Needle Felted Pumpkins

I'll have to take more photos tomorrow, the class went really well today. I ended up with only one student which was fine as she left with a really lovely pumpkin, I made one with her to show her the techniques. I'm thinking of video taping this and putting it on YouTube.com as there are some important tips to know about needle felting a 3D pumpkin, like keeping your fingers out of the way! Sounds easy enough but in reality it can be really problematic, I'm thinking of getting a bunch of tongue depressors for the next class, amongst other things. Luckily it was me that got stuck with the needle, twice I might add.

Looks like I won't be able to add photos until later the photo launcher is apparently broken!

Well I'm off to make some constructed cloth bags for the next class, later.

Busy Busy

Image of our new sitting area in the shop for people to come Stitch and Knit with us Mon - Fri what can I say I'm here six to seven days a week so "YES" I'm very proud of the place and wanted a place where even I could sit and stitch for awhile.

Today I updated the website and sent out a new newsletter, sounds like a lot but in reality all I did was sit in front of a computer all day. I really have to be in the mood to work on the computer, the code and everything else just seems to consume so much of my time.

I rinsed my dyed wool yarns, and mohair rovings tonight, I still need to dye more colors, deep burgandy, deep forest green, navy blue, black, etc... It's a never ending dye pot is what it seems like, AND I'm running out of roving! What's a woman to do??? I'm hoping what I have hanging on the drying rack will be dry enough to take to the shop in the morning.

Tomorrow I'm teaching a pumpking needle felting class at the shop, it'll be a lot of fun I'm sure, finally I'm doing something creative. Sunday I've plans to work on the back yard, since it finally stopped raining, and maybe even rust some fibers and fabrics.

For Inspiration

Recieved these two books today check them out!

The Uncommon Quilter: Small Art Quilts with Paper, Plastic, Fiber, and Surface Design by Jeanne Williamson

The Painted Quilt: Paint and Print Techniques for Color on Quilts by Linda & Laura Kemshall

I need to get out and get some air, at the prairie preferably, but it's been raining and a lot so I think that may be out of the question, plus I have to work tomorrow anyway, maybe on Sunday.

Extreme Embroidery 2

Tonights class went really well, it was the last night for this particular class and the students were either finished with their pieces or were nearing being finished.

They are continuing on to Extreme Embroidery 3, which I'm doing completely differently. Every 15 minutes we will do a different technique, for two hours - three Tuesdays. During the first class we will do silk fusion so we can make them into bags or wall hangings in class two. I'll try to remember to post photos tomorrow of the piece I made for EE2.

Now I"m on to making constructed cloth bags, for an upcoming class, and wine bottle gift bags, again for another upcoming class. Oh and then there's the constructed cloth scarves, and the painted scarf class.

I'm going to be busy making holiday samples for the shop windows as well so if you don't hear from me I'm probably asleep in front of my sewing machine, or my Janome Expression.

New Lovelies in My Shop

I relisted some of my silk carrier rods, dyed in oranges and blacks, in my etsy.com store (http://www.kbaxterpackwood.etsy.com) These have been dyed with acid dyes as are the rest of the fibers I will be listing later today, degummed silk throwster's waste, silk throwster's waste, and silk cocoons. Some of the silk cocoons and silk carrier rods HAVE been dyed with natural dyes, and because of the work/time involved they are a bit more in price.

Today

Well I didn't get as much done as I had hoped, once again the printer proved to be a major PITA!!! I was finally able to print off the book covers, after having Brenda and Loretta look at the silly printer for me, they were able to find "section D" that was supposedly jammed, but wasn't.

I named the printer Simon because it's a whiney know it all! It "thinks" it has jams when in reality it does NOT! It's also insistant on printing it's own way, you tell it landscape and it's very insistant you meant portrait. I love the print quality, when it actually prints, in case you were wondering it's a Savin CLP240D that I'm leasing. The clarity of the images is out of this world, again when the machine doesn't have it's own agenda. I wish I could say it's operator error but I'm finding out that it's not "just me".

Storque Showcase & Rust Dyeing Workshop


Duh, is all I can say I couldn't figure out why I'm in the Storque Showcase already, however, it just occurred to me that it's midnight already on the east coast!

http://www.etsy.com/showcase.php?showcase_id=5&show_panel=true&show_panel=true

My piece Blood River Canyon is on the showcase tonight. I definately need to get better pictures of these quilts. I found my digital camera, need to find the extra batteries, and it's charging so I can do so tomorrow.
I plan to get my Rust Dyeing Workshop listed on my etsy.com store either tomorrow or on Tuesday. It all depends on how many times I'm interrupted, the workshop is on DVD.

Studio time

I wish I could spend more time in my studio this week, right now it boils down to making samples for classes. I'm not sure why but it seems that one can never make enough samples!

