Party Banner How-To

I created this banner for the engagement party I am hosting next month for my son and his fiancé.

Here is how you can do it:

1. Print words on plain white paper.
2. Cut words out and paste on decorative squares.
3. If desired paste those decorative squares on another paper (thicker is good)
4. Punch holes in corners 
5. String letter-cards on string or yarn

Art by Routine

We all have routines. We wake up, drink coffee, eat breakfast, brush our teeth, and go to work. Any committed full-time artist will tout the necessity of making art every day, but what about those of us who still work another job?

I need to create art every day, and most days I do.  I definitely think about my art each day and it helps me to make ‘to do lists’. This is the list I made today (while on break at my day job):

Bake cookies for engagement party
Post baby quilt on Etsy
Create banners for party
Lay out 9-Patch quilt; if like then sew one row together
Update blogs

The list helps me orient myself when I get home from work. I am a morning person and I am at a much lower energy level  by mid-afternoon when I return from my day job. 

That said, my list helps me focus on what I want to, or need to, accomplish.  I admit I am lucky to have a spouse who is retired and is an amazing chef.

Fat Quarter + Ziplock Bag + Dye = Surprises

Last Saturday I had the chance to be a test subject for Carol R. Eaton Designs. Carol will be teaching a hand dyeing workshop at the New Britain Museum of American Art soon and wanted to run through the coursework. Rosalind Spann and I were lucky enough to be guinea pigs. Here are several fat quarters that I made during the afternoon.

Blue and yellow fiber reactive dye on cotton; folded and placed in ziplock bag, left for 24 hrs

Blue and yellow fabric reactive dye on cotton, bunched and placed in ziplock bag with 1/4 cup of soda ash water, left for 24 hrs

Red and yellow fabric reactive dye on cotton, folded and placed in ziplock bag, left for 24 hrs

Red and yellow fabric reactive dye on cotton, bunched and placed in ziplock bag with 1/4 cup of soda ash water, left for 24 hrs

Experimenting with Cardboard and Paint

Every notice how you can have something lying around for years (yes) and never try it, but then one day you feel you have permission and you can give it a whirl?

What is my inspiration? Why Julie Booth's new book, Fabric Printing at Home (Quarry Books, 2015). 

So it is with me and fabric paint. I have a jar that is so old it is dried up...almost...I added water and mixed it up. I used it to ink a roll made from corrugated cardboard and then I rolled the cardboard over some fabric. 

Cardboard roll and paint 

The result of the first rolls in one direction on previously hand-dyed cotton

Result of second multi-directional rolls

Me...Narrating a Video on YouTube!

It is a first for me....I am a video narrator for the CT Fiber Arts Collective!  

Here is the video link: http://youtu.be/_re-VYGtmS4

The exhibit is on through mid-March. You still have time to see it!