Fiber and Pulp

Summer is Here

Well, I did manage to sew for about six hours today ... but did not work on my 'obligation' sewing. Finished up this flimsy instead. Needs to be washed and ironed now. :P

:) Linda

Sunday Afternoon Fun

stamped with sliced oranges and carved sweet potato leaves

overlaid with a sheer that was also stamped with the oranges

stamped with sliced lemons and limes

stamped with mushrooms

carved sweet potatos

This afternoon I got to play a bit at my store. The MetroThreads Mixed Media special interest group was scheduled to meet for the second session of a Shadowbox creating activity. The only member (besides me:) to  show up was my friend Sandy S. - Sandy is an enormously talented woman who is intensely creative and I was very happy to get a chance to chat with her and see what she has been working on recently.

The photos above are fabrics that Sandy stamped earlier this spring. She organizes and runs a beach retreat for creative fiber people every spring and fall (info below**). This spring, among other things, they did stamping with real veggies and fruits - using textile paints on cotton fabric. I have done a tiny bit of 'food' stamping - mostly carving white potato stamps and making celery roses. The idea of using a cross-cut orange slice surprised me - I think the results are great! :)

I also managed to work on my shadowbox some more - I _think_ it might be done (once it finishes drying and 'curing' the adhesives). I like the way it turned out - features sewing tools and motifs. The color scheme was intended to be turquoise and pink - some green and yellow snuck in, too, somehow. (grin)

I spent most of Thursday this past week doing administrative catch-up at my store - and then taught class that evening from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday I ended up sleeping most of the day away. :P Saturday I spent at the shop working on administrivia - well, including creating the June work schedules which is definitely _not_ trivial. 

Skip and I are planning to come to the shop tomorrow, too. I need to sew - I have a few bee blocks to finish up and I need to put a border on the last round robin piece for Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild. Maybe I'll even be able to clean off my sewing table and get back to working on the shop's Quest quilt? A girl can dream, eh? :)

Linda

**Sandy Sapienza, retreats in spring and fall in Ocean City, MD; email Sandy Sapienza <sandraATannapolisDOTnet> for info.

Preparations

I've been trying to tie up loose ends all week long this week. I'm leaving tomorrow morning on a long-ish driving trip - first to Ohio and then on to Kansas with my Mom. Among other bits that needed tieing up is my work on Tammy's crazy quilt block.

The Crazy Quilting International group on Yahoo hosts lots of various swaps, exchanges and round robins. I joined the group a while ago and mostly have been lurking until I decided to step out of the closet and interact back in March. I am part of the Fabulous First Timer's group #21 and Tammy's block is the second one I've worked on.

The photo above shows one of the areas I embroidered - adding feather stitched greenery in a light colored block that echoes some of the work that Bonnie had done before me. I apologize if the photos are so-so - all I had to take pics was my iPhone. :)  I did two other seam treatments and one motif on Tammy's block:

This seam already had the nice white gimp braid on it so I added stitching to both sides of the braid.

I liked the bold stripe in this taffeta area so I added a double herringbone stitch seam treatment with flowers on each side.

The end of that gimp braid I embroidered stopped abruptly so I made a woven spiderweb motif at the end with metallic lavendar thread and then used an eyelash yarn to weave the web - kind of dashing, I think. :)

You can just see the lavender glittery spoked in the middle of this picture.

I hope Tammy likes her block when it gets back to her! Tomorrow morning, on my way out of town, I'll stop and mail it off to the next embroider in the group, Lorraine.

:) Linda

Prepping to Travel

This is going to be a busy, busy week. I am planning to leave on Saturday morning to drive across country - first to Ohio to pick up my Mom, then onward to Kansas to see my sister and her families. (She has four kids with associated spouses and grandchildren near KC.) 

I taught a class on Sunday afternoon (yesterday) - making fabric postcards. As my students played with fabrics and ideas, I made the bookmark shown above. It is about 2.5"x8" and has Peltex (stiff interfacing somewhat like Fast2Fust or Timtex) inside it for stability. I am planning to mail it off this evening as a small gift to one of my favorite aunts whose birthday was recently.

I am busily sewing on a round robin piece tonight - putting a border made with triangles on it. Here's a small peek for you (taken with my phone's camera):

I worked on my shop's Quest quilt on Saturday. I'm _really_ happy with the way that project is going! I won't do any more sewing on it until I get back from the midwest since I'm still waiting on fabrics. :)

Somehow I have to find time to pack - the hardest things to pack are the hand work projects I want to take along, I think. :) I am going to be gone almost two weeks and don't want to get 'bored hands' syndrome. LOL!

:) Linda