Favorite Floral

Last but certainly not least: my mint and lemon hydrangeas. I love them. They are peppy and springy and lovely. I want to print them on bags and skirt fabric and dress fabric and huge pieces of quilt fabric rather than just on my mint remnants. This was a rather perfect end to a whirlwind class. Although it is sad to leave the Fuji Studio and long, rewarding days of designing and printing, I am excited to see what the next two weeks of sewing and a fall of textile independent study will bring!






Hortensia

This summer I've found myself more and more fond of hydrangeas as I arrange them for grad parties, steal them for bouquets on the dining room table, and plan to plant them in front of my house in the fall. The blue ones, the white ones, the green ones. They spill over their boundaries and happily improve the mood of whichever garden or table they are inhabiting. With that in mind (and after scrapping a poppy idea), I set about to create a hydrangea print that made use of overlapping colors and generally filled the fabric more like a Liberty floral. And here is the result!



After an unusual experience with ink bleeding to the edges of the screens...probably because I was lazy and didn't send the fabric through the wash first...I struck upon a collection of blues and greens on grey that I think would make a lovely back to a quilt if I do say so myself.




After the first big piece was done, I experimented with green-yellow hydrangeas with white centers, and I'm quite pleased with them as well. These create the third tone I was rather hoping for with the overlapping colors in the blooms.





Bowls Bowls Bowls

Last week was a whirlwind! Printing printing printing. Making acetates, coating screens, shooting screens, blasting out emulsion, test prints, real prints, upset prints, happy prints. Whew. What a week.

I have learned some things about screen printing and myself. One, it is important for your acetate to be perfectly opaque or else blasting the emulsion out of your screen is a huge pain because you accidentally partially expose parts of the screen that you want to be see through. Two, Kelsey hates blasting out partially exposed screens. Lesson learned and applied to the next project. Three, Kelsey gets grumpy on test print day because colors and fabrics don't always work exactly how she imagined. Four, if Kelsey pushes through this grumpy phase and continues to experiment with colors without throwing in the towel, she will (within 24 hours) end up with fabric she is pleased with. Five, mother and sister are great repositories for test prints and bits of fabric Kelsey never wants to see again.

The bowl print was one of those moments when I wanted to just say "win a few, lose a few," and burn the test prints without looking back. However, I'm glad I didn't! After some rough and funky test prints on mint that I deemed "messy, horrible, and ugly" (Taylor says that was a bit of an overreaction) and then some kind of blah beige on grey prints, (people actually agreed with me on that one), I decided I would just mix up some crazy red ink and see what that turned out like. Voila! Pushed through + experimented = fabric I'm pleased with! I went in the next morning and printed more red fabric as well as some navy blue bowls, and now I am happy. Wouldn't these be cute as tea towels?

mint test print


beige on grey




Minty and Long-legged

The last of the printing has occurred, and I have nostalgically tucked my flamingo screens onto the shelf. I am happy with each of the colorways and sad to set aside this pattern. However, it is time for a new adventure in patterns and designs. Perhaps I will sneak into the studio and print some flamingos onto one of my bummy shirts, but shh don't tell Kathy, the studio director ;)

Next up is a stripe! I'm currently tracing a fun bowl stripe design onto acetates for printing next week. With class everyday, I hope to print two more fabric designs. This may be a tad ambitious, but since when do I not bite off more than I can chew? I hope you're enjoying my fabric designs at least half as much as I am because I am having a ball.






Grey Flamingos

With the test print done and a whole long weekend to wait antsily to get back into the studio, I burst in at ten in the morning on Monday and set to work. What I thought might take me two hours actually took close to five or six. When I finally finished my one yard of gray flamingo fabric in the afternoon, I began to truly appreciate the time-consuming process of hand-printing fabric. I suppose I realized this with the drunken circles at midnight, but I must have forgotten along my excited path. Nevertheless, I am still in love with printing. And I am faster.

Mid-afternoon a student from last month came in with three huge stacks of what she had printed in her time at the Fuji Studio. My teacher, Kathy, told me that this student was a speed demon when it came to printing. That she could print an entire huge piece of fabric in two hours. Challenge accepted. This student gave me some pointers for going faster, such as piling my clamps on the corners of my screens instead of actually clamping them down, and pulling the ink across the screen several extra times to extend the pulls between washings. With this and the discovery that clogged spots on screens can quickly be remedied with some concentrated finger scrubbing to avoid the dreaded wash-power rinse-dry cycle, I quickly got to work on the top half of my gray fabric and a new yard of mint.

