My Image Transfer on the C&T Blog

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

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

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!!!

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

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

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...

...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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.