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!

Myth Postcard

I sent out my postcards to my swap group last week, only a month late; thank goodness they are an understanding group!  The theme for this swap was "Myth".  My interpretation centers on Athena.  You can read her story on the back of the card in the third photo.

The background fabric is hand dyed cotton.  The image of the Parthenon is printed on Extravorganza and fused to the background.  The olive branch is stenciled, and the owl is screen printed with a thermofax screen created from a photo by Elizabeth Gibson.

I am very pleased with how these turned out.

Arts & Old Lace Sneak Peak

Arts & Old Lace is a quilt challenge put together by two local quilters, Judy Gula of Artistic Artifacts and Cyndi Souder of Moonlighting Quilts.  The challenge was simply to create an 18" quilt with this theme; a kit of fabrics and laces was provided, but not required to be used.  I made 2 pieces for the challenge which will debut July 21.  I won't show the completed pieces until after that date, but I thought I'd share a few close-up shots of what I've been working on for the last month.

  Need I mention that both pieces contain screen printing?  Visible in the first picture but not so much in the second.  Stay tuned for more pictures later.

Thermofax Screen Printing at Artistic Artifacts

Elizabeth and I taught our thermofax screen printing class yesterday at Artistic Artifacts to 6 creative and enthusiastic ladies (and the teenage son of the proprietor).  Had a great time and enjoyed seeing the different ways each student found to use the designs.  They printed on fabric and paper, learned to tape a screen and experimented with discharge products.  We scheduled another class for Seprember 29.  Check us out if you'd like to learn about screen printing!

Screens Debut at QU Show

Yeah!  Our thermofax screens went on sale for the first time at the annual Quilters Unlimited of Northern Virginia Quilt Show!  Here are some shots of the Artistic Artifacts booth; our screens are in a basket on the table - there is a screen of a bird in front of the basket. (barely visible in the first picture, close-up in the third)

Elizabeth and I spent the day at the show, and about an hour & a half demo-ing screen printing to publicize the class we are teaching at Artistic Artifacts next weekend.  It was lots of fun!  But silly us, we forgot to take pictures of us during the demo!  We appreciate Judy giving us the opportunity to share our work. 

PG Fiber2Art - New Venture!

My friend Elizabeth and I are launching an exciting new venture: selling our original thermofax screens.  A local shop, Artistic Artifacts, is going to carry them for us.  The owner, Judy, recently purchased Batik Tambal, and vends at both quilting and mixed media shows.   I don't know what to expect; when we talked about her selling them in the shop, I hadn't thought of the additional exposure of shows, but we'll get our first taste of that this weekend at the Quilter's Unlimited annual quilt show.  We'll be hanging out in her booth on Saturday to promote the thermofax printing class we'll be teaching at Artistic Artifacts on June 9; class information is available on the AA website here.  This is the box of screens I delivered to Judy today.

Our business name is PG Fiber2Art and we can be contacted at PGFiber2Art@gmail.com.

Baby Gifts

This is the year for babies at work.  We've already had 1 adoption and 3 births (1 set of twins).  This week there's another shower coming up for 4 more expected late May through early July. Back in February I purchased ribbon balnket kits to make for this group, and got them sewn up this past week.  They are super soft minky fabric on one side and flannel on the other, with a layer of batting in between. The colorful ribbons provide additional texture and things to grab onto. They are about 13" square.  The ribbons are cut to 5" and stitched to the flannel/batting layers before sandwiching with the minky.  Kudos to Quilting Adventures quilt shop in Richmond for this cute pattern/kit.

The babies receiving these are 3 boys and 1 girl.  The strawberries, of course, are for the girl; the flannel side is green.  The navy with large dots has an Eric Carle dotted flannel on the back side.  The dots with white backgrounds have a navy and an orange flannel on the reverse sides. All washed and ready to gift!