One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Just when you think you're done . . . SURPRISE . . . your main water line springs a leak! Fortunately, the leak was under the driveway, and you guessed it, under the newly planted garden. We had to dig up all the plants and dig a trench to the water valve, and decided to abandon the old water line. We dug a 60 foot trench that's 18 inches deep along the house, down the edge of the driveway, under the driveway, to the water valve and back up under the garden to the irrigation system. We discovered the leak on Tuesday. On Wednesday, it took 3 people six hours to dig the ditches. Thursday morning, the plumbers installed new pipes. Thursday evening we started refilling the ditches. I'm hoping that by Saturday, the plants will be back in the ground, the ditches will be filled and we'll be back to where we were a week ago. Sheesh!

Remember the Art Technique swap I told you about a couple of months ago? Well, I finally received my pages (if I remember correctly, 118 different techniques). They are amazing! I'm almost finished putting it together and will post some photos tomorrow.

More Thickened Dye Experiments

Here are the final two pieces I created during our Dye Day. I used another bath mat to create the repeating squares. It had a strong architectural feeling, so I decided to add to it with a thermofax of a building. At the moment, this is my favorite piece.

This piece was created by drawing lines across circles on a screen, letting it dry and then printing with different colors of dye. Do you like the circles on the white background? It seems like the contrast is too much, I think it may need to be overdyed.

Experiments with Thickened Dye

I had a really fun play day in Arroyo Grande with Andi and Rene. I love playing with friends as much now as I did when I was five! Playing . . . that's the perfect frame of mind, no expectations and lots of surprises. I finished five pieces of fabric, all but one are a fat half-yard; I'll share three of them with you today.This colorful piece uses a thermofax screen made from one of my photos, one of Rene's screens that have three squares, a screen of a splat, a BBQ pan with holes, and extruder drawn circles.I put a bath mat behind the silk screen and pulled yellow dye across the surface and let the screen dry. Once dry, I used clear paste for the first couple prints, then added turquoise dye.

I used a piece of construction fence behind the screen for this print. I wasn't happy with the way it was printing, the texture was very blotchy, probably because it was printed on canvas. Andi thought it looked like graffiti and suggested that I add writing. I put thickened dye into an extruder and added a layer of handwriting. I still don't like it much; it may need more layers.

Deconstructed screen printing is what Kerr Grabowski calls this technique. She has a DVD that explains all the steps. Both Rayna Gillman and Jane Dunnewold have instructions in their books.

I would love to hear from you if you've ever tried this. It's definitely a technique that is full of surprises. I really enjoy dyeing fabric a lot more than I ever expected. I think I'm going to have to buy some of my own.

Artist Trading Cards

For the first time in my life, I finished with an art project early! I stayed up late last Tuesday because I thought my ATC group met the following Wednesday, and of course, I hadn't finished my cards. Ha! I was wrong. I had to wait a full week to trade.

Here's some of the cards I created. The top left is a photo printed on fabric with painted bits. The other three are all screen printed on fabric with a little bit of embellishment.
Here are some of the cards I received. Lucilla Warren created the one in the top row on the left. Below that is Madelaine Price who is 10 years old, and Mary Price (Madelaine's mom), has her card in the top row on the right. The bottom right card was made by Flavia Valle.

If you are a regular reader, you know that I belong to several online trading groups. They're fun, and I've received some beautiful items, but it just doesn't compare to meeting other artists face to face. If there aren't any groups in your area, maybe you could start one yourself. Our group is totally informal; we meet at the Good Cup Cafe and push some tables together. Anyone that shows up with cards can trade. If you want more info, send me an email.

Finished Quilt

Well, here are the long awaited photos of the waterlily quilt for Jean. I knew from the start that I was giving this quilt away, and was fine with it, but I've grown quite attached, and will be sad to see it go. Fortunately, I know where Jean lives and can visit the quilt!

It has hand-dyed, hand-painted and commercial fabric. Some of the leaves are 3-D and some are machine appliqued and of course, the waterlily is 3-D. The Chinese letters in the top left corner translate to "Peaceful".

Where does the Time Go?

It's hard to believe that two weeks have passed! The older I get, the faster time goes by!
I finished 120 samples of sun printing, complete with instructions and mailed those off. I can't wait to receive all the pages. It's going to be great! Jean loved the exchange quilt I made for her, and I love the one she made for me. I still need to take photos of both. I just finished some ATC's for my group tomorrow, but they are still very wet. Next post!
The front section of our house is finally coming to an end. Mulch has been added and the irrigation is on, but they really don't need much because they are drought tolerant. Mike has a few things to finish, but I've moved on to another area.

Here's a close-up of one of the plants. This is a "Razzleberry" Loropedlum. Some of the other plants are Lions Tail, Red Hot Poker, Flax, Angel Trumpet, Blue Agave and Blue Fescue.
Here's a cool cactus that I bought for my daughter. The cactus is soft and squishy.When you pick up the cactus, you find the pen. Pretty cool, huh? I couldn't resist, it made me smile. I hope it makes my daughter smile, too.

Sneak Peak

My "Blockheads" quilting group does some type of exchange each year. This year, we partners exchanged an item to be used as inspiration to make a small quilt for that person. The item I received was a photo of water with lily pads and rose petals. The quilt is due next weekend, and of course, it's not finished (another story), but it is well on its way. Anyways, here's a sneak peak of a small section. I can't post the whole thing, because Jean reads my blog, and I want her to be surprised. Can I finish it in time? I hope so. I've had a year to work on it, but of course, I didn't start until the deadline was looming. Then I got very, very sick. I was in a lot of pain, and a strange infection was spreading all over my stomach. I was completely wiped out . . . a walk to the kitchen was exhausting. I was taking three types of antibiotics and hoping that one of them would work . . . and it did. Needless to say, I shouldn't have waited till the last minute to start this. I hope I have enough time to finish Jean's quilt.

