Paper and Threads

My blog is called Paper and Threads because I used to spend more time sewing, quilting, and dying fabric, than drawing and painting.  I occasionally add a blog post about "threads"  and you can click on the "threads" category at the bottom of the blog archives to see those entries.

I have been making Christmas Tree ornaments for family and friends since 1976, and some years I made 20-24 of the same ornament.  Now I make them for my sons and daughter, and for each of our grandchildren.  I blocked out last Saturday and Sunday and did nothing but create and sew ornaments.  I scanned a fabric dye painting of Alice, resized it, and then printed it out on fabric for each of our 8 grandchildren.  Here are all of them, and in the next photo Alice is hanging next to Axel on our tree.  I made the Axel ornament in 2015, the year that I created this character as part of an art assignment.

Alice and Axel

Most years I make a new ornament as a sample for consideration.  This year I made this pieced tree as a sample. I may redo the design in the future,

My good friend Paula Nadelstern is a quilter and fabric designer.  One of her new fabrics has multiple 4inch printed medallions and I selected one, made a 4 inch "little quilt," and then machine stitched around several of the concentric circles with gold metallic thread. 

Our youngest grandchild, a 6 year old, asked me if I could make him a Peacock ornament. I regularly get requests from our grandchildren, so I made him a peacock, and he will still get Alice.  The fabrics for the peacock are fused onto the purple fabric and then machine stitched with shiny metallic blue thread.  That was the final ornament, #15, for the weekend.

Posted by Shirley at 6:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I am going to the International Quilt Festival in Houston Texas this weekend for 5 days.  This is my 33rd annual Festival - and it has grown from several large spaces at the Shamrock Hilton Hotel, when I first attended, to the Convention Center in Houston, occupying 3 floors in this HUGE space.  There are hundreds of Vendors, Quilt, Doll, Clothing exhibits, and lots of classes and lectures - to name just a few activities.  They report 50-60,000 visitors each year from most parts of the world. 

This is where I take classes and keep my textile passion alive.  For many years my classes were devoted to "surface design" which means taking white fabric and converting it into colored decorated fabric using a variety of techniques. 

I use my hand-dyed fabric for many projects, and even make book cloth with it for my handmade watercolor sketchbooks.  I just finished making this book and a matching pen pocket which I now use with every sketchbook when I'm sketching out of my apartment..  

These are the end papers and the back side of the pen pocket. 

Here are Sketchbooks numbered 29-50, and the new one is #62. I need to do another shelf photo.   I enjoy using these colorful sketchbooks, all with 140 lb watercolor paper that I love.

I'll be back blogging next Friday, unless I can figure out how to do it easily from my phone.  I'd love to show you the art quilts that can compete with the best of the art we see on paper and canvas. 

Posted by Shirley at 2:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR to my Facebook Friends

I made 4 more tree ornaments, one each for our children Noah, Jason, and Rachel, and the red present for our tree.

What I want in my presents:  Joy, Good Health, Intellectual Stimulation, and World Peace. 

The Christmas tree is up and decorated, and the family gifts are in stockings or gift bags I made for everyone over the last 15 years.  We're ready - except for the cooking.

Posted by Shirley at 12:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It is snowing right now in New York City for the 3rd time in 7 days.  Trees are up everywhere and decorated.  Skaters are enjoying all of the skating rinks.  And I'm hoping for a white Christmas.

My Grandson Callum loves to pick out an ornaments for me to make for our Grandchildren.  I originally made this one in 1987, and we have one on our tree each year.  Yesterday I listened to NPR and made 9 Geese Hearts between 10AM and 7PM! The Geese are hanging  today on my Swedish Christmas tree until our grandchildren come over for dinner tonight.  Then Sydney and Charlie will decorate (i.e. refill) the Swedish Tree with small ornaments from a group project I had with my quilting friends in San Antonio.

This was a pattern from a McCall Christmas decorating pattern and remains a favorite.  Our houseguest this week traced the pattern to make one for her daughter and son-in-law who were married in November. 

Posted by Shirley at 9:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last week I took 3 days of classes at the International Quilt Festival in Houston.  Imagine my surprise when I saw a sophisticated bookbinding class in the festival catalogue.  Lisa Louise Adams, a quilter and bookbinder from Hawaii, brought many beautiful, different types of her books to show us, and provided each of us with a pre-cut kit so we could finish the book in one day.  Coptic books open flat, making them good sketchbooks.  I taught myself to make two, from books and videos in 2013, but never mastered the two needle stitching pattern.  So this was the perfect class for me. 

I'll post information and photos on the 2 days of surface-dying in the next month.  Both were classes on "shibori" one using real indigo dye and the other using an indigo color Procion MX dye.

Finished Book:  We each chose our favorite batik fabric, paper strips for an accordion, signatures, button, and thread color.  This is my finished book. 

Full Cover:  The book opens completely flat. 

The spine to show the Coptic book chain stitch which binds the concertina, signatures, and covers in place.

Unlike my traditional Coptic books, this one has a concertina (accordion folded Mi Tientes paper), into which each 4 folio signature was stitched.  And the cover was a fabric-covered, folded piece of binders board that made it unnecessary to punch holes on the outside of the covers.  You can see an example of the folded cover on the left - I still need to glue it shut now that I added a ribbon for closure.

The paper will be good for sketching and the small size will be easy to carry. 

Posted by Shirley at 7:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)