Hand dyed and crayola fabric fun!

I visited my cousin Paula last week,

so we could dye fabric together.

She is a very talented quilter,

and wanted to learn to dye fabric

to use in her quilts.

I'm not an expert by no means, but

  I enjoy dyeing fabric myself.

First we mixed up different colors of

Procion MX dye

that we bought from Dharma Trading Co.

Each color made up almost a quart jar.

We were sure to label each one,

but with the warm water inside,

(which was used to dissolve the dye and the urea),

the labels kept coming off, so here we have

masking tape to try to keep the labels in place.

Otherwise you can not tell what the colors are.

Be sure and label everything!

Paula's workshop porch was a great space to dye fabric.

 It kept us out of that hot Texas sun,

 yet gave us a bit of a breeze.

She also had a sink inside, for water rinsing.

This is awashi shibori, or pole wrapping.

It is curing in the hot sun.

We wrapped plastic around it so it wouldn't dry out so quickly.

 

Smaller pieces we just placed in plastic zip lock bags to cure.

Here Paula is holding up one of the shibori pieces.

Here are some greens that are cured, rinsed,

 and ready for the washing machine and dryer.

They didn't lose any more of their color when washing,

as we used one of those color catchers to find out.

A blue shibori piece done.

This piece was done by just mopping up dye that was in the bucket.

We didn't waste anything.

For this long narrow piece of fabric,

Paula started painting on the dye colors.

She was really getting the hang of it by then.

We used both muslin (pre-washed) and PFD fabric.

Below is what she did to it later after I left to come home.

She said some of the blue came out but it still looks good.

 She used kids coloring books for the patterns,

and then colored it in with crayons,

and outlined with a fabric marker.

Great job Paula!

Can't wait to see the finished baby quilt

and other projects.

I have a feeling Paula will come up with some

very creative things in the future.

Savor the Day!

Yvonne

 

Many Small Pieces Make the Whole

On Monday, Sept. 26th the opening reception for

the Fiber Art Society gallery show called,

Many Small Pieces Make the Whole, took place.

We had 30+ pieces to show,

including art quilts, baskets, fiber creations and more.

The show is taking place at the

Parkway Presbyterian Church

in Corpus Christi until October 20th.

I wanted to share a few of my favorites.

To see the pieces better please clilck on each photo to enlarge.

Cornelia Morgan made this large colorful art quilt called

L.O.L. (lots of love).

She made it for her grand niece.

Cornelia used designs from the wedding invitation.

Bali jelly roll strips were used to make the background

The piece hanging was made by Happy Jonas, our FAS president.

It is called Peaceful Conversation #1 World Ark. 

She used decorator fabrics from sample books, plus cotton dyed fabric

and colorful threads.

It is one part of a diptych or possibly a triptych she told me.

The art doll above was made by Carlene Schleider.

It stands 20 inches and is made from cloth and wood beads for joints.

She calls this piece

Woman from Pibor, Sunday Morning

Below you can see my goddess tree art quilt called

Imagine Peace.

To see more of it click here.

http://inkspillersattic.blogspot.com/2011/08/imagine-peace-painted-and-dyed-fabric.html

Beside it is a piece by Lisa B.,

and this piece just glowed under the lighting.

It is made from one inch square pieces of batik fabrics.

On the table above is another art doll and also

a fiber art basket made from wet felted wool.

The felted backet was made by Laura Davidson.

Laura also made this piece below.

It is called

Fibers Trail through New Mexico.

You can actually go to this site and find out more about the fiber art trails.

http://www.nmfiberarts.org/

Laura's piece was created using dried cholla cactus that she stained

and that she collected on the New Mexico hiking trails.

Laura did some weaving with various yarns, ribbons and fibers,

using the cholla as a frame.

I think the leaves are made from Angelina fibers.

This piece just sparkled and was very unique.

Another unique and beautiful piece

was made by Laura O.

