Wolf's Den

Triple Star Quilted Wallhanging

2010-08-23T19:09:47Z

Back in June, my Vet was moving away. She'd sold her practice and was going back to her home state. She'd been our vet for the last 10 years. She was the one who took excellent care of Dante-Inu right up to the end. She was the one who saw Caena at her first vet appointment her, and nearly every one thereafter. Dr Eick was one of a kind.

I decided to make her a going away/thanks for everything gift. I wanted her to take a bit of the Star City with her, to remind her of the good things here. So I made a Triple Star Quilted Wallhanging, using both commercial cotton print fabrics and hand dyed cotton fabrics.

The entire thing was cut out by hand, then sewn together by hand. As I was in the process of sewing blocks for my own star themed lap quilt, picking out three of the best looking blocks wasn't too hard to do. Even picking out coordinating indigo colored hand dyed fabric wasn't really that hard either. What was a bit hard was deciding how wide to make the borders and what type of backing fabric to use.

I tried to make this the BEST of my hand sewing, taking my time as I went. Still, it only took maybe a week, maybe a bit longer, to completely handsew the top and iron the seams flat. Then I needed to decide how to quilt it- after I picked out a backing fabric.

I went with a larger star print commercial cotton, to match with everything else, and did a wrap around type binding on it. I even very carefully mitered the corners nearly perfectly- something I rarely ever do. But I wanted this piece to be as perfect as I could get it.

I decided to keep the hand quilting simple. I followed the seams in an outline type stitching on each star and did a twisted ribbon stitching in the borders between the stars. It was simple but it looked good and the wallhanging really didn't need anything more than that. I debated adding a few beads, but decided it would be too much for this particular piece.

The last thing I needed to do was decide how to hang it. So I raided my stash of driftwood from the Roanoke River and hand rubbed a beeswax finish on this piece to bring out the wood's natural beauty. I did this several times, thoroughly sealing the wood. Then I took tiny nails and attached a picture hanger to the back Sewed two loops of hand dyed fabric to the top of the wallhanging and hung it up to adjust it and make sure it'd hang flat and nice.

The next day I boxed it up, wrapped in tissue, with a card taped to the top and took it down to the vet office. I asked one of the vet techs to make sure Dr Eick received it the next day at the open house/farewell party as we were heading out of town early that morning and wouldn't be able to attend. She said she would.

So did she receive it? I have no idea. Did she like it? Again, no idea. I think it's a good sign that I haven't gotten any calls about it though. So I guess when I take Caena in for her 6 month check up next month, I'll have to ask if she did get it. I hope so. And I hope it reminds her a little of Roanoke.

Fourth of July Clearance Sale, now in my Etsy Shop

2010-07-01T16:10:10Z

Everything in my shop is now marked down, 50% off!

That's 50% off all hand dyed silk scarves!
50% off all handmade beadwork!
50% off all ArtQuilts!

And so on!

Get it while it lasts!

July 1st through July 7th!

http://Dantesspirit.etsy.com

Current ArtQuilts in progress.

2008-08-16T17:49:04Z

Managed to come up with a second entry for the Old Church Gallery Quilt Show and the Mountain Comforts XX Quilt Show, both in Oct. Both had been originally started several years ago, one really only needed the binding, then finish quilting to be complete, but like usual , I procrastinated on it. The other, needed everything, except the top made. Heh.

The first is called 'Pandora's Box: And Hope Remains'

Entirely hand dyed Kona Cotton, using Setacolors. Then I used Jacquard Textile paint to paint the 'demons/sprits/whatevertheycalledthethingsthatescapedtheboxwhenPandoraopenedit'.}:P
Entirely hand sewn, hand quilted, as usual.

There's still some detailing that needs finished on it, a little more quilting to actually attach the back, black Kona Cotton, to the batting and top, besides just the binding. something that should make the judges happy- look, Ma! Mitered corners! *rolls eyes* Whoever decreed that ArtQuilts HAVE to have mitered corners if they are square/rectangle/etc, is an idiot. My opinion.

