Tea Bag Art Info and Hibiscus Quilt Fabric

First, let me say that in spite of my perfectly good intentions, no sashing strips or borders got sewn on my hexagon quilt yesterday; it might happen later tonight or possibly tomorrow since it is supposed to be a rainy day.

A reader asked about my tea bag art pieces, so let me start by telling you the sources that I initially found while recuperating from my recent second adventure with breast cancer. I had quite a bit of time on my hands and Pinterest can certainly help eat up lots of time! When I came across tea bag art, I was intrigued and began searching for more info. Here are some of the sites that I found helpful. Judy Coates Perez has a very good tutorial, "Tea Bags Revisited", and another  good site is Studio Saturdays: Tea Bag Art.  If you search Youtube, you can find many tea bag art tutorials. One you might like is "Mixed Media Morsels, Dessert 9 - Altered Tea Bags." One more thing . . . there is an artist Ruby Silvious who even paints true mini masterpieces on used tea bags. Definitely check out her work here as it is truly, truly extraordinary. Warning: tread lightly as tea bag art might become addictive!!!

I do follow one piece of advice that I found somewhere. I put a small square of muslin behind my stitching or painting to give the teabag more body, and I also forgot to mention in my previous post that I use Inktense pencils and watercolor pencils.

Now . . .  I am sure you were dazzled by the incredible piece of modern art at the top of this post. . .  No . . . oh well . . . it's fabric that I painted to use in the hibiscus quilt. I have plenty of fabrics I can use for the leaves and inner part of the flower but nothing quite right for the petals. On Show 2407,  MJ Kinman on The Quilt Show last week demonstrated how she paints cotton sateen fabric for her stunning gemstone quilts. How serendipitous was that!!! I followed her example, modified it a bit,  and now have this piece with which to work. I will probably put misty fuse on the back, and as I get working on it, it will look like Swiss cheese. I wasn't happy with the yellows so I painted an additional piece today. Here's what my set up looks like in my studio. . . okay . . . no studio . . . this is my cellar and I was kneeling on the concrete floor with the frame resting up against a work bench. :-)

I also toned down a piece of fabric that I had bought for the background. In the original the veining was much more pronounced. (FYI: I mixed Golden matte medium with white acrylic paint and then dabbed it on with a sea sponge.. After it dried, I had to repeat the process.) The fabric is a bit darker than it appears here.

In my next post I'll talk about the finished pattern which is all set to go, but I won't let myself start this new piece until the hexagon quilt top is done. :-)

One more thing, at yesterday's meeting of the Herring Run Quilt Guild we had a wonderful speaker, Sheri Cifaldi-Morrill from Whole Circle Studio.  Besides having a colorful, fun trunk show, what I found most interesting was her explanation about the creative process she used to design each piece. I came home with her "Up and Away Mini Quilt" pattern. After all, what's one more pattern to add to the pile!    :-)

Have a stupendous week.

Tea Bag Art and a New Art Quilt Project

This morning I thought I would show you some of the projects on which I have been working. These tea bags feature stitching, stamping, water coloring, buttons, beads, etc. What I will do with them, I'm not quite sure. Right now I am just making one whenever an idea strikes.

Here's the first step for my new art quilt based on a photo (used with permission :-) posted on the Mereknits blog. Perhaps you would like to follow the process. First I slip an 8x10" photo into a page protector. Next, I use an ultra fine Sharpie to outline elements in the photo. The close up below shows that I also indicate where the colors change.

I bring the page protector to Staples and ask for a large print: in this case I requested one that is 20" wide. (The machine will automatically determine the length.)  Depending on the clerk, you might get a skeptical response that it won't work. Smile and gently insist that it does indeed work. Here's the proof . . . a 20x24" print out. 

Below you can see the photo, the page protector, and the large print out.

The next step will be to make a freezer paper pattern of this print. I have already begun painting some fabric to use in this piece. More about that in my next post.

Yesterday morning I had to get up at the crack of dawn, well, actually 6:30 but that's a tad early for me. (Retirement means never getting up before 7:30 unless you have a darn good reason.) I was heading to the other side of the city to go to a First Friday mass. My young cousin Miss T. and her sister attend a parochial school. Miss T. was doing one of the readings, and I might add that she did a very fine job. :-) Anyway, as I was crawling along in Boston traffic, I had time to read signs and billboards. Maybe it was the traffic, maybe it was the early hour, but I got to wondering. "SELF STORAGE " H'mmm . . . Why on earth would I want to store myself??? Where indeed would I choose to store myself???  Then in Watertown center there was a huge sign for "Eyebrow Threading." What's up with that???

 At today's Herring Run Quilt Guild meeting this morning I spotted this message that a child had scrawled on a dry erase board up on the stage.

I love people who are passionate about what they enjoy doing; spelling doesn't have to be one of them. :-)

Emma and I have just returned from a long walk in the warm, glorious sunshine. Time to go plant the pansies that I purchased yesterday, and later, I hope to finish the sashing and borders on a grandmother's hexagon quilt before my head hits the pillow tonight. I may have written that a few times already on this blog, but this time I really, really, really mean it. :-)