I started with one strip of fabric and…

one strip led to another,led to another and so on and so on…

and this is where I ended up with all of them. Right now this is about 44″x 88″give or take a few inches and it’s all done with my hand dyed sandwashed cotton (yup,I even dyed the black). I have one more block made up and I’m not sure if I want to leave this as it is or if I want to turn it into a 3 block x 3 block configuration. I thought I would use this as a throw quilt for the back of the sofa but I like the visual impact it has now that I see it hanging on the design wall so I might end up turning it into a wall hanging instead. decisions,decisions…

time to clean house…

It’s time to get rid of a few things taking up space in my studio that I just don’t use. If you’re interested in buying either of these two items below,please email me at sue@suebleiweiss.com.

Cricut Expressions Bundle:Total retail value is $629 but I will sell the entire package for $325 plus shipping (payment via paypal only)

Used only a few times! Here’s what’s included in the package:
Cricut Expression Machine (retail value $249)
One package of replacement blades (2 blades –retail value $9.99)
Two 12” x 12” cutting mats (retail value:$24)
Cricut Design Studio software: Compatible with Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista 32-bit. Includes software,USB cord,Cricut mouse pad,and user manual (retail value $119)

Four design cartridges:
Printing Press (font) (retail value $55)
Accent Essentials (retail value $55)
Plantin SchoolBook (font) (retail value $55 and no longer being made)
Tags,Bags,Boxes &More. (retail value $30)

Four packages of Provo Craft Adhesive Backed 3 mil Vinyl made to be cut with the Cricut machine. Colors:white,black,brown,cream Each package includes 2 sheets 12” x 24” (Retail value $32)
I don’t have the original box that the machine came in but I will wrap and pack everything securely in a sturdy box.

********************************************************************************

Ranger Melting Pot set:$50 plus shipping (payment via paypal only)

Includes:

One Ranger Melting Pot with addition tray
2 lbs of Friendly Plastic strips in assorted colors and patterns

One face mold
One moon and star mold

Melt Art Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel:
70 Gram jar of Platinum (unopened)
80 gram jar of Gold (opened 1/3 full)
65 gram jar of black (opened 1/2 full
76 gram jar of interference green (unopened)
60 gram jar of violet (opened 1/2 full)
60 gram jar of fuchsia (unopened)

To see some of the cool things you can do with friendly plastic visit:

http://friendlyplastic.blogspot.com/

To see some of the cool things you can do with ultra thick embossing enamel visit:

http://www.rangerink.com/tips/tips_UTEE.htm

If you’re interested in buying either of these two items ,please email me at sue@suebleiweiss.com.

progress on the pile of strips…

in my last post I mentioned that I had started working with this pile of hand dyed cotton strips:

Well I’ve been sitting at the machine sewing non stop turning them into a bunch of these:

Which then got turned into a bunch of these:

which are now in the process of getting turned into a bunch of these:

I've got 12 of these in progress all measuring about 22" square give or take once I add a black border to all of them. My goal was to create a very colorful,bright,funky quilt and I'm feeling pretty good about how it's coming together...

what’s been going on…

It feels like ages since I’ve posted but it’s really only been a few weeks. I’ve been working on some new things and one of them is a new weaving project:

I’m weaving this “fabric”with some very cool newspaper yarn from Darn Good Yarn. it’s a little tricky to work with because it’s so highly twisted so the weaving is slow but the “fabric”builds quickly so I’m hoping to have this off the loom by the end of this week.

And inspired by Rayna Gillman’s latest book Create Your Own Free From Quilts (which I reviewed here) I’ve been busy turning this pile of hand dyed strips into strip sets that are eventually going to be turned into a new bright fun quilt:

And I’ve been taking a lot of photographs the last few weeks because I’ve been taking a digital photography class with Lynne Damianos. One of our homework assignments was to do some shots with burred backgrounds and this is one I took of one of the tree branches in my yard sprouting out some new blooms:

It’s been a really great class and I learned a lot. Lynne is a really terrific teacher and I highly recommend her classes. Visit her class page here to see all of the classes that she offers.

