In Just Two Weeks

Yes, it's that time of year again!  The 2013 SAQA Benefit Auction gets underway two weeks from today, on Monday, September 9, at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time (that's noon hour for those of us in the Mountain Time Zone).

Over four hundred SAQA members have contributed this year; many of us have now done so for five years or more -- all because we want to stand behind and support this now-international organization that has done so much to enable us as artists.  As SAQA members, we have been able to add to our skill sets, our artistic knowledge, our colleague-and-friendship base, and our life experiences -- entering shows, having work juried and/or critiqued, making and meeting Visioning goals, travelling to beautiful locations for conferences and incorporating all we see, touch, taste, smell and hear into future work.

It fills me with Wonder  ;-)

You can see my piece (with a much better photo -- and a zoom in!) HERE (yes, it's on the SAQA Pinterest site, with permission) -- as well as all the other fabulous contributions to this annual event. 

Or, if you prefer, you can view them directly on the SAQA website.  For those of you interested in bidding, you can find out how the auction works HERE.

On your marks...Get set...GO!

Odds and Ends...and the Red Deer Quilt Show

The ends, literally, belong to my knitted sleeveless turtleneck top.  I spent the early part of today listening to Bach and sewing them in left, right and centre.  It was the perfect activity, as the latest snow-freezing rain session (last evening and overnight) made the roads too nasty for travelling into town to church.  Sigh.   As someone on Facebook pointed out today, "It's a lovely Winter we're having this Spring."  Maybe we've all stumbled into Narnia.  Perish the thought!

And the odds?

Friday, I finished dyeing the last of the 50 metres (!) of silk ribbon that arrived on Tuesday from Dharma. Who knew one could use it up so quickly?  Never mind.  I have enough to get me started (and perhaps finished, if I am discerning) with "Waiting for the Train" (the grasses and cat-tails):

"Waiting for the Ribbon Train"

Also on Friday I finished beading 'Wonder'.  That said, the piece is not yet...um...finished.  There's a wee bit of seed stitch to be added.  Here are a few shots:

Beading Detail 1

Beading Detail 2

Beading Detail 3

Beading Detail 4

Seed Stitch Started

I'll be working on seed stitch this evening as I watch a re-run of....something.  :-)

Yesterday was almost entirely taken up by the Central Alberta Quilters' Guild Show at Westerner Park in Red Deer.  A bit smaller than last year (my favourite vendor, the fellow from Copperfield's Books, apparently took ill on his way to the venue and had to cancel!  We are all praying it's nothing serious!!), I found less to 'ooh' and 'ahh' over, and (believe it or not) I came away without purchasing anything!  There was one merchant whose wares I will definitely be exploring more closely for a future project, though: the wool-dyed cottons etc of "A Threaded Needle", which specializes in Japanese-style handwork and sashiko.  The books, samples and supplies she carries make my mouth water!

Here were the pieces in the show that tickled my fancy:

First, prize-winner Mary Vanson:

"Been There, Done That #4" by Mary Vanson

Another by Ms. Vanson -- "Been There, Done That, #?"

In her Artist's Statement for "Been There, Done That", Ms. Vanson, who is from Red Deer, wrote, "This si #4 in a five-part series of "Been There, Done That".  Hand appliqued, quilted pictures of some of our 'Excellent Adventures' across Canada and in Costa Rica".  Great fun!

Next, 

"Hearts" - Wendy Greber

Believe it or not, Ms. Greber did this as a practice sample!!

Another prize-winner, this one from Chris Sisson -- exquisite applique, machine quilted by Cheryl Whitten:

Rminiscence - Chris Sisson & Cheryl Witten

The blanket stitch on the above quilt is all hand-done.

Outside the prize-winners, my pick for 'Viewer's Choice' is this one:  'Star of Mexico', made by Debbie Becker Mathie of Innisfail, Alberta and quilted by Karen's Quilts.  Believe it or not, Ms. Mathie made it in "five long days" and adapted it from wall-hanging to medium-sized bed quilt!

Star of Mexico - Debbie Becker Mathie & Karen's Quilts

"Star of Mexico" Detail

It should come as no surprise to you that I'm attracted to pieces with trees, and there was one lovely one this year - an original design based on photos taken near the artist's home:

Winter Silence - Cathie MacDonald

And yes, there were some hexies!  This piece was actually part of a display honouring the memory of a member of the Central Alberta Quilt Guild who'd died in 2012, Mary Ann Raivio:

In addition to the flower garden-style quilt, there were several other examples of Ms. Raivio's work, including this charming red-work piece:

I find it a comforting thought that wherever there are groups, associations or gatherings of textile artists, there will be people who will find a way to preserve, treasure and honour the work of those who have gone before, expressly for the enjoyment and enlightenment of those who come after.

Steady She Goes

It may seem from this post that there's a great deal going on, but it's all been sewdio work, of one sort or another.

Monday I worked on P's birthday quilt, gradually filling my design wall.  I really like how it's shaping up.  With a couple of borders, it'll be throw-sized -- and P's the kind of gal who likes to curl up on her couch with her cat, so that'll be just fine.

Yesterday I started a wee gift for my room-mate-to-be at the SAQA Conference, and today I finished it up. I used a couple of pieces of sun-dyed fabric from last summer's session.  The outer cover is some sort of semi-sheer of indeterminate origin (!) and the flaps inside are some sort of synthetic slippery stuff, also of unknown material.  The lining is a commercial cotton.  Or maybe a poly-cotton.  (I dyed the first two, but not the lining fabric; it was already that colour.)  All of the fabrics were given me a few years back...

