Something About Nothing

After the nervousness of filming was over, I was able to pack up my things and relax. My flight the next day wasn't until late in the afternoon so I spent the day at KS Productions to give support to Julie Booth and Susan Edmonson .  Susan did a fabulous job filming her segments.  Such beautiful pieces by Susan!  And of course, I LOVED her prayer flags.  As soon as Vivika saw them she called me over - "LOOK! They are so beautiful!"  I had to get photos so that I could post them over on The Prayer Flag Blog.   There are a few more over on the blog so be sure to pop over and see them. Susan Purney Mark , Julie Booth and I took a Printed Fabric Bee photo while Julie was waiting her turn.  Vivika referred to us as a swarm.  I look like a crazy woman.  Hahaha Finally it was Julie's turn to set up. Then a few promo shots.  Then time to film! And one last shot: Susan Brubaker Knapp's quilts waiting for her to ...

Deborah Boschert's theme this month is one of my favorites.  I love architecture!  Deborah requested all blues and so I started with a blue grey hand dye, did a little sun printing with house masks from foam, thermofaxed some blue prints over the top, and stamped more houses. All of the painting was done with Setacolor Light.  It might be a little difficult to see the layers in this photo, they are almost ghostly. I like what the other members have done so far. If you would like a chance to win all 12 of the 6x6" squares leave a comment on The Printed Fabric Bee's blog by clicking here. Visit the other member's of the Bee to see what they have created! Carol R. Eaton Jackie Lams Lynda Heines Gerrie Congdon Susan Purney Mark Deborah Boschert Jane Davila Lisa Chin Lynn Krawczyk Leslie Jenison Judy Gula  Julie B. Booth

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. ...

 This weekend was the Home Machine Quilt Show in Sandy, Utah.  Practically my backyard.  I entered a quilt in the show:  SWR - "Sylvia Was Right"  I started the quilt while at the Pie Plates Retreat. The blue was created using Color Magnet with a thermofax screen and turquoise dye.  The purples are the leftovers from an ice dyed pieced that I then over printed with a thermofax screen of onion skin cells and human brain cells for the Science challenge of The Printed Fabric Bee. When I started to piece I planned on using the two pieces of fabric I had dyed along with white for an accent. My friend, Sylvia, decided to give me a challenge by throwing some scraps of peach at me.  I complained like a big baby and told her I didn't want to use.  I used it, and she was right, thus the name SWR. I'm sorry this photo is a bit blurry but it gives you an idea of the wonky, free form piecing I used to create this piece.   I didn't win a rib...

This month's Printed Fabric Bee theme from Queen Bee Gerrie Congdon was "Geometric." I played around at making different shaped stencils.  I had so much fun making a multilayer stencil last month I decided to create another using circles, which I cut into fourths and then cut some (orange quarter circles) out of one stencil and the others (blue) out of another stencil. I started with an ice dyed fabric and stenciled in a Navy blue Jacquard textile paint .  As I went I felt like the Navy was a little dark so I went over the Navy with Turquoise.  And then went with yellow for the second stencil. It was a very fun challenge! If you would like to win a 6" piece of this fabric as well as 6" squares of the other challenge fabrics hop on over to Gerrie's blog or The Printed Fabric Bee blog and leave a comment!

Julie Booth's theme for The Printed Fabric Bee was Mola. Perhaps you have seen the beautiful Mola's   created by masterful Kuna women in Panama?   Beautiful bright colors and striking designs in reverse appliqué. It certainly was a challenging theme to translate into paint and dye.  After studying many variations on Mola's I decided I wanted to use a bee - perhaps for obvious reasons - as the focus.  I created two stencils using my Silhouette portrait.   The first stencil was for the background (green) and the second was the bee (red).  I started with a piece of hand dyed fabric in a very pale yellow.  Next I taped the background stencil to a silk screen and screened several colors at the same time.   The bees were stenciled on last in black with the second stencil. I'm a little disapointed that my bees don't look very friendly. This is the finished piece for Julie: Here is the giveaway piece, which ended up a few inches l...

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...