busy!

It has been a crazy busy few weeks! I am currently twisting and plying lots and lots of my recycled fabric and fiber art yarn for shows and for my Etsy shop, and now within the next few weeks, the yarn will also be available at Mary Lue's Yarn & Ewe here in Mankato. I am also working on a looser twisted art yarn for locker hooking that I hope to see made available at The St. Peter Woolen Mill. I am very excited about both ventures with both of these long standing local businesses.

Here are a few of my recent skeins...

The flame orange above was plied with cotton muslin that I hand painted and scraps of a wool blend yarn. The other larger skeins above that were make with recycled sweater wool and various cotton fabrics, some of which I have hand painted as  well.  

I still need to find time to stitch! Maybe this weekend I will let the drop spindle cool off and pick up the neglected wee snowman that has half his eyeballs and stick arms done!

Pinky and Blue ready to make the trip to The Peddler in Rapidan on Saturday for a art and craft show there! I f you are in the area, stop by!

the last few days....

I am still experimenting with hand painting fabric art yarn and am really starting to feel like I am developing a style with it.  There are so many beautiful and unique fibers and yarns being made now by so many talented artisans. I wanted to develop something that is unique to me and my hand. Today I painted two lots. Both done on recycled white bed sheets that I first tea dyed, and then went to work with Jaquard fabric paints.

This was inspired by all the licorice at the Apple Barn this last weekend!

The inspiration for this came from freshly cut grass and dandelions! (WHICH I do not believe are weeds!!)

I keep a journal beside my bed.  In it, I try to write every night the things that I am grateful for. It's something I started to do years ago after an Oprah show!  That journal also serves as a place to scribble down my dreams.  I often struggle with sleep, waking up thinking about what I should do, what I should try. It helps to write it down and let it go until the daylight hours when I really can do something about it! (Although I have been known to get up in the middle of the night to paint!)

Recently I was lucky to come across a lot of vintage handkerchiefs and I had been looking at them trying to decide what to do with them. Well, last week I had a dream, woke up and wrote it down, and this morning I finally got around to trying it out!

I have played with weaving fabrics before, but this time I took two of the handkerchiefs and wove them together. Next step, I need to stitch it all down and embellish it with this, that or the other thing! 

Now I'm off to do just that!

Finger painting cotton muslin fabric

Today I decided to really use my hands. Instead of paintbrushes or sponges, I dipped my fingers into the paint and went to work. I used Jaquard fabric paints in spruce and maroon. What fun! I just love paint on my hands, and I was reminded just how much I loved to fingerpaint as a kid.

Yesterday's adventure ended up as a  95 yard fabric ribbon hank.

Having sold a few skeins of the handspun fabric yarn on Etsy, I am busy trying to build the inventory back up for back to back artisan shows this weekend and next weekend! If you are in the area, stop by the Whiskey River Flea Market in St. Peter this Saturday, August 13th and The Peddler in Rapidan, MN on Saturday, August 20th during Dam Days!

Today's fabric yarn painting adventure

After I finished up some of the "busy work" of printing cross stitch orders and wrappers for the skeins of art yarn for my first craft and artisan show next weekend, I sat down to slap on another coat of color to my latest batch of cotton muslin strips. There are three different Jaquard paints used in this one, including a metallic brown that I was not feeling very good about at first, but now that strips have started to dry and the colors blending a bit more, I feel a little better 

I have yet to decide if I want to just knot this one up as rag ribbon yarn or if I want to ply it with some recycled wool yarn that I just finished cleaning up and drying.   

For now though, it is time for tea!

Hand painting rag yarn

I have been trying to settle back into some sort of routine with my work. Too much bouncing around and not really feeling like I am accomplishing much of anything! I did start an experiment however that I am excited about (so far!)  Hand painting muslin rag yarn. It has been kind of hit and miss, as I am not sure exactly what I am doing...and am really trying to develop my own unique style of doing it.

I ripped cotton muslin into strips.  The fabric was remnants I have been collecting as I wanted to continue with my quest to reuse and recycle! I wet down the strips, and with thinned fabric paints and a really wide brush, I just started to wash the color over the strips, bunching them up, letting the paint bleed through and spot the strips under the others. 

The strips are drying now, and are a soft plummy rose color, with a shimmer in some spots where the opalescent paint was applied.

Once they are completely dry, I am going to go back in and add some less subtle "punch" to the color. I think. I don't know for certain, as I am really sort of liking the shabby chic, worn out feel I'm getting now.

I also finished the first of the Portraits cross stitch series and hope to get a little more done on the second before packing up to go camping for the weekend!  My camera is stowed away with my things. Hope to find some inspiration out there in the woods.

Creative 365: A Bunch O'Days...Putting us at 100!

I really do need to get a new camera. Mine eats batteries! Not very eco-friendly at all, especially now that I am using it a lot more than I use to be using it.  I finally located the battery stash that I had, (I really do need to get organized) and took pictures of the things I have been doing since last Wednesday's post.

Fabric Yarn Spinning, Rag Yarn tying and some Fabric Painting ...

And today was spent stitching the 2011 Installment of the Halloween "Take a Walk" Series

"Walking the Cat"

I managed to get from the tip of ghoulie's head to his chin done yesterday and today. It was a slow day getting out of the gate creatively today. I might need to take the day off tomorrow for the holiday and just do a lot of nothing, which sometimes can be a creative experience in and of itself!

Creative 365: Day 80 & 81 Fabric Yarn and Fabric Painting with a little cross stitch mixed in

I've been rotating projects. Painting until I need to leave it to dry, ripping fabric into strips until my shoulder screams at me to take a break, and then stitching in between.  I did manage to get a couple things done in the last two days though! Here is the latest fabric yarn creation.

Autumn Harvest

I really need to sit down with the fabric and crochet with it. This particular yardage really left me wanting to.

Oh, and I also finished a couple kiwis too, Sprinkles being my favorite!

And finally, the newest fat quarter...

Hawaiian Lei

I've got a lot of new ideas for upcoming fabrics. I just am stuck now waiting for my new paints to arrive!

Creative 365: Days 78 & 79: More fabric and Recycled Fabric Yarn

Over the weekend I spent some time painting, inspired by the petals of a bouquet of flowers that seen their last day, leaving petals behind on my counter top.  I also had images of painter's drop cloths in my head for some reason. So that was what inspired me to paint the second fabric. It was a humid weekend, so they took a bit of time to dry and so I didn't get pictures taken until this morning.

While at the thrift shop some time ago, I ran across old  cotton fabric that had been torn into strips and wound into balls. It reminded me of the fabric my grandma use to braid rugs with and I use to crochet with. I have so much fabric, (really? Can anyone have too much fabric??) so I decided to create a few recycled balls of this fabric yarn myself.  They are knotted and all texture-y and just completely organic in their feel. 

Herbs

Latte

Copper

Today my kiwi birds are going to get some eyeballs and other fun embellishments, readying them for their photoshoot this afternoon. Pictures to follow!