Smithsonian inspirations

Some of the highlights of the American History Museum

Elephant mosaic

Embellished an old elephant planter found at a garage sale with jewels, shisha mirrors,sequins, beads and trims

Before

Burning fabrics

We had a wonderful time burning synthetic fabrics with  heat tools, heat gun, soldering iron and even a curling iron with the Adventurous Quilters on Saturday.

Another awesome fiberart entry from Art Prize 2010

The huge tree and 4 panels of the four seasons was made up of mini scraps, yarns and threads. It was very lacy looking and you could see right through it.

My favorite Fiberart Art Prize 2010

One of my favorite Fiberart at Art Prize 2010 is this one...I loved the textures!

Name mosaic table

My mom and I helped Lisa finish gluing glass and tiles on her mosaic foyer table. We still have to grout and seal it. Love the way it turned out!

Great Lakes African American Network Quilt Show

The highlights from the Great Lakes African American Quilt Network Show  were these wonderful doors with 3 dimensional women.

Birmingham Art Fair

My find was this cute fabric guitar purse at the Birmingham Art Fair.

Zoom

Zoom

The Cobra is my daughter’s dream car. I used copper, lockwashers, washers, watch parts, gears, charms, found objects, cottons, sheers, net, chenille, beads, sequins, and trims

Philadelphia MURAL inspirations

Philadelphia mural tour..saw some of the 3000 murals. The walking tour is better exercise, easy to check out the murals up close.  The trolley tour covered more murals, and explored North Philly. Many were painted, and some  like the library were mosaic murals.

Philadelphia Magic Gardens, the mosaics of Isaiah Zagar were incredible. There were mosaic ceilings, walls, floors, bike wheels, wine bottles, and colors everywhere. They even offer two day mosaic mural classes. http://www.philadelphiasmagicgardens.org/

Columbus weekend highlights

Annual Balloonfest fun!

Deaf School Topiary Park had life size topiaries from Georges Seurat’s famous painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Isle of La Grand Jatte



Columbus Museum of Art

cyberhints

Artist's Watercolor Pencils: Vibrant pencils with a composition making them fully soluble in water. These pencils can be used dry like normal color pencils and then washed over with brush, or dipped in water to give a soft flow of color. The color of the ones put on wet are the brightest. The ones applied water to after they were laid down, ran.

Inktense Pencils - When used with water, the colors are the most vibrant of any other watercolor pencils. The colors are a bit more opaque than most, creating a true ink-like effect. Once dry, Inktense is permanent and cannot be lifted with water. This allows you to wash over your designs with other media and create spectacular effects.Inktense pencils are permanent when dry so can be used on fabric or they can have other mediums used over them without changing it. Watercolor pencils don't have this characteristic.

Make your own ink pads. Use a shallow plate or small aluminum tray. Cut two layers of felt the size of the pan or smaller Dampen the felt until it is absorbent and wring out. Add acrylic textile paint and mix well. Stamp as usual but clean off your stamps with soap and water as soon as you are finished. Allow printed image to dry and then heat set
.. use fabric paint or acrylic paint for stamping on fabric. Put some of the paint on a small sheet of plexiglass and roll it out thin with a rubber brayer. Depending on the size of the stamp and the consistency of the paint, you can carefully roll over the stamp with the paint-loaded brayer, or stamp into the paint on the plexi, pick it up and stamp on the fabric. Can also use a small, flat paintbrush, loaded, then pulled sideways across the stamp to "ink" the stamp. A foam brush uses more paint.


"Transfer eze": looks like a water soluble fabric you trace your design onto and then place over your stitching fabric. Then sew through it and wash away.

http://afewscraps.blogspot.com/ Free motion Quiltalong project
http://www.quiltfest.com/activities_detail.asp?id=124
http://clicks.robertgenn.com/jack-shadbolt.php
http://afewscraps.blogspot.com/2010/08/quilt-along-and-giveaway.html
http://bonniemccaffery.com/vidcasts/049.html
http://inaminuteago.com/stitchindex.html embroidery stitches
http://picasaweb.google.be/sommeke2002/Birmingham19082010# Festival of Quilts
http://www.modabakeshop.com/2010/05/fabric-fortune-cookies.html
http://hermajestymargo.blogspot.com/2010/08/shibori-borealis.html
http://www.kathyannewhite.com/textiles.html
http://www.reginabenson.com/installations.html
http://greatlakesaaquilters.tripod.com/2010QuiltShowFlyer_4.pdf

Cyberhints

No-Flo, a resist that coats fabric that allows you to paint with Dyna-flo to get painterly results and prevent the colors from running in the fabric. After being heat set, no-flow washes out. Dharma, Dick Blick carries it.

