Friday Favorites

I have decided that I am just not playing enough.  I am dyeing for my quilt class with Nancy Crow and drawing for my homework in my drawing class but just playing around?  Not so much.  I have been inspired this week by the fun others are having. They are not producing the next great art quilt that will ensure world peace, end world hunger, or make the artist rich and famous (yea, right). What they are doing is stretching their creativity muscles in short studies and smaller projects which will ultimately better prepare them for that future stupendous art quilt.  Okay, you have heard it here first. This week I will make some small simple project just for fun.  I have the perfect project in mind.   Results will be shown next Friday.

 Friday Favorites

Vicki and Estelle had fun with a variety of transfer techniques and was nice enough to show us their experiments. Vicky followed up with her next post to tell you how TAP washed.  I agree with Vicki;  no "special" clothing gets pampered at my house.


Laura c-w over at the Sketchbook Challenge is an artist after my own heart.  Here she draws thawing ice using pencil, water-soluable pencil, and ink.  Looks like a project out of the Drawn to Stitch book.  Fits right in with my drawing class.


Also at the Sketchbook Challenge, Kelli is getting practical with her sketches and provides a tutorial for turning them into an Ipod or phone cover.  This is the post that really made me think about all the fabric I am dyeing and pictures I am drawing and then putting them all away.  Time to make something FUN out of them!

Take at look at what the Quilt Rat is doing with de-clourant.  I have never thought to use it this way!  And she is using a brand she got at the grocery store.  The grocery store!  Not something she had to send away and wait for and pay postage on. Like, how cool is that!

Jane LaFazio at Janeville is having fun with freezer paper stencils and paint sticks.  I agree with Jane that she is not done with the little quilt yet--it still needs something--but I have every confidence that Jane will discover what is needed.  At any rate, you can check out her tutorial on freezer paper stencils while you want for her quilt to "ripen."

And Jackie, at art4moi, is having fun with lino prints and Shibori.  In fact, several of the blogs I follow are featuring shibori because they are all taking an online class. All of them are raving about the class.  And let me tell you, their "homework" is fun just to look at.  I am sorry I am missing it.

Arlee is thinking spring with some of her eco-prints.  Her dyeing is such an inspiration to me. And then, add what she does with the fabric, and I am truly humbled.

I have been looking around on-line to make sure that I have not missed any art quilt blogs that I really, really, really need to see.   And I came across this post on an unfamiliar blog about removing rust if your fabric has rusted too much.  This blog is one of many by author/artist K  Baxter Packwood.  She has written some books on eco-dyeing that I want to take a look at.

Remember last week when I linked you to a tutorial on facings for quilt binding?  I like this tutorial better--Judy Coats Perez miters the back corners for a even more professional look. And as Miss V says, "when you are selling your art quilt, you are selling every inch of it."  Or, the back counts too. Don't forget to follow the links to the other spring tutorials.  (I had wondered at the supposedly spontaneous eruption of tutorials last week.  Now I understand.)

Okay, tomorrow is a play date with the FIVE.  It is a bring-your-own-project day.  I am taking a drawing I made for my drawing class and following some of Elizabeth Barton's rules to turn it into a small art quilt.  If I don't burn it (just kidding....maybe) I will show you my progress next week.