Cheap Batik Art Project!

Hi! It has been forever since I have posted anything. 3 years ago I went back to work full time teaching Art and Gifted at a Middle School. Which means I have less time to manage more things, so I don't get to sew as much as I did and I definitely didn't have much time to squeeze in a blog post. But after this project, I had a few people ask me to write out detailed instructions, so here it is!

Here are some final projects.

My 7th grade classes were doing a Unit on African Art, and we studied a variety of techniques to make/dye cloth. I wanted to do a resist project, but I have a budget of $0 and 100 kids. I was able to find a few yards of cotton Muslin in my closet, and figured if I break them into teams, It just might work. I had Elmer's Glue in my closet, and some donated. fabric paint. 

Supplies Needed:
White or Off White Cotton Fabric
Fabric Paint
Brushes
Shaving Cream
Access to a Washing Machine

The first step was drawing their plans in their sketchbooks. Because this was a group project, they had to agree. I let them pick their own groups to help foster that. Then, they free hand the Washable Elmer's Glue onto then fabric. DO NOT HAVE NEWSPAPER UNDER FABRIC, it will stick as the glue seeps into the fabric. If you have plastic table covers, use them to lay them to dry. It took the glue about 24 hours to dry completely.

After the glue is dried, mix the fabric paint into a cup of shave cream. Just like paper marbling.

add a good bit of fabric paint, and mix well. Then they paint the colors onto their cloth.

We let the paint dry for a weekend. I washed the projects that Monday, and for some I had to wash twice to get all the glue off. They came out wonderfully though!

The students loved this project. It is easy enough for younger students to, but interesting enough for older students.

Guardians of the Galaxy and the Autism Spectrum

So, the post going around about Drax from Guardians being like an autistic person because he could not get metaphors got me thinking, as a teacher I can see a bit of all the spectrum in the Guardians.

If Drax is verbal autistic,

Groot is non verbal autistic. He has so much to say, but just can't get it out. He is sweet and sensitive.

Rocket is total ADHD. All action all the time. Smart to the point of scary sometimes, he can create elaborate plans quickly that actually work. Can be totally obnoxious often, but you love him anyway.

Gamora is our girl on the spectrum. Smart, socially isolated and with a strong sense of justice, sometimes things go a little over her head but that's OK. Once she found her few good friends, all was well.

Starlord - He's our Aspie. Smart in certain ways, but socially awkward. Totally verbal but sometimes doesn't know when to stop talking. He knows he is different but doesn't quite know why.

and there it is, the Spectrum of Guardians of the Galaxy.

Scraps

Bare walls drive me nuts. However, I am not really great with home decor. I tend to find all of our furniture from craigslist, family members, or the side of the road (seriously, drives my husband nuts). Everything hanging on our walls is either art from my kids, my very talented friends, or family photos. My house will never be in Better Homes and Gardens.

So we have a dining room. I love having a dining room, we found an guy through friends that makes tables and benches out of scrap wood leftover from building homes, a china cabinet for almost nothing, and chairs from Goodwill. It is big enough for our whole family even when extended family visits. It is also where my amazing Girl Scout troop meets, the kids do art projects and general mayhem happens. The walls in the dining room are still bare. Like totally neekid.

At first I thought I would put a dry erase board in there, or cork squares to change things up, but I didn't want it to be too classroom like. So a few months ago my friend Dorothy gave me a bunch of really cool vintage embroidery hoops. All sizes. I knew they had to be in my house somewhere.

So today the kids and I went through my fabric scraps and started loading up the hoops. To keep the edges down, we used Elmer's school glue, just in case we wanted to take the fabric out and use it in another project. If you want yours to be permanent, you can use a glue gun or staples.

This project took us about an hour from hooping to hanging!

I think it fits our dining room really well, and the fabrics remind us of past sewing projects! Bonus, it was FREE.

I know a lot of us don't have the hoops hanging around, but they can often be found in thrift stores or grandma's attic!

Tennessee Row by Row

Many of us are excited for Summer, especially with travels! It gives us the opportunity to visit other quilt shops, and perhaps participate in the Row by Row Experience!

If you are coming through the Memphis area, please stop by Sew Memphis and pick up a copy of our free row by row pattern for the challenge! I love our pattern. The theme this year was water, and of course The Bluff City is right on the Mississippi River!

