Rust-Tex

Merry Christmas!!!

2011-12-22T16:56:00.003-06:00

This is my Holiday Card for all my followers. I hope it is your BEST Christmas EVER and have blessed New Year!!!

The Queen's Birthday

2011-12-16T19:42:00.004-06:00

I throw myself a birthday party as close to my birthday as I can get. Have a birthday in December, I have to plan carefully. It is tricky!!! The cookie is written that way because I am the Queen of the UFO Club. If you don't know what a UFO is it is an Un-Finished Object.

Now days we call them PHD, Projects Half Done. If you say you are working on your PHD in quilting people are REALLY impressed!!!

I have two friends attend my party. A third one showed up after she gain honor to her Queen by winning a ribbon for Me with her dogs

Squirrel and Tree with Fangs

2011-12-05T15:43:00.004-06:00

This squirrel was eating our pumpkin on November 18, 2011. My DH put glow in the dark fangs on the tree for Halloween. We took this picture on November 26 because the rain made an interesting pattern on it.

We had Our first snow today!!!

Halloween

2011-11-03T19:39:00.004-05:00

My DH and I bought a Bag of Bones to put it the tree stump. Our youngest daughter and her friends decorated the tree like this and this.
My DH was afraid the kids would walk off with the bones so he put them in the cage with the pumpkin and there they keep very well.
BOO

Trees

2011-10-27T00:36:00.002-05:00

We had a magnificent maple tree just off out deck. That is why every picture I took on the deck where I do my rust dyeing is shady. It was a silver maple, which is not a hard wood tree. They usually last 100 years. Our house was built in 1919 so the tree was close to being 100. The insurance company requested we take it out. It was very sad to loose this tree.
Many animals including flying squirrels used this tree. Once 5 raccoon babies were in the tree and their mother was on the ground. I swear I heard them saying as plain as day, "Ma, ma, ma"!!!

We had a bird feeder on the tree. You can see it on the top picture. You can also see it in the picture above. Now we have a face!!!

Trees

2011-10-27T00:32:00.001-05:00

Deep Space

2011-10-23T20:42:00.005-05:00

My quilt, Moonscape, was accepted into Deep Spaces. All the quilts had to be 18" wide and 45" tall, that’s a vertical orientation, like a hanging scroll.

The show was divided in half to accommodate all the 50 pieces in the show. Moonscape won't be at Latimer Quilt and Textile Center but it will Edmonds Conference Center. Hope you can see it!!!

September 5 to November 6, 2011Latimer Quilt and Textile Center, 2105 Wilson River Loop - Tillamook, Oregon Opening Reception: Sept. 11, 2011, Noon to 4:00 pm 28 textile art and 8 special 3D pieces
http://latimerquiltandtextile.com/

October 20 to November 30, 2011Edmonds Conference Center, 201 Fourth Ave. N. Edmonds, Washington ArtsCrush Opening: Oct. 20, 2011, 5:00 to 8:00 pm Art Walk Opening: Nov. 17, 2011, 5:00 to 8:00 pm 22 textile art
http://www.edmondsconferencecenter.com/

January 10 to March 12, 2012 Sam Houston Memorial Museum 1402 19th Street, Huntsville, Texas Opening Reception: January 19, 2012, 5:30 to 7:30 pm

March 28 to June 24, 2012 LaConner Quilt and Textile Museum 700 Second Street, La Conner, Washington Opening Reception: March 31, 2012, 2:00 to 4:00 pm

You can order your own copy of Deep Spaces. Proceeds from the sale of the catalog will go to Doctors Without Borders. The cost of the CD is $15 through PayPal, including first-class postage by going to this page:
http://www.deep-spaces.com/
My quilt is one of the 9 quilts on the cover of Deep Spaces!

Milwaukee Machine Quilting Show

2011-08-07T20:50:00.004-05:00

I will be vending at the Milwaukee Machine Quilting Show, held at Wyndham Milwaukee Airport Hotel and Convention Center 4747 S. Howell Ave, Milwaukee, WI.

There are 37 teachers including: Joanie Zeier Poole

Laura Murray

Karen McTavish

All of the teachers listed above have openings in their classes. I am sure the online registration is closed but click on this link to see when their classes are:

http://mqtoday.com/index.html

Quilt show and Vendor Mall

Wednesday, August 10th at 5:00PM for Preview Night

Thursday & Friday 10AM - 5:30PM

Saturday 10AM - 4PM

Midwest Fiber and Folk Art Fair

2011-08-01T19:30:00.005-05:00

At Midwest Fiber and Folk Art Fair, June 24-26, 2011, we ran "Make It, Take It" classes in our booth. This is where we held them.

A boy and his mother make these.

They are Paintstiks on rust dyed fabric.

Two the the models for the Fair made these Artist Trading Cards.

It was taught by Cheryl Sleboda.

Have you seen her articles in Quilting Arts? She uses LED's in her art work.
If you click on this link you can see more of her work:

http://muppin.com/etextile.htm

While at Woodfield

2011-06-06T15:44:00.004-05:00

While I was waiting for Legoland to open, I went to Woodfield Mall. I was impressed by two really wonderful window displays! Both had paper dress, one was made out of a stiff paper and one was made out of wedding invitations.

The one at Anthropologie, was made from a stiff paper. What caught my eye, was the window that had an old Singer treadle sewing machine in the window. As I went farther I saw this one!!!

It blew me away!!!

Here is a close up of the dress. Notice how the marking are drawn on the paper.

I asked at Papyrus if I could post it to my blog. Which got the manger, of the store taking, she said every dress was different as they were free to design their own wedding dress.

I thought they did a really nice job, on the front and the back!

Finally!!!!

2011-06-06T15:25:00.004-05:00

On Sunday June 5, I finally set up the Rust-Tex Studio!!!

I usually get it set up shortly after tax day but with the death of my mom and my youngest graduating from college it took me a bit longer this year.

The above photo shows the deck before I started. The below shows how it looked after I was done. I started around noon and ended around 3. Then I puttered around for another hour.

I was so hungry we had an early dinner. It was brats, because we do live in WI and that is a traditional German food. Brats is pronounced like it rhymes with cats.

May 14, 2011

2011-05-16T21:39:00.003-05:00

Our youngest daughter graduated from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design on Saturday May 14.

The white cord means she was on the Dean's List. The red cord represents her major which was graphic design.

We are so proud of her!!!

Mukwonago Show

2011-05-11T16:09:00.000-05:00

This is how our booth at the Crazy Quilter's Guild Show in Mukwonago, WI show looked when it was all set up.

This is how it looked after 1 hour and 45 minutes after the show closed. It was not a good show for me and my DH. Paducah was the same week-end...sigh...

This Week-End

2011-04-28T21:35:00.003-05:00

I will be vending at the Mukwonago, WI Crazy Quilter's Guild show this week-end.

Come visit me if you are in Wisconsin or a nearby state.

I will be selling these wonderful threads, my rust dyed fabric,

and many vintage items.

Here is the link if you need to know more about this show.
http://www.mukwonagocrazyquilters.com/6.html

Easter

2011-04-26T21:29:00.003-05:00

This is my rabbit, Keekum, chilling with his bear friends. He has actually bonded with these stuffed bears, who spend all there time in the living room. I use the big one as a foot stool. He likes to lick them, which to a rabbit, is a form of grooming.

Legoland

2011-04-19T15:18:00.002-05:00

After vending at the Original Sewing & Quilt Expo in Schaumburg, IL, I went to Legoland. It is near Woodfield Mall. Today I had plenty of time to see it.

http://www.legolanddiscoverycenter.com/chicago/en/index.htm It was amazing!!!

The first thing you saw was a full scale model of Chicago. I grew up in Chi-town, so I was really impressed!!! Here is the Wrigley Building in all its white glory, with Lake Point Towers behind it.

This little sight-seeing boat had, tiny flashes going off, as the people on it were taking pictures of the various things they saw.

Buckingham Fountain, complete with sprays!!!

Buckingham Fountain

After we got past the Chicago landscape, there was this picture of Vincent Van Gogh, Starry Night.

(NOTE THAT IT IS ALL MADE FROM LEGO'S!!!)

Original Sewing & Quilt Expo

2011-04-09T21:06:00.004-05:00

I was a vendor at the Original Sewing & Quilt Expo, March 31, April 1-2 at the Schaumburg Convention Center. Here is how the booth looked when it was all set up. We ran a "Take It, Take It" at this end of the booth.

Here is how the booth looked 1.5 hours after the show ended!!!

4 Generations

2011-03-13T20:29:00.003-05:00

My mother passed away on March 4. She turned 90 on February 5. We had a birthday party for her on February 12. She could not keep her eyes off her great grand daughter, who was born on January 23. This is a picture of my mother, my daughter, me and my grand daughter.

While my mother was in the hospital with pneumonia just before she died she delighted in looking at pictures of her great grand daughter as I held them up for her to look at.

The funeral will be held in Chicago, IL on Saturday March 19th. Please read this poem at 1:00pm CST, to help send my mother to heaven.

Do not stand at my grave and weep.
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow,
I am the diamond glints on the snow,
I am the sunlight on ripened grain,
I am the gentle autumn’s rain.
When you awaken in the morning hush,
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft star that shines at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry.
I am not there. I did not die.

Thanks for being a Rust-Tex.blogspot.com reader.

Swiss Finishing School

2011-02-09T20:40:00.004-06:00

I do a retreat in New Glarus at the Chalet Landhaus. New Glarus' nickname is Little Switzerland. The Chalet Landhaus is shaped like a Chalet. I don't teach anything. Participants are to bring their UFO (Un-Finished Objects) to finish. Thus I call my retreat Swiss Finishing School.

(hee hee)

Ann is working on a disappearing 9-patch in these yummy batik colors.

Dorothy is working on blocks that her mother left her. They were not perfectly pieced so she is appliquéing them to a base block.
Kris is making this quilt for a cancer auction that she regularly participates in.
Swiss Finishing School is usually held the first week-end in February. You can find out more about it if you click here.

