Dear Friends,
It really feels like spring today. This was the third day this week when I ate my lunch out on the patio and enjoyed the out of doors. One of my favorite sketchbook assignments that I did with my eight graders was what I called ” Noting Natural Changes” and I started it this week with the drawing on the left. I when out into the sun shine and selected a branch and tried to draw it life sized in my sketch book this morning. I will follow up next week and draw the same branch- again life sized and in so doing note the changes a week makes for growth at this time of year. My students always were suprised by the change a week can make at this time of year and I feel like paying attention to that myself. This week has been as busy as they all seem to be. 
I went off to visit with my friend Ethel again yesterday and we had great fun making silk paper. Silk paper is created from silk threads that 
have not been spun. They come in great long hanks that one gently pulls apart and lays down on nylon netting. Three layers of thread in alternating directions is the usual lay out. then a second piece of nylon netting is placed on top. The whole thing is gently soaked with water and then a mixture of fabric medium and water is applied to first one side and then the other side of the sandwich. After the sandwich is all dry the nylon netting is carefully pealed from both sides and ironed. The top image shows the pre-dyed silk drying on the line and it is still encased in the nylon netting. Pictured on the left are two others we did in the morning with the netting removed. The blue and purple piece is made of what are called silk hankies- a group of squared off silk layers that can be pulled apart as apposed to a hank of silk. We dyed both of these two pieces before we added the water and fabric medium to them. We had such a good time that we are going to play at this another day next mouth. I already have an idea of things I want to try next time.
Progress Report: Spot On
22″ X 34.5″
This quilt is done now. It is one more of my piece that grew out of my ” Use the old materials” push. The marbleized fabric in the upper left and the center 
bottom are both old materials. The light blue with the natural shapes in purple and white near the center left are from an experiment that I tried last fall. I was attempting to do shobori with paint instead of dye. This piece is the most successful section. The tyvek is painted on both sides and I did that last winter when I first started going to the Turquoise Studio. The pink color is painted on the back side of the tyvek. I have used tyvek several times before and not been to happy with the results. But this time I quilted it before I applied the heat. I also waited until I could go out of doors and I wore my respirator while I did this process. I like how the heat gun distressed the tyvek and how much the stitching controlled the distorting too.
Golden Rain. This quilt is all quilted now and ready for the embellishment. That is the part that will add the rain running down the surface. I wrapped gold pipe cleaners with two different yards.
They will become the rain when I hand stitch them to the surface. I still need to tack the facings on both the left and right sides as well. The copper ribbon really shows up the quilting patterns and adds to the flow motion down the quilt that I was looking for.
Slicing Through: This quilt is moving along although very slowly. After Sue 
Ellen’s tutorial on how to make those little cuts and sew them in I feel I am successful with that part of the process. Now to work out the design part. This work has gotten away from me as far as size is concerned- the rule says 18″ X 24″- and this is bigger than that already….. I am not sure how to go forward, so it is fermenting under white paper and two other starts, on the pin wall.
About to Bud: This piece is basted and ready for quilting. It too has some 
marbleized fabric in it, ( Use the Old Materials)although this is a newer experiment then Spot On. It also has some of my foam stamp work in the dark turquoise fabric. The off rounded long forms are from a commercial stamp and come from my play day where I was trying to use every stencil I had in my note book that I had never tried before. After letting this work hang on the wall over night I decided it needed to have a machine drawn/quilted bare tree added on top of it. I will do some sketches before I stat that part of the project.
Silver Slivers: I have had these silk triangles for several 
years. ( More Use the Old Material ) On Monday when it was so rainy and gray I pulled them out and added the gray to them at the end of the day. Now there irregular shapes means that I can not keep the full silk shapes and make traditional connections. So the following morning I though I might insert silver slivers between the units and in so doing sort of square them up. If and how that works remains to be seen,but I do like a challenge and this is a good one. It may also help when it comes to doing Dawn’s fabric form the DMC challenge because the colors are the same.
New Work: 
This one remains to be named and completed. True to my solution when I am frustrated I start something new- all this wonderful hand dyed/ printing fabric in a discarded pile on the cutting table …. put it together. Only time will tell if it becomes anything. I go off on these little seaming sprints some times- knowing that it can always become a part of a Scarp Happy if nothing else…. But is spring and anything is possible.
Keep Creating
Carol