Laura used quite a few different paper napkins

that she shredded and then reassembled into

"Sunshine and Flowers".

The paper was glued down on a muslin foundation

creating 'paper fabric'

and then free motion quilting and French knots were added.

She wrapped it around a canvas

to create a beautiful piece.

It sort of had a transparent look to it,

which I loved.

This final piece,

I'm sorry to say,

I can not remember who created it,

or what it was titled.

I loved it, and it was one of my favorites of all.

Every piece in the show was wonderfully creative.

All in all the reception was a great success,

with lots of people attending.

So congrats to all of you!

Savor the Day!

Yvonne

Tea and labyrinths

Happy Tea on Tuesday!

While visiting my friend Lana

in the Texas hill country

this last week,

she pulled out a wonderful

collection of teas for me to choose from.

I chose this one....

Hedley's Rooibos.

The morning was a cool 64 degrees,

and it tasted good with a bit of honey added.

The last morning on my trip, I decided to

walk a labyrinth on the ride home.

Before hitting the road and leaving home,

I will sometimes go online to a labyrinth locator,

http://www.labyrinthsociety.org/

and find a public one to walk,

 in the areas I will be visiting.

This one is a little hard to see in the photo,

because of the shadows,

but it has a great design,

almost like a flower.

It was small and quick to walk,

one that would be good for a backyard.
Go here
http://inkspillersattic.blogspot.com/search/label/labyrinth
on my blog
to see more about labyrinths,
including one I created.

Visit Kimmie at

http://artinredwagons.blogspot.com/

for more tea posts.

Enjoy the little things and don't forget to...

Savor the Day!

Yvonne

ஐ☀Love, Peace & Wisdom☀ஐ

If Love were a bird, I would stroke her bright feathers
Then I'd watch her fly free, cross the still of the dawn

And if Peace were a mountain, we'd gather around her
To bathe in her silence, her power, her call

If Wisdom could sing or whisper his secrets
Eternally teaching the ways of the free

In my mind I can see them, I hear them and I feel them
For Love, Peace and Wisdom are all part of me


If Love has her freedom, and Peace her expression,
Surely Wisdom will grow like a flower in bloom

The seed has been planted, and tended and watered
By the prayers of the hopeful and the tears of the brave

We long to return to that place of still waters
And sit on the banks under some shady tree

In my mind I can see it, I hear it and I feel it
And Love, Peace and Wisdom are all that we need

Some call me a dreamer, some will call me a seeker
One who follows her stars on a quest for the truth

But every believer holds a deep hidden memory
Of a time when the earth was a flower in bloom

We long to return to that place of still waters
And sit on the banks under some shady tree

In my mind I can see it, I hear it and I believe it
*And Love, Peace and Wisdom are the three golden keys*

My inchie for this week's prompt word WISDOM.

To see this inchie,

and 51 other inchies in

 my finished art piece

WORDS

click here...

http://inkspillersattic.blogspot.com/2011/09/close-ups-of-words.html#links

Savor the Day!

Yvonne

Art Perspective

 Every artist knows about perspective.

The "Art Definition" of Perspective

The meaning of perspective used in art

 involves creating an appearance of depth.

This emphasis on distance

stems from it being a difficult

and impressive effect to achieve,

especially upon paper that is completely flat.

We are attempting to convey a sense of reality

with space and depth

on something which has none.

As such, the typical "art definition" of perspective has become:

"the technique of representing a three-dimensional image

 on a two-dimensional surface."

I painted a quick watercolor piece representing basic perspective.

I'm still learning about it.

But the most important thing I believe about perspective is...

you don't have to have good perspective to have good art.

I believe composition is more important.

What do you think about perspective?

What is most important to you?

Savor the Day!

Yvonne

Close ups of WORDS

Last week for Paint Party Friday I posted a mixed media piece

called WORDS. 

Thanks so much for all your sweet comments.

