A First...but no new work...

I have been busy but it seems that no new work is being produced.

Since coming home from Quilt Market/ Festival I have had little time at home.

A lovely visit to my sister for a week added to the busyness. I think I am stuffed until Christmas. She is a great cook.

A bit of Christmas shopping was done on Black Friday. No great deals because our dollar is so low compared to the US. I liked it much better when it was closer to par.

But I did pick up some cosy fabric for my mom to make our granddaughter some sleep sacks.

I did a two day long arm course before I left. Talk about brain overload. Friday or Saturday I am going to get some stitch time in!

I have been prepping for my first vendor sale. It is a lot of work but literally I hope it pays off. lol

I simply love, love, love the fabric line Nuances from Sew Batik. I think it will be a good fit for me since I have come to the conclusion I have feet firmly planted in the Art Quilt World and the Traditional/Modern world.

We have one more week trip planned before Christmas with good friends. And then it will be home for a few months. I am going to dedicate my time to creating. Getting on a good schedule will be the key.

How to create habits that are good for me that I don't resist doing? How to be good to myself and others too!

But for now I need to get cracking and finish off the last details of packing my sale stuff. By tonight it will be over. Tomorrow clean up and then hopefully so Jo Sew Time. My machines miss me.

And one other tidbit ... the Canadian Quilter Magazine from CQA had an article on the Canadian Nine Patch Exhibit in Houston. Anne and my quilt made the article. It was a nice bonus to our adventure. Everyone's quilt deserved to be in it.

No pictures this week. No sewing this week.

So I will leave you with some pictures from our Houston Trip.

Meeting Maria Shell was a great highlight of my trip as she is one of my favorite SAQA artists and a very nice, gracious person to talk to. She didn't even run when I gushed about how much I love her work. 

This was us after Sample Spree. This took place after all day running around the School House segments. Think School House as 20 min commercials all day long in different rooms. And over 1300 people running the halls all trying to get somewhere and get the good free goodies. Add Sample Spree in the evening which is the same people ( or at least number of people) running around to vendors to get the new products from companies like Moda ( or other big companies) People line up for a couple of hours to be first in line so they can run (literally)  to get to the shopping when the doors open. Think of the running of the bulls for fabric shoppers. 

This was such a cute turtle tower at Market I could resist taking a picture. It was at Jen Kingwells booth. 

Part of the fun of Market was getting your picture taken by the Moda designers then posting to Instagram. I had to get a Instagram account to play the game. This was Deb Strain's new collection which I won a set of fat quarters. I love the graphicness of the line. A bit of an address mix up but the fabric is on its way to me. Out of the five of us who hung around at Market 4 of us one a free set of the artists line. My daughter didn't win one so that is ok since we share everything any way.


Hope you have a week full of stitching fun.

Jo

Weekly Post - Fabric Beads Part 2

The canning factory that has been my house has slowed down. Now I only have apples to make into sauce and pies. Apples can be done over a longer period because they last so much longer than tender fruit.

So I have time to write a bit at last.

Fabric Beads Part 2

This is what the fabric bead looks like not embellished. And they are attractive on their own. 

But I like to wrap a bit of thread around the bead to give it some extra zing. 

Here comes in all the yummy threads you bought and haven't done much with since or the left over bits on a spool you don't know what to do with. 

I put the threads in this box with a magnetic closer so I can store it my sewing lair or in the living room with out it looking to messy. Since I also take it along to work on while driving trips ( to avoid watching the crazy traffic while my husband drives) the threads and supplies are contained and don't drop all over the floor of the car. Experience is a great teacher! 

You could use glue but I hate sticky and glue finds its ugly head all over the place if I use it. So I thread up a needle. I usually double up the thread and knot it at the end for better bead coverage. 

I start at one end of the bead going between the layers of  fabric (missing the plastic straw if you use that ) up to the top surface and take a small back stitch. 

I make sure the thread does not pull out at this time. Then I start wrapping down the length of the bead. 

Somewhere around the middle I take another small back stitch to keep the thread taught. 

Wrap to the end and use another back stitch. Wrap back to the other end wrapping and back stitching. 

There is no right or wrong about how much thread you use. Just it is nice if you have enough thread to go up and back on the same bead. 

If you don't make it to the end tie off with a few back stitches and add a new piece of thread. 

 

At the end of the bead go down through a few layers and make some tiny back stitches between the layers and tie off the thread inside. I

In time you will get speedier and neater. 

There is no right or wrong way of doing this. It is for fun! 

Here are two finished beads that took me a short time to create. 

Other ways to decorate the bead include beads in a bottle, adding small seed beads, pre stamping or colouring the fabric. 

Next up... how to make them into an earring.  

Hope your week wonderful.  The warm days this September is amazing. Some of the warmest driest weather we have had in Southern Ontario all summer. Linking up with the Needle and Thread Network

Jo

Have you tried making the beads yet? 

Weekly Progress and Discharge Dyeing

Sewing this week has been limited to making nursing covers for soon to be arriving Baby V. Our first Grandchild. I also am making a quilt but I haven't even touched the hand quilting yet.  No pictures of the covers because I gave them to my DIL last night. 

The second amount of sewing I have been doing is curtains for my main floor. These are hard curtains to make and no pictures yet of them because they are boring. I am making panels and suspending them on curtain clip rings. 

So I thought I would share with you some pictures of samples I made for a group of friends who came once a month this past year to learn and play with me. I learn best by tackling a project and learning as much as I can about it. 

Discharge Dyeing with deColourant, deColourant Plus (no longer made) and a Bleach Pen. 

deColourant Plus on various fabrics using a wooden Stamp and a foam stamp.
I can't say I was impressed with the deColourant plus. The purpose of this paste is to remove the colour from the fabric and then to add back the colour of the paste. In this case blue.
Back row fabric: Commercial Batik, Hand dyed black, blue hand dyed flannel, hand dyed red/pink on cotton
Front row: Two commercial cotton fabrics.
The foam stamp was the stamp that shows up the best. 

This was the same fabrics (mostly) using the same stamps and used the deColourant. deColourant is a product that removes colour from a fabric in a past form.
Back Row: Batik, hand dyed black, commercial cotton
Front Row: Hand dyed blue flannel, hand dyed cotton pink/red
Here the deColorant worked on all but the flannel. 

deColourant Plus in Silver (discontinued) It seemed to work on all the fabrics but not as well as the flannel.
Back row: Batik, black hand dyed, blue flannel, red/pink hand dyed
Front Row: Two commercial cottons. 

Here I use the Blue and Silver deColourant on the first two pieces and the plain deColourant. All were the same commercial cotton. But this time I used a stencil and applied the deColourant with a brush.

.

This was a piece of commercial fabric that I played with a bleach pen with.
The bleach pen removes the colour well but a halo effect can be seen. It is hard to get the bleach to flow evenly.


I have some more experiments with the bleach and deColourant, some conclusions, sources and things to try with the products next post.

Until then I am off to sew my curtains.

I am linking to needleandthreadnetwork