Time for the Annual SAQA Conference - Inspire*Connect*Engage!

I look forward to reconnecting with friends, hearing from wonderful speakers and the fun events planned at this years SAQA Conference - Inspire*Connect*Engage! 

Please stop by the Vendor Market / Thursday, March 31st /12:00 - 6:00 / 237 South Broad Street Philadelphia, PA. 

This picture is from a conference in VA... can't wait to explore PA this time! 

Free Motion Dyeing!

I was playing around with thickened dye and came up with the name Free Motion Dyeing to describe what I was doing. It's a playful, random and absolutely freeing way to splash color across the surface of the fabric!  By applying "plops" of dye onto the fabric and spreading it across the surface I created some fun "Jackson Pollack" style designs.

Give it a try and let me know what you discover! 

Hand Painted Silk + Sharpie Markers!

Over the past few months I've made a number of silk pieces using Sharpie Markers and Rubbing Alcohol. I wondered what would happen if I combined the Sharpie technique with painted silk. 

After heat setting the paint I placed the silk in a large quilting hoop.

I randomly added color with the markers.

I dropped rubbing alcohol on the markers allowing the colors to spread and meander.
This is a different color combo than the example above but the same technique.

The end result is a light and airy piece!

Give it a try and share your results! You'll get hooked! 

Misty Cole's: Poison Bottle Block-of-the-Month... and I Helped!

Misty Cole of Pick Your Brain Designs created a very cool Block of the Month series highlighting a variety of antique poison bottles. It's a fun project with lots of intriguing facts related to old bottles and the medicines/poison's they held! I had an opportunity to create the March Block and I'd like to share my adventure! 

Misty provides a pattern every month for each block!

The directions are clear and easy to follow! 

Fusible webbing gets the project off to a quick start  

The basic block is finished and ready to embellish

After printing a poison-like label it was time to free motion quilt

The finished block is ready for the company of the other block of the month bottles! 

Finished block detail! Please go to Pick Your Brain Designs to get started on
your own whimsical poison bottle block collection! 

Up-cycling!

I have a linen shirt that I fell out of love with. You know what I mean... you wear an article of clothing until you either spill dye on it (most of my clothes!) or you grow bored with the style. However, linen is such a wonderful fabric I thought I'd save it to work the fabric into a design at some future point... maybe cut it up or embroider on it. Honestly, it sat in a basket for about a year when I suddenly looked at it with fresh eyes. I tossed it into the dye bath with clamps and ice - voila - I feel like I have a new shirt to wear! Yippee... I'm going to go through my closet now to see what else I can up-cycle!