Double Musky & next Quilt projects

 
Just in case you wanted to know. These are the hours at the Double Musky. We went on Wednesday, thinking the would be open at 430. They weren’t, but we were near the head of the line, so didn’t have to wait for a table once they did open.
We went with my pal Judy & Warren’s work partner Will. Warren & Will had a bet going on all of the football games last season, & the loser had to take the winner to the Double Musky for dinner. It was neck & neck through the whole season, & they were tied going into the Super Bowl game, where Will won, so this is what Will got for winning. It looked like 1/2 a cow on his plate. A family of 5 could easily have made a meal out of this piece of meat! Will is probably still eating it. He took most of it home with him.

This was on the wall right behind me. Will said he wants to go to Mount Veeder.

As far as the quilting part of my life, in my typical ADD fashion, I am looking at several projects at once. This top belongs to my pal Jan Wills. She is a terrific appliqué’ artist. I am working on designs for quilting this piece, & had to order some new thread to use on this piece.
 
Below, this large quilt top is hanging on my wall, & I have been doodling designs in my computer for how I might quilt this one. This is another Dr. Shirley Fraser quilt. She’s a wonderful lady, & I love her dearly.

Last, here is a little peek of my gel printed fabrics (for the Fiberactions next challenge), that I have arranged & rearranged until I’ve found a configuration that I like. I had it all arranged on my portable press board, but nothing was pinned or glued, which was fine because I keep my studio door shut, & things never get messed with when I’m not here….NOT!
My DH had to iron a shirt, & it so happens that he likes my portable press board, because it’s so convenient! So last night I spent another 1/2 hour rearranging the pieces that I hadn’t photographed or pinned in place!  They are now pinned together!

Blogger: Dashboard

a Little More Homer

 

These roses had a heady scent.

 

2 of my favorite wild flowers, Lupine & Fireweed are everywhere.

 

Columbines & the view below were from the Visitor center.

 

One of the things I love about Homer. is every place you go there is art. The picture below was the table in the coffee shop.

 

We also made a stop at our favorite Pottery studio, Paul Dungan. We’ve bought several pieces from him in the past, including the sink in our bathroom, but this time we bought a couple of mugs.

 

Warren picked out the brown one, I chose the one with the blue. It reminded me of the ocean.

On the way  back from Paul’s we stopped so I could snap a picture of this little cabin, lined with fireweed. There was a man outside picking strawberries, & he came up & talked to me, & shared the sweetest berries I’ve ever tasted.

That’s it for our weekend in Homer. One of our favorite places on Earth.

Homer Spit Weekend

 

We packed up our van on Friday evening & drove down to the Homer Spit for the weekend. It rained off & on the whole weekend, but we were snug & dry inside our old Dodge van.

We walked the spit,  exploring the tide pools.

 

I found some cool textures, that make me think of quilting designs .

We visited the Alaska Islands & Ocean Visitor Center. Well worth the stop. They have been open for 6 years already, & what a beautiful facility! There were a couple of 15minute films to watch, several interesting exhibits,…

Art everywhere you looked….

& a classroom full of ongoing educational offerings & volunteers running the whole thing.

We ate at some of our favorite places, one of which is the little Mermaid Cafe, & bookstore. We had breakfast there on Saturday morning.

The bookstore part of the building is built from an old cabin, with the dovetailed joints.

On Saturday we took a drive out East End Road. We had never gone so far down this road before, & hadn’t realized that it goes a very long way toward the end of Kachemak Bay. We never made it to the end of the road, but went for miles, & had a good time trying to spot old rusty trucks.

I have a thing for them. We stopped & I photographed several along the way. Here are just a few of the pictures I took:

On the road home, I thought it was appropriate to look up from my book, & be a little startled by finding this view in front of me.

I have a few more Homer pictures to share, but I’ll save them for the next post.

Quilts, Inc. On Line with ALCQ

An article is on line here, featuring the Anchorage Log Cabin Quilters, along with some of my  photos, & one of my quilts.

More Gel Printing

 

 

Ok, I know these photos aren’t terribly exciting, but I am having some fun with this gel-printing. I think next time I’ll use thickened dyes instead of the Dynaflow textile paints. I was only using 3 colors in the 2 greens & a brown. I went out in the rain & picked some fresh leaves.

 

These are what I ended up with.

The next piece of fabric is one that I dyed while ago, & wasn’t real excited with the resulting pinky-brown color. I figured it was something I could play with.

So play I did. I gel printed & stamped on it with the greens & brown. It’s subtle but a nicer texture than what I started with.

 

I’m not sure where this is going to lead yet. I have no definite plan in mind, but will let the spirit move me where it shall!

Stretching with Gelatin Printing

It was raining outside yesterday, & the nasturtiums were collecting little globes  of water. They glistened like diamonds.
Today I posted the next challenge word on the Fiberactions blog. I decided on STRETCH, so that’s what I attempted to do a bit of today. I dug out my copy of Rayna Gillman’s book, & read up on how to do Gelatin Printing. It’s something I’ve always wanted to try & never got around to doing.

She said to use an aluminum foil pan, which I don’t have, so I dug out an old Tupperware container, that’s big & square. I lined it with Parchment Paper to make it easy to get the gel plate out.

I mixed 2 1/2 times the recipe to fill the bottom of the container.

It worked like a charm. The plate came out easily.

I did a second one in a small square silicone cake pan, but it broke when I was removing it. I still used it though. The curvy lines are from the pan.

I stepped outside & picked a few leaves from my yard.

I printed 4 to 6 layers of paint on each piece of fabric. I enjoyed the process, but feel I can get similar results just with paint & stamping, & brayers, without the gelatin, so I don’t know how often I will bother to make the gelatin plates. I did save them & will probably do more later.

I was using Dynaflow Textile Paints, & tried “Sun Printing” with my Ott light.

It actually worked, though maybe not as strong a print as it might have been in actual sunlight.

The last is a green fabric, that started out with the same print as the purple on the left. I gelatin printed using a mesh bag for resist, & then did a little stamping with a rubber stamp for more texture.

I’m going to let these rest tonight then see if I want to do more “stretching”.