Painting Play Day

All work and no play....well, you know the saying!

Yes, yesterday was Labor Day and most folks had the day off -- well, I decided to work some yesterday and finished the Island Quilters Guild's raffle quilt so I could take today off to be with Son #2...he works shift work and today was his day off. We'd been hoping to get together and try our hand at painting the quilted fabric I did several weeks ago.

That's the raffle quilt on the longarm behind our art table. Just wanted to prove to everyone that I really did finish my work before I took time off to play. And as you can see, Pixxie is still working hard at being my Professional Quilt Model. She is tireless, doesn't matter what time of the day a quilt is hung, she's ready, willing, and able to do her part in the online show and tell.


By the way, if you want tickets, email me for my address and send a SASE with a check made out to the guild....details when you email... karen @ quiltsnkaboodle.com

Okay, back to our play day...
This is as close as I could get to Son #2's attempt at painting his piece ( on the right hiding behind the pink soap). He did not like the way it turned out and since he doesn't live here any more he couldn't threaten to run away...but he did say he'd be really mad if I posted a photo of what he did...

This was the rejected one. I had quilted two of his art design, he started to paint in the purple with acrylics plus textile medium and didn't like it so went to the second one and did it in the fabric markers. My friend Trish came over for a little while so she played with us too. She tried her hand at the colored pencils on the leaves (bottom ones), didn't like it, and switched to good old fashioned crayons...this is as far as she got before she had to leave for another appointment. She voted for the crayons.


Now remember, we were just playing and trying to see what medium we thought we liked best, and to see how the colors played together.


I started out by painting the pink rosettes in the corner (not pictured) and quickly found that the acrylic wasn't going to do very good at layering, so I switched and worked in the star and did some wet blending to get the shadowing effect I wanted. I quickly found out that paint on a brush wasn't easy to use on poofy quilted fabric. So I switched to the markers... in the photo above I'm laying in my shading.


Here's the same feather plume finished...and the green design is also done with the markers.

Then I decided to play with the crayons. I did the bottom pink one. I liked the control I had on the shading, but seems so pastel. I guess I could color harder but I was ready to move on to try the colored pencils in the blue and green feathers.

Here's another shot showing two that were done with markers. I found that I couldn't wet or dry blend very well so figured I wasnt' going to use the yellow highlight in any future project. The light feather in peach is done with colored pencil.


And here we see my whole experiment, including those nasty corner pieces. My favorite look is the star in the center with the acrylic plus textile medium, but it's stiff and up close it's not all that great. My next favorite is the feathers done in the fabric markers. I think I can go back in and layer some to achieve a softer look, but quite frankly I'm ready to move on to a different practice piece.


I do want to try my hand at this again and do something "real" but I have to say, I'd rather be quilting than coloring. I'm disappointed as I thought this was going to be my next new thing.....Had visions of Son #2 designing his original art, me quilting it, perhaps having folks ask for patterns....okay, so I was dreaming....but it was a nice dream.

Time to get back to work! It was a great play day, and I loved spending it with my son.

The Creative Bug Bit

Friday I went wild. Shopping spree at Hobby Lobby and Texas Art Supply. Why? Well, I've been inspired by so many fabulous quilt teachers that I decided it was time to try my hand at some of their techniques.

You may remember when Jamie Wallen was here this summer, we did a little painting on fabric with fabric dyes...I loved it...so I bought every color marker made by Tsukineko (far right in my photo). He also said that Gel pens will work so I found a nice set of 52 colors to play with.

Naturally I had to get other supplies too, brushes, brush cleaner, Dover design books, a box of sidewalk chalk (much cheaper than school chalk for some reason - that yellow box under the books on the right has 100 pieces of chalk!)

Several years ago I hosted Sherry Rogers- Harrison
She could work wonders with a Sharpie! She developed a technique she calls Ink-lique and now uses different mediums to color her whole clothes after quilting. Classes with Sherry, Karen McTavish as well as Renae Haddadin helped me to learn how to mark a quilt with blue water soluble markers. I love using Renae's Amazing Rays to create raidating lines....more on this later...

