STRETCH A leaf Study with Gel Printing

 

On the Fiberactions blog our current challenge word was ‘Stretch’. For myself, I wanted to do something I had never tried before. I started by getting out my copy of Rayna Gillman’s book “How to Create your own Hand-Printed cloth” and looked at her directions on Gel Printing. I used textile paints instead of mixing dyes, but the gelatin was the part of the process I hadn’t done before, & it was fun using such a squishy surface for the printing. I picked leaves from my yard, & laid them on the gelatin, then rolled the paint over them, peeled off the leaves, laid down the fabric for the mono-print, then also used the leaf to print an image too.      

I sewed the front & back fabrics together like a pillow, turned it with the batting in place, & closed the opening, then arranged the green pieces & 1 brown on the surface, sewed them in place, & machine quilted until I felt it was time to add another layer of texture.

I added lots of big stitches, French Knots, x’s, & a scattering of seed beads.

You can click on any of the images to see close-ups.

 

ALCQ Show2010

 

Harmony Moser was our featured quilter for this year’s ALCQ show.

I was delighted to meet Mary who traveled all the way from Ireland to come to our show. I was demonstrating free-motion machine quilting.

My “sister” Carol Wight Jones won viewer’s choice in the large quilt category, for her exquisite hand appliqué's & hand quilted quilt. The detail below is the nest with little eggs that I made for her from polymer clay.

This piece by Sandy Winfree was really beautiful. I love the silk textures. She hand dyes it, & ties rocks in it while wet, then lets it dry to retain the interesting shapes.

  his was another of my favorites. Linda Postelwaite hand appliquéd all of theses squares, & hand quilted this, all during the Olympics. Detail pics below.

This won Viewer’s choice for small wall quilts. It is ‘Painted Feathers’ by Cindy Rainey. She used Shiva sticks to paint it, & Sharon Schamber’s cording technique.

Jan Wills got the Viewer’s Choice for her appliqué’ quilt, that I quilted for her! We were both tickled pink!

The final Viewer Choice for wearable art, went to Connie Cloud, for her Puppies jacket.

Some of my other favorites were:

Pam Harris’s ‘Fan Fungi’,

& her ‘Postcard from Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles’. She credited me with teaching her the Treadplay “cup corals”.

as did Jackie Carley for the threadplay trees she did.

These purses were made by Pam Harris, & Joyce Webster.

The doggie coat by Elaine Fergen.

 

Done with the show report, at home now, I want to show you all the scarf that my DGF Kathy Jolman dyed for me using Eucalyptus leaves. She wrapped it on the stick with leaves tucked into it, & let me open it up to reveal the print. The other thing she did the same way was this hank of wool yarn shown in the upper left corner of the scarf picture.

This is how our nasturtiums look today.

 

And last, as I ate my breakfast this morning, the sun was shining, & a mist rolled through, giving me the most ethereal view. Beautiful day!

Michigan Visit

We arrived in Michigan on Sept. 2nd, which was my Dad’s 90th birthday. We waited in Grand Rapids until my eldest son Brandon arrived from Kwajalein with his family, then met Dad for dinner.

We had a nice dinner with Brandon & Laura & Carys.

  

The next day we visited my brother & his family, walked out by the Lake (Michigan), & the waves were pretty big.

This is the lighthouse near my brother’s place.

  This was our accommodations at my sister Em’s house. We loved sleeping out on her porch. The first night there was thunder & lightning, then when the storm passed the frogs & crickets sang a great lullaby.  I could see the stars, it was perfect! I loved this bed.

on Saturday we had a family reunion & big birthday party for Dad.

I’m not sure how many we had that showed up, but I would guess around 150.

My niece Leilani made the cake. BTW, I only gained 1 pound on this trip. Not bad for  10 days with my family!

Two of my girlfriends showed up, left to right is me, Kathy P. & Kathy F. It was so good to see them.

Later in Em’s kitchen I got out the Stackabubbles, & had some fun with the kids.

Jenny played make-up on Carys, & Kadee, then she gave Carys a bath & turned her into a Kewpie doll.

  

Kamie & Carys played well together.

We had dinner with sister Vickie, & Al one evening.

Laura was excited the day we went to our favorite Muskegon pizza joint, “Someplace Else”, because they serve Gluten –free pizza, & she said it was the best she had ever tasted.

After pizza we drove around town & went out to Pere Marquette to play on the beach.

 

We met the next day at niece Kim’s house to catch up with Katie who flew in that day from Texas.

  

On our last day we drove by the lone tree that I took a picture of back in February 4 years ago, so I could catch it in it’s leaves. I already did one small quilt with this tree, & I want to do more.

If you click on it, you’ll see a dragon fly just above the tree.

This was the sunrise on our last morning, looking out over White Lake, from my brother’s front yard.

Next post will be about yesterday’s quilt show.

Rock Continues & a Sneak Peek

                                                  
Where did the summer go? It always goes by so fast!
The rock is about 3/4 done, the yard still looks like a bomb has gone off, but the house is looking pretty good. We leave tonight for our trip to Michigan. We’re looking forward to spending time with family, & hope to see a few friends along the way too. I probably won’t be blogging while I’m there, so check back after the 12th. I’ll have Michigan & the ALCQ quilt show to post by then.
Below is a tiny bit of a sneak peek on my “Stretch” piece for the Fiberactions blog. I put the last stitches in it this morning.  The full story will be posted on Sept 15th. Until then have a safe Labor Day holiday weekend!
                                                    

Thank You Sarah Palin

I’m really not into politics. I haven’t voted in years. The biggest reason is I feel you should know what it is you are voting about & I avoid reading or watching , or listening to any news. I quit watching the news after 9/11. The coverage was so intense, & left me feeling so depressed that I realized I was healthier & happier not watching, or engaging in the news media in any way shape or form. If something big happens, I hear about eventually, & there is still nothing I can do about it, but I try not to let it effect me.  So when it comes to politics, I don’t feel I could vote intelligently, so I leave to the people who can.
Last year when we flew to Washington DC, everyone we met asked us if we knew Sarah Palin. No I don’t know her personally, but after a phone conversation with my Dear Dad a couple of weeks ago, I decided to write Sarah a note.  My Dad had just finished reading her  book  “Going Rogue”. He was really impressed with her, & made the statement that if she were running for office right now, he would vote for her. The reason those words really impressed me, is because Dad has always been a Democrat. He  ( & my mother & I),worked on many campaigns, as I was growing up. I dressed in a little “uniform”, & wore a campaign hat, & passed out literature, & made those annoying phone calls, knocked on doors, etc, all before I was 14 years old. (Maybe this is another reason I don’t do politics now.)
Anyhow, I decided since dad’s 90th birthday is next week, & he has this new little crush on Sarah, I thought, wouldn’t it be cool if she would send him a little happy birthday wish. So I wrote her a note. I told her how dad is the oldest, longest employee  in Muskegon County, Michigan. He still goes to work every day. He is the Assistant Director for Civil Defense. I asked her if she could please send him a note, & SHE DID! Dad called me today to tell me about it. He was tickled pink! So THANK YOU SARAH PALIN!