Groundhog Day

2011-02-02T21:42:00.003-06:00

Groundhog Day has been my favorite movie for many years. For Mother's Day, a long time ago, my daughters bought me a copy. They figured it would save me time because I would not have to rent it. I think it saved me an hour per year, which has really added up over time.

To celebrate Groundhog Day, I have a sweet vermouth on the rocks with a twist and drink to world peace.

3 D Photo

2011-02-01T20:23:00.002-06:00

When my DH and I were in Houston, so I could teach at International Quilt Festival, we went to the Downtown Aquarium.

The aquarium features a full-service restaurant and bar that seats you around a 200,000 gallon tank populated with all manner of sea life. While we were there my DH took this picture with his Fuji 3D camera. If you look at it crossed eyed you can see it in 3D.

You can learn more about the Fuji 3D camera by clicking here.

Funny Saying

2011-01-31T15:17:00.003-06:00

I was teaching in a Lutheran church in Chicago and this was posted in the bathroom.

I took a picture of it because I thought it was so funny.

I am hoping you do too!

If you can't read it click on it and it will become MUCH bigger.

Remotes

2011-01-29T20:55:00.003-06:00

DON'T EVER LEAVE YOUR HUSBAND HOME ALONE WITH THE REMOTES. I did and this is how they ended up!!!

Quilter's Home Magazine

2011-01-26T19:16:00.003-06:00

I found this in my inbox today. It is from Jake Finch, who is the editor of Quilter's Home Magazine. What she said is below this really cute vinyl apron, which is one of the things you can download from their website!

"Dear Quilt Friends, Non-Quilt Friends Who Like Me and Family:
I have a favor to ask.
If you are on FaceBook, would you consider going to this link (cut and paste into your browser as I couldn't figure out how to link--sad of me...) and clicking that you "like" Quilter's Home Magazine?
www.facebook.com/quiltershomemagazine
(Jake, they can just click on the link it will take them to your Face Book fan page)

As most of you know, Quilter's Home is the magazine for which I serve as editor. My co-editor and I are trying to increase our "friends" and this would help tremendously. If you don't want to, no worries. I'm not keeping track of who I asked, I won't bug you about it again and I'll still love you. But for my quilt-buds out there, we use our FB page to announce new things, ask silly and serious questions, find sources for articles and just generally engage with our readers. For the rest of you who already think my brain is full of thread and want nothing to do with quilts, just ignore us. :-)
So, please consider "liking" us if you would? Also, if you have friends or family who might enjoy participating, feel free to pass this on to them as well. The more, the merrier!
Many quilted hugs,
Jake Finch

Quilter's Home Magazine"

She sounds kind of desperate. I think we all should to it.

I am already a fan. You should be one too.

Madison Contemporary Fiber Artists

2011-01-23T20:48:00.004-06:00

Here are pictures I took at the opening reception of the Turning Point show of the Madison Contemporary Fiber Artists at the Overture Center in Madison, WI.

This is me in front of my piece, Moonrise.

People spent along time reading what we had written. The show was up last week. One of our members attended the a concert of the Symphony Orchestra, and noticed that people had to lean over to read the artist statements. She and her friend move them up so the general public didn't have to strain their backs to read what we had written.

Here is what an overall shot. I told you there would be people in the way. The piece with the whooping crane is by Susan Jackan. It has the thoughtful title, Sharing Air. Below her piece is her artist statement.
Sharing Air
The reintroduction of the whooping crane in Necedah, Wisconsin represents a turning point in the survival of this ancient species of bird. Cranes share the air with plant life of nature and with the wind turbines dotting the landscape. Turbines signify a turning point in cleaner energy production.

HAPPY NEWS!!!

2011-01-23T20:12:00.003-06:00

My eldest daughter (ED) and my SIL made my DH and I first time grandparents!!!

At 4:00 am January 23, 2011 ED gave birth to a 7 pound 6 oz, 19 ½ girl at Meriter Hospital in Madison, WI.

The happy family

They were married on August 2, 2008. They had a themed wedding called the Pirate and the Princess. Click on this link to see pictures of their wedding:

http://rust-tex.blogspot.com/2008/08/pirate-and-princess.html

Mother, father and baby are all doing well.

I did not post sooner because I was watching the Green Bay Packers trounce the Chicago Bears.

The Green Bay Packers are on their way to the Super Bowl!!!!

Go, Pack, Go!!!

Madison Contemporary Fiber Artists

2011-01-20T20:28:00.007-06:00

Madison Contemporary Fiber Artists (MCFA) is having a show at the Overture Center in Madison, WI. If you are in the area come and see it. Here is one of the pieces. It is by Diane Dempsey, showing a detail of her piece Appalachian Spring.

The show is called, Turning Point.

We were suppose to write in about 100 words how this was a turning point in our lives. This is what Diane wrote:
My family lived in Kentucky in the 1980s and 1990s. There seemed to be one day each April – a true ‘turning point’—when every tree would burst into bloom: Redbuds, Cherries and Apples, Sweet Gum, Magnolia, Dogwoods, Sassafras, Spicebushes, Rhododendrons, Azaleas… I knew spring had finally arrived. All life had awakened, and the dull, gray days of winter were gone. In its place was the sudden spectacular beauty of spring. Moonscape

18” wide x 45” long
My piece is called, Moonscape. Here is my artist statement: The biggest turning point in my life came in 2004 when I saw a video on the internet. It showed women laying out white fabric in a junk yard. They came back in a few days. Marks had transferred from the rusty items to the fabric.
I did research on the internet about rust dyeing. In 2006 I wrote the Rust-Tex Instructional CD, which has 4 repeatable techniques on it.
I had so much fun rust dyeing I made more fabric than I could use in a 1,000 lifetimes. My new career became selling rust dyed fabric to art quilter.

The reception is Friday January 21, from 6-8 PM. Hope you can make it.

Exciting News!!!

2011-01-14T19:36:00.004-06:00

Quilter's Home Magazine published this about Rust-Tex:

If you click on the picture you can read it what they wrote.

If you want a summary they are encouraging people to buy the "Trees Kit". It is their Feb/Mar 2011 issue if you want to buy it.

Whenever I am at JoAnn's Fabric Stores, and they have magazines at 10% off, I buy it. I like it so much I actually subscribed to it. You can too by clicking here! I can't actually send to the page where you can subscribe. If you go to the home page, in the upper right hand corner there is a place that says, "Subscribe Now".

Do it!!!

You will be happy you did.

Happy Birthday to the Queen

2011-01-05T21:32:00.002-06:00

Every year on my birthday, which is in December, I invite the members of the UFO Club to "The Queen's Birthday Party". I am the Queen of the UFO Club, as I had the most Un-Finished Objects. I taught for 15 years and started a new project with my students every week for ten weeks, twice a year. When I stopped teaching I had over 100 UFO's!!! Which is how I became Queen. No one else had any where near that many. Eight years later, I am down to less than 70.

Whoo Hoo!

Way to go Lois!!!

Uni Wash

2011-01-03T20:57:00.003-06:00

I was in England when I saw this amazing hand washing machine. It has a place where the soap and water come out and it has a hand dryer built into it. I have never seen a thing like this before so of course I had to take its picture. You can clearly see my reflection as I was lining up the picture.

When we were driving back from International Quilt Festival in Houston, I saw this machine is Arkansas. It is a Uni Wash. It is just not labeled as such but it worked exactly like the Uni Wash. Did you know they were in America?

"Blätz"

2010-12-28T15:04:00.001-06:00

Margo, baked this Blätz for a retreat I recently went to. Her father was a baker in Switzerland, where she grew up. I guess you could say it is in her blood to bake this for us.

Rabbit Takes on Snake

2010-12-06T19:40:00.002-06:00

A friend of mine sent me this. It was called, "Bad Ass Texas Rabbit".

I hope Keekun never has to fight off a snake.

Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative in Houston

2010-10-19T23:47:00.002-05:00

I did not donate any thing to the Alzheimer's Art Quilt

Initiative in Houston this year.

If you are going to Houston here is what you can bid on.

If you are not going to Houston, here is what you are missing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhaecOl7EQI

Let help Ami Simm's wipe out this dreaded disease one quilt at a time.

Festival of Quilts Con't

2010-10-01T23:37:00.004-05:00

I was at the Festival of Quilt (FOQ) in Birmingham, England for 5 days and this is the only picture of a quilt I took. They had many of these little quilts in different languages. But this one really tickled my fancy. I was thinking how it would feel to touch a cactus instead of a quilt, OUCH!

Most these quilt were 8.5 x 11 inches or "A4" as they call that size paper in England. I Goggled "A4 paper" and found it is 8.27 x 11.69 inches in Europe. "Close enough for government work", as we say here in the States. This quilt won the Best of Show award. It is a miniature quilt that is a Mariner's Compass with 128 points!!! Not only did she do it once but 3 times as you can see in the photo. The quilting was exquisite. Either it was trapunto or so tightly quilted that it made the less quilted area pop. That is what I do when ever I make on of My Mini 9-Patch Derivatives.

Mission: Impossible 2

I didn't take this picture I downloaded it from the FOQ Facebook(FB) Page. Just go to FB and search for on Festival of Quilts. If you are techno savvy enough to read a blog I am sure you can search FB.

Festival of Quilts Con't

2010-09-25T16:43:00.004-05:00

This is how the Rust-Tex stand looked at the Festival of Quilts. Here in America we call them booths. My friend, Peggy, who is American and had never been to England before, had to learn a whole new vocabulary.

Bronwen, who lives about an hour from Birmingham, and has been bugging me to come to the FOQ for years. In 1973 I was Maid of Honor at her wedding.

Here is a picture of the the three of us taken in Venice. Bronwen is on the left, Peggy is in the middle, and I, of course, am on the right.

Donation for Houston

2010-09-13T22:55:00.003-05:00

This is the piece I am donating to the International Quilt Association's (IQA), Celebrity Mini Quilt Silent Auction.

It is only 16" x 13". And yes those are ½" squares.

Thanks for noticing. Day at the Beach #7

The email I got from IQA said it should be in my trademark style. I spent 10 years piecing My Mini 9-Patch, which has almost 15,000 pieces in it, most of them ½" squares. These 9 patches keep coming off the back of my sewing machine. (I use them to keep the threads engaged when I come to the end of a line of chain piecing.) If you are in Houston be sure to bid on my piece or any of the other wonderful art quilts you will see there.

