Progress on the Habitat Piece

I had just a wisp of an idea of what I was going to do with the shibori dyed pillowcase and the mono printed pillowcase.

I took some time assembling my utensils, and when it appeared I could no longer put it off, I made the first cut.  I didn't fall out dead.

I took a chance at a second cut, and a third.  I ended up with a pile of 3 inch squares.  I sewed twosies.  Then I sewed foursies.  And then eightsies.  Or thereabouts.  I put them together and when the  seams fought I added a strip to calm them down.

Now I need to put it all together and start the quilting stitches.

Oh, and  by the way.....McGee ate a hole in one of the scarves.......

Here is what we are looking like now.

After i eat my lonely oven fried chicken breast with cream gravy (my fav) and the rest of the okra from the farmer's market, i will get working.  Frank is heading in from Mississippi tonight and we can walk the Bad Basset Boyz tonight at their regular time.  And I  will have someone who still won't talk to me, but at least he  will BE there!

Habitat For Humanity Art Progress

I was talking to daughter Carrie last night and offered her the remaining amount on  my gift certificate for the Habitat For Humanity Art Auction because I know she likes all that stuff.  She is tied up in Junior League's Hollydays right now though. 

It was lucky, beause when I hedked whn it was due, I realized I had to get my pieces to them by November 1.  That means I spent today doing some work on Habitat!

 I hot glued the metal pieces to the vinyl covered cement backer board.  I was thinking this would be a permanent thing, but it turned out to be temporary.  As I was washing the dye off the backer board, the pieces began to come loose.  This is good because I can rearrange them next time, maybe all circles and no squares!

I thickened the Procion dye with what I think was corn dextrose, but may have been something else.  it was leftover from the Ann Johnson class.   It looked like corn syrup wiith a slight golden tint.

When I was going into my dye junk, I found several slk scarves I had intended to dye years ago, and brought them along to the party.

Here is the pre-washed scarf.



               Here is the post-washed scarf.
                    It looks like glacial ice.......



Then I made a dyeing pass on the other pillow case that came from Re-Store.   It was dry when I  make the print. 

 Here is a close up of a wet silk scarf section.






And here is my clothes line.  Fun, huh?  It is  much nicer without the bees that visit the flowers in the spring time!
 I am going to Home Depot tonight to fix the clothesline problem. 

Habitat For Humanity Art

I was invited once again to participate in the Re-Store Art Auction for Habitat For Humanity. What a perfect venue for quilters, one that helps people have a home to put quilts into.  I accepted with relish!

For those unfamiliar with Re-Store, it is a wonderful, quirky, odd,  incredibly interesting place full of stuff donated by local contractors when they have excess materials.  Or from the home improvement who is updating their house and replacing cabinets, bathroom fixtures, kitchen stuff.  There are so many little screws, and fittings and washers and tiles and pierces of wood.  It is like heaven for me!!!!!  Next best thing to a fabric store!

They send each artist a $50 gift certificate with which to purchase materials.  You get to scour the store high and low, inside and out for stuff with which to make your art pieces.  You then donate your art to the auction and they make money!  I have seen some incredible stuff made from other people's junk!

And I am about to make some of my own.  Here is some cement backer board with a vinyl covering that will make an excellent base on which the other stuff will be glued.  I bought some circles, some wonderfully ridge-y strips, some squares with holes. 

I plan on gluing these pieces to that cement backer board and using it as a printing plate.  I also scored a set of 100% cotton pillow cases in a light blue that can be the fabric that gets printed!

I also found a smaller piece of PVC pipe for my shibori dyes, which I think will be the first technnique I subject my blue pillowcases to.  Just prior to the circles stamping.

I have procion dyes, which I will post later this week with some cheesecloth I just dyed.  I need to figure out how to thicken the dye so I can paint it on to the circle plate.  And I need to get a brayer.  Maybe a trip to Hobby Lobby is in store!

I am going to post this to Nina Marie's Creations page for her Off the  Wall Friday post.  Check out what others have going on as well.