"Outdoor Studio"

Yesterday, for the first time this Spring, the weather was warm enough to install my outdoor studio. The foldable table for tabletennis is just great for a big painting/printing/dyeing surface!

Even though the painted fabric turned out a bit to pale to my tast, I enjoyed working outside in the sun again.

Gestern war es zum ersten Mal warm genug in diesem Frühling mein "Aussen-Studio" zu benutzen. Der Tischtennistisch ist zum Malen/Färben/Drucken grossartig - so viel Fläche!

Auch wenn der Stoff nicht so toll wurde, habe ich mich doch gefreut, endlich wieder draussen arbeiten zu können.

Winter-Wunder-Land

Today I woke-up to this winterdream. After several weeks of wet and grey weather we finally saw the sun again!

Happy New Year  to you all!

Nach einigen Wochen geprägt von nassem und grauem Wetter, wachte ich heute bei diesem wunderbaren Wetter auf.

Es guets Neus a alli!

Tallgrass Prairie Studio: Joy In The New Year

Progress made for the Tallgrass Prairie Studio: Joy In The New Year - Challenge

Last week I worked on this six garment pieces and finished all of them! Ufff.
These are the 2 t-shirts, 2 skirts, the pants and the jacket I had named to finish below, early in November.

As an extra most of the mess on my working tables and on the design wall got clean-up, too. What a feeling to be able to breath again!

The Quilt on the designwall is an other WIP, as well as the bundles next to the sewing machine! I hope to be able to finish at leat some of them. Last night i got a good start! More later.

More Shibori scarfs

As promissed to show you the silk scarfs I had in work.

Three were wraped diagonally around a piece of pipe. Before wraping did fold the red/black scarf in half and the blue in thirds. The Silkpaint was carefully added with a brush, not getting too much paint on the scarfs!

The forth I just stuffed in large joghurt cup and pured over a very deluted blue.

Wie versprochen zeige ich noch die vier Seidenschals, die ich in Arbeit hatte.

Drei habe ich diagonal um Plastikröhren gewickelt und gebunden. Den Rot/Scharzen hatte ich zuvor noch in die Hälfte gefaltet und den Blauen gedrittelt. Die Farben habe ich jeweils vorsichtig mit dem Pinsel aufgetragen, achtsam, dass nicht zuviel Farbe in die Seide kam.

Den hellblauen habe ich einfach zerknüllt in einen grossen Joghurtbecher gestopft und mit verdünnter blauer Farbe übergossen.

Batic / Batik

Last week I started a batic sample piece to do a groupe work to decorate my therapieroom for the Holyday Season.

To keep it simple I used different metal cookie cutters. To dip them in the soy wax pan I used wooden clothpegs.

After putting down the first layer of wax on white cotton fabric, I painted with very deluted fabric paint - to keep it simple again - starting with lemon yellow. Adding one layer of wax and color after another till I ended with dark blue.

Finally ironing out the wax between several sheets of newspaper.

Then dipping the piece in very hot water. Now it is still waiting for a final wash in the machine!

but looks shiny so far.

Letzte Woche begann ich mit einem Batikübungsstück, welches ich als Gemeinschaftsarbeit zur weihnachtlichen Dekoration meines Therapieraumes plane.

Um die ganze Arbeit einfach zuhalten benutzte ich verschiedene Sternförmige Guetzliförmchen, die ich mit Hilfe von hölzernen Wäscheklammern in Sojawachs tunkte und auf weissen BW-Popeline auftrug. Danach malte ich den Stoff mit stark verdünnter Textilfarbe hellgelb. Es folgten weitere Lagen Wachs und Farbe. Bis dunkelblau zum Schluss.

Nun folgte das Ausbügeln des Wachs zwischen mehreren Lagen Zeitungspapier und Auswaschen der Wachsrückstände mit heissem Wasser. Es wartet noch ein Waschgang in der Maschine.

Shibori Silk dyeing

Last week I did some silk-dyeing in Shibori technic. First I layed a base in a lighter color, after drying and ironing I roled the shawls around a pvc-pipe and bound them. After pushing the shawles together I painted the fabric with fullstrength silkpaint. Left it to dry and steam fixed it. After washing and ironing it looked gorgeous.
And....there are some more in the making.

Letzte Woche habe ich zwei Seidentücher in der Shiboritechnik gefärbt. Zuerst grundierte ich die Tücher in einer hellen Farbe. Nach dem Trocknen und Bügeln rollte und band ich die Schals um eine PVC-Röhre, schob den Stoff dabei nach und nach sehr eng zusammen.

Darauf bemalte ich die Seide mit konzentrierter Seidenfarbe. Auf das Trocknen und Auswickeln folgte das Dampffixieren der Farbe. Nach dem Waschen und Bügeln leuchteten die Tücher um die Wette!

