Thursday, December 16, 2010

I can't feel my fingers!

Okay, maybe I need just a little break from the snow-dyeing.  
My fingertips are numb. 
And pruney. 
And really colorful.
It's just stupid cold outside.
Remember that line in Kalifornia, when Brad Pitt said "Cold weather make people stupid."
That's me tonight. 
I went to shake up a fresh quart bottle of golden yellow. A big ole bottle. But I hadn't tightened the lid. At all. Me and the laundry room are looking a little jaundiced now... What a mess!
Thank god it wasn't red!
I've dyed about 50 yards this week and when I do something that dumb, it's time for a break.

But also, I'm out of fabric. 

 Last night fabrics, all washed, dried and ready to press

 Tonight's work, mostly cleaned up...

You know, The Break will only last until I buy more fabric tomorrow.

Oh, and check out the new fabrics by clicking on the tab above. I really like the new pages options. Hope you do too. 

Monday, December 13, 2010

And so it begins.

I've never been so happy to see the first snows -- woohoo!  We only got a couple of inches last week, but I did scrape up enough of the white stuff, for two batches of snow dyeing.

 
 Fabric soaked, scrunched and laid on screens last week.

 Old plastic drawers (from those 'rolling organizers', you know --  the ones where the castors break as soon as you actually 'roll' them someplace...) for supporting old window screens. Fabric and snow in place, ready for some color!

 Now it's all about the wait.

 This old storm door screen is my favorite. 
I can dye 8-10 generous yards on this screen over the double laundry sink.

click on photo for larger view
End of the bolt -- only about 20 inches, but so pretty! 
To see more, check on the new Fabric tab near the top of the page.

Got a few inches last night, so back to it for me!



Another mystery block from Paper Panache.
Isn't he adorable?

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Stamps!

TJay brought me home some recycled rubber pads that are used under pallets at his job. They throw them away, but he thought I might be able to used them. He's getting good at spotting stuff that feeds my creative soul...bless his heart!  These things are about 48 x 18 inches and 1/16th of an inch thick and pretty easy to cut with scissors. TJay sawed up some of his scrap wood for mounting and I was off and running!

Oh the possibilities!
I can actually fell the OCD kicking in -- lol!






Here's what I have so far....
I have a few hundred pounds of these sheets...
If anyone is in the Cleveland area, let me know if you would like some. I'm more than happy to share!

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Happy December and 20% off!

It's snowing and I'm excitedly looking forward to more snow-dyeing!! Yay!!!
I need to make some space, so take 20% off of all the snow-dyed fabrics from last winter/spring.
Links to the fabrics are at the top right of the page.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! :)

Monday, November 22, 2010

No words, just cuteness

Patsy and Edwina

Flower Pounding

Last Saturday I went to our Metropark Quilt show and Karen Benke from the Little Red Quilt House in Medina did a wonderful demo on flower pounding. She's lots of fun and I hope to get over to her shop and see what else she might be teaching there.
So of course I had to run home and hunt for flowers and give it a try.

Not too much poundable stuff left...
The only flowers left were some Gaillardia daisies and a couple of mums and one little bitty geranium bud. But I did scrounge up some Japanese maple, strawberry plant, fennel, thyme, oregano, dusty miller and an unknown vine that worked really well.

I wasn't too thrilled at first...kind of 'meh'

But it turned out that flower pounding is one of those things where 'more is more'
And it's kind of addictive...must have more flowers.
Oh -- pounding herbs is the best part -- smells fantastic!

Friday, November 19, 2010

Finally online!

My computer has been giving me fits this week and I have so much to say!!!

On Sunday, I drove to Toledo to meet up with Lynn (Fibra Artysta) at Tony Packo's for lunch and I just had the best time I've had in ages!
Lynn is a talented artist and a wonderful person, but I already knew that from our online friendship. In person, it was like finally meeting someone that you've known all your life. Yeah, that makes no sense, but it was like that. I'm German, Lynn is Polish -- so we grew up on the same kinds of foods and meeting up at a Hungarian restaurant was perfect.

We asked our server to take pics of us, but she was worried about getting caught holding my cell phone.
Looks like her hands were shaking.
We're much cuter in person and not so fuzzy...LOL!

Really.

Glen Campbell and Rosemary Clooney's buns -- they have hundreds of signed buns, from rock stars to Presidents!

We talked about everything under the sun and I laughed so much that my face was stuck in a smile for a couple of days. And I had to tell everyone at home, about how awesome Lynn is.
Lynn brought me a goodie bag with some thermofax screens and paint and I'm having so much fun with those. Now I get why everyone is so crazy about thermofaxes!
If you don't already know about Lynn, she has an Etsy shop (Lynn's Etsy shop) , where she sell screens and paint and will even make custom screens with your own designs.
And if you don't know how to use them or care for them, Lynn also has some great video tutorials here: video tutorials.

I did these with two of the screens from Lynn.
So easy and so much fun!


I haven't gotten away very much the last couple of years and my visit with Lynn was totally revitalizing. She's that kind of a person!
It was a great day for me and I'm really looking forward to the when we can get together again and play with fabric and paints.

Thanks Lynn! :)

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Road trip!

I'm so excited today!
I'm taking a road trip to Toledo to meet and have lunch with my online friend Lynn from Michigan. She has a wonderful blog and website and curates the Breaking Traditions exhibit. Check her out -- she's doing some very cool things!

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Crazy sky tonight

While we were having dinner, I glanced through the patio door and thought that the trees looked way too bright for six in the evening. so i grabbed the camera and ran outside.

Everything was lit up!

Looking west

Then I turned around and was treated to a fantastic rainbow!

Sunset rainbows are the best.

I turned back to the west and the sky was on fire...

More DSP

This was on an indigo dyed piece -- pretty happy with this one

I just tossed some wooden cut-out shapes under the screen to see what would happen.
The shapes were too...I don't know, too solid.
Not what I want from DSP...



This was left on the screen after I used it on the fabric below.
I need more cheesy plastic doilies!

The only fabric from the parfait bunch that wasn't too dark to print.

Full progression of one screen -- 12 passes

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Quilts for Kids

These go so quick. The folks at Downy send you the fabric and you just supply the batting and the time to sew and quilt.
Downy Quilts for Kids

Never assume...

I found some mx dyes in the back of the studio fridge (not a food fridge -- don't worry) and I assumed that since they've been there for several months, they would be weak. I wanted some lighter colored fabric for DSP, so I stuffed a couple BIG jars of with fabric and layers of dyes and set them on top of the water heater for a few days.
Well, the fabric is nice enough, but it's all too dark for screen printing. It's actually much darker than in the photos. I guess the dye was still good...












DSP on indigo dyed fabric