Arts & Old Lace Quilts Revealed

The Arts & Old Lace exhibit opened yesterday at Artistic Artifacts, so now I can share the 2 pieces I have in the collection of 80+ quilts.  It is a wonderful show, stop in to see it if you can; so many different interpretations of the theme.  Quilts will remain on display through the end of September during regular store hours, Tues & Thurs 11-5, and Sat 9-2.

I have been photographing architectural elements for the last year, so the theme brought to mind a quilt based on Architectural Lace. This piece was created with thermofax screens of architectural elements from various buildings - church windows, porch columns and the arched filligree of a Victorian porch.  The vertical lace inset was part of the kit, as were the other laces added as trim.  The screens are printed on a collaged batik background. The antique buttons were purchased at a quilt show.  Machine pieced and quilted.

My second interpretation of the theme is Nature's Lace, also created with thermofax screens. A lacy fern and of course Queen Anne's Lace, both open and closed, are the elements used here.  A circle of emboidered fabric included in the kit became the center of the fern "flower".  The butterflies are also printed from a thermofax screen onto a hand-dyed fabric, then cut out, fused and stitched in place.  The blue background is a snow-dyed fabric.  Machine quilted.

More From Quilt Camp 4

I'm home now from quilt camp (while Elizabeth remains in NH through most of August) and have gotten most of my stuff put away, so I can try to keep the momentum going. Here are some things I worked on in the last week.

 The 2 pieces above and below are both scarves that were ice-dyed; the fabric is layered with ice cubes on top and the dye powder is sprinkled on top of the ice.  As the ice melts, the dye soaks into the fabric, so the results are somewhat of a surprise, depending on the colors used and number of layers.  These 2 were layers in the the same "parfait".  Both are screen printed. 

The blue/turquoise piece above was an attempt at using tapioca as a resist, following instructions in a Quilting Arts article by Lisa Kerpoe.  After applying the tapicoa and letting it dry, I used thickened dye rather than liquid dye; I think I would have had better results with liquid dye.  The tapioca was difficult to wash off, and there were large areas of white when I was done.  I ended up spraying the whole piece with blue and turquoise dye.

This yellow piece was a sunprint from last year - not very inspiring - so I printed it with an orange.  Much better!

I decided I wanted to see what some of my dye colors looked like individually, so did these 9 half yards on the last day.  A bit backwards, I admit, but I started off with ice dyeing and mixing colors, so wanted to see them separately.

On our last day we had a lovely lunch at Caste in the Clouds, in the Ossipee Mountains overlooking Lake Winnipesaukee. 

More Quilt Camp 4

As mentioned in my last post, here are a few pictures of round 2 of breakdown screen printing.  This process involves spreading thickened dye on a silk screen, placing objects on top to make an impression, and then allowing it to dry.  After its dry, you use clear print paste and a squeegee to soften the dried paste and print the impressed design.  Each print is unique and the design continues to "breakdown" each time you print.

This one is my favorite.  I think it has a lot of potential.

Quilt Camp 4

Greetings from New Hampshire!  My friend Elizabeth and I are in the midst of "quilt camp 4" at her summer house on the lake.  We've had limited internet access so this is the first post.  Weather has been beautiful, we escaped Northern Virginia just before the big storm hit that knocked out power for days.  We have been creating and relaxing, enjoying nature...except for the bear that visited this morning!  Here are a few pictures from the first week and a half.

 This fellow decided to take one of the bird feeders as soon as Elizabeth put it out this morning.

 First round of ice dyeing, a t-shirt and 2 half-yards of fabric.

 This was my big project for week 1; screen printed, stamped and stenciled on duck cloth, 1/2 yard.

 Ice dyeing, round 2. T-shirt & 2 scarves this time.  

 A carved rubber stamp to represent grass for another project.

 Sun printing.

 A beautiful sunset on the lake.

 A walk in the woods at Castle in the Clouds.

 A visit with friends at their camp on nearby Squam Lake.

 We paddled the canoe into the nearby creek in search of dragonflies and other pond life to photograph.

First attempt at breakdown screen printing.  Results of 2nd round are better, photos later!