"It's All About the Journey" in eQuilter.com blog

Luana Ruben of eQuilter.com comments on these two motorcycle quilts shown at IQA Festival in her blog.

http://luanarubin.typepad.com/luana-rubin/2013/11/creative-nudge-two-of-a-kind.html

On the left is Linda Anderson's piece: It is a tribute to her husband's dream of riding Route 66 on his motorcycle.
On the right is my self-portrait, with my favorite motorcycle.

Thank you Luana for your thoughtful comparison.

International Quilt Festival/Houston 2013

I had a wonderful time at the quilt festival in Houston early this month. This show is so inspiring. I was honored to have my quilt accepted into the show. 

"It's All About the Journey" 35.5 x 56”

Judy Kriehn and I were wandering around looking at the show 

when we came across her quilt, "Blue Plate Special". 

I'm looking forward to next year.

Donation for The Arts Guild of Denton (TAG)

The 2013 Annual Auction for the Arts to benefit The Arts Guild of Denton (TAG) was November 9, 2014. I was invited to create 8 x 10" art for the exhibition and auction with the theme "Homegrown". I took photos of my friend Lynn's koi pond and altered the image in PhotoShop. I had the image printed on muslin by fotosonfabric.com and threadpainted it to add texture. 

 
"Water Lily"  8 x 10"

"Water Lily" detail

I was so excited to hear that "Water Lily" won first place in the exhibition.

Lynn, the owner of the Koi, was able to win the bid for this quilt 

at the 2013 Annual Auction for the Arts.

Thanks Shawn for being proxy.

It will be fun to visit my quilt when I visit Lynn.

Cicada Song

At my dye retreat in 2011 we experimented with some deconstructed silk screen 

prints. I have been looking for a way to use my prints. I started hand 

stitching around the colors with a single strand of embroidery floss.

Then I experimented with several direct transfer methods.

The most successful was a laser print – the kind with heated powder ink –

on high rag content letterhead paper. I transfered the print by applying Golden 

Soft Gel to the surface of the fabric. While the gel was still wet, I put the laser 

image face down on the fabric and rubbed to smooth out the air bubbles. 

After drying overnight, I wet the paper with water and when saturated, 

I rubbed the paper pulp from the print leaving the ink in the gel.

Here is a Website with video and instructions on 

“Direct Image Transfer” by Golden.

The cicada was a favorite of an old friend so I chose this vintage drawing.

I was inspired to try some freehand journaling by Deborah Boschert's 

blog here and here. Unlike Deborah, my writing is readable, 

at least to me. I wanted to explain my reason for the cicada.

"Cicada Song" 16 x 18"

I colored the cicada with Sharpie and added the organza 

leaf blades to pick up the red in the silk screen.

I'm still thinking about what to do next time.

I have lots more deconstructed silk screen prints.

The Recycled Challenge

Members of the Not Your Grandmother's Bee recently completed 18 x 18" works the were made of at least 75% recycled materials.

Just Crabby is a piece of a kimono that I dyed in 1992.

I used thickened procion dye to paint the crab.

The batting was purchased at a garage sale and
the back is fabric from the quilt guild free table.

Around the same time in the 90's, I created some batik tshirts.

I saved this batiked circle from one of them.

Aquarius

The circle of batik fish is fused to a piece of muslin from the quilt guild free table
that I dyed. The batting was a small sample of black 80/20 given to me by
Hobbs at a quilt show and the back is a man's dress shirt from a thrift store.

There are 15 quilts on display at the local SCRAP store in Denton for the
month of October. SCRAP is a non-profit creative reuse center in 
downtown Denton, TX that offers inexpensive reused art and 
craft materials, plus office supplies, to the Denton community in their retail store.

The opening reception is tonight from 7-9 p.m.

I can't wait to see the other quilts.

Hope to see you there!

Wanda

This is my latest animal portrait.

