Trim Day

I made a decision to stop saying 'yes' to every donation of miscellaneous fabric offered to me and to use what I have before buying more. (Who hasn't said that before?) So far I have done pretty well and instead of buying, I 'pet' the fabrics. I also decided to use the miscellaneous fabrics I have collected in some kind of project. This pile of shreds were once attached to a donation of such fabrics.

Squared and trimmed to 4 inch blocks

Finished quilt top.

I found a white on white print in my stash for the background and a baby sized quilt was born!

Do Be Do Be Do...

The Dallas Area Fiber Artists sponsored an ATC Trade during the May meeting. Here is my contribution.

My supplies were a recycled cereal box as the substrate, gesso, acrylic paint, stencil, resin paper, dictionary paper, label maker, alphabet stamps, Perfect Pearls and a sponge brush.

The blue transparent paper started life as a coffee filter that I dyed, stamped with a text stamp and coated with resin. I love the transparency and sheen. This paper has been hanging out in my paper stash for a couple of years.

Finished product.

I decided to make a set of inspirational, motivational or conversation starting ATCs starting with phrases beginning with either 'Do' or 'Be' - 'Do what you love',  'Be better', 'Do More'... I am quite pleased with the finished product.

Something New

Let's celebrate! My kitchen is 98% done. There is one piece of paneling to apply to the side of the pantry and I have to get handles and pulls for the doors and drawers. I have found a home for most of the 'stuff' I held on to and I have been brushing up on my cooking skills. I will post a picture later.

In this post, I want to give a preview of the piece I entered in the DAFA fiber show benefiting the Alzheimer's Association, Dallas Chapter. It is a holographic piece using a photo I took in Israel last year. It is titled 'Finding My Way Home'. 

Detail view

Of course, I will post more as we get closer to show time!

Thirty two and counting

As I pull down and pack up the kitchen for storage, I surprise myself with the stuff I hold onto. The pantry was a big surprise - more expired food than I realized. When I think about it, in my head I have always wanted to make sure I had 'enough' to make it through tough times. I found a few cans of soup that expired unopened, but most of the expired food had been opened, used and stored - bags of corn meal, flour, chocolate chips, marshmallows, larger than life bottles of Sriracha Rooster Sauce - all of the things you need just a bit of. I will figure this out
Thirty two and counting! That is the number of boxes packed, taped and in the storage unit - yeah!!!
Almost done.

First load

Second load

On the other hand, I got up at 4:45 to exercise. I started a boot camp this morning from 5:30 - 6:30. It was assessment day so we were doing things I hope we never do again. My arms and shoulders are still shaking and I wonder whether I will be able to finish packing and moving boxes. Burpies - I hate you, planks - ugh! There were 5 of us and I have to say I lead the pack in snorting and grunting.

Back to packing - I wonder, do I have to unload the fridge - shit!!

I am not a hoarder, I am not a horder, I am NOT a hoarder..., DAFA and misc.

So much to talk about...
Today marks the beginning of purging the kitchen cabinets of my 'stuff' in preparation for the upcoming remodel. So far during the brief period of time I have spent sorting (15 minutes), I have one partially filled box of stuff to keep, one partially filled bag to donate to a garage sale and a mostly filled recycle bag.  This is one daunting task but the demolishers will be here on Monday and they must have something to demolish. So far I am not feeling overwhelmed -  it's only Tuesday, let's see how I feel on Friday.
As I look around my home, at all of this stuff (I cannot even say my stuff because it is just stuff), I wonder where I will store the filled boxes. My guest room is filled with bins of fabric and book cases (mind you, none of which I am ready to part with), my garage is full of garage stuff, even my room has its share of clothes that must find their way to coat hangers.
Maybe, this will be the year I truly shed all of the baggage and things that I am hanging on to, maybe...
Verizon - what can I say but %$#@! How many times must I call for them to get it right? I always connect to what seems like an intelligent, well meaning customer service rep; they seem to understand my request, yet the follow-up emails are wrong. I will have patience and wait the full billing cycle to see if they get it right this time.
DAFA - last night was the closing reception for the members' annual show. What a fun evening! Check out the gallery section on the DAFA website.
I also sold my very first piece! This wonderful lady fell in love with 'Sunrise over Galilee' while it was hanging as the preview piece. She told me she recognized the view and wanted to add it to her collection. She hunted me down the day we hung the show and last night we delivered it to her. She took my daughter and I on a tour of her apartment and all I have to say is wow! This woman has been around the world and has a collection of beautiful fine art. She has a fabulous collection of religious icons, oil paintings, cork carvings, embroidery and other beautiful work. Everywhere you look, there is a feast for the eyes. She showed us where she will hang my piece and I am in great company - truly humbled that she wants to add my piece to her collection.

Ice, Ice Baby

This morning I made made my first attempt at parfait ice dyeing. I can't find the color I am looking for in the stacks of fabric sequestered in drawers, bins and bags throughout my house so I decided to create it myself. (Of course this is bull#$%@ because I never looked and I don't have a specific color in mind. Rather, I like to try new techniques and will use any excuse.)

This process has been on my list of things to try since reading a couple of articles in Quilting Arts magazine last year and the desire was kicked into high gear when I saw the beautiful fabrics Jules lent us to use during ArtsPark.

The process is pretty simple - soda soak your fabric; scrunch, gather, twist or turn your fabric and layer in container; add layer of ice - crushed or cubes; sprinkle dye powder on ice - repeat until you have either used up all your supplies or you have reached the top of your container. Note - snow can be used in place of ice - but I live in Texas so enough said...

A few things to take into consideration - wear protective gloves when using soda ash; wear a dust mask when dealing with dye powders and spring for a bag or two of ice. Unless  you have a separate ice machine at home, the ice bin in your freezer may not hold enough ice to do more than a couple of layers.  This is what my attempt looks like after 16 hours. Most of the ice has melted on my three paltry fat quarters. I am excited to see the results after the 24 hour batching. Tomorrow I will buy some ice so I can dye the remaining fat quarters I have soaking in the bucket next to this one.

Looks good, hopefully the colors will be bright and not wash out.

 Closing tonight by sharing this lovely bouquet. It was the centerpiece on our table at the Taste of Garland. This event supports the Garland CrimeStoppers program. My friend Judy Kriehn bought a table and invited me as her guest.

Thank you Judy

ARTSPARK

Saturday, Lu and I represented DAFA at the annual ARTSPARK, sponsored by the Business Council for the Arts. This event is held at North Park Center and participation is by invitation. We were in great company as there was a plethora of organizations representing various art forms. We shared a curtained wall with  KALIGRAFOS , The Dallas Calligraphy Guild (who knew). Many DAFA members are also members of other organizations such as Creative Arts Center of Dallas, The Craft Guild of Dallas, Museum of Geometric and MADI Art so it was nice to see familiar faces. I may be a bit biased - but - I think we had the best looking booth. Lu and I brought a few pieces to share and Jules let us use some of her beautiful hand dyes to decorate our table.

In our area, we were the only group with items on display

Lu sharing information about DAFA

Sneak Peek

Here is a peek at some fabric I have been working on. I love surface design and I love to layer paint, dye, ink and anything else I can get my hands on. The ground is canvas and thus far I have used Golden Fluid Acrylics, Liquitex Acrylics, Adirondike Inks, Setacolor and salt. I am not sure how these pieces will end up - just that I am having fun. One piece will be used in an urban series I am working on and the other in a landscape (maybe). 

Setacolor and salt 

Notice my 'tag' in the upper left corner.

Dallas Quilter's Guild Meeting

Ellen Ann Eddy was the guest speaker. More about this in a future post.