Then there's Irena Bluhm who "quilts of a different color" are colored with simple colored pencils. I love her bright color choices. So I picked up some colored pencils and plan on giving her technique a try.

So with all this fabulous influence I figured it was about time that I try something new. Oh, and the acrylics? Those are to experiment a little on my own. Years ago I used to tole paint with acrylics as well as fabric paint on sweatshirts (remember those days?) Since Jake does a lot with acrylics (and I'm hoping to involve him) I thought I'd work with a medium he was familiar with and introduce him to Textile Medium.



On the right is an original work of art by Jake, it was my birthday present. My thoughts were to transfer this to fabric, quilt, and later paint. Here you can see where I've marked my fabric with blue water soluble marking pen. I actually did two, one for him to play with and one for me. I'm hoping we can work on this together next time he has a day off (and me too!) I have wild dreams of us combining our art, this may just be our fusion - time will tell!

Not one to waste fabric or a day off -- figured I'd best do several at one time, after all, if I'm going to try out different mediums I need different samples right?

This is one of Irena's designs. I laid the original under my fabric -- which by the way is PFD - prepared for dye-ing - only because I had it leftover from my workshops with Jamie, and because it's the only white fabric in the house (figured I'd best use white, not lime green or purple!)


Notice the ruler, this is a little square, only six inches. I decided that I could probably freehand the feathers if I had a few reference points, so that's what I did.

Here it is on the frame once I've finished the quilting. I'm not used to working this small, and I switched to non-regulated speed, which is also new to me. I kept telling myself not to have a death-grip on the handlebars that it's only practice!

This is after I put a wet wash cloth to the design, the blue pen is temporally removed. More on this later! I didn't make a few things as smooth as I'd like, but I went straight from tracing the outline to quilting. Something to be said for practicing on paper -- but there just wasn't enough hours in my day!

Even though these photos are grouped by design I want to clarify that I marked several designs on one piece of fabric, then loaded it on the frame with two layers of batting - Hobbs 80/20 on the bottom and Hobbs 'poofy poly' on the top -- I'm thinking it's the 6 oz poly, I had a roll of it to use for the workshops so it came in handy to be able to use for practice. By the way, this is the combo that Irena recommends, with the exception she likes the 8 oz poly for more loft. I've always used wool when I've done little wholecloths, but Irena says with her pencil technique that wool doesn't work right...since it's practice anyway I hated to use up my precious wool batting!

This next design is one of Sherry's. Notice how tiny the feathers!! And notice how yucky I drew the middle. Decided that I needed the fine line blue marker so switched for the detail work and was happier.


I realized once I got to the machine that the circles just weren't going to work as I drew them, there was no way I could freehand and all the circle rulers I had just didn't match up to the size of the design element. So I used what I had. 'DESIGN CHANGE'

Then that made all the feathers I drew in the wrong places so I used a little water and removed the blue lines figuring I could freehand the feathers anyway.


The circles are still wompy, but I had to remind myself that "it's practice" Oh, by the way. I had to work on another design while this one dried so I could finish quilting. When I came back to it there was this blue halo around the circle. This is why I mentioned that by wetting the area with a blue marker is only a temporary fix. The marker gets down into the batting and will rise back up. If you've ever used one to mark your quilting you know this. It might be days later, but there's these little blue specks...the only solution is to soak the quilt once all the quilting is done. And never NEVER use laundry detergent until it's had a good soak with clean water. Also if you set an iron to it you will have blue lines forever and ever amen. Just so ya know (grin)


Here's a photo after the area has been wet while on the frame (I'm impatient, gotta "see" how it turns out, can't wait for the soaking). There's lots of room for improvement on the quilting besides the wonky circle...but keep in mind it's only practice and it's a six inch design that I drew then quilted. Again something to be said for drawing on paper first.

Now here's a photo about an hour later. See how the blue is rising up again. As I type this the entire piece is in the washer on soak, I can only hope that this fabric will let go of the soluble pen - don't know if PDF has it's own set of rules or not. Guess we'll find out. That's why it's only practice!



