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Archive for October, 2010

Creative Overload

Thursday, October 28th, 2010

I am working on 3 projects at one time. I think this is a good thing. I have the two that have deadlines for Monday under control.

Today, I sandwiched the two silk fabrics that I am using in the rusty color play Twelve X Twelve piece. I can’t show what I am doing next with these!

Yesterday, Steph took me out for a belated birthday lunch and then we paid a visit to Gossamer Fiber Arts, a place I have wanted to visit for some time. I bought some lovely merino wool prefelt and this plant dyed roving.

Now, I am going to do hand-stitching on the alternate universe piece and watch the finale of Project Runway.


Progress

Tuesday, October 26th, 2010

I have the updated self portrait ready to quilt. This makes me smile. I still have to figure out how to do my glasses!! I think I will do the turquoise pair.

I played a bit with some of the colors for the Rusty colorplay challenge for my fiber sketch tonight.

I got to pick Miss Mia up from school today because Miles had a Dr appointment. It was fun taking her out for an after school snack. We had just gotten to my house when her Mom showed up, but still a fun time.

Trial and Error

Monday, October 25th, 2010

After mistakes and some experimenting, I finally got a piece of fabric that I am happy with. You can click it to see it enlarged.

After the last failure, I decided to mix up some turquoise dye with thiox discharge paste. I have done this in the past to get turquoise deposited where the fabric is discharged. For some reason, turquoise does not discharge. Remember that a couple of weeks ago, I was discharging black fabric. I had some paste mixed up and sitting in my dye kitchen. I blithely added turquoise dye and went to work.

I wore my respirator!

And after the fabric dried, I ironed it and then threw it in the wash. Guess what? I ended up with a piece of rust silk with no marks at all. Well, I forgot that thiox paste is only good for about 24 hours. Duh.

My next experiment was to mix dynaflow paint with the de Colourant paste. I made more marks on the rust silk.

After I steamed it with an iron, I could see from the back that the rust had discharged.

When I washed it, I got the subtle verde green color in the first photo. I am very happy with it.

I am working on two projects that need to be completed by next Monday. The other is for a juried show at my church, Trinity Episcopal, titled: Mirror, Mirror, a show of self portraits.

I did a self portrait a  few years ago for a Quilting Arts challenge — a Picasso version of my younger self. I decided to do an updated version and mount them together – sort of me – 50 years apart. The older me is more colorful! Here they are with the newer version a work in progress.

I have been having fun and feel very energized after a fallow period. The studio is a mess which means I am in creative mode.

It’s All About the Food

Saturday, October 23rd, 2010

I had a great time cooking today. I used all the ingredients left from my organic farm produce this week. Above is the Pear Tart Tartin, which did not use any of the ingredients. It was delicious with organic vanilla ice cream.

I made a tomatillo salsa with the tomatillos and jalapeno peppers. It also has onion, cilantro and lime juice. It was so good. I did not take photos, but you can see photos of the recipe I used, here.

I used the kale and rosemary in a Kale and White Bean soup. The recipe is here.

Steph made her fabulous sweet potato biscuits.

Here is the recipe:

Sweet Potato Biscuits
adapted from Martha Stewart Living Magazine
yield: about 20 small-size biscuits

1 pound sweet potatoes or yam (one large one is usually sufficient)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
8 tablespoons unsalted butter (chilled), cut into small pieces
1/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Prick the sweet potato and bake until soft (about one hour…you can also do this more quickly in a microwave). Once the sweet potato has cooled, scoop the flesh from the skin and pass through a food mill, ricer or sieve. You should have about 1 3/4 cups puree.

Stir together the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and cayenne. Cut in butter with a pastry cutter (or use your fingers) until it resembles a course meal. Mix milk with sweet potato puree and add it to the other ingredients. Mix dough, just to incorporate (I use my hands). If the dough is really sticky, add a touch more flour. Turn dough out onto floured surface and knead a few times. Pat out to a 1/2 inch thickness. Cut biscuits with a biscuit-cutter or glass. We make ours small, about 2 inches in diameter. Place on parchment-lined cookie sheet and refrigerate for 10 minutes. Place in preheated oven and cook until risen and slightly brown, about 12 minutes (longer for larger biscuits). Serve warm.

I invited her and the family just so I could have some of these biscuits. I also roasted beets which we had on a salad of greens with goat cheese. It was a beautiful meal and very tasty.

Mia is always reading:

And Scooter was mostly on his good behavior

except when he snuck into the kitchen while we were eating dessert and knocked some dishes on the floor, trying to have some leftovers!!

No studio time today. Maybe tomorrow.

An Exercise in Futility

Friday, October 22nd, 2010

The fiber sketch for today is Leaf Shadows.

Today, I started work on preparing some fabric for the rusty Twelve X Twelve challenge. I have this piece of rust colored silk/cotton blend.

I notice the back of the fabric has a greenish patina so I thought perhaps it would discharge to a green color.

I used a new discharging product called deColourant. It is non-toxic and non-smelly. You print, paint or stamp with it. Let it dry and then iron it to discharge the dye. The more heat and steam, the more the color is removed.

I stamped with corrugated cardboard, netting and a random dotted stamp. I dried it with a hair dryer and then ironed it. I first used my old Black & Decker and then I used the steam iron. And them, I blew a fuse!!

Anyway, this is the result.

Since I didn’t get any green color, I threw it in a bath with turquoise Colorhue dye. Well, I love this!!

Unfortunately, this is a cotton/silk blend and the Colorhue dye only works on silk and wool. So when I washed it, all of the color was gone — except on my hands!

Tomorrow, I will mix up thiox with turquoise dye and try that.

By the way, the deColourant comes with added color which is deposited when the dye is discharged. I was sent a couple of samples – plain and mustard yellow. I have other colors on order. Here is a link to the supplier, Kandicorp.