Retreat

Ricky's dry SA piece

  The Colorado Dyehard Retreat has come and gone.  Hard to believe after a year of thinking and talking about it and several months of getting ready for it, it is just a memory.  We had a good time, learned a great deal from one another, shared many good meals together.   I have many wonderful memories of the Retreat. 

  The group's main emphasis is dyeing with MX Procion dyes on cotton fabric, but we branch out on occasion and use other types of dyes or paints and other fabrics.  During this Retreat we dyed with natural dyes, some dyed silk and velvet pieces, along with using paint and paint sticks.   

Betty Ann's silk scarf, t-shirt and thread

  Yards and yards of fabric, socks, t-shirts, onesies and blankets were exposed to dye, rust and paint in one way or another. 

  Some of the techniques that were studied or used during the week were gelatin plate printing, soy wax batik, discharging with numerous products being used to accomplish this,  painting Tyvek, flower pounding, rust dyeing using several methods, indigo dyeing, dyeing with cochineal bugs, complex cloth pieces were worked on thru out the week using numerous items to make designs, stamping, dyeing thread and perle cotton, snow dyeing, resists, painting with thickened dye, dry soda ash technique, folding fabric and applying dyes, stencils were used with discharge, silk screens,  deconstructed screen printing, and I know there were more, just don't remember all of them. 
Some of us had done a study of how different brands and types of cotton fabrics take up the dye and of course there was a swap of fabric pieces.  Some of those not able to attend the Retreat sent fabric and those attending the Retreat brought fabric already dyed or dyed fabric while here.     

    

One of my favorite shots thruout the week

Sun setting in the west

It has been awhile

Since I lasted posted at the end of April there have been serious health issues that members of our family have faced.  One is recovering from shingles, three were diagnosed with cancer within about a three week period beginning in May. Two have finished cancer treatment or had it removed, also one of these two is still dealing with a benign tumor in another location, and my sister passed away from cancer.  It has been a grueling spring, one I do not care to repeat ever again. 

  Through all of this I have learned that I need to be more thoughtful and caring of others when I hear about someone having problems because there were so many wonderful people in our extended community who helped our family get through all of this. 

  I have learned to take one day at a time, that is all we have no matter how many plans we are always making. 

  And I hope I have learned to prioritize people and things in my life a little better.  Take care of the people around you who are important to you.  Keep in touch, take time to be with those you love, don't worry about things you can't change or have little or no control over.  And just do something special now and then for those you care about.  Life is very fragile, embrace those special times and moments share with loved ones, we aren't here very long. 

  I took this photo 2 days before my sister called and told me she had cancer.  It was the flowering crab in our front yard.  I will not be able to take anymore photos of the blossoms, as it blew over during a wind storm several weeks later.  It was the final branch of three on this tree.  We lost the first one last summer during wheat harvest when we had high winds go through.  That evening I had stopped on the road to talk to my sister.  We were both returning to our homes from taking supper to the guys in the fields. So these are for you Julie. 

  

Paducah, KY

  We could hardly wait until April 18th arrived this year so that we could head east to Paducah, KY and the AQS Quilt Show and it has now come and gone. 

  A week ago we were enjoying supper with friends at Logan's in Paducah and later attended the Ricky Tims show, which was great!!!  The music he played Friday night was beautiful and his stories hilarious. 
  He gave a one hour program at our Guild 11 years ago.  Hmmmm, I wonder if he would come again for the same price???? 
 Friday was our final day in Paducah, as we packed and left for Colorado the following morning.  We had a wonderful time and some more good memories were made. 

 

  One of the most interesting things we saw while attending the show were the restrooms outside the Pavilion or Bubble, as I referred to it.  These were "Royal Restrooms", NOT the regular port-a-potties one sees strapped on a trailer hauled from place to place. 

   The inside of these special restrooms was very impressive.  Thought I would skip the obvious part one would find in such a place and go to the luxury side of the place. 

  I had to purchase some bread from Kirchhoff's.  Actually we purchased a lot of bread from there.  We never ate lunch there though and it is one of my favorite places to eat lunch.  I did find out that the "Stranded Cow" went out of business.  They had some excellent sandwiches.  One place we did eat was Patti's.  It is located southeast of Paducah in Grand Rivers, but it is well worth the trip.   We love the pork chops they make.

  We enjoy walking around the settlement and checking out the various stores they have.  I think the wind chimes they sell at one store have to be a favorite.  The foliage and flowers were beautiful.

 

  I ate at the Whaler's Catch when I was in Paducah in 2008.  The food was just as good this time as last.  I had crab cakes, probably again too.  We don't have too many of those in Colorado, so I eat them when we are at special places like the Catch.  We ate outside on the lower deck, first for that and it was a lovely evening. 

  One of our first stops was the Finkle building downtown.  I had a good visit with Judi at her booth, Mamaws Hand dyes.  Marc held things down while we visited. 

