Well all this is is one very small piece of quilting plan for a new Lone Star quilt. We make these small samples to see if the colors are positioned the way we like and to see if we like the overall look. There is only one 45 degree angled piece with a set of mirrors positioned on either side giving the appearance of a full star when all the images repeat and merge together. I have already changed color placements and plan on changing a couple of more. It is much easier to change your mind at this point. Where the black is will be molas of birds (molas are the applique pieces from the Kuna Indians of Panama). All of these molas have a black background and when I did my original Lone Star as part of the class, I just did a "what if" placing the molas over the "rocket blocks" in the pattern and loved the look and the colors were just right so this will be a slightly larger version with molas where the spikey blocks were before and represented by the black above.
This is Priscilla's spectacular ice dyed piece (she had it in her blog earlier this week). Currently her plan is to slice it down the middle and rearrange and treat it as a wholecloth quilt. I think those corner reds look like poppies myself! We have definitely have had an influence on Priscilla -- first art quilts and now dyeing -- what will be next, a Grandmother's Flower Garden or Baltimore Album?
This is just a small corner of a new piece that Marcia is working on. The colors are just spectacular and I was ogling the purple as it would be perfect in my above Lone Star. She reminded me that we did that color together so that undoubtedly I have some in my stash!! (She's most likely right.) She saved the day later as well trouble shooting the problems I was having with my beloved Juki -- it just wouldn't run even after we checked all the electrical outlets and the plugs and foot pedal for the machine. Duh, you may have guessed but if you didn't, this brain dead senior forgot to turn the machine on -- I will never live that one down!
Last night was the opening night for our new exhibit at the Unitarian Church in Rochester. This is one of my favorites - a piece by Pat Berardi. Down below you can see the announcement and the hours for the exhibit and we hope all who can will come!
This piece was done by Valerie Schultz, another of our award winning quilters and a fantastic custom machine quilter.
This piece was done by one of our newer quilters - Beth Kelly. Beautiful clean lines, don't you think?
There are lots more to enjoy in the show!
This gives a better view of the layout. There was a lot more space than I had thought. Many of the pieces are for sale and think one already sold last night!
There was a lot of good food there so no dinner was necessary!
Janet Root and Donna Patrick (wearing one of her hand felted and beaded scarves) discussing the exhibit and the layout.
Below is the announcement of the exhibition.
Fiber Art exploring the concept of ‘Branching Out’
with new materials, ideas, and complexity.
Williams Gallery
First Unitarian Church of Rochester
220 Winton Road South
Rochester, NY 14610
Opening Reception: Friday, August 24, 5pm-8pm
Gallery Hours: M-F 10am-2pm and 4:30pm-8pm
Couldn't resist this beautiful Monarch on our zinnias. There were lots of them today. It was almost fall like which is nice after all our very hot weather this summer. As a result, I spent the afternoon outside reading Sense and Sensibility -- the best part out e-readers is how many wonderful free books there are out there just waiting to be read!
Finally I managed to get a picture of one of the frequent visitors to the butterfly bush in my neighbor's yard -- one of the hummingbirds. This was taken from about 50 feet away but at least it is identifiable!! I have tried for some time to manage to get the camera out in time to get at least one picture.
Okay, just one more Goldfinch!
I have been very busy trying to get many, many quilts basted so that I can machine quilt them while down in North Carolina and even one to hand quilt! Three of these have been king sized so it has not been a one day process. One more major one to go and a couple of small quilts and it will be done. Now to have all my bindings set up as well so I don't have to go and purchase fabric that I already have down here. Now to find room in my car for the transfer!
Well, maybe not quite fifty, but a lot anyway (33). I decided that I needed to increase my stash of reds so set up one of my extreme overdyeing sessions with a plan to use my reds and then some of the mixed up reds (mixing different reds together like I did with the blues last month) and then overdyeing. Well, it looked great on paper. Biggest problem was that one of the chosen reds was probably 8 years old and didn't have any red left in it and was basically what I would call orange. Of course I didn't know that until I had washed out the first time. So I re-planned and did some things differently on the overdye. I am relatively pleased. The colors on my computer are pretty true to what I got (maybe a mite more orange). I actually got some nice Christmas reds in here.
