Dyeing for some recipes

For the last week I have been creating new color dye recipes using Rit to match some of the 2011 Pantone Fashion colors for Spring and Fall that Rit does not presently have in their color formula guide, but will be adding soon.

I also spent some time mixing a few new colors using Rit's Aquamarine dye. It is such a pretty bright blue (upper right corner), I think right now you can only buy it online. It makes wonderful bright lime greens. If you click on the photo twice to get the largest image, you should be able to read the recipes if you want to try reproducing them.

The dye quanties in the recipes are for mixing liquid dye with one cup of boiling water in a small disposable plastic container and dyeing a peice of fabric about a foot square. If you want to dye a larger peice of fabric you will have to multiply the quantities of dye and water accordingly.

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Preparing for my first teaching gig of the year

After living in Chicago for 5 years, I feel bad admitting, I have not seen very much of the mid west, If I am not getting on a plane to some distant location, I am usually trying to get in a little bit of time to make new work and playing catch up for my next teaching gig. So I welcome opportunities that get me out to see other parts of the mid west.

Now, I am getting ready for my first teaching trip of the year with the Ann Arbor Quilt Guild next month. I have never been to Ann Arbor but I have always heard such great things about it, so I am really looking forward to my visit.

On Friday March 18, I'll be teaching Tea and Ephemera which is a fun introduction to multiple mixed media techniques, incorporating tea bags, printed abaca paper, paint sticks and more.

Saturday I am giving a lecture on Inspiration and Sunday I am teaching Fiesta Ornaments. I've been told there are still a few spots left.

This is a really fun class with painting on fabric instruction, an opportunity to sew aluminum craft metal and do some decorative embossing. An added bonus in this class is each student gets an embossing tool courtesy of Walnut Hollow. Click here to see some of the awesome ornaments students have made in other classes.

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Houston International Quilt Festival 2011

Between delayed blizzard mail and working on several writing projects I am finally getting around to announcing my classes for International Quilt Festival in Houston this year.

I am so excited to tell all the people who tried to get into my Tsukineko Inks class in Houston last fall but didn't, that I am teaching two, that's right TWO Tsukineko Inks classes this year! I will be teaching it on both Tuesday and Thursday! So I am looking forward to seeing all of you this year :-)


Wednesday, I will be teaching Tea and Ephemera, a mixed media techniques sampler, incorporating tea bags, printed abaca paper, paint sticks and more. 

I will also be giving a lecture bright and early Friday morning called  It's all in the Process:  Making an award winning art quilt and everything that can go wrong along the way!


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One was a huge success!!!!!

Thank you to all the wonderful people who donated to this worthy cause! Virginia's goal was to raise $8000 for the American Cancer Society and the One auction managed to bring in a whopping $9817 in 6 hours!!!  Bravo to Virginia for organizing, the artists for contributing their time and artwork and the generous people who donated their money!

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Tomorrow is ONE!

Bluebird

Virginia Spiegal is lending her fund raising expertise once again to the American Cancer Society with a one day mixed media fiber art auction Wednesday February 16th. This year the auction means so much more for many of us fiber art lovers, with our dear friend Melly Testa battling the big C herself. Please be sure to check out One and place a bid on a mixed media collage.


This is how it works 
On Wednesday, February 16, ONE Hundred Collages will be offered with a minimum donation for each collage of:

$160 for two hours (10 a.m. – Noon CST) that's 8 am-10 am for you west coast people
$80 for two hours (Noon – 2:00 p.m. CST)
$40 for two hours (2:00 – 4:00 p.m. CST)

Garden Visitors

The first e-mail received requesting a specific artwork for at least the minimum donation for the time period will be accepted. You may indicate multiple choices in one e-mail and you may include a list of artwork in priority order.

Once you have received confirmation from Virginia that you are the new owner of the artwork on February 16, please proceed immediately to Fiberart For A Cause’s ACS donation page and make a donation with a credit card directly to the ACS.  Please note the donation will be through the Relay For Life of Forest Lake, MN.

The goal – Raise $8,000 for the American Cancer Society in just one day. More details and a preview of artwork. Fiberart For A Cause has already donated over $205,000 to the American Cancer Society through the generosity of fiber artists and their patrons.

One Hundred Collages - Created by this all-star team of artists:

Natalya Aikens Pamela Allen Laura Ann Beehler Liz Berg Pokey Bolton Laura Cater-Woods Jette Clover Jane Davila Jamie Fingal Gloria Hansen

Leslie Tucker Jenison Lyric Kinard Jeanelle McCall Linda Teddlie Minton Karen Stiehl Osborn BJ Parady Judy Coates Perez Cynthia St. Charles Virginia A. Spiegel

One Cause – The Fight Against Cancer.
One Wednesday – February 16, 2011.

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Wanting to share a little Valentine's Day love, I decided to sew up some conversation hearts for the special people in my life.

I stamped endearments on felt and cut a paper heart to use as a template for cutting them out.

Each heart was stuffed with a smaller heart of wool batting and stitched with floss or pearl cotton.

Happy Valentine's Day!

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How nice when friends come to town

Yesterday I had the pleasure of spending the afternoon with my friend Lyric Kinard who happened to be giving a lecture that evening in the suburbs of Chicago at the Riverwalk quilt guild in Naperville. How could I resist not taking a drive out there when she was here all the way from North Carolina. We had tea with Lyric's lovely host Catherine Redford who I first met back in 2008, when I taught a workshop in Naperville.

It's February and I sure hope that groundhog is right!

I have been so busy the last couple weeks working on 3 writing projects. One of them included shooting and editing video for an issue of Quilting Arts In Stitches. If you are unfamiliar with Interweave's cool new emag, check out this review on Crafty Pod to get a good idea of what it's like.

Now I have one more writing project to finish this week, then hopefully I can get back to working on my Between the Spaces quilt.

In the mean time; the color theory class started, we had a blizzard with 20 inches of snow,

 

My daughter Nina turned 21,  two days later I put her on a plane to Los Angeles for a month and the next day I picked my son up at the airport who was returning from a two week trip to the east coast.