Festival of Quilt and the Rust-Tex Instructional CD

2010-09-05T20:19:00.005-05:00

Many copies of the Rust-Tex Instructional CD that I sold at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, England do not work. They were burned incorrectly. If you have one that is not working please send me your address by clicking on the link below:

http://www.loisjarvisquilts.com/V0uMI5.php?varone=Lois_Jarvis

I only sold 30 copies and some of them worked, so please be honest.

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety-Jig!!!

2010-08-26T18:54:00.001-05:00

This is what I looked like the morning I set out for my trip to England to attend the Festival of Quilts. It was held at the National Exhibition Center in Birmingham, England. The Rust-Tex Collection (RTC) and the Ground Zero Quilt were displayed in the European Quilters Café.

People were VERY interested in the RTC and the Ground Zero Quilt.

I made an old Spanish lady cry as I told her some stories about the quilt.

Going to England

2010-08-08T22:02:00.003-05:00

I am packing up my bags to go to England. The Rust-Tex Collection (RTC) is already on its way. I bought a mini map of London and Cambridge at a garage sale. I plan to do a lot of walking in London. I am taking some rust dyed clothing and I bought myself a new journal for this trip. Not only will the RTC be displayed at the Festival of Quilts (FOQ) in Birmingham, England. I am also bring my quilt, Ground Zero (GZ). They both will be in the European Quilters Cafe. It will be the first time GZ is on display outside of the USA. I will be vending at the FOQ. And most of my product was shipped with the RTC.
I am staying with friends and this little quilt is for one of them. The apron is what I wear when I vend. The gray fabric is the back of my quilt, GZ. Only two days until I leave!!!
My excitement is building!!!

My Image Transfer on the C&T Blog

2010-07-26T21:46:00.003-05:00

Today my Image Transfer technique for rust dyeing was featured on the C&T Publishing blog. Click here to see what they said about it. If you go there, and I hope you will, this is the picture that is missing.

While you are there please leave a comment!!! Thanks!

Winners of the Rust-Tex Collection

2010-07-25T20:27:00.002-05:00

Today's post is about Rita Legere. She is a self taught artist who began making art quilts 4 years ago, after a severe illness and a near death experience.

Rita says,"The thrill of the artistic adventure is spiritual for me and helps my soul grow."Left Out in The Snow

Rita was inspired by an old rusty fire truck she saw on the side of the road in a drift of snow. She stopped to take pictures of it. When she had printed the outline of the picture on fabric she thought; "What if I added real rust to the picture?" Thus her "Selective Rusting Technique" was born.

Left Out in The Snow

Whole cloth, ink jet printed photo, on rust dyed cotton, “Selective Rusting”, dry-brush rust paint, textile paint, free-motion machine quilted with polyester, rayon thread, and metallic thread.

Rita had an article published in Quilting Arts Oct/Nov 2009 on a technique that she calls "Selective Rusting". The article shows how she takes a picture, photo shops it, prints it on fabric and then adds, "Selective Rusting". Here are the basic directions:

1. After printing your image to fabric, arrange strands of steel wool on the printed fabric in areas that are to be accentuated with authentic rust.

2. Spray the steel wool with vinegar until it is damp. Cover your project with clear plastic and let it sit overnight.

3. Rinse as usual.

Rita shares a website with her husband: www.mooseandcrow.com
Rita's Blog: www.gracefulspirit.blogspot.com

Winners of the Rust-Tex Collection

2010-07-24T20:27:00.003-05:00

Today's post is about Terry Ann Hartzell. Terry began making art as soon as she could hold a crayon and has never stopped. She earned her B.A. degree in art education from Otterbein University. She loves teaching art almost as much as making it. Luna

Inspiration: Reading about The Rust-Tex Collection brought to mind the phrase "moth and rust" I recalled from a Bible verse. Year’s ago, I saw a Luna moth which I thought was exceptionally beautiful, so I used it to illustrate this verse. The small brown moths were chosen because they have the same colors as the rust-dyed fabric.

Luna Detail
Machine pieced cotton sheeting rust-dyed by the artist, commercial cotton fabric; raw edge machine appliqued cotton fabric hand-dyed by the artist, painted unbleached muslin, fabric markers, acrylic paint mixed with fabric medium, free-motion machine quilting and hand-quilted with cotton, poly-cotton and nylon threads.

Terry entered two pieces with the same bible quote. From Matthew 6:19-21 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

One of the judges really want Terry's sphinx month piece pictured below, but when we look at the detail and saw the hand drawn moths on Luna, she quickly changed her mind!!!

Terry other entry for the RTC hand painted sphinx month

I finally got to meet Terry at International Quilt Festival Chicago. Here is a picture of us in the Rust-Tex booth.
Terry lives on a tree farm with her family amid the beautiful rolling hills of the Mohican Valley in Ohio. You can get a glimpse of her thoughts on her blog: http://terryannhartzell.wordpress.com/

INSTANT RUST!!!

2010-07-23T16:28:00.005-05:00

Here in my technique for instant rust.

1. Push gel medium through a stencil with a putty knife.

I like to use Earth Safe Finishes Gel Medium because it has no Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC). You can read more about VOC on this page:

http://www.earthsafefinishes.com/VOC.html

2. Sprinkle on iron filings to cover the gel medium.

3. Get the excess filings back into the container but funneling them in with a folded piece of paper.

4. When the gel medium is completely dry, (I like to wait until the next day), spray it with straight vinegar. Keep it moist by respraying it.

5. With in 3-4 hours the iron filings will turn the color of rust. (They are gray to start with.) The vinegar will make an iron liquor that will dye the background rust color.

The shirt above and the ginkgo leaves below were made with stencils from The Crafters Workshop. The shirt was made using a stencil called Capricious, one of their 12" x 12" stencils.

The ginkgo leaves are made from one of their 6" x 6" stencils.

Winners of the Rust-Tex Collection

2010-07-22T13:49:00.002-05:00

Today I am posting about one of the winners of the Rust-Tex Collection, Carol Ann Waugh, who lives in Denver, CO. She is the author of three quilting books, including the classic, Patchwork Quilt Design and Coloring Book, which was published in 1983.

Earth & Sky

Machine pieced, rust dyed 100% cotton, hand dyed fabric by the artist, machine quilted.

I found this on her blog, "Last summer, I fell in love with rusting fabric. Unfortunately, I live in a very clean city and no matter where I looked, I couldn't find any rusted objects. So I actually ended up buying my first rusted objects online. Imagine!
Now, my garage is full of plates, nails, horse shoes, gears, metal sheets, you name it, I have it! I experimented with white and colored fabric and decided a combination of these gave me a great palate to work with. Not only did I love the surprising results each time, but using this fabric in my art quilts also gave me great ideas for enhancing the marks with machine quilting."

Carol Ann's inspiration, "The hand rusted cotton was made over several weeks by the artist and in many cases a piece was put through the rusting process numerous times. This piece is part of a series of works related to the physical properties of our planet and it's relationship to the universe, as we now know it."

Honorable Mention Sponsored by Mill House Quilts, Waunakee, WI

http://carolannwaugh.blogspot.com
http://www.carolannwaugh.com

Midwest Fiber and Folk Art Fair

2010-07-21T21:12:00.003-05:00

Here is how the Rust-Tex Collection (RTC) looked at the Midwest Fiber and Folk Art Fair in Grayslake, IL. I love the way this guy's shirt is making the red moon on Rustscape by Nina Edelman of Milwaukee, WI glow. There was a crowd looking at the RTC in the morning,
but, as happens with all shows, not too many late in the day. This person was taking a good look at Going by Candy Flynn of Middleton, WI.

Three Days to Go...

2010-07-13T22:26:00.005-05:00

...before I leave for Midwest Fiber and Folk Art Fair in Grayslake, IL. Here is what the dinning room looks like. And I still have a few things to add!!!

I am hopping it will all fit in the van we bought just before I went to Houston.

Here is the story of how it happened:

To rent a U-Haul van cost $19.95 to rent per day. On top of that they charge you 50 cents per mile plus gas. When I told my DH it would cost me $2,000, he said that would be a good down payment on a van. So we went looking at vans two weeks before I was to leave for Houston. We found the one we wanted to buy a week before I left. I picked it up with three days to spare. Enough time for OUR mechanic to look it over and reassure me it WOULD make it to Houston.

It was VERY humid while I was waiting in line to set up for the show. The van still had temporary license plates that were made of cardboard.

They warped because of the humidity!!!

Midwest Fiber and Folk Art Fair

2010-07-10T21:25:00.005-05:00

I will be vending at Midwest Fiber and Folk Art Fair July 16-18.
http://www.fiberandfolk.com/index.htm

On Friday afternoonI will be teaching a hand quilt class.

You can see the 25 quilts of the Rust-Tex Collection there.

Hope you can join in the fun!!!

Happy 4th of July!!!... just a few days late

2010-07-07T11:43:00.003-05:00

On the bike path that runs beside our neighborhood, there are these two buffalo. They were constructed by the neighborhood association. The big one is the mother and the smaller one is a baby. Our girls think the baby has something up its butt. One of the neighbors finds it amusing to decorate them for the various holidays. This is how they looked this year.
This is how I decorated the fence.

And yes we do have that much shade!

Where I Have Been Continued

2010-07-06T19:08:00.004-05:00

Karen Miller from Corvallis, OR posted on the Quilt Art list that she would be driving across the country on US 20 and would be willing to teach Katazome, which is Japanese stenciling, along the way.

I know that road!!!

It runs just south of Rockford which is 1.5 hours south of Madison. So I organized a class for her. It was held here at the Goodman Center in Madison. The above picture is their new building. The old building, shown below, was an iron works. The building is one of the most green in Madison.
The picture below is of Karen Miller mixing up the resist paste. It had to steam and while it did, we cut our stencils.

Here is one of the class members cutting a very ambitious stencil.

When the resist paste was ready we each paste two of Karen's stencils. The stencils we cut would not be ready the next day.

