"Cravings"

I've been part of a postcard swap group for several years.  Our group keeps dwindling but we are still at it, twice a year. Our most recent exchange was due May 31, and not all have posted, but thought I'd share mine and the ones I have received.

 As noted in the title our theme was Cravings.  I couldn't get past the first thing that came to mind, which was, of course, chocolate!  I found a piece of fabric that reminded me of dark, rick chocolate, and made a thermofax screen of the words "dark chocolate".  I used a discharge paste to print the screen in the center of each 4 x 6 rectangle and after fusing to timtex, did a double row of stitching to resemble a chocolate bar.  Simple, but effective I think  I love the way the discharge turned out.  With discharge, you never know what you'll get - it depends on the dyes used in the fabric.

 This is Lois B's card - like me, Lois craves chocolate.  She really wants to be slimmer, but the craving usually wins.  I definitely empathize!

 

Sherry W. craves an English Cottage Garden.  She is working on a real one, but in the meantime created this delightful piece.

Cathy T. made this lovely card depicting a butterfly flying free from flower to flower - she craves that ability to fly free for herself.  Read more about Cathy's cards and process on her blog.

May Workshops at VCQ

Our May meeting featured 4 workshops plus Come Quilt with Me.  They included a seasonal wreath made with prairie points taught by Karen Sievert, a Welcome banner taught by Grey Castro, a "stash buster" quilt taught by Kimberly Rose Pannell, and a group making pillowcases for foster children.   Come Quilt with Me is for those who want to work on their own projects while socializing with others.  Here are some pictures from show and tell.

 

May VCQ Meeting

Our quarterly Virginia Consortium of Quilters meeting was held in Blackstone, VA, at the Virginia United Methodist Assembly Center on May 11.  A group of us enjoyed a Friday afternoon tour of the Schwartz Tavern.  It is one of 2 original taverns that existed at the crossroads before Blackstone came into existence, and the only one remaining. The very knowledgeable curator shared the history of the tavern and its various owners, and also gave us a tour of the adjacent carriage museum.

The tavern started as only 1 or 2 rooms and was added on to several times.  The furnishings are close to period, based on an inventory of its contents.

There are 2 large mill stones on the exterior of the property.

 

This is an example of a Blacks & Whites quilt, tied to the history of the town and the 2 taverns.  Schwartz is German for "black" and the second tavern was White's Tavern, hence blacks & whites.

This is a portion of the inventory listing the contents of the tavern.

There are some lovely old trees on the property as well.

Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival

Great day to be at the Howard County MD fairgrounds for the wool and sheep festival. I have never seen so much wool in one place in my life! And all the yummy colors! It was very crowded - knitters, weavers, felters, spinners, sheep shearing, food trucks - sensory overload! Enjoyed it immensely but came home exhausted!

Batik Show & Tell

Here are a few shots of class show & tell.

And some of the spectacular work of our instructors.

Batik Day 2

This is another piece from day 1.  After the first waxing it was dyed yellow.  The white is the first waxing with tjaps.  What remains yellow is the second waxing after which it was over-dyed red.  I think this piece is successful; I really like it.  

Here is the blue piece from day 1.  It too was waxed a second time (the leaves) and then over-dyed in red as well.  So all the white lines from the first waxing are now red, and the overall color is purple. What remains blue is from the 2nd waxing.  I was less pleased with this outcome, so I made a new blue piece with the same pattern.

Here are 2 more pieces from day 2; both have only 1 waxing - no time for a second layer.   I really like this teal blue color.

We also had some homework after day 1 to create a personal motif and draw it on our fabric.  So on day 2 we also waxed (by hand) and dyed this piece.  The first dye on this was a pretty coral-orange color.  I wanted to dull it some, so over-dyed in black to get this rust color, but now its duller than I wanted and the coral is less vibrant.  Oh well, lessons learned.  It actually doesn't look too bad in the photo.

Tomorrow - pictures of classmates creations!

Indonesian Batik Workshop

I was very fortunate this past week to be able to participate in a 2-day batik workshop at Artistic Artifacts with Indonesian batik artists Agus Ismoyo and Nia Fliam.  They are in the US for the opening of an exhibit in which they are featured, Out of Southeast Asia,  at the Textile Museum in Washington, DC. It was a very full 2 days, starting with learning about the ancient creative process of batik, symbols that form the basis for traditional designs, and getting in touch with our own creative source.  We started by learning to create designs by hand with the tjanting tool seen here is 3 sizes.

Ismoyo instructed us in the techniques for using tjaps. the copper tool used for stamping batik designs.  The wax pan has a layered pad in the center (copper, wire screening, and several layers of fabric); the tjaps are placed around the outside of the pan to heat, and tapped on the center pad to coat it with wax that is then applied to the fabric. The fabric is placed on a foam pad that is saturated with cold water, so when the hot wax on the stamp is pressed into the pad, it immediately solidifies.

After the wax is applied, its time for dyeing.  They use napthol dyes which is a different process than we use in the US.  There are different pre-soak base mixtures that determine the color resulting from the color solution.  Its all very confusing!  After dyeing and a 15 minute post-soak, it goes into boiling water to remove the wax and then a cold water rinse.  The colors are rich and fabulous!

Above are my first 2 pieces from Day 1.  The red one is my "doodle" piece, learning to use the tjanting tool.  The blue piece has a hand done border, with a stamped tjap design in the center.  The blue piece was waxed again and over-dyed the 2nd day. More pictures tomorrow.