Color Choices

After seeing my printed silk scarves,  a friend asked for one made specifically with her pallet. I love her color choices, and will try my best to incorporate these in a printed scarf. Heck, I may steal this group for my next little quilt.

Wet Always Looks Better

When thickened paste is applied to white cloth, it is saturated, and well, looks great. Like sealed with polyurethane. It will dry, react to the mordant, and with a washout, look entirely different. Don't get swayed by the wet look.  See for yourself this May with me in "Glorious Prints" at Pro Chemical and Dye.

No, No Dead Bodies

It does look like a crime scene, but this is just my way of mixing colors right on my screening table. So glad I had help finding white plastic. It was in an industrial supply store. My roll was about $100.

Where to Put It

When you shop for a sink, or a silkscreen, you don't measure the rest of your "equipment". So, it is serendipity that in that tight spot of looking where to set down a dripping mess the two fit perfectly!

Product Placement

Look beyond the pillows in my booth to see the one far away. No, that pillow in the background did not escape to visit another artist's booth. I added that pillow to spice up a friend's booth. And it did get noticed. Spread the love, perhaps.

Weekend Pop Up

Pillows plumped and scarves draped, I've set up work in the gallery full of color and cloth. I love to share this world of art quilting visitors. And a shout out to Martha Sielman's book on Abstract and Geometric quilts -- handy to share with visitors, offering the world of art quilts.

At the Ready

I've lined up scarves, and bought a new movable rack for showing small pieces, all to show my work at Rochester Contemporary's Pop Up art show. Looks good in the middle of my kitchen, we'll see how it looks in a real gallery. Show continues Saturday and Sunday.

Lunchtime Diet

My lunch hour was for the current exhibition at the Memorial Art Gallery. Around the corner was the recently acquired "Wishing Well" by Sam Gilliam (1997). He was my age when he painted it. Must be my attraction to it.

Freezer Paper Again

My shopping list often includes freezer paper, and now I've another reason to buy it. I've ironed it to the back of my soda soaked silk. What a difference in printing! I'm able to move the work around on my table, and transferring to piece to the drying rack is a breeze. Who new!

Stacked Up

Hand dyed, printed, and painted linen makes wonderful pillows. These are ready to be packed up for this weekend's show as well. Tomorrow I print more, and a bit of silk for scarves. With, incidentally, are all the techniques I will teach this May at Pro Chemical for my "Glorious Prints" class.

Ready to Go

Ready to hang, and just in time for the pop-up show of artists at Rochester Contemporary this weekend, I've still got more work to finish. But, this is ready to go. It is a whole cloth measuring about 42" x 37".

Life, And More of It

The remains of the party becomes the top edge for the quilt on the wall. Color, and lots of it. Tomorrow it's back to work.

Cloth

Hard to see in this pic, but I've dyed sets of old tablecloths in my favorite chartreuse. I love that you call a table cloth a cloth. There will be a party tomorrow, and company's comin.

It Should Be Spring

If you can't have spring, you can force it. I clipped these from friend Nancy's yard between the wind storm and the snow storm. For a few days I can cheat nature and have my forsythia.

Binding

For this whole cloth quilt I've cut 2 1/2" strips that I am joining together. I'll lay them across the angle on my cutting mat and freehand cut the angle. Nice to have a guide built right in. Sew, press, then fold in half before attaching to frame the quilt.

On the Machine

I make one-yard sized whole-cloth quilts for function (like a couch quilt), for the small size (fits just right over a table), and for the person who wants a quilt in an affordable range. But, that one yard is a doozy.

What Was Once Complicated

The simple double exposure of the snow covered head and the kitchen interior would have been multiple exposures and lots of tricks 40 years ago when I was learning photography. Now it's a snap. Happy Snowstorm.

Goin Nowhere

Suitcase, quilts, fabric, projector -- all lined up. But the impending snowstorm heading in tonight makes my travel to Syracuse improbable. So, I'll take a rain/snow check and visit the Towpath Quilt Guild in April.

Glorious Prints for May

The day's ironing -- prints from this week --  to show at my lecture and workshop for the Towpath Quilt Guild near Syracuse this week. I'm teaching at Pro Chemical and Dye this May (two full moons away) "Glorious Prints" and a week of fun. There is room for two more, so come!

Dropping Little at a Time

I've been back to check how cool it is at home, and I've still got at least another day before power might be back. Meanwhile, I've packed some sewing, unwashed printed fabric, and a new book to take to my home away from frigid home.

Were Did I Go?

My once-a-day blog post was rudely interrupted with a wind storm. As I write this Friday afternoon, my county still has 79,000 customers without power, me one of them. So, the wind has me taking a break.

Pro Chem in Two Months

I'm printing, this time screening. I'll be in Fall River, Massachusetts, in two months, for a five day class "Glorious Prints." There are two spots left in the class May 8-12, so pass the word. I'll bring this finished if it's still around.

A New Leaf

I've started this leaf, and you can see I've got a freezer paper pattern on the drawing table and the full scale drawing on the design wall.

Every Basket is Handmade

Mary Benson, who was a  Pomo Native American, made this basket around 1904. It is twined (I think) from willow, sedge and redbud. I do know how to weave and coil. Twining is something else, and so is this basket.

Sure Handedness

Meleko Mokgosi's Pax Kaffraria is an exhibition at ROCO in Rochester that features large scale drawings. His sure hand at drawing, with no chance to return and blot out a mistake, is impressive.

Maybe It's Time

A friend send me a photo of a leaf and it has been running through my head. So, after cleaning the studio a bit, I turned to reshuffling the design wall. Here is what surfaced.

Beauty Speaks to Us

A visit to the Heard Museum had this Kiowa dress from around 1880. Made of hide, paint, glass beads, and cowrie shells its form shows off the decorated top, while the uneven edges give the dress movement. How they needled the embellishments I can't say. The exhibit, aptly named, is "Beauty Speaks to Us."

Going Big

My workshops encourage to "go big" and here is an example. Canal Convergence  2017 in Scottsdale featured these structures that opened and closed called "Blumen Lumen" by Foldhaus Artist Collective. Dramatic even in the daylight.