Tinting wool. Kool Aid was the method most suggested. black food coloring can be used to mute color.

Texture magic: works with the steam of an iron and even better with a heat gun. Great results with finer fabrics and close stitching.

Collage pieces mounted on canvas. Used gel medium to attach the pieces to the canvas, along with some dyed cheesecloth to 'take' the collage onto the background. http://daphnegreig.blogspot.com/

WONDERFUL thread: Signature thread and the big 5500 yd cones are only $1 each.... www.southernthread.com After you go there click on ebay store in the left-hand side panel... once in the ebay store, type in signature in the little search box on the left-hand side.

http://www.victorianaquiltdesigns.com/VictorianaQuilters/PatternPage/PatternPage.htm#
QuiltPatterns many many Quilt patterns
http://www.ctpubblog.com/2010/07/26/lois-jarvis-rusty-object-image-transfer-technique/

http://www.americanquilter.com/shows_contests/knoxville/2010/quilt_contest/quilt_winners.php?utm_source=delivra&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=AQS%20On%20Point%20-%20Issue%2035


Blog2print : blogs printed into a book
http://blog2print.sharedbook.com/blogworld/printmyblog/index.html

http://www.unitednotions.com/MBS-casserole-carrier.pdf
http://www.allianceforamericanquilts.org/projects/galleries/New%20from%20Old/gallery/

http://www.murphys-laws.com/murphy/murphy-sewing.html
http://wwwbluemoonriver.blogspot.com/2010/07/framing-fiber-art.html

Tuesday Tessellation Tutorial Time
http://quiltspluscolor.blogspot.com/2010/06/tuesday-tessellation-tutorial-time.html
http://quiltspluscolor.blogspot.com/2010/07/tessellation-tutorial-lesson-2-woi.html

http://fiberartgoddess.blogspot.com/2010/07/collage-innovation.html

ATC exhibit for the Vernon Public Art Gallery in Canada - submit 6 ATC's and after the show, they will send you 6 ATC's from other artists:
http://vernonpublicartgallery.com/images/stories/forms/atc_call-new.pdf
http://www.americanquilter.com/shows_contests/knoxville/2010/quilt_contest/quilt_winners.php
http://www.thequiltshow.com/os/bernina_videos.php

Material Concepts: Tyvek in a tall, light-weight roll - it weighs about 4 lbs . http://www.materialconcepts.com/
http://www.quilttoursoflasvegas.com/tours.htm

http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/2010/01/break-your-foot.html
http://michigoose-life-quilts.blogspot.com/2010/08/aullwood-quilt-show-merry-havens-color.html

Droid Cell Phone Cover from Fabric Postcards

Made a Droid Cover from Fabric Postcards that I had swapped on the internet. Embellished the postcards with ribbons, yarns, a cat charm and added a velcro closure. Used watersoluble pastels on the inside of the cover so they are pink and purple on the non embellished side. They are the perfect size for the cell phone and should keep them without scratches in my daughter's purse!

Timber!

Timber!is a memory quilt of two 20 year old trees that we lost in July.

Evening Star Quilt Guild Trunk Show

I enjoyed sharing 5 suitcases of quilts with the Evening Star Quilt Guild Trunk Show in Davison, MI July 28. They are a friendly group of women..we all had a great time.

Caitlin and Allison's flowers

These are 12 year old Caitlin and Allison's 3D flowers. They used sheer rectangles for red flowers,circles for folded flowers, fused flowers, shisha mirrors and textured fabric for their projects.

Senior cell phone

Having gone from a Tracphone that I barely used to a Droid, I absolutely love this image a friend sent me. Am always trying to play catchup to advances in technology and spend hours trying to figure it all out....

Dubai fountain

This is an awesome video.　

*To watch the fountain, click on the link below.
http://www.wimp.com/dubaifountain/

It was done by the same people who did the Bellagio Hotel in Vegas.

*When it starts, click the "full screen button" at the bottom right of

the "small screen" next to the time of the video (4 minutes).

*Then, just let it run. **Do NOT click on the word NEXT in the upper right of the picture square.