However, by 7:30, with almost ten hours of printing under my belt, I was exhausted. Sweaty and close to burnt out, I picked up and folded my precious new fabrics, postponing the rest of the mint printing till the next class period, and headed home. More Wednesday!!





Silk Screening Class

I am in love with silk-screening fabrics! It is clean and crisp and so rewarding. None of the sore fingers from exacto knifing hundreds of semi-circles from cardstock or the smudgy printing with acrylic paints. It is lovely.

I am currently taking a silkscreening textiles course at Santa Reparata Fuji Studio in Florence, Italy. It is absolutely wonderful. We only have class two days a week at first, but as soon as I leave the studio, I want to be back there, printing and designing more. I printed my first test print on Wednesday, and I love it! It is exactly how I was hoping it would turn out, made more perfect because her scrap box for test prints contained the most perfect flamingo salmon color possible. I am in heaven. As soon as I left class, I was dreaming up a senior show of a collection of fabrics hung on the walls and incorporated into modern geometric quilts. I can't wait to keep printing!







Spontaneous

I sewed for fun last night. Have I ever mentioned how I love sewing? Lately I've been treating it like a chore or another item on my to-do list, but last night, I sat down and sewed just for fun :) Forget the quilt started on the wall. Forget the summer art assignment. We're talking: spontaneous, enjoyable, perfectly pressed seams. It was lovely.

Checking In

Blog update! I need a new posting strategy because I'm scheduled to be out of town every weekend for forever. Sundays don't seem to be such an ideal day to post anymore, as evidenced by my absence for a few weeks, but I still want to be present here! I will ponder.

Perhaps another reason I have been absent is because I haven't bound the last quilt yet...and it's been almost three weeks.....I will get there eventually, but I decided not to let it stop me from starting another quilt, so here it is: a Scattered Swoon. I can't decide what third fabric to use. I had a beige woodgrain pattern but didn't like it. Right now you can just see the batting. I'm considering a light grey stripe that I snagged at a store closing sale a couple of weeks ago. It would add some movement while remaining neutral. We shall see.

I hope you all are having a wonderful summer and enjoying the extra friend time and extra outside time like me!


Modern Buckwheat: Progress

I am so thankful for this lovely week. Finished Safe Haven and started Nights in Rodanthe. (Does anyone know how to pronounce that?) DIYed my own jeans shorts from an old pair of pants. Ate ice-cream at least four times if not more. Made stone fruit jam. Drank a beer with friends. The list just doesn't end.

Today was an exciting re-entering into the world of Gossip Girl Season 4. I am not as inspired by Blaire's wardrobe as I have been in the past, (a pink clutch with a red dress??) but I am appreciative as ever of the handsome Chace Crawford. He made for a quick afternoon, despite seam ripping several sections of wavy quilting. Of course, he may have been the reason I was distracted and quilted uneven lines in the first place. Oh well! On to binding!




Modern Buckwheat

I had the pleasure this morning of stumbling upon a new blog with which to fall in love. CanoeRidge Creations. Her simple modern quilts based on traditional blocks are exactly up my alley. In fact, I suddenly knew I had found a kindred spirit when I read,

"I just can't get the idea of GIANT quilt blocks out of my head. There's something so simple & stunning about a one block quilt, where traditional piecing meets modern quilting."

That is me! That is what I think! All. The. Time. Which is when it struck me, "Why haven't I done this yet if I think about it so much?" So, that was that. I sat down, scrapped the Single Girl quilt square plan and sketched out modern versions of some of my favorite traditional blocks. Buckwheat won, and I spent the afternoon cutting, sewing, and experiencing the weddings, births, and deaths of Downtown Abbey season three. May I take a moment to say how very displeased I am with the amount of deaths in this most recent season? Rather unnecessary. Nevertheless, I am pleased with how the quilt is turning out, and I want to immediately jump into five more large modern quilt blocks when it is finished.




Update: Check out the progress (here)!

Crosses

Several weeks ago in the middle of the haze of final projects, I stumbled upon a beautiful quilt by Adrianne over at little bluebell. She referenced a book called Modern Log Cabin Quilting by Susan Beal, so I quickly hastened to use my college's library in the only way I care to: ordering quilting and fabric printing and cooking books through inter-library loan. It arrived, and I joyfully walked through the now summer haze to pick it up. Laying on the grass, I decided that I too would tackle some modern cross blocks and see if it suited my fancy for a larger quilt. I was going to begin with all lime green crosses but accidentally looked at my corals and turquoises  It's a dangerous business, picking fabric. Never put more fabrics that you love on the table than you're willing to incorporate. I ended up with one cross of each color and now I have to decide. Green and coral? Coral and blue? Blue and green? What do you think?