I have now thrown out several containers of dye that were 13 years old!! If I haven't used them in this long..... A lot of them had reds in them which seems to be the dyes that have the shortest shelf life (they are the most reactive of the MX dyes so this does make sense!)
This is the sheet so you can see basically what I did for each "cell". My change of plans was to add Fuchsia to three of the overdye baths (1, 4 and 5). The three reds I used as my base are Pro Chem's Fuchsia, Mixing Red and Strongest Red (this was the very weak one that red as orange). I then mixed the Fuchsia and Mixing Red with the Strongest Red for the fourth and fifth columns. The first row and the first column are the basic colors (no overdyeing). I overdyed with different concentrations of Pro Chem's Basic Brown, New Black (hadn't used this before and it is a very blue black), and Burnt Orange (this is one of Pro Chem's "pure" dyes). As I have gotten good rich reds with mixing Strong Orange with Fuchsia before, thought I would try the Burnt Orange this time. I also used a mixture of Turquoise and Basic Blue to overdye as well. The differences in the reds is most noticeable here as the orangey reds definitely looked browner while Fuchsia and Mixing Red looked purpley.
So now to re-assess and see what else I should dye before heading south!
My husband and I have our 40th wedding anniversary is this week and in celebration our oldest daughter surprised us with a wonderful surprise trip in September!! She booked us for two nights in an Edwardian suite at the Plaza Hotel in New York City (complete with butler). We also will be going to High Tea as well! Since we usually stay one step above a hostel when we go to NY, this is a very big treat for sure!! Looks like I will have some place to wear my new jackets after all!
A new month has rolled around and time for the meeting of the Rochester Area Fiber Artists (RAFA). This is always a fun meeting as many members have been away for two weeks taking classes at a yearly quilt conference in Syracuse.
This piece is by a new member, Marcia Birken. She is relatively new to sewing but you certainly could never tell from the quality of the workmanship and the color choices in this piece. The center diamond was done in a GVQC class and she really didn't like it so decided to just play and use some of the new techniques she learned at the Ricky Tims seminar. Awesome!!
Glynnis is able to make it to our summer meetings which is great as we sorely missed her (she is a school teacher by profession). She went to Wegmans, bought 5 lbs of ice and did some ice dyeing. Somehow it never occurred to me to buy the ice so may take that approach very soon and do some of my own!! When I move south, this will be the only kind of cold resist dyeing I will be able to do!!
Both Caris and Janet took the same class. This class involved lots of painting, stitching and then more painting and was to use map images. Caris is just beginning and with her wonderful taste and workmanship, this will be wonderful when done!
This is Janet's piece from the same class. The tree has been stitched and then overpainted. Interesting technique!
Donna bought a couple of dyed silk and felted scarves to share. This one is double sided silk with the darker areas being felted. She made 15 yards of this and will use it in a jacket she will be making. Her tshirt is ice dyed and just beautiful as well!
Janet encouraged a new person (Stephanie) she met to join the group and this was her first "show and tell". It was a small beautifully done Great Egret with all sorts of different techniques. She had taken Cynthia Corbin's class in addition and showed a number of the studies she did there. Cynthia is definitely one of my very favorite teachers and probably had more influence untimately on me than about anyone else!! It was great to have Stephanie sitting next to me so I could get to know her a little more -- a great addition to the group as is Marcia!!
Beth K shared this wonderful piece she did in a class with Rosalie Dace. She signed up immediately for another one with her next summer!
Julie shared this wonderful little piece which makes use of her digitally created fabric. She offers this service on line through Red Dog enterprises (at a very reasonable price I might add).
This was a very nice piece done by Liz with all sorts of embellishments.
Sarah has brought the newest Mickey Lawler book (didn't know there was a new one) and couldn't resist creating some fabric to help with the decoration of her new Tucson home.
Caren created this piece in her class and then created the piece below with the leftover scraps!
