30 MINUTES OF FUN

I was dying to try this...Terry, one of my Cyber Fibres friends, posted a piece she had covered with a poly sheer and then proceeded to burn/melt  it. I couldn't stop looking at it - it was so intriguing and interesting.
I wanted to do a quick and dirty trial run, just to get the hang of it. I made a 3-layer sandwich (sounds like lunch time) of cotton, batting, and 3 scraps on the top. It looked like this:

Next I put a piece of black sheer poly on the top and proceeded to free motion over it with white COTTON thread. (Cotton is the important part!)  Looking good, isn't it?

At this point I needed to burn/melt it but didn't have a means to do that, so when I was at Cynthia's for dyeing on Monday, I borrowed her heat gun. I took this outside and blasted it with heat and watched the poly melt away. I was recognizing similarities to that amazing image that Terry had sent me.

I don't particularly like the part on the left, as the underlying values are too different but I love the part on the right. It's really not my thing to do something like this but I who knows? I might find a way to incorporate this in my work.
BUT, here is something, a surprising final step, that I think is really great! When I brought the burned piece in to show my dyeing friends, Jill suggested  that I print it. I had some charcoal gray print paste already mixed up, so rolled it on and then laid soda-ashed cotton on top for a print. (I used a large PVC pipe to roll over it.) Here is the result.

The stitch lines even show up. I wish I would have used a darker print medium, but hey, we've just begun. I think there will be more of these to come.

OH DAMN!

I took a tumble last Friday...down 6 steps, head first, on to concrete. The results were a few small scrapes and bruises and a chipped bone on my left foot. The doc put a splint on my foot/leg, suited me up with a pair of crutches, and told me I'd be getting a call from the orthopedist. When I pressed him for how long I might have this, he told me 4-8 weeks.
Four to eight weeks? Crutches and doctor appointments for four to eight weeks? This can't be. I have things to do!
At home, Tom got me settled and poured me a glass of wine. Rather than a celebration or relaxation drink, it was more to numb me to the reality of this situation. Even though I'm smiling, I was not very happy.
By Saturday morning, I was feeling better. I talked to a few friends, posted the above pic on Facebook, and decided to keep our dinner engagement that night. Life must go on. My friend Jayne reminded me that "life happens when we're busy making plans". How true. And I was well aware of how lucky I was that I only had a small fracture.
I knew one thing for certain...I could still sew. I woke up Sunday morning and decided to do some "crazy sewing". To me that means going somewhere I've never gone before...not worrying about time...just going with the flow of the process. Of course I wanted to put together another piece for my "Signs of Life" project, so that defined some specific guidelines (signage and a bird) and the rest just sort of happened.
As all of the pieces for "Signs of Life" relate to some experience I've had this year, the event/person I'd been pondering about lately was my friend Sudie Mason, a longtime boater who has been coming to Refuge Cove for years. She is wise and wonderful and always has a great story or tidbit of wisdom to share. This year she commented to me how she tries to "experience nature every day". That really stuck with me.
I wanted to start with white cotton and create my own background piece with fabric markers. I googled some nature-related images and just didn't find anything that interested me. I decided to fall back on one of my standard free-motion stitching patterns of leaves, ferns and flowers. I have used this so many times throughout the years, every since discovering Laura Lee Fritz's books on continuous line quilting. She is amazing and works with so many different themes, but I stuck with the floral/foliage theme and became proficient with it.

I first used a disappearing ink pen to draw this continuous line design onto white fabric stabilized with freezer paper. Then I went over it with a permanent black fine-tipped marker. Next I colored in the shapes and finalized it with a bright yellow background.

Now for the text. I had to really think about the layout on this one as all the words are different sizes and I wanted to have room for some sort of BIRD (of course) and possibly other nature images. I went to my WORD program and proceeded to type

EXPERIENCE
NATURE
EVERY
DAY

just as I have just done above (aligned to the right), and then played around with different fonts to see what I liked best. I decided on the very intricate "Jokerman" as I hadn't tried it before. Now, in retrospect, I think it is a bit busy with the background design, but I can live with it. I made a quilted sandwich with the top, some batting, and a backing and proceeded to free motion all of this text. I worked right to left which was very different for me, and also a bit challenging with all of the detail of this font. (I used my favorite 1/4 " tape to help me line it up.)

I  colored in the letters with black permanent marker and set out to plan the rest of the design. I had a few ideas in mind, but decided to let them all tumble around in my dream/sleep state and work on it the next day.
I wanted to keep it simple so settled on a tree/branch/leaf motif with a nest of two baby birds.

Sometimes life evolves in strange and mysterious ways. Gifts of time to do some "crazy sewing" are initially disguised as accidents. I wonder what else is in store for me this month?
And I've already come up with ideas for experiencing nature every day: choosing fantastic nature shows on Netflix, babying my house plants, reading on the deck under a cozy blanket, exploring new nature images to use in my work, or just being mindful of the colorful leaves as they blow across my window.

NEW SPACE

Dear Tom, THANK YOU for the new fantastic sewing space you helped me create in our small closet. It's PERFECT!!! I LOVE IT!

And what have I been doing? I'm working hard on my SIGNS OF LIFE project and now have 58, yes 58!!! small journal quilts WITH STORIES for my SIGNS OF LIFE PROJECT! Yeah!

ANd my new favorite book is Elizabeth Barton's Inspired to Design. I am definitely attracted to her sense of light and composition. I thought I'd put together a simple Barton-inspired piece for my quilt journal theme of "Windows". The next book on my list is her Working in a Series. I now like to work a series for a full year.

