Serene Scene

Winter is having it out with Spring today..but... it is serenely and silently beautiful...
My "boys" are home and safe and I am enjoying a day of moving a bit more slowly.

Stitching the border on Early Spring. I'm really enjoying making these small back stitches with blended threads of embroidery floss (two thread colors in the needle). I bought the variegated thread from Artistic Artifacts (I drool over all the hand-dyed threads that Judy Gula offers there!). It's called Frida and is part of the Painter's Threads line by Tentakulum.

I'm longing for an early Spring...but Winter is having none of that!...at least for today!

The Printed Fabric Bee Giveaway: Forest Floor Final Update

This month's theme is the "Forest Floor".

For those of you unfamiliar with The Printed Fabric Bee, we are a group of 12 surface design enthusiasts. Each month, one member is designated the Queen. The Queen gets to select a theme and colors for her fabric collection and the rest of the members get to work. The result is an original and eclectic collection of fabrics. And since we like to spread the fun around, each month we put together a collection of 6" square versions of the fabric that you can win!

This month's Queen Bee was Carol R. Eaton and her theme was the Forest Floor.

I decided that I wanted to work with one of my favorite kitchen resists...confectioners' sugar syrup! I love the rich, velvety marks that this resist makes. I have a great microwave recipe for this resist in my new book, Fabric Printing at Home.

I also decided that I wanted to do two layers of brayer rubbings using the resist and one of my favorite print blocks...a hot glue on cardboard block.

I slipped a hot glue block under the fabric and rolled a layer of the sugar syrup over the fabric to pick up the designs.

After the sugar syrup resist dried, I painted washes of fabric paint over the resist. After heat setting the paint, I washed out the resist and repeated the whole process with a different hot glue block design.

With the background complete, I printed with a carved Speedy Carve block with images of dandelion leaves.

See the first image in this post for the final result.

And here is the six-inch fabric square that you can win.

Here are all the fabrics (so far) that are in the giveaway this month...what a great collection!

Carol will be choosing a giveaway winner on March 15th. You can enter by either leaving a comment on Carol's blog or The Printed Fabric Bee blog under the Forest Floor 6" square giveaway mosaic. Good luck!

Visit other Bee members' blogs and find out how they created their fabrics!
Jackie Lams
Lynda Heines
Gerrie Congdon
Susan Purney Mark
Deborah Boschert
Jane Davila
Lisa Chin
Lynn Krawczyk
Leslie Jenison
Judy Gula

Snowy Weekend with the Waterford Weavers

Alice A.

 This past weekend, I had the pleasure of teaching a two-day workshop to a local weaving guild called, Waterford Weavers.

Penny S.

The workshop was a bit "touch and go" with a snowstorm interrupting our first day. But my intrepid students came in for a few hours on Saturday and then dug out for a very full day on Sunday.

Robin M.

We covered lots of techniques from my book, Fabric Printing at Home. I only wish we'd had a bit more time to print. I hope that they will continue...their sampler fabrics held much promise.

Anna H.

Thanks for a great class!

Caroline H.

Rita C.

Marjorie H.

Stitching Early Spring

Outside-- It's in the teens and we still have several inches of crusty snow.

Inside-- I've been stitching on Early Spring (working title).  I printed this design about a year ago for Carol Eaton's turn as queen of The Printed Fabric Bee. It just so happens to be her turn again...I have some interesting ideas that I plan to work on over the next few days.

It's bright and sunny today...a real difference from the last few days. I decided to take a photo of the strong sun on the piece.

I've mostly been stitching at night. I find it soothing and centering. There's been a lot of great things going on...blog tours, book signings and teaching classes...but...it's important for me to find a bit of quiet time.

I almost have the backing/border sewn down. Next I'll be stitching a bit on the border. I haven't decided if I want to do some subtle stitching around the flowers...more like an echo. What do you think?

Searching for Roy G Biv #4: Orange Update #7

It's the third Thursday of the month...time for a little Roy (G Biv!). This month's color is ORANGE.

I had to hit the photo archives this month (I've been a bit busy with book stuff!) and I decided that I must like ORANGE since it shows up a lot in my fabric designs!

blue glue gel and salt resist

Wheat flour resist

Veggie printing: Carrots and radishes

Wood Sorrel #2

Dragon Spirit detail.

Orange tile

You can play along with my colorful cohort, Jennifer Coyne Qudeen, and I by posting up to five ORANGE photos and leaving a comment. We will link to your blog post for a wonderful, colorful blog hop! I'll be updating this post through Saturday, February 21 midnight (eastern USA time).

Come on...Join in the fun!

Jennifer has gotten around once again...NYC and CT ORANGES. Love the Rothkos and the parking garage optical illusion.

Fiona at Paper Ponderings offers some Thursday Thoughts about reading and dreaming and an ORANGE sunset that will warm all those in the Northern Hemisphere.