Here is one of John Marshall's stencils. He studied Katazome in Japan for many years. He is the EXPERT in the field. Karen bought this piece before he got so famous she couldn't afford his prices any more.

This is Karen on day two mixing up the colors we would use to dye our stencils with. They are made from pigments. They are held to the fabric with soy milk. Not the kind you buy in the store. You make it from dry soybeans soaked in water, put through a blender, squeezed out and repeat the process with the soybeans again. The Japanese have names for each press of the soybean.

Here is the scarf I made. Several people used my design so we have them in several different sizes.

Here are the finished scarves.

Everyone thanked me for setting up such a great class.

All I wanted to get out of it was to meet Karen Miller. For years I have admired the work she posted on the Quilt Art list. And she was just as nice as I imagined her to be.

Where I Have Been

2010-07-05T20:33:00.003-05:00

I have not been rust dyeing...sigh...I have been working on the second crazy quilt for the lady who has sewn all her life but never made a quilt. To see the first quilt click on the link below:

http://rust-tex.blogspot.com/2009/11/my-hexagon-crazy-quilt.html

Here is an over view of the second quilt. In the post for the first quilt I said it would be done on Feb 1...well...I did finish it on July 3. Not quite 18 months like the first one and not quite a year. I did ask for a year on the next one knowing I will not start it until the rust dyeing season is over.

The block below was made from Elizabeth's smock. If you look closely you can see her name on the sewn in name tag. It was used by her in kindergarten to protect her clothing from messy art supplies. It had not been cut up into rags but was in one piece. When I delivered the quilt, on the 4th of July, I asked her mother how old Elizabeth is. Her answer was, "Elizabeth is 50 years old." I know my mother did not save my clothes that long!!!

The heart was the pocket. I used the back of the smock to make green heart around it. You can see more of the buttons to the right and one block lower from the above block. The flowers for this block were cut from the dreaded polyester double knit. It actually had flowers shaped like that. The vase is also cut from polyester double knit, a solid. Did I mention she taught for Stretch and Sew? I still have three boxes of polyester double knit left. I will be returning all that fabric to her. The table is some wool that had a wonderful shredded edge.

This block was made on a retreat at Fern Hill in WI where we divided up our dearly departed friend things. Terry Dorman, lost a 10 year struggle against breast cancer, 2 days short of her 58th birthday. The buttons were from her stash.

PAQA Meeting

2010-06-09T21:21:00.003-05:00

I went to the Professional Art Quilt Alliance (PAQA) meeting today. It is held at the library in Glen Ellyn, which is a 2.5 hour drive from Madison. But it is worth the long drive and getting up at 6:00 AM.

Here are the goals of PAQA:

Bring and show new and original work

Encourage new artists in the field

Discuss professional issues

Network

Share wisdom and experience

At the meeting, we do a thing called "Showcasing", which is an elaborate show and tell. I love it because you get to see quilts that win national awards. Their creators are willing to share how they made the quilt. The quilts are spread out around the room and you can even touch them. Rachel Wetzler, show us her latest quilt. It is called, The World. On it she wrote the opening verse from the bible. As you can see it is a double hemisphere surround by foliage and animals. It is an amazing work of art and sure to win prizes where ever it is entered. It has been a long day for me so, good night and thank you for being a Rust-Tex.bolgspot.com reader.

Winners of the Rust-Tex Collection

2010-06-07T21:21:00.003-05:00

Judy Momenzadeh, has been quilting for 12 years and sewing most of her life. She started out traditionally but became fascinated with free motion quilting so started doing art quilts. Somewhere along the line she discovered digital techniques on fabric, that has become her passion. She loves taking photos of nature and using them as metaphors for emotions, feelings, and life experiences.

Judy is a confessed technique junkie!

Jars Of Clay, My People

Fused, raw edge applique using original inkjet images printed on commercial, rust dyed cottons and metallic paper applied to commercial fabrics, embellished with oil paint sticks and water soluble wax crayons, free-motion and machine guided quilting using rayon and polyester threads.

My inspiration came from a Bible scripture that says we are but jars of clay, our essence; our being is the Spirit within. "My People" represents friends, families, communities, mankind. The jars represent to me individual people and the incredible potential that we all have within.
Judy shares a blog with two fiber art friends, but she seems to do most of the posting.
Judy’s Blog: http://www.miamithreads.blogspot.com/

Winners of the Rust-Tex Collection

2010-06-05T21:00:00.002-05:00

Frieda Anderson, made her first quilt when she was in high school. She has been designing and making original quilts ever since. She finds each step of quilt making, from the beginning to the end, a real challenge. Most of her quilts are fused or have fusing in them.

Frieda says, "Every day I walk in the woods with my dog. In the late spring it is an adventure while walking to search for Jack in the Pulpits. I love the primordial look of their leaves and the way they hide in the undergrowth. I often bring my sketchbook and sketch them."Jack in the Pulpit

Background fabric over dyed Rust-Tex fabric with procion dyes, artist hand dyed cotton, silks and thread, raw edged fused, free-motion machine quilted.

"My dog's name is George. He is a Jack Russell Terrier, or terror, take your pick. He and I go to the woods everyday that I am home and walk. It is because of him that I am able to find so many subjects for my work. I love the fact that we walk in the woods, and I love the flora and fauna of our little woods and, of course, I love George.", Frieda said.

Frieda’s Website: http://www.friestyle.com

Frieda’s Blog: http://www.friestyle.blogspot.com

Winners of the Rust-Tex Collection

2010-06-04T15:21:00.004-05:00

Beth Wheeler, has been a fiber artist for most of her life. She began embroidering by hand at age 5, crocheting at age 6, sewing garments for dolls and people at age 7, and quilting at age 16.

She is the author of hundreds of articles for consumer and trade publications and her 47th book, Next Steps in Altered Photo Artistry, was released in October 2009.

Whisper on the Wind

Rust-dyed cotton base with printed digital images, fabric paint, machine quilted, hand beaded.

Here is the story that inspired Beth to make this quilt.

"One spring day my grandmother, mother, and I went to the farm of a relative to see the spring wildflowers in the woods. I was mesmerized by the delicate shapes and colors of the various blossoms, but was disappointed when Grandmother said they couldn't go home with us. Grandmother told me, They would be unhappy away from their home in the woods and would die.

I quickly grew bored of looking at flowers that would not be in a vase in my room and wandered off, sat on a log, and imagined I could hear fairy voices on the wind. Their voices were soft as whispers and they spoke in a strange language."

Machine stitching on the the ancient language of Tamil, is in monofilament, to add texture without distracting color and is enhanced with hand-beaded "punctuation."The color was added with Earth Safe Finishes watercolor.

Beth's Website: http://www.threadography.net

Beth's Blog: http://www.threadsociety.blogspot.com

New Product

2010-06-03T20:55:00.003-05:00

My friend, Freida Anderson, did a little video of me at International Quilt Festival-Chicago. You can see it by following the link below:

http://friestyle.blogspot.com/2010/04/rust-tex.html

Please forgive the dumb look on my face at the beginning of the video. I should have been smiling but I didn't know I was in the picture!

A New Show in Chicago

2010-06-01T21:49:00.004-05:00

International Quilt Festival is moving to Cincinnati, and everyone is wondering why? The vendors think Cincinnati made them an offer they can't refuse.

There is a new show coming to Chicago, or rather Schaumburg.

The Original Sewing & Quilt Expo will be held March 31, April 1 & 2, 2011 at the Schaumburg Convention Center. To learn more follow this link:

http://www.sewingexpo.com/ChicagoIL.aspx

Rust-Tex will be vending there!!! So you can can stock up on all those great 4 yards of embellishment threads for a $1.00, which are not available at the store at Rust-Tex.Com, and the many vintage items I carry in the booth.

I might even be teaching rust dyeing.

May 5th, 2010

2010-05-28T20:55:00.003-05:00

The fifth of May was a very windy day here in Madison, WI. It was a good thing I was not working in the Rust-Tex studio, because a branch came down

EXACTLY

where I would have been standing!

The fabulous maple tree that gives so much shade to the deck is dying. It makes me sad. I can accept that there are cycles of life and death, it just makes me sad.

The Rust-Tex Collection at International Quilt Festival-Chicago

2010-05-27T20:50:00.005-05:00

For those of you who didn't make it to Chicago for the International Quilt Festival and couldn't see the Rust-Tex Collection (RTC) make its debut, I will attempt to show you what it was like. Just remember quilts are so much better viewed in the cloth then on the internet.

Here is the sign marking the entrance to the show. Our youngest daughter, who goes to MIAD, designed the Rust-Tex logo when she was a sophomore in high school. For this show she made a pdf that could be enlarged to whatever size was necessary. This poster was 24" x 36". IQF did a great job on all the signs.

The 25 quilts of the RTC were displayed in these four bays.

Here is one of the "Quilt Angles", that is what IQF calls their "white glove ladies", admiring the RTC. The one of the left is Rusted Geometry the one on the right is Moonstruck.

Setting up a booth

2010-05-26T16:01:00.002-05:00

There is a certain procedure I follow when setting up my booth at a quilt show. The first step is to get every thing out of the van. I had planed to get in line for International Quilt Festival-Chicago and sit in line until noon. I told my "crew" not to arrive before then.

I was able to drive to my booth when I arrived at 8:15 am.

Boy was I surprised!!! After you get everything out of the van you go park it so no one blocks you in.

The next step it to rough in the booth. Which means you need to see where you are going to put the tables, and racks. At every show you get a different location. It seems I can never use the same set up. I usually draw up a map before I get there but it never works out.

...sigh...maybe I should give up drawing a map...

Because my crew was not going to show up until noon I had a hard time getting everything set up. A nice young man named Scott, who was on the decorating team for the convention center, helped me hang the drapes. You can see in the above picture just above the white drapes, I had a wide support beam in my booth. Although the show is draped in white you are not allowed to pin things to their drapes. So I had to replace quite a lot of drapes.

The next thing I do is hang up the samples. I usually do that before I put the tablecloths on. I stand on the tables to reach the top poles, 8' off the ground, which is where I hang my samples. That way I am not getting dirty foot prints on my tablecloths.

