I want to make this...

                                                     But I want to make it in Fabric. So I dyed some.

                                                                    Notice the color-catcher sheets above?

Looks good but I need some lights

These looks good

And some hand dyed threads

Stay tuned for the slice and die.

The opening of my one man show

 Here I am talikng obout the techniques I used. That is my Dad with the walker

 He looks depressed but he was actually just trying to stand up.

 Unloading the wine glasses

 Lots of glasses. Theywere replenished about half way through the night.

 Mr talking to two women. I am giving them mt card.

 An explanation 

 My mother on the bench smiling.

3rd Blog Anniversary starts Oct 19th

Starting on October 19th and running for 8 weekdays, I will be giving away these free gifts.

 Book

 DVD

 DVD

 DVD

 DVD

DVD

                               16 blocks between 12.5 and 15"

A small bag

This is going to be a compilation of photos showing what I did with little detailed instruction. If you can sew, you can figure it out and if you can't sew, I sort of just made this up as I went along without many measurements at all. It's a "wing-it" bag made from a scrap left over from my beautiful jacket. I just felt like sewing. I made mistakes and will try again THEN I will give the instructions.

                                           Great tip I stole from someone

 Putting the lavender tabs on the end of the zip, kept the zipper bulk out of the side seam.

                                  This was the mistake captured forever on film

                                                  side seam (serger) 

This was a brand new commercial quilt I had purchased days before rescuing a standard poodle. She was in heat and couldn't be spayed until her heat was over. You can see the horrible stains on the NEW quilt. I tried everything to get the stains out then decided to use thickened dyes to cover it all.

                                                                  done

Another type of frame

I make a lot of improvisational quilts which have weird irregular measurements. I have never made a equal sided one. I am preparing to mount this quilt (Standing Stones) on a stretched frame I made myself.

                                    Standing Stones      36" X 32"

I started out with two each 1X - 29" and 32". I used my chop saw to cut 45* angles and the I pre-drilled with a 1/8" drill bit. I glued (wood glue) and screwed (2" dry wall screws) the angles and let dry a few hours.

I lay out the pieces in the shape of the frame. As I cut each angle, I dry fitted  and numbered the angles (4,4  1,1) then I do the pre-drilling. THEN I KNOW the screw will go into the wood precisely.

As you can see, this is lame dog fabric I used to make dog beds for dog rescues. It will act as a "hammock" or soft backing for the quilt which will be glued on pretty permanently with 3M dry wall bead spray. That stuff HOLDS. I don't want the piece falling off the frame - yikes!!!

Here sits "Standing Stones" like Frankenstein's brains just waiting to be sprung to life (OK,OK, I'm tired...). You can see the finished product hanging at the Belfast Coop at the end of this post.

                               Here I am mitering the corners on the frame.

                                            Trimming off excess fabric

                          All trimming and awaiting the black edging.

                             A 2" strip of fabric (3 pieces X 45" stitched into a strip)

                                  Stapling the edge front and back

Finished black edge. I have also painted the edge with black acrylic but this was faster.

           This is some serious adhesive. Don't plan on removing what you adhere.

 The top of the FABRIC COVERED FRAME (not the quilt) has been sprayed with the adhesive. I put the quilt down on the frame which turned out to be a mistake. It wasn't quite centered so I'd suggest doing it this way - place the quilt face down on a surface and carefully lower the sprayed fabric covered frame down, making sure you have the frame centered over the quilt as you see above. This was my second attempt.

I didn't wanting the quilt "detaching" from the frame while on display so I stapled the 1/2" allowance from the hanging sleeve to the frame. The frame stuck to the hanging sleeve but the 1/2" extra allowance in the sleeve caused the quilt to "hang away" from the frame. Stapling the excess sleeve allowance to the frame solved two problems; The quilt was fitted tightly to the frame (no sag/bag) , and the quilt was mechanically attached (stapled) to the frame insuring it would stay on the frame. Win, win.

                                                    Staples in sleeve

It looks like the frame is extending beyond the quilt but it was just the angle of the shot. I just wanted you to see what it looked like from the side.

  Here is the quilt hanging at the show.It stands out from the wall about a half inch.

This is a third framing technique. You can either wrap the entire quilt around a stretched canvas or cover the canvas with a background fabric and adhere the quilt using the 3M dry wall spray to the background fabric which I have done here.

                             Purchased canvases from Blick (dead cheap)

                           From the back with label and hanger.

Hope this has given you some ideas for alternate ways to display your work. Please remember that if you want to enter shows with your work, these techniques will probably NOT DO. I don't enter shows but I do sell in galleries so framed/mounted works for me.