On Our Way

Shannon, Janet and I headed off on our road trip to Mesa. It was good to get away from the cold. This morning we had to defrost the windows before we could see. Yikes!  Winter is coming. 

Lots of laughs on our drive so far. Only one partridge maimed out of four and the VW is okay. We got as far as Sturges. Lots of references to motorcycles here. 

Painters at Work

Asking Picasso to paint the garage is like asking a quilter to mend your pants!!  So be it. Shirley and I painted a room in the THAA. I guess we aren't considered artists?!?  It did really freshen the room up, though we probably don't want word to spread too far about our talents. 

Painting Sunflowers Day Two

We began our second day of our quilting workshop by sharing our works. It never ceases to amaze me the original ideas fibre artists have. It is wonderful to see what these colleagues create. 

After 'show and tell' Coreen got us back to the task at hand; making sunflowers out of our painted fabric. Lots of glorious flowers were created!

Painting Sunflowers

The THAA sponsored a quilting workshop by Coreen Zerr which ended up being held at our house on the farm. Day one of the two day workshop focused on painting fabric to use to create sunflowers. We needed a garage to paint in as the day turned out to be cool and misty. 

First we had to stretch the 1/4 meter strips of TrendTex Cotton Lawn fabric on the stretcher frames. We worked in pairs using duck tape to attach the fabric to the wood frames. 

Painting on fabric is lots of fun. We used Seta Colour Paints in four colours - yellow, red, blue and violet. We wet the fabric with a spray bottle, then we applied a layer of yellow (the lightest colour) and then added other colours to bleed into the yellow. Adding course salt on top of the wet paint causes mottling as the paint dries. Wonderful effects. 

After letting the fabric dry, we shook off the salt, removed the fabric from the frames and heat set the colour by pressing the fabric on both sides with a hot iron. 

Coreen showed us some of her works with sunflowers on them. Each of us will use the fabric we dyed to create sunflowers. Now we are each deciding what to put with our sunflowers. Many of us are using old wagon wheels, rusty cars, birdhouses, etc. it will be fun to see what each person designs. 

Leah Gets Wisdom Teeth Extracted.

After years of warning, occasional discomfort and a week of outright pain, Leah finally got her wisdom teeth removed. The actual extraction was amazingly quick!  She checked in for her appointment at 11. Was put under at 11:30 and was done by 11:50. Whew!!

Now for the healing?!!!

Born Out Of Love

Aaron's documentary, Born Out Of Love, was shown at the Glenboro Gaiety Theatre sponsored by the Tiger Hills Arts Association. They had a matinee with a small audience and an evening show with a good amount of people. 

It was the first time I had seen the doc. It was wonderful. Very fast paced with a good story line, all explained thru interviews, song and art work. Well done!!

Aaron and Ryan ( the co-director) enjoyed posing for pics with Sara the local town mascot and in front of the theatre. 

Tortilla Warmer

Sewing at Treherne Collegiate.

Some students want to make tortilla warmer's, here is the tutorial:

Cut 13" circles of muslin, batting, and three of your choice of cotton printed fabric.

Here I have used a template for a half circle and placed it on the fold, cut with a rotary cutter.

For the bottom of the warmer you will need to layer three fabrics together.  place the batting on the bottom, then the muslin, with the print fabric good side down on the top.

Batting, muslin and print fabric (good side down).

Sew together the bottom of the warmer leaving an opening of about 4 - 5 inches to turn the circle right side out.

Leave an opening for turning.  See the red pins.

Notch through the three layers before you turn the circle.  This takes away some of the bulk.  Carefull not to cut your stitching though!

Hold your scissors carefully so you do not cut through your stitching.

Here is the bottom of the warmer notched and ready for turning.

See the opening near the top of the photo.

Next, do the same with the top of the warmer.  Place the print fabric good sides together.

Here is the top of the warmer, sewed, notched and ready to be turned.

Turn both of your circles.  Finger press to ensure that you have the edges completely turned.

Use your fingers to make sure you have the edges out.

Then press with an iron and steam.

Here the top of the warmer is pressed and the bottom is turned and awaiting pressing.

Here are the two circles pressed and ready for the next step.

Now, lay the circles wrong sides together and serge them at the raw edges where you turned the circles right side out.

Here the circles are aligned and sitting ready to be serged.

Serge carefully where the sewing line would be, trimming off the excess fabric.

Serged and looking like a complete circle.

Now, using the sewing machine, sew a scant 1/4 inch seam through the two turned circles.  There is a lot of material to go through.  Be patient.

Notice I started sewing back of the serge seam by about an inch.

When you get to the end of your opening sew back and forth a few times to strengthen the seam.

Use the reverse button on the sewing machine to go back and forth twice.

Now the top and bottom circles of your tortilla warmer are attached.

Turn your warmer right side out.

Press and use!!