Serendipity Susan...OCC Enabler :)

Last Monday, my friend Susan, and a new crafty friend from work, Jill, came over for a playday. The only thing missing was Donna, and she was very much on the minds of Susan and myself while we chattered away over the sewing machines. Susan brought, and subsiquently left, a box of 2.5" fabric squares that we just sat and put together in random order. They are called "Serendipity Quilts". What Susan doesn't know is that she left the box behind with an OCC, or Obsessive Compulsive Crafter, who is now compelled to keep putting the squares together. I drew the line however at the bag of strips that were in the box too, and you can see below what I did with just some of them. I love the tree, and the more it evolves the more I think I'm going to add a small bird in it's nest (pattern pinned to tree). This most likely will be the front of a small tote bag.

As promised, here is a picture of my first two attempts at screen printing. Neither of them are finished yet, but for a first attempt I'm pretty happy. The flowers are done with a paper stencil, and the octopus is done by reduction method. He will eventually be a lovely purple gray, and using the photo method, I'll add detail in black to both him and the waves he's floating in. I can't get over how messy screen printing is, but once you get the groove it can go very quickly, actually the printing is the fastest part of the whole art form. I have been trying to get in touch with my inner kindergartner again, but as you can see in the case of the octopus, I never do anything simple right off the bat.

Two silk screen classes down and I still have yet to make a print, but I already know that I am going to enjoy this very much. I would have been much farther ahead, if it had not been for the fact that I put way to much block out on my screen for the first time and it took forever to dry, actually almost the entire class, until I borrowed someones hairdryer so I could take it home. It did however give me some time to work out a stencil design, and I'm hoping that by Friday I'll have some finished prints to post for you.

Silk Screen Class Tonight

Silk Screen Class starts tonight.Yes, I did double check the date (for those of you who have been following the story I went to class a month too early). I'm looking forward to perhaps combining this with fabric I have printed at spoonflower. There's no shortage of inspiration running around my head right now.

I'm going to.....

...FALLINGWATER...finally! I've always wanted to go see this masterpiece by Frank Lloyd Wright, so I've done the research, made the hotel reservation, and now only 23 days to go and I'm road tripping to PA.