My crew arrived after I got the samples up. They were anxious to helped me so we draped the tables before I took a picture of the booth with out the table cloths.

Here is the finished booth from one side and the other.

It was a successful show for me. I hope you had a chance to visit the Rust-Tex booth at International Quilt Festival-Chicago.

Rust-Tex on CSI

2010-05-24T20:36:00.003-05:00

The episode of CSI that bought rust dust and rust flakes from me was aired in Madison, WI on Thursday, April 29, 2010 at 8:00 PM. It was called, "Take My Life, Please". Here is a synopsis of the plot from the TV guide, "A legendary comic duo from the glory days of Las Vegas is set to reunite for one night only, until one half of the duo is found dead." The dead guy, I don't remember his name, was drown by his friend, I don't remember his name either but he was played by Tim Conway. Tim killed his friend because the friend couldn't remember his lines and Tim didn't want his friend to embarrassed himself. Tim fed his friend oxycontin to put him to sleep and then forced ice cubes into him as they melted, he drown. So I was wrong in saying they cut open his stomach and found rust. It was his lungs where they found the rust!!! In this picture, captured for the actual show, one of the forensic experts finds the magnetic rust flakes. I am thinking of putting, "As Seen on TV", on all my bags of rust flakes.

(hee hee hee)

International Quilt Festival-Chicago

2010-04-15T22:27:00.002-05:00

Posted from the Best Western O'Hare in Rosemont, IL:

I am staying here while vending at what is locally known as the Rosemont show. It will be moving to Cincinnati next year so it might be the last time I do this show.

Just wanted to let you know I will be giving tours of the Rust-Tex Collection at 2pm on Friday and Saturday and 1pm on Sunday. Hope you can join me!!!

No Rust Dyeing This Week!

2010-04-12T19:42:00.002-05:00

On Thursday April 8 those of us who live in Madison, WI woke up to this!!! You can see I had already set up the Rust-Tex outdoor studio...sigh...I could not do any rust dyeing for many days. That was okay with me because I was VERY busy getting ready for International Quilt Festival in Chicago. Here is what my dining room looked like this year. PLUS the Rust-Tex Collection is premiering at that show. My studio assistant was very busy last week making all the roll-ups for the quilts. She spent all last week making them.

Way to go, Diane!!!Here is her completed work. Way cool!!!
I am doing walking tours of the Rust-Tex Collection at 2pm on Friday and Saturday and 1pm on Sunday. I hope you can join me!!! If not visit me in booth 1632 in the Make It University area. I will be doing an Open Studio on Thursday night 5-7.

Chickens!!!

2010-03-27T08:15:00.002-05:00

While taking a walk, with my friend, we came across some chickens. Until last year it was illegal to keep chickens in Madison, WI. There was a strong movement called, "The Chicken Underground" that pushed hard to have that law repealed. Which is one reason that one of Madison nicknames is Mad City.
Here is the girl who helps with the chickens. I love this picture because her hair is almost the same color as the chicken.

Her father gave us some fresh eggs. Did you know the white chickens lay white eggs and the brown ones lay brown eggs? I did not probably because I grew up in the city of Chicago, not one of the suburb and was VERY removed from farm life.

We also saw a redheaded woodpecker on our walk. We have decided to take more walks. Especially if they are so full of adventures as this one was.

Where I Have Been

2010-03-25T13:57:00.002-05:00

I vended this past week-end at the West Suburban Quilt Guild show at Mount Mary College in Milwaukee, WI.

Here is what the booth looked like. It took me 7 hours to set up because I did it alone...sigh...but I got so MANY compliments on how beautiful my booth looked it was worth the effort.
I was near the stage so I hung some things for sale out there too.

My biggest thrill was someone bought a rust dyed shirt. She came up to me and said, "This looks like something I would wear." She wore it as she viewed the quilt show. Here is a picture of her in her newly purchased shirt.

Winners of the Rust-Tex Collection

2010-03-16T20:00:00.003-05:00

Nina Edelman is a relatively new art quilter. A recently retired librarian and teacher, she is thrilled to finally have the time to throw herself into being a student of the many facets of the fiber world. A perennial workshop attendee, she has enjoyed soaking up new techniques and skills in workshops in piecing, dyeing, surface design and quilting. Rustscape

Nina's inspiration for this piece came from her husband being a metal sculptor. She pilfered some of his objects to rust dye fabric, in what she calls "my rust garden". In the fall she enjoys deciding what to make with them. Many pieces of her rust dyed cloth reminded her of space type landscapes, thus the split planet. Rustscape was influenced by Nina’s love of Japanese art, specifically woodblock prints.

You can see her husband's work at his website:

http://www.edelmansculpture.com/

Rustscape
Machine pieced, fused applique, 100% cotton rust dyed fabric, commercial and hand-dyed cottons, free-motion machine and hand quilted with cotton, polyester, rayon and metallic threads, embellished with seed beads.

In the past two years she has focused on commissions for installations in synagogues, and has been in juried into museum shows. She feels each creation is an experiment and a chance to learn patience, perseverance, and humility.

When not working in the studio, Nina enjoys tap dancing and playing ukulele. She also dabbles in free-lance writing. You can see her work in American Quilter November 2008. The article is called, “Quilters Take a Bite Out of the Big Apple.”

You can see the entire The Rust-Tex Collection at International Quilt Festival-Chicago, April 16-18, 2010. I will be in booth 1632. Not only will I be selling rust dyed fabric and copies of a CD with the 25 winners of The Rust-Tex Collection on it, but many items used for rust dyeing.

A SSS (Sure Sign of Spring)

2010-03-15T21:12:00.003-05:00

I like to post the first sign of spring on my blog every year. I know spring has arrived when I see snowdrops blooming in my yard. Last year I did not post a picture of snow drops. I totally missed the date.

I did take a picture of snow drops in bloom. It was at Olbrich Gardens, our local botanical gardens. I took it on March 20. I love that the digital camera time stamps each picture you take.

To learn more about snowdrops click on the link below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowdrops

Winners of the Rust-Tex Collection

2010-03-14T20:19:00.003-05:00

Deborah Gregory's work focuses on nature’s cycle of growth, flowering, decay and re-creation. Rust on fiber fits neatly with decomposition. After she rusts fabric, she burns it, and colors it to represent decay. There is an article on The Textile Blog where you can read about her philosophy. It is titled: Textile Artist Deborah Gregory and the Cycle of Decay and Renewal. Click here to link to the article. Strata

This work was inspired by how layers of earth form and tell a story in each layer. The rust formed layers of heavy staining that reminded me of the way iron and other elements sometimes form a design in the side of a hill when excavated.

You can visit Deborah's website by clicking on the link below.

http://www.deborah-gregory.com/

Here is a quote from her website:
My goal is to go beyond the visible record of our climate's seasons and uncover what is just beyond. I expose the images hidden in the fabric to form a record of my spiritual connection to the earth and celebrate the mystery of our existence.

Strata
Whole cloth quilt of white cotton stained with rust, polyester fabric, fabric pens, pencil, heat distressed, free-motion machine and hand quilted.

Deborah made the rust marks with her favorite “ruster”, a window sash weight she found in a hardware store that sells recycled items. First she wraps wet fabric around it. Then she added more water and a bit of salt to the already wet fabric. She lets it sit for several days, to encourage the rust process. When she likes the pattern she see, she takes the fabric off the item and starts to make a quilt of it.

Deborah strives to depict the beauty of decomposition or decay and honor earth’s cycles this way.

You can see the entire The Rust-Tex Collection at International Quilt Festival-Chicago. I will be in booth 1632 selling rust dyed fabric and copies of a CD with the 25 winners of The Rust-Tex Collection on it.

Winners of the Rust-Tex Collection

2010-03-13T22:17:00.001-06:00

Candy Flynn like many fiber artists, explored many mediums and techniques, until 1997 when she really focused on quilt making. After making traditional quilts for several years, she became interested in art quilts. She began to experiment with non-traditional techniques, design, embellishment and surface design. In 2002, she joined Madison Contemporary Fiber Artists (MCFA), a group of women making art from a variety of fibers. Since joining MCFA, she has been inspired to experiment with other fiber techniques such as knitting, dyeing, beading and basketry.

Going

After having surgery on her wrists, which restricted her ability to quilt, she began to experiment with compost dyeing using plant materials to dye silk scarves. This in turn led Candy to rust dyeing.

Going

Whole cloth quilt, rust dyed cotton fabric, hand quilted using commercial and rust dyed cotton threads, embellished with seed beads.

This quilt was inspired by the imperfection in the transfer of a broken rusty bowl. The image appeared to be both a 'sun' and an 'eye', as though both providing light and taking it in.

Another one of Candy's incredible quilts, Edge of the World, was selected to be included in Lark Books’ “500 Art Quilts”. She has exhibited work in shows and galleries around the country, as well as done commission work.

You can see Going and the rest to The Rust-Tex Collection at Spring International Quilt Festival-Chicago. I will be in booth 1632 selling rust dyed fabric and copies of a CD with the 25 winners of The Rust-Tex Collection on it.

Winners of the Rust-Tex Collection

2010-03-12T21:53:00.003-06:00

Jill Robinson is the Rust-Tex Collection (RTC) winner I am posting about today. I found this quote on Jill's website, "Using renewable fibers and recycling the beautiful cloths of the past is a driving force in my work. I often combine my own fabrics with commercial textiles to achieve variety and complexity. When I'm in the design stage, I pull out the hand-dyed cottons, the silks, a treasured piece of vintage linen-- all of it!"

You can visit Jill's website by clicking on the link below:

http://thefibercave.com/index.html

While there be sure to look at the AMAZING works of art on her gallery page!

Solar Crust

This quilt was inspired by three rusty circular saw blades and a lawn rake. When combined, the cloths created a solar image

This is what Jill said about making her entry in to the RTC, "Solar Crust was my first attempt to make a rusted fabric the focal point of a piece. It sat in my stash a long time before I found companion fabrics that worked but didn’t compete with it. I did a lot of free-motion stitching on the rusted part; the discharged part has some also but is mostly straight stitching with heavy cotton thread. I enjoy hand-dyeing over rusted fabric, too. There are many possibilities that I’ll be experimenting with—when summer comes to Wisconsin!"

