July TIF

For the July TIF Sharon B gave us this challenge "The challenge this month is perhaps a bit obvious but I am going to ask …
What is it to be at the half way mark?

For me three word lead to a mix of ideas. “Half”, “Way” and “Mark” all lead off into interesting directions that can be represented in all sorts of ways."

Well the halfway mark for me this year is that it is halfway to Christmas and I haven't started AnyThing, at all, Nada!

A friend of mine also wanted to make some silk fusion paper, so she go the supplies, came over one Saturday and we made the paper. She gave me a great idea - make a bowl out of the paper. So, I'm going to make a silk fusion bowl for my TIF project and also for a start on my Christmas list.

I had some plain white tussah silk roving that I decided I wanted to use, and I didn't want to paint it at all. So out came the JoJo's Fabric Medium and the tulle and off we went. I think my paper came out very well this time. Its not too thick and not too thin. I sprinkled it with some beautiful blue and silver glitter, quite heavily as a matter of fact. The picture really doesn't do it justice but it is a beautiful piece, even if I do say so myself.

I am very happy about the way it turned out, I think I can make two small bowls out of the one piece of paper, I'm even thinking about using a red corn silk fusion paper I made last time, and use it for the inside bottom, I'll cut it out and see how it works.

I'm still working on the wedding quilt, I want to get the top made by Labor Day Weekend. I think I'm going to have to find someone local to quilt it for me, that way I can see it before its off the frame and make sure I like the way it looks. I don't want to have to do any additional quilting myself. I'll post a picture as soon as I get the top done. Parts of this were way more advanced that I was ready for, its traditionally pieced and uses templates. If I ever do this quilt again I'll have to find an easier way to to the traditional parts. It got some applique on it also, which I am loving.

I've also completed a July Birthday present for my sister and I'm working on a wall hanging for our son's birthday in August. All of this explanation is why I won't get the bowl completed by the end of the month.

I forgot, I also signed up for a pc exchange for the Surface Design group, the exchange was a bowl of cherries. I'll try and blog that later this week.

Brillinte Weblog Award - 2008

I've never been nominated for an award before, so I was very suprised to be nominated this time by Jane over at Crazy Here & Now

Its wonderful to make new web friends. The rules for receiving this award are:

1. The winner can put the logo on his/her blog.
2. Link to the person you received your award from.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4. Put links of those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs of the people you’ve nominated.

There are so many blogs that I enjoy that I really would have a hard time listing them all, but let me put a few down, so everyone can enjoy can enjoy their blogs

Judy Perez over at Painted Threads
Helen Cowens over at Textile Goddess
Vickie Welsh over at Field Trips in Fiber
Micki over at Fiber Art: If I Create it Will They Come?
Judy Rhys over at Color My World
Jane Davila over at Chary Sprouts

One of my favorite sites has not been updated in awhile, I believe that her mother had a stroke last year, and the journal has not been updated since last ftall. This is the site that introducted me to blogs and has a large influence on how I view my blogs. I think it is well worth it to go to the site and look over the past entries. She has projects and lessons using many different techniques.

So I'm giving this award to N. Rene West over at Fembellish Journal

TIF - June Completed

The challenge that Sharon gave us for the month of June was about our stashes than the stories they told. I spent a lot of time thinking about this concept, but the one thing I get out of my mind was that my considerable stash of fabric, threads, paints, notions etc.didn't tell a story until I made something with it. Its filled with possibilities, but no story until I touch, paint, cut and then it tells me a story. You can read more about the June challenge on Sharon's blog at http://sharonb.wordpress.com/2008/06/01/take-it-further-in-june/

Sometimes I do buy fabric and patterns for specific projects, but since I've retired from the workforce, I shop my stash and what fun it is. The last project(s) I've bought fabric for has been baby fabric, that tells a wonderful story about how much we all look forward to the baby's arrival, in December. I can't wait! The other large project I've bought fabric for is a queen-sized wedding quilt, that is almost a year overdue but I have much notice and last year was filled with traumas and loss and health issues all around, and the quilt is much more complicated than any other traditional quilting I've done. Traditional quilting is not really my forte.

Anyway, back to the June TIF. I decided to do a small landscape of a local rock arch that 50 or so miles out of town. I had also joined a challenge on a yahoo group I belong to, called Textile Challenges. The challenge was to make an arch approximately 7 inches tall, 4 wide. There could be anything in the arch but since my was going to England I combined the two projects that I did in June. The rock arch is called La Ventana is is in the El Malpais lava fields outside of Grants, NM. We had such a wonderful day exploring the area the day we went and that was the story my finished project was called. As usually is was sunny and fairly warm for a winters day, no wind, and all was well in our world!

The original picture of the arch is on the left.

My arch doesn't have rounded sides because I wanted the arch to be the main focus with the sky in the background, I also felt that the straight sides going up gave a better illusion of height. I used a fusible web for this project and didn't even paint any of the the fabric! I did darken the sky under the arch to add some shadow and depth, although I should have added some to the sides also but next time I will do that.

I was pleased with the way it turned out and I was actually done on June 30th since that when the challenge ended. I've just gotten buy again and haven't gotten any blogging done, but I will do better in the future, promise.

Thanks to everyone who has left comments on my blog, I have tried to answer all of them, but some don't have their email address in there profile so I have been unable to answer.

I want to thank Mixpix for her comment on wetting the cloth before I do the mono printing. My anniversary was also in June and my DH got me the 1st set of Quilting Arts TV, and one of the shows had some mono printing in it. It looked to me like Pokey was using regular acrylic paints, rather than fabric paints, so I used my coupons at Michael's and got myself 3 jars of fluid acrylics and I'm going to try the mono printing again. The fluid acrylics are thicker and seem to be more opaque, so we will see what happens next. I will post on this blog how they turn out in case anyone would like to try the technique themselves.