  Then off to the Museum.  The place I was very

anxious to visit as Hollis Chatelain's Imagine Hope Exhibit was there.  I was so excited to see all of the pieces together in one place along with the photographs that accompany the pieces she has made.  If anyone should get a chance to view this exhibit, jump at the opportunity.  It will be at the National Quilt Museum until May 25th of this year. 

  We saw a number of other beautiful quilts there, especially those darned miniatures.  I would go blind trying to make one of those, but they are intriguing. 

  This is the view of one of my favorite spots on I-70, the east side of the bridge that allows us to cross over the Missouri River.  It wasn't all that inviting on Saturday when we crossed over it.  In fact we drove in heavy rain through most of Missouri on our way home.  I guess that is why they have so many more trees than what we do out here on the plains, more water, lots more water.

  We met a number of interesting people along the way this trip.  On our way to Hermann, MO, one of our regular stops as the Stone Hill Winery is located there and we needed to purchase some of those delicious garlic dill cheese curds.  Maybe a little wine too.  We stopped and talked to a farmer who was getting ready to work the field in order to plant soybeans.  We had been debating what they were getting ready to plant, so we stopped and asked.  I think we surprised him. 

  Renee and I ran into a gentleman when we were on our second bread buying trip at Kirchhoff's.  He was very interesting to talk to.  Judy and I were needing some fresh air after we were in Hancocks of Paducah for a short period of time that first evening.  We were sitting on the bench and met a woman who gives rides to quilters around Paducah, at no cost.  It is her hobby the week of the Quilt Show.   I might mention that Hancock's is one of the MUST stop at least once places, during a trip to Paducah.   At one booth we met a woman who was born in India, but has lived in this country for 35 years.  Her family has made block printed fabric for 7 generations.  The information she shared with us interesting.  She is one of those people who keep me coming back as she loves what she does. 

  

  I finally put all the items I purchased on the trip away today.  Not very timely, but I finally had time.  It was a great trip, I hope we will be able to make a few more in the years to come.

SPRING!!!

It is springtime around here.  Where some parts of the country are ahead of schedule, we are behind.  Usually the daffodils are on the end of their peak blooming period, instead they are just about in the middle. 

I have been transplanting petunias, gazania, nemsia, poppies, tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, basil and probably a couple of other things I don't recall at the moment.  I do keep a list however.  Will post photos of those as they get a little size on them. 

I changed the blog page in honor of spring.  I know,  black isn't really springy looking, but it does make a nice background for photos.  My daughter Jennifer uses black and I have always liked it.  Change is good now and then. 

Journals

We have been discussing scrim/cheesecloth on the Forums and these are a couple of journals that I made using it on the covers.

The first one has the fine cheesecloth that was dyed and fused onto the peltex. The mulberry leaves were painted and captured by fusing netting on top of all of it. The second photo shows the front and back pieces of the journal. This one needs to be put together.

The second one was made by tearing an old Electric Quilt Co. newsletter in to pieces, fusing them on to the peltex, then covering the paper with cheesecloth I purchased at our local grocery store. It is dyed as well. I used the fine netting over this one.

The embroidery floss used around the edge and the ties

was hand dyed.

painted mulberry bark. It is not scrim, but another fun item to use. I stitched a random pattern to hold the peltex and bark together. Crystals were set on the mulberry bark.

New class

I have been taking the Sumptuous Surfaces class on Joggles from Sharon B the last few weeks. I finally have the first piece stitched.

We were to draw a design and then we were to stitch the first piece in neutrals, which is a little challenging. I found out that there isn't a big difference between white and # 712 perle cotton when it comes to color. Especially when I took the photo.

The threads in this piece are perle cotton, #'s 5, 8, & 12--14 different colors; silk thread--6 different brands, 9 different colors; Marlit; embroidery floss---3 different colors; wool; 16 different types of beads or shells; covered rings & covered fly tying brass thing; and 14 different stitches.

This is the first time I have done any pulled thread work, made bullions, will most of these stitches are a first. I have done stem stitch, french knots, back stitch and the buttonhole stitch. I am going to have to do more pulled work as I like it.

I have enjoyed the class. They are currently working on the second piece, but I won't get to the other piece as we are leaving for Paducah on Sunday. Can't believe it is finally time to go on this trip!!!!

Texas in February

I have just returned from Texas and the Color Challenge I class
taught by Hollis Chatelain. It was once again held at the John Newcombe Tennis Ranch in New Braunfels.

It was a challenge in many ways, on many levels, BUT well worth the time and effort.

I had to go outside and get some idea of perspective for one piece I worked on during class. It was a little difficult as there are numerous trees in this part of TX, we have very few trees dotting our landscape. Of course this is a planting, but at this point I was determining light source.

Once again, like last year, I meant some wonderful women who were also taking the class. Another of the big pluses when taking these classes.