Solar Crust

Machine pieced, rust and tannin dyed cotton/linen bend, discharged cotton and discharged linen; free-motion and straight-line machine quilted with cotton threads.

Jill will have a Special Exhibit at Minnesota Quilters, Inc., 32nd Annual Quilt Show and Conference, June 17—19, 2010 St. Cloud, Minnesota. By calling her a fiber artist MQI is defining her and her exhibit. The exhibit will feature Jill's hand-dyeing process and surface design by highlighting three techniques; dyeing, using resists, and discharging. Several pieces will showcase her glorious results.

Don't look for Solar Crust, it will not be there. To see Solar Crust you have to go to Spring International Quilt Festival-Chicago. I will be in booth 1632 selling rust dyed fabric and a CD with the 25 winners of the RTC. Hope you can make it!!!

PAQA Retreat

2010-03-11T19:10:00.004-06:00

On Monday I posted I was at the PAQA retreat. It is good to be back in good old Madison, WI again. I am especially enjoying sleeping in my own bed!!!

I love going to these retreats. They are held in the Siena Center in Racine, WI. While in Racine be sure to eat at the Douglas Street Diner. All the food is home cooked. I have eaten many different foods there over the years and have NEVER had a bad meal. It is decorated like a 1950's soda shop. With black and white tiles on the floor, red Formica table tops and big deep booths.

If you click here you can see their menu.

I love the way I captured the light fixtures in this picture of Marilyn Monroe. The Siena Center is right on the shore of Lake Michigan. They have an outdoor labyrinth. To see what it looked like in the snow, search my archives for March 15, 2008.
There were 50 of us to hear Art Biz Coach, Alyson B. Stanfield, tell us how to advance our art careers. You can visit her site at:

http://artbizcoach.com/

While there be sure to sign up for her newsletter. It comes on Monday and has some very good tips in it. I have been an artist for 35 years. I thought I knew every thing about being an artist, but I was able to pick a few gems on customer service from her newsletters.

Alyson didn't have anywhere to hang the mobile microphone. I suggested she hang it from the top of her booth, which she did. She is always on the move. That is why she is out of focus in this picture. She had a really good energy. We learned quite a bit in the two day class. On the way home the sun was setting and there was fog in the low lying areas. Being in a car full of women artists, we allowed ourselves to get out of the car and take these amazing pictures. That is not a lake it is a field!

More Rust-Tex winners tomorrow. You can see them at International Quilt Festival in Chicago. I will be in booth #1632 where you can buy a CD that has all the Rust-Tex Collection winners on it.

It's All About Today

2010-03-09T09:04:00.002-06:00

No postings Mon-Wed as I am at the Professional Art Quilter's Alliance meeting in Racine, WI. I will post on Thursday when I get back To Madison.

CSI

2010-03-06T19:46:00.004-06:00

I got a call from the property master of the TV series CSI. They wanted to buy some rust dust. I have no idea when this episode will air so I don't feel bad posting an outline of the plot. A man dies. The crime is solved by opening up his stomach and using magnets to find that he was killed by drinking too much rusty water. I told the property master that rust dust is not magnetic. I did find some iron oxide I bought from a chemical company to use as rust dust was magnetic. It had been anneal so it didn't work for the my "Rust Dust Sprinkle" technique. The iron oxide I bought is a very fine powder. I plan to send him some rust flakes, which he can grind up, if they need something larger to show up on camera.

As promised here is the result of the double galaxy.

Winners of the Rust-Tex Collection

2010-03-04T21:25:00.004-06:00

Terry White grew up in a large artistic family that encouraged originality, creativity and sharing. When she learned something new, she enjoyed teaching those new skills to her sisters and friends. Now she not only teaches on the road, but she and her husband, Scot, produce video classes so everyone can learn her sewing machine based techniques.

Spring Rites of the Turtle

Terry has published two books with the American Quilters Society. “Thread Painting Made Easy” and “All Beaded Up by Machine”, in which Terry has beaded by machine a piece of Rust-Tex fabric. She is currently working on her third book about embellishment techniques.

Terry has been keeping busy this year. She has designed her first line of fabrics for Clothworks which will be released in the spring of 2010. She is also working with Coats&Clark thread company, on exciting new developments, for their Star Cotton line of thread.

Terry's used a turtle as the inspiration for this piece because that is her totem. She is exploring the religion and culture of this lovely species. Making turtle shrines has helped her develope techniques and decorative devices to express her reverence.

Spring Rites of the Turtle Detail

Thread painted with cotton threads, rust-dyed cotton damask napkin, fused commercial and rust-dyed cotton fabric, organdy and chiffon hand wrapped flowers, hand-dyed vintage laces, free-motion machine quilted with metallic threads, embellished with hand twisted cords and beads.

This quote from Terry's website puts into words why we make quilts:

"The quilt is the best form in which to put my work. I had made many embroidery panels and with the variety of techniques and layers of fiber I tried, I would generally have to put my work in frames or on stretcher bars. When I began to quilt, I found that the quilt process added another layer of texture to the work and it supported the weight of my ideas in a textile form."
You can visit Terry's website by clicking on the link below:

http://www.threadpaint.com/index.html

Tomorrow I will post the results of the first run of the rust dyeing kiln!!!

Rust Dyeing Kiln First Attempt

2010-03-02T22:08:00.005-06:00

I am taking a break from the winners of the Rust-Tex Collection to bring you some great news!!! I started using the rust dyeing kiln today!!!

You are probably asking yourself why I am posting a picture of a doll? It is not a doll!!! It will be a double galaxy when it is finished. It is the trees technique wrapped around a small Godiva Chocolate bottle and a glass vanilla extract bottle. At least I am hoping it will turn out to look like a double galaxy. Here is what a galaxy looks like.Here is a picture of the rust dying kiln all loaded up. I stated up the kiln at 3pm. By 6pm everything was DRY!!! I added more water to everything. I let it run till 8pm. Then I turned it off for the night. I can hardly wait until tomorrow to see what developed!!!

The rust dyed buttons will be done tomorrow, outside even when it is HOT, they usually take week. My studio assistant, who arranged them in the cast iron frying pan, must have a magic touch.

Winners of the Rust-Tex Collection

2010-03-01T21:45:00.004-06:00

Pat Bishop, has been sewing since she was a child, either by hand or machine. Her impatience and busy life means she tends to use the sewing machine more often than not. Pat loves the feel, texture, depth of color, even the smell of fabrics and the ability to lose herself in the whirr of the sewing machine. Sometimes she feels like she is copping out by using cloth rather than paint. By using cloth she slows down the process, giving her time to make decisions about what to do next.

She #3

In Pat's abstract work, simplicity is used to achieve a goal. Abstract gives her freedom to manipulate components of the composition to express her own impression and representation. You can see this in the third quilt of Pat's, "She Series", where she is attempting to show the strength of a woman.

She #3 Detail
Machine pieced, rust dyed cottons, commercial fabrics, discharge dyed, free-motion machine quilted with cotton and rayon threads.

The happy accidents of working with dyeing fabrics give results that can be challenging and pleasingly unpredictable.

Do yourself a favor by watching the video on Pat's blog in full screen.

http://patbishop.blogspot.com/

Winners of the Rust-Tex Collection

2010-02-28T19:55:00.002-06:00

Today I am posting the quilts of Tricia Coulson.

Producing and creating art is an essential element in Tricia's life. She is a textile artist with a genuine love of her medium. You can visit her website here:

http://triciacoulson.com/

Bricollage 9

Tricia used to create rusted found object sculptures, so rusting fabric seemed like a natural progression. She went to her collection of rusty items and tried different combinations. When she hit on circles and triangles she was inspired to enter The Rust-Tex Collection.

Bricollage 9 Detail
Machine pieced, rust dyed cotton, over dyed rust dyed cotton, screen printed with textile paint, machine stitched with mono-filament, embellished with hand embroidery, rusty wire and washers.
Bricollage 10
Tricia has an interesting interview on Valley Fiber Life called Tricia Coulson and the Human Journey. Click here to read it.

Row Houses won Tricia the best use of beads or beaded elements

in the beaded category for Lark's Quilt It Contest.
She works full time creatively and exhibits her work across the US.

Winners of the Rust-Tex Collection

2010-02-27T22:11:00.008-06:00

The Rust-Tex Collection had 112 quilts entered by 80 people from all over the world. Entries came from Australia, Israel, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden, and Belgium. The majority were from the USA. The only International entry to be juried into the Rust-Tex Collection was "Rust Rest" by Els Vereycken of Belgium.

Rust Rest

During childhood Els watched as her mother made and designed, hats and clothes. Els always sewed, but mostly she collected pieces of fabric to use later on in some sort of combination. Her study of science, job and family left little time to work on all of her fantasies. As soon as she retired from teaching biology, she threw all of her energy into making art quilts.

Rust Rest Detail

Machine raw edge applique, rusted cotton fabric, commercial fabrics, free-motion machine quilting.

Els says, "Time flies so fast, I don’t have enough of it to fullfil all the dreams I have."
She shows her art quilts in national and international exhibitions.

I am so glad Els entered The Rust-Tex Collection!!!

She is a member of Q.Art.Belgium. Here is a link to their very cool site:

http://www.q-art.be/

Winners of the Rust-Tex Collection

2010-02-26T21:05:00.002-06:00

Today I am posting about Jean Cheszek.

Jean been quilting for 6 years, but she has never made a traditional quilt.

She was inspired by her sister, who's work you can see here:

http://www.annschroederstudio.com/

Jean needed some artwork to fill up all the blank walls in her new house.

Moonstruck

Early on she discovered the joys of dyeing her own fabric. When she saw the Rust-Tex booth at a quilt show, she knew it would be something else she needed to try. With both hand dyeing and rust dyeing, Jean loves that the process can yield completely serendipitous results.

Moonstruck details

She does not have a blog or a website. However she does make quilts for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI). "Fading Memories" will be part of the March auctions. You can bid on it here:

http://www.alzquilts.org/quiltauction.html

Fading Memories

Here is Jean's artist statement for this piece: My parents both suffered from Alzheimer's. This quilt portrays them as young adults when they each served in the Navy in World War II. The fabric in the quilt is made from photos taken over the course of their lives -- representing all the memories that faded as Alzheimer's progressed. The back of the quilt shows the photo montage along with a more recent photo of my parents.