To My Mom, the Intrepid Sewer and Scientist


Today is a great day to recognize my wonderful, beautiful mother. She spent her weekend helping me to pack up my apartment despite the fact that today was Mother's Day and her birthday! She really is the best mom I could ask for. I like lists, so I think today will be a list day. Here is a small glimpse of the incredibleness that is my mom and reasons why I am so thankful that she's mine :)

1. Her love for sewing and her patience to teach me, even when I pick difficult projects and get stressed over zippers and leave irons sitting facedown on dresses I just finished and we have to dye the whole dress a darker color to cover over the singe marks. Thank you.

2. Her propensity to experiment and dye fabric and quilt and make cards and also water color and print fabric and...basically everything artistic. Check her fiber arts out here ;)

3. Her incredible brain and the fact that she got her PhD a couple years after I was born and that she dove back into her research after her kiddos were old enough to drive themselves around. She inspires me.

4. Her patience with me calling home, dare I say it, probably two to three times a day as I walk between classes, receive disappointing test grades (the dreaded B-), and giggle over boys.

5. Her active walk with God, seeking His desires for her life and slowly letting me see that secret side of her.

6. Her inspiring pursuit of understanding and knowledge, be it hawk identification, natural dye sources, or magnetic resonance imaging as related to radiological imaging.

7. Her advice when it comes to dealing with conflict and frustrations, anxiety and school pressure. I will pass along her two recent pieces of advice when it comes to conflict management that have served me well: It's probably not about you, and you don't have to bring emotions into it. Sound advice.

8. Lastly, and not leastly, (and not really lastly, just the last one here, I've got to keep some secrets between her and me or people might try to come steal her) her servant's heart, packing me in and out of college every year, driving me to countless band concerts and dance classes and friends' houses, stirring the fizz out the Sprite when I'm sick, picking out fabrics with me for summer projects, stopping at garage sales with me even when she wants to get on the road, the list never ends.

Mom, you really are the best Mom. I hope you know that. I couldn't ask for more.

Love you,
Kels

Flying Geese: Progress

The weather is just perfect sometimes, hmm? Looking back at my recent posts, it seems that the weather must always be perfect on Sundays, since it definitely isn't as peaches and cream all the time as my blog makes it sound. In fact, Friday was pretty miserable.

The clouds, cool weather, and rain settled in just in time for the last day of classes, turning a Strummin into Summer concert on the lawn into Jamming in the Student Center basement. Bummer. Not to mention, my classmates and I thought it would be fun to bet how many minutes late our perpetually late professor would be, and when he walked in 15 seconds before the time I guessed, we all laughed....putting him in a foul mood for the rest of lecture. Coupled with the sinking feeling that the guy I have a crush on is gay (not really, but that's Olivia's postulate), Friday was not the most exciting last day of classes I've ever had. However, when my friend Kevin Marble finally started playing at the end of the concert and played my favorite song while we munched on free cotton candy and root beer floats, the night turned around. A walk at Herrick Lake on Saturday and a spontaneous dog pile in the grass with my freshman floormates solidified it. Classes are done. The freckles are returning. Summer is here :)


Today I picked out and cut fabric for two more Farmer's Wife Quilt blocks. May I repeat: I Love My Fabrics. I really want a quilt in them right now. I may have to buy more of a couple and whip up a picnic quilt for our research group lunches. How perfect, right!

Then I moved on to my Flying Geese quilt. I laid it out a couple times without settling on one I liked and then tried the random method. I mixed all the pieces into one heaping mound and, closing my eyes, pulled them out at random to create a formation that I actually quite liked. A little tweaking here and there, and I settled upon a quilt that was approved by both mother and sister. (Thanks, you guys!) I began to piece it together, and it is now in eight pieces instead of thrity-two. Progress I would say.


Plus, next week will be completely summer and multiple evenings in a row of sewing will begin! Hooray!


{Check out the beginnings of this quilt and the almost finished product}

Squash Blossom

Today has been beautiful. It's been a warm breezy taste of the best version of summer with just enough cloud cover right after brunch to warrant snuggling up under my afghan and the perfect amount of sun for a walk in the afternoon. It's days like these that make me breathe "thank you"s to a Creator who could craft such a lovely day.

