Little L.A.

What is Little L.A.? It's a catchy challenge title. L.A. stands for Los Alamos and it is VERY little. The challenge is to find inspiration for a quilt within twelve blocks. There are so many interesting pieces of history everywhere you turn. The inspiration could be color, shape, or texture. Anything goes.

Here are several interesting compositions I found.

A ship that has been dry docked.

A gate.

A rusty wagon wheel.

Side of a barn

If you attend PIQF in Santa Clara, there is a good chance you will get to see the results of this challenge in 2012.

The deadline for my 2011 PIQF hormones piece is looming. I've finished the design and now it's time to quilt! For me, figuring out how to quilt it is the most difficult step. I don't have much time left to think about it, and I'm pretty sure that is a good thing.

Shibori Weekend

Last weekend, Andi led a 2 day shibori dying workshop. 12 Fibervision members had a blast in this exhausting workshop. The first afternoon was spent painting the fabric with dye and letting it dry. This part was pretty quick and easy. No soda ash was added to the dye on the first day, so all the colors mingled and created new colors on the second day. We spent a fair amount of time wrapping tubes, rope, and beads with fabric. Then we spent quite of bit of time mixing, and sloshing in colorful dyes. Then we spent a lot of time untying and unwrapping all the pieces and rinsing all the dye out.

Most of my pieces came out beautiful, but I got a few uglies too.

Here is the under-painted fabric that has lemon yellow, fuchsia and red/orange. I used the highly technical splatter technique.

Here it is after it was folded, wrapped and dipped into teal dye.

Here's another under-painted piece that has blended stripes.

And here it is after wrapping, tying and dipping in purple. ooohhhhh, I like this one a lot!

This piece was plain white fabric that was wrapped and dipped into black.

This piece was previously dyed (and fixed) with green, blue, and fuchsia splotches. I created a the circles by placing brass circles between the layers of fabric, and clamping the layers together.

If you decide to try this with a group, here's a helpful hint. Write your name on tyvek and attach it to each piece of fabric you dye. Your name will still show, no matter what color you dye with. That's a lesson learned the hard way!

Fun Train Trip to Carlsbad

I'm not sure where my week went, but it flew by, just like the speeding train we took to Carlsbad. hehe I shot the photo below while speeding though Los Angeles. I set the camera speed high and the ISO high, braced myself, held my breath, and hoped for the best. You're not impressed with this photo, are you? Who would be?

I shoot 80% of my photos as a jpg and RAW. If you shoot in RAW mode and capture all the digital information, there is a lot of things you can do to reclaim the details in the photo. Here's the new and improved version. A little different, isn't it?If you don't have a camera that can shoot RAW, this before and after photo could make you think twice about a new camera! I love cameras and software and was a graphic designer for 20 years, so this is right up my alley. It's not for everyone though.Back to our trip to The Front Porch Gallery in Carlsbad. Me, Andi Perejda and Ranell Hansen spent 10 hours on the train in one day! Sherry Kleinman and Linda Miller hopped on in LA. The trip down was fun and went by quick. The first 3 hours on the way back were fun, but the last 2 were exhausting. Mary Tabar, the new So CA representative, had lunch with us and gave us a ride back to the train station. I made some new fiber friends, so it was all worth it.

The gallery was packed during the reception. Fortunately, they have a nice patio outside and it's one block from the beach, so there was a nice ocean breeze.

Sherry

Ranell

Andi and Linda

Cloth Paper

Each month, after the Fibervision business meeting and lunch, we have a mini workshop. This month, Lorna showed us how to make cloth paper.

I rummaged through my closet, gathered all sorts of paper, foil, dyed paper towels and painted dryer sheets. We slathered the papers with generous layers of diluted Elmer's glue, stuck it to a muslin backing, and set it aside to dry.

It's very colorful and quite stiff. I really have no idea what I'm going to do with it, but I will probably make more of it. It's the perfect technique for all the "stuff" I've saved over the years. Lorna has done both machine and hand stitching on her cloth paper and says the more you stitch, the softer it gets. She has made some wonderful mixed media pieces using the cloth paper.

One more tool to add to the tool box. Thanks for organizing the workshop, Lorna.

Fabulous Patio

Here it is . . . the long awaited patio. 1,000 square feet of outdoor living! Yippee. The black flower pots are covering the metal thingees that will hold the posts for the future pergolas, one over each door.The patio came out better than I imagined. I'm thrilled because rarely does anything live up to my imagination. After talking to the owner, Jose, his biggest problem is when the customer doesn't know what they want or can't communicate it clearly. Obviously, I didn't have that problem. They took my basic idea and ran with it. If you ever need concrete and live in southern CA, call Martinez Concrete & Pumping. They are a fantastic team.My DH likes to assign labels to everything, he calls this giraffe! I hadn't thought about it, but I guess it does. LOL

We will seal the giraffe next week which will bring the color out even more. Right now it looks aged, and we really like it. I hope it looks good once it's sealed. Knowing me, I will drop paint on it. It's not a matter of IF, it's a matter of WHEN. I don't want to deal with guilt, so we'll seal it right away.

Front Porch Gallery: Carlsbad, CA

I'm really excited about the upcoming exhibit at the Front Porch Gallery in Carlsbad on July 9, 2011. I'm sure this is going to be a great exhibit because there are some great fiber artists represented. Here's a partial list: Jane LaFazio, Jamie Fingal, Rose Hughes, Terry Waldron, Kathy Nida, Smadar Knobler and 5 of my Fibervision Friends, Andi Perejda, Jeanne Surber, Ranell Hansen, Susan West, Pamela Price Kelbaum, and yours truly.

I am really excited that I was chosen for this SAQA exhibit. Honestly, I feel like a small fish in a big pond. That said, you can probably imagine how excited I was to see my quilt on the invitation (top right). Andi's quilt is on the left side. We're the bookends. Very, very cool!

We (Me, Ranell, and Andi) will be catching the Surfliner southbound train, and will arrive just in time for the reception. It's going to be a long day, full of fun, friends (new and old), laughter and our fair share of wine (I'm sure).

If you live anywhere nearby, please stop in, I would love to meet you.