Winners of the Rust-Tex Collection

2010-02-25T23:12:00.005-06:00

Today I am posting about Bonnie Ouellette, she has been quilting for about 10 years and doing abstract and art quilting for the last 3 years. She founded a small art quilt group in her area to bring together other quilters who were looking for a more forward approach and begin to design their own work.

Tiffany Turquoise Mine

Bonnie loves collecting found objects so rust dyeing was right up her alley. She particularly likes to walk along railroad tracks, where she usually finds some very interesting rusted material. Rust dyeing is accidental. After examining the fabric Bonnie hopes an idea will come to her. This particular piece screamed the veins of a mine. She dyed the original fabric and thought it was a poor example of dyeing with too much white and just a little turquoise color so she "over rust dyed" it. The fun part was when she decided to discharge the rusted fabric with rust remover. Unfortunately, this process is not very well controlled so she had some work to do to remedy that. The mine entrance is from old wood found along the tracks. The mine cart is made from rusted parts from an old toy train. Bonnie loved making her piece for the Rust-Tex Collection and will continue to experiment with rust dyeing. Tiffany Turquoise Mine detail

To see similar pieces of Bonnie's look at her 2009 journal quilt entries by clicking on the link below:

http://www.quiltart.com/triple_play/artists/5.html

Winners of the Rust-Tex Collection

2010-02-23T13:56:00.003-06:00

Today's post is about Daryl Dunlap.

Daryl's quilt is the smallest one in the Rust-Tex Collection. At 8 1/2 x 11", Homestead, is one of her journal quilts.

Daryl has been quilting fewer than three years and art quilting for less than half of that time. Since she is a “young” quilter, she constantly tries new techniques to improve her skills and build up her knowledge bank. Daryl discovered a short article on rust dyeing in an older quilt magazine and has never looked back. Although she continues to try new techniques in both traditional piecing and art quilting, the rust dyeing technique continues to pull her in over and over again. Homestead

To date, all of her experiments and experience with rust dyeing have evolved from the whole cloth approach. She loves the randomness of wrapping odd sized pieces of fabric around even odder pieces of rusty whatever. Her approach is to then try to pull out an image from the resulting imprint and create a design around it.

Detail of Homestead

The judges felt her pieces looked like Oriental Art.

Rust dyed whole cloth quilt, machine applique house, free-motion machine quilting, binding is hand done using cotton embroidery thread.

Winners of the Rust-Tex Collection

2010-02-21T19:38:00.006-06:00

Today I am posting Pat Dolan's entry.

Pat was a watercolorist for 20 years prior to switching to fiber art. She started making art quilts in the mid to late 1990's. She did her first rust-dyeing experiments in 2006 based on postings she saw on the quiltart list serve. Pat actually had to go out to BUY rusty stuff since she had recently moved from a large home into a small townhouse and all such items had been discarded!

Woodland Walk

Pat is very interested in paradox - the juxtaposition of opposites. John Hopper, who writes The Textile Blog, wrote a very thoughtfully article about Pat and her fascination with paradox. To read it, click here.

Pat's inspiration for Woodland Walk, came from the rusted fabric itself. She was inspired by the autumnal theme of drying leaves, decay, naked trees, fallen feathers and death...before life renews itself.

Woodland Walk Detail

Machine pieced, 100% cotton rust-dyed fabric, marbled paper, commercial fabrics, rubber stamped with Acrylic paint, colored with colored pencils, machine quilted with rayon threads, embellished with buttons, feathers, and metallic fibers.

Here is Pat's website:

http://pat-dolan.com
Here is her blog:
http://patsartjournal.blogspot.com

Winners of the Rust-Tex Collection

2010-02-20T12:39:00.003-06:00

Today's post is all about Jane Ogren.

Her piece is an ode to her husband a retired Geometry teacher.

Rusted Geometry

She wrote that this quilt was inspired by a store in Pittsburgh, PA, called "Construction Junction", which collects and resells recycled materials. When she needs inspiration she browses through the store...this time a bucket of rusty nails caught her eye and intrigued her.

Jane is a native Pennsylvanian. She has lived the last forty years in the Pittsburgh area. Jane graduated from Edinboro University of PA with a B.S. in art education and an M.Ed from Indiana University of PA. She taught art in several suburban schools. Although retired from teaching Jane has stated, "A part of me feels alive when I work with young people and when I teach. And although teaching and stimulating other people's creativeness takes a tremendous amount of energy it is also very rewarding."

Rusted Geometry Detail

Whole-cloth quilt, cotton canvas, backed with felt, hand-quilted, rusted with old nails, embellished with those same nails and wire.

Jane enjoys the evolution of her work as she problem solves through the entire process deciding on color, texture and design.

Here is Jane's website:

http://www.janeogren.com/index.html

Be sure to look through the galleries. You will be glad you did!

Winners of the Rust-Tex Collection

2010-02-18T17:13:00.007-06:00

The 24 winners for the Rust-Tex Collection have been selected!!!

My plan is to post one every day for 24 days. If you are a regular reader of this blog you know things don't always go according to my plans.

Today I am posting about BJ Reed.

Mum's the Word

Here is what she wrote me about this quilt:

Fall for me is the loveliest time of year, with mums making the last show of color before winding into the bleaker winter. Large flower heads in rusts, yellow, white, and rose make a lovely mix. This year I wanted to bring that show indoors!

You can read more by following this link:

http://www.piecemaking.com/quilt_mumstheword1.shtml

Ms Reed's focus as an artist has been on creating contemporary art quilts, often with a nature theme to reflect her love of gardening and abstracts to showcase various surface design techniques. Besides art quilts, she also creates machine home embroidery designs, quilt patterns, hand dyed fabric and hand-crafted rice paper flowers.

I love this quote from her home page of her Bunch of Bloomers home page, "To breathe life into each fiber embodies part of my soul. -BJ Reed"

Detail of Mum's the Word

Machine pieced, rust dyed cotton, overlaid with Chrysanthemum bloom transfers, Inko dye transfers, machine embroidery, hand dyed fabric, stenciled lettering, patinated copper leaf and two leaf transfers, free motion machine quilting with echo hand stitching.

Festival of Broken Needles

2010-02-08T11:25:00.002-06:00

February 8 in Japan women celebrate Hari-kuyo: Festival of Broken Needles by burying broken or bent needles in tofu or soft jelly cakes to follow this 400-year-old Japanese tradition. You can read more about on Debbie Bates' blog:

http://stitchtress.wordpress.com/2010/02/08/hari-kuyo/

Rust Dyeing Kiln

2010-01-25T14:06:00.005-06:00

The shower stall where the kiln will be

I chose to live in Madison, Wisconsin. That choice means I can only rust dye from April through October. Rust dyeing works best when it is hot and humid. Because I had a booth in mid October at International Quilt Festival-Houston and will have one at IQF-Chicago on April 16-18, I do not have enough stock for the Chicago show. So I am building a rust dyeing kiln in my basement!!! Hopefully this will allow me to continue rust dyeing throughout the very cold Wisconsin winter. Anyone who has done any rust dyeing will attest that it is messy! This means I am building the kiln as far away as I can get from the laundry room. It will be in the basement shower stall. There is a sink in the bathroom for rinsing out the rust dyed fabric.

Shower stall lined with insulation foam

Tote Tuesday

2010-01-24T21:39:00.003-06:00

Tote Tuesday logo was designed by Jeanelle McCall

Tote Tuesday, a Fiberart For A Cause fundraiser for the American Cancer Society, will open Tuesday, February 2 and continue through March. It’s a fundraiser and a showcase for everything that is fun and creative about the fiber arts. It is being organized by Virginia Spiegel, who ran the amazing Collage Mania, that raised over $190,000 for the ACS in just four years. She has over thirty totes listed with the actual number of sponsored totes in-progress approaching fifty. You can read more about it on Virginia's blog:

http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/blog/

I am going sponsoring a tote called The Rust-Tex Collection. My tote is scheduled to be up for auction on Feb 2. Here is a picture of what will be in the 100% cotton tote, which you could rust dye after you get it.

Here is the blurb I wrote for Tote Tuesday:
"The Rust-Tex Collection has everything you need to get started in rust dyeing including the Rust-Tex Instructional CD. Rust Dyeing is unpredictable, but Lois Jarvis has figured out 4 techniques that will give you repeatable patterns. Also in the tote, is the Rust-Tex Starter Kit that includes everything needed to create the “Trees” pattern, one of the four techniques on the CD, and 4 steel stars that are guaranteed to rust are just some of the things in the 100% cotton tote that you could be rust dyed after you pop the CD in your computer and learn how to rust dye."

Here is the list of what will be in The Rust-Tex Collection tote:

Rust-Tex Instructional CD
Kit to make "Trees Fabric"
Tannin (enough to make a quart)
1.5oz bottle synthrapol
Tube of iron fillings
4 steel stars (guaranteed to rust)
100% cotton tote for rust dyeing
Fat Quarter of Stormy Skies Fabric
Fat Quarter of Trees Fabric
Fat Quarter of Sunburst Fabric

With a retail value of $96 I am sure you will all want to bid on it. I will post where to do the bidding closer to Feb 2.

My Hexagon Crazy Quilt

2009-11-06T22:12:00.004-06:00

I accepted a commission on Halloween 2008 to make 3 crazy quilts for an 83 year old woman, one for each of her 3 daughters. She had sewn all her life, but was not a quiltmaker. She wanted me to use all the fabric she had sewn with as well as suits from her deceased husband. She had taught for Stretch and Sew so her fabric collection included polyester double knits. When I went to her house on Halloween 2008 she had the fabric sorted into these 8 tote boxes. All the fabric in the boxes with a zero on them had to be in all the quilts. After that I was to use fabric in the number one boxes and if I still needed fabric I was to use the one in the boxes marked 2. This woman had given me enough fabric to make 12 quilts!!!

