Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Original Sewing & Quilt Expo - Raleigh
What an exciting show the Original Sewing & Quilt Expo in Raleigh turned out to be! I was so blessed, I was able to stay with my daughter Maxi for the duration of the show, and she totally spoiled me with home-cooked healthy meals and lively company every evening...and even a little shopping too. She and her friend Sharon even helped me during the show, with Sharon lending her very talented touches to the booth set-up and helping in the booth the first day, and Maxi helping the last day and with the booth break-down...not the fun part. But they did such a wonderful job, they were willing models for my new "Fascinator Fun" hat, and Sharon even got to be a part in a videotape made by the show staff, lucky girl!
I love to teach, and was thrilled to be invited to teach 3 classes at this show. The first one was a zipper flower brooch class, and I put together kits of all colors of metal-teeth zippers for the students. Did you know you can dye vintage metal-teeth zippers? I used Rit dye to over-dye some of the zippers in my kits, even the metal teeth and zipper pulls dyed! I just dyed them like you would dye any fabric, keeping in mind if you start with one color, that will affect the finished hue. For example, I had a lot of yellow zippers; I over-dyed some of them in a very diluted dye-bath of royal blue, and voila! A beautiful shade of chartreuse. Ditto for some old grungy gold zippers, I over-dyed them in dark brown to get a nice chocolate brown for sunflower centers etc. The girls really did a beautiful job stitching up their zipper flower brooches, each one turned out different and truly a show-stopper!
Flower Class at The Fibre Studio
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Sawtooth Faculty Exhibit
I was thrilled and honored to be invited to teach at the Sawtooth School for Visual Art this summer, I'll be teaching a felting class making a fun little Strappy Shoulder Bag in July. The gallery is also having an exhibit of the teachers' work, and we were asked to bring in up to 3 pieces representing what we'll be teaching.
So of course I had to do a couple of new felted items; I knew the attendees would enjoy the Flower Fairy Bed & Quilt, especially the kids. I also nuno-felted a new silk and wool scarf, it came out looking like the solar system...should've named this one "Transit of Venus"! Doesn't it look like it's flying through the universe? And then I felted a flower, should've named that one "Wicked" lol! I do love the colors though, always enjoy happy, bright cheerful colors and of course I love the greens!
So of course I had to do a couple of new felted items; I knew the attendees would enjoy the Flower Fairy Bed & Quilt, especially the kids. I also nuno-felted a new silk and wool scarf, it came out looking like the solar system...should've named this one "Transit of Venus"! Doesn't it look like it's flying through the universe? And then I felted a flower, should've named that one "Wicked" lol! I do love the colors though, always enjoy happy, bright cheerful colors and of course I love the greens!
New Designs
I've been having a blast felting and designing some new patterns for spring! My Woolfelt source, National Nonwovens, came out with some gorgeous new colors in Woolfelt with a wonderful heathery look, and I couldn't resist creating some fun new hat styles to show them off. First I updated the classic pillbox hat with some contemporary fabrics and embellishments, I love this style and there are so many things you can do with it! I only did 3 in Woolfelt, cotton and batiks, but you could use lots of different fabrics and arrive at so many different looks: dupioni silk, velveteen, linen, almost anything with a little body will work. What gives mine the great shape is a new interfacing I used called "Soft and Stable". It's almost like a thin bonded foam, easy to sew, presses great, and really holds the hat shape beautifully. My sewing time was made even more fun when I ran across the interviews on tape with Jackie Kennedy - you know, she practically invented the pillbox hat! - and I listened to those vintage chats from 50 years ago, taped just after JFK was killed, it was quite enlightening to hear Jackie's take on those years.
And then I just had to do one of those little fascinator hat patterns, they are so adorable and look great on everyone! My awesome daughter Maxi was sweet enough to model for me and she was just perfect! We had a ball shooting photos at different scenes, even got a couple of good shots of her and her dog Beta (who just happened to match lol!) Maxi looked so pretty and really showed off the hats nicely, love the look she brought to the picture.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Wild Wooly Flower class at Sew Original
Muriel always does such amazing work! Here is her Wild Wooly Flower and behind it, her Double-layer Flower, aren't they absolutely stunning? I know she will enjoy wearing them.
