Creativity Abounds!

Two weeks ago, my Creative Crones group met and we had such a great time...revealing our latest challenge, dyeing fabric, and eating!!  I had taken a dyeing class a few years ago but never did any thing with what I had learned except purchase dyes and fabrics to dye!!  So our getting together got me inspired to do more the next day at home.

My fabrics on the line

And here are some more that I did at home along with some wool roving I was trying to dye... the roving is OK but I want to try some more to get more vivid colors.

Hand dyed fabrics

I love the process, but I will say...it is a lot of work!!!  The dyeing part is really fun, but the getting set up and all the rinsing after is a pain in the ol' keister!!  I will do it again, but is more fun to do as a group activity!!!

Then the following Sunday, we met our daughter in Dallas at the Arboretum to view the Chihuly blown glass exhibit.  It was absolutely fabulous!!!  The exhibit was to have ended early November, but because it has been so popular, they are extending the date to December 31.  If any one is any where near the area, and have not seen the exhibit yet, I highly recommend visiting it!

Glass reeds "growing" in water

A glass plant

Closeup of glass

This is approx. 20 feet high.

Closeup

A water fall and glass 

Chihuly glass work

And this is just a small portion of the exhibit!  Much of the beauty was the setting...nestled among the plants as though the glass was a part of it!

Exciting Mail Today for Creative Crones

The mailman (actually ours is a lady) brought my copy of the new Quilting Arts magazine today.  I have really been anxious to see it because my fiber arts group..the Creative Crones of studioQ....are in an article written by Lynn Karwczyk  about starting/maintaining art groups.  A few months ago, I had responded to a question she had posed on Facebook wanting groups that had formed and had pictures of their meetings.  She answered me and through several back and forth emails, the information she wanted for her article came to light.

This blog address is in the article for people to respond if they want more info...so to those who are checking it for that purpose, I hope you will check out any blogs about the Crones as I have posted several of our meetings on here.  You can also check out Flicker and Picasa under my name for more pictures of what we do.  and feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Creative Crones Meeting

A week ago, my fiber arts group met to share and laugh together...we met at Cabbage Rose, one of my favorite fabric shops in Fort Worth.  They have a great facility for meetings and for classes so at times when none of our members can hold our monthly meeting, they very nicely let us meet at their place.

Our challenge for August was given last month when the Olympics were on..it was my turn to give the topic and I chose to use the Olympic motto.."Citius, Altius, Fortius"...kind of stealing the idea from a zentangle challenge I did a few weeks ago.

Although not all the crones were able to get the challenge done, several did...and we had a great meeting.  Here are some of the challenges plus a couple other things for our "show and tell".

Kathleen showed off her new colorful shoes!

Susan had her corduroy quilt that she is doing for the show

Bethany showed these cute owls!

Lynn is a new member who showed us a new journal

Susan is catching up on challenges..."Be the Pink Flamingo...."

Beth missed last meeting so showed us her "I Heard It Through the Grapevine"

And this is Beth's August Challenge..."Citius, Altius, Fortius"

Rhonda's August Challenge

And my August challenge...

Although our challenges are to be 12 X 12 ....I would like to add a background so I can put my block on point.  Here is an idea I am thinking about doing.

Our challenge for September, given to us by Susan is : "Create a Fun House...Use your imagine...it can be a "Fun" house  or a Funhouse as in a carnival.  And the technique to use is add a found object of some nature to block."  Sounds like FUN!!!

Day #2-August Challenge/Creative Crones

Today, for day #2 of the August challenge, I am listing my short term goal for this month and giving the reasons why they are my goals:

1. To finish quilting the four quilts I am entering in our guild show in September.  (because I haven't done them yet and time is a movin' on!!)
2. To create the Challenge for my studioQ 12 x 12 challenges for August..."Citius, Altius, Fortius". (because I have not missed doing a challenge yet and don't want this to be the one...if any!)
3. To continue doing these August challenges...(because I made a commitment to myself to do the challenge!)

And Monday of this week, by Creative Crones of studioQ met.  We had quite a crowd and one guest!  Several brought their 12 x 12 challenges..." I Heard It Through the Grapevine".  Some of the group are a little behind on getting the challenges done, but everyone is working on getting stuff ready for the Quilt Show in September.

This challenge for July is the one that was given to us by our dynamic Sue who is no longer with us....and I even had a bottle of wine to celebrate the theme and to raise a glass in Sue's memory...which I forgot to serve!!!

My challenge....I used some thread painting on my leaves and free motion stippling on the background.

Kay Scheffer's Challenge...bordered with Morse Code! 

Beth Garber's Challenge...she used Sue's picture as part of her collage

Rhonda Wheddle's Challenge... done in felt

Heather Pregger's Challenge...an abstract with silk ribbons.

Our next month challenge, given by me, is "Citius, Altius, Fortius"...inspired by the Olympics and taken from a Zentangle Challenge of a few weeks ago...the challenge is to first...look up the Latin phrase if one doesn't know what it means (I had to look it up!) and secondly... to interpret the phrase into a 12 x 12 quilt!

