28 June 2018

The first MidSummer Maine Workshop

I was struck with this idea during the winter to have a workshop using paper and mark. Why sew something without working it out on paper first. How about a few exercises to rev up that creativity and a hand made book or two to keep those ideas in one place. We had some takers, enough for a full house. The way the room was arranged we each had all the room we needed at a six foot table. We were surrounded with supplies and inspiration. This was day one:



Art Art Greenhouse all lite up awaiting the artists. You can see all the "art faeries" swarming the building (or maybe raindrops on my lens?)



Our alfresco lunch spot on my deck



We are making paste papers to cover our book. We will be using these papers in other ways over the weekend, probably during the year as well as during next years MidSummer Maine II.















Our hard work drying on my fabulous drying rack in the Maine summer sun!!






Covering the bookboard covers with paste paper



Tearing signatures to make our books which had 160 pages each. Each signature was 16 pages.







In the yard making "MARKS" on large sheets of paper. Later we can weave them into a composition.







The long "arms" holding the marking making implements along with using our non-dominant hands gave use wonderful squiggly line and interesting shapes.





Thanks for reading,
Beth

25 June 2018

While you are reading this


Today I am just getting all revved up about the MidSummer Maine Workshop starting on the 22nd. I know that was this past Friday but I wanted to have something for this week. So while you are reading this I am downloading and editing all the photos from the event.

To get into the spirit of the workshop, Marcella, my trusty co-teacher, wanted to make some aprons for the participants. I cut a mylar stencil with tiny manicure scissors and made a nice stencil. I tried it out on my favorite "art" shirt. The top you see is clean but further down it is covered in old paint, dye and ink. I LOVE this soft chambray shirt. Now I love it even more.




I think I might have a thermofax screen made.


Thanks for reading,
Beth

22 June 2018

Baby quilt wrangling


I thought it would be smart to sandwich up the quilt and add the borders flip and stitch style. I pinned the main body every few inches but there was 2+ inches more border on on side then the other. Time to rip 8 border strips off and regroup.

I Started with the main body, pinned it to death then quilted it. Still one corner went haywire and I had to tear out 9 square inches of heavy quilting. I FINALLY got the top sandwiched into a rectangle with even length sides. THEN I applied the straight of grain borders all around twice. The borders being on the grain were much easier to quilt although not as easy as other fabrics. Darn you Kaffe!! I quilted the borders on three sides waiting for the baby to be born then I could add the name, date, length, and time of birth.


Done except for inscription

Now I am actually going to PLAN the spacing instead of my usual flying-by-the-seat-of-my-pants method.



I measured a strip of paper the size of my opening. Now on to the quilting.






- Thanks for visiting, 
Beth


19 June 2018

One month, no posts

So a month has gone by with no posts. I was curious to see if anyone would notice and then I got an email from a former member of the FIRE blog, Judy. who along with my friend Rita and another reader, Carmina from Romania seemed to be the only people who have commented lately. The posts are time intensive with photos and photo editing. I was discouraged.

Judy said she selfishly wished I would keep up the posts so I decided to give it another go. This is for you Judy and any other folks who are reading (are you out there??)

If you have been reading you will remember I found my birth mother's side of the family. One of my great nieces was having a baby and it was a great excuse to make another quilt. I bought this great fabric years ago to make a baby quilt for someone else which never got made.


I showed it to a pregnant friend and she liked it so I am making it for her November baby. Meanwhile my great niece, Shaye, picked out these fabrics for her baby. 


They were baby soft, Kaffe Fassett and the biggest pain in the neck to work with. Of course half square triangles are on the bias and these blocks squirmed and stretched and made me sorry to have chosen them. They were beautiful but frustrating to work with. Looking back I should have starched them within an inch of their life - like cardboard. That might have leveled the playing field.



I managed to get all the rows sewn and stitched into a rectangle.

Next post, the BIGGEST problem.