It's cold out today, the wind is blowing and snow is flying..well ice pellets really.
Out in the back garden is a rose...
a minature rose bush...
just one I bought a Walmart..
I planted it out side..
on the (north) west side of the house...
warm, warm sun in the mornings, but very cold winds when they are from the north
 dainty little peach coloured rose...

still blooming..........................

I think that I am going to have to have a second craft room.....
paper crafts and sewing crafts.
They really don't mix well,..... not really...
not in the same room...yes....no.......a big (for me) maybe..
Maybe my room is too small...
 Bits of paper, glue, paint, on my sewing/cutting table/ cutting mat, .....bad for the rotary cutter blade...
stuff all over the room....contaminate my fabric with ink, dye, whatever...
oh my gosh!...
 I need more space!. 
I go in my sewing room to sew and end up playing with paper,  paint or ink, crayons and pencils and punches...

The mister is retiring soon and I have my eye on his office space.....

I have a lot of crossover stuff from sewing to paper craft/cardmaking..ribbons, dye (do I want to go THERE again?), threads, buttons, fabrics, glue, paper..any , either, all,.. could be used for both crafts....and he has a lot of space that he will be clearing out.

   I ...

WANT..

 that...

 SPACE!!!

He has bookcases I have designs on....
hehehe...
he has Ikea shelving that I have designs on....
hehehe...
but we have a whole lot of his sh*t to move out and get rid of.  (oh my, I don't look forward to that!)

Maybe I should move ALL my craft/sewing/quilting stuff to the lower level (they don't call it a basement anymore!  It's the LOWER LEVEL)...
take over the whole room...
(want a Chinese inspired sofa?)
  hmmmmm ....
A good thought!
BUT.......
 I never really liked working in the basement...
I think because I didn't hear what was going on in the house...
but once the mister retires.....
he can keep an eye out...
( is that a control thing???)
Should I move my stuff?   (I'll be closer to the wine rack!)
   and
Why am I loving  paper craft so much lately...is it the beautiful stamps they have now,  the fabulous punches or the fabulous papers.....
or
is it instant gratification?
I am taking over the mister's space .......!!  LOL!

The World of Threads


By the time you read this, it might  be too late to see most of this show. 


It was a fabulous show....


One of the ladies,  Dawne,  from guild, co-ordinated this show (with a little help). 

There were installations all over Oakville and some in Toronto.
I hit some of  the ones in Oakville.
 I thought that a day would do, but it really wasn't long enough.
I picked up a friend and we hit the nearby gallery, QEPark as soon as it opened.  Then stopped for lunch.  ( we spent quite a bit of time at this one) And went on to the next one Joshua Creek, then on to Sheridan College
But, I did get to 3 of 5 (maybe more) of the installments in Oakville.
All works were fabulous!

Here is a pic of one called Mikey that really had to be seen!   So life-like.....

Mikey of Mallory by Marie  Bergstedt

The vest is crocheted, the shorts,  I think I remember,... knit....
and all the rest, buttons and beads!
 LIFE SIZED! 
Fabulous!  Absolutely fabulous!
The story behind this was...
The artist and brother were separated in childhood, the sister finally found her brother on the west coast and made this portrait of him.....



My friend and I walked around, marvelling at the ingenuity of the works.  There were so many indescribable works using a variety of methods, it was mind boggling..

This is paint....

laid out in strips,

 allowed to dry,

peeled up,

 then woven....

 

 

 

In another gallery there were felted works,


 like this cute little asian inspired flower

 

 

 

This woodland like piece...
 wood and felted wool

                                                                  

 

 

 

 

And this coral- like piece

 

 

 

and


a waterfall of fibres
 

 

 

 

and last but not least...

 

an amour-like suit of fibre. 

 

 

 

This was only a small sampling of what I saw...

and if you would like to see more,

 go to

 quilton.blogspot.ca...

my friend has put up a couple of smileboxes of pics she took at the show in previous posts of her blog.                                                                                                        

  

         

FABULOUS!!..   FABULOUS show!,

 Dawne...congratulations on a job well done! 

You could check out   THE WORLD OF THREADS website at www.worldofthreadsfestival.com 

           

 

As an aside...                                                                                                                

 

the mister and I are celebrating 46 years of marriage today...                                                                            yup!    46  years!                                                    

        

And they said it wouldn't last !                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Look at that. 
     Yes,
 that is a christmas pic on my heading...
early isn't it!
I searched for christmas quilts and this was one of them. 

