Something About Nothing

So, I feel like I have been in hibernation or something.  Not exactly sure what has kept me from posting - other than having a sinus infection for months that I didn't realize was a sinus infection until I got on antibiotics and now I'm feeling a bit better!  Well then there was the months of driving around trying to find one of the college daughters an apartment in her new college town.  And once the apartment was found there was the furnishing of the apartment, thanks to generous friends and thrift stores, and of course the moving of all these things plus the stuff she already owned.  Exhausting. Anyway, I'm back!  I hope! I have written four posts over at The Printed Fabric Bee about Sun and SunLESS printing.  The first post is up and the rest of the posts will pop up on September 20, 23, and 27, 2016.  I am giving away these lovely fabrics, some wonderful Mistyfuse and a mini Goddess Sheet, so be sure to hop over and leave a comment on each po...

My biggest problem in creating quilts - art or traditional - is trying to figure out what to quilt.  I am having this trouble right now with a project so I grabbed my Press'n Seal  and ripped off a piece to practice a few designs.   The Press'n Seal sticks to the fabric, and is easily removed as well.  Using a Sharpie marker, I'm trying out several ideas.  I can be as messy as I like and try several designs over the top of each other.  I've practiced on 4 or 5 pieces so far. And although I'm still not sure what I will quilt, this practicing has given me some ideas that I can now sleep on.  Hopefully I can finish the piece tomorrow and take it with me when I film on Quilting Arts TV next week.

Since this month's theme for The Printed Fabric Bee was Insects, I thought I should start the piece with lots of leaves and a little sun painting using Setacolor paints.  I placed plastic over the leaves as it was a windy day and everything inside cooked very nicely. After creating a stencil or adorable lady bugs with my Silhouette , I painted them using black Setacolor  transparent paint. And lastly I used a Zig Fabricator Pen to add little white dots to all of the black lady bugs.  I don't know if there are really any ladybugs that look like this but I just enjoyed making them! There are a lot of beautiful Insects in this months collection: If you would like to win a collection of the twelve 6x6" pieces then leave a comment at either of the following blogs: janedavila.blogspot.com theprintedfabricbee.blogspot.com Thanks for following along!   There will be an exciting announcement about The Printed Fabric Bee in the next couple of month...

What a challenge this month's Printed Fabric Bee was!  Queen Bee Leslie Jenison asked for Marks with Found Objects in neutrals with a pop of color.  Neutrals are always a challenge for me.  I work mostly in brights!  What was I to do?!?!?  I decided to mix a little Setacolor paint together and make a brown sun print for the background. Brown is a neutral, right? How was I to make marks with found objects in a sun print?  That part turned out to be quite simple.  I grabbed leaves, grasses and whatever objects I found on the ground  . . . . . .and put them on top of the watered down wet paint, and then left it all in the sun until it dried. I love leaving crinkles when I make sun prints.   They look beautiful! Next came adding more marks with pops of color.   I used my Gelli® plate as a paint palette by rolling out some orange Setacolor . . . . . . and then laying down a piece of window screen on the plate. ...

The Printed Fabric Bee theme for February was the Forest Floor. I've been playing with the idea of mushrooms for this project. I drew a little mushroom forest for inspiration. . .   . . .and created a stamp from the drawing. I also designed a mushroom stencil I planned to cut using my Silhouette Portrait electronic cutter and then WHAM!  The Hard Drive on my Mac Crashed! Fortunately I had most everything backed up.   Sadly my mushroom stencil was not in those saved files.   On to plan B: Using my stash of leaf stencils and my mushroom stamp. I started with a piece of snow dyed fabric,  because it's always a great base for surface design.  I used Setacolor transparent blue paint for the leaves.   I wanted to give a soft semi-transparent feel for the first layer of leaves.  Next I mixed an orange brown from my Setacolors to stamp a few more leaves . . .  . . .and mushrooms.  And even with all...

I'm so excited to share with you that I am going to be teaching LIVE across the world tomorrow!  Please join me to learn all about Sun Shibori and how to use it to create these lovely prayer flags :  Click HERE to sign up!  And if you can't join me live, you can still sign up and receive the entire webinar and pdf instructions to watch on your own schedule!  Hope to see you soon!

Are you enjoying the lazy, hazy dog days of summer yet? Nope, me either. I'm still working, but I am enjoying it! I have two classes coming up in the next couple of weeks and I always forget how much time it takes to prepare for new classes.  The new class is a Webinar for Interweave called "Creating Pray Flags with Sun Shibori and Stencils" and the other class I will be teaching is a lecture on dyeing fabric for a local quilt guild who know nothing about dyeing fabric.  OH how I LOVE infecting new people with the joy of surface design!   Right now, I am engrossed in the design of the power point portion of the webinar. I love designing. I've also been spending a lot of time making Shiboried fabric (shiboried?  is that a word), stenciling and sewing and as a result I have about 5 more sets of prayer flags in a few other color ways that I will be hanging later today to photograph.   (Here are those extra flags!) I also need to do some d...

It is finally my month to be Queen Bee at The Printed Fabric Bee.   Woohoo! I chose Typography as my theme.  I didn't need to be able to read any of the type, I was more interested in text as art and I tell you, these ladies really delivered: I love them all!!! And now YOU have a chance to win the set of these one-of-a-kind fabrics. Just leave a comment here or over on The Printed Fabric Bee's blog for your chance to win.  The giveaway will stay open until Friday, June 13th - it could just be YOUR LUCKY DAY! After you leave a comment, go over to the hive member's blogs to see how they made their fabrics: Lynn Krawczyk Gerrie Congdon Jackie Lams Susan Purney Mark Lesley Riley Julie Booth Lynda Heines Leslie Jenison Carol Eaton