Toolin' Tuesday - Gotta Find You Some!

The quilt above - Raven Creates -
was made from fabrics - cotton, velveteen and silk that were played into textured being.

It's all about play today!
Creating texture is fun -
layering them up can create grand, wonderful things.
But, all come about from your willingness to get your hands dirty,
letting  your mind wander and JUST PLAY!

The tools I am sharing with you are those that I have found or made.
Each has its own charm
Can be used with paints or inks
For creating TEXTURE on paper or fabric

There are loads of of different ways you can use these,
and I will definitely share some of these later on this month, so for now
start finding some play tools!!

found objects from the creative reuse and recycle center

purchased rubbing boards work well

but these found gridded and textured objects offer lot of play opps

I'm off now, but I'll be looking for some new play-tools...
How 'bout you?

I'd love to hear what you find!

Hunting On

~Rose

Tuesday Toolin' - A fun way to fill a SHAPE container

Happy Tuesday! Hope your week kicked off well.
I've been enjoying my time pulling all sorts of materials together for my Caribbean Cruise workshop participants. These trips seem so far out in time when you book them, it kind of seems magical when they show on the calendar to be just days away.

Today I've been having fun putting the final touches on a bag I'm making to carry my stuff while cruisin'.

For it I combined stamping and doodling and fabric
-- can there be anything better?
The cat stamps work to contain the fun-line doodling that bring the cats to life.
Stamping on fabric is fun and easy -- check it out!

I started with a pencil drawing of a cat face.
Then I rubbed pencil on the back of the picture
then laid it on top of a piece of rubber designed for
carving and tracing all the lines

With the pencil drawing completed I pulled out my lino-carving
tools and using the thin line tool and carved along the lines

then using a gouge tool I carefully carve away all the background areas

with everything carved it's time to stamp some cats onto fabric

using Createx Airbrush paint and a lino-roller I apply the paint to the stamp

I used masking tape to set the stage for the cat stamping --
then with the cats stamped it's time to get doodling -- then when it's all done,
it's ready to be stitched into the bag

before diving into the cat doodling I made a sample
using the Jarquard textile pens


GIVE STAMPING A TRY -- HAVE FUN!!

Toolin' Tuesday - Home Again, Home Again

I am totally excited this fine Tuesday morning,
for I have a date this morning with another of Paducah's incredible fiber artists. "Amazing" is the only hint I will leave for you and hope you stop by later this week to meet Lily Liu.

Also, this week I will be share my tree skeleton quilts along with a couple of how-to's that fit right in to this month's 'LINE' discoveries. You will also see the first of what I hope will be many fun and creative inspiring workbooks. This month the workbook will be about 'line' of course, but it will take you much further along the road to discovering how you can use the simple seeing and capturing line exercise materials to create beautiful fabric, paper and other media works.

I am totally jazzed!

Meantime, I am sharing with you today some of the 'line' inspiration I found on my recent trip to Scottsdale, AZ. All were taken on a simple walk around the block at lunch --
just have to keep an eye open.
I have been very inspired by this landscape before so I am also sharing one of my favorite set of quilts - Close, Closer & Closest.

Have a great Tuesday --
and take a few minutes to 'tool around and see what you may find right where you are!

Stiitchin On!
~Rose

No Foolin' Toolin' Tuesday

When I was running around Quilt Market last October I ran into that wonderful man from Kai Scissors. I had first met him in Long Beach where he happily accepted my challenge 'to prove' that his 5-1/2" curved scissors really would make the trimming of my Fast-Piece Applique pieces breezier than my beloved duck-bill scissors.

Try it -- he said...
and he needed to say nothing more, for after trying these little beauties I was hooked-- and bought them to share with my classes and add soon to my on-line store.

When showing my students the FPA method yesterday I included a "try it" you may just 'like it' suggestion, and then sold out of scissors. Today for Tool'in Tuesday the class was going to hold them up for a photo op, BUT we all got so consumed with the quilts that we forgot.

Still wanting to share these with you I went for send best...
photos of just the scissors themselves.


Like everything in life and quilting - having the right tool for the job, makes the doing a breeze. The right tool for one may not be the right tool for another, and the right tool may sometimes be 'really' be improved upon. We always need to be on the lookout for these jewels -- and, always give new tools a whirl.

Having a grand time at Quilt Camp-- promise fun pictures on my return.
Tomorrow I begin teaching a 2-day machine embellishment class, so I'll be

Stitichin' On
~Rose

Location:wonderful warm Quilt Camp

Hmmm...which way?

Happy Toolin' Tuesday!
Last night was a meeting of the Paducah Fiber Group-my third since moving here-
A delight as always.
I especially had my eyes open toward how these fellow fabric folks utilize 'line' in their work.

The search had it's rewards and I will be sharing two of the group's artists with you later this month. I'm pretty excited...can hardly wait to visit their studios and talk with them more!

But, for today I thought we could 'tool around' and see some photo examples how LINE is used to portray direction:

Which way to go? Do you have a favorite?

Good thing 'line' is here to show the way.

Enjoy your day, and as you 'tool around' keep a look out for 'line';
the path followed or the path you are creating.

Stitch On!
~Rose