MIGHT do some beading on this one. Haven't decided. Needs 4" sleeve attached to back.

The second is tentatively called, 'Life is Beautiful'.

Front and back are made of hand dyed unbleached muslin, the Chinese Hanji (lettering) is hand drawn, then hand painted on hand sponge painted unbleached muslin. The binding is black Kona Cotton.

Needs finish quilting, have an idea to make the lettering really stand out (knew those Pearl Ex powders would come in hand someday), and needs 4" sleeve on back. Also completely handsewn.

This one actually has a bit of a background story-

Back in early 2003? I think, a fellow Guildmate from Guardians of Light in Ultima Online, went to China for a year. Now, I collect rocks, and people regularly bring me rocks from places they visit(most recently got one from Shackleford Island courtesy of Mark's boss). So I asked Lord Baba, as he was called, to send me a rock, just one he happened to pick up off the ground.

When he returned stateside, he sent me the most beautiful rock I have received thus far.

He said he went to a river there, not sure which one, found this rock, took it to a 'Chop' maker, had it cut in half, had the 'Chop' for 'Wolf' carved in half, and he kept the other half. Then he not only sent me this gorgeous river stone that had been shaped and carved specifically for me, but also a small tin of Chinese ink for it as well. ( See this picture for a picture of my Chop)

So I started to make this for him in appreciation. Well, time passed, the Guild fell apart, I've lost his address, yadda, yadda.}:(

Lord Baba, if you're out there, this one's for you.

What it says- left to right, reading down-

" Seize the day"

"Live life to its fullest"

"What we do in life, echoes in eternity"

"Life is change"

"Think without thinking"

99 bottles of beer on the wall, 99 bottles of...

2007-09-26T00:26:28Z

Oh wait, wrong song. Sorry.

Actually, I have 30 cups of dye in the closet.

See? All lined up in a row, each with a piece of Kona cotton in it. Stewing away. In a few, I'll had a solution of soda ash. No, I'm doing that tomorrow, that way I don't completely exhaust the dye and render it useless before I get every. last. bit.. erm, sorry. That way I can dye up a few silk scarves with some of the colors in there.}:P

The list reads like a grocery list actually- Butterscotch, Mocha, Eggplant, Vanilla Bean, Hollandaise, Harvest Wheat, Curry, Spicey Plum, Sage, Golden Pineapple, Cranberry, Pumpkin Spice, Watermelon and so on. Heh.

Why?, you may ask. Well, I'm auditioning colors for the only 'traditional' quilt I'll ever have a hand in making. This one as a matter of fact-

Cool, huh? I've always wanted to either make a Mariner's Compass or own one. Now I can do both. My friend, Jess, up in Vermont will be doing the actual piecing. See, it'll be a collaborative work. I'm dyeing the fabrics, she's doing the machine piecing and I'm doing the quilting and actual putting together of the quilt.}:P I'm thinking that maybe if I really try, I can get it done in time for next year's quilt shows. Which is why I'm really glad to have that quilt frame now.

Speaking of quilt shows, I went to Alpine Sewing to drop my entries off today. Man, I've been here over 6 years and always thought that place was just a sewing machine store. Not only do they have sewing machines, they have embellishments such as Angelina fibers, books and thread galore. I restrained myself and walked out with a nifty package of Angelina-

This stuff will look awesome on artquilts. Might even do a few FiberArt Postcards with it. Hmm...

Random shot of Dante-

She's got so much grey around her muzzle now. Her mask has faded so much. My beautiful girl. She can'tr get on the bed without help anymore. And has started occassionally having trouble with the stairs. I suspect she'll only be around a few more months at best.

Where were the Boys during all this picture taking?

On the 'storage' side of my design desk. In a rare moment, they were actually sleeping together. Technically, Aries is sleeping, Max is glaring at me. Heh.

