Silk Screen Class, Oliso Iron & New Product

Wow!  We are always busy here.  This weekend was the first time in a while I did something for my self for the entire weekend. Catherine Goetz and I spent all day Saturday and Sunday with Gunnel Hag of Colour Vie fame in her workshop learning how to screen print!   Gunnel is an amazing artist and instructor. Her paints are environmentally friendly.
We learned all the basics of screen printing using basic newsprint to create stencils and art. Sunday we learned all about Photo Emulsion and various techniques to design art for your screen.  Gunnel shot a screen for each of us which we printed in the afternoon.   This is the screen I printed.  The art is a Diane Ericson Stencil.  I’m sure you can buy it directly from her.
We all take our cameras and intend to take pictures, but it just doesn’t happen because we get so wrapped up in our work.
B.T.W.  I left my lint roller at home and sure enough there was cat hair on the first piece of fabric I pulled out to print.

Mean while today it’s back to the real world.  The Oliso Irons arrived on Friday.  This is THE IRON you see on the Fons & Porter PBS programs.  New Lumiere paints, paintstik stencils, more texture magic and the new lighter weight Lutradur also arrived.  I will take a break from adding the Sulky threads to the site and add these today.
www.joannescreativenotions.com

Tomorrow I’ll write about my new 12 needle Babylock Embellisher.  I printed a few pieces this weekend that I’d like to embellish on top.  Now I have the proper machine.
Enjoy and Be Careful! Joanne

Fall Creativ Festival in Toronto

It’s hard to believe we are less than 60 days away from the Creativ Festival. October 22, 23 & 24 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre In Toronto. We had our first major planning meeting for this years’ event and I wanted to share a few of the details with you.

John and I are pleased to announce that we will be hosting Sulky Educator Diane Gloystein. Her passion for a broad range of sewing and surface embellishment techniques will fit quite well with the range of products we offer. We will have Sulky Threads and Stabilizers on our booth. I’m really excited about Dianne’s Applique Boutique Class. It’s being offered on Sunday morning from 9 to noon. I’ve included a close up of the project. It’s the perfect class for someone who is ready to explore some of the less traditional applique techniques and broaden their knowledge of how to best use the different Sulky Threads in your projects. If you would like to register in this class you can call the Festival @ 1.800.291.2030

We all know that proper Pressing is Essential to a successful outcome. Whether it’s using the iron to apply stabilizers, interfacings or press seam allowances. We will be offering the New complete line of Rowenta high quality pressing equipment. Rowenta Pressing experts will be there to show you how to enhance the joy of sewing with perfect results every time. They are so Fantastic we’ve given them a dedicated booth right across from us.

More in a day or so.
Don’t forget to go back to the home page and check the details on our Thread clearance for the long weekend. www.joannescreativenotions.com

Be Safe
Joanne

Flying Geese #1

When we were clearing up from the Spring Show this book Flying Geese & More #GEESE, came to my attention again. I have a friend who just loves Flying Geese and with her in mind I decided to take another look. The companion ruler for the book is long gone, but I knew I could do anything in this book with either the Fons & Porter Flying Geese Ruler or Marti Michelle’s Ruler both are shown on our web site.
www.joannescreativenotions.com

First, the book. Flying Geese & More. You will never find more combinations of 12” and 18” blocks of flying geese in one location. There are 150 blocks. The author starts with one block, shows you the companion blocks, 1/2 square, quarter square and more. Then she progresses on to variations of the block. It’s all done in pictograms and well presented so it’s easy to follow. The hardest thing I found was sticking to the pattern. Other options become obvious as soon as you start.

I started with the Fons & Porter Ruler, #FPR7846. I prefer to cut my strips from the right. The ruler remains flat on the fabric. I nicked my finger a few weeks ago so I’ve started trying to remember to wear the Klutz Glove, also a Fons & Porter Item. It’s hard to remember new “habits” at 48!

The ruler tells you exactly how wide to cut your strips to achieve  the finished size of goose you need. For the 12’’ block I cut my strips 2 1/2’’ wide.

Once the strips are cut, then you cut your geese. The cut on the left side of the ruler is awkward. I went back to it at the end.

Then it was time to cut the sky pieces on either side of the goose. If you square up the left side of your strip before you start you don’t have to worry about the awkward cut.

This is Important and doesn’t appear until the end of the instructions.
When you need to cut your sky pieces 1/2 right side up and 1/2 wrong side up so that the blunt edges will be on the left and right side when you sew.

Here are the 4 variations of one block I came up with.
I used plain squares, and 1/2 square triangles for companion blocks. I like the book and the way the options are presented. The ruler works and does exactly what it should. I still had accuracy issues with the piecing. The fabric is from Northcott.

I’m going to start on 4 different blocks from the Flying Geese & More book and use the Marti Michell Flying Geese Ruler. Once I’ve posted that I will be able to compare +’s of each ruler.
That will be next week’s post.