Beat the winter blues.

A great group made the trip to the Folkschool even though there was lots of snow and ice on the ground. Luckily, the roads were clear and it made for a beautiful drive over the mountain.
This was a class in Transfer paints on fabric, and a short weekend got pretty intense. This is one of my favorite things to teach. Dye is made into paint, which are applied to paper. The paint from the paper is transferred to fabric with heat.The wonderful results tells you it was worth it!


This is a section of a larger piece I worked on, my homage to the ice and snow we have had this year. I have enjoyed it very much.

Denny Webster from South Carolina has a very creative mind. She had a very clever way to use stencils and  cut-outs, unique to her style. By the time she adds stitching and possibly embellishments, she will have a few awesome pieces.

 A few more pieces of Denny's production during the weekend. Samples and t-shirts.

Debi Osbourne from South Carolina, created some very vibrant samples and an orange scarf (I am just a little bit partial to orange). Some of these will make it into a wall quilt.

Sy LaWing from North Carolina had the most patience as she completely covered a large shawl with lacy transfers on both sides, impressive and beautiful.

Detail of  the  shawl. Using the lace as a resist creates the patter. Sy totally mastered this look.

                                                         A few more of Sy's lacy
                                                          transfers.

Kate Weston from South Carolina also loved working with the lace. The photo doesn't show very clearly how delicate the t-shirts are, using lace transfer along the sides and around the neck area.
Kate also discovered that the newspapers we used to paint on and meant to trow away, was another source to use , and that they transferred really well. So now we cannot throw away the scrap paper either! Thanks Kate.

This is also very delicate, but the straws from around the corner of the studio has a lot of promise. Kate will add some stitching and texture and turn this into a very exiting piece.

Jeanette Carpenter from Tennessee made several leaf samples, and enough to turn some of them into a wall quilt. Great colors and patterning will turn this into a really good quilt.

Transfer paint gives a very layered effect, often with a surprising "pattern". This comes from how the heat from the iron is distributes and how the paint has been applied to the paper. Every one works differently and will have different results. Jeanette was able to add many colors  to one piece, and by stitching around the leaves she will make each one of them special.

Marbeling class at J C Campbell Folkschool

 Play with colors in January. A cure for the winter blues.

Why not go somewhere in the mountains of North Carolina in January to learn something new? The weather was actually not too bad, and the scenery around J C Campbell Folkschool is quite beautiful especially on my morning walks around campus. This is from the garden where a few green things are to be found and harvested. Some of which was found in our food during the week.

Marbeling is a very facinating art, and one I am learning about from Pat Thomas. She is a very knowledgeable instructor at the Folkschool as well as at Arrowmont (Gatlingburg TN). Spending a week with her and seven other women was a treat. Pat knows her stuff, and here she is demonstrating how to use the tools and create a traditional pattern with the paints. 

The finished paper after it has been places on top of the paints in the tray. It looks very easy, but it takes quite a bit of practice to be successful every time. Pat has been a marbeler for over 20 years, and it shows.

 These are some of my papers. I guess you can say that I don't do traditional patters. I basically like to play with the colors and the tools. My favorite part is the unexpected result. Since I am not really a paper person, I will no have to come up with what to do with the papers. Ended up with a stack of about 25 large and small papers.

These are some of the fabrics I worked on during the week.  Fabrics are my favorite, so I tried all sorts of fabrics, from broadcloth, to canvas and polyester. Some worked great some not so much. The ones I am showing here I am pretty happy with.

I was determined to master the "Spanish wave" technique, and practiced a few days with getting the right motion going. You are rocking back and forth as you are laying the paper or fabric onto the paint in the tray. I just love the look of this, and did a lot, getting better at it.
This one is marbeled twice, which I think you have to do to get a saturated fabric.

A traditional patter with swirls.

 Marbeled twice with "rocks" for the second pattern.

Another "Spanish wave, also marbeled twice. One of my favorite pieces.