Our row features local fabric designer Jenean Morrison's latest fabric line, Star Landing. The pattern was inspired by the DeSoto bridge, the Mississippi River, and Memphis as the crossroads between the midwest and the south.

I love Memphis. I have met so many creative, fun people here. I have learned so much as a sewist, and have grown a ton as a quilter and designer.

Happy travels this summer, and don't forget to participate in the row by row experience!

Check out the new issue of GenerationQ Magazine!

July/August 2015 Issue of GenerationQ

Sew big news! I have a project in the current issue of GenerationQ Magazine! I am sew excited! You can find the issue at select bookstores, the coolest quilt shops, or order online!

I have been writing patterns for a while (bag patterns are available on etsy and craftsy), and last year started submitting to Quilt magazines. It has always been my dream to have patterns in print instead of just self publishing, and here is my first! The pattern is a fun, quick easily pieced lap quilt! I hope you check it out!

Marcia Derse and Fall

There is something about fall that makes me gravitate to Marcia Derse fabrics. A few weeks ago I was in Sew Memphis for a visit and was talking with Mary Allison about christmas, inspiration and upcoming fabric lines. She asked if I could do a shop sample of the Kosmos quilt (free pattern here) using fabrics that would be a good fit for a Christmas kit. Together we chose Marcia Derse and a grey solid background.

Kosmos quilt using Marcia Derse fabric, before border was added

I LOVE how this came out. The stars just pop out of the background. The colors are so vibrant! The kit will be available this holiday season at Sew Memphis.

Of course I had to buy more Marcia Derse fabric with the intention of maybe designing a new bag pattern around the fabric, but when I got it home I knew I already had the perfect boho chic bag pattern for the fabric.

Koukla bag made from Macia Derse fabric

The Koukla Bag Pattern is perfect for Marcia Derse fabric! I love how this fabric changes the feel of the bag. All my samples before had used patchwork print fabric, but this gives it a more boho feel.

Happy Sewing!

Awareness Ribbon Wall Hanging

So October flew by so fast this was the first year ever we didn't sew anything for our Halloween costumes, just hit up the thrift stores. I also was a bad mom and really didn't get many pictures! It has been crazy! But on the good news front, I had my 6 months post surgery visit and am not only Melanoma NED, but also healing really well!

I have most of my range of motion back and can sew for about an hour at a time now! It is still tight and healing, but is healing really nicely!

Originally the margin was so wide I was going to need a skin graft. Skin grafts are tricky to begin with, and can be awful if they don't take. Along with the graft site itself, you also have a huge spot where they take skin from. I was totally freaked out when I was first told I had to have one, and asked my surgeon what we could do to not have a skin graft on my hand, since keeping a hand from moving is pretty impossible. He promised me he would try his best to stitch me up, and since I was chubby it just might work. So here is one instance where being full size helped me out a lot! He was able to stitch me up, and for that I am so grateful! He was also a top notch surgeon, and even though I pray I never have to see him as a doctor again, he did take time with me as a patient to explain everything and help quell my fears. Of course, I had to make something for his office.

All his wall art was Breast Cancer Awareness, so I had to add some Melanoma Awareness to his office! I made this using Quilters Cache Ribbon Quilt Block. It was super easy and quick to put together, and I think I need to make myself one for my sewing room.

Happy Sewing!

-p-

Mississippi Living

One thing I love about living in Northern Mississippi is we are a short drive from a bunch of cute towns. I wrote a few months about Como, one of my husband's favorite places to go for a date night. I need to write about the town we chose to live in, but because it is where we live I have found that I don't take too many photos when out and about!

Outside of the world of sewing and motherhood, I do have a job. I work at the county's history museum! I do education programs in schools, on site and at historic sites around the county.

Museum Director Brian Hicks and I at the Wesson House in Olive Branch for a school program

I have a really cool job. I love what I do. It has also helped me learn all about DeSoto County, I live in Hernando, which is the county seat. It is a beautiful southern town, with a courthouse and square, full of wonderful shops and restaurants. The other Old Town area in our county is Olive Branch. Olive Branch is a small town (before being incorporated as a town it was simply known as Cow Pen) in the North East corner of the county, bordering Memphis. Downtown Olive Branch can transport you back in time, since the buildings have not much changed, and there are several little gems I love to visit when I am up that way.  

Right on the town square they have a Stoop for concerts. 

Olive Branch has a really active Arts Community!

The Wesson House, built by the first Mayor of Olive Branch

Often I am there for the day, so I have an actual Olive Branch ritual. 