*Be patient and wait for the fountain to do its thing, and listen to the gorgeous duet performed by Andre Bocelli and Sarah Brightman

Setacolors to paint quilts: If diluted by half, they don't change the hand of the fabric. If you use them full strength, they do become a bit stiff, and if you quilt through them full strength, you make holes in the paint when you quilt. Golden liquid acrylic paints go very far, they don't change the hand of the fabric at all, you don't make holes in it when you quilt, it's permanent.


The best fabric paint, in regards to changing the hand of the finished quilt the least, is Dye-Na-Flow by Jacquard. Part of the reason is that it is very close to the consistency of ink or dye. That means that you must learn to control its coverage; easily done through the use of resists or by thickening it with a product that will wash out once the finished image has been heat set, leaving behind the paint but not the thickener. Dye-Na-Flow can be applied quickly and dries in no time.



Embellishments: If you are using light applications of roving and other fabrics, and if there are "holes" where no roving shows, you can add some hot-fix crystals to add glitz.



14yds of fabric weighs slightly less than 5pounds



Masks for discharge: There is a difference between Organic Vapor masks, used for spray painting/petrochemical fumes, and Acid Gas cartridges, which is what you want for discharge. A link for masks and cartridges:

http://tinyurl.com/33xfofc (NAYY) . It was recommended by folks over on the DyersList - the masks come in small, medium and large sizes and have interchangeable cartridges. The dust filters are also color-coded - P95, which cuts 95% of particles out of the air, are yellow. P100 are hot pink. Typical disposable masks say P95 on them. And you can get combo filters - dust and acid gas together. And yes, keep the cartridges in zip loc bags. Pro Chemical's anti-chlor instructions, which mentions acid gas cartridges.

http://www.prochemical.com/directions/Discharge%20PDF/Antichlor.pdf

... Be sure to keep it sealed in a zip-loc bag when not in use, or the cartridges will keep filtering the surrounding air, and become exhausted very quickly.

.. the gas from chlorine bleach discharging is the same gas that injured the lungs of so many soldiers in world war one. Take it very seriously.


Aquadoodle marker (found with the crayons sold in Grocery stores/ Target/Walmart ): fill with water. Go over the water soluble crayolas that marked the quilted areas with the Aquadoodle pen and the marks wash right out. Be sure to test before using them on your quilt.

.. Try Aquarelle (watercolor) art pencils instead of Crayola's. http://www.thefind.com/family/info-aquarel-pencils

.

Green ink Uniball : used these on black and was able to see the markings.



Glide is this fabulous poly thread made by Fil Tec. It's so lustrous that it almost appears to be metallic, and it glides onto the fabric. I can't say enough good about it.



Executive Sunlight Desklamp from Walmart . FABULOUS sewing table light. $10. Illuminates the whole sewing table with a weighted base and adjustable angle for the arm. Lighting is 150 watts but only 27 fluorescent watts used.



Artist's quality acrylic paint WON'T fade if you look for the ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) label. If it conforms to ASTM1 (1–Pigments of excellent lightfastness) or ASTM2 (Pigments of very good lightfastness) the pigments are of archival quality and will remain true and vibrant for generations. Brands that guarantee their artist's paints include Chroma (Jo Sonja, Atellier), Matisse, Liquitex etc.



If you add a magnet to the bottom of the tin it serves double duty. It holds the pins in the tin and it acts as a magnet to pick up the spilled pins



***NEW VidCast #46 Fabric Embellishments -
Liz Kettle, Ruth Chandler and Heather Thomas sat down to talk about their
book "Fabric Embellishments" and share a few of the gorgeous and innovative techniques including ricing, glass beads and ribbon printing! http://www.bonniemccaffery.com



http://mairuru.blogspot.com/2010/02/how-to-make-origami-drawstring-bag.html from 2 squares, hanky, pillow panels



basting in about 3 minutes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvx76JkxY7Y



http://www.adventurequilter.com/e-Learning/Articles/Squiggle.html



http://lindastamps.wordpress.com/2008/12/06/stampbusters-episode-5-the-dirt-on-stamp-cleaners/



tutorial on making shimmer mists using mica powders
http://techniqueszone.wordpress.com/2010/04/13/diy-powdered-mica-spritzer-backgrounds/

http://bonniemccaffery.com/vidcasts/index.html



"sketchbook" project: Sounds like a great project to participate in.