Here is a quick sequence of what I did. Started with a fabric I had already marbeled, but the colors are just

too soft, and too much white of the fabric is showing.

Here the paint is in the sizing, with a few swirls.

The fabric has been placed in the paint "Spanish wave" style.

Ready to be rinsed. Like it much better now.

Maybe I have to do some more of this, because it is a lot of fun. You are making one of a kind fabrics (and papers) and I would just hate to cut these up. When spring gets here maybe I will have a marbeling day out on the porch, I have all this paint and tools now...

Quilt Camp at Cedar Lakes, Ripley WV

October is the annual trek to Cedar Lakes in Ripley WV. Quilt camp is the gathering of about 275 avid quilters from all over the country. This is my 6th years to offer classes, and it is always enjoyable to spend 4 days with wonderful women, and a few men, exploring new directions in  quilt making.  My class this year was "Transfer paint with botanical elements". This is a very fun techinque, where you first paint papers with the paint/dye, and transfer the colors onto the fabric with  a very hot iron. You can layer and cut shapes from the paper as well as using anything flat as a resist. Pressed leaves gives great images, and are very durable, so they are great for this technique. The women in the class got very experimental and were not afraid of drying new things. Now I cannot wait to try some of these in my new works.

                                                    Everyone was very hard at work for 4 days.

 Karen Auer from Ohio added paintsticks to her transfers, very graphic and colorful.

 Caroline Chandler from Ohio with a beautiful oat plant in yellow and purple.

Alice Bark from Ohio with a large maple leaf.

The orange  dots are from pressing bubble wrap in the 

paint.

Dottie McDowell from Ohio worked with very strong imagery and colors. Very nice 3D effect.

Shari Gilzow from Ohio worked with soft greens and ginko leaves. The added treadwork brings the leaves to life.

Cheryl Davies from Ohio designed a beautiful quilt as a memorial to her mother, who had passed this year. Cheryl used special dried flowers and a bird in the right corner to represent the spirit of her mother. Machine stitching added to the shapes.

Carol Cutlip from West Virginia worked with a variety of leaves and ferns in a wonderful fall setting. She added textures from papers and machine quilting as well as trupunto.

Donna Kern from Ohio, used very soft colors with a variety of leaves. She will add stitching to outline the shapes

Ginny Diefenbaugh from Ohio made one of the brightest collection of pieces this week. Yellow, red and little touch of black set off her leaves. They are glowing!

Kay Phelps from West Virginia worked with her favorite earth tones. A perfect match for her choice of leaf shapes. (the photo to the right turned green, so not true colors, but I liked it too. You can see the texture in the transfer).

Rachel Webster from Ohio made several very interesting samples, by combining colors on the papers before transferring. This is not easy to do successfully, but she really has an eye for this technique.

Eileen Simon from Ohio worked on one of the largest transfer pieces. How fun is this? Leaves and shapes and texture all in one. The triple border picks up on the colors in the center, and frames it really well. Quilting in the center will add a lot of texture here.

Lois Hall from Ohio,created wonderful block with a wintry feel to them by using turquoise and violet . Added stitching brings the stems to life.She will add close quilting to the background, which will make the design stand out. Love this color combination.

Meredith Felix from Ohio work very successfully with strong, bright colors and large leaf shapes. The book cover (below) is a good example of  her colors and added texture with machine stitching.

I thought I had everybody represented here, but realize that I somehow did not get photos of Kay Buckley's pieces. I thought everything was on my camera, so I am really sorry I cannot show hers. She is from Ohio.

I just had to play a little too, trying out some new fabric I just found. This is a slinky polyester with a shine to it, but the colors transfers very easy and very bright. I think I can have some fun with the quilting on this.

This marks a new time and new energy from me, as I have been having several months this year with health issues, sciatic nerve and a broken arm, Now after surgery I am ready to get going, pain free.

If you are interested in the Quilt Camp at Ripley, WV check out Peg Bingham's website for info on the Spring and Fall camps at www.pegspatches.com