The bookmark is some Treenway Silk ribbon from the Judith Montano Series in the "Cedar" colour-way; it's stitched in place and embellished with a bead or two.  Green, of course!

Journal Cover - outside (about 6" by 8", folded)

Journal Cover - inside

Speaking of silk ribbon, my order from Dharma Trading arrived yesterday, so today I took my first plunge into acid dyeing and made these, using my modest collection of Jacquard Acid Dyes.

 It was easier than I thought, but the mixing will take some experimenting.  The instructions on the website and the jar, and in my "Teach Yourself Visually Dyeing" book all assume you're going to produce massive quantities of dyed material.  I went quite small with my measurements -- or so I thought -- but ended up having to both dilute my dye bath and shorten the time the ribbon soaked in it, in order to get a paler product.  I have dye bath left over, however -- in two colours (brown and purple-navy), so will play with combinations of them plus water till I get what I want.


I was aiming for something I could use for dry grasses/cat-tails along the pond in "Waiting for the Train".  On the upper left corner of the card you'll see a small bright orange piece and right next to it, a dark purply-navy.
The first is pure Golden Yellow -- clearly very concentrated!!  The second was created from Golden Yellow, Sky Blue and a touch of Scarlet.  Both were good starting points.

I began with a tiny bit of ribbon and boiling water, dye and vinegar in a glass jar (recommended by a dear friend who used to run her own dye-works).  Then I dug out my dye pot, put all the Golden Yellow mixture into it and began to play.  I added a cup of the purple-navy mixture, and then measured in several cups of hot water, and added some more vinegar.  That produced the deep brown, and the slightly paler red-brown you see on the left side of the card.  Adding more water/vinegar and shortening the time in the bath produced three pieces that are closer to what I'm aiming for -- the last 3 on the card moving from left to right.

All, of course, will be used somewhere or other.  Tomorrow, I may brew up another batch, using the two original colours as my foundation, diluting and adjusting from there.  This is just too much fun to fuss over!

As for "Wonder"...the beading hasn't started yet...but this evening, most likely.

In the Knitting Department, remember the sleeveless turtleneck?  I'm doing the ribbing around the second armhole.  Almost there!

P.S. Linking up with WIP Wednesday over at The Needle and Thread Network.  Wanna join me?

Sweet Sunday

And I'm not talkin' chocolate!  ;-)

We have sunshine here (when snow was the original forecast), and there's lots of melting and muddiness and grass showing through the snirt (that's snow+dirt).  After church, friends took two of us 'widder ladies' out to a buffet lunch...so a walk is definitely in order before the end of this afternoon!

And I have been stitching.

The Atlantic Seaboard Sampler has two more light-houses (5 of 6 finished now), and my turtleneck is almost...well, a turtleneck!  I managed to get it over my head, and it's going to fit nicely -- and look smashing with black pants or white capris this summer.  After the disaster of the camisole, I'm both relieved and  happy!

Since last Wednesday's post, my 12" square contribution to the 2013 SAQA Online Benefit Auction has progressed by leaps and bounds...but not without a couple of heart-stopping moments along the way.

My quilted sample with metallic threads worked out, so I sandwiched the piece, using on the back the same white-on-white cotton print (snowflakes) that I'd used for the background of the top.  The quilting went well and I was pleased.  

I've titled the piece "Wonder", and decided I wanted to embroider the word along one side of the centre motif, using YLI Candlelight metallic thread in "Rainbow" (it's really white; why they named it 'Rainbow' is beyond me).   I have a Husqvarna Lily 555, which I adore, but I don't have the special bobbin case for bobbin work with this sort of thread, so I knew I'd have to do it by hand.  Thanks to the advice I found online at the Indus Ladies embroidery forum, I decided to use a simple back-stitch rather than try to stem-stitch this fragile, slippery, tends-to-shred thread.

First I dug out the package of Sulky Sticky Fabri-Solvy I bought a couple of months ago -- and had yet to try.   It has paper on one side, and if I wanted to, I could run it through my printer.  I can also trace on it, which is what I did, using a font from my MS Word program, set at its largest size.  I used water soluble marking pen to make the tracing on the non-sticky fabric size of the stabilizer:

I removed the paper to reveal the sticky side, and stuck it in place on the border of my piece.  Then I embroidered it down...and followed the instructions to dissolve the fabric and wash away the water-soluble marker.

That's when the colour of the central motif went from this pale blue:

To this not-quite-so-pale blue:

I decided to live with it.

Then I bound it...and discovered that in the quilting something from my sewing table (which I thought was clean) had rubbed on the printed snowflakes on the back and they were showing up as grubby grey spots!!

So...after the binding was hemmed in place (the label was on by this time too), I washed it a second time -- this is the photo you see above.  In stead of clear water, this time I used a gentle soak with Synthrapol added, and a gentle rinse.  It didn't alter the blue any further (phew!) and mercifully, the back is now white as...yep: snow.  Double phew!

All that's left to do is add some of these tiny seed beads -- and a sleeve -- and it'll be ready to take with me to Santa Fe to deliver to the Benefit Auction curator.

All the silence, the sunshine, the sampling and the stitching have brought a special sweetness to this year's Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday.

I hope you were equally blessed!

Happy Easter!  Happy Spring!