These girls chose similar colors, yet their blooms turned out unique and totally gorgeous! What great students, they did a fantastic job.
This gal made a gorgeous purple blossom, wow! I know she'll enjoy wearing this and getting all those compliments, she did a great job!
We had such a good time at Sew Original In Winston-Salem felting our Wild Wooly Flowers! The gals made some gorgeous blooms, here's some pics...enjoy!
These girls chose similar colors, yet their blooms turned out unique and totally gorgeous! What great students, they did a fantastic job.
This gal made a gorgeous purple blossom, wow! I know she'll enjoy wearing this and getting all those compliments, she did a great job!
We had such a good time at Sew Original In Winston-Salem felting our Wild Wooly Flowers! The gals made some gorgeous blooms, here's some pics...enjoy!
How to Dye Wool with Easter egg dyes
With Easter just behind us, I thought this would be a good time for a tutorial on dyeing with Easter egg dye. You can snag the dyes for mere pennies after the holiday, I dyed all of this wool for under a dollar. Here's how you do it, enjoy!
I decided to try dyeing a variety of wools: left to right, I chose a wool plaid, 100% Woolfelt, wool boucle, wool herringbone, wool yarn, wool dryer lint, wool "nubbies", and a silk-like fabric I was unsure of the fiber content. I chose to dye them purple, the purple Easter egg dye is a bit unstable and tends to separate into several shades of lavender and blue, which I love! Gives it a nice hand-dyed look. Remember...this is for protein fibers only, like wool, and will not work on cottons.
I wrapped the wool dryer lint and wool "nubbies" in a small piece of tulle and tied it with wool yarn to keep them together during the dyeing process.
Fill a basin with room-temperature water and add a squirt of soap; I use Dawn dishwashing liquid, the concentrated kind. If you're not dyeing anything that might felt (like wool fibers) you can use warm water. You're opening up the wool fibers so they'll accept the dye better.
Add the wool to the soapy water and let it soak about 30 minutes, or longer is fine.
Meanwhile, mix up the Easter egg dye. Here are my no-frill supplies: egg dye, plastic containers for dyeing, plastic spoon, tablespoon, measuring cup, white vinegar, water, paper towels for spills.
Cool, Easter egg dye comes with fibers now! Not wool though. Choosing purple (I hope.)
Place 3 tablespoons of white vinegar into a bowl or small container and plop the tab in. Wow, this little guy is motoring around the bowl! Let tab dissolve completely, then add a half-cup of water and another tablespoon of white vinegar.
Do a little wool sample test to check the color, it can be hard to tell with those tiny dye tabs. Looks good!
Remove items from the basin and gently squeeze out the soapy water (it shouldn't be too soapy, if it is, you can rinse out the wool fabrics a bit.) Arrange wool in an aluminum roasting pan or oven-safe container you don't need for cooking.
Add the dye to your wet wool. You can pour it, spoon it, paint it on with a sponge brush, whatever you'd like. If your pieces are overlapping, be sure to lift them up to add dye to the wool underneath. I used 4 tabs of purple dye for this wool, mixing each with 3 tablespoons of white vinegar, then a half cup of water. When all the dye is added, place in oven and turn to 225 degrees. Cook, checking periodically to make sure the wool isn't scorching. If you've added enough liquid you should have no problem here.
After cooking the wool for 40 minutes, the color had a little more blue than I wanted. So I decided to warm it up a bit with a wash of pink dye. (Be sure and use pink, and not red; the red has more of an orange undertone, and will not mix with the purple as well.) I mixed one tab of pink with the 3 tablespoons of white vinegar; when dissolved, I added a good half-cup of water, and poured over my wool. Then I cooked it for another hour at 225 degrees.
When the water is clear, your wool is done! Let cool completely; meanwhile, run room temperature water in a couple of rinse basins. When wool is cool, gently squeeze out water and add to rinse basins. Let soak a couple of minutes, remove, gently squeeze out water, and towel dry. Let wool dry flat.