ROAD TRIPS

One of the great things about living in southern Oregon is the close proximity we have to amazing places. Whatever the direction, you will find beauty and interest and something new to explore.

Last weekend we found a slim window to take off for a 3 hour drive west. I had never been to the southern end of the Oregon coast. Tom had cycled it over 30 years ago, but basically it was new territory for both of us. And the weather forecast was great.
The journey to the ocean wound along the Smith River and through the Redwoods, traveling next to massive, old, full-of-life-and-history trees.

 

Once at the coast, we spent time driving north along highway 101 to the town of Brookings and onward to Gold Beach. We wanted to check out state campgrounds and other areas for future visits.

 

Turning back south, we ended up at Crescent City, California, another beautiful oceanside town.

Here we saw a huge reconstruction project to repair and refurbish the tsunami-damaged harbor.

 

 

And some very lazy sea lions.

 

The tide was low so we were able to walk out to the Battery Point lighthouse and visit with the volunteer caretakers. I saw a Bernina (just like mine) in the window as we walked around the building. What would it be like to live (and sew) at a lighthouse for a month?

 

Late afternoon, we found ourselves a picnic table for our daily game of cribbage. Surfers and beachcombers were in the distance, along with the rhythmic sounds of the ocean. And I won!!!

We found the local cinema for an evening movie ("Gravity"), and a small hotel to catch some sleep. We woke before the sun and headed back east towards the Rogue Valley. Our 30 hour vacation was well worth it!

PLAYING WITH FONTS

font: Forte

I had a bit of fun today playing around with fonts. Typically I just free motion any old letters, mostly capitals, but lately I've been interested in what else is out there. So, with a bit of help from my word processor (WORD), I just typed in the word I was going to stitch, highlighted it, and went through different options for fonts. Then I started stitching! (I'll admit I did need to practice with pencil and paper for some of them.)

font: Candara

font: Kristen

font: Curlz MT

 

font: Goudy Stout

 

Five fonts today with more to come!



ANOTHER TRANSITION

We've been back in Oregon for over a week now, settled in our simple home here, and most important, I'm back to sewing! The first half of our southern migration was successful.

 

On the way south, I was able to go to this year's first guild meeting for Quadra Quilters. It was great to connect with my guild friends and catch up with some of my quilt journal buddies. We turned in our summer challenges, portraying a "place" of importance to us. Mine showed my garden, with bees a-buzzing.

Onward to Sydney, BC, just north of Victoria, where we stay with our friends and Refuge neighbors, Jim and Sharon. On the way down, we stopped in Duncan for a SAQA (western Canada division) show. All pieces were 14" square and so well done. Great inspiration!

In Sydney I met with new Cyber Fibres member, Judith. I brought some of my quilt journals to show and she had her smart phone with photos. We connected well, got to know each other a little, and now we aren't internet strangers anymore.

Before we boarded the ferry to Anacortes, Washington, I stopped at another show that happened to be on display next to the ferry terminal. This was an exchange program of fiber art from Canada's east coast (Bay of Fundy) to the west coast. Ocean related, sea-faring themes dominated...more inspiration.

Anacortes brought us to Chris and Sarah's house for a few days. My niece, Sarah, and her hubby Chris are living in the area as Chris is stationed at the nearby Naval Station. Among other things, she showed my how she embellishes baby clothes with bleach product, and also tips on using Pinterest.
We also saw friends from past days when we kept our sailboat in Anacortes. This is a special place for us and we always stop to re-connect.

We're getting closer...but there's one last stop. Alaskan friends Becky and Kevin (from my Gustavus days) have a snowbird home in Port Townsend, another ferry ride southward. They shared fruit from their apple and pear trees and we had a few hours to catch up before we headed off for the last leg of our migration to Oregon.

Ah, feels good to be settled...and sewing!

A COMPARISON

I do a lot of discharging and my product of choice is Soft Scrub with Bleach (or, if in Canada, Vim with Bleach). A friend of mine doesn't like bleach products because of the smell/fumes, and her product of choice is Discharge Paste, a product she buys through Dharma Trading Company. For curiosity's sake, I purchased some and have used it with stamps, etc., but never in creating signage or with lettering.  I thought I'd do a comparison project.
I used the same fine tipped bottle for application that I use for the bleach product. (I used a syringe to get it into the bottle.) After I free-motioned my two bottle designs onto my sandwiched fabrics, I carefully applied the discharge paste to the bottle on the right. I let it dry for an hour before I applied a hot, dry iron to it for pulling out the color. The discharge paste obviously ran and bled past the stitch lines, and the result was a bit of a mess. Following this, I applied the Soft Scrub, let it sit on the surface for 10 minutes, then took it to the sink for a gentle washing/brushing of the residual product lying on top of the fabric. The product stayed behind the stitch lines, leaving crisp, precise detail. I would have predicted this outcome, but this little project made the differences even more obvious.

I recently used discharge paste to stamp on a dark, multi-colored parfait fabric. The result was muted and organic, perfect to use as an unfocused background piece with something of detail in the foreground. I used it  in this piece I created for my "Signs of Life" project. I like the little bit of spiral that peeks through, creating the idea of a sun. What's Mexico without the sun!!!?

I want to make a few personal remarks about about using bleach product. I use it sparingly as the brightness or neon-look of the results can be overpowering in a composition. I try to use it in a well-ventilated room, or even better - outside. Most of my discharging projects are completed in under ten minutes, and if I have more than that to do, I might take a break. I have been regularly using this technique for over five years, and believe that with conscious use, it can add so much to the world of fiber art.