Click

http://inkspillersattic.blogspot.com/2011/09/words-inchies-and-art.html#links

to see the finished piece.

WORDS was made with all 52 of my inchie art pieces

for a project I had been involved in at

Every Inchie Monday.

Clilck

http://everyinchiemonday.blogspot.com/

if you want to find out more about this project.

I had many comments and emails,

some of you asking for more close up photos,

I assume of all the inchie art.

You can click on any photo on my blog

to enlarge it,

but here are some larger detail shots for you.

Remember you can even click on these to enlarge them even more.

It didn't take that long to make each inchie,

or put together this piece.

Some of you ask me about that.

I don't ever keep track of how long

something takes me to do.

I just have fun with it.

I had to do something with 52 inchies.

It ended up taking about 2 hours to create.

Once I figure it out in my head,

then it goes together pretty fast.

Savor the Day!

Yvonne

Sparkle!!!

The Every Inchie Monday word this week is

SPARKLE

These faux diamonds 'sparkle'

in its 'V' shape.

V for vivacious!

Or V for the following sparkling verse.

The world is full of poetry.

The air is living with its spirit;

and the waves dance to the music

of its melodies,

and sparkle in its brightness.

--James Gates Percival

 

Savor the day!

Yvonne

Words, inchies, and art

Do you ever 'get on a roll'

when it comes to art?

Well, since the beginning of the year

 I have been making 'inchie' art...

one per week inspired by

 a different prompt word each time.

I got so focused on making them this week,

that I finished all of them for the year.

From the beginning I wanted to

create one art piece using all of the inchies.

So below is what I did.

I call it

WORDS.

The quote in the piece is by

Alfred Lord Tennyson

and it says...

"Words, like nature,

half reveal and half conceal

the soul within."

I used a canvas board, acrylic paint,

watercolor pencils, gesso,

and all of the inchie art squares.

The collage is paper from old dictionaries,

garden books, music pages and greeting cards.

I used a stencil to make the background design

then freehanded some more designs here and there.

Gel medium and tacky glue worked great to

attach everything down well.

On top of it all I sprayed

Krylon acrylic varnish.

Now I just have to frame it.
It measures 16 in. by 24 in.

Savor the Day!

Yvonne

Moon Tea and fiber arts

Happy tea day!

In celebration of September's full harvest moon

I wanted to share with you a simple how-to

of making moon tea.

You have all heard of 'sun tea',

well there is 'moon tea' as well.

It is said that,

"Just as the sun represents the masculine,

  the full moon will bring

 a feminine (lunar) quality to your tea

 that will help awaken your creativity

 and extract a different healing energy of the herbs."

Directions for making Moon Tea...

Place fresh or dried herbs of your choice

 and water in a jar or glass bowl

and cover with a screen to keep bugs out.

Put it out with the full moon

and leave it while you rest.

Drink upon waking in the morning.

Have a happy tea day everyone

and if you want to read more tea post

visit Kimmie at

http://artinredwagons.blogspot.com/

***

The Fiber Art Society met recently

so today while I am having my moon tea with you,

I thought we could look at photos

of our show and tell.

Meet Laura!

She is a very talented fiber artist,

who dyes fabrics of all kinds.

She does some beautiful felting projects,

and I wanted you to see the hand dyed and felted purse she made.

It is gorgeous!

Wonderful job Laura.

I'm always excited to see her creations,

and she always has many.

Below is Happy, our Fiber Art Society president.

She is holding her unfinished art quilt she is creating

for our next show.

It is a bit hard to tell now,

but it is a bird riding on an elephant.

I know it will be beautiful,

as Happy always creates very unique pieces,

with beading and more.

Below are more pieces that were brought to show and tell.

Janet is entering this one in our World Peace show.

I love this mostly all black piece that Janet created for the show also.

These are gourd pins made by one of our basket makers

in the group. 

Aren't they lovely!

She sells them at shows,

and you would not believe how lightweight they are.