I love the way these turned out! Notice how the upper part of my 100% Woolfelt is more blue, that's where I didn't lift up the red fabric when adding the pink wash...I like it, it gives me an extra color. Do keep in mind, these directions are for protein fibers only. I had best results from the cream 100% Woolfelt, 2nd from left, this fabric just slurped that dye right up! I was a little disappointed in the black 'n white plaid on the far left. The wool boucle also dyed beautifully, as did the herringbone, wool bits and yarn. I guess the wine-colored "silk" wasn't silk after all, but a synthetic; the color did not change at all, only dulled it a bit with the addition of the soap and water. You can also dye protein fibers in Kool-aid, the colors are a bit more limited, though. No need to add vinegar to the Kool-aid (kind of a scary thought, huh!)One pack of Kool-aid mixed with a half cup of water (or enough to cover your wool) will dye a 9" square of wool in a nice rich color, and you can do it in the microwave: zap for 2 minutes, let rest for 2 minutes, zap 2, rest 2. When all the color has gone into the wool, you're done! (Or when you reach the color you want.) You can also go back and add color. And you can mix colors too; adding the complementary hue to a color will tone it down a bit (such as a pinch of green in with your red, etc.)Don't be afraid to experiment! This is also a fun activity to do with your kids...and it's safe, no gas-mask required.=)Have fun with it!
I decided to try dyeing a variety of wools: left to right, I chose a wool plaid, 100% Woolfelt, wool boucle, wool herringbone, wool yarn, wool dryer lint, wool "nubbies", and a silk-like fabric I was unsure of the fiber content. I chose to dye them purple, the purple Easter egg dye is a bit unstable and tends to separate into several shades of lavender and blue, which I love! Gives it a nice hand-dyed look. Remember...this is for protein fibers only, like wool, and will not work on cottons.
I wrapped the wool dryer lint and wool "nubbies" in a small piece of tulle and tied it with wool yarn to keep them together during the dyeing process.
Fill a basin with room-temperature water and add a squirt of soap; I use Dawn dishwashing liquid, the concentrated kind. If you're not dyeing anything that might felt (like wool fibers) you can use warm water. You're opening up the wool fibers so they'll accept the dye better.
Add the wool to the soapy water and let it soak about 30 minutes, or longer is fine.
Meanwhile, mix up the Easter egg dye. Here are my no-frill supplies: egg dye, plastic containers for dyeing, plastic spoon, tablespoon, measuring cup, white vinegar, water, paper towels for spills.
Cool, Easter egg dye comes with fibers now! Not wool though. Choosing purple (I hope.)
Place 3 tablespoons of white vinegar into a bowl or small container and plop the tab in. Wow, this little guy is motoring around the bowl! Let tab dissolve completely, then add a half-cup of water and another tablespoon of white vinegar.
Do a little wool sample test to check the color, it can be hard to tell with those tiny dye tabs. Looks good!
Remove items from the basin and gently squeeze out the soapy water (it shouldn't be too soapy, if it is, you can rinse out the wool fabrics a bit.) Arrange wool in an aluminum roasting pan or oven-safe container you don't need for cooking.
Add the dye to your wet wool. You can pour it, spoon it, paint it on with a sponge brush, whatever you'd like. If your pieces are overlapping, be sure to lift them up to add dye to the wool underneath. I used 4 tabs of purple dye for this wool, mixing each with 3 tablespoons of white vinegar, then a half cup of water. When all the dye is added, place in oven and turn to 225 degrees. Cook, checking periodically to make sure the wool isn't scorching. If you've added enough liquid you should have no problem here.
After cooking the wool for 40 minutes, the color had a little more blue than I wanted. So I decided to warm it up a bit with a wash of pink dye. (Be sure and use pink, and not red; the red has more of an orange undertone, and will not mix with the purple as well.) I mixed one tab of pink with the 3 tablespoons of white vinegar; when dissolved, I added a good half-cup of water, and poured over my wool. Then I cooked it for another hour at 225 degrees.