With my junior critique done, I've been a little aimless in my sewing, so I decided to return to the familiar: my Farmer's Wife Quilt! It was so fun to flip through and pick a block and then thumb through my fabrics for a couple I can't bear to put back in the box. Have I ever said before that I love my fabrics for this quilt?? I love them. This week was fun because I found three that I really like for Squash Blossom, a block I tried very hard to find three fabrics for last fall but couldn't seem to. I love how it turned out! Maybe I'll do FWQ for a couple weeks in a row; little senses of accomplishments are so uplifting :)


Squash Blossom 


Migration

Oh my, spring is here :) This is the first week I've been able to breathe in months, and it feels great. School doesn't feel like such a daunting monster swallowing my friends, my sleep, and my happiness. I actually have time to enjoy life again. I took an evening off to water color last week, and I could quilt today without feeling guilty about homework I maybe should be doing.

I started a Flying Geese quilt based off a quilt tutorial on purlbee in honor of the Canadian geese leaving us (and because I've been dying to do a flying geese quilt for awhile now). The colors make me happy and remind me of driving with the windows down. Yay, summer! I also made the exciting decision to cut up my newly printed fabric. It's so rewarding to se fabric that you designed and printed yourself. Hopefully this week I can squeeze some quilting time in so that next Sunday I can work on laying it out!


{Check out some progress on this quilt and the almost finished product}

Critique

Today was my junior critique for my senior show. Basically, the professors want to make sure that we're figuring out a direction for our show and honing our skills. It's the only important thing in my life that I haven't been stressed about recently, and the lack of stress was definitely worth it. My two profs came in and jumped into informal discussion about my pieces and what quilting means to me. We basically laughed and talked about what I love for half an hour, talk about not intimidating.

Professor Samuelson had some poignant insight about my show and me and quilting. She said that I need to have three "things" for my show. One is quilting. Two is me. And three I still need to figure out. She explained that when she said "two is me," she meant that I bring my precision and planning and rigor to my quilting. I match the corners and align the angles to a perfection that demands the viewer to whip themselves into shape. No one has ever analyzed my quilting that way before, but I think it is very accurate. I guess I attack quilting just like I attack life. First of all, I attack it, and second, I whip it into shape. Good thing? Bad thing? Perhaps just very true...


Picking Up the Pieces

The Broken Dishes baby quilt is finally finished! I bound the corners this afternoon while catching up on Once Upon a Time and perusing hairdos for banquet. Well...maybe I didn't peruse and bind at the same time, but I took strategic breaks when the thread ran out to go on Pinterest, don't we all?

Before I lay this quilt to rest on my blog, I would like to explain the idea behind the quilt. Recently I've been considering the time and resources that will go into my senior quilt show and the other ways those resources could be used, i.e. feeding the hungry, tutoring the needy, sponsoring orphans. I realized that I would love for my quilt show to do those things. My newest idea is to create a quilt show of baby quilts that will then be donated to the Pregnancy Counseling Center for unwanted pregnancies and unwed mothers. Theoretically, each quilt would have a wish stitched into it, a hope for the child that it will enfold. That he would work with his hands and enjoy dirt under his fingernails. That she would see the love of God in her life and not seek it among those who can't provide it. Or this quilt: that his or her parents would remember that people are more important than things and that they would pass this truth along to him or her.

When children come into a house for the first time, things get broken. The cut crystal candy dish on the coffee table is knocked off by sticky fingers or the new car comes home dented after a distracted parking attempt with girlfriends in the backseat. However, when it happens, I want this child and its parents to remember that people are more important than things. The candy dish can be replaced; just praise the Lord that no toddling feet stepped on the glass. And the car may not be so shiny and new, but your daughter is still in one unbroken piece. Even if the broken thing is koolaid spilled on the baby quilt, at least it wasn't blood. In today's materialist world, a shift in perspective on a situation is healthy and necessary. A refocusing on those we love rather than that which we love reminds us what truly matters and what is alright left shattered.





{Check out the process of the Broken Dishes quilt (laying out, piecing, more piecing,

Drunken Circles

My chemistry classes have engulfed me. I am officially drowning in lab reports and exams. Luckily my lovely mother was there for me this weekend with a PFD. No, it was not a personal flotation device. Instead, it was prepared-for-dying fabric! Home for Easter, I had the use of her beautiful and well-stocked studio, which includes a brayer, a large cushioned printing board, and many other wonderful supplies to come to my aid in finishing up printing my fabric for Maze and Vale's hand-printed fabric swap. I'm a couple days late but happy with my final results.





This is the third incarnation of the drunken circles in the form of a foam stamp on plexi-glass. The paper stencil proved too time consuming for its disposable nature, and the acetate stencil proved too thick for efficient screen-printing. However, I am very happy with the stamp. If I use this design more, I may send away to have a permanent screen made up that I can use forever and forever. The drunken circles will live on!