Yesterday was one of those day

I had to make my own sunshine which I did because it rained or felt like rain all day not that I dislike rain. After all it is great for the garden and the humidity is good for the skin. But making my own sunshine is not hard, it only entails me doing something creative and 90% of the time it entails me listening to a good audio book or music. Listening to a book on tape was what I did yesterday. The creativity came in the form of me spending time painting a screen for deconstructed screen printing.
Because of the humid and the urea in the print paste the screen I painted didn't want to dry and I don't think it was quiet dry enough even when my patience ran out and I set about helping it along with a hair dryer. Even with that I don't think it was totally dry before I start the printing process.
I let the fabric batch for 10 hours before washing it out this morning.
This is my printing/dyeing area in the garage and what the screen looked like after six prints were made. Here is the washed out fabric drying on the line in the garage and an area of interest I liked.

Back to the books on tape. The library here has a great selection of music cd's, audio books (cd's and tapes) in my favorite genres but I had gone through all of the books on cd's by my current favorite authors so during my last library trip I went in search of some earlier writings of my favorite authors and found about a half dozen or so, on tapes, (sigh) and there I was without a tape player. I checked them out anyway.
Do you know how hard it is to find a portable tape player anymore. Five places I went and finally I found one in the Wally World superstore I am suppose to be boycotting, (that's another story for another day.) The grandson when asked if he had a tape player before I spent money said, "ME why would I have one of those OLD things. Modern technology, is where it is, I-pods, you know." Sixteen year old humans . If you didn't love them, you would kill them. He no longer had a CD player either when I asked a month or so ago when mine stopped working from being dropped too many times. However when I shopped for a new portable cd player,I had no trouble finding one the first place I looked (Walgreens), unlike the tape player that turned into a two hour zig-zag trip across town from one store to another ending with me compromising my principles to step into the Walmart on West Broadway. I must be honest not all of the two hours was spent looking for the tape player, I knew they did not sell them in Michael's or Hobby Lobby Speedball squeegees yes, djanting tools no .
On top of that at the check out counter in Wallmart the sales associate asked if I worked there. ME? It seems I was dressed in the current wardrobe dictates of the company. Navy blue shirt paired with kakki bottoms; skirt (does anyone wear them anymore), shorts or slacks.

The tape player I finally found and brought was not the kind you can stick in a normal size pocket or hook on a belt, but rather one that sits on a desk for both recording and playback complete with microphone, built in speaker and an AC/DC plug and a head set for personal listening . Which are all good things. When I am stationary like at the sewing machine or in the garage dyeing fabric, it can be plugged into a wall outlet to save on cost and use of batteries. PLUS I can listen to it with or without a headset because of the speaker AND it is small enough to pick up and carry from one place to another or drop into one of two over sized pocket on my studio I'm making a mess and loving it apron.
NOW BACK TO THE RAINY DAY FUN IN MY SUNSHINE PART. yes I like the process of deconstructing screen printing and yes I will try more of this (the dyes and the print paste are waiting) and yes I woke with an idea germinating about what I will do with this piece of fabric as soon as it is dry and pressed.

Does anyone know if they have down load-able books for I-pods? Never-mind, I guess I should go ask the modern technolgy expert who resides in our house, he'll know.

My latest works

This is a small piece that is the class sample for a Quilt Guild in Illinois where I will be teaching a quick version of my "Flowers on a grand scale" workshop. I am also the luncheon speaker in October. This piece measures 12" x 22".

This is a larger piece measuring 67" wide by 54" long. Constructed entirely with my own hand dyed fabric. I've been quilting it since last week and was the project I went back to after the week of having the girls in for art week. It still needs to be faced and have sleeves and a label applied which I will do before it leaves the house. After seeing it as a photo image, I think I will work back into it with some Prisma pencils and fabric markers. Will let you see what that looks like when I'm done with it and happy with the results.

This is a close up of the quilting

Yesterday and the day before, I spent the mornings in the garage making six silk screen from stretcher bars and lengths of polyester curtain sheer fabric. My hands are complaining today (using the heavy duty stapler). I think I will invest in an electric one if I ever decide that the screens need replacing in the future. As anyone who knows me knows I do not do anything small so four of the silk screens I plan to use once I am comfortable with the process of Deconstructed Screen Printing are as large as I think I can handle by myself. 24 x 48, 22 x 40, 32 x 36 and 24 x 34 . The actual screen sizes are somewhat smaller after they are Duct Taped. Of the six I did make two small ones measuring 18 x 18 and 10 x 10 which I will use for practicing the technique.