It has been a while since quilt guild.  I didn't attend one meeting, we had an anniversary dinner, (35 years) and although I love to eat out, I find I sometimes get a rash from whatever there is in the food.  Sometimes bread will do it, cookies, crackers...quite often..soup!....it's some additive.  I just don't like to be out by myself in case it starts.  With allergies, you never know when you will be affected or how badly.  Yes, I carry an epipen with me at all times..even vacation, but not on the beach.....haha...no where to put it.
Sounds like everyone had a great time, though.
I went to my other guild meeting last week and we had a potluck.  Just sweets and savouries....good stuff!
We also had a speaker.  We were shown 8 quilts from Ailsa Craig's Quilts of Israel.
Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take any pictures.  And there I was with my camera and cell FULLY charged.  Oh well...
There was one quilt that we were shown called Women on a Balcony.  It created a visceral response in me, as the speaker told us of the quilter, and  the inspiration for her quilt,  (I believe it was based on a painting) she made this quilt because she had the same response...Anger...the women were dressed in burkas!   I wonder why we feel this way?   Because we feel the women are being repressed?...or because we can't see their faces, but they can see ours?
The quilts were fantastic.  Some very different ones.  Quilting has no history in Israel apparently, but is becoming popular.  Ahh, the influence of the modern world! haha
I just might get the mister to take a drive up to Ailsa Craig for the show.

unrinsed fabric with dyes mixed with water

So, today I "finish" with my little experiment.
I got dressed in black....all black.  And found my rubber gloves.
I've played with dye before and black is the colour to wear...lol
I decided to use different papers and some fabric.
I covered my laundry room table in plastic and newspaper first, then

high gloss photo paper

I took two pieces of PFD fabric and one sheet of white card stock, one sheet of  drawing paper, two pieces of watercolour paper, two pieces of prefolded notecard , two pieces of satin finish photo paper and two pieces of glossy photo paper.
I dampened the fabric, soaked one in ph-up.
I laid all but the photo paper on the newspapers.
I started with the (marker) alcohol ink.   Unimpressive....

satin finish photo paper

I sprinkled some of the jade green on the paper and fabrics....unimpressive also...the colour was yucky and the liquid was granular.   I tried the purple, it was grayish and grainy.

WELL OF COURSE IT WAS!!!!

The dye NEEDS water to dissolve!
I added hot water to the bottles of dye and alcohol....the colours bloomed in the bottle..a difference of night and day!.
I added a lot more dyes to the fabric and paper.
I didn't want too much or the colour would be mud.
I took my spray bottle and spritzed all the paper and fabric.....the colour changed immediately into the hue they are supposed to be.


fabric washed out almost completely

Now I wasn't expecting miracles...after all my dye are really old and probably "burnt out" (no good).

watercolour paper

I kept soaking the papers and fabric, trying to make sure all the dye I first put on was dissolved.  Any undissolved surface crystals of dye is a disaster waiting to happen...
I took out the photo paper and tried the dyes on that.
The paper curled and the dyes moved into the lowest areas.

dampened card

As I played, I noticed that the one fabric sheet that I had soaked in ph-up was really light coloured.  The dye was moving through the fabric and was now just on the newspapers.

I decided to rinse the fabric after about an hour and unfortunately, most of the dye washed out.  And so did the alcohol ink from the marker....so that's a bust

card stock (left half dampened)

The best looking was the watercolour paper. 
I took the fabric and paper and hung them all to dry.  The next day I went back to them.
Some paper is curled, so I will need to flatten it and
I think that the papers could use a spritz of gold or silver...something shiny! lol
This is definitely not something I will try  again....I might try the dye on just paper...


I just hope that I wiped up all the dye powder when I cleaned up and don't find it on my clean laundry...lol

drawingpaper (right half dampened)

I have been reading blogs and pinterest and watching videos.
I have been interested in some paper crafts for a long time, along with my sewing and quilting ....so of course the Internet is a great resource for all of our craft interests.  Everything that you could imagine is on pinterest...everything!
I have an eclectic assemblage of crafting materials.   Fabric, threads,  buttons,  ribbons, beads, fabric dye, fabric inks,  alcohol inks, paper, embossing powders, stamps, fabric markers, crayons, pastels, markers, paint sticks.   Crap!  You name it, I might have some. 
  Mind you some of the stuff I collected for the granddaughters to craft with. 
We've played with fabric markers, dye, fabric inks and alcohol inks. 
I read on-line that you can make your own alcohol ink using dye (I have some powered dyes, but they are old, really old....15 years old), or markers.
I thought that I would give it a try....
I took apart a dry blue marker and soaked the nib and guts ( very scientific name) in a small jar of alcohol for about 24 hours.
I put about 1/4 teaspoon  of dye in each of 2 small squirt bottles, one purple and one  jade green added some alcohol and shook it up.
Next day I checked my "experiment"  .....half of the alcohol in the jar had evaporated.
The colour was a deep blue with a halo of brown.
The dyes didn't dissovle at all.  The jade green was a yucky olive colour , the purple was a dull grayish purple.
But will it work?
I'll find out.......