Colorful Fabric Collage

Hello, welcome to the Colorful Fabric Collage Blog Hop. This lovely 144 page book by Sue Bleiweiss features seven scrumptious chapters of awesome projects including design, dyeing, fusing, quilting, unusual embellishments and more. As I peruse through the book, I am just in awe of all the eye candy and wealth of information that Sue provides in this book. Wow!Congratulations, Sue! This book has been in the making for about a year at which time, nine artists were invited to create a piece for the Artist Spotlight sections throughout the publication. I am honored and tickled to be a part of it all along with Sue Bleiweiss, Jamie Fingal, Leslie Tucker Jenison, Terri Stegmiller, Deborah Boschert, Desiree Habicht, Kathy Sperino, Kathy York and Lyric Kinard. How cool is that?!!!! Below is my piece, Mystique, a 3 dimensional soft sculpted floral arrangement.
To order your copy, please visit Amazon or Interweave. Also in order to celebrate the release of this wonderful book, Sue and all the artists are doing a blog hop. And that is not all. Sue has graciously put together a mouth watering prize consisting of the book, Colorful Fabric Collage, Sketch Fuse Quilt along with a stack of Sue's beautiful hand dyed 10 inch squares, a 2 1/2 yd package of Mistyfuse and some Aurifil threads. Please note, that international winners will receive an e copy of the book and not the hard copy. To be eligible for this drawing, please leave a comment on this post and/or any other of the blog posts. You may enter on each blog post along the blog hop to increase your chances of winning. I am posting here but you may notice that to be eligible for this blog post, you must visit my website at http://www.barbforrister.com/blog/. Again, thank you so much for stopping by.

The schedule is as follows:

May 4: Sue Bleiweiss: http://www.suebleiweiss.com/blog/

May 4: Jamie Fingal :http://www.jamiefingaldesigns.com/
May 5: Leslie Tucker Jenison: http://leslietuckerjenison.blogspot.com/
May 6: Terri Stegmiller : http://stegart.blogspot.com/
May 7: Deborah Boschert : http://deborahsjournal.blogspot.com/
May 8: Desiree Habicht : http://myclothesline.blogspot.com/
May 9: Kathy Sperino : http://finishinglinesbyksperino.blogspot.com/
May 10: Barb Forrister : http://www.barbforrister.com/blog/
May 11 Kathy York : http://www.aquamoonartquilts.blogspot.com/
May 12: Lyric Kinard : http://lyrickinard.com/lyric-kinard-blog/

On Monday, May 18th, the winner will be announced on Sue's blog. Thank you for stopping by and good luck to you all!

What's Up Buttercup

Hello, welcome back. This week, I have been frantically trying to reset my home and studio after a long month of creating and teaching. And I am thrilled that I have finally caught up with life; all except for blogging of course, so here goes! What's Up Buttercup was created for the In Full Bloom exhibit at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas. The background is a commercial fabric. The curly vine is composed of countless fiber etched leaves and bits of thread and fibers fused on top of a layer of Mistyfuse. The smalls violet flowers are created with ribbon and are appliqued to the vine. The very large leaves in the background are a mixture of both cotton and hand dyed batting. The large Calla Lilies are composed of two pieces of hand painted muslin that is layered together with Mistyfuse. I

really wanted to create 3 dimensional, life like flowers that could reach out and beckon to viewers so painting an blending was the key to achieving this goal. These blooms extend 2-3 inches from the background of the quilt. Their stamens are comprised of beads on floral wire to further add dimension. Leaves were made with individual sandwiched layers of cotton, batting and Mistyfuse that were fused and stitched in the shape of leaves, turned right side out and stitched with an array of contrasting threads including variegated, metallic and thicker heavier threads that were bobbin stitched to provide interest. The Calla Lilies and their leaves were both machine and hand appliqued to allow their 3 dimensional properties to come forward. The butterfly was hand painted and fused to the background. The entire quilt was machine quilted and the edges were finished with a facing. This piece was finished in a week's time however that does not include the making of the flowers and etched leaves that I had already made, months before. During times, when things are slow, I like to replenish my stock of both flowers and leaves so that when I need them, they are available. With that in mind, I need to work on rebuilding my stash once more! Ha! Thank you for stopping by. I hope you have enjoyed this post. As I close, I am getting ready to do some hand dyeing and get ready for the big blog hop that features Sue Bleiweiss' new book, Colorful Fabric Collage, Sketch, Fuse Quilt. Please be sure and stop by to check out the buzz on this latest book and register to win a prize. I will also be posting about my newest and favorite to date quilt that I have just finished and all about my dye results from today's adventure. Wow! 2015 is turning out to be a great year! Wishing you all a most happy and creative week.

Dyeing to Dye and Fabric Painting Workshops for AAQG

Wow, it has been such a long time since I last posted. I truly hadn't realized it till now.  Last year, I took a hiatus or a sabbatical if you will but I am finally back and cooking with gas! Yay!!!! These last few months have been spent producing two quilts which I will post about later this week and also giving a lecture for the Crossroads to Texas Quilt Guild in Killeen, followed by a double workshop in Austin. This weekend was spent teaching both Dyeing to Dye and Fabric Painting workshops for the Austin Area Quilt Guild. On Friday evening, students gathered together to learn low immersion dyeing techniques including parfait and ice dyeing, omber gradients and marbling. Students learned to prepare dye solutions, process their dyed fabric and a number of low immersion techniques in a mere three hour period. With more than ten colors to play with, I think they were quite happy!

 

 

On Saturday, I met up with students once again to learn some Fabric Painting techniques. How fun! Students were taught sponge, omber, and sun painting using both transparent and opaque paints on light and dark colored fabrics. We also worked with stencils and discussed how to make stencils and a lot of the current stencil manufacturers as well as the use of thermo screens. Additionally, we made our own stamps using wood blocks and puffy foam.  Students were also introduced to other stamp making methods such as lino cutting and marshmallows, as well as vegetable stamping. Below are some of their lovely creations.

   As I write this, I am recovering on a Sunday afternoon. I am exhausted but in a good way. My students enjoyed their classes and walked away with some quality pieces and a working knowledge of dyes and paints. They are equipped with a new set of tools and techniques to add to their repertoire and many walked away with a new found confidence. And for that, I am tickled. I hope you have enjoyed reading this post. Please feel free to chime in. I love hearing from you! I also invite you to stop by tomorrow when I post about one of the new pieces that I have created.