Fabric Beads and More

For the March 1 meeting, we considered various techniques for making fabric beads as well as how to use the beads.

Show 'n' Tell

WIP by Martha: Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem

Ben's whole cloth piece with hand-stitched edge

Kathy's finished piece from the February meeting, just in time for SEFAA's square foot challenge

Danielle's on-going piece from a 2015 program, also just in time for SEFAA's square foot challenge

Join the Square Foot Challenge

Submissions due March 24, 2016

February 2016

After viewing Jane LaFazio's introduction to hand-stitched Milagros, we started our own. And we had much show n tell:

Martha's clothesline pieces

Phyllis knits!

Ben's award-winning quilt inspired by dance

Update from Ben:  These were made using thickened water (Thick-it) and floating acrylic paint and ink on the surface as in marbleizing. The surface was manipulated using a rake made from an old comb. 

Danielle's lovely traditional quilt

Terri's Inktense piece

Terri's other piece used another media, not Inktense.

Pamela's family puzzle, just lovely

Next month Martha will show us how to make fabric beads.

And we have decided to open up Susan Brubaker Knapp's class to non-members, after all the members have had a chance to register. Cost will be $75 for members; $150 for non-members.

Paint and Stitch with Susan Brubaker Knapp

Inktense Painting with Ben

Happy New Year!

We started off with some wonderful inspiration from Ben who guided us through the painting of cloth with Inktense pencils and blocks. Ben is the consummate artist and is especially talented with water colors.

Prior to this session, we have all seen some of the whole cloth pieces that Ben produces by creating a scene on cloth with Inktense and other materials. You can see his 5x7 contribution to our December party in the upper right hand corner of the picture below. It is the one with the whimsical figure dancing.

Here are some in-process samples Ben brought:

And here is show and tell:

Kathy took some classes in Houston. What wonderful pieces!

Devon's fabric pottery

Marion's drawing

Terri's quilt with 3D effects

I cannot remember who made this! And I love it.

A good reminder - we should all have this on our walls!

November Challenge and December 5x7s

In November we all brought in our responses to the challenge issued by Terry:

Merriam-Webster defines a cycle as “a set of events or actions that happens again and again in the same order – a repeating series of events or actions.” The theme for 2015 is cycles. It can be any kind of cycle: time, calendar, planetary, organic, mathematical,  scientific, economic, musical, religious, social, military, literary – or even a bike, trike or unicycle!

Use your imagination to show a complete cycle. Your artwork should somehow show that it is a metaphor for our journey through life.

Here are some of the pieces produced:

The Winner: Lynn!

Terry

Miriam

Stelle's - note detail of stitching below

Devon

I did not capture all the pieces. Sorry!

And here are the 5x7 pieces brought in for our annual exchange of art:

October - Dyeing with Mushrooms

Many thanks to Cornelia and husband Sam who presented an excellent program on dyeing with mushroom. The program was not only informative and interesting, they included a hands-on portion. Each of us dyed a silk chiffon scarf in a hot potion of local dyers' puff ball mushrooms. Here are some pictures from the evening:

Here is a link to an article recommended by Cornelia: click here.

And here is a book recommended by Cornelia: Mushrooms for Dyes, Paper, Pigments and Myco-Stix by Miriam Rice

Pictures from our fun meeting:

Colors that can be derived from mushroom, shown on wool yarn

Charming doll made entirely from mushroom-dyed yarms.
Each color is described in the chart below:

Recommended mordant

Recipes for each color

photo of *dyers' puff ball* mushroom. note the distinctive pea-like structures inside

Silk pieces painted during the August meeting taught by Diane. Thanks, Diane, for steaming each one!

Pair of quilts made from special silk ties.