While Waiting for the Snow

                                                              

I love to snow dye and thought snow would never arrive this winter. So I decided to do some ice cube dyeing as seen in the August -September 20011 issue of Quiting Arts Magazine. I am in love with the results and can 't seem to stop!!  I used fat quarters of PFD fabric in white. 

 

 After soaking in soda ash solution, I fan folded some on the long side, some on the short sides, and others on  the diagonal (my favorite),  as well as just smooshing into a lump. Layer on some ice cubes, sprinkle on the powdered dyes in your choice of colors , cover and wait 24 hours. Rinse and wash, dry and iron. The pictures are just a few of  many I have done. 

And then I saw my empty glass vase on the counter and thought....why not try parfait dyeing with the ice cubes??  I didn't need to think twice about it and div

ed right in. 

 I started with yellow on the bottom,

followed by fushia,

then turquoise,

and put several colors on the top layer. I admit I was feeling reckless. 

I intend to play around with the timing of each layer as well as the the number of dyes used on each layer. That's after I restock my supply of PFD fabric and a few different new dyes. OH, and make more ice cubes.

Art Quilts in NYC

Last Friday I had the opportunity to view Material Witnesses, a beautiful collection of art quilts created by the Manhattan Quilters Guild at the Art Quilt Gallery right next to The City Quilter in New York City. These two were my favorites created by Paula Nadelstern and Ludmila Uspenskaya. What an amazing source of inspiration! I can’t wait to see Paula Chung’s exhibit, Painting with Fiber: Florals, the opening is January 23 from 6-9PM and the show runs January 24 – March 4.

Fiber Explorations

During the winter,  I step up my knitting projects.  For several years, I have watched the felting enthusiasts expand their projects and the industry develop.  I had avoided this side of fiber, as I thought it was a marketing ploy to make one purchase more yarn than necessary. After having completed the 8th flap-ear ski cap of the season, I looked at my collection of roving  that was slowly catching up to my bead stash and decided to make the leap.

I knew that wet felting was not an exact science and researched the net to minimalize my trial and error process.  I was determined not to purchase a book because the progression would lead to raising the sheep, spinning and dying.  After knitting several oversized cloches and either stretching the wool to fit Andre the giant or shrinking to fit an American Girl doll, I found a consistant method.

Using a top loading washing machine combine 3 tennis balls and 2 pairs of men's pants (jeans are best)  Set the temperature to the highest and run in a 5 minute cycle.  Use cold water for teh rinse cycle.  I remove the cap and check it to see if the fibers have felted and some yarns require 2 or 3 washings in this manner.  When the hat is ready to dry, I place the hat on an inverted 2 lb plastic Protein bottle that I have borrowed from my son, who of course had a fit when he saw the bottle in the sun.  How was I suppose to know that sun breakdowns powdered protein?  and voila a decent felted hat is complete.

To date, I have successfully made 10 ladies cap's in this manner. My new challenge is making a man's brimmed hat and as of today I do not have the sizing down despite 3 attempts!

Gail Kotowski

We are SO proud....

of our "Sister" Vivika! (pictured here with guest demonstrator Betty Warner)

Vivika DeNegre is the new Editor of Quilting Arts Magazine!

(where you can also see her very first blog post as Editor)

Pokey Bolton made the official announcement on December

16th and interviewed Vivika for the “Quilting Daily” blog. 

Read the full article here:

http://www.quiltingdaily.com/blogs/pokey/archive/2011/12/16/announcing-the-new-editor-for-quilting-arts.aspx.

According to Kate Themal, CT SAQA co-rep, who interviewed

her for SAQA/CT's blog:

Vivika is taking it all in.  Although she may have less time to

work on her fiber art and beautiful bird portraits, DeNegre

is excited to begin a new adventure:

“I am thrilled, of course, and also overwhelmed in many ways with the challenges - learning Photoshop, excel and outlook, understanding the publishing world from the inside, working once again after an 11 year retirement - all of these are new experiences.”

New Editor DeNegre is already working on the April/May 2012

issue of Quilting Arts magazine.

We, Sisters in Cloth, who have known, worked, cried and laughed

with Vivika for about 9 years now, are very proud of her, and happy

that she has landed her "dream" job.  She is a rare individual:

Great mom of four, talented artist, good friend and confidant...

and...rarer still, she has more than 24 hours in her day!  That's the

only way she can do all that she does.  Seriously.

Congratulations Vivika!

Boy, Do We Have News!

Note to the wise:  The really big news is always last ;^)

Our group hosted an Open Meeting on our regular Friday time.  We invited friends to join us at the Guilford Free Library to celebrate our exhibit and to share Show and Tell.  As we all know, Show and Tell is the highlight of meeting.

The top photo is Toni Torres showing us her piece that had toured in South Carolina.  It returned a bit worse for the wear.  Now beautifully restored, it offers a cautionary tale about the pitfalls of traveling exhibits.

Member Barb Adams brought and wore one of her much admired garments, onlooking is Aurelle Locke.

Carol Ludington

Claire deLambeart enjoys Linda Zimmerman's incredibly precise work.

Patty Porto brought her bargello to share.

We all had such fun that we decided we would have to repeat the event annually.

One of our Sisters was missing and it wasn't until we returned home to our computers that we discovered the reason for her recent absences:  Our very own Vivika Hansen Denegre is the new editor of our favorite art quilt magazine, Quilting Arts!!!!  We are so proud of her...and we know that Quilting Arts will be even better than ever with her on staff.

New Exhibits

We have installed two (!) collections at the Guilford Free Library:  It's a Rumor along with Gray.  Fortunately the room is large.  

Hanging day:  Yvette Howard tidies Diane Wright's Winter Leaves Slowly above and below she is helping Carol Ludington (L) and Robin Wolek hang one of Robin's contribution to Gray.

It's a Rumor is a collection created with word of mouth descriptions, a bit like the children's game of Telephone or Gossip.  The idea was to create a piece very quickly (the way rumors usually spread) based on a member's artist statement and then passed on to another member or two solely from that person's artist statement.  More photos and descriptions are on Diane Wright's blog.

If you are in the area next Friday, Dec. 16, please, join us for an Open Meeting.  Bring Show and Tell too.  RSVP for a head count, times and directions to Diane Wright.

What's Going On Here?

Road Trip!  Diane couldn't help herself - after a few hours basking in the luxury of a well stocked quilt store (Sew Inspired), Diane and Carol were So Inspired upon seeing the man hole cover that they ran back into the shop, bought a package of paint sticks, and rubbed some images from the ground.  Now that is a sure sign of a good day.

Lots of fabric came home with the group, of course, as did a slew of new books, ideas for a day of bleaching and discharging fabrics.  Most of us ended up with lighter wallets, but healthier stashes.

Lastly, a pizza and salad at the neighboring restaurant made us all feel ready for the hour long drive home.

We are so lucky to have Sisters!