Color Magnet

A couple of weeks ago I was browsing the Dharma Trading website and I came across this product:

It’s called Color Magnet by Jacquard and it’s a product that attracts dye so when its applied to a piece of fabric you get a tone on tone effect. I was intrigued so I bought some and did some experimenting with it yesterday. It has a thin honey like consistency so you can apply it through a silk screen but I also used it with some Artist Cellar Stencils and a craft syringe. They also have this product available in a pen too but I haven’t tried it in that form yet.

Once I had all the fabric (white sandwashed cotton from Dharma Trading) stenciled,screened and scribbled on I set them all aside to dry completely. Once they were dry I mixed up a few different procion dye colors using my usual recipe of 1 tsp or so of dye to 1 1/2 –2 cups of water and tossed the fabrics and the dye into a zip lock bag. They sat in the bags for about 6 hours and then got tossed into the washing machine and went through a cold water wash and here’s my results:

These first ones were done using Artist Cellar Stencils:

I applied the Color Magnet through the stencils with a foam brush that was barely wet with the Color Magnet. You can see that I made a tab with a piece of painters tape on the stencil to make it easier to put it off the fabric once I was done. The stencil on the right has a great design but it falls very very close to the end of the stencil so I just added an additional border with some painters tape to give myself a little more wiggle room with the brush.

Then I broke out the silk screens and used those to apply the Color Magnet to the fabric:

This circles screen that I used the fabrics above came from Linda Stokes

and this one came from Lyric Kinard

and for these fabrics the silk screen I used one on the left came from Fibra Artysta and the ones on the right are my own design created using the photo ez product.

And this last fabric I used a craft syringe filled with Color Magnet to scribble all over the fabric:

I’m really happy with the results I got and I think it’s safe to say I’ll be doing some more experimenting. I want to try it using some rubber stamps and I’m wondering if I can use it with my copper batik stamps. I also haven’t used it on silk fabric yet which is also on my list to try…

Kitchen foil coptic book class in April at Ink About It!

Good news! Due to popular request we’ve added another Kitchen foil coptic stitch book class at Ink About It!

Kitchen foil coptic stitch book –Saturday April 14th

10:00 –4:00 at Ink About It in Westford MA

This is a really fun book to create and even if you’ve never made a book before I promise you that you’ll be able to make this one and you’ll have a great time doing it.

Pop over to the Ink About It website here for more information about the class or call Ink About It at 978-392-0321 to register. (note that the above link takes you to the information about the January class which with the exception of the January class date contains all the information about the April 14th class)

keyhole binding books

I’ve been doing some more book binding over the last week or so because I have some gift giving events coming up and I love to gift a fellow artist a handmade book…

This is a keyhole binding and although it’s a little tedious to stitch the signatures in the results I think are worth it because I love that you can not only see the stitching detail but you can also get a peek inside at the signatures which gives you a nice opportunity to add some additional color and interest along the spine. Each of these books measures about 6″x 2″x 4 1/2″

Time for a new theme

A new sketchbook challenge theme that is! Jane LaFazio is the theme chooser for March 2012 on the sketchbook challenge blog and she chose:

Flowers!

Get all the details about this months theme and the great prizes up for grabs on the Sketchbook Challenge Blog here.

scenes from the paper bag leather class

This past weekend I taught the paper bag leather workshop at Ink About It and good grief did I have a great time!

It was a full house of 12 students and they created the most gorgeous journals. Here’s a few of the journals they made:

Aren’t they all fantastic?! If you couldn’t get into this class because it was full I have good news for you –I’ll be teaching it again at Ink About It on Saturday June 2! The class is already filling fast though so don’t wait too long to call Ink About It at 978-392-0321 and register!

big books &little books

It’s been book making week in the studio this past week. It started with these:

Keychain books! The ones on the left are made from ribbon and the ones on the right are little hard cover ones. They all measure about 3″long and once you make one you can’t stop yourself from making more. The directions to make these will be in an upcoming issue of Cloth Paper Scissors Pages magazine. I’ll let you all know which issue as soon as I know.

And I’ve been making samples for my Paper Bag Leather workshop at Ink About It next weekend:

I filled that one on the top with a combination of brown kraft paper pages and paper bag pages:

There’s three signatures inside and for the center one I printed out the directions to make a paper bag leather journal onto some brown paper bag pages and some of the pages have lines printed on them:

I’ll be putting some of these paper bag leather books in my etsy shop after the class.

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