Und das Beste... es sind noch weitere in Arbeit.

Screen Printing Class

At Quily University (quiltuniversity.com ) I am taking a screen printing class with Lyric Kinard.What I really enjoyed so far where the newspaperstencils to mask the screen. they stick well to the screen. I could hardly stopp myself from printing!




Zur Zeit nehme ich an einem Online-Siebdruckkurs mit Lyric Kinard bei Quilt University teil. Besonders gafällt mir das abdecken des Siebs mit Zeitungspapier. Zu meiner Überraschung ist es sehr dauerhaft während des Druckens. Beim Auswaschen des Siebs wird das temporäre Motiv dann zerstört. Gefiel mir so gut, dass ich kaum mit Drucken aufhören konnte!

Taking Inventory of the chosen 12 UFO's

6 garment pieces
- pink t-shirt
- multicolour t-shirt
- purple jacket
- blue pants
- black-red skirt
- lining of the brown-turquoise skirt

6 quilts
- red gray mini-quilt
- 4 "grases"quilts
- cosmea quilt

hope to be able to finish most of it!!

Tallgrass Prairie Studio: Joy In The New Year

Tallgrass Prairie Studio: Joy In The New Year

To get some new energy to finish some 12UfO's, quilts and garments, from the I do not know how many - I decided to take part in Jacquie's Challenge!

And while taking part, I fulfil one of my other gaols to start blogging regularly, once a week!

Machine Quilting

Last week I started out with a new projekt: improve my machinequilting skills.

For the sketchbook -challenge I not only do want to try surface design technics that are new to me, but also improve my quilting skills.

I started a new sketchbook and pasted in some of my doodleings from my agenda. I already did a few samples which I stappled in the book and started an collection of sample pads the will form a book later. I am not sure what the binding of this samplerbook is going to look like but I have got some ideas from books, I did in the past. I might make a box for the books too.
While sewing on the samples I got the idea to make a simple book cover for a fotoalbum as a present for my parents to bring along the next weekend.
Below you can see the back of the finished cover and then the front of the album. Tomorrow I am going back to a shop for a nice shell button to add a closure.

Clean up and Experiments

Last night I started to prepare the materials for a two day workshop this weekend. "Experimentale Sewing" is the theme. We are asked to bring Colette Wolffs book "The Art of Manipulating Fabric" along, if we got it and lots of different materials, not only textiles.

While searching through the basement with all the materials I came again across several UFO's and got sidetracked as you can see in my post, too.



Well I got most of it together now, decided to also pick-up some UFO's to finish them. I will add new technics to them, I intend or already started to explore.



First is this brown/beige something I started about a year ago, intended for my MIL's 80th birthday but then did the one below. I wanted her to have something really personal from me!



The colors are hers truly, not mine. But I see it as a challenge to change and add till I like it too and it is truly mine!

As you can see I started by adding a few strips, but that is not the (whole) solution yet! To be continued...

Spring in December

Look at those wonderfull trees in the park of the clinic I work. With that blue sky -rarely to see during late fall an winter- I had to take a picture to show you. Even it has snowed quite a lot in the mountains, it is all green down here.

On the textile side not much going on. Just mending socks and a pyjama. And the bathrobe I finished for my parnters daughter is waiting for some glizz.

Birthdayquilt/Geburtstagsquilt

Last November I did some sketches during a boring meeting. To one of the drawings I was especially atracted to. I knew this would be a quilt. But I had to postpone my ideas till February after passing some further job education.
The quilt to be was to be the present for the 80th Birthday of my mother-in-law.

So I layed out a background fabric in a light green I new she liked an added a few leftover stripes in similar or contrating colors.

After a few days I started to piece little log cabin like blocks, layed them out. Then I enlarged the sketch to the original size and copied it on freezerpaper to know the size needed for the little blocks.
Some of the blocks I sewes together rightaway. Others I moved back and fore, some I threw out. When the three pieced sections where done I did not like the background fabric any more. After searching in my stash I could not find the "right" green. But I found one in our tiny quilt shop in town.

I then cut the background along the freezerpaper. Finished piecing the top and prepared the quilt sandwich. Fixed the layers with invisible thread and started handquilting. First I drew a few wavy lines with taylor's chalk on the top and quilted it with handdayed "pearl yarn" from Melody Johnson, which I had saved for years and never dared to use! I added sleeves on top and bottom and the label with a picture of Annelies, my mother-in-law.

Voilà. Flow #1.
I liked the sketch and the piecing on the little blocks so much, it led to many new ideas.

Start-up

So nun versuche ich mich auch im bloggen und meine Textilarbeiten hier auszustellen.

So now I take my first steps in blogging to show some of my Fiberwork.