Transforming Fabric

I've been creating some samples of brayer printed fabric for a demo I'm doing at the Quilt Festival in Houston this week.  I've always loved the patterns you can get, but I never before thought about using brayer printing to transform my fabric "duds".  It's amazing how different the fabrics look after brayer printing.

Before: Interesting patterning, but not my colors

After: Much more interesting surface and a more subdued palette!

Before: A soy wax experiment gone wrong

After: The squiggles are hardly noticeable, and the new patterning and color are a big improvement.

Before:  Nice colors, but the double mandala was not effective.

 After: How did I get one focal point out of that? Amazing.

If you are going to the Quilt Festival, maybe our paths will cross.  (Sure, among the many thousands who will be there, right?!)  The brayer printing demo is part of the Friday Morning Sampler, which is full, so if you can't stop by then, look for my article on brayer printing in the Dec/Jan issue of Quilting Arts.

Back to Earth

It's been awhile since I last checked in.  Of course I have a great excuse - it's been a crazy few weeks.  This weekend I am co-teaching the Vibrant Color soy wax class with Jane Dunnewold.  Last week I worked on hanging the Fiber Artists of San Antonio (FASA) annual exhibition and the week before I spent 6 days in the fourth session of the Artcloth Mastery Program. And in between all that I have to get ready for the classes I am teaching at the Quilt Festival in Houston. I just have to remember to breathe!

A little plug for the FASA exhibition.  It has a wide variety of fiber art from artists throughout Texas.  The work represented runs the gamut from quirky to deeply moving, from beautiful to fun, from innovative to opulent.  Below are just a few of the pieces in the show. (Details about where, when, etc. are below the pics.)

Twenty- First Century American Sampler, Kate Martin

Fission, Laura Ann Beehler

Merge Algorithm, Jean Dahlgren and Ruthie Powers

Diversity-Tolerance, Lana Book

If you would like to see the exhibit, it is at the Gallery Nord, 2009 NW Military Highway, San Antonio, TX through November 5, 2010.  The gallery is open Wed-Sat from 12-5.