Channelling my Inner Kindergarten Student

On Saturday January 24, the Brampton Quilters’ Guild, to which I have belonged for twelve years, ran a workshop on Journal Art Quilting taught by Sheree, in which we were shown has to use paint, muslin, fusible fabric and Tyvek to create fabric to use in journal quilts.  In the afternoon, we made a small quilt.

I started out by painting Heat ‘n Bond Lite fusible webbing and the result  was very shiny.  It would make a pretty rubber boot.  That is the one at bottom left.  The sample at top left is also fusible webbing but a different brand that Sharee shared with me.  It has a much less rubbery finish.  Once the paint dried these were fused onto muslin.  Sheree made a set of stencils using a hot glue gun prior to the class.  Placing the stencil on the fabric and then painting over it leaves a white pattern.  I start painting the piece at top right with a brush, but the fabric was absorbing too much paint.  So I used spray paint on the rest of the piece and the piece at bottom right.  On the latter I then used a brush to paint the plain fabric left by the stencil.

I learned that FedEx envelopes are made from Tykek and will melt when heat is applied.  I painted one rainbow colours on both sides.  At the same time I painted a piece of plain muslin (below right).

I then used a paint gun to manipulate the envelope.  I don’t know what I will use it for, but I felt like I was channeling my inner Kindergarten student as I played.

In the afternoon I cut scraps and arranged then on a fusible background.

Then I added organza over the top and quilted with a random pattern.

Then I drew a picture on tissue paper of the road bike I purchased last year, pinned it on the back and free-motion stitched over it.  I then removed the tissue paper, flipped over the quilt and added additional stitching from the front.

My sewing room is incomplete disarray right now, holding all of the dining room furniture other than the piano.  We are finally getting our dining room ceiling repaired.  I blogged about why it needs to be repaired last year.  Once I can get back to my sewing machine I am going to free-motion stitch the year 2014 and the distance I travelled by bike last year, thus turning this little quilt into a journal quilt.

I got my curtain wire up on the back wall to hold some of my quilts and I also got my design wall done, which reminds me that I was planning to blog about that but forgot.  I’ll try to get to it soon.  You can see my fabric from the class on the design wall at the right.  In the middle is the quilt that Owen is making from a Jelly Roll (fabric cut into 10 inch squares and sold as a set).  He has stitched the bottom two rows into pairs and is quite enjoying the process.  On the left are a few blocks I started ages ago and I hope that having them on the wall will inspire me to continue.

We decided to have new drywall installed rather than patch and re-spray.  Here is the ceiling drywalled and taped.

Tomorrow and Friday, the contractor will sand, prime and paint the ceiling and the walls.  We had hoped to just paint to top of the walls and blend it into the old paint, since we want to keep it the same colour, but the salesman at Benjamin Moore looked up when I purchased the paint – 13 years ago – and told me we we wouldn’t be able to blend it in.  We will also have the en-suite bathroom ceiling painted at the same time.  The previous owners started painting it for some unknown reason and stopped half way across.  One half is flat paint, the other semi-gloss.  We have never fixed it up ourselves, nor have we painted a ceiling, so I am having the contractor do that.  We will paint the walls ourselves.

The rink is looking great and the users have been fairly responsible since my last blog post.

On Friday January 23, I decided to try to create a secondary rink for pleasure skating during hockey hours when the main rink is full.  It has some ripples in it since it is on an incline, but it’s not too bad, so I opened it today, January 28.