Hopefully by Thursday, I'll have a few new scarves to list in the shop. I think I'll run the 10% off chainmaille again next month as well as a 10% off the scarves too. Might take the test Kona in the closet and make up 'grab bags' for artquilters and fiber artists and list them too. We'll see.

Now that I've successfully depressed myself...

2007-09-23T18:13:15Z

I think I'll go back to bed.

Ok, not really. I won't go back to bed. But I did successfully depress myself.

First I have 3 containers of fabric in dye to rinse out. After Aries decides to move off my arms again. Goofy boy is trying to cheer me up, methinks..I pissed Mark off abit. He asked if I was still coming over to Dale and Kat's for dinner...I replied that I never said I was going over for dinner. He gat all pissy and asked if I was going to come over for dinner. I said I hadn't decided yet.

I did say I wasn't going over there anymore. How hard is that to understand? I could careless what she's cooking for dinner. I said I wasn't going over there, I won't go over there. Deal with it.

But that's not what I depressed myself about.

People are always telling me, not so much anymore, that I need to enter quilt shows, I need to join this club, or that group, etc..

But then I look up quilt shows on the net, and what I see depresses the shit out of me. I enter local shows(1 last year, 2 this year) and compared to everyone elses's entries, I feel so damned out of place.

For example- this is one of the B IG quilt shows- check out the quilts along the top there..

I don't do stuff like that. Compared to things like that, my stuff is so damned plain, I'm surprised anyone wants it. Oh wait, outside of my family and the one person who commisioned a piece, NO ONE DOES. (Seriously, outside of GIVING AWAY pieces to my family, and the one commisioned piece, I've yet to sell any on Etsy or anywhere else.)

Another example..

This was last year's Mountain Comforts Quilt Show, in Ferrum, Va-

Mine's the dark blues, greens and yellow one in the center-ish. Want more examples of how much I don't fit in? Here.. a couple more...

(Did I mention that the person who made this piece was FOURTEEN??!?? 14!!!)

And that's just a few. (I'd link the entire album, but I had to make the entire Photobucket account 'private' because PhotoFuckIt is a pain in the ass sometimes about screenshots.)

Then I get this month's issue of QuiltArt in the mail, and it makes me depressed.

And I see stuff like this(second one down), which is so damned similier, in idea and execution to my unfinished piece , that it disgusts me. And certainly doesn't make me want to finish the damned thing now.

But anyway.. I was browsing around the net, looking up quilt shows for next year, that possibly, maybe, don't require me to be a member of SAQA, or any other 'exclusive' club, and I see stuff on the websites , such as this one that only serve to further discourage me, because I don't do quilts or artquilts like that.

Call me insecure, call me a coward and yeah, I'll probably agree with you. But honestly, something like these, is too busy for me. And I realise that alot of people like 'busy', crowded looking quilts. But I don't, and I don't like making things like that.

I prefer simple, letting the fabric tell the tale with the quilting or beading embellishments being a side story, not the main focus. I don't like busy, I CAN'T DO busy, I've tried. Yet, everytime I look at something , it's got myriads of colors, hundreds of embellishments, and the fabric itself is nearly lost in the chaos.

Hel, I can't even do whole cloth quilts like this et alone 'thread painting'. I know, I know, it takes years to get that good. But then Ihear about people who've just started out and are being accepted into big shows, and even sometimes winning, and they look like they've been doing artquilts for fucking years.

So I guess I'll just putz along like I've been doing and keep doing what works for ME, some day, my style will come back around again, I guess.

In the meantime, I have fabric to rinse out.

Well, bummer.

2007-09-09T14:05:15Z

No hand quilting frame. Not for a few weeks at least.

Seems they are handmade and the nice lady who makes them got backlogged on other things and ran out of ones already made. She said it'd take a couple weeks and took my name and number. So hopefully by the end of the month I'll have one.

And with them being handmade, they are unvarnished and stained, so I can stain and poly it to my taste. Or maybe set it outside and spray dye all over it then poly it.}:P

I caught Max playing with Wanderer's Garden yesterday. After I got stern with him about it, a few minutes later, I caught Aries playing with it! Sheesh, I guess that means they approve at least.

