Hand and Machine Quilting

On this quilt I am combining hand and machine quilting.  With the cotton velveteen, regular machine quilting doesn't show up well.  It gets buried in the nap.  I started by doing rays around the solar hurricane center, but it didn't show, so I hand-couched a pretty, nubby yarn in between the machine stitched lines, using them as a guide.

Below is a close-up.

I'm working on the mountains now, trying to put in some shading. I'm enjoying using a 12 weight Sulky blend.  I'm doing free motion quilting using a small zig-zag stitch.

Below is a close-up of it so far.

Stil a lot more work to do on this, but just wanted to share what I've been up to.

Library Book Sale Finds

My monthly Cutting Edge group was in San Luis Obispo Saturday and there was also a library book sale, the largest one in the county, so I had to check it out. Love the really old books, especially children's ones with beautiful illustrations. I grew up with a complete set called My Bookhouse printed in the 20's or 30's that were absolutely beautiful with art deco period artwork and illustrations, and wonderful end papers. I'm not sure who in our family ended up with the set, but know I didn't and often think of them.  Didn't find any of those at the library sale, but did buy a couple of great things.  Wish I had been able to get there earlier, but that might have been dangerous.

Over the top of this lovely illustration is a transparent tissue paper thin leaf,  on which is typed, 

"Secretly, too, both were ashamed, having come unawares upon knowledge that was not meant for them. - pg. 82"

 Every page is  beautifully framed with red printing at tops and sides.  Lovely, lovely, and only $5.

 This is the other book I found for a mere $5.00.  It has front pages from the New York Times from dates on which great events occurred.

The Wright Brothers from September 10, 1908

This one has special meaning in light of what's happening in Russia these days. 

It's from October of 1962.

Hand-dyed and Marbled Fabrics and Shirts for Sale

Tomorrow night at the Almond Country Quilt Guild meeting I'll have a table and be selling some of my hand dyed and marbled fabrics and shirts.  I hope if you are in the area, you can swing by and take a look.  Below are some of the items that will be for sale.  Also, look at some of my February postings on this site and you will see more items that will be available.

Above are some of the ice-dyed fabrics.  I have 17 Fat Quarters for $6.00 each or 2 for $10 and some 1/2 yard pieces for $10.

The marbled pieces above are about 15 1/2  x 12 inches and will be for sale for $6.00 each or 2 for $10.00 

This is one of 9 shirts that will be for sale at $20.00 each.

Nui Shibori (Stitched Resist)

I was going through my hand dyed fabrics to select ones to sell at the upcoming Almond Country Quilt Guild's  Trash to Treasures, when I came upon this piece made awhile ago.  It was made using a stitch resist method, which in Japanese is called Nui Shibori.  Mostly I use a running stitch for creating this resist, but occasionally have used a couple other stitches or enclosed small beans or popcorn kernels inside a tightly pulled circle of stitches.  I find this method very relaxing, due to the repetition of the stitching.  You stitch the whole piece, then pull stitching tight and secure it.  Dip in soda ash, place on  plastic wrap, squirt dyes onto the piece and allow to cure 24 hours.  Then do the usual cool rinse out of soda ash, followed by a couple hot water synthrapol wash outs.

After marking with a water soluble marker the lines for stitching, I use buttonhole thread to do a running stitch.

  The stitching is  done and each line of stitching is pulled tight

  and secured with a bead.

Below is the piece after dyeing, but before taking out stitching.  Taking out the stitching is not the fun part.  You need to stand at the sink and be very careful removing the stitching without cutting the fabric. 

Above is the finished fabric and below, a closeup of  one part.  Notice the small diamond shaped light turquoise shapes.  I  tied thread around kernels of popcorn to create those.  I think they make the piece sparkle a bit more.

New Hand-Dyed Fabrics and Shirts

Love these three day weekends.  I was very productive on Saturday, dyeing up a storm.  Then Sunday started feeling like I was coming down with a cold, so have been taking it easy, drinking lots of sinus and sore throat teas, as I grade stacks of papers for school.

Here are the results from Saturday's dyeing.

This was a very low-water immersion piece using multiple colors of dye, spread out in a large tub, with very little water, left to cure for 24 hours.

The one above and below are over-dyed itajime fabrics that I had originally created at least a year ago.  The one below had lots of circles with centers, created using CDs and metal washers, which I was calling my 'boob' fabric.  I like it much better now that the circles aren't so obvious. 

Below are some shirts I did using Arash Shibori techniques.  These will be on sale at the Trash to Treasures event at the March meeting of the Almond Country Guild.  I'm hoping to have more of a range of sizes this year than last year.

Ice Dyeing Fun

It was nice to have a three day weekend.  I'm renting a table at our next guild meeting and will be selling some of my hand dyed fabrics, shirts, and scarves.  Had lots to catch up on at school and home, but did find some time to do a few iced dye pieces. All of these and more will be for sale at the March 3rd meeting. I did four fat-quarter pieces parfait style, one stacked on another

These three half yard pieces were done parfait style also,  in another large plastic jug.  I really like the patterns.  Usually I find the bottom piece the most exciting, due to the colors from the upper pieces sifting down to the lower ones, but the one below was the top piece and it was my favorite.  I used Plum blossom, Chinese Red and Better Black on it.  These are the names of the Dharma dyes used.

And a shirt.

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Rainy Days and Sketches

Finally a rainy day!  We need the rain so bad in California.  We are experiencing our worst draught in over 100 years.  Some cities have only enough water to last another 60 days!  Yikes!

Managed to find a little time today to finish (I think) a couple of sketches I was working on during my recovery from foot surgery.  I enjoyed using my Prismacolor pencils playing around with values.  As the saying goes, "Color gets all the credit, but value does all the work."  I was looking through a book of very intricate drawings from nature by Ernst Haeckel, called "Art Forms in Nature."  I highly recommend it as a great resource of organic shapes.