Posts Tagged ‘marbling. fabric marbling’

Well, it has been at least 10 years since we did any kind of demonstration of marbling on fabric.  Full-time teaching and the need for two of us really limited our ability to get out and work with guilds. Thanks to a faithful reader (hi, Kay!!), we were booked to do a presentation to the Sunflower quilters guild on the northwest of Tucson. I was especially excited because….it’s a school day and I was doing this DURING THE DAY….love it!

We’ve been planning for this for a couple of weeks. At one point we figured it was going to be at least two trips to the car, but with careful packing, it was only one for the trip across town.

The only thing not on this stack is the crate of quilts and a green grocery bag with fabric. We pack really well.

Kay had samples of fat quarters to build interest for our demo, and the ladies were wonderful. Hubby and I work really well off each other, and his humor comes out. We spent two hours, showing the marbling process, letting people marble fabrics, and showing a progression of quilts. I’ve found, since we started marbling, that too often people say, “what will you use it for?” or “what will you do with it?” To answer those questions, I always pack lots of quilts (both art quilts and more traditional ones) so that folks can see so many uses for the fabrics. Plus, it’s always fun for us to see where we’ve come as artists….and we love hearing all the “oooo’s”!

The crate of quilts, many of which are not available on the website or in the blog, because they are process quilts.

We had a great set-up in the recreation room.

What I discovered with this layout is that as Dean demonstrated some of the patterns , I held up the fat quarter with the particular pattern on it, and that way people got a much better look at a larger example.

Having eye candy is always a great idea….

Works in progress.

Some really high-tech supplies – left-over hospital pans for the rinse process.

What next? Well, we are going to start contacting local guilds in Arizona for demos, as we have all the handouts and  such prepared. At lunch we decided on a plan for a sampler so we can begin offering marbling classes at quilt shops. And…I’m going to start contacting friends around the country to see if we can “book” a couple of demos during the summer travel months. I’ll get information up on the blog and website as I get it finalized. You can always email us for more information.

A great day was had by all!

I really can’t let this amount of time go by between posts – I miss the writing, and I miss hearing from fellow bloggers. I am SO behind in reading my blogs – trying to get them all transferred over from Blogger, but there’s this time element….School ends in four days, so things have been quite hectic here. I have a list of things to get finished before leaving for our trip, so I need to stay focused and busy.

I neglected to mention my Salmon Run was accepted into Fish Follies this year. The postmark deadline was April 25, and at 6 PM I was sending off the jpgs. Thank heavens for email entries!! Last Tuesday I sewed on the sleeve and packed it for its trip to Alaska.

Salmon Run

Salmon Run

This is some of my best quilting, and I am looking forward to finishing my Desert Heat quilt, as well as a few other projects, after the trip. Michelle, my S&B buddy, is coming over tomorrow, and we are going to work with some Texture Magic to create some new purses. Should be fun to just do some mindless sewing after such intense free motion quilting.

I have some ideas in mind for a couple of wearable garments for a potential show in October that I have been invited to. I want one of the garments to be made from thread fabric, and I have been making some piles of thread from my “bad threads” so I can start working on pieces for that. Also, when we are back from our trip, we plan on marbling in the big tray and creating some larger pieces of silk, so I have some decent yardage to work with for a floor-lenght vest I am thinking about.

In preparation for traveling, I spent some time creating a marketing postcard to take with me, as hubby and I love strolling galleries, and ya just never know….Thanks to VistaPrint , you can get things done cheaply and quickly. I have cards ready to go, and I am also working on cards for other members of our Mixed Media Arts group.

The Art of Marbling

I will be taking pens and sketchpads with me on the trip – looking forward to finding some nice tree bark and sketch away. And I want to get back to some zentangles – I enjoy doing those, and it’s been several months. Read their blog – these are really cool! Here’s a few of my favorites from last autumn…

More hopefully tomorrow – there’s been loads of amazing stuff on the web lately.