All Kinds of Stuff Going on.....

Been painting with inks and dyes in prep of some hand stitching projects for auction donations and gifts, etc. I like to use hand painted fabric for these types of projects if possible.

I am in love with cotton canvas (and this picture of Gizmo!) lately. I guess it's the texture - but it takes inks and dyes really well. At first I thought maybe not as it's so course - but it just sucks up the color - and keeps it vivid. This "brick" looking piece was using the glue gel resist and dyna-flows. I'm in the process of filling the bricks with seed stitches in matching colors.

This piece is Neocolors on muslin - a pretty big piece of muslin. I have several pieces coming out of this. Here's a "before" applying water and an "after" apply water.
Next I'm going to thread paint it with some metallic and rayon threads, and then cut it up. These pieces will be for some post cards and note cards for an auction "summer fun" theme basket at Sabrina's school.

Just a few pieces I painted in preparation of smaller projects. I finally got around to painting some cellophane and organic cotton batting with Lumiere. Can't wait to use these in something. Since I already had the painting "mess" out, I decided to paint up a few extra pieces of stuff for a special friend in Ohio who is experimenting with art collaging.

Finally, I've been meaning to try making some tyvek beads, so about two weeks ago I cut up some strips and melted them onto a skewer. (Carolyn has a wonderful tutorial on her blog if you'd like to get see the process and her beads are really, really pretty. )

I finally got around to painting them last week and sprayed them with varnish. After looking at Carolyn's tutorial, I decided to wrap some of them with metallic threads - I love that bit of detail. I think I'm going to do a huge batch of these and add painted detail and fibers to some of them. They make the coolest embellishments for art quilts. Some of my favorite quilt artists use tyvek beads in their work and you'd never know these are just little melted pieces of Priority Mail envelopes (don't tell my mailman!)

And finally, a few snapshots I took around the house yesterday morning - it was a gorgeous day and the sun was dancing around the trees and Gizmo and Tobie were dancing around the yard! I get up really early even on the weekends - and so enjoy sitting outside while it's quiet with the sun, the shadows, my coffee and my corgis.

Life is good!

It's Done.....

I kept looking at this and decided it needed another layer of ink. I wanted the flower to appear a deeper shade of blue. After adding more ink, I decided to add some Czech glass beads to the center for sparkle.
Finally, after much deliberation as to how to bind this -- I've decided the "best" binding would be "no" binding, that an "organic" finish would compliment this just fine. So, I put some pretty green batik on the back with a message to Wurzerl on it, stitched up the sides with some aqua cotton thread, stitched two pieces of satin ribbon on to the top and attached it to a nice branch I found in the woodpile as a hanger. Now, it's off to Germany to Wurzerl and her "Garten." I hope she likes it!