"Blätz"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!!!

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

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

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.