I didn't get any photos of Jake's art on the frame...but you'll see them again as I test out the coloring techniques.

This last photo I'm not showing a close up of just yet...it's my hardest one and I'm hopeful that it will turn out when I try it again. Lots of little boo-boo's but it's my favorite design element and I really want to figure out the whole process and do it again...You can see I've used Renae's Amazing Rays to make a nice background fill...I messed up a tad with the rays too, partly because I let my tool slip and didn't catch the error and part of the design problem was I didn't have a true oval ruler to go around my design element. Lots of room for improvement but this one is practice and I'm sure I'll goof up the colors or something anyway (grin). That's how I learn best, by making mistakes. Already dreaming up color combos for this one! Just a little hint - it's a paisley design. I'm really getting into paisleys. I have always loved them and now I see so many fabrics in wonderful colors that are paisley prints. I think I'm going to have to start a paisley collection...oh...sorry, off topic!


Well, that's what I did this weekend, in between other stuff (grin). Once the blue lines have finished soaking out I'll lay out the quilt sandwich to dry. Maybe next week I can start the coloring process. Stay tuned!!

More On The Fabric Bowls

This first photo was provided by Jamie Wallen as a promotional for the workshops held here last month of baskets made by him and his partner Rosanne Campisi - the designers for the fabric bowls and new DVD Mrs. Kings' Gallery Baskets. This is the premier week and if you act now you can order the 2 day/2 disk workshop at an introductory price. Visit Jamie Wallen's website for ordering information.

So what makes these baskets unique? First of all they are done on the domestic sewing machine -- someone e-mailed me to ask if they were longarm baskets, which would be a natural assumption since Jamie and Rosanne are both A-1 Longarm Quilting Machine dealers and since Jamie is a National Longarm Instructor. So breathe a sigh of relief and clap your hands while uttering a big "ye-ha" guys and gals - anyone with a sewing machine can do this!


The other thing that I find interesting, besides how relaxing and theraputic not to mention addicting this can be, is the fact that it's made of our scrap fabric -- I've now found a use for the left over binding fabric that I couldn't bring myself to throw away... Okay, that's not the only thing intersting...what IS unique to their method is the construction. I'm not going to give away the trade secrets (grin) but if you look closely you can see that there are no loose threads - in other words, no raggy craftie looking "unfinish" -- these truly are gallery bowls/baskets. The one pictured above is also shown pictured below with a bowl from my fellow workshop classmate (see June archives on the Jamie Wallen Workshops)

Aren't they beautiful! I wish I had photos of the ones my classmate has made since the workshops - but here's a photo or two of what I've done since class. I took the same principle and made a bath mat for my bathroom, it is scotch-guarded and when it wears out it wears out (grin)


This past weekend I made the matching bowl to sit atop the necessary spot in my bathroom holding a necessary item (grin)


So all that to say this -- check out the information on the DVD - there are several different styles and lots and lots of wonderful details on the 2 disk DVD. My friends Jamie and Rosanne really are top notch in their methods and ease of teaching, you will feel like you have them in your home for your own private workshop -- and the best thing, you can rewind and review as many times as your little heart desires!

I'm seeing pretty Christmas prints on my next bowl/basket making adventure. Looks like I've solved the Christmas shopping delima!

PS - when you order, tell them Karen sent ya' -- the Quilt Rambler rambling at her best (grin)

Grand Finale of Jamie Wallen Workshops

Here's our two day troopers! At the end of the day we are tired but happy! This really was a Texas Marathon! Yesterday the fabric bowls, locker hook rugs and part one of thread bowls. Today finishing up the thread bowls, learning to paint with inks, learning to fabric dye and then fabric painting. Whew! I think we wore Jamie out!




He's spraying our thread bowls with sealant. They all turned out really nice. Tomorrow I'll post all the photos from the week on my webshots, right now there are just the early days.


No one should be surprised that I dyed a wide back purple and fuchsia! Can't wait for it to "set" and then do the final rinse to see how it really turns out.


This was a different technique and actually my fabric got another treatment or two before it was "done" -- including using rock salt to add a nifty design effect.