Go, Swimmers...and All!!

Yahoo!!  Dana Vollmer just got her first gold....she's a local Granbury, Texas gal...her mom is/was my grandkids coach when they were younger...They swim with the Fort Worth Area  Swim Team (FAST)  and Dana's mom was coaching them when Dana was in high school and a FAST member.

And I am feeling for Michael Phelps.....but Ryan Lochte is a pretty neat guy too...Phelps will do better in days to come!

My studioQ Creative Crones meet tomorrow.  It is the first time we have met without our dynamic Sue...and it was her turn to give our challenge..."I Heard It Through the Grapevine"...I have a bottle of wine chilling to have with our lunch...for the theme and to toast a wonderful friend!  She was such a force...I keep running into people who have a connection to her, unbeknownst to me.  For example, tomorrow, Texas Christian University...TCU...is flying the flag at half mast in her memory.  I knew she and her husband were involved fans, but had no idea they were that influential!  I miss her!!!

Goal Setting

Here it is....Sunday...first day of the week.  Good time for goal setting...On Friday, I went to my guild's monthly meeting.  It was the first time I had been to a meeting since last December...it was good to see old friends.  We were celebrating our 35th "birthday"; the gals in charge did a wonderful job of planning the meeting...a very fun time had by all.

While there, I realized I was supposed to have my entries for the quilt show turned in this month.  I can mail the info to the person in charge, so today, I printed pictures of the quilts I am going to enter and filled out the forms to mail tomorrow. Fortunately the pictures do not have to show the quilts finished!  It is not juried; they just want enough of a picture for identification purposes!

  Our show is the last weekend in September...the theme is "Quilted Memories of Days Gone By" and the ladies in charge have many great things going of for it....an apron contest, a cookbook, and a live auction for our donated quilts.  I had planned to only enter three quilts; one, an art quilt, is completed, the other two, a pieced 4-patch and a miniature, are almost completed. But then I have decided to enter five instead....another art quilt almost done and the guild challenge.  The challenge is to depict a memory in a quilt and to write a paragraph telling what the memory is.  I have an idea that I think will really be fun to do and a small quilt that is partially started I think I can work into my idea.  Will keep you posted on my progress!!

And while surfing around on Facebook, I came across this link which I think sounds very cool!  I had read briefly about Prayer Flags, but had not really gone into detail about them.  Check out this link...it explains all about them and a way to participate.

So my goals for the very near future are:

• quilt miniature for show
• quilt 4-patch for show
• do free motion on art quilt for show
• create and finish guild challenge
• make Prayer Flag
• finish a couple of small quilts for auction

Oh, and my studioQ group meets next Monday, a week from tomorrow and I need to finish my 12 x 12 challenge for "I Heard It Through the Grapevine"!  Again...it is started, just needs the finishing touches!

So...good night all...I need to go get busy!!!

Challenge # 76-Home..... and Chocolate!!

Wow!  Here it is only Tuesday and I am posting this week's challenge!!!  So not like me!!  I suspect there are some of you out there that must sit by your computers in the wee hours of the morning on Mondays...waiting for the Diva to post!!  More power to you!!!!  I am afraid my wee hour devotions are only for catching spectacular sunrises, but computer skills will have to wait for that early morning cuppa' coffee!!

Anyway, this week the Diva designated the Zentangle challenge to be "Home"...Canada is celebrating Canada Day July 1st and we in the United States celebrate our "birthday day" on July 4th, thus the title for the tile this week! And I think it is cool that this is Challenge #76 as our "birth" year is 1776!!  Very appropriate!

For my challenge tile, I chose the focus to be a star with multitudes of stripes...both have always been predominate figures in my country's history...the flag has 50 stars for fifty states with thirteen stripes for the original states; the state in which I live...Texas...is known as the Lone Star State and the flag is a star and bars or stripes..many other states use stars and stripes in their flags...the Stars and Stripes  is a military news source which has been in publications since World War II.  And I could go on but........Here is my Challenge:

Challenge # 76-Home

Yesterday was my monthly meeting of my art group, the Creative Crones.  Our 12 x 12 challenge this month came from Kay...and it was to create a mini quilt with this theme:

"It doesn't matter what the question is, the answer is Chocolate!"  And the optional technique to use was to create an optical illusion!  So here are a few of the interpretations that were brought to the meeting!

My "Chocolate"..can you see my optical illusion?

A close up of my "engraved monogram"!

Chocolate by Bethany

And the question is??? by Rhonda (a UFO)

And Kay's Chocolate...also a bit of an optical illusion!!!

To add to the merriment...we all brought chocolate to share..even those who didn't get their blocks done brought chocolate!!!  Yummy!!

Our challenge for next month is " I Heard It Through the Grapevine"...perhaps wine to sample is in order???

15-Minute Challenge

I have spent most of this week working on my granddaughter's t-shirt quilt for her high school graduation...the only thing I haven't finished is the binding and that goes on tomorrow!  I don't want to post a picture of it yet because she hasn't seen it. Graduation is next week and I will post then.

