Stencil Time Again

At dinner this past week, one of my friend's husband had on a print shirt that had great leaves on it!  My mind went to the MIP on line class and how I could perhaps use the pattern for a stencil!  So, what did we do!  Took pictures of it of course! 

Pretty cool leaf but I didn't use this one...go figure!  HA

I'm not really big on floral designs, so I wasn't sure how this print would turn out.

Sunday I traced one of the leaves and part of the flower onto a piece of Mylar and cut away! 

Not the cleanest cut but keep in mind, I'm using my soldering iron and not a stencil cutter.

This was the first print.  I used two different shades of green then stenciled with black paint. 

The whole idea is using the stencil but making it your own print.  You can see some of the leaf pattern, but honestly, would you really know what this was if you didn't see the pattern or my stencil?  HA



This is a commercial stencil I had so I mixed up some paints and just stenciled as is.

Once again, you have to look closely to see the 'shirt' pattern in the background.  I used the stencil above to stamp over the entire piece(leafs from the shirt) using different paints.

Addition of black using part of commercial stencil and my 'shirt' stencil!


So this was a successful stencil day....next up to over dye all the pieces!  Just having way too much fun!!!

Oh, thanks Ron, for allowing me to photograph your shirt!

Nothing better than friends!

I'm late in posting  some of these but I have thanked each of these folks!  I've said it before, I am so fortunate to have  great friends....via the Internet and in person!  I feel like my  'internet/blog' friends are ones I've actually met in person!  That's how special they are to me, as well as my 'in person' buds!!!  Here are some Valentine's I received....

These cards were made by my Michigan friend, Mary.  They are photo's of fiber cards she made this year.  She had the fiber card photo transferred to post cards for mailing!  I used her idea last year to make my Valentine cards to send out.  Mary is so talented...I've shown some of her work on my blog before.  You can see her Chihuly quilts here.  Also, click on the pic below to see all the work she put in to her Valentine cards!

I love this card Carol P. sent me from Michigan!  Doesn't it look like a painted collage?   Carol and her hubby, Tony, used to live six months here in Florida but moved back to Michigan last year.  Probably after this winter, they'll move back to Florida for the winter months! 

I'm keeping this one to use as inspiration for a future art work project.  No, it won't be for fiber Valentine's!  I'm done with that!  HA

My Florida bud, Susan, sent this card, which looks like fabric!  I love the pattern....so much going on in the design.  Again, I'm keeping this card as well for future inspiration.  I can see some stencil work being done!with some of these patterns!!










I received this card and heart from one of my "Internet buds", Sherry from Createology!  The card is so very pretty and creative and look what's on the heart!

I love this little heart and I attached it to my Origami Owl wrap bracelet!

And look what my Florida bud, Beth made!  It's a heart sachet filled with lavender,
which smells wonderful!  How sweet of her!

I have some pictures I will post soon on some of Beth's recent work.

And last, but CERTAINLY not least....I had a visit with my bud,  Kay, from Quilts + Color last week, as she only lives about 40 min.(depending on traffic!  HA) from us here in Florida.   Those who follow Kay's blog know that, in addition to her talent with fabric and dyeing,  she is one of the best purgers of items!  I was a lucky recipient of one of her recent purges!  HA

These are Japanese magazine Kay had in her stash!  They are beautiful inside and out.  Some color pages, some black and white...and patterns, which I think you can figure out without knowing Japanese!

These are just two pictures from one of the pages from one magazine!  So cool...now to find the time to look through these!  Perhaps on the way home back to Michigan...nope...I won't be able to wait that long!  I've already looked at a few pages!

I'm sure you will recognize the Blue Men quilt by Hollis Chatelain!  I also recognize the quilt in the upper right!!!

And look at the goodies  Kay gave me!!!  Needles, tape measures, threads, etc.  What fun!!!

I'll be showing some of the work Kay has done recently, although, you most likely can see them on her blog before I get the pictures posted!  HA  Thank you all again!!!  So lucky to have each of you in my life!

Over dye time!

About a week ago, I cut out some more stencils and posted results on my blog.  You can see that post here.  This weekend I decided to over dye the paper prints.  I didn't want to mix up any new dye so I just used what I already had mixed up.  I decided to use Turquoise dye for each page.  So here are my results.  Nothing fantastic but I honestly can see cutting up these pieces and they would work well together!

This was my 'cleanup paper'!  HA  Looks the best of the group..go figure!

I actually like how the turquoise filled in the white areas...but the white opaque paint stayed white!

OK, not the prettiest color but it is interesting!

Again, turquoise dye filled in the white areas nicely.

See what I mean about how they all seem to go together!  Really looking forward to sewing these papers into something...that's down the road but something to think about!

Inspiration

I mentioned in my last post that while attending the Greenway Fiber Arts Society meeting last week, Betty and I got to walk about Karen's wonderful garden area.  It was a nice time to catch up on what Betty has been doing the past few years as well as take some pictures for inspiration! 

Yes, that is a cotton plant!  How cool!  Jan even spun this cotton...but I didn't get a picture of it on the spool.

I think I forgot to rotate this picture!

Rocks are beautiful!  I love this pattern.

Another cool piece of nature

This will definitely work as a stencil....but it might take me a few tries to get it just right!

Even the shadows are wonderful!

I never knew aloe plants had flowers on them!

I can see this flower being a stencil too!

Who doesn't love the texture of tree bark!


















Guess I need to get off the computer and get busy making some more stencils from all this inspiration!

Another outing this week!

Thursday I was invited by two former buds here in Florida, Jan and Betty, to attend the Greenway Fiber Arts Society meeting.  This is a group primarily of  "hookers" (got your attention, didn't I!), rug hookers that is.  But, they also quilt, weave and knit, among other fiber arts!!  They certainly were a talented and very congenial group of women!!  I enjoyed the day with this group, as well as catching up with Jan and Betty, whom I haven't seen in several years.  Thanks, again, ladies for asking me to attend this meeting!  

And another thank you is in order to Karen Duncklee who hosts the Greenway Fiber Arts Society meetings at her beautiful home! You can read more about Karen on her web site here and check out her 'products' page here, where Karen carries tons of fiber items...and not just for 'hooking'!!

I apologize for not getting the names of the women who created these pieces, but I'm sure Karen can/will share with the group.  Hope you enjoy seeing some of these rugs in progress and some that were completed, as well as some other fiber work!  Make sure you click on the pictures to see more detail!

Queen of Purple - aka Jan

A rug in progress

Closeup of rug above (corner)

Betty's hand applique!!  I didn't get her picture :(

Fantastic!  Check out the flamingo below!

Isn't he great!

This was wool applique and workmanship wonderful

Counted cross stitch..my eyes couldn't see to work on this!

closeup of corner

Head start on Christmas!

Ditto on that head start!

How adorable!

Colors were beautiful in this rug

Look at all the detail she will be hooking!

Sorry for the blurry pic

Love the shading!

Adorable hooked pillow!

Felted journal cover

Machine embroidered house!

A quilt shop!  Look at the detail

The colors in this 'soon to be' rug are wonderful!

And a stained glass rug!

Betty and I walked around Karen's beautiful garden area and I took several pictures for potential use in creating stencils!!  I'll post those pics in next week!