Deconstructed Paisley

Although I've collected paisley fabs and often used them in quilts, I found I was somehow bored with some that have been in the collection for a long time, and they were among the fabrics I donated before my move, and traded at Fabric Traders in Sidney.

However right before the silk screening class with Susan Purney Mark, I bought a shower curtain with giant paisleys on it. I'm only sorry I had someone else do the hard labour of climbing up and hanging it before it occurred to me to pop it on the scanner.

I was particularly interested in the way several motifs meet, and based on that sketch I made this screen and printed it on pole-wrapped shibori from Susan's Colour Seduction workshop back in October. Of course this is the NEGATIVE space between the paisleys.

THOUGHT: Has anyone ever made a fabric really exploiting this? Wish I had signed up for Lily Kerns' QuiltU class on using PhotoShop on fabric. Oh well, (1) we don't have PhotoShop and (2) I am starting Filament Fantasy on Friday and that will keep me out of the bingo halls (as if!) and probably make more of a difference to my work.


And speaking of work, my hours are as follows:
through Jan 25: 33 hours
Feb 1: 34 hours
Feb 8: 28 hours
Feb 15: 37 hours
Feb 22: 40 hours

Q: When is ironing not torture?

A: When it's pressing fabrics I've dyed, painted, printed or otherwise manipulated!

Neat gizmo

Susan Purney Mark told us about this at the silk
screening workshop, as a possible way to generate
images for t-shirts, et cetera. 

To try creating your own, just go to
www.wordle.net and type (or paste!) away to your
heart's content.

This is a family recipe for lemon pie which almost
got lost in the upheaval of moving and the demise
of my old PC ~ I thought I had backed up my recipe
file which dated back to 1986 and had been
migrated through every PC I ever owned, but I was
mistaken.  The only reason I had this recipe was
because I had played around with fonts to
incorporate it into a collage.

Closest book to you

How to play:
* Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
* Turn to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post that sentence along with these instructions in a note in your BLOG.
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual... Use the CLOSEST

"We see a different person relating to spouse and children and wonder whether that was the same person we've worked with all those years."

My book was What's Right with Islam, by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf

Got this from Textile Traveler, whose blog is included in my list of blogs.

Screenprinting Workshop

Yesterday I took Susan Purney Mark's silk screening workshop at Satin Moon.

This was fascinating and a good start.

Things that surprised me:

How much paint it takes!

And that it takes longer than I expected it to.

In fairness I suspect that with practice and planning things would go faster. We had a lot of fun playing around and experimenting.

The photo above shows a piece of pole wrapped shibori (made in Susan's Colour Seduction workshop in the fall) screen printed with a repeated motif inspired by the negative spaces in large paisley patterns.

If it looks wrong, it must be right

This is the challenge piece I'm working on. Its current state is the top photo -- the strip on the right is auditioning and not sewn on yet, nor is the ExtravOrganza. In fact I flipped that strip around and now it looks better because the light green continues the motion in the dark piece to the left of it.

Everything is hand dyed except for the dark green/blue around the top and sides. Interestingly this framing of the top and sides is the same as in Ballerina, and even the impression of sideways motion coming from the right of the piece is similar. Wow, a series!

The reason for the title is this is the first piece I've made with curved seams, which has been a learning experience. I finally put the on-line instructions up on my computer screen and reviewed them carefully before sewing each piece. The instructions are at:
www.equilters.com/library/techniques/sewing_curves.html

Soon I will be reaching the point where the top is finished, and since Susan wants to take photos at the next FAD meeting I will need to decide whether to layer and quilt it and have it completed by the 19th or leave it as is and then pick it up after the 19th. Probably I should stick to my motto and complete it.