Back to back quilting adventures! On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to spend some time with
Rayna Gillman in her studio. We chatted and laughed about how much we have in common (we are both ENFPs...another story). Afterwards, I got a chance to "save" a piece of fabric. I wondered where
this fabric came from...in no way, at no time, was it my "type". I happily went at it with some thickened dyes. First I used a stamp I created by heating and impressing some architectural thingy into it. Following that, I used a wonderful "Klimty" stamp purchased at a scrapbooking store in MD. Rayna showed me how simple it is to cure my fabric using steam. I'm definitely going to try that again. I left her with a surprise...no I can't tell--hopefully you'll see how she used it in one of her future blog entries. It's not finished yet; I see some paintstiks and metal on it before I'm finished. I'll keep posting it as I gild the ugly duckling.
Here are photos of the layered design cloth (LDC), one before I added anything, and one after I stamped (thickened dyes) dried, steamed, rinsed, and ironed it. It's now ready for another layer.
My second adventure, yesterday, was a trip to NYC to see Mom. I passed by an African shop,
African Masidi & Co on Broadway and 231/232 Streets a couple of weeks earlier, and vowed to come back and shoot some photos. When I went in today, the owner, Cheik, was not in, but a lovely woman, Belco (shown in photo), called him and asked if it was ok for me to photograph the astounding mask collection. When he said yes, I was thrilled. What you see is a small portion of Cheik's mask collection, as Belco told me some of the masks had been damaged in a flood. The masks are from all over the African continent, adding variety. I see a series, and something to use in the upcoming
QCNNY challenge! The photos of the masks are in my Picasa album, which you can see by clicking
here.