I have a new quilt in mind, it's been fermenting for awhile, I had hoped to get it done for my Etsy.com showcase day, that's today btw, but alas it never happened. Tis ok I have a showcase day, in the Storque, on the 15th, maybe I'll get it done then! Meanwhile I have some scarves I plan to cut up and use in the piece, I'll have to check my files to see if I have a photo of said scarves on hand or not, otherwise I'll have to take their pictures first. It's fabric I compost dyed sometime back, very beautiful stuff, looks like the sunset on water on a clear spring day when everything is crisp and clear.

Blog Change

I'm debating on how to change my blog, I see several I like on the net but am not sure I'm that I want to move over to typepad, so for now I'll just play around with this blogs format and maybe go with some fall like colors, or not. What I'd really like is to have some of my fabric as the background for my blog, behind the blog boxes, but have no clue how to do this.

Dye Day

I'm getting caught up, finally, except now I'm so tired I don't care! I feel like I've dyed a mountain of wool and all I dyed is two pounds of roving - immersion style easy enough - and 8 skeins of wool yarn - dye painted again easy enough. I also painted 4 pieces of fabric, but again these were small and it was the quick and dirty squirt bottle paint job.

So the only reason I should be so tired is the hour I spent fighting the lawn mower - I think it's wanting to be replaced, with one that'll actually start on the first try.

I'll post pictures tomorrow on the dyed wool, oh I slipped some silk carrier rods into the brown dye vat they came out this really cool coffee color, all mottled, these should be a lot of fun to play with, I"m off to bed early!!!

My Loom




Here's are some pictures of my loom, not as nice as the other one as it's warped up and all. John moved it into the office so it's now off limits to the pets, which means I can warp my loom up and it'll be safe, mostly from the cats. I need to add more lighting to the office so I can actually see to weave, I wish it could live in my studio but the reality is the pets have full reign in here, simply because the door won't stay shut!

Projects

While cleaning today I managed to find all sorts of wonderful yarns I dyed with natural dyes a long time ago, this was rather exciting as I thought they were permantly lost.

I also unearthed my floor loom, Leclerc you can see them here http://www.leclerclooms.com/ I'm thinking a tapestry might be in order, I have plenty of bindweed to pick and dry, hadn't gotten to the lawn work yet so am thinking it's an excellent candidate for my newest project.


It'll take awhile to get this project off the ground, first the bindweed has to be picked and dried properly, and I need to dye up some warp thread.


And now to find furniture!

Well my day didn't go anything like I had planned or had imagined, typical maybe I don't know. I went to a yard sale to see about purchasing some stools for my classroom area, I have a seated working area and a standing at tables area, and that last area is in sorry need of some seating. Well I didn't find any stools got to the one sale too late, probably just by seconds knowing my luck. I did, however, find the cutest little chest of drawers for ten dollars and promptly put it in the display window with skeins of undyed yarn spilling out of.

While out and about I had an epiphany, or simply came to a conclusion, regardless I've decided to stop fighting popular demand and go with the flow, so I'm filling the store with yarns for knitting. Lucky me I have many many pounds of undyed yarns on hand to fill the store with, so the three of us spent the better part of the day working on yarns for dyeing - well I spent most of the day finding the yarns as they are still on cones and have been stored away, Wendy and Loretta skeined and plied yarns for dyeing. Kim, Loretta's daughter, is my new mentee and she's in charge of this dyeing project, I can't wait to see what she comes up with, now to just find some sock yarns for the store.

Part two to my epiphany was to put a seating area in the front of the store for customers to come in and stitch, that'd be knitting, crocheting (hey it's really big here so don't laugh) and embroidery. Now I just need to find some comfy chairs for people to sit in, we moved the table and three nice chairs that go with it to the front of teh store and moved the display cabinet, and wow what can I say it immediately changed the feeling of the space - like it suddenly became more welcoming.

I did get some of the junk out of my living and dining rooms today, didn't make near the progress I had hoped but there's always tomorrow and what can I say this is what happens when I go back to the shop in the middle of a house cleaning project - the shop ends up getting all of the attention!

Compost Dyed Scarves

"Wild Iris"
"Slurry #1" This scarf is crepe de chine and was dyed in my rusty wheel barrow, there are six total that went through a slurry vat, I put all of my left over dyestuffs into the barrow and poof I came out with a gorgeous steel grey with blue flecks.
"Oak" I think I might have put some oak leaves in this bundle as there is the faint impression of leaves on the fabric.

" Madder" because it's the color of my madder root dye pot when it's not the color I am wanting!

"Fire Devil" when stretched out it looks like a firey cyclone! I have a chiffon scarf that I dyed in the same bundle that has very similar markings.


"Auroura" - I was really pleased with these purples which can be very difficult to achieve.

Scarves: I've been working on getting these scarves photographed for quite some time now. They are available at my etsy.com store. These are all compost dyed using natural materials and eco friendly techniques - which means very little water, and no heat other than my compost pile!!!