http://arthousecoop.com/projects/sketchbookproject

Sharon B's Dictionary of Stitches for Hand Embroidery and Needlework

http://inaminuteago.com/stitchindex.html

http://www.flickr.com/photos/maggieart/

http://fibreartnetwork.com/exhibitions/GeoPhysical/19

http://fibreartnetwork.com/exhibitions/EdgingForward/14

http://ideas-of-inspiration.blogspot.com/

http://www.wiquiltmuseum.com/



http://www.needlenthread.com/videos

http://www.wellingtonarts.ca/wcm/documents/wcm/Threadwork2010CAT.pdf

You can watch full episodes of the new Art reality TV show , Work of Art here: http://www.bravotv.com/full-episodes

http://quiltersguildnsw.com/quiltshow/

http://www.byannie.com/shop/category/patterns/texture-magic-1/

http://janeville.blogspot.com/2010/06/1.html needlefelting

http://dianatrout.blogspot.com/2010/06/sumi-smoosh-tutorial.html inks

preserving fiber: http://www.lacativa.com/hold10/demo/

http://www.gericondesigns.com/weblog/?p=6328

http://www.quiltart.com/15/

Minneapolis Trip

Sucheta and Sunil showered us with warm Indian hospitality during our trip to Minnepolis. At Sneha’s graduation party, we met some wonderful people including Reshma and Manoj who had us over for a wonderful dinner.
My gift to Sneha was a graduation pillow. I started with a Ginko Colorwheel. To the center, I added a kaleidoscope of her photo in Kaleidoscope Creator 2 and then printed it on fabric. I also printed vital stats on a transparancy via the inkjet printer. I then cut the text apart and sewed it onto the Gingko leaves. I added a clarinet tie to the side of the pillow and added her favorite quote to the back.



The Minneapolis Institute of Arts was fun.




The Mall of America had a great bead shop..we were looking for beads and crystals for a peacock’s eyes and feathers for our quilt. The quilt was a duplicate of one we had started last year. We added dots in the feathers for highlights. We worked together to finish the quilt during this visit and it just sparkled!

The Minneapolis Sculpture Garden had a Conservatory with a huge glass fish along with many plants and trees. The giant Spoonbridge and Cherry sculpture with a spray of water created a colorful rainbow. It was a wonderful walk on a picture perfect day.

Detroit River Cruise

Enjoyed a Detroit River Cruise with my mom, her friends and the Gujarati Samaj on a picture perfect day. Loved seeing the wonderful Deroit and Windsor skylines, Belle Isle, and even Boblo..brought back memories of the amusement park.

Seeing the skyline also brought back memories of working with my daughter, Lisa on the Detroit skyline quilt, Detroit Motown Sundown when she was sixteen. She created it as a summer project, working on a new building every day.

Celebrate Bollywood Concert with the Plymouth Symphony

Attended a Bollywood Concert at the at The Village Theater that included Nan Washburn conducting the Plymouth Canton Symphony orchestra and Indian percussionists and outstanding vocalists including Rujuta Joshi and Amol Khanapurkar. Narendra Sheth, the Indian Radio Show Host of Geetmala gave a talk prior to the concert and played the harmonium and harmonica as well.

The concept of playback singers is one of the ideas in the Bollywood Music quilt I made a few years ago where the actors lip sync to the playback singers. Lata Mangeshkar has sung over 35,000 songs in her career.

The melodious Hindi music was just outstanding. The Symphony and the Indian musicians sounded so good together!

Infectious Smiles

The quilt is a result of two different challenges..one for Flower Children for the Fast Friday Online group and the other for My Favorite Things for the Creative Seasons Art Quilt group.

My girls bring me Crazy Daisies, and say these are “I am glad you are not dead flowers”..so each girls has a bouquet of flowers in her hands.

My Favorite Things are my daughters’ infectious smiles. The figures can be dolls and separated from the quilt and are of my daughters, Lisa and Amy. Lisa’s heart is her new cat, Athena. Lisa’s portrait says I Love Chocolate when you press her body! One of her hands says she was Born to Shop...sales and prices are not that important to her.

Amy’s new home is in Washington DC and her arms are made from a tote bag. The illegal money her firm tracks is her skirt border. Her skirt fabric is from a tie ...Las Vegas is her favorite destination . She is a musician. Her guitar, cut from the Cricut, is right next to her. She thinks she should have as many guitars as I do sewing machines. The back of the doll portraits have huge smiley faces. When my girls spread their infectious smiles, they are so much fun.

18”x22”