Worked on a beadwork piece last night. Hope to have it finished soon so I can get it listed. THis one is being done in all Delicas with a reall awesome cab centerpiece. Titanium coated Druzy, so it's pretty and SHINEY! Heh.

Saw some really neat 'shaving cream dyeing' photos from one of the members of the DyeHard email group. Haven't tried that technique yet, so that'll be a project for Friday when I buy more shaving cream, because you apparently need quite abit, as well as large garbage bags. Should be fun and interesting. Maybe I'll get some fat quarters out of it.

Quilt Show Entry pieces..

2007-09-07T22:27:46Z

'Wanderer's Garden'

'Fire At Dawn'

'Languishing at Midnight in the Garden of Rusted Dreams'

Not the best photos, but I'm tired. So, this is all you get for now. Detail shots tomorrow.

2 down, 1 to go...

2007-08-30T19:41:54Z

Got the sleeves sewn on to two of my three quilt show entries. Sewing the edges on the sleeve of the third.

We were going to go to Busch Gardens for HalloScream this year, but when I told Mark that the only open weekends were ther 2nd and 3rd weeks of Oct, that plan went out the window, as the only weekends he has free are the first and last, due to his boss being out of town the middle two weeks. Ah well.

He's been working overtime again, which is cool, as it means the bills get paid off faster and we can toss a little extra on each of the monthly bills.

Since we can't go to Busch Gardens again, of which I need to post a few photos from last weekend's trip, we decided that we'll take a day trip up to HJarrisonburg and hit the farmer's market and the japanimation(anime) store in the Mall there instead.

Still haven't said a word, ICQ, etc, to the Inlaws. Feels good actually, not to have to worry about whether Kat needs a ride anywhere. Means my time is my own again. Have two color scheme ideas for silk scarves to shibori. Plan to start them after I finish this sleeve. Also need to work on 'Darke Sunne' for next year's entry. And to decide what else to create to enter.

Dante's still going strong. Hasn't lost any weight, sleeps alot more lately though.

It's clouding up again, methinks it's going to rain this afternoon.

Beth hasn't been outside in two days. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

Started yet another Sims2 family *rolls eyes* . This one will be a mother and child legacy. Founder has a daughter by 'ideal plantsim', a NPC char. Heh. Each generation will have exactly one child, unless it's natural twins, and each will be named after a tree or bush. Heh. The other family I was working on is named after herbs, and has 2-3 kids per generation. Might move them to Riverblossom Hills were the tree family is and interbreed them. Hmmm.... I'll post screenshots of them as well later, or tomorrow.

Photos of the quilt show entries after I finish this sleeve, wash them and they dry. Busch Gardens trip photos later this evening.

2 more days left be fore I quit work. Then I can dye my hair again, woohoo!

Burning the fingers...

2007-08-13T01:00:33Z

Making binding for the latest art quilt piece I'm working on.

A piece that should have taken maybe 3 weeks has taken 3 months. Why? Because something happened while I was in Jersey, pertaining to this piece and I hadn't wanted to work on it since.

But I started it with the intentions of entering it into this year's Mountain Comforts Quilt Show. So that means I have to finish it.

The detailing is done. It's been washed and is hanging up to drip dry now. I'm finishing up the binding so tomorrow I can sew it on.

Thought about how many pieces I wanted to enter into the Mountain Comforts show as well as the Floyd Old Church Gallery Quilt Show. I've settled on really tossing it out there and entering 3 pieces- this one I'm finishing up, 'Wanderer's Garden' or 'Languishing at Midnight in the Garden of Rusted Dreams' or possibly 'Chaos' if I finish it in time. Would love to enter 'Feathers', but there's no sleeve and it wasn't made to have a sleeve either. 'Phoenix Rising' would be a good piece to enter for next year. It needs to tell me how it wants to be finished first.

Also need to put sleeves on the backs of the pieces for the Floyd show. Luckily I have until Sept 22nd.