Becka’s Project Journal

Before the time creeps by any farther, I do want to give a shout out to the lovely Cassi of Bella Dia. I met her while I was in Idaho. The fantastic ladies who organized everything for me to come out there, had a look around my web links and realized that they had their very own neighborhood fiber artist! Cassi and her gorgeous kids (and sister and family) came to my family day weaving project. It was lovely to meet all of you. (I am a big fan of Cassi’s embroidered houses!)

Here’s a sneak peak at some new enamels! I just found a source for some thinner copper that I can easily make in to my own shapes! Tra La! Coming soon to my etsy shop.

(I have been dreaming about these for months!)

Our big fundraiser at work is a ginormous garage sale. Tables piled 3 ft high with fabric and yarn and 1000′s of tools, gizmos, ufo’s patterns and more – all fabric related. It’s like Brigadoon – we bring it all in and set it up one day and the next day it’s gone. Sounds like fun, huh? So that’s why it’s been quiet around here. Because just after I got back from ID, then we jumped right in to garage sale mode. We had rotten weather for the drop-off days, but it still turned out great. I got myself a $5 dress form (named Dolores). I spent the weekend fixing her up with some duct tape and darts and now she matches my measurements. I also got a treasure trove of vintage fabric scraps. I am not a fan of little scraps. Never enough to do something with. But this was a bundle with a couple of larger pieces of vintage yardage and a bunch of scraps. Knowing that if I put them in to my fabric bin, I would never do anything with them, I did a little flurry of quilting on Saturday and transformed scraps in to doll quilts. I love them. I posted a few of them to my etsy shop (check them out!) I can just imagine something like this having been a greatly treasured possession when I was a little girl, and I hope someone else will too.

Some more beautiful work by my students in Idaho.

I came home from Idaho and jumped right in to the “World’s Largest Textile Garage Sale” (more about that later.)

Here’s where I stayed:

This is the house where Ezra Pound was born. I stayed upstairs in a resident artist suite. Totally cool.

Here’s a sweet little bird by one of the students in my felting class.

I am going to have to cut this short because blogger is having image issues and won’t let me upload any more. So, more later…

I got to sleep in a little bit this morning. Waiting for the coffee to brew right now.

I have finished up with adults and teen classes and just have family day left this afternoon. We have been having a ball. The felting class totally loved needle felting in to wool fabric. We had pictures of pigs and horses and a picasso=esque wool painting. We all tried our hands at birds and they decided that 3-d needle felting was a bit harder.

Then Friday was shibori. The water here is really hard and did some interesting things to our dyes. The soda ash (fixer) crystallized when the water hit it and became hard lumps in the bottom of the cup. Much stirring. The colors in the silk also shifted dramatically. I will show pictures, but my green and purple scarf is rust and yellow!

Teens class had 4 kids at the beginning of the week, 10 kids by Friday and ended up with 20 kids in my room. They were some of the nicest kids I have had the pleasure to teach and we had a ball.

Yesterday was embroidery and I have to applaud my class for their patience. 6 hours is a long time for sitting and stitching. We got through a lot of stuff and had the chance to play a bit with some felted beads and angelina fiber too.

Today, I slept in and I am watching a few little flakes of snow out my window. Doing a little sight seeing today, teaching a family day weaving class and then I leave tomorrow morning early.

(I didn’t bring the camera cable, so you will have to use your imaginations on this one!)

I have arrived in Idaho. It is beautifully sunny and warm enough to go walking without a heavy jacket – pure bliss. I taught wet and dry felting today. The day flew by and the students were all fantastic! (Hello students!) We made beads, sushi, flat inlay pieces, needle felted surface embellishment and a flock of needle felted birds. Plus we did a little bit of koolaid dyed wool just for fun.

I have to say that I would come back and teach here any time. The house and classroom are great.

Shibori dyes tomorrow. I am off to put the scarves in the laundry now. Photos when I get back.