Olive Branch, MS Downtown

It starts before I need to be at the event with a trips to Pinks. 

Pink's in Olive Branch

You have to love a local coffee shop! She makes these amazing Rolo Frappe drinks that is coffee and sugar to get you through any kind of day!

Rolo Frappe

Then it is off to what I need to do, usually a meeting. If I get to chose where we go for lunch, it's to Evans. 

Evan's Cafe 

Evan's is a buffet of Southern Delights. Yes, there is a lot of fried foods, and yes, it is delicious. It is hard to stay awake for the rest of the afternoon, so we usually swing by the Old Towne Bakery across the street for amazing cookies and pastries. 

Old Towne Bakery

Fair warning, they only accept cash. I have made the mistake a few times of not having cash on my and missing out on cookies. :( 

Mississippi is full of wonderful towns like Olive Branch to explore! If you find yourself in Memphis and looking for a little rest from the city, come down to DeSoto County for a visit!

Art and Life

A while ago I wrote about finding a longarm quilter that fits your style. I know when I first started quilting I lived in Ohio and just found a local lady and basically said "just a meander in white is fine" for every project. Hey, forgive me, I was new and just really excited to see anything finished! I know better now. The quilting can change everything about your quilt!

My longarm quilter Teresa from Quilts2aT got together and made a wall hanging from the scraps leftover when I made 2 matching queen quilts for my bedroom.

Guestroom 

I had a few of the 9 patches leftover and put them together thinking it might make a good crib quilt, since there is also a crib in there. After bringing it over and hanging it on her design wall, we started talking about it. A lot. There was so much negative space. Too much negative space actually. This wasn't a killer piece on my part. It was sparse. It was missing something. We talked about the best usage for the negative space. Working on a quilt with someone can be like working on a painting with another artist. You paint a portion, hand it over, they work on it, maybe you get it back to add more, and so on. You know what the other artists aesthetic is, but you can't predict what the finished work will look like when it is all done. What she did was stunning. 

From far away you can see it is a lot of white space.

Closer you can see the ghost 9 patches. We called it The Canterville Quilt. Oscar Wilde fans, here is your giggle for the day. 

Movement and rests, quilting can be musical

I love the bubbles

Freehand, so every swirl is an individual

See? Amazing. We entered it in MQX this past week. We didn't win any of the prizes Wednesday, but yesterday Teresa walked by and Toby Lischko was pinning her faculty ribbon on our quilt!

yeah! We got a ribbon!

Toby Lischko and Teresa at MQX in Springfield.

How cool! Happy sewing!

Swaps! Lanyard idea

I am a leader of a Brownie Troop, and my girls are ga-ga over swaps. As we prepare for our first camporee of the school year, we will be making swaps at our next meeting. So each of them would have a nice lanyard for the swaps I made these for them. You can let your girls sew these, it honestly takes only a few minutes for each one! For the swaps, check out Pinterest. Just a warning, there are a million and you can spend all day (OK, a few days) lost looking at Girl Scout Swaps!

Yes, the s'mores swap is the hands down favorite!

The lanyard accessories are available really cheap at craft stores and Walmart in the kid craft section.

Start with a strip of fabric 2 1/2 inches wide by WOF (42-44) long. Put a key ring around the fabric. It is just easier to do this now before you sew and move it around than try to thread it through at the end. Then carefully take your fabric around to one side, careful not to get it twisted. Place ends crossed, right sides together like the photo and pin the ends like the photo.

See where the pins are? You are going to sew on that diagonal. If you have ever done quilt binding, this will be super easy. Sew on the diagonal as pinned. Then trim to 1/4 inch.

Take this to the ironing board, press the seam open.

Then fold and press the whole thing in half, moving the ring around as you go. This is tricky since it is a loop and not a flat piece of fabric.

Then open it up, folding the two ends into the center.

Fold again on the center you pressed first, so the ends are neatly tucked in.

Press like there is no tomorrow! Then take to the machine and stitch as close to the open end as your can.

Find the seam where you made the circle, and pull it down to the bottom. Fold around the ring, and sew about an inch up from the bottom.

All you have to do now is add your lanyard clip and you are done!

For the name tags, I took a blank business card stock and printed their names on them, then used thick packing tape to laminate them! I used a standard hole punch to add the hole at the top and that was it!

Now off the Pinterest to see what other Swaps we can do...