out of my thread!

I brought my Dad's letter in to stitch, but never quite got to it (did some stitching when I got back home) since Ann was such a great sounding board for my ideas about my upcoming new class: Hand Stitching (Personal Mark Making). I'm SO excited about this class that I keep jotting down more and more ideas. But...now is the time to get going on the actual projects and determining what is really doable in the five sessions. I'm also hoping to turn this into an online class (working on that!).

One more sweet little story before I go...
I was just about to run out of the specialty thread that I was using to stitch my Dad's letter. It's a hand dyed thread from Sampler Threads...Buckeye Scarlet. I just love the subtle variations in it and love that color red. I purchased it over Memorial Day weekend when my husband and I were having a quick little vacation in Frederick, Maryland. The name of the shop is Primitive Homespuns (really wonderful shop!!!) and so I contacted the owner, Kathy to see if she'd send me another skein. I sent along a photo of the stitched letter. Well...she was so sweet and is gifting me a skein so I can finish stitching. How wonderful it that! If you happen to be visiting Frederick, I hope that you stop in there. On the top floor she has a nice selection of threads and wool fabric (for rug hooking). The furniture is created by her dad and Kathy makes many of the textiles, painted signs and "primitive" cloth dolls and animals.