13th Steet Studio

Time Out

Well, the Bizarre Bazarre was big fun and I moved a lot of stuff out to new homes. We priced to sell, and it did. I need to get busy on a new inventory.

Lets take a break first and look at some amazing quilt work by artist Jimmy McBride. He does work inspired by pictures from the Hubble telescope, Gee's Bend quilts and Henry Darger. A cool mix if ever there was one!

Here is his "The Pillars of Creation" quilt:

Inspired by this Hubble photo:

If you look at his blog posts before and after this post, he can get a good idea of how he works. Thrift shop fabrics have rarely looked so good!

Recycling

Tomorrow is

I wish I wasn't such a procratinator. As today speeds by, I am busy deleting items I thought would be on our bizarre inventory list. Well, maybe next year. I did get all of the crayons that had piled up around here melted down and recycled into new, much more fabulous crayons.

Space Invader Crayons

Easter Island Crayons

Why not stuff your stockings with crayons?!

A Little More Bizarre

I have also been making these zipper-mouthed frog like creatures for Bizarre Bazaar:

Not quite so childproof. Button eyes to choke on, sharp metal zipper teeth, etc. The frog on the left had too short of a zipper, so he needed a couple of fabric yo-yo warts added to his...smile?

Bizarre Bazaar

It is almost Bizarre Bazaar time again! I've been busy sewing friendly monsters to sell:

Hopefully childproof. No buttons, just loops to grab and knots to chew.

Black and White

I acquired a box of black and white printed fabric in September.

I thought it would be interesting to try and discharge the black prints with Rit Color Remover. I envisioned ending up with a variety of faded prints in who knows what colors. Sometimes black fabrics bleach out to red, or tan or other colors... rarely white. Well, the results were not what I expected. Nearly all of the black prints stayed very black and white. Only one piece turned into a white and brown print. No go on the vaguely black and white print collection of fabric I think I need for a future project.

So, next I tried sloshing the fabric around in a watered down white acrylic paint and iridescent medium mixture and letting the fabric dry in a crumpled pile:

Closer. Maybe useful. We will see.

Second Try

OK, here is the real story behind the "Flaming Furniture" quilt. I think I paid attention this time... There is a furniture store in Olathe, KS named Julien-Flaming Furniture. The origin of this quilt is in the humor seen in that name. This is just the kind of humor I enjoy. The pile of random furniture blocks and pieced sashing has been put together into this fabulous flaming quilt top:

Stay tuned, I'll keep you updated with the quilt's progress.

Quick Project

A quick project years in the making... so long that I don't remember where I got the vintage fork and spoon... But we had a windless day a while back and I finally got around to sanding, priming and then metallic spray painting this wooden silverware. Now they are really silver.

Before.

After.

I guess I should have included something in the picture for scale. These guys are just under 24 inches long.