Dyeing Day

I spent a day with my friend Beth, doing low-water immersion dyeing with Procion MX dyes. We started by dyeing 6 yards each with sun yellow, fuchsia, mixing red, turquoise, and intense blue. We then over-dyed the fabrics with the gray and black colors you can see in the pile on the right. The left pile shows the greens we got from over-dyeing the yellow with the various grays and blacks.

The fuchsia and mixing reds.












The turquoise and intense blues.











These fabrics were dyed with a gradation of navy blue and a constant 2% solution of yellow and mixing red.

We each made 44 yards of fabric. For more information on the process, see Beth's blog at www.quilterb-bethsblog.blogspot.com.

Sewing with Pat P

Pat Pauly was here today for a little studio time. She's working on the fabrics for samples for the class she'll be teaching here next month.








I spent some time looking for ideas and fabrics to use with some of my "jet trails" fabrics, which you can see on the right.
Pat and I were both struck by how nicely her fabrics melded into mine.



We pulled out some of the hand-dyed and shibori-dyed fabrics I have on hand, looking for possible interesting combinations to use. My favorite turquoise fabrics always "play well with others." :-)




Pat's newly-created strip-set fabric also looks great.

SAQA -NY Trunk Show

The two 12" x 12" pieces I made for the 2008 Studio Art Quilt Association of New York Trunk Show have been completed with hanging sleeves and labels, and have been sent off for the traveling show.


Jet Trails #4






Jet Trails #3

More sewing time for jackets

Beth, Priscilla, and Donna were back in the studio for more work time on their jackets.
Here Beth is showing us the back of her jacket.










These are the front panels of Beth's jacket before she started putting it together.










Donna made a lot of progress on the front panels and this back for her jacket.








Priscilla is making "just another blue jacket"...!! Her cross-stitched jaguar is surrounded by wonderful batiks and embroidered strips from Thailand. She plans to add beaded strips (if we don't snag them away from her!!)

More from the Jacket Class

Here is the back and the beginning designs for the front panels of the jacket that Beth is making. She is using the tulip-print fabric as the focus and creating wonderful fabric pieces to accent it.



Donna has made strip-sets from some of her favorite print fabrics and is working on the designs for the front and back panels of her jacket.
Jeanne's vest is taking form on her design wall.







My jacket back has a batik panel surrounded by a hand-woven strip from Thailand. The strips on the sides of the jacket back are from Guatemalan fabric. The designs for the front panels are in process. The black sections are made from strip sets composed of two different black fabrics to provide texture.

Jacket Class with Priscilla

Five of us had a wonderful time taking Priscilla Kibbee's jacket class at the studio this week. Priscilla brought just a few of the jackets she has made for us to admire and try on for inspiration.





We spent a large portion of the first day considering all the options, sorting through possible fabric choices and garment styles.

Here Priscilla is consulting with Donna on some of the fabric she wants to use with the panel she has on the wall that will go on the back of her jacket.





Donna is working on the flannel foundation for her jacket, with Inspector Suki watching over her shoulder.






Jeanne is laying out fabric options on the design wall for her long vest.







Julie is working on a butterfly vest using a batik fabric and her own shibori-dyed fabrics.

Donna and Priscilla are discussing more fabric options and Beth is working on the design wall.

Finger Lakes Art Gallery

We attended the Artist's Reception at Gallery 34 at Finger Lakes Community College for our long-time friend and colleague, Wayne Williams. He is a sculptor of some reknown and is shown here discussing his "Balancing Man" creation.












Wayne has spent time living and working in Belgium and has many cast images of clerics, farm animals, and other inhabitants of this culture. His ancestors came from the low land area of Europe, and he shares distant cousin status with Marcia.









We especially like the bicycling nun in the foreground of this grouping. Wayne has many commissioned statues in the area, and it was fun to see the results of his nearly 50-year career in one spot.









Spending time in Santa Fe inspired the Action Indian. A long-time horse owner, he has several examples of these animals in various poses.

Current President of the College, Dr. Barbara Risser, is pictured in the background.

GardenScape - part 2

Friend Pat Berardi narrowed down her choice of flowers to these final selections. Both Pat and Marcia raise orchids, and the variety each year usually results in a pretty purchase for the seller and the buyer.














Marcia has found a new friend in the Nicaraguan Pottery dealer who manages to arrive in Rochester each year with a fresh supply of vases and bowls. Marcia narrowed her choice to two alternatives and avoided the angst of decision making by bringing them both home!!

There were dozens of staged displays -- all with virtues of design and color. This scene featured a rock with a winding rope of copper leaf, which included a gentle stream of descending water. The Japanese maple tree at the left added its usual softness and color to the more jagged boulder emphasis at other parts of this feature.

An inviting pergola surrounded by forsythia and cherry trees in bloom. An irregular water pond and flat rock floor with appropriate seating and nice back lighting add to this attractive combination. Makes one want to sit a spell!

GardenScape 2008

Each year the landscape show puts on a spectacular presentation at the Dome Arena in Rochester. A 200-year old Chinese wisteria was part of the Bonsai display and was in full bloom.














T
The theme was "It's a Garden Life," which highlighted various groupings of outdoor rooms and multiple use areas. Pillars, tulips, and an overhead pole light outline this wonderful globe cactus.









This interior space is surrounded by six-foot loose stone walls and covered on the inside with grass walls, a water feature, and several groupings of flowering plants. It's a quiet hidden garden that invites meditation and calm reflections.

A Japanese gate resting on stone pillars led to an oriental-style pergola which contained chairs and more plantings -- a very impressive display with superior joinery evident in the wood construction.

Quilt Club Meeting

The monthly meeting of the Genesee Valley Quilt Club includes an option for members to have a sale table. Our friend, Priscilla Kibbee, was there this month with many of the goodies she has collected from her trips to Panama, Guatemala, India, Vietname, Laos, etc. There was always a crowd around the tables, and you can see Bev Kondolf on the right, who made multiple forays through the treasures!
Priscilla was modeling a bog coat she made from some wonderful fabric from Guatemala.


The Show and Tell portion of the meeting is another always-popular segment of the activities. Each quilt is first held up on stage as it is described by its maker, and it's then hung up so we can all get a closer look.














This lovely quilt was made by Pam Peet and quilted by Val Schultz, our Club president.