She had carefully taken apart each piece of clothing. I would have cut off the seams. She opened each seam and pressed it flat. I had an entire skirt and all the fabric from each suit!!! I promptly cut three smaller chunks from each of the largest pieces and put a safety pin it it. I cut a chunk from each and every piece in all the boxes. The safety pin was my way to keep track of the fabric that had been in the zero boxes.

I was glad to have a lot of tables in my studio at QSDS because I needed room to spread out all the fabric and sort it by color. There were a large variety of greens which didn't all go together. There were a lot of plaids and some went together beautifully and some clashed. And the double-knits...using a ball point needle for this entire project was my secret defense. Above you can see for yourself some of what I had to deal with.
Here is a picture of the finished quilt. This one was a twin the other two are to be queen size.

Why a hexagon? The last thing she said to me was not to make it in blocks. Could I make it all in one piece? While at the Mancuso Show in Schaumburg, IL, I saw a hexagon crazy quilt and decided that would be a good not-a-block format. As you can see some of the blocks flow into each other. I started to think my client had never seen a crazy quilt. Last fall there was a show of antique crazy quilts in Madison. I sent her to this show. The queen size quilts will be in a block format.

Here is a sampling of some of the hexagons blocks I made.

This one was all plaids. I use a lot of hearts in my work. Luckily she loved hearts as much as I do. She didn't actually give me the red buttons. She was a sewer, so I took artistic license and sewed them on. She like them too.

The red one below is from her husband's silk suit that he had custom made in Hong Kong. On this piece I left the pocket open and surrounded it with other reds. And on this one I used some of the many suit cuffs that had buttons on the cuffs. All in all she was very pleased with this first quilt. It was delivered Aug 1, 2009. The next one is due Feb 1, 2010. So I have to get going on it soon.

More Reasons I Didn't Post Much This Summer

2009-11-04T21:40:00.003-06:00

I was at the Quilt Surface Design Symposium for a week. I signed up for a private studio because of a commission I needed to complete. Usually the private studio is a hotel room with the beds removed. But QSDS had an extra classroom that week. QSDS runs for an entire month. The classrooms floors are covered with clear plastic to keep the floors free of paint, dye, threads and whatever else fiber artists use that can damage carpets or cannot be easily vacuumed off carpeting. Because they wanted to keep the classroom set up that extra classroom became my private studio. Below is a picture of a class room full of students. The picture below is of MY studio. It was way cool to have so many tables because I was working on a crazy quilt commission. To learn why I needed all those tables come back tomorrow.

Why I Didn't Post Much this Summer Con't

2009-11-02T21:07:00.005-06:00

Another thing I did this summer was go to the Quilt Surface Design Symposium in Columbus, OH. It was just a short hop up from there to the Dairy Barn where Quilt National was hung. I had always wanted to go to see Quilt National. Because we arrived shortly before the QSDS bus arrived and some of the quilt creators were at QSDS and on the bus, we got to hear them talking about their quilts.

It was amazing to hear what inspired their quilt and how they captured it in fiber!!!

Why I Didn't Post Much This Summer

2009-11-01T20:49:00.003-06:00

There were many reasons that I didn't do much rust dyeing this summer. I spend a lot of time stripping the paint from the woodwork that had been in the girl's room.

Here is a picture of my studio assistant helping me strip the woodwork. I REALLY didn't have any work for her to do in the studio that day. She is a collage student, who has been working for me since she was in high school. I asked her if she would mind helping me stripping paint from the woodwork. I told her I would pay her the same hourly wage she makes as my studio assistant. She readily agreed.

I had planned to stain the woodwork but I felt the International Quilt Festival in Houston, TX was looming on the horizon. I needed to get some rust dyeing done to fill my double booth. I asked a woodworker I know, if he would finish up the job I had started. He agreed and told me I have saved myself about $400 by doing the stripping myself. I was relived to hear that because I prefer rust dyeing to stripping paint!!!

Happy Halloween!!!

2009-10-31T22:10:00.002-05:00

Rust-Tex Stars

2009-10-04T01:01:00.003-05:00

At Quilt Expo in Madison, WI, there is a woman who buys star blocks from me every year since the show began in 2005. At that time she wanted a few stars to add to a jacket she was making, maybe sew one on the pocket. In 2007, I remember she brought the stars she had to get some more to match. This year she bought some more stars. I recognized her and asked if she ever made the jacket and she said, "No, I never did. But now I have enough stars to make a wall hanging."

The bag shown above was made by someone completely different, who actually used her Rust-Tex stars and other Rust-Tex fabric she bought and made this wonderful bag for her friend!!!

I would like a friend like that!!!

Aprons for Sale

2009-10-02T21:32:00.002-05:00

Here are a few of the vintage aprons I will have in my booth, #1151, at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, TX Oct 14-18, 2009. They were hanging in my laundry room to dry. I washed them in the washing machine being careful to rubber band the apron string together so they wouldn't become tangled. My mistake was not making the rubber bands tight enough. I wanted the aprons to get really clean so I didn't put the rubber bands on very tight. After the 45 minute wash cycle the apron strings were all tangled up...sigh...after spending five minutes untangling them I decided to hang them to dry so the strings would not get tangled up in the dryer!!!

Quilts for AAQI

2009-09-30T22:01:00.005-05:00

Cat in the Vine Garden # 4418

Here are the three quilts I made for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. These donation quilts are usually sold in a auction that last 10 days. Mine are going to International Quilt Festival in Houston, TX to be sold at a set price.

Wild Cat in the Garden #4420

The above quilt is pieced with Rust-Tex fabric in the tiny .5" squares. Seven other quilts using Rust-Tex fabric will also be sold in Houston. They are from last year's Stay at Home Challenge, to give quilters who can not go to Houston something to do. I donated pieces of Rust-Tex fabric to any one who would make a quilt for AAQI. I also made a donation for everyone finished by a certain date, and that number turned out to be 22!

Two Roses #4419

I will be working the booth for a couple of hours so come on by if you are in Houston. If you are not in Houston you can follow which quilts sold AAQI on Twitter .

Rust-Tex Class Review

2009-09-23T11:08:00.004-05:00

This is the fabric that we make in my rust dye class

"Thank you again for such a great class experience. Any of you out there who have the opportunity to take a class from Lois...do so...you will be very pleased."

The above is an unsolicited review of the rust dye class I taught at Quilt Expo. The next time I will be teaching it will be at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, TX on Wed morning Oct 14, 9am-12pm. Hope you can take it.

If you can't make it to Houston, I will be teaching it for the Illinois Quilters Incorporated on Friday February 5 from 9am-Noon.

Cats

2009-09-21T23:26:00.003-05:00

I have not posted in a long time because life gets in the way.

As you know I garage sale every Friday with my DH. One day we found a metal cat that was painted black. Of course I HAD to buy him. Using my DH's Dremmel tool I sanded off the paint to make a striped cat on one side and a calico cat on the other side. The resulting fabrics are shown near the picture of the sanded piece. Of course they print in reverse.

Cool huh???

Quilt Expo is Coming Soon!

2009-07-20T15:39:00.002-05:00

You can register for the classes and lectures that will be held at Quilt Expo in Madison, WI, September 11-13 online by clicking on the link below:
http://www.wiquiltexpo.com/
If you want to take my rust dyeing class on Saturday from 1-4, sign up for class # Q09HPA-S, cost is $55.

If you don't want to get your hands dirty sign up for the Power Point Presentation, Thursday September 10, 2009, 10:00 am Class # Q09BH-T or Friday September 11, 2009, 10:00 am class # Q09BH-F, cost is $10.
If you are just not that into rust dyeing there are 144 lectures, 24 hands on workshops and 36 sit and sew classes to choose from. So be sure to check it out and sign up for something that you will enjoy!

The picture of the day is the trees fabric because that is the kind of fabric we make in the class. I also demo 4 other techniques.

Batavia, IL

2009-07-16T12:13:00.002-05:00

I will be vending at the Quilt and Textile Show in Batavia, IL this week-end. Actually the show starts Friday at 1pm. I will again bring my quilt, Ground Zero. If you have only seen this quilt on the internet and you live in the Chicagoland area. This is your chance to see it in the cloth.

(Which is soooo much better.) The picture of the day is from 2007 when my quilt, Ground Zero, was first displayed there.

Here is the link to the Batavia Quilt Show, so you can print the $1 off admission coupon:

http://bataviaquiltshow.com/

Sound Bites

2009-07-12T11:08:00.005-05:00

Yesterday I was cleaning up the chinchilla cage to move the now vacated cage, to the garage, as I vacuumed the rug I realized I would never hear that noise again. After 15 years of vacuuming up little hard chinchilla poops, I got used to hearing the plinking noise as they ran up the vacuum hose. I will hear it again this winter as it is the same noise made by vacuuming rock salt from the rugs in the winter. It will make me remember the happy times when the girls all lived here and the house was filled with laughter and the call of, "Chinchilla on the floor".

Chinchilla's are great escape artists. And Willy was always trying to make a break for it. It usually took all five of us to catch him!!!

Winter will bring another great chinchilla memory to me. Every year at Christmas time we put them in the Christmas tree before we decorated it. The picture of the day is Gigi 2006 Christmas portrait.

Thursday was a Sad Day

2009-07-11T18:55:00.004-05:00

On Thursday we had to have our 15 year old chinchilla put to sleep. We had two chinchillas. They we born in the same year. Gigi came to live with us two years after Willy.

They are immortalized in the center block of "Our Pets" a wool wall hanging that will hang in our dining room, whenever I get it finished. That is Willy on the Left and Gigi on the right.

Another reason I have not had time for rust-dyeing is I have been feeding her for the past three weeks with a syringe, 3-4 times a day 20-30 minutes a time. On Wednesday she was having trouble swallowing. She had a massive growth just below the jaw. The vet said they are finding that many chinchillas in captivity are succumbing to jaw problems. Willy died 4 years ago from an infected abscess in his jaw.

The vet said Gigi and Willy will be together again in the great dust bath in the sky. If you have never seen a chinchilla take a dust bath, you are missing out on one the joys of having a chinchilla. Click here to watch a 25 second one of a chinchilla that looks a lot like Gigi and is the same kind of bath house we had...sigh...