Yesterday, I stopped at the thrift store and found the wooden stamps in the top row. Can't wait to give those a try. Then I saw the little roller tool at the craft store and thought that it looked like fun. It's supposed to be used on clay, but I'm thinking it could also be used with paint and ink. As my good friend, Susan, said, "You must be feeling better if you're shopping." She's right, I am feeling better!

A Banana Slicer?

I kid you not . . . it's a banana slicer! Have you ever heard of such a thing? Do you really need a special tool to slice a banana? Hmmmm.I looked down the grocery store aisle and spotted this thing hanging on a display. I had to take a closer look, and the longer I looked, the more convinced I was that I had to own this. Am I crazy? Yeah, I am, but I'm thinking that I could print some pretty cool bananas with this tool. I'll let you know how it turns out, you too may have to own one! LOL

My Art Techniques Group is having a technique book exchange. 120 artists have signed up to make 120 sample squares of their chosen technique along with instructions on how it was done. I can't wait to see all the different samples. I've been busy cutting all my sun-printed fabric into 4" squares. The problem is, 4" is too large. I guess I should have read ALL the directions before I started cutting. Sheesh! That little error explains this pile of scraps! 4" became 3-1/4". Now I have to figure out what to do with all these little pieces. Ahhh . . . the fun just never ends.
And here's the biggest project of them all. Did you notice that the trash is gone? We have plants in the ground now. Yeah!! I still have more to plant next weekend, but 90% are done. See the new gutters and the new fence and the new paint job? We still need shutters and decomposed granite paths, but the worst is behind us. Finally!

Painting Fun

There was a lot of clean up to finish before I could paint some fabric. Here's what it looked like the morning of our trash pick up. Boy, are we the talk of the neighborhood! There must have been at least 90 trash bags, plus lots of wood. I am so glad the junk is all gone. It feels good.

I was finally able to make some time to paint! I'm doing a technique trade through a yahoo group I belong to. I decided to do my samples on Sun printing. Here's a close up showing the items I used.

Here's the dried fabric after the items were removed.

I will cut this into 4" squares and attach directions to the back for incorporation into a Fat Book.Here are some painted clay pieces that will be incorporated with dyed paper towels and paint markers for ATC's.

And here are several of the finished ATC's. Everyone in my trading group seemed to enjoy them. What do you think?

Kreativ Blogger Award

Back in December, I received the Kreativ Blogger Award from my good friend Pam. Pamela Price Klebaum is one of my Fibervision buddies, a fantastic artist and a natural blogger. I want to apologize to Pam; between the holidays and home remodeling, the award got buried in my Inbox. I just uncovered it, dusted it off and will pass it on to five deserving artists.

Wanda at Exuberant Color. Wanda always has something kreativ in the works and blogs every single day.

Susan Lenz from Art in Stitches deserves this award BIG time. Her vision of Cyber Fyber has become a reality. The exhibit will open on January 9th. Congratulations, Susan, I wish I could be there!

Isabel Downs is a talented member in my Blockheads quilting group. Isabel's blog is so new that I haven't even had a chance to add it to my sidebar. She has embraced blogging in a HUGE way. Welcome to Blog Land!

Nikki Wheeler is a busy mom of 4 young children that always makes time for her kreativ side. Very impressive!

Patsy Thompson is an amazing machine quilter. If you haven't seen her work, you must go now!

Here's my finished portrait quilt. I've added some plastic flowers around her head and a lovely necklace that says, "Live, Love, Laugh", and the background has been embellished with seed stitches. Off to Susan Italo's house it goes! I'll post a photo after Susan gets it put together. I totally enjoyed making this portrait and have decided to make at least one per month.

I haven't finished the scarf yet; it's just a wee bit short. Two more feet should make it long enough to wrap any way she chooses. The basket weave pattern hides lots of mistakes. Good thing!

Knitted Scarf

Thanks to online tutorials, I recently learned how to knit continental style. It is so much faster than the way my grandmother taught me. No wasted motion. Don't you just love the internet? My son (Sean) and his girlfriend (Megan) are moving to Portland next week. Megan is always cold in CA, so I'm not sure how she's going to fare in OR. Anyways, I decided to knit a scarf for her. It's made with Moda Dea Tweedle Dee yarn using a basketweave stitch. It's pretty simple as far as knitting patterns go, but I don't knit very often.
I'm going to San Jose to visit family for a few days. I'll take my knitting and portrait with me to work on. Hopefully, I'll be able to finish both.
Our house is completely painted, but I'm so sore, I can barely walk. This is the last time we will ever paint a house ourselves. We're getting too old for this!! With any luck, we'll have the plants and paths in by next week.

I want you all to know that I appreciate your comments and online friendship. I'm generally respond to each person individually, however, I just haven't had the time to do that lately. I'm sure my life will be back to normal soon.

Funny Face

Check out this face! Isn't it a riot? I had a lot of fun playing in my studio last night! Just need to embellish, layer and quilt. You may remember that my friend lost her house in the Tea Fire. My Fibervision buddies decided to make her a quilt to cheer her up and let her know we're thinking of her. Susan Italo will mount these little quiltlets (8.5 x 11) onto a Wild Onion quilted background. I'm sure she will love it . . . wouldn't you?

Hope you all have a very happy and prosperous New Year. Given the state of the economy, I'm sure that 2009 will have many challenges, but I'm optimistic that we will be able to reverse some of the damage.

I'm grateful to have such a wonderful stash of art supplies to help me make 2009 a very colorful year!