How to hang?  Vertical or horizontal?

That is the question!

Pat put lots of work into this piece!

Don't these curves look hard to do?

Cornelia made this bright and beautiful art quilt.

The leaves are 3-D.

Thanks Cornelia for loving and purchasing my

Imagine Peace art quilt.

This last photo shows Laura holding up

her nuno felted scarf.

The holes in it make it beautifiul, in my opinion,

and very unique and interesting.

She also hand dyed the wool,

and hand dyed her shirt and tie/scarf she is wearing.

The meeting was wonderful as always.

It is always fun to get together with women

who enjoy the same things as you do.

It's yet another way to...

Savor the Day!

Yvonne

Kiss (The Frog) inchie and video

This week for Every Inchie Monday,

the prompt word is

KISS.

Savor the day!

Yvonne

Amanda's New Blog

My cousin Amanda

 has started a wonderful new blog.

She is documenting her progress in a program called

From Couch to 5K

She lives in Washington state with her husband and son.

 She loves the weather in Washington,

unlike here in south Texas where she grew up.

I just don't know why she doesn't like the

triple digit heat we have every summer for a couple of months.

OK, OK, I know why!!!

I could easily be a Winter Texan (snowbird).

Amanda also loves to craft, sew, knit and crochet.

To support her as a new blogger

visit Amanda here...

http://2fat2defygravity.blogspot.com/

I think she knows how to...

Savor the Day!

Yvonne



Making tea chai ice cream

For today's tea post
I wanted to tell you about my
tea chai ice cream!
I recently posted a link to a tea chai ice cream recipe.

Go here for the recipe...

http://cultureandstuff.com/2010/01/21/foodstuff-recipe-for-chai-ice-cream/

I finally did get around to making it

over the weekend.

I dug out my husbands very old

hand crank ice cream maker,

which belonged to his grandfather originally

60+ years ago.

 I love to use this old thing,

and all I can tell you is

we had fun!

 After putting the chai tea custard into the canister,

I put plenty of ice and ice cream salt around it,

then padded the top with old towels,

so someone could sit on it for stability,

while someone else turned the handle.

The guys switched out turning the handle

until we had frozen ice cream.

It didn't take that long really,

about 30 minutes or less.

Now that's the time it took

after I had put together the recipe,

(I found the directions a bit hard to follow),

 cooked it into a custard (10 minutes),

and then let it chill in the frig (2 hours).

 

All of us were having so much fun making the ice cream

out on the patio that

I almost forgot to take pictures.

This photo is the last of my tea chai ice cream.

The only thing I did different from the recipe was to

put all the spices in a coffee grinder and

infused the milk and cream with that and the black tea,

instead of using whole spices like the recipe calls for.

The color of the ice cream was gorgeous,

but it may be different if you just infuse with whole spices.

This ice cream tasted very rich and delicious.

Everyone had about 2 scoops each,

(the recipe makes about 12 scoops)

and it brought lots of smiles

during the whole process.

Using the old ice cream maker

brought back many memories for all of us,

and it seemed everyone had a story

about using one of these

when they were growing up.

So, do something different...

do something you haven't done in a long time...

do something the old fashioned way...

and most of all,

have some fun with it.

If you do something the old fashioned way,

 I'd love to know about it.

For more tea posts visit Kimmie at

http://artinredwagons.blogspot.com/

Savor the Day!

Yvonne

'cozy' tea inchie

I drink tea on a daily basis,

so when I think of this weeks

Every Inchie Monday prompt word

COZY

I think of drinking tea and feeling cozy here at home.

Of course there are 'tea cozies' that come to mind also,

although I do not own one myself.

I did find a link for

free tea cozy patterns.

So visit and see which one you want to make.

http://tipnut.com/rosy-tea-cosy/

For more inchie art visit Kris at

http://everyinchiemonday.blogspot.com/

Savor the Day;!

Yvonne