Wanda

12 x 15"

She is my dog Rusty's best friend.

Partially Finished show at SCRAP

SCRAP is a non-profit organization located in downtown Denton, TX. It's mission is to inspire creative reuse and environmentally sustainable behavior by providing educational programs and affordable materials to the community.

Early this year I chose this big piece of purple fabric with an exploded yellow circle from the collection of unfinished projects SCRAP was offering for their Partially Finished show.

I saw it as something in outer space.

I covered the yellow circle with organza to make it more round 

and paint to add dimension.

I call it "Beyond Infinity".

30 x 24"

On September 6 during Denton's monthly First Friday art walk, 

SCRAP will host an opening reception featuring 10 artist that finished a project. 

Zero96 Brewing will be giving out free samples of their beer. 

There will be live spray paint art and craft vendors all beginning at 7:30.

The Partially Finished show will be on display in the 

ReVision Gallery for the month of September.

SCRAP is located at 215 W. Oak St in Denton, TX and open 

Tuesday-Friday from 12pm-6pm and 

Saturday from 10am-6pm. 

(940)808-1611.

Dye Retreat 2013

I attended my annual dye retreat last week. 

This was the 40th Anniversary of the first dye retreat.

Linda and Deanna started dying fabric in 1973 in Galveston.

I joined them in Galveston for the first time in 1986. 

Jill joined us in New Hampshire in 1991.

We went to Kathi's in Southlake in 1992.

We've been coming to Ken and Kathi's in Edom most years since 1996.

Tonya, Linda, Kathi and Jill.

See more history here and here.

Ken's wood shop provides a wonderful dye studio.

We cover the saws with plastic.

I dripped dye on some sateen on the line to create a sky.

I imagine this will be used for the barnyard for my "Omelet Sisters" chicken quilt.

I dyed a few T-shirts and onsies.

I dyed several pieces of flannel to make receiving blankets.

I helped Jill letter 18 sashes with the names of cancers for her Relay for Life team.

 Jill painted the colored ribbons on sashes.

 The relay is tomorrow. Good luck to your team, Jill.

Jill tried some confetti dyeing by adding dye powder to wet fabric.

She also figured out how to get the black lines on the lime green shirt in the middle.

Jill folded the shirt, mask most of the fabric, wrap with string and paint with thickened black dye.

Thanks Jill!

Linda drew lines on commercial velvet with cheap dishwasher gel.

She wrapped this fabric on a pole and dyed it turquoise and then eggplant.

Linda folded and clamped fabric to make a hexagon pattern.

Grace and Linda wrapped a dress on a pole.

I drew on t-shirts with dishwasher gel.

We had a great time.

Until next year...

"Overdye" polyester

At my annual dye retreat I often overdye clothes or fabric with Fiber Reactive dyes. 

This will only work with natural fiber fabric. 

 I recently came across a really cute dress at a garage sale in colors that
don't falter me. It's polyester so Fiber Reactive dyes won't work.

 Since it was only $2 I thought I would experiment with 

changing the color with Setacolor fabric paint.

 I used a capful of paint and three cups of water, submerged the dress until 

the fiber was saturated and hung it outside on a cloudy day to dry.

(Setacolor will sun print, or turn white under an object the is blocking the sun, http://www.dharmatrading.com/info/sun_paint.html)

 It dried too yellow to suit me... 

so I repeated the process with diluted cobalt.

I'm pleased with the dry color.

 The hand is slightly stiffer but it's still wearable.

It's in the Bag is tonight

I've created three handbags for the Greater Denton Arts Council's fund raiser,
It's in the Bag!

The party is this evening, May 9, from 5-7 pm at the 

Center for Visual Arts. 

400 E. Hickory, Denton, TX

Silent purse auction and Fundraiser

Sweet Tea, Bellinis, Savories & Sweets

Business dress, hats and gloves optional

tickets are $20 per person.

For more information call GDAC, 940-382-2787.