Spring Break?

The “Break” part may be true here in Anchorage but I’m not so sure about the “Spring” part! Temps are still in the low 20’s, snow is in the forecast again and the yard is still frozen with drifts and snow depths up to our fence! Olive-dog has shoveled pathways she still needs to use and she isn't too happy about it -especially since her favorite Kong, tennis ball AND tug are missing in the drifts. Only Daddy-O knew how to celebrate the first day of “Spring Break” though… skiing with Chugach Powder Guides! Derek finally had time to use my Christmas present to him and happened to choose a PERFECT blue-bird day skiing Sunnyside Ridge in the Winner Creek Valley, kicking off his Spring Break holiday!

xOx 

In a stark contrast to all of the snow, I kicked off Spring Break by doing some colorful art making using images of Red Poppies. I’d seen an article in the on-line Cloth, Paper Scissors publication using Dryer Sheets that sounded really interesting. Instead of running the dryer sheets through a printer as the article suggested, I wanted to iron on digital transfers using TAP paper (Transfer Artist Paper) onto used dryer sheets and sew them onto an art quilt. My first attempt only yielded in Gus shouting “Mom ruined another towel again!” The transferred images bled through and stuck to the towel. Oh well. I ended up mixing up colorful batches of fabric paint onto the used fabric sheets, rinsing and drying the sheets that made for wonderfully sheer material! I cut, tore and sewed individual red poppy petals onto the art quilts. The base images of the digitally transferred poppies were ironed onto white cotton fabric and sewn onto the art quilt applique style. I’ll post those images on the next Blog post –much more “Spring Break-like” if you ask me! Enough of this winter snow!

This was the result when Gus shouted "Mom ruined another towel!"

I mixed up batches of orange as well as red for the Poppy petal color.

The dryer sheets air-dried beautifully and are ready to sew! 

These are the successful digital images
ironed onto white, batik cotton cloth.

My idea for wanting to make a "spring-like" art quilt using
colorful Red Poppies.