When the water is clear, your wool is done! Let cool completely; meanwhile, run room temperature water in a couple of rinse basins. When wool is cool, gently squeeze out water and add to rinse basins. Let soak a couple of minutes, remove, gently squeeze out water, and towel dry. Let wool dry flat.
I love the way these turned out! Notice how the upper part of my 100% Woolfelt is more blue, that's where I didn't lift up the red fabric when adding the pink wash...I like it, it gives me an extra color. Do keep in mind, these directions are for protein fibers only. I had best results from the cream 100% Woolfelt, 2nd from left, this fabric just slurped that dye right up! I was a little disappointed in the black 'n white plaid on the far left. The wool boucle also dyed beautifully, as did the herringbone, wool bits and yarn. I guess the wine-colored "silk" wasn't silk after all, but a synthetic; the color did not change at all, only dulled it a bit with the addition of the soap and water. You can also dye protein fibers in Kool-aid, the colors are a bit more limited, though. No need to add vinegar to the Kool-aid (kind of a scary thought, huh!)One pack of Kool-aid mixed with a half cup of water (or enough to cover your wool) will dye a 9" square of wool in a nice rich color, and you can do it in the microwave: zap for 2 minutes, let rest for 2 minutes, zap 2, rest 2. When all the color has gone into the wool, you're done! (Or when you reach the color you want.) You can also go back and add color. And you can mix colors too; adding the complementary hue to a color will tone it down a bit (such as a pinch of green in with your red, etc.)Don't be afraid to experiment! This is also a fun activity to do with your kids...and it's safe, no gas-mask required.=)Have fun with it!
Monday, April 16, 2012
Felted Bag Class at The Fibre Studio
Judy put her own artistic spin on her felted bag, absolutely gorgeous!
Judy busily working her rose garden!
My felted bag and sample for our class
Christy felting away with her beautiful smile, she knows her bag's gonna be awesome!
Christy's beautiful felted bag drying, love these colors!
Debbie hosted our fun class at her shop, The Fibre Studio in Charlotte, here she is felting away on her colorful bag!
It's been a couple of weeks since our Felted Circle Bag Class at The Fibre Studio at Yarns to Dye For in Charlotte, but I'm still thinking happily about what a good time we had! The gals were such a diverse group of talent and a lot of fun, they were true troopers as they chose their own personal color palette for their bag, laid out their fibers and massaged, rubbed and rolled them into submission with a little soap, water and lots of elbow grease! We used (for the first time for me!) pre-felted wool beads for our handles, I usually like to make my wool beads and mix up the colors a little bit. But these came in such pretty hues, and honestly, it would've taken another whole day to felt all these beads! So we took the easy way out and chose wool beads to match the finished bag and then just strung them together, easy-peasy as they say. Here are the girls hard at work, a felted bag drying, my "inspiration bag" as a guide for them, and the awesome pink rose bag by Judy, I'm so proud of my students! And they must be too, they were just great.
Judy busily working her rose garden!
My felted bag and sample for our class
Christy felting away with her beautiful smile, she knows her bag's gonna be awesome!
Christy's beautiful felted bag drying, love these colors!
Debbie hosted our fun class at her shop, The Fibre Studio in Charlotte, here she is felting away on her colorful bag!
It's been a couple of weeks since our Felted Circle Bag Class at The Fibre Studio at Yarns to Dye For in Charlotte, but I'm still thinking happily about what a good time we had! The gals were such a diverse group of talent and a lot of fun, they were true troopers as they chose their own personal color palette for their bag, laid out their fibers and massaged, rubbed and rolled them into submission with a little soap, water and lots of elbow grease! We used (for the first time for me!) pre-felted wool beads for our handles, I usually like to make my wool beads and mix up the colors a little bit. But these came in such pretty hues, and honestly, it would've taken another whole day to felt all these beads! So we took the easy way out and chose wool beads to match the finished bag and then just strung them together, easy-peasy as they say. Here are the girls hard at work, a felted bag drying, my "inspiration bag" as a guide for them, and the awesome pink rose bag by Judy, I'm so proud of my students! And they must be too, they were just great.
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