New hangers

Today we found some bamboo hanging pieces that we think will work very well with my hangings.  It will mean juggling the size of my work, but overall I think they will look much better than the dowel system we're currently using.  The price is certainly good. There are three of them here--one is 36" and the other two are 18"--good standard sizes.

Dyeing yet again

A small, local fibre art support group--The Fibre Art Divas--has a bit of a challenge going.  As a group, we have a small gallery show scheduled for November 2017.  As well as larger pieces, we are each to display a 12" by 12" piece, all of which are to be inspired by the same photograph.  I have a pretty good idea of the design of my small piece, and my task now is to dye a piece inspired by the colours of the photo. I chose to try ice dyeing for this, and as part of the dye bath, included a larger piece of fabric.

This is the result.  It is approximately 43" square, and I have no idea what I'm going to do with it, but I know in my heart I will be doing something.

I am linking this to The Needle and Thread Network.

The other thing I've been working on

Yes, the reliquary is done.  There were a lot of "glitches" along the way, but I was able to solve most of them, some better than others.

Here is a view of the front.

And the end 

And the back.

I don't know how thrilled I am with this sort of hinge, but glad I had the experience of making it.  I've never used wooden feet before and am quite happy with those.

I am linking this to the Needle and Thread Network  http://needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.ca/ 

Cutting into the "good" fabric

The piece I spoke of in the last post is now pieced and ready to be sandwiched, for quilting.  I got to thinking about why I had wanted this to be a special piece so much.  The fabrics used were some of my special mandala-dyed fabrics.  These take a lot of work and can be expensive to produce when all of the fabric, dyes, and bags of ice, are considered, let alone the time involved in preparing the fabric.  ( I was preparing a small piece today and spent over an hour with it, and still haven't finished).  My willingness to cut into them ( there were four of them), took a lot of gumption!  Even if the piece refused to let me make a very involved mixed-media "thing", actually producing a finished piece, traditional in character or not, is still an accomplishment.  So I will use it to practice my FMQ'g skill and do the best job I can.  I'm even willing to share what it looks like, so far. It is about 40" square, and not, at all, in my preferred palette, except for the barn red, which I laughingly call a neutral. 

Shouldn't have said anything

about feeling good.  Did something to my leg going down stairs Thursday, and it's been giving me grief ever since.  I even ended up using my cane again yesterday.

Is it ever frustrating when a piece refuses to do what you think it should!  Got one doing that right now.  I had wanted to experiment with cutting an un-quilted piece in strips and weaving it into a smaller piece and then using a lot of hand embroidery --Kantha-style.  Not going to work-no how.  It has turned out fairly traditional in nature, and is demanding to be finished in some traditional way.  I've found the right colour of thread to use in machine quilting, but it's obvious that there is no way I can modify the colour and have the piece work out.  ( I was thinking of using Walnut ink over freezer paper masques.)

I'll have to think about it while I'm volunteering at a local art show later today.

Changes

Feeling good, and moving around a little better, Wednesday evening I attended the monthly meeting of the LQG.  It's been almost three years since I attended a regular meeting.  The Guild had just come off the organization of a huge quilt show earlier this month, as they've been doing very successfully for years. The basic agenda for the meeting doesn't change, and it would be very easy to say that --in this Guild--nothing ever changes, but that's not really true.  Yes, most of the ladies--and there are many long term members--are older and grey-er, but that's wasn't what I saw.  This Guild has a very well-deserved reputation for being ultra-traditional, and conservative.  However, I saw many much more modern quilts at Show'n'Tell.  The skill level I saw in both the Show'n'Tell, and when the donation quilts were displayed, was much higher than the last time I took a good look.  The fabrics were the bright clear colours I associate with the Modern Quilt Movement, and many of the patterns that had been used were quite contemporary.  I might have thought it was me, but spent a few minutes talking with another long term member who, without prompting and quite spontaneously, mentioned many of the same observations.

If I really think about it, maybe it's me who has been left in the dust--so to speak

Relax?

The class is finished, and went well--I think.  It's always so gratifying to have a student come up and say "I love this!  Show me more".  One area of the class needs more work, but it should be an easy fix, so it'll wait a bit.  It appears that I left two Omnigrid rulers behind.  They weren't new, and it'll probably be easier and cheaper to just replace them.  The car has now been unpacked and almost everything put away.

I tackled the resume today.  I've kept the old computer, took a chance, and got PSE working.  Fussed with the photos for awhile with no success, so abandoned PSE.    My concern had been the electronic size of the document with the photos.  So I finally added a couple of them to the document reducing the physical size of them using what limited functions were in the very old Word program.  Having no idea what I'd accomplished I printed it off and it had worked just fine.  So I sent it off and hope it is good enough.

Then being too tired to do anything more decided to relax and play for the rest of the day.  I managed to buy thread at the large quilt show that was on this weekend, on my way out of town, and one package of fat quarters, but hadn't had a chance to even take it our of the package.  Taking a look, I was PO'd to find that the fat quarters were fat quarter yards, not meters!  I thought they had to be labeled??!

Anyway I spent the rest of the day revising the small project I had bought them for.  Over the past while, I've enjoyed doing a bit of hand stitching while watching the one tv show I allow myself.  I've also felt guilty about not using the jelly roll I foolishly bought a couple of years ago.  So I've started putting together some Cathedral Window blocks.  

No idea where this is going to go, and "no", I haven't forgotten the reliquary.