I mixed my print paste two evenings ago so it is ready and this morning I will soda ash soak some fabric, let it air dried in the garage and make up some dyes. But first I have to make a run to the hardware store to get some rope and clothes pins. Or one of those folding clothes dryers. Hope to have some examples of what I am doing in a day or so.

Juried Exhibition and Workshop dates

Creatively Speaking
Curator Juanita Yeager of Columbia, Missouri
All accepted work must be available from May 15, 2008 to November 15, 2008 for the following two juried exhibition of Quilts, Quilted Collages, Art fabrics and Ceramics. The first exhibit June to August 2008, for the Ohio Valley Art League, OVAL Gallery, Henderson, Kentucky with include art fabric and ceramics by Elmer Lucille Allen, Louisville, Kentucky and the second, exhibit is in the Jackson Hall Art Gallery at Kentucky State University, Frankfort, Kentucky , September to October, 2008

Rules:
This competition is open to all with African Heritage ,age 18 or older and living in the United States.
1. There is no minimum size, but work can not exceed 72” in length or width.
2. There is not theme or entry fee.
3. The name of everyone or the group who worked on the piece must be listed on the entry form.
4. No kits, or commercial patterns, no large scale pre-printed images that exceed more than 25% of the total surface.
5. Entries limited to three per person.
6. Please include a self addressed stamped envelope to return slides, DVD or photo-images and shipping instructions for accepted work.
7. Label slides, photos and or DVD with your name and the name of the work depicted.
8. Work for both gallery locations can be for sale or for exhibit only.
9. Quilted Fabric collage for this exhibit is defined as any work that is composed primarily of fabric, but may include paper, found object and non traditional quilt media, such as paint, foiling, tyvek etc.
10. Work my be framed without glass or stretched. Hanging devise must be attached.
11. A quilt for this exhibit is defined as any work composed of three layers held together with either decorative or functional stitches done either by hand or machine
12. All accepted work must have sleeves for display rod.
13. Any work that differs significantly from the submitted and accepted image will not be displayed.

Address any questions to :
Juanita Yeager jyquilts@mchsi.com 573-446-6423
Send competed form and visuals to : Juanita Yeager/Creatively Speaking
5500 Satinwood Court,
Columbia, MO 65203
Post marked on or before March 1, 2008

Name(s): __________________________________________________________
Address ___________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
Telephone NO. ____________________ E-mail ______________________
Entry #1Name of work _____________________________________________________
Size _________________ Date completed _________________

Description of work, include construction technique(s) and story related to work if any. Use back of this page if additional space is needed.







Entry #2 Name of Work _______________________________________________
Size _________________ Date completed _________________

Description of work, include construction technique(s) and story related to work if any. Use back of this page if additional space is needed.




Entry #3 Name of Work _______________________________________________
Size _________________ Date completed _________________

Description of work, include construction technique(s) and story related to work if any. Use back of this page if additional space is needed.

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Mastering the Quilted Surface
A series of Workshops with Juanita Yeager for the beginner and the more advanced
Columbia Missouri


Dates: March 16 to 22 7 days Fee: $1,000.00 * 6 openings
July 5 to 11 7 days Fee: $1,000.00 * Closed
July 14 to 18 5 days Fee $800.00 * 6 openings
Nov. 1 to 8 7 days Fee $1,000.00 * 6 openings

*This fee includes all supplies, except sewing machine and any personal favorite quilt making tools or gadgets you want to bring. All fabric for instructional sessions is supplied including fabric for dyeing and other surface design techniques. Those traveling by air may send their machines and supplies ahead by USPS, Fed-Ex or UPS

Meals: Lunch ,Dinner and afternoon tea beginning with Dinner on arrival day are included in fee
Travel: Shuttle service on MOEX from Airport in Kansas City or St. Louis will be arranged and individualized according to each participants needs as will hotel accommodations. Although a room will be reserved for you the cost of lodging is not included in fee. Please advise if you want single or double occupancy during your stay.

The exact schedule of daily event is being finalized, however here are a list of topics that will be addressed during the March 16-22, July 14-18th and Nov. 1-8 session.

Surface design (screen printing, mono-printing, stamp making and stamping, foiling and discharge)
Discussion and use of mixed media for art quilts, (Shiva sticks, acrylic paints, inks, crayons, markers)
Design and Composition
Color theory
Quilt Construction techniques including batting, stabilizers and edge finishing techniques
Free motion and straight line machine quilting
Procion MX dyes for natural fibers and Disperse Dyes for man-made fibers
My small groups workshops are more flexible, therefore, if you register and there is some process or , technique you want to learn let me know and I will arrange to address it during the session.

