More Details

The puffy areas will be stitched down in other colors.

Stitching Details

More stitching coming later this afternoon, had to take a break from sewing.  In the mean time I'm thinking about  the direction of this particular piece, of rivers, cottonwood trees, marshes, and the difficulties early settlers faced in settling this wild wet often boggy land called Iowa.

WIP - Untitled 080612

A detail of the stitching, so far. I have a lot more stitching, layering, and then more stitching to do to t his piece before it's done.  If the fabric looks familiar it's because it's is the same fabric that is on the cover of my Rust and Clay Dyeing Book.

Where's the Money Article???

I'm still working on the money article, but since I have issues with money and admit it who doesn't, it's taking way longer than I thought possible!

House Redux 080512

And an hour later it looked like this!

WIP 080512

Making thread selections.

Aurifils cotton and rayon thread.

Aurifil wool thread.

One Work Many Views

A FB friend asked me if I was viewing a WIP from multiple directions, as from the one direction it looked like an old ship.  Yes, and I almost always photograph them in different directions especially when I'm experimenting with different layers as I tend to forget what I did previously.

Money, Money, Money

I was going to talk about money this week and forgot to do so, will gather my notes and try to get that done this weekend!

Until then leave me a comment if you feel guilty about selling your artwork.  Guilt from the stand point that you feel you don't have a right to ask for amounts above the materials costs.

The Gate Keeper

Angel keeping me company while I work on a painting out on the front porch.

WIP - Untitled

I started this piece a good eight or nine years ago and completely forgot about it, well this week is it's week to come to life. 

Layered rust, indigo, and compost dyed, silk, cotton, and cotton linen blend fabrics.

WIP - What the Corn Knew

Many more layers will be applied this week.
Acrylic on Raised Panel Board

Of Money and Sin

I"m working on a blog post for this weeks topic

and it's all about money!

Artbiz Audio + Bonuses Summer Sale

In need of pushing your art career further but have questions, then check out this sale
sale!!! 

ArtBizCoach Audio Sale

All items received as downloads!

ENDS FRIDAY, AUGUST 3 AT 5PM ET

I am an affiliate of ArtBiz and earn money when you buy when buy one of Alyson's products.

The Scaffolding Shuffle 072912

Trim colors, finally, on the east windows!  Now to move the scaffolding so that the lower portions of the windows can be finished and the remaining east windows can be painted.

Dinner 072712

Another hybrid dish somewhere between ragu and colache!

Horseradish and mustard encrusted baked chicken served with quinoa. I've taken some notes on tonights dishes for future changes for instance there wasn't near enough mustard on the chicken!  Oh and don't forget to salt the chicken next time.  I'm still getting used to quinoa, it's wonderful but my brain keeps telling my tongue that it's cream of wheat when in fact it is not.  Next time I'll add some fresh herbs to the quinoa at the very end.

WIP - What the Corn Knew

Acrylic on raised panel.  Since I cannot show what I'm working on at the moment, for my Quilt National submission I'll show you what I painted this afternoon.  This layer is currently drying, the next layer will be a glaze layer, and once that dries I'll be layering on more paint. 

Salsbury Steak

Salsbury Steak - well sorta since it's made with ground beef is it really salsbury steak???

Wind Damage 072612

Bye bye redbud tree!

WIP - Untitled Corn

Still in progress.

4x? inches

Painted Timtex, Natural Dyed Silk Fibers, Cutch and Madder Dyed Cotton Muslin.  Machine Stitched.

2012

House Painting 072112

John - painting the trim over the upstairs window.  We're back to working on the east side of the house, up until today he's been working on the soffit and the trims way up there where you see the pale blue.  This afternoon we took the storm windows out and now the task of repairing the wood, priming it, and the painting it and all of the window trim colors and then onto fixing the storm windows themselves. 

Inset Panel for Window

Had to wait until the sun went down but here's the inset panel, I covered it in a natural cotton muslin on both sides.  I plan to paint some fabric tomorrow for the next inset panel that will be going into the dining room window.  After we finish that window we have one more window, an oval window, to work on and we are done.

Window Insert

John is on vacation this week, for the rest of the month actually, and we are working on some projects around the house.  Here he is measuring the window in the stairwell to make a frame for an upholstered insert, when it was finished the temperature of the stairwell dropped a good 15-20 degrees right away!

The frame, was made with the intention of being upholstered and then fitted into the window using friction fit method.  Frame was made out of reclaimed hardwood from an abandoned futon.

First layer of muslin stapled to the back side of the frame.

Second layer of muslin, on the face of the frame, is layed on the table and the back side of the frame is up.  Lots of stapling and pulling is needed to make the piece look professional!

Fabric is folded under and pulled over to the back side and stapled into place.

Here it is snugly in place!  Now to get some fabric painted, dyed, and other wise surfaced, drapes made and those installed!

Queen Anne's Forest No. 1

Queen Anne's Forest No. 1 is now available in my store, will be updating the store this week with other yummies as well!

Shimmering Light

Like columns of shimmering light! 

I will be setting up dyepots this evening and cannot wait to dye more of this!  John's vacation starts tomorrow and I have him home to help me, and to paint the house, for the next two weeks. First up is to take all of the pastel silks, I dyed with exhaust baths, and turn them into dark rich lucious colors like the ones in the photo above.  Out with pastels in with yummy!

Washed!

Washed and dried and as soft as can be!

There was very little wash out of the pigment, proving that the longer the cure time the better.
Front view.

Back view.

Composting Fabric and the Issue of Rot

Yes even "I" have to deal with the issue of rot from time to time, I know many of you throw these pieces of fabric away, why I don't know but I have heard from many of you that you do so.   Me, well I'm weird in that I look forward to the holes, the tid bits scraps left in the washer and dryer, as they are layers in my mind. 

But what to do with the larger pieces that are thin and fragile?   Simple back it with a sheer iron on interfacing and go forward!  If need be used double sided interfacing and press it to a stronger piece of cotton fabric or canvas, when I've needed to do this I've used cotton flannel fabric as I love the way it needles for hand stitching.

Some tidbits of fabric from the dryer, I have a pile I collected from the washer drying on a rack.

More holes and I can't wait to stitch them!

Later this evening this batch of fabric will be placed into a dyebath of cutch and walnut, once it's achieved the appropraite tone of "sandstone" I will wash it, dry it, press it, and then cut it down to size. After all the logistics of placement is figured out I may back it with a sheer interfacing such as Misty Fuse (my favorite) as I really don't like putting netting/tull over the face of my textiles.



If you want to throw your fabric away I understand, I really do!  It simply does not fit with your vision and I know how difficult it can be to work with fabric, fibers, yarns, threads, etc., that do NOT fit in with your vision.  If it's way cool rotted stuff just send it to me instead of throwing it away, I promise I'll turn it into something wonderful!

Curing Pigment Painted Fabrics

Four different earth pigments were used in combination with soy milk to color this piece of cotton cloth.

I'm often asked "how long do I really need to allow for my soy painted fabrics cure before I can wash them"?  The anwser is depending on your climate/humidity a minimum of three to six weeks.

Tape was use to create resist patterns on the fabric. 

The real anwser is how long can you stand to wait?  The longer you wait the greater the permance of the dyes and pigments on the fabric.  Yes the hand of the fabric will change the longer you wait, the piece in the top photo has been curing now for about 10 years, and it's stiff enough after all of this time to almost stand by itself unaided!  I just found it this afternoon while sorting through a pile of fabrics that I had misplaced. 

More Holes

More holes, cannot wait for these peices to come out of the washer to see what they look like!