Sharmon Davidson has some inspiring ORANGES!

Linda Stokes has an array of scrumptious, textural ORANGES...such a warming color!

Elfi has a unique selection of ORANGES love the lizard and the tree drawing!

Mary Ann at Blue Sky Dreaming has ORANGES that really sing! Love the stitched piece.

Maya at Take Diversion has some exotic ORANGES.

Lisa at arzigogolare has inspired me with her joyful ORANGES!

Eric at Cerulean has some very artistic ORANGES.

Margaret at Charlton Stitcher has playful ORANGES!

Sue and Elizabeth of  PGFiber2Art have a great selection of ORANGES! Check them out!

Roxanne Lasky of Ideas in Cloth has an eclectic assortment of ORANGE.

Here are the dates for Searching for ROY G BIV Round #4 -2015 (the colors of the rainbow and beyond!):
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

Roy Reminder...Orange!

Can it possibly be that time of the month again! Yes! It's time for the next installment of Searching for Roy G Biv (the colors of the rainbow). On Thursday, February 19th, it will be time to post the color ORANGE. To play, post up to five photos and leave a comment on my or Jennifer's blog and we'll link to your blog for a colorful blog hop.

Hope to see lots of ORANGE on Thursday!

And the Winner of a Copy of Fabric Printing at Home is...

Jenclair of Bayou Quilts and Dolls! Congrats! I hope you enjoy reading about and using the kitchen printing techniques in Fabric Printing at Home. There's still so much to explore and many more techniques to be found in the book. Please send me your mailing address (threadborn@cox.net) so the publisher can get your copy off to you.

I've been keeping track of your comments and decided to put the names of those of you who stopped by most frequently (and haven't yet won anything) into the hat for a secondary prize. So congrats go to Norma Conway! I'll be sending along 3 silk scarf blanks so you can make some of your own beautiful "kitchen inspired" scarves! Please send me your mailing address (threadborn@cox.net) so I can send you your prize.

Thank you all for stopping by and leaving your comments. I enjoyed learning from you and hope you enjoyed learning from me and the 13 other fabulous fiber artists on the Tour. Now that you've had a little taste of what's in Fabric Printing at Home...I hope you will go and purchase a copy. Just click on the highlighted title anywhere in this blog post and it will take you to the Quarry Books page displaying my book information. You can decide to purchase the book directly from the publisher or click on the icons on the page to head over to your favorite online bookseller. OR if you have a local shop you'd like to support, please purchase a copy there. In any case, once you've read the book, I'd love it if you would write a review of it on Amazon...Thanks!

If you happen to be a Washington D.C. "local" then you're in luck! I will be having a book signing event this Thursday, February 19 from 6-9 PM at a wonderful shop in Falls Church, VA., called, Stifel & Capra. All you have to do is RSVP: FEB3rdThursday@stifelandcapra.com

I hope you will continue to stop by my blog to see what I'm up to. You can probably tell that I love to teach! If you live in the Washington D.C. area, consider taking a class with me. I always have a list of my upcoming classes posted in the left-hand column of this blog. If you don't live nearby...maybe I can come to you. Do you belong to a fiber or quilt guild? Maybe we can set up a class or two!

To keep in touch with me in the virtual world please "like" my Facebook page, Julie B Booth Surface Design. You can also become a "follower" of my blog by clicking on the "Join this Site" box in the right-hand column.

Don't forget to subscribe to my free monthly online newsletter, Julie B Booth Surface Design News! Just put your email address in the box and "click" on the Subscribe button in the right-hand column. My newsletter arrives as a monthly email. In it you'll get a new surface design technique or project similar to what you experienced during this blog tour. Check out the archives of past newsletters to see what it's all about!

Thanks again for stopping by and taking part! I so enjoyed all the positive creative energy generated...I just want to bottle it! Cheers!

There's still time to enter book giveaways at some of the guest blogs:

February 2 (winner: Emily Vanderlinden): Lisa Chin 
February 3 (winners: Jan Buffington and Marcia Coling): Lynn Krawczyk
February 4 (winner will be chosen end of Feb 13): Jane Davila 

February 5 (winner of book and fabric: Monica Weidmann): Carol R. Eaton

February 6 (winners: Jean and Dottie): Judy Gula 

February 7(winner: Deb Clarke): Susan Purney Mark 

February 8 (winner: Textile Recycler): Teri Lucas 

February 9 (winners: Pam (Stashbee) and Alison): Jennifer Coyne Qudeen 

February 10 (winner will be chosen on Feb 17): Deborah Boschert 

February 11 (winners: Carole Gold and Dawn Jones): Lynda Heines 

February 12 (winner will be chosen 5PM on Feb 16): Cheryl Sleboda 

February 13 (book winner: Sew Quilt Embroider; fabric winner: Brenda): Terri Stegmiller 

February 14 (winner will be chosen on Feb 18): Jackie Lams