Saturday's Quilting Workshop - Folded Star *

Friday I started cutting fabric for the workshop Saturday morning... I couldn't wait until the morning... so I ended up making one to take in the morning... and made another one Saturday morning, there will be more photos to come!

These are my pieces all cut and pressed.   16-  3" x  4" piece of the 4 different fabrics

All 64 pieces sewn on the backing piece

The folded star,  just needing to be trimmed.. Saturday morning I made another one.. 

More Weaving - The Whole Cloth Experience*

These are some photos from last Thursday's Whole Cloth class. We took our scarves off the looms and finished the fringes and decided on our method of finishing

This is my finished scarf from last week!!!

This is the pattern of the next one!!

Close up

The Whole Cloth Experience - Weaving*

So my group started weaving two weeks ago Thursday.

We got to go down to the store and pick out 2 colours of yarn to make two scarves. One would be made with the two colours we bought and the other would be made of the lighter colour, dyed two different colours. I was really nervous to actually set the loom up myself, but Jackie was a wonderful teacher! She definately knows what she's doing! Thank goodness!!! As of now things are going great and I am really happy with my work so far!!

What does everyone else think?

Painting my yarn (week 1)

Dyed yarn. (blue scain dyed for homework week 1)

Dyed yarn again, these colours are going to be used for the same scarf, I love the contrast of blues!!!

Starting to thread the loom (week 2). Putting the dark on the back so I can weave that scarf second.



As the yarn is rolled the pink starts to show, each of these pieces gets threaded in the eyes above.



My samples, started to be wrapped around the front beam.

All ready to start my twill pattern scarf. (homework week 2)

I am using the 4 middle treddles. In the pattern 1, 2, 3, 4.

The first little bit complete. The 45 degree lines looks like nice and orgainic to me... ha!

Most of the body of the scarf, only about an hour and a half later.. :)

I see my blue peeking threw.. so I finished it off so it can be cut and taken off next Thursday.

 

And oohhh!! I'm excited for the next one! The colours are so pretty!!!

The Whole Cloth Experience- Dyeing Final Project*

We were given a final project for the dyeing portion of The Whole Cloth Experience, and an option of making a scarf or shawl. I enjoyed the bleaching with cotton so much, my teacher allowed me to make something a little more me... and with the materials I work with on a regular basis.... COTTON!

So our project had to have 3 techniques we learned how to do in class.

I bought 1.5 yards of white 100% cotton to dye, and 0.5 yards of violet 100% cotton.
1. 2 dye baths (cherry blossom and plum)
2. bleach bath (0.5 of the cherry blossom, 0.5 of the plum for the inside and pockets, and the violet 100% cotton for the outside)
3. Shibori (cherry blossom, plum and robin's egg blue)


Any comments!? Lets hear them!!!

A jelly-roll of my dyed and bleached fabrics!

Close up of the outside detail (not finished here)

Inside of bag

Inside pocket with new ' Olivia Callaghan Designs ' logo

Side view

Over-head and frontal view

Closer.
I love it! So happy with this bag! And it means so much more when its made almost from scratch!

Card Designs- Last Wednesday's Class*

 We had to design a 4-pack of cards for my Wednesday class!
I decided to go with a harvest theme, since we were supposed to stay away from the official holiday seasons.

I am quite happy with them!!

My card set

Apples

Eggplant

Pumpkins

Corn

Experimental Bleaching*

A friend of mine had a pair of blue cotton jeans that she didn't ever wear because of a few small stains. After she had seen some of my bleaching samples from a few weeks ago she wondered if I wanted to try bleaching them! I was so nervous! There was no way to test and see what would happen. I had no idea what to expect but both Shelby and I are quite happy with the results!

What do you think!?

This is the pants resisted (pole wrapped)  before I put them into the bleach bath.



Adding beach to the back. ( Notice how the thread on the pockets is not a natural fiber so it doesn't bleach! )





Water bath to remove the vinegar.



The Front.



The Back.



They look so great on!!!



She seems quite happy with them!!! Yay!!



Today's Watercolour Class*

Another mixed media day. Use of gesso, watercolour, inks, printed papers, acrylic gel and glitter glue.

Owl Embroidery - Block for March

I went to a workshop (Little Birdie Stitches) put on by the Keswick Ridge Quilters at the beginning of October, we we given an image to trace on out fabric for each month of the year.  I decided to use the owl from one of my assignments from school, so that mine will be different than everyone else's.

I figured it really didn't matter which month I started with, so the rainbow from the March block made this one the easy first choice.

I didn't even know that I enjoyed embroidering, but I am loving this experience and I am continuously thinking of new embroidery ideas. :)

The full block for March

Close up of the embroidery and texture of the background fabric

Friday's Watercolour Class*

We started doing mixed media collages! I love how expressive you can be.

I wanted to try something with a few different elements and found the photo of the puffins which inspired the piece.

This isn't quite finished, I still need to add some ink.

Bleaching in Whole Cloth Class *

I started with a yard of this turquoise cotton, cut it all up and bleached it today at school!

I can't choose my favourite, but I loved the effect the clothes pins make!!!!

I can't wait to try it with other colours!

When I was doing this today, all I could think about was taking my samples home and sewing them together. I'm thinking it will not be long before I have something made from my hand dyed and bleached fabrics!

A few examples of how I resisted the bleach from my fabric

The results :)

Cotton pole wrapped, ready to be put in the bleach bath

Colour remover method
I taped my design on and painted over.

My Samples

A Larger Sample

More Samples

And More Samples

More Samples

More Samples