Dyeing Session

Here are the first of my dyed fabric experiments. I spent all of Sunday with my hands in the dye pot and today I had to keep explaining to people why my hands were purple. The first stage was dyeing and then I moved on to stamping with textile paints and using Shiva paintsticks. My favorite so far is the beeswax resist cloth, which is the deep purple with x's and o's. I overstamped it with gold. I'm not sure I'm done with these yet, but there are still a few yards to be stamped in round one!

Queen for a Lifetime

The only thing better than being Queen for a month (or two) is being Queen of two beautiful daughters who bake you a special birthday cake. No, I'm not 649 quite yet. I could explain but it might lose its charm!

Fun Foam Stamps

Since I've got 8 yards of washed cotton waiting for an impending dyeing and printing spree, I thought I'd try to make some of my own stamps using "fun foam." I found some thicker than normal sheets at the hobby store and cut out shapes with sharp scissors. I glued them to larger squares with craft glue. I let them dry overnight and tried them this morning. I'll be using these for stamping on fabric with textile paints.

Cloth Paper Scissors Cover

I think the only thing to say at a moment like this is WOOT! My thread sketch book graces the current cover of this delish magazine. Queen for a day!

Mini Flower Book

This little flower book was fun. I only had to make 25 of them! First I took a length of muslin and painted it with purple acrylic. I cut it into covers and stitched it with watercolor paper inbetween for strength. The pages were cut slightly smaller and have paper stitched inside, then they're stitched to the cover. The inside flowers are drawn with marker and painted with acrylics and Prismacolor pencils. I added some handcut stamps in the shape of a bee. The cover was stamped with acrylics in various colors. Finally, I created a needle felted flower from orange and purple wool roving and angelina fibers and attached it. The closure is velcro. There is a ring to make it a charm. "The earth laughs in flowers!"

Mini Bee Book

I made 20 of these for a swap. The covers are book board, covered with paper. The signatures are made of watercolor paper and hand bound with waxed linen thread in a kettle stitch. The cover is a flattened bottle cap painted with fluid acrylics and accented with oil stick in gold. The illustrations are hand drawn and then scanned and sized to fit in the book. I painted each one after mounting it in the book. Finally, the closure is a magnetic barrel clasp tied with waxed cord. "To make a prairie, it takes a clover and one bee, and reverie. The reverie alone will do, if bees are few." Emily Dickinson

Skinny on the Birds

Finished my skinny bird book pages for Amy's project and can't wait to get returns!