And yesterday, my studioQ bunch met for our May meeting.  We met a week earlier than usual because the last Monday of the month (our usual meeting time) is also Memorial Day.  We only had five members able to make the meeting, but still had a great time as usual.  We are challenging ourselves each month with a 12 x 12 block, and this month our theme was "In the Yard of Life, Be the Pink Flamingo".  Here are a few examples of what we did:

By Bethany who came up with the theme this time

My 12 x 12..I am going to do beading on it with the cabachon in the center.

Kay's 12 x 12...the only one of us who actually got hers finished!

And Kay, our hostess for the meeting, also showed us real neat fusible method to create a positive/negative design.

Kay's demo

In the upper left corner are two little quilts Kay had done with this technique.  And on the table is the beginning of her demo.  Next post I will hope to be able to show you a completed block that I have done.

My fiber artists group...studioQ...met yesterday.  We always have a great time...and what wonderful sharing of ideas!  A couple of months ago we decided to have a new challenge for ourselves...being inspired by the "12 X 12" group, we are doing a 12" x 12" mini quilt each month.   Each member will give us a topic...either a quote, favorite saying, etc and a suggested technique to use...that being optional to either suggest or do.

Last month our topic was "Counting Flowers on the Wall"...fun to do!  This month, the topic was "Walking On Sunshine"...the first one is mine...I used a technique on layering that I saw demonstrated by Beryl Taylor on a Quilting Arts video "Layer by Layer"...I haven't finished it yet; I am going to wait until all my mini's are done to see how I want to finish all of them.

My "Walking On Sunshine"

Rhonda's

Beth's

Kay's

Susan's

Bethany's

Three of our bunch weren't quite ready to show theirs yet.  I really enjoy seeing how differently everyone interprets the same topic!!  If you would like to see more of other works of art that were shown at our meeting, copy and paste the link below.

http://smilebox.com/playBlog/4d7a45794f4463774d54413d0d0a&blogview=true

For the month of May we are doing "In the field of life, be a pink flamingo!"  I already have an idea of what I want to do.

I've been considering joining the "15 Minute Challenge" again.  As a fellow blogger mentioned, it is  good way to try to keep one focused!  Here is list of the items I am either working on* or want to work on:

• T-shirt quilt for my granddaughter's graduation from High School* (the closest to completion)
• My color challenge "Bargello" for April (Whoops...missed that date!)*
• BOM for May*(fabric and pattern ready)
• Cotton Robin challenge-finish and mail*
• studioQ "Village Quilt"*(A group project I volunteered to put together)
• workshop starts!*(Many)
• Quilt for our bed* (fabric ready/Paper piecing printed off)
• Challenge for May..in my head!!
• ....and probably others that I can't think of right now!!

studioQ meeting for March

     My favorite bunch of fiber artists...studioQ....met Monday at my house.  We have started a new challenge.  Because we are just smitten with the 12 X 12 gals, we decided to try a 12 x 12 challenge of our own.  Each month we will do a quote from something..a song..a poem..a book..whatever one of our member's decides on..as well as a technique and/or fabric choice.

    This month we were to do a quilt with the topic of "Counting Flowers on the Wall", including use of black and white polka dot fabric somewhere on the block and could use the technique of resist if desired.  I made a Smilebox  of our meeting with the challenges and some additional items.  It was so cool to see how everyone interpreted the challenge!

     If you have not tried Smilebox before...give it a try..it is fun to make up slide shows and photo albums!

A digital slideshow by Smilebox

Continuing on for today

I like to use color...did you notice? I also am registered with a Bernina Yahoo group which is very interesting and helpful. We have occassional postcard trades, the current one being "USA Inauguration". I just mailed mine yesterday; made six of them. See below:

I made the background fabric with the freezer paper, muslin, inkjet printer method. I get a kick out of doing my own.

I also have a joke I got from my Yahoo! group: What do you get if you cross an agnostic, an insomniac and a dyslexic? Someone who lies awake at night wondering if there really is a dog.

Being a bit of an agnostic myself and a borderline dyslexic, I thought it was pretty funny!!

I am lucky enough to have met and joined up with a wonderful group of quilters. We all belong to the TVQG and organized a "splinter" group because of a common interest...art quilts! So I will be talking about what we do quite a bit too. We are registered as "studio Q"; we started out as the Creative Crones but some of the younger (under 50ish) members didn't like the association with "crones" so we changed to accommodate all! I like both names, thus my blog title! One of the first things we did together last year was to pass around a beginner block and each member add a border etc. to it. When we were all finished, we had a drawing to see who would get the completed wall hanging. This year we all wanted to have something to show for our efforts, so we started out with everyone making a block of their choice and passing it around each month that we meet to be added to. We will have a "reveal" and get our own back in a couple more exchanges! Then we hope to have a group showing of "Art quilts from studio Q" at our quilt show in the fall.

Our first group wall hanging-"Out of the Box".