Fixed It

I was really unhappy with the way my fabric dyed face turned out from Hollis Chatelains’s class.  I was having trouble seeing my drawing and just decided to wing it.  So i’ve been working on it once every few weeks and putting it away again.I used  ink intense pencils and prism colors to rework it.  I also used a bit of fabric paint mixed with medium so I could paint over the nose.  It’s not spectacular, but I’m satisfied with it and am ready to quilts.  Here is a picture of the enhanced face.  Now I’m ready for the quilting.

Day 3 KHQS Adventures in quilting

I was exhausted when I got home yesterday and did not get around to posting.  What a wonderful workshop.  If you ever get a chance Hollis Chatelain’s classes are well worth your time and money. The big reveal on how the dyes look once they are washed and dried.  Everyone got to share their pieces again once they were rinsed and dried.  Quite a difference.  Fuchsia and yellow sure do not fade.  Every one had really beautiful work.  My tree faded a bit more than I expected.  This was my own fault for putting dye paste over some of it.   I am please with the results and have it pinned and ready to add quilting.  This is where it will get to really be enhanced.  I will post a before and after of the nuthatch.  I will save the girl to show once she is fully quilted.  Right now she is being marked up for quilting.  The nuthatch is pinned and ready to begin.

We did not get time to do any sewing.  We watched Hollis do demonstrations and show us how to mark the quilts to figure out our quilting lines.  This is where we needed tracing paper and prisma colored pencils.  We spent all our time after lunch giving Hollis a real workout.  We all wanted her attention to check out our stitch ideas.  She was extremely helpful.

She will give guidance and help, but you have to put in an effort first.  I know I learned a lot from my mistakes and her encouragement.  Now off to sew!

Day three begins…

4 am up and washed projects out.  This took about and hour and a half.  Now the other ladies in my group will blow them dry with hair driers.  I’m glad that is not me.  Washing them was hot enough work.  I think I will like mine.  I didn’t wash out the face because I want the dye to sit longer.

Hollis demonstrating:

Here are some pictures of everyone working:

 

Day 2 KHQS Adventures in Quilting

Today was another wonderful day.  Good food and lots of hard work.  Hollis demonstrations and work is incredible.

 Me with Hollis Chatelain        Love the quilt rod running through our heads.

 
Stirring more print paste.

My second piece is a face.  I know it looks vibrant orange, but we were assure that when the dye is rinsed out the color should be just about right.  Must get up and rinse out our pieces many many times. It should take about an hour of work.

We looked at everyone’s pieces while wet today.  All the pieces were incredible, and I think everyone’s painting with dye skills improved.   Here’s a picture of my second piece.

 

KHQS Quilting Adventures 2014 Day 1

I am just finishing up my day one workshop with Hollis Chatelain.   Actually I did finish around 8:30 (central time) and then helped someone photoshop an image to see how it would look in vibrant wild colors.   We started last night by tracing our drawings onto PDF fabric that had been treated in soda ash.  We used very light color prisma colored pencils for this.  I was the only one still working  last evening.  Could not believe everyone went to bed by 8:00 CT or 9:00 EST.  Anyway I stayed up last night and got my machine out and worked on my 60 day bird challenge before turning in.

Today we learned about how to mix and thicken dye to pain with.  We also got to see some of Hollis’s Fabulous quilts up close.  WOW! If  you’d like to see some of her work check out her website. http://hollisart.com/     Not the same as seeing her work in person, but still impressive.

Painting with dyes is not at all like painting with other mediums.  Colors dry different then when wet, some get brighter rather than darker when adding more pigment.  They also wash out and dry lighter.  The way you should brush it on an is very different as well.

I was way behind with my painting and worked through dinner.  Being very tired and wanting to be done, I did not feather my paint as I should have and have more hard edges then I should have.  I’m afraid that a few places where I added a second color look good now, but will wash out and not adhere to the fabric at all because the first color will have saturated the fabric.  (I know I should not mix on the fabric)

Anyway I think the wet piece  looks pretty good.  I’ll find out Thursday morning when I wash it out if it works. (crossing my fingers)  No matter what, I can always enhance it with thread.

Here’s a look at stage one:

 

Thread Art – Lola Jenkins

As mentioned in previous post, the thread art class by Lola Jenkins was terrific. 

 I am going to post some pictures  of what other ladies in the class were working on. 

 

 Several people worked on very light backgrounds.

A few others chose bright colors like yellow and orange.

I think they all did a wonderful job.   A few people did something besides the Girl with the Pearl Earring.  My camera was out of memory when I arrived at the class and deleting was taking forever   so these are the only photos of other students’ work.