Taking Risks

I never used to be much of a risk taker.  However, over the years I’ve gotten better and better at it.  Perhaps surprisingly, the way I began to learn to take risks was through quiltmaking and starting to make up my own designs for quilts.  That gradually led to the ability to take risks in [...]

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Negative Spaces

On Wednesday I tried out another monoprinting technique:  freezer paper printing.  This is really just another resist-type technique where parts of the fabric are masked, leaving other areas free to accept paint or dye.
For my first experiment I took a piece of white fabric and pressed onto it at random a few rough cut rectangles [...]

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February TIF Complete!

I have decided that I am finished with my February TIF piece.  The original plan was to stitch two flour sack dish towels, that I have hand dyed peach and pale blue, with motifs adapted from designs on the cabinet and machine of my great-grandmother’s treadle sewing machine. 
After an initial slow start in dyeing where [...]

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Color Run–Yellow to Red

I haven’t done any dyeing for a couple of weeks and I’m actually beginning to use up some of my fabrics playing with the blocks on the Sew, Mama, Sew Block Along.
So yesterday, I started into another dyeing workshop, this time to do color runs between the primary colors. 
I got everything set up.
Then I discovered [...]

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Monday Morning Musings

My pictures yesterday weren’t too good, because it was cloudy/rainy/snowy off and on all day.  So here are some better pics of my Shoo-Fly Away quilt top taken on my garden wall in between drips of melting snow from the roof.
You can see just a peek of the blue sky above, and what’s that? [...]

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Shoo-Fly Away

This afternoon I’ve been putting together my variation of the Shoo-Fly block that I started working on for Sew, Mama, Sew Block-Along Week 2.
I originally started out making regular Shoo-Fly blocks, but when I began putting them together they seemed kind of dull.**  
While thinking about what to do to add a little spark, I remembered [...]

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Monoprinting Projects

Today I’ve been working on projects for my Monoprinting class with Susan Sorrell.
My collagraph has finally dried and I did some experimentation with it.  First, I painted different elements different colors and printed on some white fabric, placing the fabric over the collagraph and rolling with a brayer to get an impression.  The collagraph is [...]

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Shrug

A shrug is a simple movement of the shoulders that indicates indifference, resignation, or simply, “I don’t know.”
A shrug also is a short little garment that fits about the shoulders and ends above the waist. 
I’ve begun working on the second kind this week.  I’m making a Lace Suri Shrug from a pattern designed by [...]

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Alaska Log Cabin

As I was posting my Log Cabin block for the SMS Block-Along I remembered a quilt I made a long time ago–in 1983–based on a log cabin block.
It was the very first quilt I ever designed by myself. 
I started with a large log cabin block in greens, browns, and a hint of yellow.  [...]

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Just Add Yellow

I love yellow.  It’s not exactly my favorite color.  That would have to be purple or maybe red.  But I love the lift that yellow gives whenever it’s cloudy and gray.  Yellow just makes you feel good.  It’s cloudy here today (rare in Taos), so maybe that’s why, today, I’m inspired to add yellow. 
I [...]

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