Payment schedule: Partial payments are acceptable however
Full payment is required by February 1, 2008 for March session. June 1, 2008 for both July sessions
And October 1, for the November session.
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Return this portion with $100.00 non-refundable deposit.

Name:
Street Address:
E-mail Address:
City State Zip
Session attending
Single or double room accommodations :


* Please advise of any dietary restrictions or food allergies.

What's doing

Part of sun dial in Rose Garden

A view inside the one room school house in the Shelter Garden


Last week I kept myself chained to the sewing machine quilting, quilting, quilting and listening to books on tape. I went to the library twice and I have gone through 10 books as of this morning and I still have at least 1/4 more to go before the quilting is completed. This newest work measures approxmately 60" x 72". Will show you an image of it when it is done, very unlike my other stuff, but still in keeping with my favorite subject, nature and flowers. I finally got to walk through the Shelter Garden, (Shelter Insurance Company Home Office) The garden is open to the public, people get married on the grounds by the waterfall and at the gazebo. It is a place of interest and pride in Columbia. At Christmas the grounds in front of their office if decorated wonderfully. In the gardern ia an original one room school house preserved and reminding me very much of the place where I attended school from Kindergarten to 2nd grade.
It did my heart good and my camera clicking was very happy, as I snapped picture after picture of flowers and foliage and texture as I walked through the garden along winding paths that take you from one water fall to another and koi ponds with water lilies to the English type garden at the school door to the Memorial garden and rose garden and the gazebo and garden with hanging plants and under trellises to a shade garden with statuary. Even on the hottest day of the year there were benches placed along side the paths that beckoned you to come sit and contemplate which I did several times along the pathway. At one point the breeze made me want to stay for hours. But other errants needed attending to so I pulled myself away after an hour.
It has been really hot here as has most of the Midwest and no rain to speak of.
I ordered Photoshop Elements but have not taken time to really see what it can do on my own, John the grandson, looking over my shoulder said do this and do that and you know if you do this you can do that and this and this and that. Man oh man kids today :) I need to keep him around a little while longer and maybe with his help I'll get this program down pat without having to read the manual.
I did take some time out yesterday when the house was quiet to look at my other acquisition, Deconstructed Screen Printing by Kerr Garbowski. I could hardly contain myself, I was ready to go in search of silk screens and make print paste and a printing surface. I was pumped, primed, itching.
I halted.
It was late, Hobby Lobby and Michael's was closed and while I know where the top of the blender is I don't know if I can readily put my hands on the base or the print paste mix although I know they are around here some where.
Plus, when reality set in, it did do very firmly, "You need to get that quilt in the studio finished."
So that is my objective for the next 2 days. Get it done. AND THEN.......

All good things must come to an end

and so it is with me and the girls. Here they are all smiles and the project they were most proud of.   

The girls today

Sonia is very creative. I gave her general instructions on how to make a log cabin block and this is what she did with those instructions. Of course she has been with me long enough to know that I do not criticize or correct her thinking process or interject me into what she is doing only to the extent of trying to make her aware of craftsmanship.

 

I put a selection of fabrics on the table for them to use as well as dumping my scrap basket. Then they discovered my fabric closets and I wish I'd had a picture of them hugging the shelves. They were actually drooling over the colors of the fabrics and wanted to immediately come live in the closet. )Funny)

 

 

Alyssa's piece is more of what a log cabin block could look like if someone knew what they were doing but since she didn't it has a very free feel to it. With more attention paid to ironing there is promise and future fiber-art people in the making.
Today they ate without talking to much as they were anxious to get back to their sewing machines and since I simply sat and watched their little brains and hands work I think I'll go to the studio and get some work of my own done now instead of heading for the bed and a nap that I really needed yesterday.

 

The girls at art

I hadn't seen very much of my young friend Sonia for weeks because of her schedule and mine, so I decided that I would reserve this week for her to come play in my stuff. As it happened a new pre-teen girl moved into the house that backs up to mine and I introduced them to each other. Alyssa(sp) and Sonia came on Tuesday at 10 and left at 2:30 after trying their hands at disperse dye painting. After their painting were dry, I transferred them to a variety of 100% polyester fabrics including a bridal weight satin, lutradure and organza as well as a poly cotton. The first image is of Lissa and her painting on Tuesday. I do not have a shot of Sonia because of camera battery trouble again which I solved by buying some Duracell's. I'll worry about replacing my rechargeable later since they are not holding a charge for any length of time anymore.
We take a break at noon, more because I need it than they do at which time we stop and have a sit down lunch. I have been entertained by the scariest stories that two 10-11 year olds can tell. They seem to delight in out storying the other. God, I don't remember reading or telling this kind of stuff to an adult when I was 10.

