Watterworks Fibrecrafty Stuff

Cool new technique

2009-04-06T23:35:00.002-04:00

I read about a very cool technique and decided to try it out. The piece is not finished yet, but I really like it even at this point.

Flour Resist

2009-02-22T10:54:00.000-05:00

In an issue of Quilting Arts there was an article on flour resists. I love the idea of using ordinary household (and craft) supplies, particularly non-toxic ones. So, I gave it a try with results that make me want to do some more.

Houston Chronicle on Journal Quilts 2007

2007-11-05T11:35:00.000-05:00

The Journal Quilts Project 2007 merited an article in the Houston Chronicle. Pretty cool.

Journal Quilt 2007

2007-11-03T12:14:00.000-04:00

"What I did last summer"
17 in x 22 in

I am finally able to share my journal quilt which is now part of an exibit in Houston. This piece was important to me as it forced me to work through a long creative block and meet a commitment. The last year has been extremely difficult personally and emotionally, leaving very little energy for creative endeavours. And now I am dealing with a baby, now 3 months, who doesn't leave much time for creative endeavours!

2007-01-26T10:08:00.000-05:00

Getting Back into it
It's been a month and a half since I've updated this blog. Mind you Christmas holidays were in there too. Did complete a couple of small pieces though. The one (left) turned out ok, thought the leaves are a bit heavy.

The current course assignment has me a bit stumped. Well, not really stumped, but definitely challenged. The actual quilting technique is easy. The difficulty is that I have to pay attention to the colour values (lightness or darkness of the colours) I use - make sure they are balanced and represent the values that are in my inspiration photo. Right.

So, after quite a bit of frustration, I finally found a photo. Then I analysed the colours then decided to dye some fabric. I used the 'value parfait' technique described in Ann Johnston's "Colour by Accident: Low-water Immersion Dyeing" book (ISBN 0-9656776-0-5). I've tried it before but this time I was really pleased with the results. It lookd like the picture in the book. :)

2006-12-08T12:45:00.000-05:00

Module 2

When I finally received access to Module 2 of my course, I was really excited to start. Two of the first few lessons was on monoprinting on paper and fabric... way cooooool!! The monoprinting on paper worked pretty well.

I was ready for monoprinting on fabric. ...not so cool. My results are, at best, mediocre. Definitely not what I wanted. Sigh. I even did it twice. There was improvement the second time around. Guess I just have to keep plugging away at it. My tutor gave me some good hints.

On the other hand the other lessons have been going well. I am pleased with the stained glass quilting piece, though it is a bit tame and I keep using the same colour pallet.

2006-10-29T08:13:00.000-05:00

Workshop

This year, for the first time ever, I signed up for some courses at the CreativFestival (formerly Creative Sewing and Needlework Festival). One course was "Spontaneous Geometrics" taught by John Willard. We worked very hard and as a result nearly everyone went home with a completed top for a wall hanging. I am quite please with mine. I may even finish it one day...

2006-10-22T08:00:00.000-04:00

My Helper

I have two kitties, Leo and Smudge. Leo loves to hang around when I'm working in my craft space. He loves to inspect what I'm doing, lay on anything I put on my table, but mostly he just sleeps on my ironing board.

2006-10-06T09:00:00.000-04:00

Crafty Sundays

One Sunday a month I have some friends over and force them to participate in some fibrecrafty activity. At a Crafty Sunday early this summer there were 4 friends over and we tried making compositions from pre-died paper napkins. The intention was to use them as backgrounds for stitching.

Introduction

2006-09-29T13:16:00.000-04:00

I finally found a fibrearts course that I actually wanted to do. It is through the UK City and Guilds program. I work on the assignments at my own pace and submit images of the results (scan or digital photo) to my tutor, who always responds within hour. (Can't ask more than that!!)

I'm nearly done module 1 of 10 -- I just submitted my final assignments to my tutor this morning. Now all I have to do is wait to hear back.

The first module I painted, did a bit of research, dyed fabric and created an abstract based on a painting I did, among other things.

Here's some photos of the dyeing, both fabric and yarn. I had to make a colour wheel.

This is my final assignment -- an abstract based on a picture I painted in an earlier assignment. I used my own dyed fabric. Nice!