My Goodwill Goodies

I had to get the camera out today so I thought I'd take a picture of some of my Goodwill stash. Most of it is silk but I do pick up an occasional rayon that catches my eye. This is the first handful I pulled out.

That's my trusty studio assistant Zack in the photo. He patiently allowed me to use his bed for the display. I put the twin sized bed in my studio to have somewhere to read or get comfortable to bead. Zack and his sister Lola immediately claimed it for their own. It's right under the big window that looks out front so they can keep an eye on the neighborhood. Sometimes they let me lay there too! LOL

My other blog

I'm trying to keep this blog focused on fiber art but I had the urge to blog about the other things going on in my life. I haven't said anything here, but I had weight loss surgery last Sept. Things are great and I'm down almost 90 pounds. I also decided that working at a brick and mortar job wasn't for me so I now am part of the work at home in my pj's brigade. I won't take up much room here on these things but if you want to hear more check out my other blog shrinkingpamelalala

Have a creative day!

Goodwill Hunting

Yesterday was Monday, and Mondays mean Goodwill hunting. On Mondays Goodwill has all their clothes 1/2 off after 2 PM. Since I've developed an addiction to silk, it's my new favorite hunting grounds! I now possess silks in all sorts of colors, patterns and textures. My collection now fills up one of those GIANT XXL Ziploc bags. Looking at my goody bag I've realized that my fascination for oranges has not abated. I really do need to concentrate on other colors. I was proud of myself yesterday, I actually bought something red. Red is NOT one of my favorite colors. I also picked up some wonderful patterned black/grey pieces. I haven't purchased yardage for fabric in ages! I love the aspect of recycling old clothes into fiber art! If you want to add to your silk stash, head on over to your local thrift store.

Why are some of the photos gone?

I've notice some of the older photos are gone. I looked on Flickr and they're gone from there to. Hmmm. It's a mystery to me! I'll keep an eye on things in the future and lets hope it doesn't keep happening.

Tattoos - No they're not taboo!

I have to admit it, I have a fascination with tatoos. I watch Miami Ink, I was heartbroken when Kat left, and now I watch her show too. If I had the guts I'd have the little stars on my face like her. Except I think I want them on the back of my neck, with a few kind of scattered towards the front. Back of the neck tatoos are so cool peeking out at you when the hair moves just so! Some day I'll get the nerve to do it!

Personal confessions aside, if you haven't paid any attention to the artisty of tattoos, you really should. The designs are awesome. Some are done with patterns, you know - those pages you've seen when you've peeked in the window of a shop when no one was looking. LOL There's some cool ready made flash out there and I can see them applying to our fiber art. I'm including a link to an awesome website. Click Here! or try here Click Here!

Then there's the freehand artists! They freehand the work on paper for approval, do a little bit of a stencil for placement and do the stuff freehand! They are incredible artists. I hope ya'll start looking at tattoos in a different way.

I'm BAAAAACCCCCKKKKK

It's been a very long time since I posted here, a year and a half to be exact! It was a tough year and we went through a lot of changes. DH's health seems to be improving and we both feel better. 'Nuff said.

I've recently started working and I actually like it. Who would have though! At first I took a part time job at the UPS Store. It was loads of fun and the people are great, but with the price of gas I finally figured out I was working for peanuts. That sent me on a quest to find out about this work from home stuff I had been hearing about. I can now say I offically have 2 work at home jobs and am working on a third. My main one is part time doing government surveys by phone from home for a very serious company. So far I like it, everyone is very professional. My other two jobs are independent contractor jobs and I can work them any time I want and as much or as little as I want. They are both internet based and non phone jobs. I LOVE working in my PJ's!!

Playing with rug canvas

Woven petals
Originally uploaded by tropigalquilts.

My friend Ann loaned me her copy of Fabric Leftovers by D'Arcy-Jean Milne. When I saw the section on weaving fabric strips through rug canvas I had to try it! This is a journal size piece and it was lots of fun. As you can see I used some more of my silk flowers. Now there's only a few hundred petals left. LOL I had my doubts as to how it would be to sew over the rug canvas, but it was no problem at all. I loved the book so much I ordered my own copy.

Computer printed on lurtadur

Computer printed on lurtadur
Originally uploaded by tropigalquilts.

This was my other experiment inspired by Cloth Paper Scissors. I printed the image on lutradur with my Epson printer. I wanted a little more color so I used my Fabrico inks to make her skin rosier. I then hit it with the heat gun to make the holes. I fused it to the background fabric with Misty Fuse. The fabric was hand painted. The leaves were stamped after the image was added and used as a guide for the quilting.

ATC printed backs

ATC printed backs
Originally uploaded by tropigalquilts.

I've been experimenting with lots of things lately and decided to make ATC's with some of it. I'm attending a fiber art retreat in March and need some to take along.

I pulled out my Pellon Stabilizer Extra Heavy thinking to use it as a middle layer to give them some body. Then I wondered what would happen if I painted it and ran it through the printer to make backs for the ATC's. It worked perfectly! The printing is clear and much more legible than my handwriting which my husband can't even read.

BTW I am thrilled to be able to post again! flickr is so easy to use and post photos with!

Plastic wrap fabric

Plastic wrap fabric
Originally uploaded by tropigalquilts.

If you read my post from a few days ago I told you about the free silk flowers Ann and I were gifted with. This is the second experiment with them. I recently read about making fabric by layering colored plastic wrap with fabric pieces and other bits. Amazingly enough when you iron it together it all sort of sticks together. If you try it be sure to protect your iron and ironing surface with teflon sheets! The process is simple, lay plastic wrap first, a layer of fabric, more plastic and so on, end with plastic wrap, ironing at each layer. I did flowers and fabric on the first layer, fabric only on the 2nd, and torn sheets from a paperback book on the last. That doesn't show here, couldn't get a clear photo, but it shadows through in person.

Let's try this again...

papercast1
Originally uploaded by tropigalquilts.

A little smaller this time :-) Hopefully I have it right now. I went into dashboard to delete the other two and they don't appear, nothing appears when I hit edit posts, thought Beta was supposed to be better!

This casting was done on a very intricate wooden stamp. It has great detail and depth. I waas trying to make this piece look like metal.

Paper Solvy paper casting

papercast2, originally uploaded by tropigalquilts.

Let's see if I can get this photo thing right. LOL If you can see the photo and it's not the size of a postage stamp - the paper casting was done on a very simple rubber stamp with little detail. It was painted afterwards then stamped over with a small stamp. I'm going to hit the button now and see what happens...

beachhousequilts">
beachhousequilts" border="0" alt="" />
test