I'm back!

Here I'm, at the end of August, having been home all summer. It is the first time in many years that we haven't gone anywhere during the summer. My only getaways during this summer were overnight trips to visit different universities within 4 hours from home, which doesn't count towards vacation time, in fact, it was more of a chore than anything else, especially when walking around in 100 degree weather!! The upside was spending lots of  time with my daughter, a senior in high school, college bound pretty soon. Visiting schools was in first order this summer and by now dear daughter has narrowed down her selections and gotten that out of the way.
I did manage to make a couple of quilts for the upcoming  AAQG 2010 quilt show  "Changing Gears". This exhibit is a cool one, the Austin guild has tons of talented quilters and this year the show will be at the Palmer Events Center, 900 Barton Springs Rd. here in Austin. The  venue is very nice and with plenty of room for the quilts to shine. I'm looking forward to it.

I'm entering 3 quilts in the exhibit, one is done, two more to go. They are very close to being finished. I will post some photos later on, in the meantime....here is one of them during the making. This quilt is called "Self Explanatory" (c.2010).
Here is the process in a condensed form.
I designed the quilt on a  8"x11" piece of paper. I took it to the copy center to be enlarged to a size 43" x 35" (image 1). I traced the design to PFD white fabric and then I hand dyed the different elements on the quilt. Hand dyeing is like painting on fabric, instead of using textile paint I used dyes thickened with a paste. After I finished hand dyeing everything on it, image 2, I let the dyes dry and the last step was to wash the material. Some of the colors faded a little bit, especially the blacks but I was happy with the overall result. (image 3)

I'm quilting it today, YAY!

Image 1

Image 2

Image 3






"Self Explanatory"  designed and made by Martha Tsihlas c.2010
Hanging at the 2010 AAQG Quilt Show
"Changing Gears"