Just Another Cotton Picking Day

Hello again Internet People!  I am currently working up the motivation and energy to go back out to the "storage room" today, but while I wait I thought I should pop in here and visit with all of you for a few minutes.  I saw the most incredible art quilt on a TV show last night and I have spent hours looking online to see if I could find a picture of it that I could share with you, but I can't find one!  The piece was part of the International Quilt Show in Tokyo, Japan, but I don't know what year.  The entire piece was made to look like a wedding cake, all made from fabric, with probably hundreds of 3D fabric flowers all over it.  It was just incredibly beautiful!  I will keep searching, maybe someday I will find it.

Today I am going to go play with fabric.  Yes, I finally broke down this morning and cancelled all those fabric listings on eBay.  I am keeping what's left.  I told you it was only a matter of when.  I did also decide that I will go through all of the pieces of fabric I have and divide the large pieces into smaller ones and collect a bunch of the extra parts to start working on some surface design ideas that I want to play with.  Things like over-dyeing, discharge dyeing, deconstructed screen printing, that kind of stuff.  

I have a lot of pieces of fabric that are way over two yards in length.  I want to take pieces no larger than 1 yard from each of those to keep on the shelves, and put the rest into boxes for later use.  The idea behind this is to get ALL of my fabrics I want to use for Art Quilting into one space where I can see them all at once.  The big pieces take up too much space.  If there comes a time when I need a larger piece I can always sew them back together if necessary.

All these TV shows and workshops I have been watching this past week have really inspired me to do so many new things.  I learned all kinds of new techniques and ideas and I cannot wait to play with them.  There are so many things that I have wanted to do that I wasn't sure how to go about them, or if they would even work at all.  Now I have a better understanding of how to go about doing the things I want to do.  All I need now is the time to do them all!  Well, that, and the money for more supplies and tools! 

I do have one little tidbit of information that I learned yesterday that I want to share with all of you before I forget.  You know that metallic foil that they sell for paper crafting and shit.  The really thin sheets of gold or silver foil.  Did you know you can apply them to fabric?  No, you can't wash the fabric afterwards, but Art Quilts aren't made to be washed, so that isn't a big deal in my case.  All you have to do is cut a piece of fusible web (the paper backed kind) the size and shape you want, iron it to the fabric, peel off the paper, then set the foil on top and iron it directly to the fusible.  Easy peasy.  What a nifty idea to add a little bit of sparkle and shine!  I cannot wait to try this one out! 

Well, the only way I am ever going to have the time to play with all of these great new ideas and techniques is if I get my work done in that damn storage room, so I better sign out and get busy.  Until next time ...