None of us completely finished our inking, but all got a lot accomplished. I had no idea you had to keep going over and over a design to layer the ink to make it look the way you wanted to. I enjoyed this part of the day and have already made my shopping list for inks!


Hard to believe Jamie has been here 9 days already. He's been packing up supplies this evening to be shipped home and will be flying out Wednesday morning. Really hate to see him go, seems there's always more I wish we'd accomplished or more that I could 'pick his brains' about. We have a great time and the fun thing is I'll see him again this fall at the Houston International Quilt Festival. Just got my catalog today and Jamie is teaching the two design classes that he taught here this week, Mystical CottonTracks and Thread Fusion -- if you are going to be at the show then you need to take his class! And don't forget about his DVD and the upcoming ones too - I'm especially wanting the one by he and Rosanne on the fabric bowls, from what I understand there are a lot of different shapes and styles....

Sigh. All good things much come to an end. It's been fun and yes it's been a Marathon! Think tomorrow will be a good day for a nap!!

Texas Marathon Fabric Art Buffet Workshop with Jamie Wallen

Today was DAY ONE of our Texas Marathon Fabric Art Buffet -- a taste of several fabric art classes that Jamie Wallen has to offer. We hit the ground running and today had three different projects going on...

First we experienced Jamie Wallen and Rosanne Campisi's gallery fabric bowls. I can tell these are going to be very very addictive! What makes them different than the other fabric bowls out there is they are not 'wrapped' but are instead sewn in a manner that you do not have raw edges or lots of strings. Truly a gallery style basket/bowl instead of the ones that tend to be more crafty. Jamie and Rosanne have partnered up on several designs and patterns have have been working really hard to produce DVD's on the various workshops we will be doing these next two days. The DVD's are in duplication right now and should be coming out very very soon. Bookmark Jamie's website and check often for availability.


In typical "Jamie style" he buzzed around the room assisting each of us in our process of making the fabric bowls as well as other projects. It was fun to have so many things going on at once.



This is Kathy from LA (Louisiana not lower Alabama or California) You may already know her from her blog Kathy's Fancy Stitching News -- if not, take a moment and become a follower of her blog, not only will you get her take on the workshop but will be meeting a very pleasant lady whom I enjoyed very much getting to know better today. She's also a national quilt show award winner and I was most honored to have her in my humble abode.

As you can tell from the photos we all really got into these fabric bowls. Of course, Sara gets into anything that has the word fabric or art attached!

To keep things moving Jamie has us working at several stations - one of our projects is still a work in progress. We played around at the longarm with some Dissolve and fabric/yarn/thread mixtures -- or as Sara called it making "fabric pizza" (in keeping with our buffet theme) -- we added the ingredients we thought would make our thread bowl a tasty treat!


Then Jamie showed us how to do some serious thread play on our little creations. Tomorrow we will wash away the Dissolve and have a thread bowl. I can't wait to see how this turns out because I am having a hard time using my imagination as to what this is going to look like.


Our third project today was locker hook rugs. I think this is going to be a great way to use up a lot of scrap strips.


Annette found it very relaxing. Throughout the day we'd work at our leisure on one project or another, truly a "taste" of fabric art.


I needed a little re-teaching. I was so busy taking photos that I forgot to pay attention (grin), thanks Jamie for being such a patient teacher!


All too soon our day was over -- the gals all finished their fabric bowls and are proudly showing them in this group photo -- me, all I have to brag about is Miss Pixxie. sigh.


After everyone left I went back to the machine and worked a little more on my bowl until dinner.

I'm so blessed with a wonderful hubby -- tonight he grilled out hamburgers!

Even though we have been experiencing a heat wave of tipple digit temperatures, it was nice to eat out on the deck and just chill out after a long day of class.


However! I did go back inside and finished up my fabric bowl! Please note the time on my clock behind me 9:57. Just in case it doesn't show in my tired eyes, that's PM and not AM!


It's been a great day and tomorrow holds new wonders! Now if I can just settle down and go to sleep so I can enjoy it!