 

These are shots from today. They were painting with Seta-color, they did some sun printing and tried their hands at machine quilting with a walking foot. They also did some rubbings using Prisma color stick and texturizing plates. Tomorrow they want to do some free motion which Sonia is already very good at doing.
Alyssa is a new sewer, but in no time she had my spare machine humming,knew how to follow the numbers to thread it and was quite adapt at changing from one decorative stitch to another on my old trusty Janome manual machine.
I think I'll let them play with the embellisher too tomorrow.

 

 

No more wet stuff for at least a day or two. I was prepared for spills, none came. And I covered them up pretty good with a couple of my t-shirts, but they were nearly spotless when they were done today at 2:30. And I was ready for a nap.

 

Jackie Berry to the rescue

In my e-mail came today an image of the quilt that got away without me having a picture of it. And she also sent me some images of the workshop so here is one. So thank you very very much Jackie.

When I got up this morning and started to work

in my studio after collecting and organizing the dozen plus one quilts I was taking along with me to show as I did not talk to the Booneslick Guild this afternoon, I didn't for the life of me think I was going to sell a quilt. BUT I DID. Not only did I sell one, I sold the last one I finished this morning or nearly finished. It had no sleeves or a label. Yes it did have my free motioned machine stitched signature on the front in the lower right corner. But no label and no sleeves, aaarrrrggg!
The lady who wanted it called her husband to come to the church meeting room to write the check which he did adoringly. She assured me she knew how to put a sleeve on a quilt and would do so right away because she was going to hang it in her living room as soon as she did.
I also do not have an image of it either. The nice check in my hand isn't quite making up for the fact that I do not have a picture of the quilt. Not yet, maybe later. I keep telling myself there have been quite a few other quilts of mine before digital camera and before I really cared about documentation that I have no images of either, so get over it.
I hope someone at the meeting has a picture I can get them to e-mail to me. I hope I hope I hope.
Next time I will think twice when I am having the following conversation with myself before taking one of my pieces out of the house. "Don't bother taking the batteries out of the charge and putting them in the camera. You can take pictures of it when you get back home or before it goes off to the gallery." WRONG!
I stopped at the market on the way home from the meeting and the cashier asked how my day had been so far and I said, GREAT!

Some candid shots from my workshop.

at the Satin Stitches Quilt Shop. There would have been more if I had remembered to charge the batteries. Which I didn't and the camera shut down.
The last picture is the project they were working on.
On Monday I am speaking to the Boonslick Quilt Guild, the day meeting group. The topic, my floral quilts if you hadn't guessed. I will bring some actual quilts, both old from the beginning of my quiltmaking years some from the middle years and one or two of my later ones, both the realistic ones as well as some from my Round Flower Series which I return to from time to time. Lyn my daughter and her lap top will help me fill in the gap with some images of quilts I no longer have through the use of Power Point.
I have finished Harry Potter Seven and now I am off to work in my studio for a while.

 

 

 

 

feeling really dumb

at this moment. I forget to take my camera when I went to teach the first day of a two day workshop. I am teaching at Satin Stitches Quilt Shop here in Columbia. All of 8 miles from the house and I get to sleep in my own bed. Great.
22 registeded for the class and I must say I that all 22 are really lovely ladies that I throughly enjoyed being with. The day pass very quickly.Saat down only once during the class and that was for a quick lunch. Thank God for my Earth Shoes.
So tomorrow, I will take some candid shots of the class and of what they did. Besides finishing a small piece and starting a rather larger one since I last posted
I have had my head in a book when I needed some down time from getting ready for this class. I read Harry Potter 6 which I had put off reading until book seven came out. I hadn't planned to read book 6 or 7 preferring to wait until the movies were made, but there was so much talk about book seven and how it ended that I had to read them. I didn't read the other 5 , just a few chapter in book one to see if it was appropriate for the grandsons which I deemed it was. I have seen all of the movies howver including the latest one, but fearing someone would tell me how the saga ends before the movies caught up with the last two books I thought it best that I read it now. I am half way through book 7 turning and reading each page as fast as I can. I think my eyeballs have at least 30 more minutes before they need to close for the night so off I am going to read some more.